MetaFic

For a moment Ginny stood alone, trembling slightly, unsure of how her parents would react, unsure if she was ready to face the almost certain wave of protectiveness that was bound to come. It was, of course, her mother who made the first move.

"Oh, Ginny dear," cried Mrs. Weasley as she swept her daughter into a hug. "Your father and I were so worried."

"I'm fine, Mum."

Even as the words came out of her mouth, she knew they weren't true, and so did her parents. Her mother firmly steered her toward a couch, where Ginny found herself sitting between her very concerned mother and father. It was Arthur who finally broached the subject on all their minds.

"It's not like in the tales, is it?" It was more a statement than a question. Ginny looked up into the sad, apologetic eyes of her father, and in that moment she knew that he understood.

She had always known, on some level, that her parents were active in the war against Voldemort. She had understood, in an abstract way, that they must have seen horrific things and possibly done things they would later regret. With those simple words, her father had let her know that he knew what she felt. He knew the pain of being forced to cause the death of another human being. Ginny took a deep breath and let her tears flow freely for the first time since she had returned to the school. After a time, her crying slowly ebbed, fading into sniffles and the occasional hiccup. It was her mother who spoke next.

"If you want to tell us about it..."

Ginny nodded her head. She desperately wanted to talk about it to someone. Her mother handed her another handkerchief. She looked up at her parents, looked around the room, and realized morbidly that they had been in this same position before, in her first year. She wiped away the last tears, blew her nose, and slowly, in a flat, nearly inaudible whisper, told her parents what had happen to her in Hogsmeade.

"We - Harry, Hermione, Ron and I - we had gone into Hogsmeade just like everyone else. Valentine's day is coming, you see, and after this summer we all decided to spend the holidays and Hogsmeade weekends together. I suppose Dumbledore thought it was safe enough. Several of the teachers were in the village, and the Ministry had dozens of Aurors stationed there. Nobody had heard any news of Voldemort or the Death Eaters. It had been a wonderful day. We window-shopped, had a bite to eat at The Three Broomsticks. Ron bought some things at Zonko's. I don’t remember what. We were just about to leave Honeydukes and return to the castle when the attack started."

"And then?" her father prodded in a gentle voice.

"We heard explosions from either end of the village. Smoke was rising, and suddenly the Dark Mark was floating in the air near where the carriages back to the castle usually parked. People were screaming and running around. An older Ravenclaw I didn't recognize came into Honeydukes carrying Cho Chang in his arms. She was bleeding and unconscious. He said the carriages had been destroyed and Death Eaters were in control of the road back to Hogwarts."

Ginny paused again and felt her mother's reassuring hand on her back. She looked up at her mother, and for a moment she wanted to be ten years old again, holding her mother's hand at the station as Ron left for Hogwarts. She took a breath and continued her tale.

"That's when Harry and Ron remembered the passage from Honeydukes' cellar back to the dungeons under the school. Harry and Ron opened it up, and Hermione and a Hufflepuff girl, Hannah Abbot, started leading students to the school."

Ginny looked at her parents again. "You would’ve been proud of Ron. He stayed calm and took control of the situation. He had Hermione and Hannah lead the students out and then wait at the passage entrance to the castle. Fred and George came in with Angelina, and Ron told Angelina and me hold the middle of the passage and keep the students moving. He told us–he told us if we saw Death Eaters coming down the passage to collapse the tunnel and run for the castle. The boys went into the street and tried to get as many students and villagers as they could to escape through Honeydukes."

"Many lives were saved because of what the lot of you did. It was quite remarkable, actually." Her father practically beamed at her with pride.

"I know, but still... Anyway, Fred and George came through the tunnel, each levitating a wounded Auror. They told Angelina that Ron and Harry should be right behind them and we should be ready to collapse the passageway. That's when we heard the rumble and saw all the dust come toward us. I guess Harry had collapsed the cellar, hoping the Death Eaters wouldn't be able to follow. Ron was already hurt at that point. Finally, we saw them coming toward us, Harry supporting Ron. I was just relieved to see them. Then the Death Eaters came. One of them hit Harry in the back with a curse. Then Angelina hit one with a stunner and I — I—" She couldn't finish.

"It's all right, darling." Her mother held her while she cried again and replayed the last few seconds of the encounter in her mind.

Ginny was more than just relieved to see her brother and boyfriend emerge from the billowing dust cloud. She was nearly in tears with relief when suddenly she heard a rough voice yell a curse she didn't recognize. She saw the curse hit Harry in the back, and she watched in horror as he spit blood from his mouth and collapsed next to her. She heard Angelina shout "Stupefy!" and turned to see a masked figure fall to the ground, stunned. What happened next took only an instant, but to Ginny it seemed forever.

She saw one of the Death Eaters with his wand pointed their direction. He had lost his mask, and she recognized him as a man named Macnair. She could see other shapes moving behind him as she calmly lifted her wand and uttered the curse that would collapse the tunnels. She saw the look of triumph in Macnair's eyes as he thought she had missed him, then the look of horror as he realized what she had done. She heard the rumble of the tunnel collapsing, the sharp screams of the people who were about to die. After the dust settled, she watched as Macnair's arm twitched once and stopped moving. She looked calmly at Angelina, who had gone pale, and said, "I think that should hold them." Then she fell to her knees and vomited all over herself. The next thing she clearly remembered was Professor Sprout’s gentle hands helping her to the infirmary.

Her mother's voice brought her back to the present. "It's going to be all right."

Ginny wiped her face with her mother's handkerchief, took a deep breath, and steadied herself. She looked at the loving and supportive faces of her parents. She had been so afraid that everyone would think her a monster for killing all those people, no matter that they were Death Eaters. It was reassuring to see her parents’ open display of affection. If her parents still loved her, it was easier to believe others would also. She sat up straight and looked from her mother to her father and back again.

"Thank you."

Arthur Weasley patted his daughter on the knee. "We're always here for you should you need a shoulder." He pulled her into a tight hug, then released her and stood up. "I have to go. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Ginny stood up and kissed her father lightly on the cheek. "I understand. Please, just be careful."

After Arthur left the office, Molly Weasley looked at her daughter. "Well, I suppose Dumbledore has finished his talk with Harry by now. Would you like to go to dinner or go see if Harry is still awake?"

"I really need to see Harry. Mum, what are we going to do about him after term? If he has no family, how is Professor Dumbledore going to hide him from Voldemort?"

Molly winced slightly at Ginny's casual use of the Dark Lord’s name, but she understood that Ginny, like Harry, had met him, albeit in a lesser form, and survived. "I honestly don't know. I'm going to ask Bill and Charlie to come home over the summer. Perhaps with a house full of wizards we can find some way to protect him."

"Maybe Charlie could bring one of his dragons home. If someone wanted to hurt Harry, that would surely give them pause."

Molly smiled at her daughter's returned sense of whimsy. "But Ginny dear, what ever would we feed it?"

"I don't know. Garden gnomes. Fred and George."

"Young lady!"

"I'm teasing, Mum! Gnomes would make it sick." Ginny laughed for the first time since the attack.

The two women walked toward the infirmary in a comfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

Molly Weasley kept giving her daughter appraising looks as they walked down the long hallways. She's grown so much. My baby will be fifteen next month, but she's already more an adult than some witches twice her age. I'll just have to trust her and hope she knows what she's doing. Really, Harry will make such a good son-in-law. Molly smiled to herself, remembering how she and Arthur were only thirteen when they started dating. Sometimes you just know.

For her part Ginny Weasley was thinking about a certain green-eyed, black-haired boy. Maybe with everyone home we can protect him this summer. Maybe Sirius and Professor Lupin could stay at the Burrow, too. Stupid, selfish Dursleys. She thought about what she'd overheard Professor Dumbledore tell her mother. The charm that hid Harry so well required a living family member, related by blood. Ginny pondered the statement. Living relative. Someone related to Harry by blood. But Harry has no living family. For Harry to be safe he needs a family.

An idea began to dawn in Ginny's mind. A terrible, logical, life-changing idea.