A/N: This started out as a Quidditch challenge for LJ, but apparently I can't read and was supposed to include Draco Malfoy in the piece, so it never saw the light of day, until now. I thought it was pretty good and sounded like something I could expand. This is a prequel to my Ron Weasley story, The Other Life. We'll see how it turns out. Let me know what you think. --Rita
Based on characters created by J. K. Rowling
Chapter 1--The Game
Harry stood in the stands watching Ginny play her first professional Quidditch match as chaser with the Holyhead Harpies. She swooped down once and gave him a cheery wave and blew a kiss in his direction. Ginny, always smiling and she was a natural with the crowds. Barely anyone even glanced at the-boy-who-lived while she was in the air; the game was that exciting.
The Harpies were playing Tutstill Tornados, and their newest playing sensation, seeker Jack Badham, formerly with the Woolongong Warriors (Australia), of the Pacific Rim Quidditch League. Jack and Ginny were friends because Ginny's roommate, Hermione had just started going out with him after her rather teary and public breakup with Ron. Ginny liked Jack a lot because he seemed completely devoted to Hermione.
Quidditch players were the celebrities of the wizarding world and it was it was extremely difficult for small town wizards not to be affected by the glam and perks afforded celebrities. Most of the players easily succumbed to the temptations of groupies or player enhancing potions that were all but deemed illegal by the players' associations.
The Tornados' beaters were relentless, keeping the bludger aimed squarely at Ginny, the team's best chaser. The Keeper, Michelle Bovair, was very, very good. Fortunately for the Harpies, team captain, Gwenog Jones, was one of the best beaters in the league and kept a constant barrage of bludger hits aimed squarely at Bovair, so Ginny and the other chasers were able to score twenty times against the Tornados.
The Tornados' chasers, lead by Soledad Richardson, scored against the highly excitable Harpies keeper, Gillian Jameson, twenty-one times within the first two hours of the match. The game was extremely close, and as usual, the fate of the game would rest on the skill of the seekers.
The fans certainly got their galleons' worth that day. The battle lasted for more than four hours and before the Golden Snitch was captured, the chasers had run up the score 420-420. Bovair and Jameson each doing a wild, angry dance when the opposing team's chasers scored. Out of frustration, beater Jones of the Harpies hit a poor, hapless fan in the head with her beater bat, when he dared to cheer a Tornados score.
Jack Badham sat on his broom high above the game, biding his time. He saw Hermione in the stands. She was talking to Ginny's boyfriend, what was his name? Henry Porter? Supposed to be some big celebrity, but if he'd never heard of him. He spotted the snitch, going in for the kill; he grabbed it, ending the game. The Tornados won!
Ginny insisted on taking Hermione and Jack out to dinner with Harry that evening. She wanted to show Jack that there were no hard feelings, and he really did like Jack. She also liked seeing her best friend, Hermione happy for a change. Hermione hadn't taken the break up with Ron very well, especially since he just ran away one day, leaving his family with no idea where to find him.
The family had learned to adapt without Ron's presence, but it was very difficult. Right after he took off, Molly and Arthur sent out inquiries all over the wizarding world, trying to locate him, but it was as if he had vanished off the face of the earth. After the first year, Ron's friends decided that they needed to get on with their lives, fearful but resigned that he would never return.
Hermione, of course, took Ron's leaving harder than the rest, even Molly. She had laid her emotions on the line when she declared her love for him and honestly believed he felt the same way. She blamed herself and went into a long period of depression. Ginny suggested that it was time for her to get on with her life, and to go to Australia to find her parents and bring them back to England.
While Hermione was in Australia getting reacquainted with her parents, she met Jack. How they met was a funny story that Jack repeated to anyone who would listen. The story made the celebrity newspapers in Australia and England. Actually Hermione didn't think the story was all that funny, but Jack told the story so well. They literally ran into each other while Jack was running away from photographers, reporters, and fans, in the alley of a restaurant. Hermione had gone into the alley to throw up after eating some bad shell fish; she had bent over to vomit and Jack ran right into her backside, causing both of them to fall on top of each other. Jack told everyone that Hermione threw up all over him, but of course that part wasn't true. What got Jack's attention was that Hermione had no idea who he was and it wasn't until the next day when he sent her fifty pounds of boiled shrimp and a bottle of Australian wine that she found out he was a celebrity Quidditch player.
He was relentless in his pursuit of her; showering her with flowers and gifts. She was reluctant to go out with him because of her bad luck with Quidditch players in the past. Her associations with Quidditch players for some reason always returned to Ron. But finally his persistence paid off and she agreed to go out with him. He wined and dined her and made her feel very special. No one had ever treated her like that before, and slowly, but deliberately was falling in love with him.
Right before Hermione returned to England (her parents decided to stay in Australia) Jack told her that he couldn't live with her and that he wanted to come back to England with her. He was looking for a change, anyway, he said, and he was sure to get on an English Quidditch team. He was, after all, Jack Badham.
Hermione couldn't believe that Jack was willing to follow her halfway around the world just so they could be together, but when he announced to the press (with Hermione) at his side that he was now a free agent and was looking to relocate to England, Hermione was more than flattered. Two weeks later he and Hermione were in England, and Jack was negotiating with English Quidditch teams.
At one time, Chudley thought they had a shot, but it was the Tutstill Tornados that signed the best seeker in the Pacific Rim League. England loved him because he left his life for one of the Golden Trio. Of course, Jack knew absolutely nothing about the Lord Voldemort or the Death Eaters, and didn't have a clue who Harry Potter was, or what part Hermione played in the Battle of Hogwarts.
When Hermione introduced Jack to her friends Ginny and he hit it off immediately because they were both Quidditch players and shared a love for the game. Ginny was just relieved that Hermione found someone who appeared to love her and show her the respect she deserved.
That evening, at dinner, the four of them toasted the Tornados and Ginny managed a 'to new friendships and new beginnings' toast which made Hermione blush. The press was all over the dinner taking pictures and getting in the way; something Harry and Hermione were still uncomfortable with, but Jack relished in. He acted irritated but Harry could see he loved the attention. Harry wondered whether Jack was good for Hermione, but this was the first time in a long time that she saw Hermione smile. He'd give Jack credit for that. Maybe this was a way for Hermione to start over and leave all the bad memories behind.