“Have you seen this?” Ginny was waving a copy of the Daily Prophet where Harry could see Ron’s picture and a title about him and Lyra accompanied by generic slander of some kind.
“No, but I’m not too surprised”, Harry shrugged. “I’ve seen Ron in similar phases twice. Let me guess: we’re all frauds, he has us all figured out, and we hate him because he knows the actual truth about us, but he’s done covering for us and is ready to tell it all like it is”.
“Pretty much, except this doesn’t look like a phase”, Ginny was fuming. “It looks like a final choice of personality. It’s like he’s been balancing between nice and nasty, and now he unapologetically chose nasty and feels like he found his true self. Honestly, Dean and I are serious and if he doesn’t ask me to marry him soon, I’ll ask him, just so that I can get the hell away from that place. He’s constantly moping there like a dark cloud. Lyra, you might test that anti-Dementor spell on him. Fits his character perfectly”, she managed a half-smile.
“When Hermione left him, he switched into that energy, and from there he decided that he feels more powerful being Harry Potter’s enemy who can pretend to be a credible source of gossip, rather than being known as Harry Potter’s stupid and useless friend, whom Hermione left because he was infantile and passive”, Lyra nodded. “In his current state, he feels as if he removed the mental shackles that were binding him to the ground and took flight. He feels powerful when he’s nasty and hateful. It’s what weak people do when they want a cheap way of feeling powerful. He’s getting more attention now and it’s making him feel valuable. It’s much easier than facing the actual issues with his character and doing something constructive”.
Ginny looked at her with mouth agape, and then at Harry. “No wonder you married her and not me”.
Harry smiled uncomfortably and changed the subject. “I don’t think his state of mind will improve until he finds some reason to be a positive person again, something that will give him more energy than he thinks he’s getting from hate and resentment. Is he seeing anyone? It would be good for him if he fell in love”.
“I wish. That would have him leave the house at least once in a while. No, he’s just sitting there being a mommy’s boy and hating on Harry the fake Messiah, Hermione the back-stabbing traitor and Lyra the Death Eater who deceived everybody. Honestly, Harry, by Merlin’s beard, I will hex him so hard that even Mom won’t recognize him and will think it’s a swollen garden gnome”, she was pacing angrily. “I don’t even know what kind of a girl would want him when he’s like that, unless she’s a fellow Dementor”.
“Oh, hi”, she noticed Hermione who came to see what the commotion is about. “You dodged that bullet so hard; only it’s not even a bullet, it’s a cursed dart of fuck my life”, Ginny smiled at her. “I know, he’s my brother, I should be on his side, but honestly if we had another war I don’t care whose side I’m on, as long as I’m allowed to fire curses at him. Please tell me what it feels like to be permanently rid of him because I want to live vicariously”.
Hermione hugged her and laughed. “Yeah, Ron will do that to people. What does it feel like? It doesn’t feel like I replaced him with another person. It feels like I replaced the version of myself that had to tiptoe around his weaknesses and insecurities, with the version of myself that can just exist at full volume”.
“I envy you so much”, Ginny sighed. “I hope to become Mrs. Dean Thomas soon and fly into the sunset, before I end up in St. Mungo in a room next to Neville’s poor parents”.