A blur of green, blue and red whooshed passed Hermione as she cheered on her best friend.
"Whooo! Go Ginny!"
Apart from the whooshing of Quidditch robes in the wind and the occasional shouts from Gwenog, Ginny's captain, Hermione was the only noise on the Quidditch pitch. The ginger girl whizzed past, darting between Puddlemere players up the field, until she reached the goals. As she got closer, she heard her opponent's taunts.
"Come on then, Weasley. Have a go. See if you can get it in. I'll have you know I'm the best keeper in-"
The ball flew through the air, hurtling towards the goal just next to the keeper. He lunged out to knock it away, but he was too slow. The Quaffle brushed past his fingertips, and straight into the goal. Hermione cheered at the top of her lungs. "Yeah, Ginny!" She laughed, "Suck on that, Wood." She yelled, dancing around.
The keeper slammed his fist against the goal post, before following Ginny, the rest of the Harpies and his team down to the bottom of the pitch. Hermione ran down to join them, racing across the muddy grass.
"Ginny, you were amazing!" She said, engulfing the sweaty woman in an enormous hug.
Ginny laughed, "It's only practice, 'Mione. I wasn't even that good."
"Good enough to get past Wood." Hermione replied smiling deviously at the Puddlemere United seeker.
"You poking fun at me, Granger?" Oliver remarked, slowly stepping towards her. "It's just lucky we're friends then, eh?" He grabbed the hem of his dark blue shirt, stained with mud, sweat and a little bit of blood, lifting it up over his head as he continued towards the muggleborn witch. He didn't stop until he was right in front of her. They were almost chest-to-chest, and perhaps would have been if Wood hadn't have towered over her.
Hermione began to back up, putting a hand on her wand in her pocket, intimidated by his sheer size.
"And since we're friends, we can share hugs, right? Just a shame I'm all muddy and sweaty!" He lunged at her, wrapping his mud smeared arms around her before she could run away.
"Oliver!" Hermione shrieked. "Get off! Get off, you'll get me all dirty like you!"
"Ah, but Granger, that's the point." He said, lifting her up.
The curly haired woman squirmed in his grasp, flailing her arms helplessly, kicking her legs around. The Quidditch players, both Harpies and Puddlemere, stood watching the two, laughing all the whole time.
As Oliver went to take a step, Hermione kicked him in the knee, causing him to lose his footing, and slip, dropping her in the mud before falling on top of her.
The Puddlemere boys roared with laughter at the pair.
"Now look what you've done." Oliver teased.
"WOOD!" Hermione yelped, trying to push him off here, but he was no help, refusing to move, essentially a dead weight.
After what seemed like an eternity of struggling against the large man, one of his teammates grabbed and shoved Oliver off her. Ginny offered her hand to Hermione, pulling her up.
"Hermione! Come back! We were having so much fun, Ginny!" Wood called out from the mud.
"Goodbye, Oliver!" The Weasley woman shouted, before turning to her brunette friend. "Come on, let's to back to mine and get cleaned up." Hermione laced her arm through Ginny's, and the two apparated from the pitch to Grimmauld Place.
After a nice warm bath, Hermione changed into some new clothes. She always had a spare outfit at Grimmauld Place. She spent more time there than she did at her own flat.
She changed into some jeans, a thick striped shirt and a loose cardigan, and slipped on her flats, headed downstairs. She found Harry in the kitchen, with his head in the fridge.
"Hey, Haz." She greeted, approaching him.
He looked up, with a piece of ham hanging out of his mouth. He quickly swallowed it, before grinning at her. "'Mione. What are you doing here?' He asked, embracing her.
"I needed to borrow your shower. Wood pulled me into the mud after the practice match."
A gurgle sounded from the end of the table.
"James! How's my little godson?" Hermione ran to pick up the toddler, giving the black-haired boy a bigg kiss on the cheek.
Harry laughed, "How was it then? Did they win?"
Hermione opened her mouth to say something in return, but another voice beat her to it.
"Crushed 'em." Ginny replied, entering the kitchen. She stood next to Harry, the latter wrapping his arms around her shoulder. He leant down and kissed her gently.
"Of course you did." He chuckled, rubbing her forearm affectionately. Hermione smiled at the adorable young couple.
"Your mummy and daddy love each other very much, James." She whispered to the boy in her arms, brushing his chubby cheek with her index finger. He responded by grabbing it and shoving it in his mouth.
"You going to stay, Hermione?" Ginny asked, turning to the woman.
Hermione shook her head. "I wouldn't want to impose."
"Oh, but you won't. Harry's going out with a few colleagues tonight, so it'll just be me." Ginny explained, giving Hermione puppy dog eyes.
"Oh, not the face. How do you expect me to resist the face?" Hermione sarcastically remarked.
Ginny grinned, bounding over the cupboard. "You're not supposed to. That's the point. Besides, I've got some red wine here that needs to be drunk."
"Well, when you put it like that..." Hermione said as Harry took James from her arms.
"Say night to Auntie 'Mione and Mummy, James." Harry said, before taking him upstairs.
"Good night James!" The women replied, almost simultaneously.
Harry came in a few minutes later. "I'm off. Have fun you two." He said, giving Ginny a quick, yet deep and meaningful kiss on the lips, and Hermione a peck on the cheek.
Ginny picked up her glass just as she heard the front door shut.
Hermione watched as she took a long sip, before doing the same.
The pair talked for hours, catching up on work lives, gossip about old school friends and so on. Hermione leant that Neville had been dating Hannah Abbot for some time now, which she hadn't known at all about. She also learnt that Padma Patil had broken up with her boyfriend of 3 years. He was a muggle, a professional soccer player. Ginny said she got fed up with trying to keep the secret, but was too afraid to tell him she was a witch.
"So, is there any special guy in your life at the moment?" She inquired, kicking her shoes off and tucking her feet up underneath her.
Hermione chuckled. "No, Gin. You know me, I'm too busy with work, too much of a prude. I'm no fun."
Ginny gazed at her friend sympathetically. "'Mione. You're heaps of fun. Ronald's just an arse. It's been 4 years since you've had any kind of romantic relationship with a man. And I wouldn't really call my brother a man. At least tell me there's someone you fancy..."
Hermione shrugged.
"Oh, come on. What about that cute muggle boy you used to live next to... Tom?"
Hermione made a face. "Nah. I mean, he is cute, but... He's just not someone I could see myself with. We don't... Mesh well."
"What about Oliver? I mean, I know you guys are "just friends", but he does have a great personality. You guys get on so well together. And there's no denying how bloody sexy he is. I mean, when he took of his shirt this afternoon..." Ginny fanned at her face, " I got all hot and bothered."
Hermione burst out laughing. "Ginny! You can't say that!"
"What? I'm allowed to admire attractive men from afar. It's not like I'm actually going to do anything. Harry does too."
Hermione giggled, but attempted to hold it in. This only made her laugh harder.
"What?" Ginny asked, raising an eyebrow at her friend.
"Harry admires attractive men from afar, does he?" She managed through giggles.
Ginny snorted, before joining Hermione in laughter. "I'm so drunk..." She murmured into her glass before taking another sip.
"But really, Hermione, what about Wood?"
She sat in silence for a few moment. "Oliver and I are good friends. I wouldn't want to jeopardise such a great friendship. Although I will admit to getting a little flustered at practice this afternoon."
Ginny smirked at her friend, before looking to the flames in the fireplace, trying to think of another man.
"Hmm... Oh! Ooh, the boy that... Your assistant, Sally's son, the... What's his name?"
"Henry?" Hermione offered.
"Yes! That's the one! What about him?"
Hermione looked down into her glass, hiding her face so Ginny couldn't see her blushing.
"You do fancy him, don't you?! Oh, Hermione, please try to talk to him! He's incredibly attractive and so smart, that man. You'd be great together! Oh, and your babies would be beautiful little geniuses."
"Woah, calm down, Gin. I promise I'll talk to him, but I'm not saying anything about babies for a few more years at least."
Ginny grinned. "That's enough for me." She buzzed, ending the sentence with a yawn. "I think it's time for bed." She whispered, before laying down on the couch and drifting off to sleep.
Hermione levitated the woman up to her bed, tucking her in before cleaning up their glasses and heading up to the guest bedroom. She was too tired and drunk to try and apparate home. It wasn't long before sleep consumed her, filling her dreams with giant leopards, scarlet flames and black cloaks.