Ginny's Secret
Team: Chudley Cannons
Position: Chaser #3
Mandatory Prompt: Ginny Weasley
Optional Prompts: (word) harm, (scenario) an argument over what the best colour is, (quote) Nothing more complicated than learning lines and putting on a costume. - Morgan Freeman
The Weasley family is an open bunch. Most of the wizarding world feels like they know everything they need to know about the pureblood family. They like reproduce like rabbits, have red hair, and are very poor. However, there is one thing that the family keeps a secret in fear of bad backlash.
Ginny is transgender.
The curse that the family was under, to only have boys, was broken, but in a different way that most think. At the Healer's appointment, it was confirmed that their seventh child was indeed another boy. Molly and Arthur were disappointed but happy that their baby was healthy.
Lance's first four years of life were as happy as any of her brothers, but she knew that something was different. It was until she was around four that she could put it into words.
"Mom, I'm a girl like you."
Her parents were surprised but accepting once they did some research. Arthur was forced to go into the Muggle world (and what a trip that was!) because the wizarding world was a little clueless about gender identity. Lance did not fit their little girl so Ginevra (Ginny) was chosen instead.
With a little bit of charm work on paperwork, nobody was aware that the Weasley family changed anything. It wasn't common for the wizarding world to parade their families around while they are young. It came from a deep fear of sabotaging family lines that hang around even those who don't believe in old pureblood ways. Homeschooling was most common, and it wasn't until Hogwarts that most of the world sees the next generation.
Molly Weasley set about knitting as many bows and dresses that she could. Mostly pink and purple which Ginny always tried to reject.
"Why can't I have a blue dress? Blue is the best color," she exclaimed as she held out her arms to let her mother tailor it to her exact measurements.
"Pink looks so pretty on little girls," her mother said absently. "Now be a dear and stop fidgeting. You don't want to get stuck, do you?"
"You're wrong! Orange is the best color," Ron said, looking up from his little chess match with Percy.
"Both of you are wrong," Fred said.
"Red is the best," George said.
"For Gryffindor!" Fred said.
"No," Ron started, his face filling up with the red color he was protesting.
"Now, now, settle down," their mother cut in. "All of the colors are good colors."
"Then why can't my dress be pink?" Ginny asked.
Molly ignored her daughter and kept on sewing.
And on and on that went. Arthur started scolding his boys about treating Ginny with more caution. The boys rejected her attempts to play Quidditch despite her protests. Her mother would instead invite her into the kitchen, determined to pass on all of her cooking knowledge. Ginny whined and complained, finding cooking boring and wanting to play outside. Her mother would never pay any mind, and would continue on her explanations. They meant no harm, but their outdated ideals about gender roles caused Ginny to have many sleepless nights over the years.
But she grew up happy and accepted, and over the years Ginny really came into her own. She got onto the Quidditch team at Hogwarts, she had a lot of friends, and she was allowed to pick her own clothes that she liked the colors of.
It wasn't until she had her first serious boyfriend that she considered telling her secret to anybody else. She thought long and hard about it. Sent plenty of letters to her parents begging for advice before she decided that, yes, she wanted to tell Dean Thomas the truth about her. So, she decided to sit him down and spit it out, like pulling off a band aid.
"Dean, I'm transgender," she said after putting silencing spells around the unused classroom she pulled him into. "I was born into a boy body."
He sat in surprised silence for a bit too long for her comfort. As tears built up in her eyes, Dean seemed to come out of it, and pulled her into his arms. She relaxed into him, comforted that he was still willing to touch her.
"Who- who else knows?" he asked.
"Just my family," she said.
"Not even Harry and Hermione?"
She shook her head as much as she could since she was lying it on his shoulder. "You aren't mad, are you?"
"What? No!" he said, quickly. "Just surprised is all. I would have never guessed."
She smiled. "Yeah?"
"Honestly, I didn't even think the wizarding world knew about transgender people," he said. "They seem slow at everything else."
"Yeah," she chuckled. "But when I told my parents I was a girl they went into the muggle world for information."
"You have good parents. So, when did you . . . know?" he asked.
"I was four."
"What was it like for you before that?"
"Like I was one of those muggle actresses," she said. "Like I was putting on a costume every day and saying lines that I hadn't quite memorized. It was a huge relief when I could say, 'I'm a girl.' But even then, I didn't fit the stereotypical role of a girl either. So, it was still hard, but in a different way."
Dean kissed the top of her head, and Ginny was sure she was in love.
Alas, it wasn't meant to be, but because that was the first time she came out to anyone, Dean always had a special place in her heart. And later, after the war when she was landed her position in the Holly Harpies, she decided to come out in her very first interview.
It shook the whole wizarding world. A lot were against her. They wanted her off of the all-female team. However, her team stood beside her and with her family and her boyfriend, Harry, she kept her head up high. And the letters she got from other people just like her made all of the abuse worth it.