"She Will be Loved"
Brief summary: This is a songfic. Charlie, one of Ginny's older brothers, is dead; he was killed in a battle at Hogwarts. He and Ginny, like her other brothers, were very close, but they shared a special connection over this song ("She will be Loved" by Maroon 5). At Ginny and Harry's wedding, Ginny's other brothers try to give her something from Charlie.
"I love you."
I looked up into the bright, green eyes of my love, my husband, my Harry. Just moments ago we were bound together for life in front of our family and friends, and now here we sat, slightly apart from the rest of the guests, relishing in our newly found matrimony.
"I love you too," I whispered, leaning forward slightly to grab his hand in mine.
His answering smile was beautiful as he leaned forward to kiss me passionately. I still couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that I was married, that I was now Ginevra Molly Potter. Too soon, our kiss was interrupted by a low, throaty cough, causing us both to look up into the handsome, scarred face of my brother, Bill.
"Sorry, Harry," Bill smiled, winking at me. "But I was wondering if I could steal your beautiful bride for a moment."
Harry glanced over at me, smirking, and said, "Well seeing as you are the threatening older brother, I see no objection."
Smiling to myself, I grabbed Bill's extended hand as he twirled me onto the dance floor, noticing for only a second that the rest of the floor was empty, while the rest of my brothers stationed themselves around the perimeter, watching Bill and I start to dance. I had a moment to realize this was all a big set up, and judging by my husband's sweet smile, Harry was in on it too.
"What are you up too," I questioned as Bill nodded towards our father.
Music began to play. Tears instantly sprang to my eyes as it registered what exactly my brother was giving me and, unwillingly, images of long, hot summers, dirty kitchens, and Charlie, my dear older brother, spinning me around the house, both of us singing at the top of our lungs, filled my mind.
"Beauty queen of only eighteen," Bill started singing in my ear, whisking me around the dance floor. "She had some trouble with herself. He was always there to help her, she always belonged to someone else."
I was instantly taken back to nine years ago, to the summer before my second year at Hogwarts, to the summer when all of my brothers had come home to visit because of the incident with the Chamber of Secrets, just a couple months previously. Charlie, always the receptive one, realized that I was having trouble sleeping, so one morning he turned on one of dad's muggle radios when it was just the two of us and sang to me in the messy kitchen. From that moment on, that song became ours and every year, when it was just the two of us, we would dance and sing around the kitchen, holding onto each other and laughing.
A gasp managed to escape as Bill, in his deep voice, continued to sing quietly in my ear, "I drove for miles and miles and wound up at your door. I've had you so many times but somehow I want more."
Suddenly I was spinning across the dance floor, Bill no longer next to me, but no sooner than I had time to process, was Percy pulling me into his arms and continuing where the song left off, "I don't mind spending everyday out on your corner in the pouring rain. Look for the girl with the broken smile, ask her if she wants to stay awhile."
A small, watery sob spilled out of me as Charlie's explanation for the song choice crashed against my head, not for the first time, and certainly not for the last. He always told me that it was just the first song that played on the muggle station when he turned it on, but I know, thanks to Fred and George's sneaking tactics, that Charlie had searched through the radio stations for several minutes before he finally selected this song.
"And she will be loved," Percy sang, kissing my cheek, spinning me out of his arms. "She will be loved."
A hysterical laugh bubbled up as Fred, one of my favorite partners in crime, circled me into his arms and sang, "Tap on my window, knock on my door- I want to make you feel beautiful. I know you tend to get so insecure, it doesn't matter anymore."
As the years went by, and the summers seemed to get shorter, Charlie would sing certain parts of the song quietly into my ear. He always told me to listen to the words, because one day someone other than himself would be singing them to me, wanting to make me feel beautiful.
"It's not always rainbows and butterflies, its compromise that moves us along," Fred smiled warmly at me, wiping a tear from the corner of my eye, and making a promise with the next lines of the song. "My heart is full and my door's always open, you can come anytime you want."
I didn't even have time to process the next transition, for the next thing I knew; George was carrying where Fred left off, "I don't mind spending every day, out on your corner in the pouring rain. Look for the girl with the broken smile; ask her if she wants to stay awhile. And she will be loved."
This song was truly my childhood and, with the help of my brother, I grew up into the confident women I am today.
"And she will be loved," George winked before spinning me into the arms of my closest brother, Ron.
Tears formed in both of our eyes as I buried my face in the neck of my brother, allowing him to sing, in a slightly choked voice, "I know where you hide, alone in your car. Know all of the things that make you who you are. I know that goodbye means nothing at all."
I gasped, clinging to Ron with all I had as he dipped me towards the floor, smiling and murmuring, "Come back and begs me to catch her every time she falls."
He pulled me back up, kissing me on the forehead and singing against my skin, "Tap on my window, knock on my door. I want to make you feel beautiful."
As the music swelled and tears dripped onto my cheeks, Ron pulled away from me, squeezing my hand gently, and left me standing alone in the middle of the dance floor. Standing there, watching the swaying and moist faces of my friends and family, I felt the ghost of a hand clasp onto mine, but just as soon, it disappeared, replaced with that of my husband.
"I don't mind spending every day, out on your corner in the pouring rain," Harry sang, pulling me tight against him. "Look for the girl with a broken smile, ask her if she wants to stay awhile."
"And she will be loved," Harry, amidst my brother's voices, whispered in my ear.
Something between a laugh and a sob issued deep from within me as Harry, smiling, spun me around the dance floor. There amongst the wet, shining faces of our friends, family, and my brother's, Charlie's meaning for the song came to me. Starting back in the summer after my terrible first year at school, Charlie was proving to me that I would always be beautiful, and, no matter what, would always be loved.
"Please don't try so hard to say goodbye," the crowd around me sang and it suddenly came to me that, without a doubt, my brother, Charlie, was out there, singing, no doubt, the loudest amongst the other voices.