It was impossible, she decided. It was never going to happen. She was never going to look like her and she should just stop trying before Harry walked in and noticed what she was doing.
The irrational part of her mind wanted to cry and shout that it wasn't her fault- she couldn't help her looks, just like Harry couldn't help the scar that marred his forehead. But the rational part, as always, won out, and instead she just slumped back into the chair, sighing as she caught sight of her reflection in the large mirror.
"Ginny?" She heard someone call from the front of the house.
"Back here!" She called back, getting up and dusting off her robes.
She heard a door open and then a muffled thump as a very frizzy-haired and frazzled looking Hermione rolled into the room. "Where have you been?" She cried, running forward with one hand on her very rounded stomach. "We've all been going absolutely insane looking for you! Wait- Oh my. Ginny, what on earth have you done to yourself?"
"Oh, calm down Hermione." Ginny snapped, pushing her aside. "I was just experimenting."
"With what? I did warn you that the Sleek-Eazy was a bad idea, it took me ages to brew the potion correctly in fourth year, is that what turned your hair such a horrible-?"
"No!" Ginny suddenly wailed, throwing herself down on her bed face-first. "I just wanted to...to look like her! It's not fair, Mione, not at all!"
Hermione couldn't help the smile that overtook her face as she carefully made her way to the fluffy bed covered in Quidditch insignias and sat down, rubbing her stomach. "I don't think it's that bad," She started gently, but was cut off as Ginny raised her head to look at her in outrage. "Well, alright, it's bad, but it could have been worse-"
"No, it really couldn't have been." Ginny moaned, flopping forward again, her voice muffled. "Are you blind? Wait, let me guess, you totally are, and it's all my fault because its my hair that did it! No, no, don't lie to me, I know the truth!" She trailed off into sad hiccups, her hands fisting into the coverlet.
It was hard to hold back a laugh at that statement, and Hermione had to try very hard, though she did let a smile slip through. It was alright, she reasoned. Ginny couldn't see her anyway.
"Okay. Well, either way, we need to get you cleaned up and changed back to normal by two, or we'll all be late, and you know how your mum gets when things aren't perfectly on time-" She stopped as Ginny raised her head up again to glare at her.
"All I want to know," She started, seething quietly. "Is why I can't do it. Why the hell can't I pull it off? I mean, she did it perfectly well-" She gestured towards a picture lying haphazardly on the vanity table. "-so why can't I?"
Hermione sighed as she glanced towards the happy couple in the picture. "Well, that was her natural hair, Ginny. And yours is perfectly lovely, I don't see why-"
"No!" Ginny cried, suddenly jumping up straight. "No! It can't have been natural, Mione, it absolutely can't have been, that kind of red is impossible-"
"Now you listen to me Ginevra!" Hermione suddenly snapped. She was getting rather tired of being cut off every two seconds and had decided it was time for an intervention. "Your wedding is in two hours, two hours, and instead of getting ready like a proper Weasley, you are holed up in your room trying to change your hair so that it matches Harry's deceased mum's? Do you hear the insanity in that sentence?"
Ginny just sniffled.
"I mean, it's ridiculous!" Hermione said, gaining steam. "I know that Lily Potter was very beautiful-"
Ginny hiccuped.
"-but you are too!" She continued relentlessly. "For crying out loud, Harry is not marrying you because you look like his mother."
"But Hermione!" Ginny said, looking up at her through tear-stained eyes. "Haven't you noticed the similarities? Between Lily and I?"
Hermione did not want to admit it, but she had, certainly. It was odd, the repetition of history. The fact that Harry and Ginny bore an uncanny resemblance to the couple in the picture had not been lost on her, and when she had mentioned it to Ron earlier, he had first snorted and asked her if she was quite right in the head...until she brought out the picture and he fell silent, a slight panic in his eyes at the idea.
From the accounts she had heard from Remus and Sirius before their deaths, Lily Potter had been a firebrand of a woman, willful and witty with just the right amount of sweetness to balance out the equation. She had refused to stay at home and do nothing, pregnant with Harry though she had been, when James and the rest of the Order were out fighting the war. Much like Ginny, Hermione reflected. Ginny and Lily Potter had quite a lot in common, and when coupled together with Harry and James, who also looked frighteningly similar...it was slightly disturbing.
However, she had read about how some men went for women that were just like their mothers, so perhaps that was what was going on. Although, Harry had never known his mother...
"-I mean, I've heard that some blokes go for girls that are like their mums, but really? Harry didn't even know his mum, why on earth did he pick me?" Ginny cried, as Hermione slowly tuned back into the conversation. "And now I have to live up to this unreasonable expectation of Lily Potter, the great Lily Potter!" She spat, glaring at the picture.
Hermione, sensing that Ginny would quite like to throw the frame through the window to the gnomes waiting outside, quickly intervened. "Look, Ginny, Harry met you and liked you long before he knew half that stuff about his mother, you really shouldn't be worried."
"I can't help it." Ginny told her, her face trembling. "I know I'm not normally like this, but somehow, I feel like Harry is imagining me to be this great, strong person that can handle anything and I can't! I'm not that person, I'm not Lily! For Merlin's sake, even the thought of getting pregnant makes me want to hop on a broom and fly off to Bulgaria!"
"Don't let Ron hear you saying that," Hermione said, smiling slightly. "And what does being pregnant have to do with this?"
"Oh, I don't know..." Ginny trailed off pathetically. "But I mean, you're handling it so well, even if Ron's not, but really, what did we expect of him, he's always been such a prat..." She started mumbling curses aimed at her older brother.
Hermione closed her eyes for a moment, grinning inwardly at the memory of telling her husband that she was pregnant. It had been quite funny, seeing his face drain of all color and his knuckles turn white. She shook her head and abruptly returned to the present.
"Ginny," She said firmly, getting up. "Get up. Stop being ridiculous and get dressed. Harry knows perfectly well what type of a woman you are, and he doesn't expect anything from you that you aren't. You are not Lily Potter, you do not need to look like Lily Potter, and you do not need to be Lily Potter. He knows that. And so does the rest of the world." She said hastily, forestalling the next round of tears.
"I...I suppose you're right." Ginny sniffled, wiping her nose on a corner of her bedspread. "I mean, this is really pathetic." She let out a watery laugh, blinking as mascara ran down her cheeks. "I just...I mean...her hair doesn't clash with anything she wears!"
And the next cycle of tears began.
Hermione sat there in shock before she started to smile. Then she began to chuckle, then let out a full-fledged hysterical laugh as she leaned against the wall for support. "Is...is that what this is all about?" Hermione gasped out, tears falling from her eyes in mirth. "The fact that Lily's hair is a different shade of red so it doesn't clash with her clothes?"
The stupidity of her statement seemed to hit Ginny and she choked her tears to a stop, looking at Hermione. Seeing her friend being racked by such large sobs of amusement sobered her up immediately and she jumped off the bed to lead Hermione to sit down.
"You shouldn't stand up so long, it's bad for the baby." Ginny muttered, turning red.
"No it's not." Hermione managed to cough out, her hands still shaking in laughter. "But you're right, my feet were beginning to hurt. Or well, my eyes, at your hair-!" She started laughing again.
"Alright, alright. Okay!" Ginny finally cried, holding her hands out in protest. "I get it. I'm being stupid. You're totally right."
"Of course I am." Hermione said. "I'm always right. Just ask Ron." She winked.
Ginny managed a smile. Then she sighed, looking around her room, still steadfastly ignoring the picture lying on the vanity. "I'm never going to get ready in time." She said mournfully.
"Nonsense." Hermione smiled. "Luna is downstairs- we'll both help. But first thing's first, let me fix your hair. But really, how you managed to turn it green is quite beyond me..."
Fin.
So there you go! I'm not sure what really inspired this, but I had always noticed the similarities between Lily and Ginny and I felt the writing mood overtake me...and this is what resulted!
For everyone that will remember that Ginny and Harry had James II before Hermione/Ron had Rose- well, whatever. Artistic license. Pretend it was the other way around ;)
Please review! I love any kind of feedback(:
-FantaFaerie