A/N: Hah! Another update! Even though I actually have to be doing research for my master right now...ah well, procastinating it is!

I want to thank KD for betaing this so quickly and all of you for reviewing. Now, read on!

I like your hair

This was it. The Quidditch Finals. The Holyhead Harpies against the Chudley Cannons. Whoa…Chudley Cannons and Quidditch Finals in one sentence; that couldn't be right. Except that it was. Right, I mean. Bloody hell, I'm babbling!

"Buggering bollocks!" I muttered.

"You're never going to stop with that, are you?" Evy asked next to me.

"But it's true!" I sputtered.

"Yes, they have a better Keeper," Evy sighed. This was the umpteenth time she told me this. "And yes, their Seeker is better too. But we have better Chasers. You made it a tie last time! Just score one more goal this time and we win!"

"They had their rubbish Keeper then," I muttered darkly, "We wouldn't have won if Wood had been in the game."

"But we also have a secret weapon…" Evy's eyes twinkled, "We can distract their Seeker."

"I'm telling you!" I exclaimed, "It won't work! He's seen me play way too often. He won't believe I'm in danger."

"Well, we'll just have to try and see, won't we?" she grinned.

Bloody hell! She'll never stop, will she?

But when the game started, I was sad to see I'd been right. Wood was very good, even better than last time. And although their Chasers still were rubbish, it got us nowhere. After half an hour of playing, none of the teams had scored and I was getting a little exasperated. If Harry caught the Snitch now, we would lose. And I wouldn't be surprised if Harry caught the Snitch.

Just as I saw something gold fly by (and noticed both Harry and Tammy turn around to catch it), I got a perfect opportunity to score. I caught the Quaffle from Natalie and flew fast forward. If only I could score, then it wouldn't be a hundred and fifty to nil…

From the corners of my eyes I saw Parish club a Bludger towards me, only to be followed by Adam, who smacked the other one.

Bloody hell!

I took a deep breath. They were a little late, so if I accelerated I could stay in front of them and score. Well, if Wood would let it pass…

I blocked out all of the other sounds so it became Wood and me against each other. I was still a little aware of the Bludgers approaching, but as long as their whooshing sound didn't grow louder, I would be okay. That was what I thought, at least.

There were thirty feet between Wood and me. Twenty feet. The Bludgers grew a little louder and I could see Wood's face. He didn't look happy. Perhaps he remembered our last game where he got knocked out flat…oh, focus Ginevra! Ten feet. Wood started drifting a little to my right so he could escape the Bludgers. Well, his fault then. In one swift movement I threw the Quaffle, pulled up my broom and made a loop to return in my original position. Wood was looking dumbstruck at the Quaffle (which had indeed passed the hoop) and the Bludgers had turned around to chase other players. About time he let a goal pass.

"Better luck next time!" I grinned at him as I turned around to fly back to the game…only to find myself face to face with Harry.

"Bloody hell, Gin!" he exclaimed. Was he worried? He was! Isn't that cute? "Do you want to die?"

"It's called the Quidditch finals," I said, patting his arm and smiling.

"That was suicidal," he growled, "Not Quidditch."

"Yes, well, I scored," I grinned cheekily, "Did you catch the Snitch?"

He suddenly got a comprehending look on his face. "Bloody hell, Gin!" he exclaimed again, but this time the worry was combined with something like respect, "You're absolutely cunning!"

I simply grinned, winked at him and sped up towards the front. He'd survive. And in the meantime…at least we'd have some points…

"Verdomme!" I heard Tammy exclaim somewhere above me. I had since long ago learned that that particular Dutch word usually meant nothing good. And I couldn't come up with anything to contradict her. Wood had lost a little bit of his regular confidence which meant that he let a few goals pass and their Chasers had some moments in which they actually knew how to play and therefore scored. All in all, after two very long and excruciating hours of playing Quidditch, the score still was seventy to thirty in our favour. Not much of a lead, eh?

I really wasn't counting on a repeat of the Harpies' match against the Heidelberg Harriers where they played for seven bloody days. Of course because I didn't think I'd survive it (and if we replaced Tammy with Robbins, Harry would catch the Snitch before you could say 'Quidditch finals'), but also because that little relationship Harry and I had probably wouldn't survive a week on a pitch. So when Gwenog called a time-out, I gladly flew to the ground. That Cushioning Charm wasn't what it used to be.

"Verdomme!" Tammy exclaimed as she finally got to the ground.

"I second that," Meredith sighed, "Can't we just let Potter catch the Snitch and get it over with?"

"No!" Gwenog, Tammy and I snapped immediately.

"You shouldn't complain," Evy grinned at me, "You get to take advantage of his celebrating mood."

I glared at her. That remark wasn't even worthy of a reply.

"That doesn't matter," Gwenog saved me, "Remember the Harriers? We can do this; we've already shown it. We just have to find a way to get around Wood and Potter. Can't we trick their Beaters again into knocking him out flat?"

"He'll see it coming this time," Natalie answered, "But maybe we can take Potter out. He seemed pretty torn between saving Ginny and catching the Snitch the last time."

"I'm not going to die just so we can win a match!" I said indignantly.

"You won't die!" Natalie sounded very exasperated, "Harry'll save you!"

"Won't do it," I said simply.

"Yeah, well, you said that last time too," Evy grinned, "And waddoyou know! You nearly got knocked off your broom in order to score!"

"Yes, er…" I tried to come up with a new plan, "Can't we simply trick Wood again? Our Chasers are better."

Gwenog sighed, "Meredith and I will try to knock them both off their brooms. We'll see if it gets us somewhere. Everybody ready to go up again or should I put in a replacement?"

"Not Robbins!" Tammy muttered darkly, "We'll never win with her up in the air!"

Gwenog actually grinned at this, "What if I just put Ginny in instead of you, that alright?"

Before I had time to react, Tammy had responded with "Perfect!" and we were back in the air. Bloody Quidditch!

This time it went even worse. Wood apparently had gotten his confidence back by taking it from Rachel or something. He blocked everything while she suddenly started to let even the most ridiculously simple goals pass! In half an hour it had gotten from seventy to thirty to ninety to two hundred and ten. Exactly! How can that be possible? Of course…it could have had something to do with the fact that Gwenog and Meredith focused their attention on Wood and Harry and let Beutel, Lager and Olsen do pretty much what they wanted…if only Wood had gotten knocked out! But he must have practiced, because he dodged every single one of those Bludgers.

And Harry…well, he conquered a bloody Dark Lord! Frolicking Bludgers were nothing to him! Or at least, that's what I thought until (during a very nice Porskoff Ploy from us Chasers which got the Harpies another ten points) Harry suddenly started spiralling downwards. Luckily we'd just scored, because I immediately dropped everything and raced towards Harry, muttering over and over, "Don't die, Harry, don't die. Please, don't die."

"Bloody hell, Harry! Do you want to die?" I yelled as I landed next to him. I tried to keep it light by using his words, but I was terrified! What if he did die? My heart practically jumped out of my chest when he smiled at me. Thank Merlin!

"It's just Quidditch," he grinned, but it wasn't completely pain free, "I had Voldemort to kill me. So, did you score?"

"Actually, I did," I smirked, but I immediately returned to 'concerned girlfriend'-mode, "Are you hurt?"

"Nothing they can't heal. Shouldn't you be up there to catch up on your loss?"

"You'll live?"

"Absolutely, I have to celebrate my victory, won't I?"

I glared at him as I mounted my broom, muttered, "We'll see about that!" and kicked off hard.

At least Isobel Buch, their reserve Seeker, wasn't infallible. And while she and Tammy kept looking for the Snitch (which regularly made an appearance only to disappear very fast), Natalie, Evy and I tried our hardest to keep the Cannons at bay. But very slowly, the unthinkable happened…

The Cannons were in the lead with a hundred and fifty points.

Natalie was flying next to me, threw me the Quaffle, which I almost immediately passed to Evy, who threw it towards the Cannons left goal hoop. Wood caught it (stupid pillock…) and looked at it for a very long time. Why didn't he throw it back into the game? So we could continue and win?

And just as I was thinking that…a very piercing whistle sounded and I felt all the blood drain from my face. No…that's impossible! Evy and I turned around to see Tammy with the Snitch in her outstretched hand.

I turned to the scoreboard…two hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty. A tie, a bloody, buggering tie! Was this a stupid joke somebody was playing on us? Ties are impossible in finals! Buggering, buggering bollocks!

"Buggering bollocks!" I muttered wide-eyed.

"For once, I agree," Evy muttered with me.

On the ground, Gwenog was motioning us to come down. We zoomed towards her, meeting Tammy halfway.

"I'm sorry," she said with a guilty look on her face. "I knew you were trying to score when Buch and I went after the Snitch. When I heard cheers…I thought you'd scored. Didn't exactly have time to check it…"

I waved her guilt away and started thinking about what would happen now. Has there ever been a tie in a deciding Quidditch final? Did whoever came up with the rules ever thought of this? The odds of a tie in Quidditch were almost zero. Since we've already had a tie once…and for it to happen during something like the finals…

"Well," Gwenog interrupted my thoughts, "The referees are still arguing about it, but we'll have to do penalties. It's stated in the official rulebook that in case of a tie at the finals, each team is awarded 3 penalties. If that doesn't decide the match then both teams get a penalty until one loses to the other." She sighed, "Bloody hell, I'd never thought that stupid dare would ever turn out to be actually useful!"

I gave Natalie a questioning look.

"She had to memorize the Quidditch rulebook from cover to cover for a dare two Christmases ago," she muttered from the corner of her mouth.

At that moment a magically enhanced voice boomed through the stadium, announcing exactly what Gwenog had told us.

"Well," Gwenog continued, "Now that we know what to do…the Chasers are not obliged to take the penalties. Natalie, Evy, Ginny, only do it if you're certain of yourselves. Julie and Lynette are perfectly able to play too."

"I'll do it," Evy said without even hesitating.

"I'd love to," Natalie said uncertainly, "But I'm not sure if I'd make it. I give my spot to one of the reserves."

"Julie will do it," Gwenog nodded, "Ginny?"

I hesitated. I knew I could do it, but it would be quite some pressure to score… "I'll do it too," I said finally.

"Good," Gwenog nodded, "We go up in fifteen minutes. Until then you all've got time to do whatever you want and prepare."

"No snogging the opponents," Tammy grinned at me. Nice to know she's not feeling guilty anymore…

"Tammy!" Gwenog snapped at her, "Rachel, I know you can play loads better than what you did today and I'm begging you to try and block every single damn ruddy Quaffle that comes your way. Understood?"

Rachel simply nodded. Come to think of it, she did look a little green…

The fifteen minutes had passed and before I knew it, we were up in the air. John Beutel went first and scored. Julie was next…and scored too. Matthew Olsen followed and the Cannons scored their second goal. It was Evy's turn and without hesitating, she passed Wood. Still a tie. Allan Lager was the last of the Cannons' Chasers and scored. Bloody hell! It all came back to me, didn't it?

I took the Quaffle from Rachel's outstretched hands and flew over to my position. If I scored, it would still be a tie and we would continue with penalties. If I lost…well, Harry at least would be pleased. And Ron too, I reckon.

I took a deep breath, heard the whistle and threw the Quaffle with all my might towards the most left (Wood's weakness) hoop and…

"Bloody hell!" I exclaimed outraged.

Behind me, I could hear the cheers of the Cannons and their supporters.

"Bloody hell!" I seethed and flew furiously back to the ground without listening to anybody, "Bloody hell!" I threw my broom as far away as possible and began walking off the pitch. Bloody hell…

"I'm sorry, Gin," I heard the only person who could get away with that nickname say. To be quite honest, I wasn't feeling that tolerant toward him at this particular moment.

"You bloody well aren't," I turned around and glared at him furiously, "You're bloody well pleased your girlfriend managed to miss so terribly so that the Cannons became champions for the first time since 1892."

Harry put his uninjured arm on my shoulder. "Come on Gin, you played absolutely fantastic!"

I kept glaring at him so he would take his arm off me. But he didn't. And it was that particular little fact that pushed me over the ledge. I buried my face in his chest and started crying softly. "I lost!" I sobbed.

He awkwardly patted my back before deciding that he maybe should do something more. "Sshhh Gin," he whispered in my ear, rubbing my back, "You'll be ok."

"I lost us our finals, Harry!" I cried. "Why did I ever decide to play Quidditch to avoid you?"

He started to laugh, "Fat lot of good that did to you!"

Even though that dried my tears quite effectively, I glared at him. "Git."

"You're an absolutely marvellous Chaser, Gin," he grinned, "Just wait until the National Team is announced. You're bound to be on it."

I kept glaring at him, but he still was rather impervious to it. Over his shoulder I could see various amounts of paparazzi making their way towards us… "Could you bring me home?" I asked without looking away from them.

He turned his head slightly. "Of course." And for the umpteenth time since I became his girlfriend, he grabbed me and Disapparated before I actually could realize what was happening.

"The Cannons won! The Cannons won! The Cannons won! The Cannons won!" I heard Ron chant as Harry and I approached the Burrow the next day.

"Ron!" Mum scoffed.

"But they did! The Cannons won! They haven't even been close in ages!"

I gave Harry a look. He smiled apologetically and squeezed my hand.

"Ronald!" Mum exclaimed, "Your sister lost. Don't you dare mention this in front of her!"

"But Harry will be here! I'm allowed to congratulate him, aren't I?"

"You already did," Harry muttered as Mum shouted those exact words from inside the house.

"Yeah…" This was Fred. "Once…or twice…"

"…every minute…" George continued.

"…of every hour…" Fred once again.

"…of every bloody…"

"George!" Mum bellowed.

"…sodding…"

"Fred!"

And you wonder why I swear so much when I grew up with those two?

"Come," Harry started to pull me away from the house.

"What are you doing?" I asked surprised.

"We are going to let him cool down before we enter." He led me to the dock in the pond where we sat down. "If he keeps acting like he's been acting this whole year, he'll have me to explain to."

I couldn't help but grin. Harry's very sweet when he wants to be.

"Wotcher Harry! Ginny!"

We turned around as one to see Tonks grinning up at us. She was leaning heavily on her cane that was, as usual, assorted to her hair. Just like she had done since the final battle…

Tonks had been fighting with Bellatrix Lestrange and both started to get very tired after a while. They knew that it would be over soon unless someone would come barging over to them and help them…But well, Harry, Ron and Hermione were off with Voldemort, Lupin was fighting with Avery or Macnair or whoever it was and I was too busy with not being noticed by either Mum or Dad or Bill or Charlie or the twins or Fleur or McGonagall or Hagrid…oh bollocks…quite a few people were looking after me, weren't they? Anyway…I was very busy not being noticed by anyone, since I wasn't exactly allowed to be there in the first place, while Bellatrix cornered Tonks against a wall. With a swish of her wand, she shot a spell towards her niece that hit the wall. It started crumbling down when Tonks pulled a very smart Auror move ('or maybe I slipped', she always adds when she recounts this story) which caused both women to swap places. Bellatrix got the full load of the debris and didn't survive. Tonks got buried all the way up to her waist.

When the Healers finally managed to pull her out of it, her right leg was too damaged to ever fully recover. Since she also had gotten a nasty blow to her head, she remained unconscious for almost a month…Lupin had never been that much in Hogwarts, not even when he was teaching there.

"Remus needs to talk to you, Harry," she said, "And Ron as well."

"Alright," Harry nodded as he stood up. I started to get up to go with him, but Tonks grinned, "Men stuff."

Harry kissed my forehead and walked away.

The only problem with Tonks was that she couldn't possibly go back to being an Auror with her injury. But Mad-Eye got word of this and talked her into a desk job, even though she always used to say that she'd rather sit home and die of boredom before accepting a desk job.

Of course, it did help that she would be working with Mad-Eye. You see, when Scrimgeour got appointed Minister for Magic, everybody thought Kingsley would replace him. But then he got that job with the Muggle prime minister and a lot of witches and wizards declared themselves Head of Auror Office without actually having been appointed. It annoyed Scrimgeour to no end, but since the war was more important at the moment, he decided to let it pass.

Once everything had been sorted out, he fired every witch and wizard that had taken advantage of the chaos and declared themselves Head of Auror Office. Afterwards, he went to Mad-Eye and asked him to come back from retirement once again to help the Ministry rebuild the Auror Office. Thankfully, Mad-Eye had been far too good friends with Dumbledore and only wanted to oblige if he could stop whenever he wanted and if he would get someone to help him.

And thus Tonks became Junior Head of Auror Office after a visit from Mad-Eye Moody to see McGonagall at Hogwarts while Tonks was regaining strength in the Hospital Wing. Ron hates it, because he has to work for people he actually knows very well. He keeps secretly hoping that Mad-Eye is going to retire soon, but I reckon he likes it too much to tell Tonks off when she's being clumsy over and over to really retire yet again.

"I like your hair," I smiled at Tonks.

"I am totally and absolutely supporting the Harpies," Tonks said seriously as she sat down next to me. "You should have seen Remus at the match, he kept shooting exasperated glances at me…well, he was the one that insisted on me wearing a Cannons shirt."

I looked at her confused.

"Harry got us tickets."

I started laughing hard, "You sat in the Cannons' top box with Harpies' colored hair and cane?"

"Absolutely," she nodded, "You should have heard Ron, asking me what in the name of Merlin was up with my hair! When I told him I was supporting the better team, he looked at me as if I'd grown three heads and demanded me to change my hair if that was the case. At which I told him I was too tired and the Healers didn't want me to exhaust myself too much. Might get in the way with the leg and everything, you see. Utter rubbish, of course, but Hermione was absolutely beaming by then…why she ever agreed to marry Ron still mystifies me…"

"Hermione was there?" I asked totally surprised. She had told me she wouldn't be able to make it!

"Oh yes!" Tonks' face was almost splitting in two because of her grin. "She simply refused to wear anything to do with the Cannons so she was wearing the most boring black robes with a little Holyhead Harpies' rosette on them."

"You two are my absolute most favourite people in the world!" I exclaimed as I hugged Tonks.

She grinned. "Remus was shouting appalling insults at Wood when he didn't return the Quaffle to you." She turned serious. "He also reckons you should have won, but since he had to choose between you and his best mate's son…well, he's old enough to make his own choices, right?" She winked. "Plus, at least you two will be on the same team when you'll be playing at the World Cup."

"Don't jinx it!" I cried.

"Oh come on, Ginny!" Tonks started to sound exasperated. "You are really good! And Harry, well, it's kind of sad, but he is Harry Potter. I don't even reckon they will put it in the paper when he's made the team. When he's not made the team…now that will be news!"

I couldn't help but laugh with her.

A/N: Only11 reviews to go until we've reached 100...