Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N:...Urm, yeah. I was mad because I couldn't come up with anything to write, so I just opened up Word and typed away. This weird little ficlet is the result xD (And no, I don't ship Ron/Ginny. I just like to explore different aspects of ships. And stuff.)

sunlight

The first time she laughed you were shocked. No one had ever laughed like that before. The second time, you were more prepared, but still it was strange—like foreign music to your ears, tantalizing and new and completely different from what you were used to. Her laugh was free and natural; like her.

On her birthday you gave her flowers, a traditional gift. It was a bit predictable, and maybe old-fashioned, but nice nonetheless. And anyway, it was the thought that counted; only, if you judged it by those standards, hers would have been much higher on the scale. On your birthday, she made you a chocolate shaped like your favorite team's logo. It was more than nice, and you hugged her for it and said 'thank you'.

She smiled.

Those were the simple days; when she was unbound and free and didn't need someone to be with her that much.

Then she saw Harry.

If Ginny were a flower, then you were water and Harry was the sun; she needed you and depended on you for life, but it was Harry she sought and leaned to. You didn't mind at first—it was just a little crush. But soon it was made clear that it was more than a mere crush—who sustained one like that for more than 5 years?—and you had to accept that you were no longer her only, no longer the big brother who could do no wrong. It was Harry she wanted now.

You, Ron Weasley, were in the sidelines: watching out for your little sister, making sure she didn't get hurt (at least that's what you try to tell yourself). No one else saw her timid looks and cheeks that tinted just so when Harry turned and looked at her; no one else felt the same feeling in their stomachs as you did, that knot that seemed to twist your insides and made your heart hurt.

But she was a flower, once shaded indoors by the window; and now she had found her sun. You might've been fine with it if Harry had shown any interest in her, but no, he failed to see it: the delicacy of her face, the clarity of her eyes, the tinkling of her laugh. Instead of turning to the safe, pure lily, he sought the garish red rose: Cho Chang.

It broke your heart to see her face crumple when she ran into Harry and Cho in the Room of Requirement. Wanting to help, but not able to, you watched—tried to somehow absorb her pain and make it your own, tried to lessen the grief and utter heartbreak in your eyes. Because only you knew that you had never really gotten over Harry—however convincingly she acted as if she did; you saw, without wanting to, those longing glances she threw his way whenever she thought no one was looking. Knew that she would do anything in her power just to see Harry look at her with the same love she held for him.

But the sun will never settle for just one flower, Ginny, you say silently, one night. It moves across the horizon, place to place, only stopping occasionally—and he will never see you the way you want to be seen. I do.

You daren't banish her hope, however; her fervent admiration and unrequited love has been with her so long that it's almost a part of her. So you let her hope and strive for the chance to win his heart.

Someone else beat her to it; and it was none other than Draco Malfoy. No one saw the anguish in her stance—the slump of her shoulders—the darkening of her eyes—but you. You were there to comfort her, to utter reassurances and to tuck her into bed at night.

Right before your eyes, your precious flower wilted; deprived of sunlight and of love.

And you cried then; crying her tears and feeling her pain; water trying to make up for the sunlight's absence, and quench her unending thirst.

.finis