Snow Day [Ginny]

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It was not very often that Ginny found herself to be in agreement with her older brother, Percy, and to be honest, if anyone had told her that she was very like him then she would probably have murdered them... or herself. Percy was, in the opinion of his one and only sister, quite possibly the most boring individual on the planet, with the obvious exception of her immediate predecessor as History of Magic professor. He had an unhealthy obsession with rules and being normal, in Ginny's opinion. Personally, she would always far prefer to stand out from the crowd, and her name and hair had always ensured that with very little effort from her personally. Still, she had grown and matured, much to her own surprise, and she did recognise now that there was far more virtue in living life sensibly than she had previously thought. But it could be taken too far, and one had to maintain an element of fun. And Ginny did so, there was no doubt whatsoever about that.

She tapped one finger thoughtfully against her leg as she considered. "Well, I suppose I would simply tell them what you think is happening, and advise your mother not to allow your father to get too carried away." Ginny offered her niece a smile which she hoped was reassuring and then pulled the girl close in a hug. "Don't worry about it, Lucy. There are hundreds of people who feel the same all over the world." The redhead tried to put out of her mind the notion that those hundreds of people did not have Percy Weasley as a father. That fact was irrelevant. Ginny knew very well that the entire weight of the Weasley family would come down on her brother like twenty tonnes of bricks if he dared to so much as speak sharply to his daughter about this.

[lucy weasley]

"Could you?" Lucy asked, loving her aunt dearly in this moment. She was glad that they had excused themselves from other students. Acting on an impulse that might well have reflected poorly on both of them, Lucy hugged her aunt, a smile stretched across her face. "Thank you so much, aunt Ginny." She said thankfully. Lucy doubted that her father would hate her. He was tense, uptight, and rigid but not evil. Lucy felt certain that Ginny would help him put things into perspective, and keep him from acting too harshly toward his daughter.

"I guess... I just know that he feels terrible for that time he spent not talking to the family, and trying to alienate you guys from Harry. I think he wants a big family of his own, to make that up to himself." She said. Percy had admitted to his daughter that that those couple of years had been the most regrettable time of his life. That he had felt he was doing the right thing but that he was wrong, and he would never, ever distance himself from those who loved him again. That didn't mean there would be no tension though. Percy Weasley loved family. He would want grand children. He would want Molly, and Arthur to have great grandchildren.

"Sorry. I don't mean for this to be so dramatic. I know it's a stupid thing to worry about." She said, feeling a little guilty to have added this gloom to her lovely aunt's holiday season.

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"Of course I could." Ginny told her niece with a smile. She was the girl's aunt, for heaven's sake, she had a responsibility to do this sort of thing, and while she might do her best to be the fun one, she could be serious too when required. This was what she was here for. There was no way on earth that she would allow Lucy to suffer through anything if she didn't have to. And, as a woman who had, she was happy to confess, been a little wayward in her love life as a teenager, she fully understood the kind of strain which Lucy was going through, if only because she had gone through it herself. Not in the same way, of course; Ginny had never even considered dallying with the same sex, not because of any prejudice but because the thought had simply never crossed her mind.

There was a glint in the redhead's eye and an edge to her smile as she rested her hand on the Hufflepuff's shoulder. "Then Percy must learn that what he thinks he needs to make up for what he did has to come second to what his daughter needs to live a happy life." Her brother had never needed to do anything to prove himself to his family, but Percy was more demanding of himself than he was of almost everyone else and she could do nothing about that. It was one of his best qualities.

"It's not stupid at all. If it worries you, it worries me." Ginny told her niece firmly.

[lucy weasley]

"Thank you for taking this seriously." She said firmly. She knew that Ginny would never have brushed her off, but was still so used to being told to focus on her academic futures, and to let other concerns be secondary. She remembered her father's reaction to her not being named prefect this year, as if it was expected. Her dad loved her but he couldn't do what Ginny did and validate her and make her feel secure and respected as her own person and not just a person in development. That was the backbone of why she needed her aunt. To help her to navigate the things her father didn't know how to deal with.

"He's not as bad as I make out, you know." She admitted. She catastrophised a lot about Percy. She knew that, and she knew Ginny probably wouldn't judge her for it. She could only imagine that when the older redhead had been her age, Percy was a royal pain in the ass. It was still a hard thing to admit, even though she objectively knew she was being immature, that didn't mean her teenage mind saw things any differently. "I know he does his best but... Sometimes I feel like he never let himself be a kid, and he doesn't understand that I need to be." Of course the irony of saying that to a woman who had spent most of her twelfth year of life possessed by the most evil wizard to ever live wasn't wasted on her.

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Ginny smiled and shook her head. "Lucy, really. You ought to know by now that I take all your problems seriously." Not only as the girl's teacher but also as her aunt, she had a responsibility to at least make an attempt to keep the girl... well, if not on the rails then at least in the general vicinity. She had no desire whatsoever to make the girl into what Percy expected her to be- more a robot than a girl; following instructions and turning out perfect academic results. Ginny herself had never been that kind of person, and she suspected that it was partly her own influence that was responsible for how Lucy had actually turned out- not that she was at all sorry for that. Truth be told, she was rather proud of it, and she thought that, between herself and Lucy's parents, they ought to turn her into a well-balanced person.

The redhead grinned at the younger girl as she admitted that her opinion of her father was exaggerated. Ginny personally would tend to agree with her niece rather than her brother, but she was at least happy that Lucy was able to see the best in Percy... because one had to look rather hard to find it. Ginny was not a charitable person towards her own family, she happily admitted, but that was because she had grown up with them, and had therefore spent enough time around them to recognise all their little faults, and to make them stand out in vivid contrast. Percy was, she would have to admit, her least favourite of her brothers, but he was still her brother, and she loved him. Sometimes. But from some of the things that Lucy told her about her home life, there were also occasions when Ginny could quite happily have murdered him.