Who: Ginny and Ron
What: Brother-sister run-in & chat
Where: Gryffindor Common Room
When: Tuesday evening
Rating: Low
Status: Complete
Ginny was getting tired of all these detentions, but she really had no one to blame but herself. Well, maybe Susan, since she'd been with Susan at the time. But it had been Ginny's idea to sneak out, even if it was to see
Susan's mum. Ginny rolled her eyes just thinking about it. What had even been the point? Susan and Neville only cared about themselves and each other and then Neville had the audacity to call
Ginny childish and selfish? What sacrifices had Neville made, really, when you got right down to it? Not taking the stupid Mark? For what purpose? They didn't even understand the point, she thought.
She climbed into the Gryffindor common room already in a bad mood. It seemed she was always in a bad mood these days, and she didn't care who knew it. She was pushing the limit, testing them and it would only end badly, she was sure, but she didn't care. But then her conversation with her dad yesterday … he scared her. Really scared her. It was like he was pushing her to the point that she didn't want to do anything anymore. Of course that had been his goal, in the end, to keep her muted and keep her from wanting to join the Order. It was true though; she didn't want to join the Order anymore. No, she wanted to do what the Order wouldn't do -- make a statement.
Her brother was in the common room, bent over a book, and she frowned. It would be easy for her to hurry up the stairs to her dormitory if she wanted. She and Ron hadn't talked at all since he said he was going to take the Mark. Ginny didn't want to admit she was somewhat listening to Neville (because she wasn't), but she figured it would be good to talk to her brother. Finally.
"Uh, hi, Ron," she said as she walked up to him, sitting in at the table by the window.
--
Bent over Professor Viridian’s book, Ron was too busy scrawling out notes for his extra assignment to hear anyone come in. He didn’t know if he needed the credit or not, but it was easier to focus on the task at hand rather than anything else... like how he had offered to marry a girl eight years his junior. As much as that thought disturbed him, the thought that the girl’s mother would consider his eldest brother, a man three times Electra Black’s age, a better match. Or Percy. Ron shook his head. None of it made sense to him.
When someone sat across from him, he looked up expecting Neville or maybe Lavender, but when it was his sister, Ron blinked for a moment before shifting in his seat to sit up proper.y “Gin,” he said by way of greeting, tugging his jumper sleeve down just a little bit more. If she was just here to argue how he had made a mistake in taking the Mark, he was just not in the mood. “I’ll have you know I haven’t kicked any puppies recently.”
--
Ginny couldn't help but smile. "I kicked a cat," she said, cheekily. "One of Umbridge's." Without asking, she plopped into the seat across from her. "Professor Viridian's new book?" she asked, pushing her finger at it. She borrowed a copy herself and had skimmed through it but then she got distracted with the Muggle novel she'd found.
She waited a bit, biting her lip and glancing at him through her hair, which fell into her eyes out of its ponytail. "Did it hurt?" It wasn't that she really wanted to know about it, not in the sense that she had any thoughts about taking it, but she was still curious. She still wanted to know.
--
Ron shrugged, “Probably deserved it,” he said as he marked his place in his notes and shut the book. He liked it so far. Perhaps if he had any money over at the end of term he’d pick up a copy for himself, a sort of “congratulations, you survived the first term” present. There were a number of interesting spells in the book. Maybe if he had time before he had to hand in the extra assignment he’d take notes on those as well. One never knew when something like that could come in handy.
“It’s something I never hope you have to experience,” he said softly. Ron looked down for a moment, thoughts drifting to the night of the banquet. His stomach still became unsettled at the thought. “It’s not something be taken lightly.”
They fell into an awkward silence and Ron wondered when it had become so difficult to talk to his closest sibling. Probably when things got so complicated and black and white became grey. Blast it all to hell.
--
She crossed her arms and leaned forward against the table, looking at him. "Don't worry," Ginny assured him. "I'll never take it. Never. I'd rather die than bear anything that has to do with him." She said it sincerely, fiercely, her eyes flashing. "I -- I know you think you had to do it to protect me or Dad or whoever and fine, think that all you want, but I don't need protection. I know exactly what I'm doing." And what could potentially happen to her because of what she was doing. Or going to do.
Blame their dad, she thought. He outlined everything for her, so clearly, so cut and dry. Her stomach rolled over and she pushed the thoughts out of her mind. "What do you think about what happened to Fred? And Dad, before, with Alecto Black? Sometimes I think I could just kill her," she said, looking at him, waiting for his reaction. "I think sometimes I could kill all of them, for what they did to Mum and to Charlie and how they made Bill be Bill and for making you think you had to take the Mark."
--
Ron didn’t even bother to hold back the snort when Ginny said she knew what she was doing. “That makes one of us.” He was still convinced not even the Order knew what they were doing, not that he was speaking from personal knowledge. He believed in the Order’s mission, but was starting to wonder if Bill wasn’t right. Perhaps the Order wasn’t going about fighting the Dark Lord in the right way.
“Killing her, or any of them, makes us no better,” Ron pointed out. “But she has no heart. She’d marry her daughter off to a man three times her daughter’s age because he’s forsaken the majority of his family.” That made him sound bitter, but he
was bitter. Little girls shouldn’t be forced to marry. Come to think of it, neither should Greengrass or Malfoy, but at least they were the same age.
--
"Killing her would send a message though," Ginny said, lowering her voice. "It would say: we're not going to take this anymore." With her cheeks filling with a flush, she shook her head. "No, I know, I'm not -- I don't think I could ever intentionally hurt anyone. That's not the message to send. But I just get so angry at her all the time, at all of this." She clenched her fists over her thighs and bit back the urge to cry. She would
not cry about this. "We want to be better and live in a better world, not just do what they do only to them. I know that." Still, she couldn't help but think that the Order wasn't doing
anything, good or bad. And people like McGonagall and Angelina, and the Potters, they were still banished. But they shouldn't be.
She sucked in a breath. "What do you think wearing that mark does, though, really? Helps you get a good job? Lets you go to Hogsmeade? But what are you going to do with it that shows you don't really support them?"
Ginny scrunched up her nose when he started talking about marriages. "What are you going on about? Who's marrying off someone to someone three times her age? Alecto Black?" She had no idea about any marriage announcement other than the one for Malfoy and Daphne, and Malfoy certainly wasn't three times older than Daphne was.
--
Ron let his sister vent. It was easier to let her do so rather than try and argue with her. It was like arguing with a brick wall. It just couldn’t be done. “No one could claim she’s innocent, but they’d make martyr of her.” Now that he said it, Ron wondering if a dead Alecto would illicit any sympathy whatsoever. Probably some, certainly, but she’d touched so many peoples’ lives for the worse. Could he celebrate her death like many celebrated Harry Potter’s supposed one? Doubtful.
When Ginny brought up the Mark, he sucked in his breath. It hadn’t brought the instant safety like he had thought, but everyday he was finding his footing more sure. “Talking to you, Neville, and Susan is dangerous. Alecto Black said as much when I was speaking her about his daughter.” He paused at her look of confusion.
“You don’t know about the
offer,” he stressed the word with a roll of his eyes, “that the Blacks made to Dad. They want to marry their daughter to one of us. The ones with the Mark in any case.” Ron sat back and waited for her reaction.
--
She sat back. "Then don't talk to us," she nearly snapped. "It wouldn't be anything new. No one's talking to me about anything important anyway unless it's to tell me I'm being childish and I need to grow up and I'm selfish. What a load of crock, really. He thinks he's so special but he doesn't understand what this is all about." She was talking about Neville, of course, and how ridiculously upset she was about what he'd said to her.
Ginny was certain she heard her brother wrong. She shook her head. "Wait, what? Isn't Professor Black's daughter like five years old or something? How can you
marry her and why? Why one of you? We're Weasleys. We're -- blood traitors according to them and I don't -- what are you talking about, Ron?" It took a lot for Ginny not to make any sense when speaking and this was one of those times since she had no idea what he was talking about.
--
“I’m not talking about
me talking to
you,” Ron snapped back. “You’re my sister. I’m not about to disown you and Dad like Bill and I don’t think Dad’s about to disown me. However what about those who are afraid of making a stand or are questioning what’s going on? Who is easier to talk to? Someone they’d get in trouble for associating with? Or someone who may be in the same boat they are?” He raised an eyebrow, waiting for her answer.
“Nine actually.” Reached over, Ron grabbed his journal and flipped it open to Alecto Black’s entry and his response. “See it’s an
honor, Gin.” He only hope she could see his sarcasm.
--
"I'm not afraid of making a stand," Ginny said, leaning forward. "And I --" It was time to suck it up and get over it. "I'm sorry that I got so upset with you for taking the Mark, Ron. I was mad because I -- we always talked about not and what it means to not and then you go and take it and
HE gives it to your himself nonetheless and I -- it makes me sick. The whole thing makes me sick.
All of it."
She shook her head. "Then you have to get through to those people but be careful, okay? Because if they find out what you're talking to people about after you have the Mark, they'll be worse on you. I just know they will." It wasn't that she had anything to compare it to. Fred and her dad had been punished and they didn't have the Mark. But, she shuddered at the thought, what if they found out about Ron talking to people about the Order or about things that the Supreme Lord hated -- wouldn't it be worse for him now that he once pledged loyalty? To then say, no, I lied? She felt sick again.
"I've been talking to Angelina, that half-blood who gets taught by McGonagall. And I want -- I want to
do something for her. I have no idea what. And I don't care who knows that I'm talking to her either. She's just like you and me. Who cares who her parents are? She's still a witch." As she spoke, she just kept getting more and more intense. "
That's what I hate about this. I hate that there are people out there who aren't allowed to be magic just because of who their parents are or just because they're not
pure. And then look at us! We're more pureblooded than probably even
Malfoy and just because we don't agree with the Supreme Lord, we're treated like dirt? I'm sick of it. And I want to do something about it." She was tired of Neville being such a prat, thinking he was any better than she was. He didn't get it. And Susan? What could she possibly understand. All she wanted to do was get back at the people who killed her family. Well, Ginny wanted that too, but she wanted
more than that, really.
When Ron showed her the journal, she shook her head, her stomach turning over. "That's disgusting. They can't -- she can't
make you marry anyone, can she?"
--
“Do you think I was excited to see
him there?” No, Ron thought he’d go and get marked by some nameless Ministry bureaucrat. It would have been easier. He almost backed out that night, wanting to say that he made a mistake, but Ron was too afraid to even do that. Even if he did carry the Mark now, it didn’t mean he believed it in what it stood for.
“It’s not right,” Ron agreed. “And while they claim to want a pure society, filled with magical people, now that they’ve turned away all those without the right sort of blood, they have to find other ways to indicate their superiority.” He wasn’t talking about Parkinson or anything. “So they turn inward and terrorize the ones left behind.”
When Ginny spoke of wanting something to do, Ron could empathize. He was tired, sitting in Hogwarts, not being utilized. By taking the Mark now, perhaps he could be useful later, like Bill. Only not exactly like his overly cynical brother. All he had to do was set up the pieces to be moved later on. “What is it you want to do?” he asked, curious. Ginny was the headstrong one, more inclined to action than he, but one could benefit from discussing such plans.
“Well, no. But could you really imagine a nine year old, well, she’ll be sixteen at the time, marrying Percy or Bill?”
--
Ginny nodded. "Exactly, so they push all of us down and beat us until we don't do anything but think the way they do." But she knew she was never going to think the way they do. It was probably on account of her upbringing, of being raised as a girl among boys and not treated any differently by her father. Oh, she had been treated differently by her brothers, sometimes, but she still held out hope that was just because she was the youngest and not because she was a girl. Very well, it was somewhat because she was a girl.
She was hesitant to tell Ron her plans. He was her brother, yes, but she also wasn't so sure how much she could trust him. Right now she didn't think she could trust anyone. "I'm still working it out," she said, after a quick glance around the room and over her shoulder. "But I guarantee you it'll be
huge."
Back on the subject of Ron marrying Electra -- or any of her brothers marrying Electra -- she pulled a face again. "But that would make you twenty-two or something, right? That's -- twenty-two and sixteen is still messed up, Ron. You can't seriously be considering this. Dad can't really be okay with this!" It worried her, suddenly, that this maybe meant she was next, and all the colour drained from her face.
--
“And it still wouldn’t be enough.” Ron knew he sounded bitter, because he was. Soon they wouldn’t tolerate
any differences. Then where would they be? Perhaps Bill was right, the international community would be more forgiving, but he didn’t relish the thought of leaving his family behind.
“Please be careful, Gin.” He didn’t want his sister risking her personal safety to make a stand. Personal risks were inherent, of course, but hopefully she learned from Fred’s mistakes. Being loud and brash only resulted in pain in the end. “And let me know if there’s anything I can do.”
“Nearly twenty-four and while it’s not optimal, it’s better than say Percy or Bill.” It was his turn to pull a face. It’s not that he had any particular issue with either of his brothers, but at least the age difference wouldn’t be terribly different. Just awkward. “Look, Dad approached me, but I don’t think he’s okay with it.”
--
Ginny looked at him and nodded. "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing. And, I don't have a death wish, really. I also don't exactly fancy being whipped and beaten, so anything I do will have a low-risk factor." It wasn't entirely the truth, especially seeing as her father pretty much said that she had to go big or not even consider it.
"Of course Dad's not okay with it. Why would he be?" But she was glad to hear that. It meant that maybe it wasn't something down the road for her. She stood up. "Just don't make any rash decisions, yeah Ron?" She tilted her head to the side and smiled at him. "I'll let you get back. I have some homework to get done before I sleep."
--
Ron laughed and opened up Viridian’s book again. “Rash, me? Gin, I think you have me confused with somebody else.” Though he now felt a little bit better. Perhaps Ginny
had learned from Fred, but right now all he needed to focus on was his extra assignment for Charms.
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