Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition for the Chaser 1 position.
If the Wizarding World had ever been in a state of panic, it would be now. It was a situation of unprecedented enormity. The Ministry was slowing and no one at Hogwarts was paying any attention to class and the newspapers were going crazy trying to find out more information.
Honestly, Ginny thought it was a bit overkill.
So the Boy-who-Lived died. Big deal. It really wasn't something to be fussed over. Ginny rolled her eyes at a group of girls huddled in the hallway, casting glances at her and whispering furtively. She ignored it and continued to walk by herself to the Great Hall. She was alone, which in itself, was unusual. These days, she was surrounded by her siblings, friends, and housemates everywhere she went. She had been getting letters every day from her parents, and it felt like she was being watched everywhere she went.
Well, they could do whatever they wanted. She was still going to continue doing the same thing she had been doing since she stepped foot in Hogwarts. That is, being diligent in her studies and going to class. If her classmates didn't step up their game soon, they would fall behind her. Although the teachers were plenty distracted too. Ginny sighed. How was she supposed to learn anything at this rate? Finals were coming up too, which meant they should be studying more than usual.
Ginny shook her head. Her life was honestly so full of problems right now. She ducked into the Great Hall and quickly piled food onto her plate, not looking at the items as she piled them on. She quickly ate, then escaped from the Hall just as fast as she came in.
She had Transfiguration first. Ginny clutched her bags tighter to her chest, walking up the stairs. The hallway she landed on was empty. Everyone had started avoiding this particular hallway after the incident. The second floor where the girl's lavatory was. The hallway was usually quiet. Even Moaning Myrtle was silent for once.
The pattering of feet behind her made her turn around. It was Ron, with Hermione in tow, and their brows were crinkled in a permanent sign of grief and their eyes were bloodshot.
"What are you doing Ginny?" Ron asked, his voice quiet. His voice was always quiet these days, never going above a whisper. "It's Harry's—"
His face twists and he cuts off his sentence. Hermione clasped her hand in his, and finishes off his sentence.
"It's… it's Harry's funeral today," she said, looking like she was about to cry again. "It's going to take place by the Lake."
Ginny blinked. So that was why there was more action than usual in the school. She nodded in consent.
"I'll go change into my black robes then," she said. She would humour them.
Without waiting for a response, she turned and headed back to the stairs. The hallways were dwindling of people, everyone was headed outside, even the Slytherins.
For a moment, she feels a brief flicker of emotion that in her that isn't exasperation or apathy, but it's gone before she can register it. She moved quickly up the staircase, entering the Common Room and headed to her room. It was utterly empty, the silence rung through the room.
Ginny quickly tossed on her robes and headed downstairs like everyone else. As she passed out the entrance, the warm air washed over her and she spied the crowd over by the Lake, visible even at this distance. She must be the last one. Everyone had come to pay their respects to him.
She quietly slipped into the back of the crowd. At the front she can see Dumbledore and the teachers standing in a row in front of the grave, and even the Minister is here and bunches of other important looking people. Ginny sighs, wondering why she bothered to come. Harry wasn't really dead, and now she had to stand in the heat wearing black and listen to a bunch of people talk about Harry as if they knew him. It's very frustrating to say the least.
But it's bad to be disrespectful, and her mother taught her better than that, so Ginny hovers at the back and tried to look attentive, even if all she wanted to do was ditch and hang out in her room until it was all over. Finally, the Minister finished his speech, and Dumbledore came forward. Everyone suddenly perked back to attention, back from the listlessness that had come over them while Fudge had been speaking.
Dumbledore just stood there for a moment. Then he started talking, and it was truly hope filled and heart-rendering and if Ginny didn't know Harry wasn't dead, she would've probably been crying by now. But she does know, so she doesn't.
The rest of the funeral after that is a blur of faces and black. Ginny drifted through the rest of the day in the same manner, although it wasn't noticeable in the crowd of the student body doing the same. Finally, they just cancelled all the classes. There was no point when everyone was too distracted to concentrate.
Ginny headed up and up and up and up to the roof of the Astronomy Tower. The sun was going down, and the air was cooling, a relief against her face. She took several steps forward, to the edge of the roof and looked. The vertigo almost had her stumbling back, but she resisted its pull. It was a long way down.
Slowly, the gears in her mind turned. She shuffled closer and closer, until the tips of her shoes were just hanging over the edge.
She paid no mind to the door clicking open behind her.
"Ginny?" Hermione asked slowly, cautiously. "What are you doing?"
"Ginny, get down from there!" Ron said, voice shaky and scared.
Ginny didn't see what the problem was. She ignored the screams of Hermione and Ron. They sounded distant and warped, as if heard from a distance. She shuffled forward again and dangled one foot off the edge of the floor. Then, slightest tip of her weight had her stomach twisting and churning as she was falling… falling… falling.
A light smiled rested on her face, as a peaceful feeling over took her. It would soon be all over, the nightmare. She would meet them all again on the other side. After all, didn't people always wake up when they hit the bottom?