Lightroom :: How Keywords Got Scrambled

Some how my keywords got scrambled. The first thing I'd like to do is move a keyword from its new (incorrect) location as a sub-keyword back to being a parent keyword of a hierarchy. I have tried dragging and dropping it but it immediately returns to its incorrect location. I considered creating a new keyword as a parent keyword (the same word), then open the images linked to the misplaced keyword and drag all the images to the newly created parent keyword. Then empty and delete the misplaced sub-keyword. But...I fear loosing links to collections, vitual copies, etc. for all the images. best method for returning the keywords to their original placement in the hierachy.