Ginny Weasley, Heart's Advocate

Chapter One: A Coffee Mug, a Diary, and Very Grilled Cheese

Thursday, January 8, 2004

Ginny Weasley looked down at her coffee mug, a look of indignation on her face. She had just picked it up to take a sip of hot, black coffee, when she made a most important discovery - it was empty. 'Two, wait, no, three cups of coffee,' she thought, 'must be past midnight by now'. Although a fourth would help her through the paperwork that lay before her, it would also guarantee another sleepless night. Not that sleepless nights had been uncommon this month - pressure on the Prosecutors Office of the Ministry of Magic had tripled since the downfall of Voldemort on Christmas Day.

As many had predicted, including fate itself, the notorious dark lord was defeated by the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter. Ginny had joined in the last battle, but not by choice. She had been lunching with Harry and his wife, Hermione, when Death Eaters, lead by their master, entered Hyde Park in Muggle London and attacked.

Harry and Hermione had joined Auror training straight after Hogwarts, so their skills were far more effective in battle than Ginny's. Don't put her down, she held her own; three years of DA had taught Ginny more than enough to keep herself alive, but it was the other two who were on the offensive and finally able to get to Voldemort. Their leader gone forever, the Death Eaters fled in every direction (it really had been quite a spectacle). Three weeks later, most of the identified Death Eaters were caught. The Aurors' work was just about done here, but Ginny's was just beginning.

While she was proud to have fought in the Last Battle and wasn't one to turn down a just fight, Ginny didn't care for the chaotic glory of war. No, she preferred the more precise ways of the Advocate, or Wizarding Lawyer. After going through training and internship, she applied for a job as an Assistant Prosecutor for the Ministry of Magic, Department of Magical Law Enforcement. In normal times, this job would entail not only arguing cases in the Wizard court of law, but also investigattial cases, as crime was not much of an issue in the Wizarding world of Great Britain. But not for Ginny Weasley. In normal times, there would at most be three open cases at a time, one for the HP (head prosecutor) and one for each of the two APs (Assistant Prosecutors). But not for Ginny Weasley! No - there were at the time forty-six open cases, thirty-seven Death Eaters and nine corruption scandals within the ministry. In the three weeks since Hyde Park, only two cases had gone through, so Virginia Weasley would likely be drinking much more coffee and sleeping much less for the next few months.

At the moment, Ginny was completing the closing paperwork of a third case, against Peter Pettigrew. He had been convicted earlier that day of numerous counts of murder and being a death eater, and was on his way to Azkaban to serve a life sentence. Her goal for the evening was simple - finish this case paperwork tonight so that in the morning (well, later in the morning as it was now past one), she could begin work on her next case. Looking again at the work before her, she realized that much of it was for future cases, and was able to limit herself to just three more pages tonight. Exhausted, but focused on the light at the end of the tunnel, she continue to copy over information.

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At a quarter to two, Ginny Weasley could be seen leaving the Ministry of Magic and heading towards her London flat, just three blocks down. At the insistence of her mother, she never apparated after a long day, and certainly 14 hours qualified itself as a long day.

Upon entering her flat, she noticed Luna Lovegood, flatmate and longtime friend, asleep with her boyfriend, Neville Longbottom, on the couch. Luna and Neville had been an item for longer than Harry and Hermione, but even after seven years, Neville's innate shyness still prevented him from ever popping the question. Lucky for him, Luna just didn't care at all. After her parents divorce, she saw marriage in a more skeptical light than most. Even through the exhaustion, Ginny found the strength to smile - they were awkward at times, but they were a happy couple. She only wished she'd find love like that.

Before changing into her nightwear, Ginny passed by the kitchen to deposit her handy coffee mug. It had been a gift from Harry upon her acceptance into the Advocacy Academy; he knew it would come in good use. It was charmed to keep the coffee hot all day (or night) long. 'Today was a good day,' she thought, remarking to herself on how she had only had three cups. She was known to have as many as seven in a single twenty-four hour period.

But before she could climb into bed, Ginny had one more thing to do - something she had been doing since the Chamber of Secrets incident...

Saturday, June 20, 1993

"Are you sure this will be the one miss? It's just about falling apart."

"I'm sure," replied an eleven-year-old Ginny Weasley. "Do you want my business, or should I take it somewhere else?" The youngest of eight, Ginny was an expert at getting what she wanted and ordinarily not afraid to be assertive to get it. Except in regards to a certain Harold James Potter, that is.

"No offence meant miss, no offense," replied the aged bookseller. "I just don't want to sell you something you don't really want. That'll be a Galleon." The book would have gone for more in an antique shop than it did here, but there seemed to be something special about it.

Ginny smiled, "Thank you sir," and left the shop. While walking down Diagon Alley to rejoin her family, she studied the book. Old and worn, yet blank of writing, it was aesthetically similar to the parchment book Tom Riddle used to control her that past year at school. After being mastered by a diary, she thought that it had come time to start one. So a day after the Hogwarts Express carried her home, she purchased her own blank parchment book for just that use.

That evening, she wrote the first entry, an impressive seven pages long, detailing everything that she knew about her experiences with Tom Riddle. Those had been awful and dark times, but she wanted to remember them - he had changed who she was, and that she believed to be important.

Present

Ginny sighed. The memory of that first year at Hogwarts was not a pleasant one. She had been right all those years ago; Tom Riddle had changed her more than the ten years and the eleven years after put together, and not always for the better. Relationships she entered were not easy - seven older brothers combined with a Muggle-klling-psychotic-power-hungry-Weasley-despising... Ginny's mind could have gone on, but it was just too late for ranting. Voldemort had made her distrusting of men and fearful of being dominated.

She sighed again, this time turning her memory to all the men she'd dated - there had been several. Her first had been Michael Corner, a Ravenclaw back at school. Sure, he had been sweet more than once, and had a smile to die for, but he preferred seeing Quidditch to seeing her. Her second had been none other than her long-time crush Harry Potter. They dated for a while her fifth year, but she broke it off in the end. They were great friends, but a lousy couple. Even at the grand old age of sixteen, Harry's heart belonged to Hermione, even if he was just too thick to see it.

Ginny sighed a third time. This train of thought wasn't worth her time. She'd never been in love, like Harry and Hermione or like Neville and Luna, and at this rate, she probably never would be. Ginny added one more note to today's entry - "get boyfriend". She closed her diary, climbed into bed, and finally, at 2:27 a.m., Ginny Weasley fell asleep.

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At 8:14 a.m. the next day, Ginny sat down at her desk, only to find that there were seven owls waiting with post. After collecting the mail and giving each of the owl's treats (she loved the creatures and always kept a tin of treats at her desk), she tossed the letters aside. For now, she needed to check her schedule. Ginny crossed Thursday off her calendar and looked at Friday, January 16, 2004. She gasped allowed - it was blank. Saturday and Sunday were blank too, with nothing written until Monday, when the trial of Vincent Crabbe was to begin. She frowned - although she felt all Death Eaters should be put away permanently, Crabbe hardly had the intelligence to use a knife to spread butter over a biscuit before he ate it, much less understand what he was doing. He most likely become a Death Eater because his father was one. She hated prosecuting the innocent, but prosecuting the foolish wasn't much better.

The first letter was an advertisement for some new hair care lotion; it promptly found its way to the trash bin to the left of the desk. The second was an initiation to the weekly Sunday brunch back home. Reminders were hardly necessary, but her father, Arthur, had a new toy - a Dell Dimension XPS desktop computer, with a 2.8 GHz processor and 120 Gigabyte hard drive, an HP printer, and lots of other pointless stuff. The Muggle-style invitations were nice to look at, and Mr. Weasley enjoyed making them far too much to complain. She replied by parchment that she would be coming as she always does.

Just as she took the third letter in her hand, her boss, Julian Diggory, walked into her office. "I need you to take a defense case," he said as he entered the room.

Ginny looked up at him with a not-this-again look on her face. "Why?" she asked.

"Because Crabbe can wait. He's more of a threat to a jelly donut than a wizard." Ginny laughed at this remark, something she realized that she hadn't done in a few days. "And this man's case can't wait."

"You sure there's no one else who can do this?"

"With forty-five open cases? Yes I'm sure."

"Fine," Ginny responded curtly.

Diggory looked at her with a hurt expression. Amazing that after twenty-six years of wizarding law, he still had a measure of sensitivity. "Why don't you take the rest of the day off. This Death Eater can get at you next week; you've been working more than you should and it's the weekend in just fifteen short hours. Consider it a bonus for taking on a tough case."

"Thank you," was all Ginny said before packing up and leaving.

Julian thought for a second if maybe he should have told her who she'd be defending, but decided that Monday would come soon enough.

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When she arrived home, Ginny again passed right by Neville and Luna, fast asleep on the couch, as they had been when she had left for the office. She dumped all her work things on the kitchen table, hung her coat up on the rack, and when straight back to her room. Although she would have liked to have changed, she found herself unable to fight the lure of a comfy bed, and was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

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Some time later, Ginny was awoken by a loud pecking sound. Lazily, she opened one eye towards the window to see Hedwig there with a letter. Stumbling out of bed (she swore that bird was laughing at her), Ginny made her way over to the window. She managed to open the window, dreary eyed as she was. Hedwig gave her the letter and poked at Ginny. Tired she was to have forgotten the treat. She remembered before her second poke and gave Hedwig a treat from a small tin on her reading desk. With a polite hoot, the owl was off. Ginny took a second to debate her options - open the letter or go back to sleep.

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Some time later, Ginny was awoken by what sounded suspiciously like a fire alarm. She sighed, suddenly breaking into a coughing fit as smoke entered her lungs. "Crap, that is a fire alarm!" she thought as she scurried out of bed and into the hall. She turned a corner and entered her kitchen, only to find Neville Longbottom trying to put out a fire on the stove. Clearly, "Gran" hadn't taught him that you can't put a grease fire out with water. Luna, rushing in from the living room, grabbed her wand and pointed it at the blaze. "Recendio!" she shouted, extinguishing the fire instantly. Neville took a second to realized it was out, but then turned to Luna, giving her an 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to' look. "It's okay Neville, come here," Luna took him in her arms and whispered soothingly in his ear. Neville took his hug like a frightened child and stopped shaking.

"What were you trying to make?" Ginny asked.

"Grilled Cheese," replied the boy, no man. "It's one of her favorites," he said, pointing towards Luna. "I got up without waking her and figured I'd surprise her. I guess the surprise wasn't as I had hoped." Ginny moved towards the range to inspect the pan. All their cookware had been her mother's; with the kids finally all grown up, Molly couldn't even cook in the same pans without getting nostalgic. Ginny loved them; she had learned to cook in these same dishes. "I'm sorry Ginny. I... I..."

"It's okay, Neville. No harm done," she said, turning and heading back to her room. She wasn't sure if she cared or not that the frying pan was fried, she just didn't want to blow up at Neville. He was only trying to be sweet. 'Damn...' she thought, 'I wish I had a guy like him.' Indeed, any man at all would have been an improvement over loneliness.