Penance
A/N: Sorry for the delay; I moved into my dorm a week ago, and it's been crazily busy.
Chapter 3: Pride//Ginny
It was that Weasley pride, the blood-traitor status that kept her from cracking under the relentless taunting of Draco Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherins when she was only a first-year. It was her mortified pride that turned her red when she wrote a poem for the famous Harry Potter, comparing his gorgeous green eyes to a "fresh-pickled toad."
It was that wounded pride that let loose on Ron during her fifth year when he and Harry caught her and Dean snogging in the corridor behind the tapestry; she had been utterly embarrassed. The boy she loved had caught her with Dean's tongue tickling her tonsils, and she could not have felt worse. It was irrational, but the moment she started to get over Harry Potter, he stepped right back into her heart, looking jealous and upset for a brief second before settling behind a mask of indifference.
It was that same pride that caused her, Neville, and Luna to start up Dumbledore's Army again. If the bloody Golden Trio could flout rules and fight the Dark Lord, she could do the same thing. Although she knew that Harry was the only hope for the Wizarding world, and that he was merely trying to keep her safe (keep her alive…), but it still irked her tremendously when she was left behind.
As she aged, the Weasley pride never faded, but merely became less petty. She had married Harry Potter, not for his name but for the man he had become. She had become a famous Quidditch player, her abilities raved about. She wrote a column for the Daily Prophet.
But most important of all, she bore the man she loved three beautiful, healthy children that were the sunshine in her life.
And so it was with the infamous Weasley pride glowing and a radiant smile that she watched Lily, her youngest, board the Hogwarts Express as nearly every Weasley had done.