The thick, African forest was hot and humid the air was so thick that it was almost a seeable thing. Ginny's shoulder-length bright red hair was pulled into a short ponytail, her face was red and sweaty, and her shorts and tank top were stuck to her skin. Her pack was banging against her spine and pulling on her shoulders, causing her neck to ache even though the adventure was making her almost giddy with the anticipation of finding something new and unknown to the world. Everyone always assumed that she would get married right out of Hogwarts and then have a whole herd of children, but she'd always felt the pull to learning more and going on adventure and now she was.
"Weasley" Blaise called to her "I think we should set up camp over there" He was pointing to a spot near the river and she frowned. Blaise was new to this job; he was good, and she trusted him with her life (because one needed to in their profession), but he wasn't fully aware of how fast things could go belly-up.
"We need to camp somewhere a bit higher" She told him, she looked around at an area on top of a steep incline and pointed "Right there"
"Not bloody happening" Blaise exclaimed "Look at that incline!"
"Blaise" She snapped "You've not been on a mission outside the bank before, I have. I've been to the rural parts of New Zealand the wilds of the Amazon even the barren, snow- and ice-covered grounds of Antarctica...I know how to survive" She put her hand up to stop him from talking.
"You should always camp near a river if there is one" Blaise sneered at her.
"That is true" She agreed "But you don't want to be right next to the river. It could rain" He opened his mouth to point out that they had a beautiful blue sky with puffy white clouds "The sky is prefect right now, I agree. But in the middle of the night it could rain, we're in tents and if we don't wake up the river could swell and swell until we drown, does that sound good?"
"But..." He frowned, she was right, and he'd been told before they left the bank that he was to listen and do everything she said, but he hated it "Fine"
"We'll go up there" Ginny pointed to a small relatively cleared out pathway "When we get to the top, we can construct a platform and put our tent up on that then we can go and get water and firewood"
"Fine" He answered and stomped off, heading in the direction Ginny had indicated.
Ginny followed behind him at a slower pace with another frown on her face. At the rate he was going by the time he managed to get to the top of the incline he'd be too tired to do anything else. She thought about warning him of this but figured that it would be better for him to learn it the hard way, he was a Slytherin after all and they were all a bit hard-headed. Ginny sighed and held as stitch in her side as she reached the top of the hill and looked around, Blaise was laying spread-eagle on the hot ground breathing heavily. She smirked and walked over to him, his eyes opened a little, his face was covered in sweat and he looked one step away from dying.
"Let's get to raising up the platform" Ginny said, moving around and swishing her wand through the air, summoning up the materials they needed to make the platform "Come on"
"I'm tired" He whined.
"You shouldn't have gone up the hill so fast" Ginny admonished him as gently as she could "I'm not trying to be a bitch...but you have to understand, Blaise" She sighed "When you're on a mission your health is number one because if you get sick or injured and have to come back early, before your mission is complete, that is money the bank loses and a paycheck that you don't get" She placed two buckets on his chest "Now, because you're exhausted and can't properly use your magic to help me with setting up camp the only job left for you to do is go back down the hill and get some water for us and when you're done with that you can get the firewood"
"Oh come, Weasley!" Blaise growled "Let me rest a little"
"You have five minutes, Zabini" She answered "Then get your ass back to work"
As she worked setting up the platform and setting the tent up for their use Ginny fought to keep her other thoughts away. It seemed for every three good deeds or acts there were no less than ten bad deeds or acts that were bubbling just beneath the surface that wanted to spring free. Even as she worked to bring up an armful of firewood with Blaise she could hear the darkness of his voice telling her to take the magical amulet that they were searching for and use it to kill the minister, to kill Blaise and tell the bank that he died in a tragic accident. It told her that she'd get away with it because there would be no witnesses, it told her that she could bring his body back and give it to his grieving mother, watch her sob over his dead body as she wondered if he thought of her before dying and knowing the answer that she'd never tell her. Finally, the work was done, and they were each in their lounged positions watching the fire thinking about whatever it was that entertained (or haunted) them the most.
"So" Blaise called her attention over "Weasley, you married yet?"
"No" She answered "You?"
"Divorced" He grinned "Already divorced, but least I didn't go down the same route as my mother and became a widower"
"I haven't even been engaged yet" Ginny informed with a small scoff.
"I thought you and Potter..." He trailed off in case it was a tender subject.
"We dated for a while" She answered "But we're better friends. Sex was awkward and boring, and our work schedules kept us apart so much we were virtual strangers to one another"
"I married a girl from Durmstrang" He told her "She was needy before we even got married but I found it charming, that changed quickly she needed me home from the bank by five, needed me to go to her parents house three times a week with her, needed me to get her pregnant within the first year so she and her best friend could have babies at the same time...it lasted eleven months before I filed for a magical divorce, I tell you that Draco had it easy"
"Easy?" Ginny laughed "His wife not only cheated on him but got pregnant first time with the guy...that's humiliating at best"
"Yeah it is" He agreed "But all he had to do was say 'I release you from the contract' and that was it, I had to go through a three-month process and lost a shit-ton of galleons to the bitch to make her happy"
"Sorry that happened to you" Ginny told him honestly.
"So, what about other guys?" Blaise asked, sitting up on his elbow "There had to be other guys in your life since Potter, I mean...you're beautiful" He lowered his eyes and bit his lip a little "You haven't dated since him?"
"You know what the problem with living in the magical world in England, Ireland or Scotland is?" Ginny asked and he shook his head "I've grown up with almost all the boys which means that it's almost like asking Ron or Charlie on a date"
"Hear you there" He chuckled.
"I dated a few wizards here and there" Ginny went on "But they all just asked about Harry or Hermione, the war or Voldemort" She shrugged a little "Then I met a man when I was in America visiting Hermione and the man that his now her fiancée, he was perfect and I fell hard for him but...never mind"
"No, Ginny" Blaise said, her eyes snapped over to him because she'd never heard him call her by her given name before "I want to know and something tells me that you need to talk about it"
"His name is Steve" Ginny continued after watching him closely for a minute longer "He's a superhero" They all knew about them in the wizarding world now "Born in the thirties and I tried to be like one of the girls that he would like, wearing dresses, hanging on his every word, trying to show him how domesticated I was and what a good wife I'd be" Blaise made a small face of dislike "I know" She laughed a little and shook her own head "I thought that he was falling for me and I took the first moment I had to confess my feelings and he..." She trailed off "He let me down gently, at least he was nice enough to do that. I was humiliated but before I knew it, he took off to help his friend and I didn't have to see him anymore until..."
"Until?" He led.
"He came back" She answered "Living with Hermione and Tony, I tried to play it off like it was cool and I was over it completely, flirted and even tried to form a relationship with one of the other guys but he saw through me and made sure I knew we were just friends...who occasionally hooked up"
"So, why are you out here instead of back there making that Steve idiot jealous?" He asked.
"Because it wasn't working" She answered "Finally, I just decided that it was time to get back to what I was good at...maybe this is what I'm supposed to do for the rest of my life"
"So" Blaise laid back and folded his hands over his stomach and looked at the star-filled sky above them "At twenty-six I was not expecting to be divorced, is this where you saw yourself at your age?"
"I'm twenty-five" Ginny told him "And... well, kind of actually. I mean, when I was thirteen, I assumed I'd be married to Harry, have a good job and maybe a baby on the way or waiting for me at home" She laughed "Then when I got older I thought that I'd likely be working at this age, making my own money, have a steady boyfriend and be thinking about getting married and starting a family. I just... never assumed that I'd be twenty-five and single, I guess a mean part of me thought that I'd be married before Hermione and now she's engaged with a baby on the way and I'm...stuck in a rut"
"You ever think that maybe you've overlooked someone?" Blaise asked, looking over shyly at her and Ginny offered a shy smile.
"Maybe" She answered "Maybe he'd have to ask me instead of waiting for me to make the first move"
~~~/ /~~~
"Legilmens" Hermione said softly, her wand pointed at Doctor Strange as he lay unconscious on the floor of her house.
"What is the meaning of this?" Wanda asked angrily, the red magic swirling around her hands.
"He can't tell us the futures because it will change them" Tony explained while Hermione sat still looking through his mind "We need to make sure the woman he saw was indeed Ginny Weasley before we contact her"
Hermione looked through the man's mind, sifting through memories of surgeries he'd done, his accident and everything he'd learned since then. This had to have been one of the strangest minds she'd entered, that included the time she had to go into Tony's mind to retrieve the combination to a lock that was on a cabinet that held all of Bruce's notes for something he'd been working on that Tony felt the need to hide. Finally, she found what she was looking for, the memory of the end of one of the positive outcomes. There she was, a woman wearing tight black pants and a dark green tank top with red hair that reached her waist, rustling in the wind as she brandished her wand at the tall purple man before her.
"It's her" Hermione said as she pulled out of his mind "It's Ginny, I saw her wand and her hair, I know it's her"
"Okay" Luna said, she took Jarvis's hand and put it to her cheek cuddling into it "We've got to contact her"
"Last time I saw her" Hermione said "Her hair barely brushed her shoulders, the her I just saw had hair to her waist...I'd say we have a year before this happens"
"A year to make sure the muggle world is properly protected" Harry's voice came from the hallway where he stood watching them "He okay?" Indicating the man on the floor.
"He's napping" Hermione answered as she ran over to him and hugged him.
"You help with that?" He grinned.
"I can honestly say I did not" Hermione said "She did" She nodded over at Mantis who had a grin on her face and was eagerly nodding her head, Harry offered her a small grin before looking back at his best friend.
"I've rallied friends" He told her "Supporters who are willing to fight with and for the muggle world as well as our own"
"I knew you would" Hermione smiled "That's wonderful, Harry"
"It still won't be enough" Gamora told them "He will come with everything he has, it will be too many for you to fight against"
"You know" Hermione snapped, her mood changing again quickly "Your doom and gloom attitude really pisses me off. We know he's not going to come down here with three people and challenge us to a menacing pillow fight or a dance off" She raised her brow at the green woman "He will come to win but you better fucking believe he's going to have one hell of a fight on his hands. He will bring everything he has, and he will meet everything we have, we will fight and if he wins then he must have wanted it more"
"What do you suggest, my love?" Tony asked her, a little turned on by her anger which for once was turned toward someone other than himself.
"Harry" She said "You focus on getting the DA and anyone else you think will follow you from the ministry and now is not the time to be humble" He gave her a confused look "You are Harry fucking Potter, the boy-who-lived, the Chosen One, the man-who-lived-and-killed-Voldemort so remind them of the last time people didn't believe you and all they lost because of that" He nodded slowly but she knew he was still uncomfortable with his fame "Luna, you have friends within the papers, use them. Set up interviews with all the hero's and make sure people know what to expect and how to protect themselves as well as their muggle neighbors" She looked over at Draco who was standing quietly between his mother and Wanda "Draco, I need you to gather the Slytherins, I need their cunning intelligence to help protect us all and gain strength" Her eyes snapped back to her best friend "Harry, I need you to get Neville to start planting his deadliest plants, I need to talk to Minerva, I need to talk to Hagrid about getting the Giants to help us, I need to speak to the Merfolk, the Centaurs, we need to send someone to find the Vampires, werewolves and all the others but first, I need to write a letter to Ginny"
"You heard her" Tony called out to them "You all have jobs, now go do them"
A/N: Hope you like this chapter, lol. I almost made a Twilight reference when Hermione made mention of finding Vampires. Please tell me what you think!