[Fic] "In Light of Later Events" -- Harry Potter

[edenfalling]

The cable guy came and we now have internet access again. At least for the moment. Apparently the underground cable that connects our house to the AOL Time Warner city network is dying, so our signal is almost too scattered to effectively reach the house.

But I don't care, because I have access tonight, and tomorrow I'll be back in New Jersey. (Where, of course, my dad hogs the computer all day and we only have dial-up that goes wonky about once every two weeks... but I'm choosing to ignore those bits of harsh reality.)

Anyway, today was moderately productive. I paid a library fine (outstanding from Christmas, believe it or not!) and stopped the church newsletter for the summer. Also, I walked into town by way of the Cascadilla Gorge path, which was just gorgeous. Heh. I really must get one of those gorges t-shirts someday.

Anyway, without further ado, I present a fic: the opinions of Ginny Weasley, age seven, on Harry Potter and this You-Know-Who person. (You can also read it here on AO3, here on ff.net or here on FictionAlley.)

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In Light of Later Events
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When Ginny was seven, her mother finally got around to explaining exactly who this You-Know-Who person was. He was an evil wizard called Lord Voldemort, and he wanted to rule the world and kill all Muggle-born witches and wizards. And his followers were called Death Eaters, and some of them were still around, like the Malfoys, and Ginny was to watch out for them because Death Eaters didn't just kill Muggle-borns, but anyone who disagreed with them, like Ginny's two dead uncles.

At that point, Ginny asked, "But Harry Potter killed the bad wizard, right?"

"That's right," said Mum.

"Was it a really big fight, with curses and fire and everything going boom?"

"Er, no," said Mum. "Nobody's quite sure what happened, but Harry Potter is only eight -- Ron's age -- so he was just a baby at the time."

"Then how'd he live?" asked Ginny.

"Because he's very special, and his parents loved him very much," said Mum, "just like your father and I love you. Now run along; your father will be home soon and I have to start dinner."

Ginny went out to the front yard and amused herself by tossing pebbles at the chickens; she would have gone after Ron, but he was off doing boy things with the twins and she'd agreed to stay home if he went flying with her tomorrow. So she had nothing to do but think about You-Know-Who and Harry Potter.

Even if Harry Potter was only a baby, she decided, he still must have been awfully brave. She could remember back to when she was still in her crib, and it was scary when she was alone in the dark and nobody came. It must have been lots worse to have his parents killed and an evil wizard cursing him.

So she still liked Harry Potter.

But You-Know-Who didn't make any sense. First of all, what was the point of going around killing people? Ginny didn't like hurting people, much, unless it was the twins and they'd just played a trick on her; she'd much rather go flying, or maybe hunt dragons like Charlie wanted to do when he left Hogwarts next year.

Even if he thought hurting people was good, he was still stupid. His name was stupid, and his people had a stupid name too. Who wanted to eat death anyway? That sounded icky. And he got killed trying to kill a baby, which was the stupidest way to die she'd ever heard of, except maybe the Diggory family ghost, who'd strangled himself in his bedsheets and died in his sleep.

Now if she ever wanted to go around killing people, she wouldn't call herself Lady Ginevra or make up some stupid name. No, she'd be just Ginny Weasley, and nobody would know who she was; that way nobody would ever suspect her. And if she had people, she'd call them something sensible, like the Good Army. That would trick people into thinking they were the good wizards. And she really wouldn't go around cursing babies. That was just mean. And besides, what was the point of having people if you went and did everything yourself?

Ginny thought she could do a much better job of being evil than this Lord Voldemort. And nobody would ever call her something as silly as You-Know-Who.

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Inspired by the 5/17/04 15minuteficlets word #55: practical

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That was kind of fun, actually. My brain is still a little fried from packing, but I made minimal progress on a number of stories while my internet access was down. Sadly, none of them are anywhere near finished. :-(

Comments

[redwolfoz.livejournal.com]

That was fun. Ginny is so utterly practical about the business of being evil.

[edenfalling]

Well, as shown in OoP, Ginny's very good at getting things done and talking sense to people when they get overexcited. And children often do have a streak of ruthless practicality that shows up at the oddest times.

[(Anonymous)]

I love this. Now I want to read about Ginny taking over the world Post Hogwarts. She'll have Harry, she'll have the DA, she can easily have the world too. Ginny's good at keeping secrets so she won't blab her master plan delaying her enemies downfall and giving them time to defeat her. No the great bat-bogey hex witch is all set for power. (with her brother Percy attempting to make amends and have a good position as Chief Undersecretary to the ...)

[edenfalling]

...

Someday, I HAVE to write that. *evil grin*