Updating again, even though am sleep-deprived, 'cause I'm awesome and so are you lot. I apologise for any little mistakes, but I'm running on little sleep.

21. Ginny

1. She and Ron were always close growing up, as they were born only a year apart. So while Fred and George were always together, with their inside jokes and their own little world, and Bill and Charlie were all older and with little time to hang around with the younger ones, and Percy was...well, Percy, she and Ron stuck together. Ginny watched as, one by one, each off her brothers left for Hogwarts, and it hurt, but watching Ron leave was the worst. She was so used to having him around, used to him being beside her on the platform, waving and telling her they had only a few years to go before they'd be aboard that train. It wasn't until she was nine that she even realised he'd be heading to Hogwarts before her. She'd been present every time her brothers had left for Hogwarts; Ron's first trip was the only one she cried at. He was more than her brother – at that moment in time, he was her best friend, and she hated him for leaving her almost as much as she missed him.

When she finally went to Hogwarts, she was a little upset that Ron had made his own friends. Of course, it was great that he was friends with the Harry Potter, and Hermione seemed nice too, but Ron had little time for her. Though he made a point of talking to her if he passed her in the corridor, though he would talk to her at meals if she sat near him, it was painfully obvious to Ginny that their relationship had changed. She would, perhaps, always be closer to Ron that to her other brothers, but they were no longer best friends – she was now just his little sister.

He has no idea, to this day, how much that hurt her, how devastated she was. She told no one, ever – but wrote it in Tom Riddle's diary.

2. She always knew her brothers could be counted on when she needed them the most. They'd been there her whole life, protecting her and looking out for her, and usually being nice to her. For a lot of years when she was little, they treated her like fragile glass, like a delicate little girl and were very careful with her. Of course, she soon taught them that Ginny Weasley could hold her own, but there was always something still left subtly in the way the interacted with her. She always figured that whatever she did they'd always be there to help and support her. And even though she knew that none of them could be any help at all in her sorting, when she looked across the hall and saw that Ron wasn't there, her terror increased, and a sense of hurt developed.

Because he'd promised her he'd be there, and he wasn't. He had, however accidentally, let her down, broke his word. So, despite the fact that, for all she knew, he could be dead or injured or anything, the broken promise hurt. And though she later accepted his somewhat awkward apology, it was difficult for her to forgive.

3. When she thinks about her first year, all she remembers is the diary, Tom Riddle, and the fear. The end, the horrible end, when those she loved knew what she'd done, what she'd let happen, how stupid she been. So she doesn't think about her first year, and she pretends that she doesn't still have nightmares occasionally, doesn't still have the mental scars from that ordeal. After everything else that happened, when she was a little older, it annoys her that such an old experience still haunts her.

When James, at eight, asked her about her first year - expecting, no doubt, for her to tell him the same stories of magic and wonder and beauty that everyone else had told him, she dropped bottle of ink she was holding, and simply stared at him, wondering if she should tell him the truth – they'd promised, the day James was born, that they'd never lie to him, or any children they may go on to have, but she wasn't sure she wanted him to know this – and wondering how she was supposed to explain.

Harry, understanding, simply led James from the room. She knows he told her eldest about what happened, but James has never asked about it, or brought it up (though she knows he's shared it with his brother and sister, and possibly a few of his cousins). She also knows that Harry didn't tell James not to mention it to her, to bring it up. Her son was trying, in his own innocent way, to protect her. She loves that boy.

4. She'd wanted, at a younger age, for all her kids to have Harry's eyes. Dwelled on it, day-dreamed about it, when she was an innocent girl – not yet even a teenager – who believed in romance and true love and happily-ever-afters. She would have a few kids, she decided – not quite as many as her own parents, because she was old enough to realise how much they stuggled to make ends meet, to feed and clothe so many kids, and refused to put her own future family through that. So just a few, with Harry's eyes. Maybe some would have her hair; some could have his. Little Ginny spent many hours passing time imagining such a future – though, of course, with the things happening around her, she lost her faith in romance, true love, and happily-ever-afters, and instead of dreaming about emerald-eyed children, simply hoped they'd all make it through alive.

When James was born with her own brown eyes, however, she found that she didn't care, not even a little. When Albus was born with Harry's green, she didn't even notice. Because, really, the colour of their eyes means nothing to her. If things had been different – if Harry's luck had ran out, if her skills had failed her – she wouldn't have been able to have them, hold her. And as far as Ginny's concerned, her kids are perfect.

5. She'd liked Sirius very much, from the first moment she met him. He wasn't like most adults - he was pretty much a teenager, mentally. He didn't treat her like a child. And she was still young enough to find the fact that he'd managed to escape from Azkaban, to escape capture for so long, very cool. When Harry had the vision of Sirius, trapped and being tortured, she was terrified, and determined to help rescue him. If Harry had refused to let her come with him, she'd have followed anyway. That's why, when it turned out Harry had lead them there for no reason, and that if they hadn't gone Sirius wouldn't have died, she didn't blame Harry. Because in all honesty, she'd have done entirely the same thing.

But because they failed to save him, and because the man died trying to save them, it was she who chose James' middle name.

(Had she known she would go on to have another son, she may have saved that name, used it instead of Albus.)

6. She can still remember the day Percy walked. She, Ron, Fred and George sat on the stairs listening to the argument in horror. They watched him walk out. And she, though she didn't admit it, kept waiting for him to come home, and each day that he didn't was like a little stab in the heart. Though she forgave him – not straight away, but a few weeks after he'd returned to them – though she still, of course, loves him, a small part of her will always hate Percy just a little for abandoning his family at the start of the war. She'll never forgive him for disenchanting the young girl who'd believed her brothers would always be there for her.

And she'll never forget the instant she saw Fred's body, far, far too still. Never forget the feeling that washed over her as she realised that he was dead – dead and gone and never coming home. A small part of her will always hate Fred a little bit for dying, for showing her that, not only could her brothers leave her temporarily, but they could leave her forever, completly. She'd never felt so alone as when she looked at Fred's lifeless body, and never has done since.

7. Still, it wasn't until she saw Harry laying in Hagrid's arms that she really felt all hope was lost, that they were all going to die. To lose. She threw herself recklessly into that battle, deciding that if she was going down, she'd take as many Death Eaters as she could with her. She no longer cared about living – she remembers thinking that she was already dead, anyway – and simply wished to cause destruction, to cause pain and death to those who'd taken her brother and Harry, Remus and Tonks, who'd destroyed lives and families and hearts. When she heard Hagrid's voice calling for Harry – Harry's body was missing – she knew – she realised with a jolt that he was alive. And still, despite the relief, despite the slight burst of new-born hope, she still felt that her own time was up – that this was her end. She duelled Bellatrix Lestrange, Sirius' murderer, with a determination she'd never felt before. Bellatrix, who killed Sirius, who'd taken Neville's parents in the cruellest way.

And even though she was always proud of her mother for finally ending Bellatrix, she still sort of wishes it had been her to do so.

8. She'd always been a good liar. And she always been good at pretending. During her sixth year, when Voldemort was in power, Hogwarts was a mess, and Harry, Ron and Hermione were off somewhere, she told the D.A that everything was going to be fine, that Ron, Harry and Hermione were going to fix this, beat him. She even convinced most of them. She never once, faltered in front of any of them, never once dropped the facade, even a little.

But almost every night she'd cry silently, wondering if tomorrow would be that day her brother, her friend and the boy she loved would be killed. And, multiple times, she broke down in front of Neville, because the strain of not knowing, of pretending, of not sleeping and having to force herself to eat had grown too much for her. Most regard that final battle as the worst night Hogwarts had ever seen, the worst experience possible. For Ginny, that night was a much needed end – a messy, painful, horrific end, but one all the same. It was the nights that came before it that, for her, were the worst.

9. She does love cats. Not just domestics, but the big cats too - Tigers, Lions, Cheetahs and all the rest. As a young child, she had a slight obsession with them, collecting teddies and pictures, and begging and pleading for a kitten of her own. (Originally, she asked for a tiger, but soon realised that that wasn't going to happen.) And though she counts herself as an animal lover, though the first thing she did when she moved in with Harry was get herself a kitten, there was one creature even she couldn't like.

In all her years at Hogwarts, she would have loved to curse Mrs. Norris as much as anyone else.

10. She refused to go back to Hogwarts after the battle. Everyone told her she should, but she just couldn't face going back into that castle. How could she eat in the hall where Fred's body had lain? Or walk the corridors where she seen people murdered? Or sit in the grounds where Remus and Tonks had died? Her father understood instantly, and told her quietly that she didn't have to go, if she didn't want to. Molly was only slightly less accepting, and though she still, once in a while, laments her youngest's unfinished education, Ginny knows her mother understands perfectly, and doesn't blame her a little.

Instead, she managed to get a place on the Holyhead Harpies reserve team, and spent much of her time with Teddy Lupin. For that first year after the battle, he was her lifeline. He gave her hope for the future, gave her simple enjoyment with every smile. By the time he was four, she regarded him as some kind of son, and had silently sworn to Tonks and Remus that she would take care of their boy the best she could. That was why seeing him go to Hogwarts was as hard as watching her own children go. That was why, while growing up, Teddy would come to her for advice, often before even Harry. That was why, even after he'd married Victoire, he visited her as often as he could.

As far as she's concerned, Teddy's family. After all, blood doesn't, and shouldn't, make a family.