If I'd had an internet connection anytime recently, these would have been posted at their proper times.

I know there's no David anywhere, but I'm not changing it to "Harry." If I did, I would suck, and JRB would roll over in his grave if he were dead, which I'm pretty sure he's not.

Disclaimer:I don't own any of the characters or any of the lyrics. Those belong to J.K. Rowling and Jason Robert Brown, respectively.

I'm Not Afraid of Anything

I'm not afraid of anything
Be it mountains, water, dragons, dark, or sky
I'm not afraid of anything
Tell me where's the challenge if you never try
So watch me fly
I'm not afraid

It had been told her as long as she could remember. She was sure that her mother had whispered it over her cradle, but the first time she really remembered it was from her father. Some of the boys—it didn't matter which ones, but likely Ron or the twins—had been chasing her and she'd run into Dad. He caught her up into his arms and hugged her closely until the threat had dissipated. When her attackers, seeing that Dad was not leaving anytime soon, had given up, he'd set her on the ground again and smoothed her hair.

"Now, Ginny," he'd said, "whatever they do, you know your brothers love you." She'd stuck out her tongue at that, but he'd been undeterred. "They do, and they wouldn't ever do anything seriously bad to you. The trick, my darling baby girl, is not to let them know you're afraid. Somehow they can tell. So do not be afraid."

Growing up with six older brothers, two of whom were mischief incarnate, it was easier said than done. But over time, Ginny learned to be less afraid of whatever tricks her brothers might play on her. Part of this had to do with her confidence in her parents' abilities to undo whatever spell George and Fred might put on her; part of it was the knowledge that they would be punished for their wrongdoing; and part of it was that they really did love her, and really did not want any actual harm to come to her. And so she grew, and grew less afraid.

At Hogwarts, although her brothers had "warned" her of any number of horrible occurrences and ghastly fates that awaited her, she at least knew that they were there. Ron and Fred and George and Percy, even if they didn't want anything to do with her at times, were there if ever she needed them, and that made her braver. Ginny had, of course, expected to be sorted into Gryffindor; both her parents had been, and poor Uncle Fabian and Uncle Gideon, and all of her brothers. She would not be the first Prewitt or Weasley in all those ages not to be sorted into Gryffindor. So she steeled herself against the spiders Ron said would crawl out of the Sorting Hat and thought fiercely of red and gold and lions.

Listen to the calling of excitement
Can you feel the pounding of my heart
The lights are ready—pulse is steady
I can start
Never stop the calling of the challenge
Blessing of the water and the stones
And David loves me

She'd been infatuated with Harry Potter for as long as she could remember, and when Ron had befriended him, it got a lot worse before it got better. When she was finally able to walk and talk and act like a normal human being around him, after her crush had worn away, she found that she actually liked him as a normal human being himself. Few people would ever classify him as a "normal human being," but at some level he was. Just a boy who wanted to have friends and play games. Circumstance got in the way of that, nine times out of ten, and other people made such a big deal about how he was Special and Different, but he wasn't all that. And if he was, it was against his will.

Soon Ginny wasn't afraid around him anymore. They were friends, although she was falling in love with him, and he didn't seem to think her repulsive. It was almost funny—she would have thought that loving him would scare her, make her afraid that any minute might be the last, for any of them, really.

And there was, deep in the back of her mind, the smallest whisper of fear. It never went away; it was there constantly, as she walked the corridors, went to lessons, ate meals. One time she had looked at Ron and the fear had made him seem not alive and spearing a last sausage at breakfast but cold, dead, and worst of all, alone. At that moment Ginny had sat unable to move, to breathe, to do anything but imagine them dead, one by one: her mother, her father, each of her brothers, Hermione, Harry, and on through the ranks of her Hogwarts friends to the people who she didn't actually know but saw every day. The fear was choking her from the inside, and she felt helpless and sick and devoid of all hope, and more afraid than she'd ever thought she could possibly be.

After that she'd decided that her life could not continue like this. It wasn't bloody much of a life if it was spent cowering and whimpering. Her parents hadn't raised her to be fearful; nor had her brothers, for that matter. Ginny knew no one would fault her for being afraid in times like these, but that was just it. She didn't need much courage for everyday things, aside from a few run-ins with Malfoy and his henchmen around school; she needed all of it for meeting her evil pen-pal and fighting witches and wizards older and stronger and smarter than her. She needed to save it up for when it mattered most, for when there were lives more important than her own on the line.

And I'm not afraid of anyone
I am sure to win with anyone at all
I'm not afraid of anyone
Not a soul alive who can get behind this wall
So let them call, and watch them fall
'Cause after all
I'm not afraid

If she really thought about it, Ginny wasn't afraid of dying, and she wasn't afraid of taking risks. What she was afraid of was living in a world where a man who had once been Tom Riddle was in command. She was afraid of never hearing her mum's voice again, or helping her dad pick up old batteries, or fighting with Ron, or being a guinea pig for the twins' tricks. The only way she was afraid of living was without them. Ginny swore that she would not let that happen, and so she would not fear.

A small smirk crept onto her face. Voldemort ought to be warned: Ginny Weasley had made up her mind.