'I have got to be one of the stupidest bounty hunter's alive.' Ginny had led her newly capturued bounty to a small clearing near the Syndicate border and had set up camp, intending to clear her head before taking her bounty to York. She was currently sitting against a burnt out car watching Hermione fidle with some loose grass looking extremly bored. 'I kissed her! Okay, so I kissed her on the forehead, but still! I'm not supossed to be attracted to my bounty. I'm just going to have to hope that these feelings go away after I turn her in. If I turn her in.' She added as an afterthought.
Unbeknownst to Ginny, while she was sorting through her feelings for a certain brunette, said brunette was starting to have doubts about her supossed captor. Eairlier, while Ginny was setting up camp, Hermione had noticed one of her flyers she had handed out in Fringe sticking out of one of the red-heads pocket. 'Why would she have one of my flyers? Maybe she really doesn't want to take me in.' She sighed at such a stupid thought, 'Yeah, and maybe goblins will share their vast wealth with the wastes. Might as well try and get to know my captor, if only to distract me from my inevitable fate when we reach York.' She stopped playing with the grass and turned her full attention to her captor. "So..."
Ginny immediately snapped to attention as soon as Hermione spoke up and stared at the brunette, as if daring her to say something.
Hermione figited a little under the intense stare, but managed to find the courage to speak up, "You know, I, um, never did get your name."
'So she wants to play this game, does she. Alright, I'll play.' Ginny's normally stone features turned into an amusing smirk before she answered, "Weasley. Ginny Weasley."
"Weasley, Weasley. Why does that name sound so familier?" Hermione pondered. The name sounded familer, like she should know it, but she was currently failing to grasp it.
Ginny snorted, "Not suprising. My father, Arthur, is a councilor for the Union, two of my brother's Fred and George have there own joke shop in New Canterbury, Percy is currently ass-kissing his way up the ladder in the Union government, and Bill is married to a Pari mayor, Fleur, I think her name was. Go ahead and take your pick." she listed off with disdain. Ginny never really got along with her brothers, save Charlie, but he was dead now, as much as she didn't want that to be true.
"No, none of them sound familar. Well, maybe the Joke shop owners." She mused. "Oh wait! Isn't one of your brothers a famous general in the Union?"
'Oh no, why does she have to know him.' "Ron." She said with as much hatred as she could muster.
"Yeah, I think thats him. Sounds like you don't like him."
"No, I don't. He disowned me along with Percy when I became a bounty hunter and mum still won't talk to me, not like I want to talk to any of them anyway." She sighed, she hated re-living the moment her family more or less disowned her, but she was determined not to cry, especially not in front of her bounty.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Hermione realized she had hit a sore spot and decided to try a change of topic, "Do you have any hobbies other than bounty hunting?"
"Hobbies, really?" She asked in disbelief. She leaned back into the car and let out a sigh, her previous thoughts temporarily discarded and thought a bit before responding, "Alright, lets see. I like taverns, especcially the ones in Trainyard. They're fun. Oh, and feral hunting is always fun."
"Feral hunting?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah, you know, hunting down feral elves. The ones that are too far gone in the head to be saftley integrated into society and attack any traveller on sight." Ginny said.
"Thats terrible!" Hermione couldn't think of anything more horrible a fate than that.
"It's either kill them or become lunch for some feral. Plus, it helps me hone my skills. Nothing is a better motivater than having a rabid elf try to gnaw your leg off." Hermione was abolutly horrifyed at the thought of Ginny hunting down some poor little harmless house-elf, or at least harmless to someone who had never seen a vicious feral house-elf.
"Okay, my turn." Ginny suddenly said.
"Wh-What?"
"It's my turn to quiz you on useless crap now." Ginny though for a moment and decided on a simple question, "Okay, since you asked me about my family, I'll ask you about yours."
"Um, okay, well," Hermione was nervous. She hadn't spoken to her family in years, but not for lack of trying. "I'm an only child, kind of a rarity in the wastes, I know."
"Interesting. What about your parents? They would probably die of shock if they knew there little girl was hanging out in a scum pit like Fringe."
"Not really. I haven't spoken to my parents in years. Not since they, well, found out my preference for... for women." Hermione ended in a soft wisper that Ginny had to strain to hear. As soon as the words registered in her mind, she let out o small laugh.
"Well, at least I know my gaydar isn't malfunctioning." She said with a smile.
"It's not funny!" Hermione practically yelled. She didn't know what was so funny about her being disowned by her own parents.
"Relax sunshine, I was laughing at the situation, not at you being disowned." At that moment, Ginny remembered the wand she had taken from the brunette when she captured her, "What about your wand? There aren't many practicing magic users anymore."
"Well, um, I figured since I probably wouldn't want to sleep with a man at any point in my life, so I turned to magic, which I found out I could use when I was twelve, and began researching was to have a child with another woman through magic." She said proudly. Then remembered her situation and realised that she would probably never find her 'one.'
Ginny could feel herself finding a lot of respect for the brunette at the moment. Risking being shunned and hated by the world simply because she was using magic in the open was remarkable. Not even Ginny could say that she practiced magic in the open, she would lose at least half of her clientele if she did. She decided right then that she wouldn't turn Hermione in, not for ten thousand, not for a hundred thousand. However, she still had to pretend to try and turn her in and hope that the Syndicate would try and undercut her so she would have a good reason to not to give up the brunette.
"Look, lets get some rest. We'll head out in the morning." Ginny said suddenly. Hermione just nodded her head in acknowledgment. Ginny couldn't stand to see the defeated look on the brunette's face, so she said the only thing she could think of to try and cheer her up even a little, "Tell you what. If I don't like what the York Minister says, I'll... I'll take you with me. No matter what the Minister says or does."
Hermione's face broke into a small grin. She didn't really know why the hunter was trying to be nice, but she could admit that she felt a little better. "Thanks, that... that means a lot." With that, Hermione stood up and closed the distance between the two and placed a small, chaste kiss on the redheads lips before heading off to claim a sleeping area, leaving a stunned Ginny behind. 'Maybe I have already found my one.'