summary: "Being surrounded by greatness all the time means the novelty's worn off by the time she gets around to doing anything commendable." Ginny Weasley in 50 sentences. Character sketch.
title: "I once knew a girl in the years of my youth with eyes like the summer, all beauty in truth." ~Someday You Will Be Loved, Death Cab for Cutie
note: So this is a totally random format and all, but I saw another fic with just single sentences that came from prompts, and I adopted the idea. I got the table of prompts off of 100quills on LJ, which I only found by googling it lol. The format leaves a bit to be desired – I'm sure most of these are run-ons and I've raped semicolons to within an inch of their lives, but one sentence is surprisingly challenging! Anyway they aren't in chronological order, it jumps around a lot but my hope is that it gives a sort of complete-ish picture of Ginny's life. I'm actually quite proud of it, as I adore Ginny, although a lot more of them ended up being about Harry than I intended lol. Enjoy, and if you're able, please review – I'd love to know what you think!
blind
After the war, every time she steps foot in Hogwarts she gets uncontrollable shivers; it has something to do with being unable to unsee the rubble, the damage, the horrific remains of the place that had once felt safest in the world to her, and the fact that it was fixed so quickly and bears so few scars haunts her.
need
She considers herself a fully independent woman who doesn't need to lean on anyone else for support, but she's dead wrong, because the second Harry accepts the place standing next to her again, she realizes she's been coping like someone's scotch-taped her together and she rips into shreds on his shoulder.
gold
She cannot remember a time before hand-me-downs and her parents sitting together at the table frowning over how much simple food costs these days when you have seven mouths to feed, six of them boys; the idea of being rich is so far-fetched that she laughs when Bill asks her if it bothers her, how little they have.
foreign
The main problem with Fleur isn't her silvery hair or her stupid accent or even the way she makes Harry's eyes glaze over – the problem with her is that she's invading a life that was normal and taking over a brother that was normal, and that's unforgivable.
refusal
The first time a boy asks her out on a date, she says no because she's so very surprised, and then after consulting with Hermione, she's running to the Ravenclaw common room and begging Michael Corner to give her a second chance, because just because he doesn't have a cool nickname like The Boy Who Lived doesn't mean he's not worthy of one Hogsmeade weekend.
impromptu
She had not been planning it, but suddenly she's in charge of helping everyone survive through the horrors and she's the one trying to keep them all together when she feels like her cracks are becoming harder and harder to hide.
chains
Filch has always sworn he would hang kids from their ankles using his infamous chains the second he gets the chance; the Carrows give him that chance, and she is his first victim; she goes into his office laughing loudly at the medieval-ness of the punishment to try and show the first-years staring in the corridor that there's nothing to be afraid of, that there's still hope.
miracle
Mostly her life has been a series of traumas interspersed with embarrassing moments and teasing from her brothers; the miracle of life strikes her as somewhat cliché when she takes James into her arms for the first time and thinks it's the greatest moment she'll ever experience, but she thinks it nonetheless and pretty soon Harry's breathing the very same words out loud.
justice
She supposes her parents drilled right from wrong into her subconsciously, because when she's trying to control her temper as Alecto Carrow taunts a 12-year-old Hufflepuff in the Great Hall during breakfast, all she can hear is her father's voice echoing in her head telling her to stand up and hex Carrow into oblivion.
soft
Her most important trait has been her strength, ever since she can remember – it's the thing she likes most about herself; as a mother, she becomes someone her children like to cuddle with, someone who sometimes doesn't punish them the way they deserve if they look at her with enough innocence and sweetness, and yet losing some of her ironclad will doesn't actually bother her much.
water
The first shower she takes after the battle should be a relief; the water is scalding hot and her skin is pink when she steps out, but instead of ease she just feels like part of her has been stripped away, left raw, only this time on the outside instead of on the inside.
choice
Harry tells her once that he feels his entire life was scripted for him before he was born and he's only been acting out the motions for eighteen years; it's the first time she thinks of the choices she's made, had the privilege to have made, and feels truly grateful for what life has given her.
silver
Second-best is something like a novelty to her; her whole life, she's come in seventh-best, because being surrounded by greatness all the time means the novelty's worn off by the time she gets around to doing anything commendable.
enemies
She has always considered herself open-minded, but spending time with Tracey Davis, also an employee of the Daily Prophet and a Slytherin whilst at Hogwarts, changes everything – for the first time, she wonders if she too wasn't guilty of prejudice towards people based on something they couldn't control: Houses rather than blood, but is there really much of a difference?
head
She harbors a secret desire to be Head Girl when she's younger, perhaps something to do with her idolization of Bill – but after the battle, she refuses her mother's pleas for her to return to school and abandons a dream that seems ridiculously childish now, some stupid honorary title that a girl who led Dumbledore's Army the year after Dumbledore was taken from them forever has no use for.
farewells
She has made a point to limit all goodbyes in her life, but sometimes she and Harry do the clutch-each-other-like-you'll-never-let-go thing before he leaves on Auror missions, before she spends the next month worrying and pretending she's not because she's supposed to be stronger than that.
overturn
Harry spends the year after Voldemort's defeat trying to completely overturn the way the Ministry used to run, heavily aided by Arthur and Percy; she's pretty sure she's never been more proud of her family and her boy than when Harry becomes Head of the Auror department before leaving his teens and his first order of business is to throw Umbridge straight into Azkaban.
horizon
She spends much of her horrible sixth year with Neville, the only person she feels she can be real with and not some ridiculous charade of hope and strength; he, in turn, cries in front of her but also points out the light at the end of the tunnel, the way things will be if they just stick it out a little longer.
red
She spends the night of Fred's funeral taking care of George as much as he will allow her to, but around four-thirty in the morning Harry Apparates over and forces her to leave her post to watch the sunrise with him; it rises blood red through the morning fog and to her surprise it feels like a new beginning.
snow
Over the Christmas holidays one year before everything gets dark, she joins her brothers and Harry having a snowball fight on the Hogwarts lawn and asks to join in; after a long pause both teams start arguing over who gets to have her on their side, and she glows with pride at this unexpected acceptance.
children
If you'd asked her at sixteen if she wanted kids, she would have laughed in your face – who would bring a defenseless kid into a world as fucked up as this, especially with only her to rely on as a mother? - but eventually the idea of Harry's eyes and the Weasley hair becomes so enchanting that she fantasizes day and night about producing some creature as perfect as that.
blur
People tell her that they remember with precise clarity their exact actions during the final battle, but honestly the only thing she can remember is fury, fear, and panic rising like bile in her throat every time she catches sight of someone she loves locked in combat with someone she despises.
invisible
She fights to treat her children exactly equally, never letting a hint of favoritism show through; she remembers all too well being the youngest and having six attention-seeking boys clamor for her parents' time and feeling like she might as well fade into the wallpaper so she wouldn't get in the way quite as much.
missing
The only time she really believes all is lost is when she sees Harry's lifeless body in Hagrid's arms; when pandemonium breaks out and someone is bellowing "Where's Harry?" the only coherent thought she can think of is missing in action, with a grim sort of renewed hope that she tries not to entertain.
flattery
Dean Thomas is a master of flattery, although Ron confides in her later that he thinks it may be due to Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches; she thinks the reason she dates him for so long is because he is finally someone who tells her she is an equal, and that's the most surprising thing she's ever heard.
miscommunication
She and her mum fight often and generally over the stupidest things, usually involving her forgetting to mention something that, for some ridiculous reason, becomes vitally important to Molly, and Harry's always saying trite things like "Don't let the sun go down on your anger," and forcing her to be the first one to apologize; God, she loves that man.
wind
Her wedding day is blustery and cold, and she doesn't dare style her hair until she's got no chance of having to go back outside; she can't help but notice that Harry does not have the same idea, because when she's walking down the aisle she's strangely fixated on the extra-messiness of his hair and how rumpled his dress robes look, and she gives him a beam that causes his nervous, lopsided smile to spread all the way across his face in response.
irritation
The screaming matches she and Harry have could wake up the neighbors if the Muggles living around them had any idea they exist; as it is, her irritation with him usually changes to passion halfway through one of their rows and they almost always end with a different – but equally loud – sort of screaming.
why?
Most of the time she tries not to allow herself moments of self-pity, knowing that some things are just the way they are with no explanation and feeling sorry for herself won't help a thing; when she tells Harry about this belief he looks at her with an expression that makes her blush and says, "You're extraordinary."
protocol
The new and improved Auror Department of the Ministry has very strict rules: no sharing information with those outside the department, no guests in high-ranking officials' offices, no snogging like teenagers on the department's time; she and Harry break every single rule he himself has established and she spends a lot of time feeling like that is the main perk of being married to The Chosen One.
his
She first found out about Harry Potter when she was five or six, and when she sees him for the first time, all too-long limbs and wild hair and eyes that are clear as sunshine on a leaf on the first day of spring (poetic, her ten-year-old self believes), she is irrevocably his.
club
Harry, Ron and Hermione have always been this secret club that she's been desperate to wiggle her way into; in the end, she has separate relationships with each of them as her husband, her brother, and her best friend, respectively, and realizes that the Golden Quad doesn't have the same ring to it.
breathing
In her last year at Hogwarts, she has a lot of trouble sleeping; she stays awake and listens to the quiet sobs of one of her dorm mates and feels thankful for each inhale and each exhale, wondering how few she has left.
wings
She receives a toy broomstick for her fifth birthday from her Uncle Bilius and the second she feels her feet lift from the ground she is in love; she has found a sense of freedom that her brothers have never described to her, and for the first time, she feels like she can do absolutely anything.
thief
When she is six years old she tries to take home some candy that her mum told her she couldn't have because it was too expensive, but of course it has anti-stealing jinxes all over it and she's in hysterics when her mother, red-faced with embarrassment and fury, forces her to return it with her apologies; she knows from then on never to take what isn't hers, but her main problem with this is that just about nothing seems to be hers.
tense
The first family dinner after Fred, her mum leaves the room no less than four times to cry in peace and her brothers tell stories so loud and rambling that she can't even fake a laugh; Harry's hand brushes over her thigh every time Bill begins another tale with "You won't believe this new thing Gringotts is doing" and she doesn't cry until they're home and his hands can be all the way around her instead.
sunshine
She spends most of her time at Auntie Muriel's outside (they have so many enchantments up that it's hard to see the sky, let alone for anyone to see her) in the brilliant sunshine so unusual for Britain, dreaming about the sunlit days she spent with Harry the year before and pretending, some days, when the sun is particularly hot and she's missing him particularly fiercely, that the warmth on her skin is his chest pressed against her back, so firm and tangible.
smoke
Percy's girlfriend Audrey is a smoker when they first meet her; she's tough and rebellious with a husky, sensual voice, just about the opposite of everything Percy's ever been, and his sister likes her immensely from their very first meeting.
passion
One day she asks Harry why he loves her; his response is to kiss her hard and then look right into her eyes when he answers, "Passion," and carries her upstairs.
dirty
The boy who she sees when she climbs through the Hog's Head passageway into the Room of Requirement looks nothing like the boy she kissed nine months before – his hair is long and unkempt, there are deep circles beneath his eyes, and he looks so covered in dirt that she can hardly see the natural color of his skin; he's the greatest thing she thinks she's ever seen in her entire life.
awake
She wakes up in the Chamber of Secrets with a sense of terror mixed uncomfortably with shame; the sight of the famous Harry Potter there makes her almost wish that Tom Riddle had just finished her off when he had the chance, to save her from having to wake to this terrible guilt.
ghost
The feeling of icy coldness she gets when she accidentally walks through the Fat Friar one morning when she's late for Transfiguration never really leaves her, it being such an unpleasant shock; she feels precisely the same chill when she sees her brother lying on the floor of the Great Hall with laughter on his face, but no life.
rumor
At Hermione's advice, she spends her third year carefully distancing herself from Harry, hoping to make him realize what he's missing in the process – only he spends the whole year fending off rumors that he and Hermione are dating, and she wishes fervently that somebody made up a rumor about her dating him, just to plant the seed in his mind.
mirror
She reads about the Mirror of Erised once in a long overdue library book, and it catches her imagination, because she truly has no idea what she would see in the mirror – herself and Harry seems such a vapid thing to be her deepest desire, but it's the only thing she's wanted for so long; it isn't until her family is torn apart that she realizes the thing she wants most in the world are these people safe and happy and never in need of anything, but it's too late then, because Fred's already gone.
eclipse
Before her sixth year, she spends most of her time thinking about boys and homework and Quidditch, and then suddenly she's thrust into a world of torture and leadership and protecting, and her previous worries are so completely overshadowed that she considers the person she used to be something like a long lost friend, childishly simple and naïve, someone she will never know again.
impossible
The idea of actually winning the war is one she rarely lets herself entertain for long – she knows it won't happen, and what's the point in getting her spirits up? - but then the second she sees Harry again, hope flares within her like it's been waiting there all the time, and she feels a sudden confidence that the impossible is indeed possible, as long as this boy is in control.
seek
As a child, she longs to play Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, the most important position, in her estimation, but it becomes apparent that she's rather an excellent Chaser – and she can't help assigning this meaning in her life, as the Seeker is trying to find something but the Chaser knows exactly what she wants and spends the game living in constant fear that whatever lead she has thus far achieved will be lost in a second of carelessness.
image
She has this picture in her head of the way her life is going to go: she and Harry will fall in love at school, marry right out of Hogwarts, have three or four beautiful children and grow old together; it's almost scary how the bare bones of this image come exactly true, although her younger self never could have predicted the twisted road she has to follow to get there.
welcome
Hogwarts is supposed to be a home away from home for the next seven years, and the little first-year who trembles when she puts on the Sorting Hat doesn't think it'll be very smooth sailing, especially when she can't find Ron's reassuring smile just before the Hat slips over her eyes.
wisdom
The things she's learned in her life center around hackneyed old proverbs – count your blessings, live each day as though it's your last, be willing to take chances – but for some reason she thinks she's learned quite a lot, because although she hasn't been able to fix herself quickly or hide all of her scars, she knows she is a testament to survival.