JK owns it all.

Ginny had never been a girly-girl. It wasn't so hard to understand, since she had only brothers to play with. The only female in her life had been her mother, who was most of the time busy with other things (like for instance keeping an eye on Fred and George). She did have a friend in the neighbourhood when she was about 5 years old, but Anna had moved and it wasn't as if they saw each other daily: she had been a muggle, and Anna's mum didn't like Ginny's mum very much.

But it wasn't as if Ginny herself had wanted to be a girly-girl: She had hated it when she had to stay clean in her new dresses and skirts on birthdays, and most of the time, Mrs. Weasely had to use charms to keep Ginny sitting still when she was combing her hair.

Ginny did have a doll, but only one, and after Bill had told her that there were moving staircases in Hogwarts, she had thrown such a tantrum to have a moving staircase too, it had resulted in little Jane falling from the top of the non-moving one and breaking one of her glass eyes.

When she had been 6, Ron and Ginny had built a tree house. It actually wasn't more then a few shelves, lifted up with a lot of effort into the great, ancient oak-tree behind their house, but Ginny had liked it nonetheless. For a while, it had been kept a secret from Fred and George. Ginny and Ron used to play there, and, after the twins had discovered their secret tree house, they were forced to play with them too. When Bill and Charlie had arrived from Hogwarts, Ginny had showed her tree house to Bill, and she was delighted to see that with some magic and a bit of complicated waving of his wand, (but only when mum wasn't around) her favourite brother could expand the old shelves, and even make some new shelves as light as a feather, so Ginny could lift them up into the tree herself.

A summer later, when Ginny, Ron and the twins were playing by the tree house again, Ginny had actually shown her first sign of being magic, for as far as she could remember. It had been hot, and the twins had been annoying the whole day. They wanted to play King and Queen, and after a long time of bickering, George had became king. Fred wanted to play his loyal prime-minister and the twins had pushed Ron into being the Joker. They had decided that Ginny should be the Queen: she was a girl, after all. But Ginny didn't feel like that. Last time when they had played King and Queen (Fred had been King that time), she had been forced to stay up in the tree for about an hour, playing the damsel in distress, while Fred and his almost as important prime-minister had fought with the evil dragon. (Which had been Percy, who had just walked by)

She had whined why she couldn't play the Joker this time, or even the angry dragon, but both Fred and George didn't allow it; they had to have a queen, or a damsel in distress, and Ron had refused to be one. Ginny had jumped up, and yelled to their brothers that they were stupid. She had been so angry with George and Fred, that the staff King George had been holding had exploded, and Fred's prime minister-hat had caught fire.

Fred and George had never forced her to play a damsel again. Instead of that, Ron came up with a new game: the 4 aurors, fighting against dangerous dragons and other evil creatures.

And now, with her hair in a knot, but loose strings peeking out, with her dress of pale gold, but dirty at the sides and with even a little tear in it, with her feet in elegant heels, but mud all over it, she still didn't feel like a girly-girl. She still felt like one of the 4 aurors, fighting against dangerous dragons and other evil creatures.

She had climbed up in this tree house just a few minutes ago, but with all the thoughts twirling trough her head, it could have been hours.

Her feet bungled into the air. In her memory, this "house" in the oak had been bigger. But well, she had been smaller, 9 years ago.

Things had changed; she had changed. But at the same time, there were things that refused to change. Like she. She still refused to play the damsel in distress. Not in this tree house, nor in the real world, that seemed to start at the bottom of the tree. They might still try to force her, he might still try to force her, but clearly that just meant that they all hadn't learnt anything from the past; there would be an explosion if they kept pushing her. She would never like it to play the damsel, the lady that had to be kept away from the danger, and be protected.

It was not as if she had ever missed being a girly-girl. Besides learning in her first year in Hogwarts that diaries can turn against you and be evil, she had also learned that most of those girly-girls were vain and shallow.

Once in that year, she had tried to be like one of them, but wearing lip-gloss on Valentine's day hadn't been noticed by the right boy: only by some of her brothers, and she had stopped wearing it, as soon as Fred and George had started to tease her with it.

After the diary incident, she had learned that there were far more important things to think about which shirt would clash with her shoes.

Things that you couldn't ignore, or be protected against, or even throw in a toilet. Sometimes, you needed to protect yourself. To be strong enough. To be not a girly-girl, but one of the few girls that was part of the secret auror-group with her three brothers. That was involved in scheming, and knowing what the Order of the Phoenix was up to. That was part of the DA, and one of the best at learning those defensive spells.

Sure, bungling here, 5 feet up in the air, she knew that she was quite pretty. And it wasn't as if she hadn't looked at all in the mirror this morning, to look extra pretty on Bills' wedding. But those things hadn't kept her from knowing what was really important this day: the love her brother fell for his fiancé, her family and her friends that had made this day unforgettable, and the realisation that even though times seemed to be at their darkest, there still was hope.

Without noticing, tears had started to fall into her lap. It had been an hour ago since the trio had left, the Death-Eaters had crashed in and had interrogate her. Instead of fearing, she had walked up to this place though, as if her feet had known exactly what to do, when her mind had absolutely no clue which emotions to show, since there were so many at the moment. She guessed that slowly, her mind was understanding what her feet had been trying to say by going here.

Ginny had heard from Luna a while ago, that there were 3 things people couldn't live without: faith, hope and love. According to Luna, Ginny possessed all three of them in large quantities, but Ginny had just laughed and moved on to a lighter subject. Now she knew that Luna had been right: Faith, for she somehow knew that the Ministry, the Order and especially Harry had it in them to stand up and fight. Hope, for she believed that even when all the odds were against the Trio, their fighting wouldn't be without success. And Love, since she still felt oddly connected wit all of them in a special way: Ron as her brother, Hermione as her friend, and Harry as her boyfriend.

She dried her tears and suddenly, her mind got clear. By sitting here, crying, she was doing exactly what they had been expecting of her: playing the damsel in distress. Being useless. She stood up, walked over to the stairs, and climbed down. Standing on the ground again, she shook her head firmly, walking back to the Burrow. It was time for her to demand some answers from the Order. To revive the DA again, and to help the Trio in any way possible.

It was time for her to be the 4th auror again, fighting against dangerous dragons.

hoped you liked it! It was written before DH came out, but I only had to make a few adjustments for this story to fit again!

it's not edited by a beta, so an apology for any misspelling!

I would be very glad if you'd leave a review, but just reading it is also fine!

x-mokimik-x