Saviour of One
I hate the way everyone fawns over Harry, but not for the obvious reason.
Sure, maybe in my younger days, I was known to be a bit jealous of the 'chosen one's' fame and fans, but I grew up. Some people might not believe it, but I gained a little maturity since my school days. I'm not taking any credit for it, though, it was all Hermione's doing.
No, the reason I hate Harry's worshipers is because they don't really know him at all. They think he's the next freaking Gildroy Lockhart (bloody git). They think he wants their praise and that's why he went out and saved all our lives.
Now, I'm not discounting what Harry did- the guy undisputedly saved all our arses- but personally, I have a different hero. Someone who maybe didn't save all of wizard-kind, but saved one very important wizard all the same.
My baby sister put up with a lot from the Boy Who Lived over the years. He took forever to notice her, dated her just long enough for Ginny to fall for him for real and then dumped her to go chasing bad guys. All that is forgivable, though, I suppose, because, hell, he was sixteen at the time. Few sixteen year olds can cope well with the stress of classes and relationships, let alone having a Dark Lord hang over their heads. He was bound to screw something up, so we should just count ourselves lucky it wasn't the Voldemort thing.
What I'm talking about is the torture Ginny faced every day, watching him come back from the dark place he was in after that final battle at Hogwarts. He writhed with guilt and stopped eating and wouldn't talk and twisted in a painful sort of limbo for months. Ginny tried patiently all that time to pull him back from the edge. Harry lashed out at her, and nearly destroyed them both in the doing of it. Ginny pushed back every bit as hard as he shoved her. They waged war on each other long after all the other battles had come to an end. They fought doggedly on as the rest of the world picked up their pieces and found their peace.
Harry just wanted to curl up and die, but she would not let him. Ginny kept on provoking him until he realized that he wasn't really fighting her, but himself. Then they fought together.
And finally, there was a victor, or more like two. Or maybe, for a second time, the whole world won.
But this time, there was no parade, no celebration for the conquering hero. No, Ginny came from that fight, quietly dusted herself off and pretended it had never happened. She helped him pick up his pieces, few as they were, and find his peace.