AN: Burgde's newest piece of art, college/high school stuff, found a scholarship for college stuff, and settling into a new forum. I'm also changing Ginny's Rule 63 name because I know too many people that go by Gabriel and Gabe, so he's now Gideon Arthur Weasley (don't even get me started on all of the Arthurian names that a friend I went through as alternatives).

Some notes about language, pretend that there was another match before the end of OotP, there's a well-known Monty Python quote somewhere, and Rule 63 names start with the same letter as their canon selves.

Expect there to be massive edits for all of my Rule 63 fics in the upcoming weeks. About time.

tumblr: conjure-at-your-own-risk

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is still owned by Warner Bros, Bloomsbury, and JK Rowling. If it was written by me then it would be a crappy job, because I would have trouble of who to kill off, and my writing still has a lot of problems.

Title: Wronski Feint

Word Count: 4K

Summary: Because relationships and Quidditch have so much in common. Gender-Bended.

Halley was usually good at dodging bludgers. Her broom was one of the best out there, and it had very careful precision when it came to steep turns. There was that, and the fact that she knew that she could outfly a dragon. That gave her a certain sense of confidence during their practises and games.

Except for recently when it felt like the bludgers were always aimed at her. And there was one smiling, redhead with the freckled face to blame.

Halley was rubbing her shoulder where Jenny Peakes had aimed a little too close for comfort. It smarted but it was nothing that a hot shower and a small dose of a pain relief potion couldn't fix.

"Do we need more beaters on the team, Captain?" Gid appeared suddenly by her side; a quaffle tucked under his arm and his red hair tousled from practise. There was something about that stupid grin on his face that wanted to make her smile back. Then came that recurring thought that made toes curl whenever he would look at her direction: He's cute. The little boy that used to stutter in the same room as her had turned into someone very funny and cute, and it was frustrating her.

Especially since she had a niggling feeling that Gideon Arthur Weasley knew about her ironic crush on him.

Halley rolled her shoulder and felt a reassuring pop and crack. She readjusted her glasses, watching him out of the corner of her eye. "Get your head out of your arse, Weasley, and in the game."

"But it's a practise, Potter." Gid gave another one of those stupid, stupid grins that made her stomach flutter. He flew in lazy circles around her, ignoring Keith Bell's protests to bring the damn ball back. "We can afford to goof off."

Halley brushed some of her loose hair over her ear. "Try saying that when we go against Ravenclaw. It's our last game and I expect that we crush them to bits." She fixed him with what was going to be a stern glare, but there was something about him that threw her off and made her smile instead. "Knock it off, I'm trying to be your captain."

He was upside down now, his Quidditch robes dangled around him like a scarlet waterfall. He had flown up a bit higher so that his face would be closer to hers. "What? It's a lovely day and we should enjoy it."

"How do you suppose that we enjoy today?" Halley asked, leaning forward on her broom. She now realised how close his face was. Even upside down with his hair falling all over his face, she could easily see his dark eyes sparkling with some sort of idea. "Surprise me."

"Weasley!" Her hands balled up in the front of his kit, and she rose on the tips of her toes. "You call that a play?"

"Wh—what? A Wronski Feint isn't good enough for you?" He sounded breathless from the intense match against the Falcons. Puddlemere's seeker had suffered a last minute injury, and Gid had to take over due to being their reserve seeker. The Falmouth Falcons were known to play dirty and to send the opposing team members to St Mungo's. Halley was only glad that he'd came out in one piece.

She'd bolted to the changing rooms the second that the whistle was blown. There was that one terrifying moment when a bludger had collided with the tail end of his broom, but that had only gave his team a sweet sense of justice when it had brought him closer to the snitch. That was then he did the Wronski Feint that had more of a chance of breaking his neck than anything else. It was frightening to think for a split-second that he was going to hit the ground.

But he was standing in front of her, alive and happy that they'd won the match.

"As your former captain, I'm ordering you to stay far away from the bludgers." Her hands moved up his chest to link together at the back of his neck. Her fingers played the red nape of hair. "Merlin, Gid, it's my job that supposed to be the scary one."

"Take that to Wood." He buried his face in her hair, groaning. "That would be a shitty way of retiring, being dead and all."

"Git," she said without any heat. She felt his arms pulling her into a hug, and she breathed in the scent of sweat, broom polish, and the masculine undertones that were associated with him. "Gideon Arthur Weasley, you're such a stupid git, and I want to curse that Falcons player really badly."

"It'll be a family event," he offered. He kissed her forehead. "I think Rory still wants to get back at them for sending half the Cannons to the Spell Damage Ward for a week." He kissed the corner of her mouth. "I'm not dead, yet. You can even give me a full body exam to make sure."

Halley laughed.

"Honest." Gid waggled his eyebrows, something that made her laugh again. "It'll have to be real thorough because I'll be too sore starting tomorrow to get out of bed."

Halley was officially replaced thanks to Umbridge and Malfoy, and there was nothing that she could do about it.

"Do you think you can still make some Polyjuice?" she muttered. She watched the team fly and into their formations. "Would he mind?" She briefly wondered what colour his hair would turn the potion to. Being a boy temporarily to play Quidditch was a much better alternative than watching and moping by the sidelines.

Hector paused from reading his book and gave her with a stern glare. "He will. Now stop complaining and give our friends some support. They're bound to be very nervous." He went back to his book.

"But you're reading," Halley argued. "Do you do this at every match?" She felt slightly stung that her best friend for years had been doing this. If he was going to ask her to go see an event that he was doing, then she would return the favour by reading a Quidditch magazine.

He never answered, but Nellie Longbottom did: "Every time," she said, nodding. "He only looks up whenever Rory tells him to."

Hector slammed his book shut, and his cheeks turned pink. "Enough. Just for the record, didn't you say that of all the people, at least it was Gid replacing you? You've seen him play, and according to you he's not that bad. And he's been watching how you fly—"

"He watches me?" Halley stopped to think about the practises that she had seen. Maybe there was a technique or two that he'd done that was more her style, but she couldn't remember much. She'd spent her time then thinking of getting back at Malfoy and Umbridge, and future plans for the DA.

"I think 'studies' is better," Hector said. "The point is that even you admitted that he's good. Now suck it up, watch him play, and maybe you'll have some competition next year." He opened his book and started reading again.

She looked out onto the pitch and saw her team play. There was Rory hovering near one of the goal posts, and even far away Halley could tell that her best friend was nervous. Bell, Johnson, and Spinnet were doing some impressive throws with the quaffle that the Ravenclaws were having trouble intercepting; their new beaters were also having trouble catching up with them, trying to make sure that they wouldn't hit their own, and then there was Gid looking like he was having the time of his life.

Despite that he was losing the traditional build for a seeker (he was getting too tall—a constant complaint from Mrs Weasley), he clearly knew how to handle a broom. Unlike Halley, he wasn't keeping himself distanced from the teams. He was weaving between the players, more chaser than seeker, and his attention switching from searching the snitch and from Chang to see if the other seeker was having any luck. A small part of Halley thought about the irony. The boy that used to have a crush on her was going against that she'd kissed under the mistletoe.

She returned her attention to Rory and crossed her fingers. It wasn't fair how her friend's confidence could easily be shaken. That stupid song wasn't helping, and she knew that the upcoming OWLs only made it worse. If the Ravenclaws made a goal because of Rory, the redhead would never forgive herself and would lose more confidence.

"You should say something to her," Halley said. Her eyes went back to Gid. He'd clearly caught sight of the snitch. Her stomach jumped and she had the urge to go grab a broom and help him. Hector was still pretending to read. His eyes were flickering between the pages and watching Rory with a concern expression on his face "I mean," Halley continued. "It's one thing if I tell her something that could cheer her up, but if you do something..." Her words trailed off when the snitch was in plain sight.

It was fluttering right in front of her, almost mocking her position. It would be too easy to reach her hand out and—

—there was Gid's gloved hand closed around it. His brown eyes were blazing from behind his clunky goggles, his pulse visibly pounding in his neck, and a loud whoop left his mouth.

Their eyes locked and Halley felt less aware of the cheering crowd around her. Now she could admit that he's a good enough replacement. Great job, she mouthed. His face was flushed from excitement and from her words. He gave her a small grin before flying back to their team.

Maybe Rory wasn't the only Weasley who needed the confirmation from someone they cared about.

"Bloody hell." Halley covered her face with her hands, wishing that the cover were a figment of her imagination. Some complete arse had gotten a picture of her enthusiastically snogging her boyfriend after his first practise with Puddlemere.

They were usually very good with keeping their relationship low-key in public. When he was at Hogwarts, they were at least safe because reporters weren't allowed in the village and on school grounds. When he'd graduated, they would often go out in the muggle world and do their dates there. Gid, having never taken Muggle Studies, found the muggle part of London fascinating. And since the Dursleys had never taken Halley on trips, she would equally enjoy those visits. There were the cinemas, the museums, and the London Eye was an especially fun time...

And now it looked like some photographer was going to get a very big raise.

Halley took another peak at the cover and felt her face blush. There they were, snogging against the outside wall of the changing rooms. The caption underneath said something about a full-length story inside. Against her better judgement, she flipped to the story and winced as she saw more pictures. Some of them were reprints from the past, but there were different angle shots from his practise.

Bollocks. She had to be the good girlfriend and offered to take him home, because there was no way that he was going to be in any shape to Apparate. He'd used the rest of his energy for their passionate embrace, and then she'd peeled the new robes off of him and dragged him to a hot shower.

The official Quidditch uniforms were very different from the Hogwarts ones. Instead of the one-size-fits all that was never a perfect fit, the official ones were tailored to fit the player exactly, and it was proven that it was impossible to look horrid in them. And Halley wasn't going to lie that he'd looked very fit in the dark trousers and the navy robes. He'd just finished his first practise with them on, and things had escalated quickly.

Skimming the article, her mouth became a thin line when she saw that it was the same garbage that Skeeter had spewed: Love triangle, love potions, her playing not only Gid but several other known wizards...and at the same time the author was thinly showing their disgust about the photo. It also had no mercy regarding several things about Gid and the Weasley family.

Having enough, Halley jabbed her wand at the magazine and watched it burn into a small, crumpled, blackened ball.

"What died?" Gid asked. He walked inside the kitchen wearing only a t-shirt and a red pair of boxers with the yellow silhouette of a lion. He rubbed his eyes and saw the burned mess on the kitchen table. "What stupidity did Witch Weekly do this time?"

"You may want to stay inside for the next month," she advised. She thought about what to do with their mail, making a note to use more powerful screening spells. The last thing they would need were disturbing letters because of the photo. "Someone needs to owl your mum, and work is going to be—"

"What happened?" Gid flicked his wand and the teakettle was filled with water. He set it on the stove and waved his wand for the tea leaves to simmer inside. "What sordid love story are we a part of now? Oh, let me guess—you and Daria Malfoy's nonexistent cousin are stuck in an arranged marriage." He sat down at the table, having too much fun with his idea. "It turns out that he's also the heir of Slytherin, and he has all of this gold, so you had to say yes." He fluttered his eyelashes for the full effect.

"Nope." Halley clicked her tongue. "Please, you should write for that bloody magazine with your imagination." She Summoned the whistling teakettle to their table. "It turns out that you've been dosing me with love potions so that you can have my fortune."

"But that's so boring," Gid said. He poured himself a cup of tea. "Don't they know that I rely on my good looks alone to charm you into loving me."

"There's more," she said.

"Tell me that they at least get creative?" He stretched his arms out and got himself more comfortable in his chair. "I've read shoddy bodice-rippers with better plots." Halley waved her wand and the burnt magazine vanished.

"I'm apparently involved with Damien Greengrass, and that's why he called off his nonexistent engagement with Malfoy. I still have this on-off relationship with poor Hector who is using Rory as a rebound, and then there's you." She gave him a coy look. "Haven't you been a bad wizard."

If there was one thing she could count on, it was that they knew how to turn a horrible article into a good laugh.

Gid laughed and straddled the back of his chair. He held his hands out. "Then arrest me, Auror Potter."

She swiped his abandoned cup of tea. "Really, slipping me love potions since sixth year seem to be the only reason why I would throw myself at you." She frowned and mentally searched for the words that the author had used. "The heroine of the Wizarding World should know better than to tie herself to a family that's known for its squalor."

The mirth left his face. Halley took a sip of tea. Even now, what his family's finances used to be was a sore spot. Even on his starter salary alone they could live a comfortable life. They weren't going to have the same worries that Molly and Arthur had, but that never stopped certain reporters from making snide comments every now and then.

Much to his credit, Gid never started a full-fledge rant that was tied with the firecracker-like Weasley temper. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He rested his chin on the chair and stayed very still. "Yeah. Still have read better bodice-rippers. At least the pauper never gets so fecking judged by some elitist bastards."

Halley rose from her chair and moved to cup his face with her hands. "Then I guess you'll have to use your good looks to charm them."

His mouth tilted into a smile and he pressed a kiss to her palm. Gid opened his eyes, and gave her a sort of awed look that had never wavered in their time together. "I'm so in love with you."

"That's the idea." Halley kissed him on the mouth.

It was the summer of Fourth Year was when they'd all played together. The World Cup was sadly over (Halley and Rory were wishing that it would last for days), and it had given them much inspiration for the matches back at school. Halley felt especially giddy since she had a similar broom that the professionals used. She hoped that would give her an edge against the Slytherins.

Compared to previous summer holidays, they now had more people to play with. It was going to be Halley, Rory, Felicity, and Gid against Charlotte, (grudgingly) Hector, Georgia, and Beatrice.

Halley had heard how good Charlotte was. Several high-ranking Quidditch teams like the Holyhead Harpies had wanted her, but she'd decided to follow her passion of chasing dragons rather than snitches. Halley figured that the precision and skills weren't that different.

With a nervous gulp, she flew up in the air and the game had started.

With enchanted apples and a walnut, they were all set to play. One seeker, one keeper, one beater, and one chaser for each team. It felt good to be in the air, and wearing the protective gear and gloves again. It had always brought a sense of serenity and sizzling excitement that Halley loved.

They weren't playing much by the rules and regulations: Felicity and Georgia were egging each other rather than everyone else, some of the stuff that Beatrice was doing were rusty but slightly illegal, Rory was having trouble being a keeper with her Shooting Star, and there was Hector who was muttering the rules under his breath and moving at a snail's pace. Halley's only competition was Charlotte, and that was good for her.

Zipping near the tops of the trees, and careful not to fly too high because of the muggles, Halley had her eyes peeled for the walnut. For a second or so she would slip and wait for the sparkle of gold in the summer daylight, but a zooming walnut did caught her attention.

Felicity and Georgia had abandoned the game and were goofing with elaborate tricks. Beatrice was telling them off for flying too high in the air ("Do you want Mum to put you on kitchen duty for pelting apples like that?"). Rory was helping Hector off his broom ("You're only eight feet off the ground, that bloody hippogriff went even higher than you!"). Halley saw her opportunity and went for it.

She flew past the twins and Beatrice and dove. A quick look over her shoulder, and she saw Charlotte on her tail. She took a sharp turn and swerved (narrowly missing a tree branch), hoping that would mess up the older Weasley. With anticipation buzzing in her veins, Halley tried to track the fast-moving walnut that enjoyed using the camouflage of the foliage. She caught sight of it again.

Laying flat on her broom, Halley prepared herself for a deeper dive and hoped that her helmet would stop some of the injury with her next move. Picturing that scene with Vasilisa Krum in the most exciting part of the match, Halley went down. Charlotte's shadow was hanging over her, and was growing larger and larger…the snitch was right there…the ground was so close…

Then Charlotte's suffocating shadow was gone. Halley parked abruptly, a spindly branch scratched her right arm and the walnut blinked away. The older witch was letting out a filthy slew of English and Romanian curses, and was pointing accusingly at her brother. Gid wasn't that far from Halley and he was throwing an enchanted apple up in the air. The usual shy expression on his face was gone, and he was smiling widely and nervously.

"You little weasel," Charlotte shouted. "You can't just switch positions like that!"

"The twins weren't doing it," he shouted back. "Someone had to keep you away from her!"

Halley smiled inwardly at the very Gryffindor action.

Charlotte gave them a rude hand gesture and went to go land.

Shaking her head at how unpredictable the Weasley matches were, Halley flew over to Gid. He blushed at seeing her and retreated his head between his shoulders, reminding her of a turtle.

"Thanks," Halley said. "I never knew you could aim so—"

"Snitch," Gid interrupted, now appearing very alert. They looked up and saw the walnut floating above their heads. Halley automatically shot up and—

—took a short fall to the ground with the walnut in her clenched hand. Halley felt the breath being knocked out of her. She had fallen on her side, but slumped face-first. She surprisingly didn't feel the pain that came with hitting a hard ground, but her hand pulsed with the buzzing walnut inside.

Halley reached for something to help her get up and—that was a knee—that was a stomach—and those were light freckles near brown eyes that were staring back at her almost in horror.

"I, uh, I caught the snitch," Halley said. She held open her fist and released the walnut. The enchantment had worn off and it plopped on his forehead. "Sorry." She felt a broom roll off her legs, and Halley realised that there was nothing to make their positions any less awkward.

Gid's face colour rivalled his hair. "Geroffme," he mumbled. Not needed to be told twice, Halley scrambled off him and held a hand out. Hesitantly, he took her hand and winced as he stood up.

"Are you okay?" She let her hand hover over the back of his head. She hoped she hadn't injured him too badly. Her eyes had trouble focusing without her glasses, but she couldn't see that many bad bruises on his arms.

"Yeah," he said. He was looking down and was fascinated with the laces on his muddied trainers. "Mum can—she can fix me up. You?"

"I'm more worried about my glasses." Halley blinked and had trouble reading more of the mortified expression on his face. She thought that he looked very different when he had confidence. It was a shame because he was always much easier to talk to when he was sure of himself.

"I'll help," Gid said. He rubbed the back of his neck and was speaking to her face. He winced when he touched a bruise and looked back down. He held an arm out for her to support herself on.

She took his arm more out of kindness rather than necessity, and sincerely hoped that they wouldn't accidentally step on her glasses during the search. She took a step forward and there was a crunch.

"Found them," she said.