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Second place. Eternally overshadowed, overlooked. A child that signified nothing to anyone next to their friend, who was everything.
"That" thought Ginny Weasley "just about sums me up perfectly. Ginny Weasley, always second to Hermione Granger." She sat in her shared apartment alone, contemplating her life three years after the war. But one subject always seemed to come back to the forefront of her mind. And that was her best friend's never failing ability to upstage her at everything she did.
It didn't matter what Ginny did, how well she achieved, all anyone ever talked about was Hermione. They were calling her the most powerful witch of the age, the brightest of her time. The prophet sang her praises, along with the rest of their 'golden trio'.
Ginny was ignored, or otherwise scathing articles and lies were written about her life and her apparently 'sudden and unpredicted' romance with Harry Potter. That, or the scathing rumours were directed at her second year, and her apparent 'scandalous affair' with a young Tom Riddle, AKA Voldemort. Day after day she received howlers and threats from various numbers of her boyfriend's fans. She was getting sick of it. She was getting sick of Hermione.
Ginny never used to feel jealous of her friend; she mostly just felt pity for all of the things she had to go through in life. It was only when Hermione went back to Hogwarts to finish her education that Ginny's dislike began to grow. Hermione had, of course, been made head girl. Who better for the job? Despite this obvious favouritism, Ginny had moved on and worked harder at achieving her NEWTs and the grades she needed. She had been glad, at first when she had found out that Hermione was in all of her classes, until she found out that Hermione had acquired another time turner to use, so that she would be taking all of the offered NEWT courses except divination.
When Ginny had found out, she gaped openly, and told Hermione that she would never cope. To her annoyance Hermione had calmly told her that "Now I don't have to worry about Harry, help him save the world, or help the boys with their homework, I've found that actually I have more than enough time to get it done Ginny. Though, Professor McGonagall has told me that she will be keeping an eye on my health to make sure that I don't work too hard." Ginny just shrugged, and didn't believe it at the time, considering no one to be that good at school. Imagine her surprise when Hermione had achieved O's for everything. The transfiguration examiner had even recommended that she seek to become McGonagall's apprentice. The day her result's had come, she truly realised how much she disliked being second.
It didn't even stop after school, because at her home Ginny continuously heard about how well Hermione was getting on in life from her mother, Ron or Harry.
"Hermione's just accepted McGonagall's offer…."
"Hermione has completed the animagus training!"
"Can you believe it? A jaguar! Wow…"
"Oh Ginny dear, did you hear? Hermione's gotten a job in the ministry as the head of the department for magical creatures! Isn't that wonderful?"
Whenever the subject of Hermione came up, Ginny would diligently think about Quidditch, the one thing she would always best her at. The one thing she knew Hermione would always fail completely in. It helped her to feel better about herself, and reminded her that Hermione was not, in fact, perfect.
Or so she thought. A year after school had finished, Harry and Ron coerced Hermione into learning how to properly fly a broom. "Hermione you've faced Bellatrix Lestrange, and not flinched- What's a broom ride to that?" Ginny had laughed, and gone along with it- eager to see Hermione fall off time and time again. She still felt slightly guilty for her vindictive thoughts, but that didn't stop them. Just that morning her own mother was telling her what a great addition to the family Hermione would be.
Ginny sat and watched Hermione failing for an hour, cheering and shouting encouraging comments up in the air when Hermione fell or slipped off of her broom. It was on the third day of this much to Ginny's surprise; Hermione had suddenly exclaimed "Oh! Harry! Ron! I think I've got it!" And in the space of one week Hermione had learnt to fly a broom. And whilst she'd never be at a professional standard Ginny could no longer gloat that she'd completely failed.
Whenever she thought about Hermione and Quidditch from that point on, Ginny could only conjure up the image of a beaming Ron and her parents telling Hermione how proud they were. Her heart icing over, Ginny realised that they'd never looked like that at her before.
That night Ginny had sat and thought about Hermione, and how she felt about her in her life. After a long and complicated thought process Ginny finally decided that she could deal with Hermione overshadowing her. She had Harry after all. And he loved her more than anybody in the world. She was his one and only. He heart had warmed at the thought. "Harry loves you. Not Hermione. You."
And for a while she had thought that that simple fact was true, and that he would never choose Hermione over her.
How wrong she was.
It was a Friday night when she first had an inkling of how much Hermione meant to Harry, Hermione had come bursting through the door and ran crying into his arms. Ginny had immediately gone forward to comfort her, but Harry had stopped her in her tracks with a look. "Ginny," He said "could you please leave me and Hermione alone for a minute? I think she really just needs to talk now."
Ginny stood silently still for a few moments, unbelievably shocked, before turning and strolling out of the room in a huff. Harry had stayed with her for the rest of the night, and when Ginny came down that morning she saw them asleep together on their sofa. Harry was cradling Hermione in his arms and they both looked peaceful. Feeling a long forgotten stab of jealousy, Ginny had rather loudly come into the room to wake them up. Ron was nowhere to be seen, and she presumed that they had had some sort of fight.
She didn't know, of course, because Harry had refused to tell her anything, saying "It's Hermione's business Ginny, let it be." This was accompanied with a hard stare. Ginny spent most of the day on her own, feeling miserable with no one to talk to. That night he hurt her more than he could imagine. That night she knew that whatever those three had got up to in their 'seventh year' had bonded them together in a way that would normally take years. How could she hope to compete with that? How could she avoid losing Harry?
June that year she and Harry went away to Hawaii for their wedding anniversary. It had taken her months to convince him not to invite Ron or Hermione, but eventually he caved and they were gone within the week. She enjoyed that alone time with him more than she would ever tell, and she knew he enjoyed it every bit as much as her. Each night they simply spent talking, reconnecting and strengthening their love. Each night they whispered a soft 'I love you' to each other. And each night Ginny finally felt that she had finally come first.
It was in the second week of their holiday that Hermione had called. Ginny was wary at first, but upon hearing that she and Ron were finally engaged her heart felt a little safer. Of course, when she had told Harry, he had been ecstatic, "About time! I thought he'd never propose, come on gin, let's go celebrate!" Her face fell.
"But Harry, we've got a reservation at the Parson today. We don't want to lose our places; they've been reserved for ages. Let Hermione and Ron celebrate on their own. We can party when we get back." She flashed a Cheshire grin at him as she finished, but was dismayed to see that he was frowning. Worried, she asked him what was wrong.
"Ginny, this is my sister getting married to my best friend! I want to be there for them, we can go to the Parson any other day, but i want to show Ron and Hermione how great this is! Please?"
She scowled. "Harry I don't see what the problem is, why would you want to be there? We have had this table reserved since we came here, and I've always wanted to eat there. We can go visit tomorrow, I don't see why you're so eager."
His expression mirrored hers. "Ginny, this is my family we are talking about."
"It's mine too! But I don't see why we have to leave our holiday and be at their beck and call!"
"They didn't need to ask! I want to be there! Hermione and Ron have always been there for me, I just want to be there for them; and not just in the bad times!"
Ginny stumbled. With her eyes tearing up she whispered "I'll never be enough will I Harry? I'm not asking you to abandon them, just to stop putting our life together on hold. I thought you'd understand…" she fled the room.
Instantly Harry followed her, circling his arms around her shaking form. "Shh…Ginny I know what you mean. But, I can't imagine how my life would've turned out without Ron or Hermione in it. We're more than family now, Gin, and I know that I wanted them there for me. We can come back afterwards; I'm not asking you to stop the holiday, but… I want to be there." Shakily she nodded, resigned to his decision. "Thanks Ginny," he smiled gratefully "I love you so much, you know that?" She nodded her head into his chest
"I know Harry. I love you too, with all my heart." She noticed his awkward smile and felt the crack.
That day she realised that she would, no matter what, always come second to Ron and Hermione. And there was nothing she could do about it. Because, although Harry was in love with her, he was also inexplicably bound to Hermione and Ron. Had she not have been his girlfriend she would have found it sweet. She would never have all of his heart, which partly belonged to two others. Hermione. A small part of her thought that Hermione had Ron, so why couldn't she leave Harry, but a deeper part of her knew that above all, even their romances, those three were each one third of a whole. And no matter what she did, Ginny would never belong. And whenever Harry needed someone, she would always be second best.