"Is Ginny awake yet?" Mrs. Weasley asked Hermione when she walked into the kitchen. Hermione shrugged.
"She's been going in and out of sleep for hours now. The last time I checked, she was asleep. But it may have changed if you want to check." She said. Mrs. Weasley sighed. "You two fought last night when she came home, then?" She asked, pouring a cup of coffee and adding milk and sugar.
"Yeah, we did. And I feel really bad about it."
"I'll bet that's what she was aiming for." She took a sip of coffee and walked outside. Mrs. Weasley watched her.
"Maybe that was what she was aiming for." She muttered to herself.
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Come on, Ginny thought. How long did it take for someone to feel sorry enough to come and talk to their daughter? She seemed so eager to speak last night. Maybe Ginny should have let her speak. But to be honest, everything Ginny had said the night before was not planned. She just released all the thoughts she had bottled up inside her from an early age. And that was a lot.
Someone knocked at her door. "Can I come in?" Mrs. Weasley's voice asked.
"If you have to." She grumbled. Mrs. Weasley closed the door, and Ginny backed up slightly.
She sighed. "Ginny, you know I'm not going to do anything."
"I'm sorry, did you say I know that? How do I know that? You lied last time, how do I know you're not lying this time?" She refused to look at her. "And if you tell me just to trust you, you've gotta trust me that I've got a rant on hold for that. Just in case you want to hear it, which, I'm telling you now, you won't."
"Oh, believe me, Ginny, I know how many rants you can hold in that brain of yours."
"Ooh, my tiny little brain that got a D on one test?" Ginny gasped. "Perhaps I should erase some of those rants and replace them with…well, you know…information." She shuddered. Still, she was not looking at her mother.
"Look, Ginny, I really don't want us to fight. When I was your age-"
Ginny groaned. "Let me guess: 'my mother and I fought constantly.' That's what you were planning on saying? And then you'd say something about how you don't want us to be like you two. About how much I remind you of yourself." She shook her head. "I've heard it a thousand times, Mother, I don't need to hear it again." She stood up, finally facing her mother. "When you were my age, were you like your mother? Did you promise yourself you would never use any corporal punishment on your children? Because that's what I've been doing since I was nine years old."
"In fact I did promise myself that."
"But here we are." Ginny twirled around, her wave of orange hair following her on a second's delay.
"Yes we are." Mrs. Weasley said. "And I'd like to wish you something. I wish that when you do spank your children- because you will- that they react the same way you are."
"I will never spank my children. My children will never be injured as a punishment, not as long as I exist as a living, breathing entity." She said, spinning back around. Mrs. Weasley smiled devilishly.
"Let's see how long that sticks as soon as your son or daughter breaks his or her first lamp. Or draw their first pictures all over the wall. Or uses your favorite book as a paint canvas."
"That's what kids do, Mother. How can you not understand that?" She sighed. "Know what? Let's say that I do end up spanking one of my kids. I hope they react this way too. Maybe then I wouldn't be as stupid as you! Maybe then I would be able to fix it quicker instead of acting like an idiot!"
"I'm the idiot? I'm the one that didn't try to fix it? You threw egg in my face when I said I wanted to talk."
"No, you did not say you wanted to talk. You ordered me to talk. There is a difference. I realize that. You seem to have trouble. You're under the impression that if you're scary enough, then anyone will do anything you want. It doesn't work like that on me, Mother. You're not the only one who works with fear. My observant side has been watching for years as you scared your sons into doing whatever you wanted, and I thought that would work. But I realize that I don't want to be you. I don't want to use fear."
"Your observant side realized this?" Ginny nodded. "When did your observant side meet up with your aggressive side?"
"When you went against your word." She said flatly, walking out of the room.
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"What'd you do to your mother?" Hermione asked Ginny as she walked into the bedroom. Ginny closed her book and Hermione sat on her camp bed. "She just yelled at your father because he was smiling."
"Excellent, I've broken her down."
"Ah, so Plan B is a three-point plan?"
"Point One: run away. Point Two: get my mother angry. Point Three: speaks for itself."
"You haven't come up with Point Three yet, have you?"
"Yes, I actually have. Point Three is to let it play out nicely."
Hermione started laughing so hard she almost fell off the camp bed. "Nicely? When is the last time you and your mother communicated nicely?"
Ginny stood abruptly. "What am I supposed to do then, Hermione? My mother is an idiot! She doesn't understand what I'm trying to tell her!"
"What are you trying to tell her?" Hermione asked quietly. Ginny let out a loud whimper and ran out of the room. "That's an odd message."
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"Ginny's a wreck, you know." Hermione said when she entered the kitchen. Mrs. Weasley sighed. "She said she's not hungry, so don't even try."
"What's going on with her?"
Hermione softened her voice. "Mrs. Weasley, this isn't about that you spanked her. You broke your promise to her. She can't trust you anymore. And I think it's scaring her."
"Well that makes two of us."
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"Ginny?" Mrs. Weasley felt it odd that she had been here so many times. In front of her daughter's door.
"Come in." Ginny mumbled. Mrs. Weasley walked in and sat on the bed next to her, smiling.
"You're not afraid."
"Nope. I'm pretty damn angry, though."
"Ginny, please watch your language."
"Yeah, I'll be doing that." She said, chucking her rubber ball at the opposite wall and catching it as it came back. "What do you want?"
Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Ginny, I'm really sorry. I broke my word, and I should have tried to talk to you rather than just flat out spanking you. I'm sorry, I'll try my absolute hardest to do that next time."
"Next time?" Ginny croaked. "You're not going to try. I know you won't. Your hardest won't be good enough. I don't accept your apology."
"Ginny-"
"No." She sighed. "No. I'm not going to let you try to explain yourself. No. I'm not forgiving you. What you did is unforgivable."
"Ginny, doesn't it count that I'm trying to fix it?"
"NO!" Ginny yelled. Mrs. Weasley glared at her.
"You've been worrying the hell out of me, do you know that?"
"Mother, please watch your language."
"Ginevra, you have gotten on my last nerve!"
Ginny laughed. "Bet you could count all the nerves you have on your hand."
"Ginevra Weasley, I mean it! You locked yourself in here, and wouldn't talk to anyone. I had to hear from Fred and George that you were crying! And then you ran away! You have absolutely no idea how scared I was when it took so long for you to get home!"
"Soon we'll be using my middle name."
"That's it. I can't take this. Get over here, Ginevra. Now."
Ginny stared at her, open-mouthed. "No."
"Ginevra, I mean it! Now!"
"No, you can't do this!"
"Yes I can! If you are trying to tell me that you don't deserve this you're wrong. You've worried me half to death for almost no reason at all!"
"But it was only half to death! It's not like I worried you into a grave or anything!"
"Ginevra Molly Weasley, if you do not get over here right now, I swear you will be spanked worse than you have ever imagined." Mrs. Weasley locked the door with a flick of her wand. Ginny, face pale, walked over to her mother. She was pulled onto her lap and felt her skirt being flipped up, then her knickers being pulled down. Daring to look, she saw that her mother had a hairbrush.
Ginny cried all throughout the almost ten minute spanking she received, but desperately tried not to be loud. The house was full of people. When Mrs. Weasley finished, she helped Ginny stand up, replacing her knickers and skirt. She noticed Ginny was crying and started crying herself.
She sat there, waiting for her daughter to react. Already she regretted doing what she did, and hated herself for hurting Ginny again. She gulped. "Well?"