A bitter aftertaste
Ginny grumbled into her pumpkin juice the next morning. Hestia sighted and put her new Witch’s Weekly Witchcraft away.
“I don’t see why you care so much; you complained about Malfoy’s seeker skills and attitude the whole of last year.”
“But Davies ain’t ready.”
“Then get him ready, you got at least a year. What is it really that got you in own of your moods?”
“He called him a you-know-what!” Before Hestia could answer Aiden sat down next to her.
“I don’t see the big deal; it’s not the first time an insult has been thrown on that pitch.” He had apparently overheard some of their conversation. “Besides we don’t know what happened before that, he should have done as you said, but you could have asked for an explanation as well. Knowing Malfoy, it was probably him that started it but even he deserves the benefit of the doubt.”
“He called him the M-word! There is no excuse.” Ginny pictured Hermione’s pale face in the tent after the World Cup riot.
“Come on Gin, it’s just a word, people use it all the time. Why does it matter now?!”
Hermione’s words back at her room in the Burrow came to her, ‘Matter? Of course it matters if your friends want me dead!’.
“It’s not just a word.” Ginny forced her voice calm and all emotion out of it. “People have been murdered over that word.”
“You were barely born during the war!” Aiden insisted, “is it really worth destroying the team over politics?”
“If that is what it costs.”
“Merlin, you are so stubborn Weasley. I thought you cared about Quidditch.” Ginny glared at her friend. Silence fell between them.
Before either of them broke the silence a pair of seventh-years stopped at the table.
“Weasley, we’re out.” It was Derrick who had spoken, Ginny looked up at him, but he did not meet her eyes, she turned to Bole next to him.
“Why?”
“No easy way to say it, we thought you could hold Quidditch over your family’s radical views. Hanging around with you doesn’t really give a great impression nowadays. We talked with Montague last night, and he is right. This is a bad idea. We got our NEWTs coming up and really need to think about the future.”
“What? Come on, quidditch doesn’t have anything to do with politics!” Ginny saw in the corner of her eye that Lestrange raised his eyebrow at her words but ignored him.
“Weasley, there is nothing left to say, you are not someone any of us should be associated with. Quidditch is fun, but it is not as if you can give me anything as a captain to make it worth it with no cup going on.” Ginny searched Bole’s face after some kind of emotion to soften the words but could not find any. She looked up at Derrick, standing silent next to his friend, he did not look her into her eyes – just gave her a slight shook of his head. They walked away.
Ginny turned back to Lestrange and gave him her most terrifying glare, taking inspiration from her prefect and sometimes-mentor Mary Rosier. “So? You’re going to join them?”
He stood up, “don’t be fucking stupid Weasley” and walked out of the Great Hall without a backward glance. Ginny turned back to her uneaten bacon and continued to twist her goblet of pumpkin juice. If looks could kill, her bacon would be even more dead.
“Weasley?” Ginny looked up; Hestia was studying her carefully.
Ginny sighed, “My parents think I’m slowly moving the limit between dark and light.”
“Are you?”
“I guess, after their reaction to you and Flora, I never even told them about hanging out with Aiden.”
“Lying to your parents are moving the limit between what is dark and light?”
“Lying about associating with purebloods who thinks the M-word is just politics might be.”
“Is that why you threw Malfoy of the pitch for using blood slur? To please your parents?”
“No!” Ginny looked up astonished.
“I thought you thought Quidditch was above all else?”
Ginny slowly shook her head. “Quidditch is above all else.”
“Then why?”
Ginny thought hard, why had she reacted so hard? Was it just because of Hermione’s pale face or her accusations during the summer? Or Ethan’s crestfallen face after the insult? No, she did not think that was it. Finally, she spoke. “It’s about what I think is right.”