The Story of Ginny

Chapter 1- Prologue

Fanfic on JK Rowling's Harry Potter series. The story will be set in Ginny's POV beginning after the events of Prisoner of Azkaban.

This book went under some major edits in structure around 2/20/23 and should be all up to date on continuity and order. Edits from here will be much more minor grammatical fixes and slight wording adjustments.

I'd love to know thoughts/ suggestions if anyone has them ☺️

~Ginny POV~

My second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had gone, well, not quite exactly as I had wanted it to, but it was as good as I could have hoped for, considering all things. After the events of my first year, I had been really nervous that I would be cast as someone who was not to be spoken to or even banished from having any friendships at all. My mother tried to assure me that everyone would understand that I was possessed by the memory of You-Know-Who and all would be fine. So, I did my best to return to Hogwarts with my head held high and a pleasant smile on my face.

At first, it was awkward, I sat near some of the other Gryffindors in my year and only Colin Creevey talked to me for the first few days back. And that was only because of my connection to Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the savior of the Wizarding world, and the boy of my dreams. Harry was in Gryffindor, too, he was the year above me and my youngest older brother, Ron's, best friend. Since Harry's muggle family were so horrible, he was able to escape and spend time with my family at the Burrow for the past two summer holidays. Two summers in which I embarrassed myself nonstop. Seriously, every time I turned around, I was doing something else that was foolish or so not cool. I tripped, stuttered, spilled things, was too loud, and worst of all... my face betrayed my embarrassment every time by turning a shade of red so brilliant that muggle astronauts would soon be marking course for it, thinking it was Mars.

Anyway, back to my return to school... the more Colin talked to me, the more I was able to show off the cool and confident Ginny Weasley. The Ginny who grew up with six older brothers and who, in my opinion, was far superior to each one of them. Even though I love them to the world's end. I became fast friends with Mona Oldham, a blonde haired witch from Northern Ireland; Celina Howe, a muggleborn with piercing gray eyes; and my last dorm mate, Midia Bradbury, with short dark hair that curled in every direction. It was a wonderful feeling to have made friends in my own dorm after my disastrous first year when I nearly had the school closed while I was being possessed by You-Know-Who's own school memory and attacking the school with a giant snake (another connection to Harry as he came and rescued me, like a knight in shining armor *sigh*).

Since I was definitely not preoccupied with writing in a diary this year, I was also able to notice some other students who were set as outcasts and I had taken it upon myself to be their protector and friend. Having recently understood so deeply what could happen when you don't have someone who is closely looking out for you made me realize how important those friendships were. In my classes, I noticed a Ravenclaw girl with magical long blonde hair, I had never noticed blonde hair that could shine quite like Luna's did. It seemed like nothing could shake who she was, no matter what other kids said behind her back, she was truly herself. Seeing her inner strength made me want to learn from her and be her friend to keep her always shining in such a marvelous way. I also noticed Neville Longbottom, one of Ron's and Harry's dorm mates, he seemed so lost in thought and in a faraway place that it intrigued me to learn more about his own personal world. So, I set out to be friends with both and learned that I loved each of their world's. Luna's mystical and mythical world, she may believe in hard to believe creatures and notions, but she can always explain her understanding in a logical way, if you know how to listen carefully. I also learned that Neville wasn't really all that lost in his own world (just a little, but hey, who doesn't get lost in their own world?), he sees so much of what's going on around him and has such a kind and strong heart. Even if he doesn't know it yet.

Through the year, I studied so very hard to catch up on all that I had been possessed through in my first year (thank Merlin for Dumbledore's kindness and eagerness to cancel exams for my being able to return). It wasn't too incredibly difficult, what with my having read the textbooks of my six older brothers for years and with Luna and Neville's help.

My new friends felt I needed to join them in "glowing up" as Mona's muggle magazines claimed. We experimented with our fashion, makeup, hair (the girls loved playing with my long red locks), and even our handwriting needed work. Colin constantly peppered me with questions about Harry for the better part of the first term. It got quite old and, I think, was a good thing. Colin's constant questions helped me to realize that Harry was just a person and, having had lived with him for a summer, he's not perfect, just, nearly perfect. But still only human, and I can be around humans, I do it most of the time.
My epiphany of Harry's humanhood, thankfully, let me spend more time with my brother, Ron, and get to know his and Harry's other best friend, Hermione. Now that girl, knows how to study and during the spring term, I took some notes from her book when getting ready for the end of year exams.

Like I said, though, the school year wasn't perfect, and, as seems to always happen around Harry, the year was quite eventful. The most infamous Death Eater, Sirius Black, broke out of Azkaban (already scary since that's supposed to be impossible) and came for Harry at Hogwarts. We had to live with Dementors (Azkaban's guards) roaming just outside the school grounds and sometimes even in them while they searched for the prisoner. Just like his first two years, though, Harry became the hero and confronted the villain, performed incredibly advanced skills for his age (defeating a man who had You-Know-Who growing out of his head, sword fighting a basilisk and defeating a memory, and this year fighting off a hundred Dementors with a full, corporeal patronus), and came out the incredibly brave and modest hero. Given my close connections with Harry, (my brother Ron and Hermione, who had also become a really close friend of mine) I quickly learned of Sirius's innocence of all charges that sent him to Azkaban and of the betrayal of Peter Pettigrew, or as I had always known him... Scabbers, the family rat. And, halfway through the school year, I realized that our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, professor Lupin, was a werewolf. After having read about them in my brother's books and listening to Charlie (my second oldest brother) tell me scary stories about them growing up, the connection of Lupin's behavior and absences finally clicked. However, he seemed like a lovely person and an incredibly kind teacher, and I, for one, wasn't going to lose us the opportunity to have a competent professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Thanks, Snape.

All in all, the year was great and leaving my friends at King's Cross in June was so very bittersweet. I missed home but I knew how much I'd miss girl time and Colin's chatter, Neville's spaciness, and Luna's wondrous ideas about the world.