The Path to Forgiveness

"Mother, shut up." Everyone quieted instantly at the softly spoken words that seemed to carry so much more malice than should've been possible. Everyone turned, looking for the source when the most unexpected person stepped forward to stand in front of Molly.

"Shut up," Ginny repeated, leaving everyone in shocked silence. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Tears were running down her face as she yelled with increasing volume. "You are just like the rest of the world, so quick to think the worst of Harry! Because of you-"

"Ginevra Weasley!" Molly thundered her face red with anger. "You will apologize right now! I will not be spoken to in that tone, especially not by my own daughter!"

"Shut up!" Ginny roared in return, causing everyone around the two to back away slightly. Snape was the only one in the crowd watching with anything other than horror, a small smirk playing around his lips as he waited for an explosion that he figured had been a long time in coming.

"You filled my head with lies, you filled me with all of these lies and doubts about Harry," Ginny whispered angrily, "you told me he was evil, you told me he was crazy, that there was no way that he wasn't . You told me that he was a bad person, twisting everything he'd ever done and said. You told us private things about him, about the way he lived with his aunt and uncle, just because you wanted us to believe the worst of him. You made me forget everything he's ever done for us. You made me betray Harry, and I'll never forgive you for that."

"Ginevra Weasley-"

"But worst of all," Ginny continued, ignoring her mother, "I will never forgive myself, for believing you over Harry. For believing all the lies you told me when I should have known better. For choosing to betray Harry. He saved my life," she hissed angrily. "He saved my life, and he saved Ron's life.

He gave Fred and George the money to realize their dream, and this is how we repay him. All of us here owe him our lives, not once, not twice, but five times over! I hope you're proud of what you've done, mother," she spat, turning on her heel and stalking out of the room.

The people in the room were speechless for a long moment, before murmuring broke out. Molly stared after her daughter, and unreadable look in her eyes. "Why, I've never-"

"Molly, I do believe your daughter was right in this instance," Moody commented. "It'd be best if you remained silent."

Ginny stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her, but she didn't make it much further than that. Her legs gave out from under her, and she slumped against the wall outside, burying her face in her knees as she sobbed. She had known Harry was innocent from the moment Hermione had returned, and even when Dumbledore said her memory had been tampered with, she had known .

Known without a doubt; it was something that transcended just logical understanding; it was a feeling deep in her heart, across a connection that had formed in the Chamber of Secrets. She had known, but now it was real . So real that Dumbledore and the rest of the world were forced to admit it, and the weight of what she'd done had come crashing down on her.

She didn't even think about what the rest of her family had done; the only thing she could see before her inner eye was the last time she'd seen Harry, when she'd told him that Azkaban was a fitting place for him to rot in. She should've known better, she thought despairingly. She should've believed her own instincts before believing what her family had been drilling into them.

She had known Harry for years, had been his friend, and yet she'd believed baseless accusations and the rumours spread by her family before she'd believed him. She had turned a blind eye when everyone had pushed through for a hasty trial, going so far as not even giving the boy time to speak to defend himself, and all the while she'd not even felt a scrap of guilt. Because her family had said he was guilty.

Because it was so easy to believe them, so easy to believe that he had done it, that he had gone over the edge. So much easier than having to stand up to them, having to stand up to the rest of the wizarding world and do what was right.

She only just now began to understand the kind of pressure Harry had been under while he had been in school. She had seen what the public made him out to be, how fickle they were, proclaiming him their hero one day and their scapegoat the next.

And throughout it all, he had managed to always stay his course and do what was right. She had thought him an inspiration for all of his friends, and felt that when it came down to it, she would do the right thing, because that was what he would have done. But when push came to shove, she had failed. All of them had failed, because they'd all taken the easy way out instead of telling the wizarding world to go to hell and doing what was right.

And because of them, because of all of them, Harry had landed in Azkaban. Ginny knew full well what the Dementors did to Harry, and she could only imagine the terror that had gone through him on that island, and he'd gone in the knowledge that everyone, even his most trusted friends, had turned their backs on him and that for the first time since he had arrived at Hogwarts, he was well and truly alone.

What was even worse that despite their initial betrayal, Harry had repeatedly tried to reach out to them, tried to talk to them, but they hadn't listened. They had just condemned him, thinking themselves secure in their decision, because it was the easy thing to do. In the end, Harry had been left all to himself.

The only good thing Ginny could see coming out of it was that Harry now was no longer alone - he was the Earl of the North, the heir of the House of Polairix, and from what it seemed like, he was liked, respected, and loved by his people.

She was glad for that, because she honestly didn't know whether Harry would have survived being on his own throughout this war, haunted by their recriminations and the wizarding world's baseless accusations.

He would have done his duty and destroyed Voldemort, she was sure of that, but once that was done, he would have lacked any further goal in life, lacked any will to live on. He now had that will, that goal, thanks to his inheritance. He was going to live his life, and live it happily, and it wouldn't involve them.

"Oh God, Harry," she sobbed, burying her face into her hands when she felt two pairs of arms wrap around her shoulders.

"Hey sister dear-"

"We would say-"

"We told you so-"

"But that'd be just-"

"Bad sportsmanship." Fred finished as the twins settled down next to her. Ginny merely looked up in confusion at the grinning faces of her brothers.

"What're you talking about?"

....

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