094.

[hexuality]

[ video ]

I can't imagine how much of a chore cleaning up this mess would be.

[Ginny Weasley, ladies and gentlemen, sitting on a bench in Xanadu with photographs fluttering down from the sky around her. She clears off a spot next to her and sets her device down so you get a shot of her looking up, plucking a few from the air with a Seeker's precision.

She glances down at the ones in her hands, brows knit and mouth a tight line. It's no one she recognises, but who's to say the day will remain that way if she keeps looking?]

Anyway. [Ginny looks at the camera, brushing her hair back over her shoulders.] Now you lot know what I look like if you didn't before. If you see this face in anything you pick up today, I'd like to have them sent over to the offices at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Passioné, or my flat.

I'll be sure to do the same for you.



[ooc; ms weasley's photographs here. feel free to nab any of them, there are copies! also adding this one as a better version of the ~sunlit days~ kiss.]

Comments

[yourbestguysgun]

M'fine.

[ He's just not happy about having to deliver really awful pictures to her. He's tempted to keep the one of her brother and incinerate it. It's only fair. But he needs to know about the other. ]

[hexuality]

[She doesn't believe him, but she chalks it up to the curse—and rightfully so, but for different reasons. Maybe he's found a photograph of himself or someone else has and he doesn't like it. She thinks of the one that almost blinded her on the way to work, a metal arm glinting in the light. Glancing at Bucky's hands now, she knows this isn't something he'd hide from her, that it's something else. So she tucked it away.]

Alright, well— [She shuts the door behind them and moves over to sit on the little sofa, gesturing for him to join her.] Want to try that question again?

[yourbestguysgun]

[ He laughs. ]

You don't go easy, do you Weasley? [ He nudges her with his shoulder as he sits, fills space because he's comfortable with her. ] I don't like this curse is all.

[hexuality]

[She shakes her head with a slight smile, amused—no, she wouldn't be Ginny Weasley if she were that easy to push over. She nudges him gently back then slumps down in the sofa so she can rest her feet on the coffee table in front of them.]

No, it's not the best curse. Some things are nice, though, getting good photos from home. There was one from Christmas with my family last time, someone returned that to me. It was nice.

[yourbestguysgun]

[ He very carefully plucks the one of her on the ground out of his pocket, leaving the one of her brothers where it is. He's not going to be that cruel. ]

So this doesn't look good?

[hexuality]

[Judging by the way her smile flickers and dies on her face, the way she goes a bit too still and a bit too pale, speaks volumes of how much that photo "doesn't look good." Ginny's memories of that year, of that night in the Chamber, are hazy in a lot of places and she's never seen this before—and how could she, she was as good as dead on the floor, wasn't she? That's what this is.

It's as dim as what she remembers. That must be Harry, that flash of red on the stone, that's her hair, her face is turned away but there's enough detail to know why Bucky guessed it was her. And the diary is there, and just inside the frame...

Faintly,]

Tom. [Ginny wants to burn the whole thing.] Where did you— [She swallows, takes a breath, looks back up at Bucky with a steadier voice and expression.] Did you show this to anyone else?

[yourbestguysgun]

No one. [ He's pretty sure he's right about the other picture now. He'll burn it the first chance he gets so she doesn't look like that again. ]

Brought it straight over, kid. Knew it had to be important. [ Knew he needed to know if she was okay. ]

[hexuality]

[She'd appreciate that, Bucky. Ginny nods at his words, a minute gesture, and after another breath, she reaches out to take the photograph from him to look at it more closely. Half of her wants to tear it in her hands, set it on fire and watch the ashes fall to the carpet; but morbid fascination's gotten a hold on her, too.

She never did get to see what Tom looked like, in the end. Maybe a glance, just before her eyes slipped shut into darkness, just as he flickered to life outside the pages. She'd cared for him. She thought he felt the same for her. Foolish, all of it, now that she knows the full story. But she'd been eleven years old.]

Thanks, Bucky. [She bites her lip, unsure how to move on.] Sorry you had to see it.

[yourbestguysgun]

You look small.

[ He's never seen her like this - sure she came back to the City young but not that young and he leans his shoulder against hers in a soft, conciliatory motion. ] How old are you there?

[hexuality]

Eleven.

[It's been practically ten years. She's better about it now, it's more the shock of seeing it after going so long without a clear image of what had happened that's hitting her—but she'd grown from all that and so she's trying to be level-headed, voice clear and soft.]

Remember when that t-shirt curse happened and mine said I'd been possessed? It was my first year at school.

[yourbestguysgun]

You were a kid.

[ His hands tighten slightly as though he wants to maybe punch something for her even with the decade that's passed. ]

[hexuality]

[She notices that out of the corner of her eye and she reaches over to rest a hand over his, light and gentle. This reminds her of the last time this curse happened and Percy found the one of her bleeding on Chase, stabbed. It had been years before and he still wanted to go after the person that did it and she's touched because Bucky's always been something of a brother to her and with all of them gone from the City, he's all she's got in that way.]

I was part of the war before we even knew there was one. But— [She turns the photo over, not looking at it anymore, looking at him.] Harry saved my life. Tom... [The name she kept calling out in her fevered delirium during the zombie attacks.] He needed me to become real, I think. Used me all year to get stronger. [And she, weaker.] But it worked out in the end.

I don't even remember a lot of it, to be honest.

[yourbestguysgun]

[ He leans over to wrap an arm tight around her shoulders. ] Bad things happen to good people, I don't like it. I guess just ... seeing it makes it more real. How much of a kid you were.

[ A pause. ] But you got me here, Gin. Anything bad happens to you, lemme know. I know how to aim.

[hexuality]

[She smiles, a quiet flicker of a thing.]

So do I. [Then - ] Thanks, Bucky. For that and for bringing this by. Maybe it's a good thing for me to see. [She picks it up again, glancing down as she leans into his hug.] I don't feel like—I mean, I hate it, but it doesn't scare me anymore.

[yourbestguysgun]

Good. You shouldn't have to be scared kid.

[ Because he'd kill anyone who frightened her now. ]

[hexuality]

No. [Jokingly, except... not,] You brush with death a few times, you stop worrying, I guess.

[yourbestguysgun]

Yeah, I guess.

[ He looks thoughtful. ] Want me to get rid of it for you?

[hexuality]

No. [It's quiet, brows knit.] I'll do it.

[Will she, though? Or will she want to hold onto it as a reminder? Maybe that isn't healthy. Maybe the City'll take it away from her before she has to make that decision.]

This was the only one?

[yourbestguysgun]

Yeah.

[ He doesn't feel bad for lying, he's protecting her. ] That was the only one.

[hexuality]

[She's lying to him, too, so maybe it's even. The one of him looking only a little older—not old enough to match the age in his eyes—with a metal arm, that one she put in a drawer at her desk and she won't give it to him. The future is rarely kind, it seems.]

Always looking out for me, aren't you.

[yourbestguysgun]

Yeah. [ He offers her a rough and ready little grin. ] Can't stop me kid, sorry.

[hexuality]

I'd never dream of it.

[Then, softer, fingertips resting against the image of her too-still, too-pale form in shadow - ]

Glad I stuck around long enough to get to meet you.

[yourbestguysgun]

We're getting sappy in our old age, Gin.

[hexuality]

You aren't old, knobhead.

[yourbestguysgun]

Feel it.