Insight

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Story Notes:
10/23/14
The lines are all blurred now.

There is no right or wrong, no black or white. The world isn’t like that, has never been like that, but she never saw that until this war started. She believed in justice and good triumphing over evil. She lived in a fairy tale world where things were distinct and definite. She was so innocent and foolish.

The world is made up of shades of gray.

It took her years to finally acknowledge that fact. She suspected it during third year when everyone believed that Sirius Black was a killer. Just because people believed the lies and gossip whispered in dark corners didn’t make it truth. She had believed it, too, before she’d had all the facts. She’d realized that facts were important. For someone who prided themselves on being just and fair, she had been shocked to see that she was just as bad as everyone else.

Her awakening to the knowledge that black and white were simply colors in a box of paints continued as she got older. After Umbridge, how could she ever be innocent again? By the time Dumbledore died, she knew that an optimistic belief that good would win over evil was naïve. The lines between the two were so blurred that it was impossible to even know where one would end and the other began. After so many months of searching for horcuxes with Harry and Ron, she had finally acknowledged that the world was gray.

She saw things differently after that. Harry understood. His world had always been rather gray, after all. It brought them closer together, their mutual understanding that the world was a fucked up place and no one was above reproach. It took Ron longer but he, too, grew up as the war escalated, and he saw people he had trusted beneath the masks of the Death Eaters that were caught and fought side by side with those he had once naively condemned because of the color of their schoolties.

That knowledge, that distrust of anyone who seemed entirely good or entirely evil, had helped them win the war. Unforgiveables had fallen off Harry’s tongue easily when they had their horcrux in sight. He had made an alliance with a goblin that they suspected would betray them. They trusted no one but one another, but they were more open to discussions and plans that treaded the darker areas where gray nearly became black.

The war is over now but her perception has not changed. She likes to analyze and determined motivations, to decide whether someone is trustworthy by her own decision and not simply because she accepted something at face value. They had been betrayed by a few people that she had mentally classified as ‘good’ when she was younger and helped by some that she had always placed beneath the heading ‘bad’, after all.

It’s now a chance to rebuild. To use their knowledge of the true colors in the world to help shape what actions they take and how they influence the Ministry to transform into something righteous and respectful. It will be an opportunity for her to use what she has learned, for Ron to strategize their best plans, for Harry to use his influence to implement what they decide is best for their world.

After all, they are no longer monochrome, either.

End