Broken Masks

Everyone had always thought that Hermione was going to be the writer. But after the war, she gave up on books. Her husband, Ron Weasley, did nothing to discourage her lack of reading. Maybe it was because all she did as a child was read and she was sick of it, maybe because to her it used to be an innocent escape that was tainted by wartime chaos. Maybe she felt worthless, because research was the only thing she did to help bring the Dark Lord's down fall. She had to watch her friends suffer and die, all the while examining the huge tomes she once loved.

Of course she still read, but only when absolutely necessary. So when her sister-in-law, and best friend, asked her to read the novel she working on, Hermione had to accept. She admired the young girl, who had once been so innocent and so happy. But it was Ginny's decision to lose all that, and that is why her sister-in-law thought so highly of her. She sacrificed more than her life for the cause, and was condemned for it.
During the war, Ginny Weasley did not listen to anyone. She placed herself out on the frontlines. No, Hermione thought. She did more than that. Ginny had placed herself behind enemy lines. The older girl had told her husband many times that no one knew what the poor girl had gone through. The redhead rarely talked about what went on, on the dark side, but when she did, it was in cryptic half words, to hard to decipher.

The only thing anyone knew for sure about her time as a Death Eater was that on the last day of battle, the day of Voldemort's life, Ginny had been the one who distracted the dark lord long enough for Harry to kill him. And neither of them would say what had happened. But after his defeat, what Harry would tell, was that Ginny fell into his arms and cried. They had stayed there for hours, not saying a thing, until four ministry officials came and demanded Ginny leave with them. But when neither of the two on the ground would move, they dragged her kicking and screaming away. Harry fought with the two remaining officials, but to no avail. He was too exhausted to even stand up. Of course, poor Harry would never stand again, but no one thought anything of it at the time. Within half an hour, Ginny had been charged as a Death Eater and sentenced to life in Azkaban. Harry of course did everything he could to get her out, but with Fudge as the minister, no such thing would happen. Ginny spent three long painful years in prison. The dementors were no longer there but the guards were far worse. Hermione knew the guards had raped the other girl at least twice, but she sometimes found herself wondering if it had been the first time. Ginny would not speak about it.

Neville Longbottom took over the position of minister, sometime during Ginny's second year in jail when fudge had been murdered. It took almost a year for Longbottom to convince the Wizengamot of her innocence. Half way through her third year Neville began to make regular visits to her cell to start to fill out her paperwork. Finally, exactly three years after she was first condemned, she was finally released into the custody of her broken family. Her six brothers had been reduced to two, her mother had died of heartache, and her father was in a permanent ward in St. Mungo's. At twenty years old, she was practically an orphan.

Ron arrived on the arm of his fiancé; they decided not to get married until Ginny was released and could be the maid of honor. Harry arrived with his wife, Luna, pushing his wheelchair. He looked so happy to see Ginny that the girl did something she hadn't done since the defeat of Voldemort. She cried. Instantly Ron took her in his arms and told her everything would be alright. But Hermione distinctly remembered hearing Ginny mutter something that sounded like it will never be okay.

Whether she said it or not, she was right. Ginny had become a shell. An unlucky one at that. She was no longer innocent, sweet, or exuberant. She was depressed, nasty, and generally indifferent. Ron blamed on amotivational syndrome not wanting to admit the horrors that his baby sister had seen. But it was to late. She had seen them.

Hermione had been owling professor Dumbledore, about continuing Ginny's seventh year training. After all, she didn't want the girl to be a outcast for the rest of her life. But the older girl knew that no matter what she did it couldn't help. For Ginny was to far gone. It was on Ginny's seventeenth birthday that she was called. December twenty-fifth. Dumbledore decided to retire and passed the job of headmaster on to another professor, professor McGonagall, as soon as he got the letter about tutoring. Together Hermione and the former headmaster would spend the next year tutoring the young shell.

But that ended nearly six months ago. And now Ginny had written a novel. Hermione figured that she must've started it in Azkaban. Everyone was amazed. And according to the author, it had a whole lot to do with love. The youngest Weasley had only had one serious relationship. That anyone knew of. She shouldn't have been even been involved with him. He was her teacher, much to old for a sixteen year old girl. But times were desperate. They were in the same situation, and one night he cracked his hardened mask and let her get to know him. The dark lord was upset by the sudden closeness of one of his closest subjects to the one farthest away from him. So Severus Snape was punished harshly for his love, so in yet another way, it was forbidden. In the end, he jumped in front of a cruatius curse to save her. So many times she wished he hadn't. He suffered and she stood in horror as it happened. The last thing he said was, "I love you."

That night, Ginny had owled Hermione, telling her that she'd never love again. That her own life should end right there. It was like a suicide note in a way. The joyous young girl had died, she had died and given birth to the girl who remained only half there. Never really in the realm of those alive and not quite in the realm of those gone. Her heart had been ripped out and she thought then that love was just a cruel joke. But now, one dark mark, a lot of heartbreak, and the rise and fall of a dark lord later, Virginia Weasley was in love again. And Hermione Weasley was soon to be consumed in a story that was and was not the younger girl.