In the Hands of Fate

Disclaimer: All characters contained herein (except the ones I invented! All bit players though) are copyrighted J.K.Rowling. The storyline is mine.

Rating: PG

Main Characters: Ginny, Draco, though probably every character in the books will traipse through and then some.

Spoilers: All four books

Summary: Virginia Weasley drowns in an accident. But is that the end of her story? Evil plots abound and Ginny, dead or not, is stuck right smack in the center of them -- along with Draco Malfoy.

Prologue

Virginia Anne Weasley had never been one to stand out of the crowd. Her brothers said she was a chatterbox and a bit of a brat; that was what all brothers said and in fact she was only chatty at home or with her closest friends, when she felt completely comfortable. Most times she was shy and retiring, more so after her first year.

She was an average student, better than some, worse than others. Her looks were passable, her flame-coloured tresses her best feature, but then, six older brothers with the same hair just marked her as one of the Weasley clan.

She had friends, a few enemies, the usual rivalries. She'd dated a few boys, had a few crushes (beside the embarrassing one she's had on Harry Potter). All in all, Ginny Weasley was just an ordinary Hogswarts' witch, her relation to one of the 'Trio' her only claim to 'fame'.

Despite the tumultuous times she lived in (with the return of You-Know-Who and the threat of war looming throughout the wizarding world), Ginny fully expected to live a perfectly ordinary life. She was perfectly content to let her brother and his two best friends have all the adventures and glory, as long as they remained all right and most importantly, alive. Sometimes she dreamed a bit of fame, attention and glory, ultimately she was more concerned with what kind of job she could get once she graduated.

Perhaps Ginny Weasley would have continued to remain in obscurity, her life placid and predictable with the occasional exciting, but not life-altering, event. She would have graduated in three years time, gotten a job, met a handsome wizard, married and had lots of children. Maybe when she was old she'd sit in her rocking chair and tell her grandchildren lots of stories of adventures of her brother and his best friend Harry Potter.

It was a simple future, a life most would have wanted, some would have scorned. Harry Potter probably would have given his wand hand for a life like that. Ginny would have accepted it, perhaps a bit wistfully.

This was the life Virginia Anne Weasley would have led, barring hideous accidents or horrendous catastrophes.

Of course that was what happened. A catastrophe occurred, dropped like a bomb from the careless hands of fate, exploding into everyone's face.

The catastrophe didn't change Ginny's life however.

It ended it.

It wasn't an attack by You-Know-Who, a barrage of death-eaters storming the Hogswarts castle to take the lives of innocents. It wasn't poison, a dread disease, malicious curses or anything out of the ordinary.

The catastrophe that ended Ginny's life was a simple accident.

Ginny had been flying around on her broom, an ancient Cleansweep Six she'd inherited from Percy when he'd gotten himself a new broom, enjoying the warm afternoon. Perhaps she shouldn't have flown it so high over the lake. Perhaps Percy should have warned his sister about the broom's tendency to stall at heights of more then two hundred feet. Perhaps Ginny should have taken swimming lessons.

The few students to witness Ginny's plunge into the lake couldn't swim and all panicked. By the time the teachers had been alerted, a group of merpeople had already approached the shore, bearing Ginny's body. They had been too late to save the girl, dwelling so deep in the lake that they could not swim fast enough to save her before she drowned.

So ended Virginia Anne Weasley's life, a young girl dead at the age of fourteen. She was buried in a small cemetery where Weasley's were traditionally buried, in a small ceremony attended only by family and her best friends. The school mourned for a while, students subdued and not prone to laughter for some time.

But life went on, students got on with their lives, even Molly, the hardest hit by her daughter's death, picked up the pieces and continued on, even though the look of sadness never left her face. Ginny was gone but remembered by her loved ones.

But this is not the end of Ginny's tale.

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[A/N] - Authors are like plants, plants need water. So, water an author today. Please, do review.:)