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edenfallingI seem to have cleared out some space in my brain. Here are the results:
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Building on Sand
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The war was over.
Ginny tried to force the idea through her mind. The war was over. Voldemort was dead; Harry had killed him. Dumbledore was dead. Professor Sprout was dead. Percy, who'd finally seen the light and agreed to spy for the Order, was dead. The Death Eaters were either dead or locked up pending trial.
Harry was in St. Mungo's, recovering from Bellatrix Lestrange's attack and the backlash of Voldemort's death. Ron and Hermione, completely ignoring their NEWTs and their final weeks of school, were camped out by his bedside.
And Ginny was stuck in Hogwarts, revising for sixth year exams, as if nothing had happened.
She felt numb.
Her friends, understanding that she'd been very close to the heart of the final battle, and had lost family, were cautious about approaching her -- trying to not to wake bad memories, she supposed -- which was simultaneously comforting and irritating as hell. The only people who acted normally around her were Professor McGonagall, Snape, and Luna Lovegood.
Professor McGonagall was, so far as Ginny was concerned, as close as a person could get to being dead cool without ever approaching cool in the traditional sense. But she was a professor, and she'd never been close to Ginny, so that didn't help much.
Snape might have saved all their lives in the end, but he was still a toad-licking bastard, and while it was reassuring that some things never changed, you can't carry on any sort of friendship with a man who's both your teacher and utterly insufferable.
That left Luna, who was still incomprehensible to everyone, Ginny being no exception to that rule. But Luna was friendly enough in her abstracted way, and she never tiptoed around Ginny as if she might shatter if pushed the wrong way, and she would listen and make reassuring "hmms" and "ahs" when Ginny needed to pour everything out to someone.
Ginny asked, once, if Luna wanted her to return the favor.
"No, that's all right," said Luna. "I talk to the portraits, or the owls, or sometimes the squid in the lake. They're good listeners."
"Oh," said Ginny. "I suppose that makes sense." And it did, somewhat. She still talked to Sir Vladislav, the enchanted suit of armor she'd befriended in her first year, and it did help a bit. But Sir Vladislav, kind as he was, hadn't been there for the last months of the war, and there were times Ginny needed to be with someone who'd lived through the chaos with her. She needed to reassure herself that she wasn't alone and it hadn't all been a muddled nightmare.
Luna, apparently, could get on just fine by herself. She didn't need to prove that the world was still there outside her own experiences. Ginny felt, sometimes, that Luna wouldn't so much as blink if someone told her that her whole life had been a dream; she'd just shrug and go on exactly as before, not caring if her reality was objectively real as well.
Ginny couldn't quite wrap her head around the mindset needed for that attitude. And Luna, when Ginny told her this theory, looked blankly at her as if she couldn't understand how someone wouldn't be able to just ignore anything she didn't want to acknowledge.
All they really had in common, thought Ginny, was a shared time of madness and war. Beyond that, they couldn't even understand each other, and trying to build a friendship on that shaky a foundation was a lost cause. Luna agreed absently when Ginny informed her of this conclusion, and asked if she thought there might be a way to adapt the link between Harry and Voldemort into a charm to activate the Dark Mark, and thus negate attempts at the Imperius defense in the upcoming trials. Ginny blinked, said she'd heard of a few potions that might be useful in activating dormant magic, and dragged Luna off to the library.
When they left Hogwarts the next year, they took a flat together.
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Inspired by the 8/22/04![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
15minuteficlets word #69 (abstract) and the 8/29/04 word (extra)
This story is a companion to Restoration, a post-war scenario
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Building on Sand
---------------------------------------------
The war was over.
Ginny tried to force the idea through her mind. The war was over. Voldemort was dead; Harry had killed him. Dumbledore was dead. Professor Sprout was dead. Percy, who'd finally seen the light and agreed to spy for the Order, was dead. The Death Eaters were either dead or locked up pending trial.
Harry was in St. Mungo's, recovering from Bellatrix Lestrange's attack and the backlash of Voldemort's death. Ron and Hermione, completely ignoring their NEWTs and their final weeks of school, were camped out by his bedside.
And Ginny was stuck in Hogwarts, revising for sixth year exams, as if nothing had happened.
She felt numb.
Her friends, understanding that she'd been very close to the heart of the final battle, and had lost family, were cautious about approaching her -- trying to not to wake bad memories, she supposed -- which was simultaneously comforting and irritating as hell. The only people who acted normally around her were Professor McGonagall, Snape, and Luna Lovegood.
Professor McGonagall was, so far as Ginny was concerned, as close as a person could get to being dead cool without ever approaching cool in the traditional sense. But she was a professor, and she'd never been close to Ginny, so that didn't help much.
Snape might have saved all their lives in the end, but he was still a toad-licking bastard, and while it was reassuring that some things never changed, you can't carry on any sort of friendship with a man who's both your teacher and utterly insufferable.
That left Luna, who was still incomprehensible to everyone, Ginny being no exception to that rule. But Luna was friendly enough in her abstracted way, and she never tiptoed around Ginny as if she might shatter if pushed the wrong way, and she would listen and make reassuring "hmms" and "ahs" when Ginny needed to pour everything out to someone.
Ginny asked, once, if Luna wanted her to return the favor.
"No, that's all right," said Luna. "I talk to the portraits, or the owls, or sometimes the squid in the lake. They're good listeners."
"Oh," said Ginny. "I suppose that makes sense." And it did, somewhat. She still talked to Sir Vladislav, the enchanted suit of armor she'd befriended in her first year, and it did help a bit. But Sir Vladislav, kind as he was, hadn't been there for the last months of the war, and there were times Ginny needed to be with someone who'd lived through the chaos with her. She needed to reassure herself that she wasn't alone and it hadn't all been a muddled nightmare.
Luna, apparently, could get on just fine by herself. She didn't need to prove that the world was still there outside her own experiences. Ginny felt, sometimes, that Luna wouldn't so much as blink if someone told her that her whole life had been a dream; she'd just shrug and go on exactly as before, not caring if her reality was objectively real as well.
Ginny couldn't quite wrap her head around the mindset needed for that attitude. And Luna, when Ginny told her this theory, looked blankly at her as if she couldn't understand how someone wouldn't be able to just ignore anything she didn't want to acknowledge.
All they really had in common, thought Ginny, was a shared time of madness and war. Beyond that, they couldn't even understand each other, and trying to build a friendship on that shaky a foundation was a lost cause. Luna agreed absently when Ginny informed her of this conclusion, and asked if she thought there might be a way to adapt the link between Harry and Voldemort into a charm to activate the Dark Mark, and thus negate attempts at the Imperius defense in the upcoming trials. Ginny blinked, said she'd heard of a few potions that might be useful in activating dormant magic, and dragged Luna off to the library.
When they left Hogwarts the next year, they took a flat together.
---------------------------------------------
Inspired by the 8/22/04
15minuteficlets word #69 (abstract) and the 8/29/04 word (extra)This story is a companion to Restoration, a post-war scenario