After The End.
As Ginny Weasley got ready to attend a party at Ron's house, for the birthday of his youngest daughter, Suzie, she wondered if she was doing the right thing. The invitation had been issued personally by her brother, but it had come with the same sort of casual attitude that had accompanied every other invitation from the family over the last year. Basically, Ron had made it clear to Ginny that while she was more than welcome at the party, if she didn't come then no-one would be making a fuss and trying to get her to change her mind.
Although Ron wasn't the only sibling to have taken that attitude with Ginny over the last year, and all of her other brothers had made her feel the same way – that they were happy to have her back in their lives, but at the same time they won't going to bend over backwards for her and if she didn't want to mingle then they weren't going to encourage her to do so. Of course, this whole attitude stemmed from the incident at the Hogwarts open day almost a year ago. All of her family had made it clear that they were not impressed with her actions, and even Percy, who was notorious for staying neutral in family disagreements, had voiced the opinion that she'd been out of order.
Truthfully, Ginny herself knew she had made a mistake with Hermione, but the more people condemned her for her actions the more she resented Hermione, and the less she'd felt like apologising. In fact, she still hadn't apologised as directly after the incident Hermione had been too busy with the new baby, and since then Ginny hadn't set eyes on her to make any sort of apology. The times she'd known she was going to be present at one of her family's gatherings, she'd simply stayed away. Of course, her family all assumed she had apologised and she'd never bothered to put them right as it didn't seem important now that a year had passed since the incident.
Although if Ginny did go through with attending her niece's birthday party, she knew she would finally come face to face with Hermione again. Ron had made it crystal clear that Hermione and her family would be at the party, and the emphasis was on Ginny to behave herself. Her brother's warning had given her pause for thought, and she did consider backing out of the party and just sending the twins with their grandparents, but both Amelia and Ethan had personally begged her to attend the party. Quite honestly, she suspected they were starting to resent the fact she avoided taking them to family functions herself.
"Sod Hermione, I won't let her ruin today," she muttered, double checking her reflection and making the decision to attend the party as the twins desired.
Satisfied she looked her best, Ginny swept from her bedroom, calling out to let the twins know she was ready to go. They now lived in a large house a few miles away from The Burrow, and Ginny had spent several months decorating the place to her liking. Now her house was spectacular and in her humble opinion much better than anything any of her brothers lived in.
All Ginny really needed now was someone to share the house with as with the twins off at Hogwarts, she spent most of the year alone. Her plans to snare back Harry had crashed and burned before they'd even gotten off the ground, and sadly her other romantic prospects were bleak. She had tried dating a few wizards, but none of the dates had gone anywhere and she'd yet to meet anyone back in England who she could picture spending the rest of her life with. Although, it didn't really help that everyone knew what had happened at Hogwarts, even people who hadn't been there, and there were plenty of eligible wizards who simply refused to talk to her because of the reputation she had made for herself when she'd first came back home.
Not that wizards were the only ones who avoided Ginny these days, and she wasn't exactly inundated with friends. Her brother's wives tolerated her and were all perfectly nice to her, but none of them went out of their way to include her in their friendships circles. Although much to her annoyance she knew that several of them were friendly with Hermione, including George's wife, Angelina, and Ron's French wife, Natalia, who was actually a cousin of Fleur's. Even her closest friend from school, Luna, was friendlier with Hermione these days.
With her love life going nowhere and her friendship circle at an all-time low, Ginny wasn't exactly living the high life she'd expected when she'd come back home. Quite honestly, if it hadn't been for the twins, she might well have moved on and made a fresh start for herself somewhere else. However, the twins had started Hogwarts and were loving every minute of their time at the ancient school. They'd also made plenty of friends, and unlike Ginny, had bonded with the Weasley clan and were loving spending time with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. And so for Amelia and Ethan's sake, Ginny stayed put in England, but she didn't know what the future might hold once the twins had left Hogwarts. Maybe then she would take off and try and start her life over yet again.
The twins bursting into the living room, all ready to go, dragged Ginny out of her thoughts. Checking that they had the birthday present they had bought for Suzie, she took hold of the twins and apparated them to her brother's house. Ron also didn't live far from their parents, and while his house wasn't as grand as Ginny's, it did have an absolutely massive back garden, and since it was summer, that was where the festivities were being held.
The second they entered the garden, Amelia and Ethan rushed off to join the other children. Ginny could already see that all of her brothers had arrived with their families, as had Harry and Pansy and Neville and Luna. In fact, Ginny knew Amelia had become good friends with Sophia Potter and the pair were inseparable at Hogwarts. Amelia had even visited Sophia's house, but when Ginny had suggested that the young girl came to them Amelia hadn't seemed keen. Not that Ginny could really blame her daughter as she was well aware that she'd embarrassed both her and Ethan last year at the Hogwarts open day, and even though they'd never told her as much, she suspected they'd both received a bit of stick from some of the other students when they'd started school.
"Ginny, it's so good you could make it," a feminine voice with a French accent cooed from beside her. Not sure which of her two French sister-in-law's was speaking, Ginny had to turn to find herself facing a smiling Natalia.
Natalia was actually Fleur's cousin, although while Fleur was a blonde, Natalia had very dark brown hair. However, she was just as beautiful as her cousin and whenever she saw her, Ginny couldn't help but think that Ron had done bloody well for himself. In her opinion, Natalia was certainly a massive step up from Hermione, and she was most certainly prettier than her brother's ex.
"I wasn't going to miss Suzie's birthday," Ginny replied, ignoring the fact she'd missed plenty of birthday celebrations over the last year. Not to mention all the events she'd missed while she'd been living in Canada.
"Come on in and grab a drink and some food," Natalia urged. "I think everyone's here now."
"Everyone?" Ginny asked with a slight smile, searching the garden and seeing no sign of Hermione. Maybe she'd changed her mind and decided not to attend after all.
Feeling slightly happier at the prospect of a Hermione free afternoon, Ginny placed her gift with the other presents for her niece, and grabbed herself a chilled glass of wine. However, before she'd even managed a sip of the refreshing liquid, she caught sight of a pretty blond girl with riotous curls. She'd never seen the girl before, but her distinctive hair colour placed her as a Malfoy and she now knew enough from her parents and Ron to know that Hermione had an older daughter as well as the one she'd just had last year. So either the Malfoys were in attendance, or just their daughter was.
Ginny got her answer moments later as she followed Natalia over to where the majority of the adults had gathered. When she'd first entered the garden she'd noticed a large parasol and a blanket, but assumed it was for the children, but now she was nearer she could see Hermione was sitting on the blanket beside Malfoy and an adorable little girl. Clearly the parasol was to keep the almost one year old out of the sun.
Not wanting to seem petty and sit elsewhere, Ginny accompanied her sister-in-law over to the adults and murmuring her hellos she settled herself as far away from Hermione as it was possible to get. However, since the adults were all sitting in pretty close proximity she couldn't help but hear what was going on. From what she could gather, talk was focused on the Hogwarts open day, which was only a few weeks away, and Harry seemed to be trying to convince Neville to play for the Professors again.
"Never again," Neville insisted stubbornly. "One match was more than enough for me."
"But it wasn't even a whole match," Harry argued. "You didn't get to feel the exhilaration of winning. I promise that once you've had one win, you'll be itching for more."
"I'm not sure we were going to win anyway," Neville snorted.
"Yeah, I do think the kids were going to annihilate us," Ron added. "Scorpius was pretty fast and your Liv was flying circles around you mate."
"She was not," Harry protested, although Ginny saw a proud smile on his face and she suspected it was because his daughter had been signed up for a professional quidditch team upon leaving Hogwarts the previous year. "But that is all beside the point. We're trying to get Neville back on the team. Back me up, Draco. You want to win this year, don't you?"
"I do," Draco confirmed with a nod. "Which is why I support Neville's decision to retire from quidditch. I'm sorry to say this, Nev, but you were more of a hinderance than any help."
"My backside was certainly helping the other team," Neville laughed.
"Well, well, well, Harry, it looks like you've got a lot of babysitting in your future," Hermione teased, sounding incredibly smug to Ginny's ears.
"Babysitting?" Molly questioned with a frown. "Why do you need Harry to babysit, Hermione? You know I'm always here to help when your mother and Narcissa are busy."
"I know, and I appreciate all the help you've been giving me," Hermione said, smiling at Molly. "But last year Harry and I made a bet that Neville's quidditch career would last one match. And now it seems I've won the bet."
"Not yet you haven't," Harry warned. "The bet is not won until the open day and the team takes to the pitch. I'm not beat yet, I've still got a couple of weeks to change Neville's mind."
"Not going to happen," Neville insisted with a shake of his head.
"You might as well face it, honey, you're going to lose," Pansy chuckled, patting Harry on the knee.
Turning away from the sight of Harry and his wife making eyes at each other, Ginny instead pondered Hermione's remark about Molly helping her out. A few times over the last couple of months she'd gone to The Burrow only to find her mother wasn't at home. She hadn't thought anything of it and assumed she was either out shopping or with one of her brothers, but now she was wondering if she'd been looking after Hermione's baby instead. Although why Hermione needed help looking after the baby was a mystery to Ginny as last she'd heard Hermione had taken the entire year off and wasn't due back at Hogwarts until September.
As if thinking about Hermione's return to Hogwarts had changed the topic, Ginny heard Angelina asking Hermione about whether or not she would be at the open day.
"I'll be there," Hermione confirmed. "It marks my first official day back. Narcissa and Lucius are looking after Carina for the day, but I'm sure they'll pop by to see us."
"Are you looking forward to being back?" Natalia asked.
"Yes and no," Hermione replied with a chuckle. "I am looking forward to getting back to teaching. This last term has been great, dipping my toe back into teaching a few lessons a week, but I'm looking forward to being back properly and teaching every class. But I'm not really looking forward to leaving Carina."
"Who can blame you there, she is super adorable," Angelina cooed at the baby who was entertaining herself with a selection of stuffed toys.
"She is the cutest Malfoy I've ever seen," Pansy agreed.
"Hey, what am I squashed tomatoes?" Draco asked with a pout.
"You would only get annoyed if someone called you cute," Pansy laughed with a shake of her head. "But you're not cute anyway. Super annoying perhaps, but not super cute."
As the group bickered amongst themselves and teasing one another, Ginny found herself feeling left out. She was definitely on the outside looking in, and she didn't know how to change it. Not that she was sure she wanted to change it as being part of the group would mean being around Harry and Pansy as a couple, and probably apologising to Hermione, neither of which she was in any hurry to do. But still, it hurt to see her brothers laughing and joking with other people, Slytherins included, while she watched on like a stranger.
There was no doubt about it that Ginny's homecoming had not gone at all according to plan. Even though she was now back in Wizarding Britian, in the midst of her family, she felt further away from them than ever. In fact she felt more of a stranger now than when she was living across the Atlantic in Canada. But deep down, she knew she only had herself to blame for the current situation. She'd messed up a year ago, and she was still living with the consequences. Maybe in time it would get better, but Ginny wasn't banking on it. In one move she'd alienated everyone she'd wanted to be in her life, and even though her family all still loved her, a distance had most definitely sprung up between them. Sides had been chosen, and from where Ginny was sitting, no-one had chosen her side. Everyone was on Hermione's side, and all Ginny could do was grin and bear it and try her very best to spend as little time as possible with the witch who seemed to have a golden life with her rich, gorgeous husband, three beautiful children and fulfilling teaching career.
The End.