Chapter Text
Ginny hung back, trailing behind her family. She wasn't sure they even noticed that she was silent and removed - normally vying with the twins to be the centre of attention - she wasn't sure they noticed her much at all. But she wasn't feeling particularly playful today. When her mother had asked her, she claimed to feel sick, - "but not so ill that I can't come with you to the train station, of course!".
She didn't want to miss this, she liked being here; the hustle and bustle of the muggle travellers was intriguing, their lives so different from what Ginny knew. But even that wasn't enough to cheer her up today. She wasn't sick, like she'd told Molly. No, she was worried.
You see, if you asked Ginny Weasley who her favourite family member was, she might say that she could never pick a favourite and that she loved her brothers and parents all equally.
She would be lying, obviously.
In reality, the rankings were simple and -in her opinion- fair: her least favourite was Ron.
To put it simply, he was a dick. He liked to lord it over her that he was a year older, Ginny presumed it was because he felt insecure about being the youngest brother - boys were strange like that, they always felt like they needed to be above someone. She didn't like that he took his issues out on her, so there he was at the bottom of the list.
Then came her parents. To an outsider, it might look like her mother favoured her, but Ginny didn't feel particularly favoured when she was forbidden from playing quidditch with her brothers - "you don't want to be out there with the boys, they're all rough and boisterous, you'll get hurt. And it's not very ladylike to be flying around on a broom" - or when she was being chastised for running or yelling or getting dirty. Her father hadn't done much to sink so low on her list, but that was just it. What had he done? She felt like she barely ever saw him. He never wanted to talk to her in the morning - she would run around after him as he got ready for work, trying to get his attention, but he just waved her off - and when he got home, he had dinner with the rest of them, but never asked Ginny about her day or what she had gotten up to. Then he went off to his office to work some more and Ginny isn't allowed in there.
Bill came next, he was so much older than Ginny that she didn't even feel like she knew him. Ginny was one year old when he started at Hogwarts, so she hadn't had much time with him before he was gone for most of the year, every year.
It was much the same story with Charlie, although everyone told her she used to adore him when she was a baby, but Ginny was six now; she was a big girl and she knew better.
George was after that, a bit lower on the list than Fred because George was quieter, Ginny liked how fun and noisy Fred was. She would never go to him for anything but a good prank, but he was fun all the same.
Her favourite family member, and the reason for all her worrying, was Percy. Ginny thought Percy was the perfect brother, he always listened to her, never talked over her, he would play all her favourite games with her, and he stood up for her when her other brothers picked on her. He even played one on one quidditch with her behind their mothers back - even though flying made him feel sick. Now he was going away for months and months, and Ginny wouldn't get to see him at all. It seamed like the older she got, the more people left her behind, but she never got used to it.
Ginny twisted her head round her mother's body to catch sight of Percy up ahead. He looked nervous. His hands were nearly white where he gripped his trolly. And his eyebrows were furrowed together. Ginny knew that look. Percy was overthinking things.
...
Percy thought he might throw up. He wasn't certain, it was sort of up in the air, he could feel nausea rolling around in his stomach, but he wasn't sure if it was excitement or fear. He couldn't give the question much thought, since it was taking most of his concentration to keep the bile from rising up his throat. His mind kept spiralling through the same few thoughts: What if he couldn't make any friends? What if he was terrible at magic? What if he never found his soulmate? Or worse, what if he found his soulmate and she didn't want anything to do with him???
He knew it was possible that his soulmate mark wouldn't appear until he was much older, but for the large majority of the magical population, they met their soulmate at Hogwarts and the mark appeared within a few minutes of that. He knew what his family would think if he didn't get his in the next few years. Despite any evidence to the contrary, they would assume that he didn't have a soulmate. Percy wasn't so sure he didn't believe it himself, for as long as he could remember now, there had been a little voice in the back of his head. It told him all sorts of things, like how his parents were disappointed in him, and that his brothers wished he had never been born. It also said that he would never find his soulmate, that she didn't exist because no one could ever put up with him for long enough. He didn't want to trust it, but - unfortunately for him - the little voice tended to be right about these kind of things.
Joining the platform went smoothly, Percy's fears of stumbling or crashing assuaged. He supposed that made sense, he had passed onto the platform before, to say goodbye to his brothers, but his worries did not fall victim to logic, the were fuelled by his erratic emotions.
...
Percy hugged his mother goodbye and gave Ron and the twins each a pat on the back, but he saved his real goodbye for Ginny. She was struggling a bit not to cry, but she didn't want her brothers to tease her, so she clenched her eyes tight and flung herself at Percy, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing tight. She could feel his chin resting on the top of her head, and his chest jerked like he was holding back from sobbing.
"You'll be great Percy. You're gonna make tons of friends and when you come home for Christmas you have to tell me all about it so I know what to do when I go. I love you lots and lots."
"I love you lots and lots too Ginny, and when you start your first year, I'll look out for you, you know that?"
Ginny pulled back and grabbed Percy's hand, pressing a small folded piece of paper into his palm.
"I know."
Percy looked down at the paper in his had, shifting it with his thumb. He could see pen markings on the other side, but couldn't tell what they were.
"It's for your dorm," Ginny smiled brightly up at Percy, clearly very proud of herself, "I know you don't have any posters or pictures to put up, so I made you one". She rocked back on her heels and clasped her hands behind her back expectantly.
Percy tucked the paper into his pocket and gave Ginny another brief hug.
"Thank you, I'll try and bring you something back from Hogwarts as a Christmas present."
As he turned around and picked up his trunk, Percy made sure the paper was still secure, before twisting back to wave as he ventured towards the gleaming train, and the next step in his life.
…
Ginny hung back as the train sped off, the rest of her - now much smaller - family following the crowd as they trickled back through the gateway to kings cross station.
One day. One day soon. She would be on that train too.