Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition Season Nine
Round: Round Five — We All Have Our Flaws
Team: Puddlemere United
Position: Captain
Task: Dishonesty
Word Count: 1207
It was Nothing
Three lies Ginny told people she loved.
Lying was much easier than telling the truth, and lying could get you out of unwanted situations. Ginny learnt this early on.
She didn't lie a whole lot before 'It' happened. But after that, all she did was lie. It was easier than telling the truth. She knew it was also better this way, because sometimes people asked certain questions hoping to hear certain answers. And it affected them quite badly when they couldn't hear those answers. So she deflected all the questions with false smiles and quick retorts, trying to make people believe that she was really okay. She wasn't. But they didn't need to know that.
To her Family
"Are you sure you're okay, Ginny?" Mum asked her with a frown. Ginny nodded, gave Mum the best smile she could muster, and kept it on until her mother got up from her seat beside Ginny's bed to draw the curtains around it.
"Alright then," her mother said, "I'll be outside if you need anything, alright?"
"Yes, Mum," Ginny replied cheerfully, truly surprised at how cheery her voice sounded.
Molly took one last look at her daughter before she left, and Ginny waited until the sound of her mother's footsteps had receded before heaving a long sigh and falling back into her pillow heavily.
It was her third day at St Mungo's. She had been sent from the Hogwarts Hospital Wing to this hospital to make sure she received complete and proper care for her trauma and injuries. Trauma and injury that Tom had caused. Sometimes Ginny couldn't believe her own stupidity. How could she ever have trusted that diary, after all the times that Mum and Dad and Bill and Charlie and even Percy had taught her about strange and malicious magic objects? She picked at the tiny hole in the corner of her quilt and looked at the ceiling.
Mum and Dad asked her these questions every single day. Every single hour. Every half hour, even.
Was she okay?
Was she feeling any better?
Was she still in pain?
Was she still feeling weak?
She gave them the answers they wanted to hear.
'I'm fine, Mum.'
'Yes, I feel a lot better, Dad.'
'The pain is nearly gone!'
'I feel good enough to dance!'
She fed them lies. She didn't know why. Maybe it was because the easing frown on her Dad's forehead made her feel a tiny bit less guilty about getting them all in this situation. Maybe it was because her lies made Mum smile even when she knew she was under considerable stress. Maybe it was because it made her older brothers' faces brighten up. If a tiny little lie could do all this, why wouldn't she lie? What was a little pain and some nightmares in comparison to her family's happiness?
Ginny shifted in her bed and winced quietly, her body hurting due to the simple action, and yet, she smiled. It was nothing.
To her Friends
She had thought they would be able to do it. She had thought they would be able to survive Hogwarts without Dumbledore or Harry or Hermione or Ron. She didn't know anymore. Earlier everyone had wondered why Voldemort would send two of his Death Eaters to Hogwarts to teach. It was so that they could do what Death Eaters do best. Torture. Plunder. Murder, even.
They had thought they would be able to make life hard for the Carrows without realizing that they would retaliate in their own cruel ways. It had come to a point where they were all just scrambling about the castle every night, trying to make sure the students being punished made it through the night alive. With the Carrows you could never tell. It was sickening. So many of them had gotten permanent injuries. What wouldn't Ginny have done to be able to leave, to go back to her family in the Burrow and lie in her bed and forget all of this. But she had chosen to lead. She had responsibilities. She couldn't abandon the students like that. And so she stayed.
She stayed, and she rallied them, and she told them to think of the day this nightmare would end, even as more and more news reports told of Voldemort's increasing power and of no signs of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. She sneaked to the dungeons and tended to the worst affected students and she told them they would be alright soon — even if they wouldn't be, and she told them that it wouldn't hurt for too long — even if it would probably last for months, and she told them it would be over soon — even if she had no way of knowing.
She didn't know why she lied. They were all in the middle of a war. They all knew things were bad. If she told them the truth, even to the youngest ones, they would understand. They would nod solemnly and go their way. But maybe it was because she liked seeing that small spark of hope in their eyes. Maybe it was because she didn't want that hope to die, however false it may be. What were a few lies in comparison to the hope that motivated so many students to face another day? It was nothing.
To her Family
Ginny loved her family. She really did. She loved her husband and her sons and her daughter. She loved them all so much. She would never want to hurt them. They were the light of her eyes. Ginny had always dreamt of having a family, always dreamt of loving someone unconditionally and being loved back the same. Always dreamt of having kids that were a reflection of both her and her husband. But she had also always dreamt of having a career. She had also always dreamt of flying and winning and of being independent.
And it wasn't as if she had any restrictions placed on her. She could do what she wanted, be what she wanted. She just didn't know how she was supposed to do it while she ran the whole house too. Growing up she had always admired her mother for taking care of the house and the family so well. The boys may have been oblivious, but Ginny had always known how much work Mum put into every minute thing to make sure everything in the house went smoothly. Her mother was superhuman that way. Ginny wasn't like her though. She needed help. She didn't know if she should ask for it.
Harry had noticed several times, even the kids had. Several times she had been asked, "are you okay, Ginny?"
She could've told the truth. She could've put it all out and it would all have gotten better, because Harry would have done everything to support her, because he was Harry. He loved her. And she loved him.
And maybe that is why, every time she answered with, "yes, of course."
She had been lying to people she loved her whole life. It had always been for the best. It had always turned out well. It had always made everyone happy. What was a little lie in comparison to her family's happiness? It was nothing.