A/N: What's that? An update? Why yes indeed, it is! Thanks to KD for betaing this (and reminding me that I shouldn't write, but study for exams that are coming up). Enjoy it while it lasts, because I actually have to study for some very difficult exams, so I don't know how soon next chapter will be posted.
Thank you so much for your reviews...I loved them! You lot rock! Seriously.
Now...on with the story!He's not my bloody…oh wait…
I awoke from a tapping noise at the window. Bloody owls! It was way too early for anything to be awake, even those stupid, effing owls! I groaned and pulled myself out of bed to open the window. Hedwig was staring back at me and I blinked a few times. Why would Harry send Hedwig to me at…what was it? 8 o'clock? Flashes of the night before came to my mind and suddenly I was awake. Harry had actually sent me an owl!
"Hey girl," I said, taking the letter from her, "Come with me to the kitchen; I'll give you some bacon." Yes, I'd finally knocked some sense into Tammy so we could have bacon for breakfast.
She nibbled my finger affectionately and flew towards the kitchen. I followed her, opening the letter as I was walking…
Hey Gin!
I had serious trouble waking up this morning. If only my stunningly good-looking girlfriend had been here to keep me awake all night so I couldn't oversleep…
Only kidding! No need to send flying bogeys at me. Well, that would mean I'd have to see you, so perhaps you could come over…let's say at half past one o'clock? At the Leaky Cauldron? Send Hedwig back with your answer.
Love,
Harry
I stared at the parchment for a moment to make sure what I was reading was real. Stunningly good-looking girlfriend? Love, Harry? I bit my lip smiling, grabbed a quill and a spare bit of parchment and wrote a quick answer on it.
"Hedwig," I said with the parchment in my hand, "Can you bring this back to Harry?" She hooted. "Thanks, girl," I said, scratching her head. I attached the letter and she flew away.
Merlin's beard, what should I wear?
I was tapping nervously on the table with my fingers. Every now and then a customer would glare at me and I would stop…only to continue a few moments later. It really was my fault; I shouldn't have come early. I knew how long Quidditch practices could take. And I was fairly certain he would want to take a nice, long shower before meeting me. But I still was getting quite nervous.
"Hello gorgeous," I heard that o so familiar voice behind me.
"Right back at you," I grinned as I turned around to kiss him.
"Hmm," he said, still holding me, "Are you sure you want to eat? Because I'd rather do something else right now."
"You wouldn't want your stunningly good-looking girlfriend to practice this afternoon on an empty stomach, now would you?" I smirked.
"You always were smarter than me." He pecked me on my nose and sat down next to me. "So, ready to order yet?"
I bit my lip and looked at the menu. I actually had no idea… "So you don't reckon this is a mistake?" I blurted out after a moment. I had been thinking about it (and gotten little sleep because of it) last night. What if it had been a joke? What if the twins had slipped him a love potion? What if…
"Do you?" he interrupted my thoughts with a raised eyebrow.
"No," I said quickly. "No, no mistake…not at all. But…you're Harry Potter. I don't know if you've noticed, but I kind of had this huge crush on you when I was younger." And it never really stopped, if you want to believe Bill. And the twins. Oh, and Percy. And maybe Ron and Charlie too…
"You did, did you?" Harry grinned. I slapped him playfully on his arm and he grabbed my hand.
A flash went off somewhere next to us and I saw Harry cringe. "I'm sorry," he said as he started to pull away, "This always happens."
"Yes, well," I said decidedly, "What did you think would happen when two national Quidditch players start holding hands in public."
Harry looked up at me in amazement and I smiled. Did he really think I would use the Boy Who Lived card?
"So I understand if you want to break up with me because I'm too famous," I sighed, "I won't like it, but I'll understand."
"You're amazing, you know that?" he said in admiration.
I smirked, "I try."
He leaned over the table to kiss me again and another flash went off.
"Perfect!" Harry groaned, "Just perfect, come on." He grabbed my hand, dropped some gold on the table and pulled me outside. We weren't even outside when he Apparated us. And before we had arrived, he kissed me.
"I missed you," he muttered against my lips.
"Hmmm," I smiled contentedly, "Of course you did."
He grinned and kissed me again.
"So, where are…" I said after a while, looking around, "Is this the paddock behind the Burrow?"
Harry's cheeks turned a little pink. Funny how he can vanquish the darkest wizard of all time, but when he has to face the fury of a Weasley woman, he starts to blush.
"I thought you would like to tell your parents before they read it in the paper," he said, still blushing.
Before I could even comment on his apparent fear for my mother, he continued, "The paparazzi will think we went to your place. Or mine…but they'll never think we are here to tell your parents."
Well…maybe he did vanquish a Dark Lord. He sure can still think in tactics.
He grabbed my hand again and pulled me to the kitchen.
"Harry, Ginny!" Mum cried, "What a surprise!"
"Gin has some news," Harry smiled.
I glared at him…it was his news too! So I sighed, turned to Mum and said, "There might be some pictures in the Prophet tomorrow of me and my boyfriend…"
"A boyfriend?" Mum asked, immediately interested. "Why isn't he here so we can meet him?"
"Yes, Gin," Harry grinned, "Why haven't you brought your good-for-nothing-boyfriend to explain everything?"
I glared at him again, "Because he's a prat and very famous. Well, that's the reason I'm with him, actually. I'll get more fame with him."
"Ginevra!" Mum exclaimed. Harry didn't look very pleased either. Served him right…
"And what does your boyfriend think of that?" he spat.
"He may very well think whatever he wants," I spat back, "He's a stupid prat for thinking I only want to stay with him because he's famous! He needs to stop thinking people only like him because he vanquished a big old wizard. I'm with you, Harry, not the Boy Who Lived!"
Harry didn't get a chance to react, because Mum had pulled us into a hug and screamed (yes, she screamed), "I'm so happy for you two!"
"Well," I sighed, "We were at the Leaky Cauldron and at least two pictures have been taken. So they'll be all over the papers to…bugger! I have to go!" My eyes had wandered over towards Mum's marvellous clock, which read 'Ginny --- late'. Harry smiled apologetically and I kissed him softly. If Mum hadn't believed me before, she would now. So I quickly turned to say goodbye to Mum and Disapparated.
"So, how's the boyfriend?" Evy asked as we were flying in the air.
"How many times do I have to tell you lot I don't have a bloody…" I started. Oh, wait. I do have a boyfriend! Harry Potter…hard to forget, actually.
Unfortunately, Evy understood this too. "You do?" she beamed.
"I always took you for the confirmed bachelor," Natalie said thoughtfully.
"So, who is it?" Evy asked eagerly.
"Harry!" Tammy yelled as she zoomed by in pursuit of the Snitch.
"Figures," Evy and Natalie said in unison. Hello! I'm still right here!
"So," Natalie flew a little closer, "How'd you do it? The good old batting-with-the-eyelashes? Or was it more a pouting-lips tactic?"
"Actually, it was more of a yelling-at-him-for-being-a-stupid-prat thing," I said a little sarcastically. They don't have to know it's the truth…
"Oh, but Harry Potter!" Evy said excited, "He's the most eligible bachelor of whole wizarding Britain! He vanquished You-Know-Who!"
"No," I corrected her simply, "He's Harry, my brother's best mate."
"We really ought to talk about your taste in men," Natalie sighed.
"Oy! Weasley, Vandermark, Eads! Practice started thirty minutes ago!" Gwenog yelled at us.
"We're gossiping about Ginny's new boyfriend!" Evy yelled back.
"After practice!" Gwenog shouted.
Unfortunately, my luck didn't last once we were out of the air. I was the first in the showers, but the rest of the team followed swiftly. It's times like these when I want to hex myself for getting on an all-girl team.
"So, a boyfriend, eh?" Meredith asked me.
"Yes," I sighed, "It's not that big of a deal, really."
Tammy, Evy and Natalie turned their heads towards me, "Sure," Tammy started, "So it wasn't you who came out of…"
"Oh, I'm ready," I grinned. "Big appointment. I really must hurry." I shot out of the showers and grabbed my stuff. I'm positive I've never dressed that quickly ever in my life. Still, we were all athletes and the other girls knew how to hurry.
"Come on, Ginny!" Rachel almost begged. "Tell us something!"
"I really must go," I said as I opened the door. I took one step out of the locker rooms and saw Harry standing casually against the opposite wall.
"Hi," he smiled. "How's practice?"
"They all want to know who my ruggedly handsome boyfriend is," I smirked, "And they're listening at the other side of the door."
"Are they now?" he grinned, "And what did you tell them?"
"I might have slipped something about the most eligible bachelor of the wizarding world…or at least Britain."
"And what did they say?"
"They are going to give me advice in my choice of men."
"Oh?"
"Yes. But I don't think I'll need it. I think I've found the perfect man already, so why would I want to look further?"
Harry grinned and kissed me. I could so get used to this!
Loud whooping cheers erupted from behind us. We parted reluctantly and I saw the rest of my team grinning broadly.
"Harry Potter, huh?" Rachel grinned.
"Why yes, I am indeed," Harry smiled, "But you'll have to excuse us, we have a big appointment." And before I could even look at him to ask what on earth he was talking about (we never made an appointment to even see each other after practice! We'd just been together for lunch!), I felt that familiar sensation of Apparating.
"Harry James Potter!" I yelled as we materialized, "You could have warn…is this Grimmauld Place? But you've got an apartment! You've been living there with Ron!"
Harry shrugged, "Well, yes, but he'll be moving in with Hermione soon. Or they'll want to move into our apartment. Besides, we've done some remodelling to the Headquarters. I even managed to get Sirius' Mum off the wall!" He pointed to a very blank spot on the wall.
"You mean Hermione got it off."
"Of course."
We looked silently at each other for a few moments. Then Harry broke the silence, "This is the only thing I've got from Sirius that I can see or touch or something," he said thoughtfully. "He wouldn't want me to mope around and I know he hated this place and I did too, but I dunno…it reminds me of him." He chuckled softly and turned to look at me (I hadn't even realized he had turned away from me) when I took his hand in mine, "I've even managed to restore that stupid tree…"
I smiled at him, which he obviously saw as a sign to show me around, because the rest of the afternoon he showed me the work he had done with Ron and Hermione.
He explained that during their Horcrux hunt, they came back here to regain energy. It was still heavily guarded with all kinds of spells and now that the Secret Keeper was dead, they didn't have to worry about Voldemort finding out where the Headquarters were.
It had all started with Hermione who perused the library for useful books. She continued the work we'd begun when we were spending the summer there and made the library liveable. The next time they returned, they started to work on the next room and once Voldemort was vanquished, at least three quarters of Grimmauld Place had been cleaned out and repainted. Harry simply continued and finished it afterwards. As he told me, he'd made it 'a place Sirius would be proud to live in'.
One week after the celebrated England National Quidditch Team Celebratory Ball, coach Morris came with a new idea for practice. It was an open one, so everybody could come and watch and I had this strange feeling that Harry would come with half of the other Cannon's players.
"We're going to do something else," coach Morris said as we stood around him with our brooms. I looked at Tammy who simply shrugged. "We're going to play each other's positions." No… "You'll get a special insight in your teammates' flying and learn from them. You have five minutes to quarrel about who gets which position. After that, I want everyone up in the air."
"I name Ginny for Seeker!" Tammy said before anyone could open his or her mouths to speak.
"Wha-?" I started, but Rachel was quicker, "I think that's a wonderful idea! Can I be a Beater?"
"Oh!" Gwenog said, "Then I want to be a Chaser."
"I want to Keep!" Natalie beamed excitedly.
"But I wanted to Keep too," Tammy pouted, "Well, I suppose I also can Chase…"
"Good," Evy grinned, "Then I'll be the other Beater."
"I reckon I don't really have a choice but be the last Chaser, do I?" Meredith said thoughtfully.
"And what if I don't want to play Seeker?" I said exasperated.
"Too bad," Tammy smirked, "That's the only position left. The only ones willing to trade, play Chaser and you can't choose that position."
"Fine!" I muttered as I shot up in the air.
Morris was already waiting for us and actually looked pleased that we'd decided so quickly, "Since I don't think it will do you a lot of good to practice these positions, you have half an hour to get used to them before we start a scrimmage against the reserves. The first team to catch the Snitch or get two hundred and fifty points wins."
I snorted. No way was I going to be better than the reserve Seeker! She'd been practicing for almost a year! Probably even longer with some other team…and the last time I'd played Seeker was, well, in my fifth year at Hogwarts…
"Up to it, Weasley?" Clara Robbins, the reserve Seeker, asked me as I flew up next to her, "It's not at all like Chasing, you know."
I suddenly got very irritated with her. Just because I didn't play Seeker, didn't give her the right to act so…such…so…very much like Phlegm! In case she'd forgotten, she flew into a goal hoop at the tryouts! But then I realized this also meant she didn't know I've played Seeker before. Well, let's not shatter her dreams then! "Morris thought it'd be good for us, so I'll just try."
"If you want, I'll be soft," she said with a sympathetic tone in her voice. I really must introduce her to Phlegm sometime. If I haven't murdered her before…
"No," I said, trying very, very, very hard to smile at her, "Everybody expects you to win. It would be weird if you'd lose from me, a Chaser."
She smiled sweetly. "Well, good luck then."
Can I throw her off her broom? Now?
I played as clumsily as I could while we were practicing, which ended up in understanding smiles from Robbins and baffled looks from Tammy who was actually doing quite a good job at Chasing.
After what looked like centuries, Morris blew his whistle and threw the Quaffle into the air to announce the beginning of the match. Quite a few people were already sitting in the stands as Julie immediately took possession of the Quaffle, flew straight towards Natalie and scored. Okay, this was going to be though…
"I've seen the papers, you know," it said, trying to sound casually, but failing miserably, "About you and Harry Potter." The awe in her voice was even more obvious. Of course she would admire Harry, he's a sodding Seeker!
"Have you now?" I tried to sound nice, but I reckon I failed as miserably as she'd done just moments before.
"You didn't have to take this position just because your boyfriend is the best Seeker in the world."
Oh, please, don't let me stop you from marrying him. I'm only his girlfriend!
"Yes, well, it was Tammy's idea…"
She gave me another compassionate look and I really wanted to do a Wronski Feint just to wipe that look off of her face. Not that I can pull off a Wronski Feint. I'm not that good. Why d'you think I'm Chasing?
At least she stopped talking to me and started to bob up and down. It gave me the chance to scan the pitch for any sight of the Snitch…that, of course, wasn't there. Below us, the reserves were leading with forty to ten and just as I was watching, Lynette scored another goal. I groaned. Why did Natalie insist on Keeping? She's rubbish!
Suddenly, I saw that stupid cow accelerating towards the other end of the pitch from the corner of my eye. I looked up and tilted my head, wondering if she'd seen something I hadn't. But, no, the Snitch had yet to make its appearance, so I relaxed on my broom and watched the game below me, where Tammy was about to perform a perfect reverse pass. As she scored, I looked back at her and saw her scowling at me for not falling for that stupid trick. Serves her right.
"Have you seen who just entered the stands?" she asked, the compassion in her voice replaced by something like hostility, as she returned next to me.
I looked at the stands and saw a very familiar mob of unruly black hair, next to a redhead. George?
"Your boyfriend," she spat the word out, "has come to see for himself that you're rubbish."
"Yes, well, I'm supposed to be rubbish, aren't I?" I rolled my eyes. A Bludger was heading for us and I simply dropped my broom a few feet. And then I saw it. And considering the fact that Mary-Sue accelerated just as fast as I did, she'd seen it too. Just next to where Harry, George and coach Morris were sitting, the Snitch was hovering lazily in the air. We both sped forwards, straight through the game of the others (who, incidentally, had stopped playing and were watching us…well, the Chasers anyway), without any problem until somewhere halfway. At that moment, the Beaters seemed to have gotten their brains back, because I almost didn't see that Bludger coming. I ducked without slowing down and continued for the Snitch. We were so close that it would come back to who could snatch out their arm the fastest. And I wasn't sure it'd be me…
Then, out of the blue, another Bludger came racing towards us. We were both so engrossed in catching the Snitch that we didn't really see it coming until it was too late and we had to pull up. When I could turn back, the Snitch had disappeared. I quickly checked to see if she'd caught it and turned smiling to Harry when that wasn't the case.
He winked at me, grinning, and I returned to the game where the reserves were now leading with a hundred and ten to fifty. I really should catch that Snitch fast.
"Did you see Harry watching us?" she squealed, "I think he likes my technique."
I really had to keep myself from telling her to stuff it. If Harry had been looking at us, it would be because I was playing, not because of her! But eventually I managed to choke out, "Of course."
"It's a pity Romeijn never gets injured," she continued squealing, "I reckon I could have won the Tornados' game."
I kept myself from snapping at her and saying it would have been no use, because we'd been playing like dragon dung. Even if Tammy had caught the Snitch, we'd have lost…when I saw something gold just behind her head. She started rambling about how perfect and everything she was (hem-Phlegm-hem), just as the Snitch moved a little closer to her ear.
"Say," I said as I scooted closer to her, "weren't you looking for this?" And with a swift movement I grabbed the Snitch right from next to her ear before it could even think of escaping.
"Ginny caught the Snitch!" I heard Meredith yell below us as I grinned at Miss Cow.
"You'll do better next time," I patted her arm with my free hand, "That is, if you don't fly straight into a goal hoop." I turned around and flew back to the rest of the team, leaving her to herself.
"Good job, Ginny!" Meredith smiled.
"She deserved that," Rachel grinned, "We heard her talking when you two were coming back from chasing the Snitch."
We flew back to the ground where coach Morris was looking very ticked off about something, "Weasley, Robbins!" he yelled. Bloody hell, what did I do this time?
"Good to know that at least someone is paying attention to the game and not at the spectators!" he said sternly.
Ballasting, buggering bollocks! Why did I smile at Harry? "Sir, I can explain," I said immediately.
"Never mind, Red," Morris said smiling, "I wasn't talking about you. I was talking about Robbins. Flying into a goalpost at tryouts isn't enough for you? You had to be outflown by a Chaser without any experience whatsoever for Seeking? If that Bludger hadn't come your way, you'd lost from her. Well done, Red. Go shower with the rest. You too, Robbins."
That Phlegm wannabe looked at me with eyes that were shooting daggers as we walked to the locker rooms, "Look, I'm sorry, okay?" I said, "I've played Seeker for a year at Hogwarts and the year after I was reserve Seeker. So I wasn't exactly untrained."
"I looked like a fool," she muttered.
"Yes, well, it would help if you kept your attention on the game and not on the Bloody Boy Who Lived, also known as my boyfriend."
She rolled her eyes and took off for the locker rooms. Fine, if she wanted it that way…
A/N: Lalala! I'm feeling very happy. How about some reviews to celebrate?
