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When Ginny Weasley is seven years old, her father dies.
Ginny always has been able to feel things and see things and hear things more than anyone she’s ever met, but when her mother gently tells her that “daddy’s in heaven; he's not coming home, Gin.”, it’s all too much. She can hear everything and nothing at once, her pink sweatshirt and sweatpants are suddenly scratchy and constricting, the blinding grey of the hospital is overbearing, and she wants to scream.
Instead, she gives her mother a big tear-soaked hug, ignores the sounds and the textures, shuts her eyes firmly, and wishes for one more day with her father.
Ginny is nine years old when Percy runs off to some spiffy new job with some spiffy new company, and she thinks it’s a good thing that her brother wants to do well for himself. For some reason, though, her family is crushed by the news. Her mom cries at any mention of Percy. Fred and George have started calling him terrible names (that she isn’t allowed to tell Mom). She asks Bill and Charlie about it, but they tell her not to worry about it.
Percy’s her brother though, so of course she’s going to worry about it.
Her brother Ron (who’s a year older than her) has a little more understanding of the situation than she does, and it’s really starting to irritate her.
She’ll move past it eventually; they can't be mad at Percy forever - he's family.
Ginny is eleven years old when she first meets Neville Longbottom.
He’s a chubby boy; soft where she’s like sand paper. He’s all kindness and yes please, where Ginny’s tough and even a bit mean at times. He’s a well-mannered boy, and she really doesn’t think they’re going to get along when his Grandmother introduces him.
He ends up liking most of the stuff she does: like Batman, and Star Wars and other stuff that Ginny’s been introduced to by her brothers.
The only issue is that Ginny doesn’t like sharing her friend with Ron, because when the three of them play together, Ron always makes her sit out, or be the princess so that he or Neville can save her.
Ginny thinks that Ron should be the princess seeing as he’s never come out of a fight with Fred or George without a terrible bruise and a list of complaints.
Ron finds himself a friend not soon after, and Ginny’s able to have Neville all to herself.
And before her mom can warn Neville’s Grandmother of the dangers of befriending her daughter, the Neville and Ginny become inseparable. Ginny’s smart and brash and a little too reckless for an eleven-year-old, but Neville compliments her nicely. He’s a little shy, but headstrong and resilient. If he thinks something’s right, there’s no way to talk him out of it.
They even give Fred and George a run for their money.
She meets Albus Dumbledore when she’s thirteen, sitting on a park bench. She’s parked, eating a strawberry ice cream as she waits for Neville to meet her when the elderly man sits down next to her. Ginny tries not to listen to his heartbeat, to feel the scratch of her cotton tee-shirt against her skin, but she’s can’t suppress it like she has since she was seven.
There’s something about this man though, something that makes her want to trust him. Maybe it’s because he looks a bit like Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. Maybe it’s the half moon spectacles with mirthful eyes peeking out from behind. Maybe it’s the funky looking walking stick he carries with him.
Nevertheless, a conversation ensues, and a week or so later, the old man is teaching her mixed martial arts, teaching her how to control her senses and how to use them in her fighting.
Ginny learns that, and that her body heals really, really fast.
He’s a smart man this Dumbledore. Say’s he just like her; Ginny doesn’t buy that; he didn’t grow up in the house that she did, he didn’t have a friend like Neville, never had a mother like her own.
Plus, he isn’t a girl.
Ginny thinks that’s the most important difference of all.
She’s fifteen when some kid in her brother’s class (Crabbe maybe, he’s so irrelevant that Ginny can’t even bother to remember his name) decides it’s right and dandy to start saying shit about her father.
Granted, Ginny doesn’t really know much pertaining to her father’s death. The family is rather hush-hush about it, and Ginny hasn’t really cared about inquiring about it.
Obviously, she wants to know the circumstances, but she’s come to terms with the fact that it’s probably a big mess of a thing, and well, sometimes ignorance is bliss.
But this Crabbe, taunting her, like she’s less because her fathers dead and her brother works for the company that killed him; speaking ill of her mother because of the actions of other people have screwed her over, is really fucking pissing her off.
Neville tells her he isn’t worth it.
Ginny’s never been one to listen to instructions.
She walks over to Crabbe, who’s nearly half a foot taller than her. He’s laughing at something his friends just said about her. But that matters not to Ginny, who at five feet and five inches tall, feels like a giant.
Crabbe starts talking about money, then- why her family was stupid to practically disown Percy when he's maing more than the Weasley's could possibly dream of. It's more than apparent that he comes from money, but that doesn’t matter to Ginny, in her hand me down jeans and salvaged shirt. Her lips are split, her hair’s a wreck, and she’s never felt more powerful in her entire life.
She tunes in on Crabbe’s heartbeat, listening carefully.
He’s not expecting her to punch him.
So, she does.
He’s furious, and a careless fighter as he lunges at her again and again. Ginny’s able to predict his every move. When she’s done with him, he’s left with a purple face and possible a broken nose.
She gets a three-day suspension and detention for the rest of the year, but it’s worth it.
When she’s seventeen, she understands.
She knows why her father’s death was hush hush, and it’s wrong – it’s so terribly wrong. She understands why Percy’s been ostracized because he knew – he knew about what that company did, and still went on to work for them. Like they never did anything wrong. Like they didn’t murder their father because he was just doing his job for the paper.
She knows why Dumbledore’s been teaching her all this stuff about fighting and controlling her senses – because he’s old, and selfish and he needs soldiers.
He’s just like every other man.
She doesn’t want any part of it.
When she’s seventeen she decides to be a lawyer, and when she tells Neville about it, he says that’s what he wants to do too.
College goes by fast. At first, it’s hard; she misses the hustle and bustle of her family, but the solitude and study are a nice break from everything else in her life.
She helps people, and she makes stupid Spanish-Lawyer hybrid jokes with Neville till they’re crying on the floor laughing so hard.
She dates a few boys and girls, but there’s nothing substantial there. She helps girls at parties, beats the shit out of boys who don’t understand the meaning of the word no, and gains a reputation.
That’s sort of how she starts her career in vigilantism.
She can hear the chaos on the campus constantly, always a chorus of bad music, of chaos and of stress. Frat boys keep ending up with broken noses and ankles and wrists, that one guy who tried to steal Padma Patil’s bag ended up with a broken leg and other such happenings become common place – and it’s always a genderless shadowy figure – it’s always Ginny.
Ginny and Neville graduate, and move on to law school, which is hard. But they push through it, and before she knows it, they’ve got their own little office – it’s shitty and old and smells like ass, but she’s never been more proud of herself.
Hanging the sign outside – Weasley and Longbottom – makes her happier than anything she’s ever known.
Ginny’s day job is not boring per say, but it’s not nearly as interesting as her night job.
She’s a menace to those that are menace to society.
She gets scraped up a bit, because well, bike pads only go so far, and Neville’s not stupid. She knows he’ll never buy the I’m clumsy lie, seeing as he’s known her for so long, and yes, she may be reckless and careless, but she’s not a klutz.
But it’s all she’s got going for her at the moment, so that’s what it’s going to be.
Ginny Weasley is twenty-seven years old, and it’s a Tuesday night in March when she has the displeasure of saving Luna Lovegood from being murdered like her father. It’s a Wednesday when she meets the woman not all dressed in black, but in a Business Casual outfit with Neville.
But that’s a story for another time.