Ron closed his eyes and lowered his head. He didn't like thinking of his sister as a murderer and had been trying very hard ever since Colin had died and he'd discovered she had been releasing the monster into the school to deny it. Yet she'd just sat here and told him point blank she'd deliberately set Colin up to die.
"As for Harry, tell me Ron. Why should he have forgiven me when I never showed any remorse? You know, forgiveness given without being asked or being shown remorse is worthless and only makes a fool out of the one doing the forgiving. Because the one being forgiven learns nothing of value and will do their bad act again and again. Until the day when they try it on someone who will take something from them they can't afford to lose for their audacity. Like their life."
"Colin did nothing wrong. I did. Harry did nothing wrong. I did. Yet, I let both of them pay for my wrongdoing which only compounded my error. I never asked for forgiveness or showed any remorse to either Colin or Harry for what I'd done. Neither were required to forgive me just because you and the Headmaster wanted them to. Or told them to. They didn't owe me their forgiveness, Ron."
"But the Headmaster says if you don't forgive people when they do wrong against you it only eats you up from the inside," Ron said. "So we should forgive people who wrong us whether they ask for it or not."
"Yeah, he does but that doesn't make him right, Ron. It just means that's what he believes. But if you keep running around forgiving people for things they do wrong against you without ever them asking for it, how do they ever learn what you're considering wrong? Take Hermione for example. How many times has she offended you with her I'm always right and you're always wrong attitude? How many times have you forgiven her for being a bossy know it all and demanding you do things her way when you knew the way you wanted to do things was the better way?"
Ron grimaced. "Lots," he answered.
"Yet did she ever stop doing it? Did she ever even pause to consider trying things you're way?" Ron shook his head. "That's what I mean. You forgave her each time she demanded you do things her way when your way would have been better, more effective. But you never told her what she was being forgiven for so she never knew she'd done wrong by you simply by not listening to you. So she kept repeating the mistake. That's a whole lot simpler than the mistakes I made with Harry and Colin. But it's the same concept. Forgiveness needs to be asked for if it's to have any true meaning. Harry understands this. The Headmaster doesn't."
"So you aren't mad at Harry because you never asked him to forgive you for opening the chamber? Still Gin, that didn't mean he had to mark up your face like he did. Seems to me you paid a pretty unfair price for not asking him to forgive you over that mistake.
Ginny sighed and shook her head. "The mark wasn't for the Chamber Ron. It was for everything we've done wrong to and against him."
"Huh?" Ron asked confused.
"Because he was right, Ronald. We took his money. We lied about him and to him. We cheated him and on him. We demanded he obey us and kowtow to us in everything no matter how right or wrong it was. We cut him off from any friends outside of ourselves doing our level best to ensure he would never have anyone other than us to turn to. Because we were using him for our benefit and outsiders would have told him we were. We acted like he was taking pay from us when reality was he was the one paying us."
"Still he didn't have to brand us. On our faces," Ron groused sticking his bottom lip out and crossing his arms on the tabletop.
Ginny shook her head. "I count myself lucky this rune is all he did to me. It helps that I know it'll go away one day. He could have done much worse to me than this."
Anger lit up Ron's eyes. "I'd have killed him if he'd tried," he growled.
"And you'd probably be dead if you tried," Ginny said bluntly. "Because I did accept coin to be his potential girl and then, even knowing that, I went and hooked up with other boys whom I found more attractive and better suited to me personally. At the same time, I continued to take his coin to be his potential girl. And chased off any girl I caught looking in his direction. Because I saw him as mine. My property. Something I owned that I could use or not use as I chose. But it was the other way around, Ron. I belonged to him. He didn't belong to me. And no. Not because I owe him a life debt. Because I took his coin to be his girl on standby. That made me his property to do with, and to, however he felt justified in doing."
"I never had the right to date other boys, Ron. Not from the second Dumbledore approached Mum and Dad and offered to pay me to be Harry's potential girl. Well, from the moment the offer was accepted anyway. And Ron, there was nothing respectable or honorable in that offer. I know we all thought it was at the time. But it wasn't because there was no contract for me attached to the offer."
"Huh? Mum and Dad think it was."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "No, Ron. It wasn't. If it had been an honorable or respectable offer, I'd have a betrothal contract with Harry. I don't because Dumbledore never had the authority to offer me one. He isn't Harry's legal guardian, Ron. And that opens a whole lot of can of worms between our family and Harry."
"Wait! You said you had to ask his permission to date someone because you were taking his coin. And I was taking it also. So I can't date anyone until I ask him first? Because I was taking his money to do things Dumbledore told me to do?"
"No Blockhead! You can date anyone you want so long as they'll have you. You were paid for a different reason than I was. I was paid to be his potential girl. That means I was on standby as a future girlfriend when he was ready to be seen with a girl. Maybe if I hadn't played him fast and loose, it would have turned into a marriage one day. But somehow I doubt that because I was paid . Guys of his future station can't be married to girls who took money to date them unless there is a betrothal contract stating how much money she'll be given during the courtship under it's terms . I had no such contract. So it was highly unlikely it ever would have gone as far as marriage."