Ginny Weasley, soon to be Potter, felt absolutely numb.
It was the day before her wedding, the dream day of almost every girl over the age of ten. But she couldn’t bring herself to feel the joy. Couldn’t bring herself to smile at her own fiancé. Not because she was upset with him.
Nothing like it.
But because she would rather run to Antarctica than marry Harry Potter.
Not that she had any say in the matter.
Oh, there was once a time, she with her rose-tinted lenses wanted nothing else. Thought her life would only be complete when she would have Harry Potter by her side. Would become the next Lady Potter. And all those other girls that laughed at her for her old dresses and mended shoes would turn green with envy. Because she would only wear Twilfitt and Tatting’s and lunch in the most fancy restaurants turning the likes of the Malfoys green with envy!
But eventually, her mother’s stories of the Great Wizard Harry Potter That Will Definitely Grow To Marry Her Baby Girl grew old and boring. And by the time she herself began to doubt the idea, she was hit with a harsh reminder and reality check.
They say first love ends in tragedy.
And Ginny would underline that statement in bold. After all, hers did.
Her love…
It started innocently.
With a little black notebook.
A notebook turned diary. But what that particular diary was, was a priceless treasure. Because Ginny’s diary that truthfully belonged to someone called Tom Riddle, could and did answer her.
If Ginny closed her eyes and just let her mind run wild, she could almost imagine that she actually had a friend. A friend called Tom. A friend with blue eyes and dark hair and a green tie. Because what else would her friend, the one who gave her such sneaky advice be, but a Slytherin?
Advice she needed and followed.
Just like Tom’s support.
Because being told by the Sorting Hat that if she wasn’t some Bloodtraitor, her place would be in Ravenclaw, but Rowena herself would Avada Ginny for her very presence in the tower of the Ravens. So she BETTER BE GRYFFINDOR!
After that, her Sorting honestly felt like a bad joke. Especially with her mother’s supportive words in her Howler that only served to embarrass her. Because Ginny wasn’t a true Gryffindor. Not even close.
Honestly, she would have rather curled up with a book on a windowsill somewhere instead of interacting with the idiots that ran rampant in the House of the Lions. Better than having to listen to the girls that shared her dorm gossip about everyone and everything. Better than seeing the veiled looks of disgust thrown her way even by some of the purebloods even from her own House.
Honestly, the only ones that didn’t shun her outright were the muggleborns. But that was only because they were just as much as outcasts if not more than her. And while she considered Luna a tentative friend, the other girl couldn’t care less because she was up in the clouds more often than not. She was happy with her Nargles and Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. And while this meant that while she didn’t really care about Ginny’s Bloodtraitor status, she preferred her own daydreams and delusions over Ginny’s company any day.
And that sucked.
Connecting with Hermione Granger didn’t work either. The girl had the ego the size of the Ministry, completely ignoring the fact that her grades will hardly matter at all when she finishes Hogwarts and with the number of enemies she is making in the people that she has carelessly embarrassed and demeaned, she would be lucky if she is hired by anyone at all. Even as a no-name whore in Nocturne Alley. Because the only thing a muggleborn girl could achieve in their world other than that is marriage. If one is lucky, then to a wealthy pureblood who needs to lessen the effects of Family Curses. But that’s for smart muggleborns. Those like Lily Evans, who obviously knew what she was doing.
But then again, it wouldn’t be two years since they would be out of Hogwarts before all the girls would be married off by their families. At least the purebloods. For those lucky few whose matches will be bearable, they will live a comfortable life. And for those not so lucky?
Well…
Hopefully it wouldn’t be her.
And maybe it wouldn’t have been.
If not for Tom.
If not for him showing her the way that things could be different. Could be better. That she could be so much more than just another copy of her own mother everyone expects her to be. So much more than a failure of a witch growing wider with every child and dumber with each sentence out of her mouth.
And if there was one thing Ginny didn’t want, it was to repeat the fate of Molly Weasley nee Prewett.
The best motivation ever.
But for all that thought should have served as a divine revelation and motivated her for years to come, Ginny was no heroine from those muggle novels some of the muggleborn girls in her year liked to read. She was no Leia Organa. She didn’t inherit the hardheadedness and will-power of Darth Vadar that kept Leia going even when another would have given up. She didn’t have a naïve and unwavering belief in her ideals that she would never betray even if they were proven wrong over and over and over again. And worse, Ginny didn’t have the guts to turn her back on the opinions and decisions made by her family.
Because at the end of the day, Ginny wasn’t Leia.
Not even close.
But sometimes she wanted to be…
To stand up for herself and her own opinions and not hide between her ‘innocent’ persona. And it was that hidden trigger, that button that Tom Riddle had successfully found and had learned how to press. And press it he did. Many, many times…
Because Ginny may have cried and hiccuped that she didn’t remember a thing. But the truth was, she never forgot. Not for a single second.
After all, it was her who chose the victims.
Her.
Not Tom.
And had she been older and less naïve, she would have probably preferred them dead. Not petrified. Because it was her own squeamishness that had cost her Tom. Not his.
If only she could turn back time…
If only….
But ordinary witches that aren’t stuck-up know-it-all bootlickers don’t get handed time-turners out of the blue. And Ginny was stuck just where she was grasping at the pieces left over from her almost happiness. And regrets. Because who would have even missed Filch’s cat? The animal that hunted students with a determination of a bloodhound. But really, at the time, it was just at the wrong place at the wrong time…
After all, animals are innocent of human sins. They have much simpler needs. Collin was definitely a better victim however you looked at it. A boy in her year that took to tormenting her for her old dresses and ripped books. And Penelope? Percy’s supposed girlfriend? Considering that Ginny saw her kissing Marcus Flint? That girl didn’t deserve a hair off her brother’s head for all that he was a stuck-up idiot. So Ginny had little to no hesitation at petrifying a girl that was only officially dating Percy in exchange for him doing her homework.
So waking up in the Hospital Wing after being apparently successfully ‘rescued’, was the last thing she expected considering that she willingly chose to go through the ritual to bring Tom back. But instead of Tom, got Harry freaking Potter…
Again.
And again.
And again…
To her own fury and her mother’s badly hidden delight.
But then again, Tom had taught her that sometimes a carefully slipped poison is by far more effective than a well-timed spell. So she would give herself a few years time to become a very rich widow.
Because if she will not have her happiness, then her love's killer wouldn't either.
And really, Harry Potter brought all that was coming for him all on his own.