Disclaimer: I don't own anything… but perhaps and just maybe…I will soon own an Urban Decay Ink in Illegal…so yeah…
THE Q'S AND A'S SUBSCRIBERS' EXCLUSIVE By the Hardworking Margarita A. Li It is official, ladies and gets, so stop holding your breath. Ginny Weasley has been traded from the all-female Holyhead Harpies to the dominantly male Puddlemere United, where she will play as their solitary female first string. Viktor Krum took pity on the Chudley Cannons and shall soon be settling into a beautiful house in Southampton while Miss Weasley was seen in the companionship of her friends Kirley Duke and Harry Potter browsing through some houses near St. Andrew's. Harry Potter has gone into talks with the Puddlemere United team to possibly replace their aging Seeker, Benjamin Turner, who, at 55, announced his plans for retirement as soon as Puddlemere could find a suitable replacement. Turner's 17-year-old triplet sons, Jack, Evan and Orlando, are the Chasers of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, while his twin daughters, aged 15, Melody and Stephanie, both play Seeker and Beater, respectively, and his youngest son, Joshua, at 13, is the Gryffindor's Keeper. His youngest daughter, Meagan, is the reserve Beater.
FIVE
"It's nice, but it's not London." Kirley commented dryly and both Harry and Ginny smacked him on his head consecutively. "What? Ginny-girl, you're not going to survive out here."
"It's called the Floo, and besides, we're near Hogsmeade." Ginny said as they followed Daphne Greengrass, a former Slytherin that had been in Harry's year, through the house. It was such a lovely place, with a huge upstairs patio, a master suite the size of Kirley's apartment in New York City, a guest suite, a humongous living room, large kitchen, large dining room and spacious outdoor patio and pool. The foyer alone was amazing. The house was done up in dark, jewel tones and rich woods, and some of the rooms were already furnished. The third floor had recently been added to include a study and spacious entertainment room, in addition to a bright conservatory with classic cream-colored tiles and exotic and classic flowers already blooming.
"What'd you make on your advance?" Harry asked quietly as they went back downstairs.
"Enough to buy this place. I'm keeping the London place open for rent partially furnished, so there's more money, and then there are my ad campaigns, and Ron and Alicia have sued the Holyhead Harpies individually, one for breach of contract, which I'll benefit from, and one for breach of League rules, which will mean bonuses for everyone in the department. You?" Ginny seemed bored and her voice was flat. She sat down at the sensually curved dining room table and signed a few different pages.
Harry honestly didn't know. His try-out for the United was in one week and he was still living out of a suitcase in London.
Fortunately, Ginny wasn't letting him answer. "I'm just leaving the kitchen and most of the bathroom, alright, Kirley?"
Harry sat down at the dining room table while Kirley took directions. Kirley happened to have been one hell of a business manager. Ginny ordered her living room and study to be sent over last, while her Quidditch things, bedroom and bathroom things were to be sent over first. Everything else could come along any time between.
"I'm staying at Hogwarts while my house is being settled." Ginny said suddenly, turning to Harry. "Surely you're not going to make the commute from London over here every morning."
Harry listened to the sound of her tired voice, noting there was an invitation in there.
"Go up to the conservatory and send out an owl to Dumbledore. I'm sure arrangements can be made. I'm speaking to the fifth years about pursuing a career in Quidditch and spokes-modeling." Ginny added, rolling her eyes. "How exciting. You'd think they'd somehow find something more interesting for me to do."
Harry smirked, and he stood up, beginning the two-flight walk up to the conservatory.
Harry was dazed. Everything had happened so fast since he'd arrived home. In a month, he had managed to get a Puddlemere try-out, a place in Ginny's life, and quite possibly, a place in her house.
"Fifth through seventh years, please put your hands together for Katie Bell, Daphne Greengrass, Harry Potter, Alicia Spinnet, Ginny Weasley and Lisa Turpin for Hogwarts' second annual Career Days!" Professor McGonagall announced happily, quite pleased that four of the day's prestigious guests were from Gryffindor. "First, Katie Bell, the editor-in-chief of the popular sports magazine The Q's and A's will speak about how to break into journalism and tomorrow she will speak in a smaller session to interested students. After that, Daphne Greengrass, the head of the England Small Business Council, will speak to you about entrepreneurship, and she too will have a smaller session tomorrow. Harry Potter, one of the Ministry's top Aurors, will speak to you about Ministry opportunities. Alicia Spinnet, the head of the British and Irish Quidditch League Draft, will speak to you about your options there, and following her, Ginny Weasley will speak to you about Quidditch and self-promotion, and Lisa Turpin will follow up with the possibilities offered at Gringotts. All private sessions are arranged during first and second blocks."
Ginny tried her hardest to smile, sitting between her brother's boss and her former teammate, Alicia and a girl who had been in Charms club with her and who had trained under her brother Bill, Lisa. The fifth, sixth and seventh years were buzzing. Everyone who was anyone knew every single person on the panel, and each student looked eager. There seemed to be over four hundred students gathered in the Great Hall, and Ginny's eyes began to droop.
Kirley, Harry and Ginny had gone out to some of Hogsmeade's hottest new clubs the previous night and both panelists looked sleepy.
Girls began to buzz about the possibility that Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley's kiss, as photographed in The Q's and A's, Witch Weekly, Young Bachelor's Digest and other publications, wasn't just a one-time thing.
Jack, Evan, James, Melody and Stephanie Turner sat in a little pack near the front of the Great Hall grinning. They were the kind of people that were constantly consulted after magazine articles were printed, especially now that Ginny Weasley was on their father's team. Everyone knew that tonight, the five and their two younger siblings, were going to have supper at Ginny Weasley's house for a house-warming party, and that the photographs were going to be in every magazine internationally.
Jack caught Harry's eye and Harry winked. Jack was the eldest by nearly six hours, and he had the keenest eye of the triplets. He jerked his head in Ginny's direction and Harry noticed that Ginny was asleep.
He, however, was fascinated in Katie's work, combining the girly tendencies Oliver used to pick on when they'd strip down after a practice or a game with the hardcore and intense passion for the game Katie possessed within the depths of her soul.
Each speaker was allowed twenty minutes, and soon, Katie's were up. Next was Daphne, who proved to be very cunning but far more diplomatic and less spoiled than her Slytherin contemporaries.
Ginny woke up just as Alicia was briefly adding how legal logic was often times necessary to climb to the top, as the rules are often broken. Alicia looked down at the drowsy Ginny and pointedly added how even the best and top-grossing players can often have their contracts broken because of egos and budgets, and suffer more by breaking these contracts, as they are not only bound to the player, but to the League.
Ginny did not wake up in a good mood. She stood and began speaking about how a lingering visit to Gladrag's landed her the first modeling offer and how often times, Witch Weekly and Young Bachelor's Digest are looking for interesting people and will say so in the back of certain issues. Other ways for exposure are haunting your places of interest, taking jobs there, and looking for performance opportunities any time. Including charity with your work gets you a bigger chance to get recognized.
But Ginny's pace picked up when she began talking about Quidditch, how the average age of retirement was mid-fifties, and how training and reserve jobs can last six months to six years.
"All players have advertising opportunities individually or as groups. When you think about different prospects, you need to think about what your fans would be attracted to, what your team would think, and whether or not the campaign is for you. Only after that can you consider personal financial risks. Remember, you always need to be paid for these campaigns, whether with their products, services, money, or a combination." Her voice was dragging and she knew she'd have tougher questions tomorrow. "But your primary concern should always be your game."
That had been her primary concern, and she'd been humiliated in front of the entire nation. "There will be things out of your control, and you'll naturally make mistakes. But if you manage yourself well, you'll be able to do what you love, wear what you like, eat what you like, do what you like—and when you're ready to quit, you'll be able to do so in peace."
Melody's heart cried out to the poor Chaser, who looked like a wilting flower. People clapped as she sat down.
"I was horrible." Ginny wailed, lying on her back on Stephanie's bed. "I really should've have had that extra Pepper-Up this morning."
"Oh, don't say that." Stephanie cooed, flipping through different bright colored toga style dresses. "You're tired, and everyone knows how hard the past week has been for you."
"Oh, great." Ginny muttered. "I need to go home and get ready. Kirley is trying to throw a real London couture party and I keep trying to tell him it's not London…you'd think he was a puff or something."
Stephanie and Melody watched Ginny leave, muttering something about complete humiliation and lack of sleep.
Margarita Li was tired as well when she arrived at the massive Scotland house she had Apparated to. She walked up the circular cobblestone driveway to the front doors, which were open in anticipation for the evening's guests. Robes and cloaks were being taken at the door, and as she slipped her own golden cloak off, she noticed many of the glittering names she often penned of.
Her strapless, full skirted, nude-lined black lace dress caught the wandering eye of the eldest of the Turner triplets, Jack, and he walked over to her with a goofy grin on his face. "Why hello, Miss Li, how lovely to see you again."
The foyer was bustling with people. The entire of the Puddlemere United team, including their reserves, managers, trainers, healers, coaches and so on, were here, in addition to the entire line-up of the Weird Sisters, including Kirley McCormack-Duke, who had planned the whole she-bang, his sister Meghan and his mother Catriona, Ginny's agents and managers, and her favorite representatives of the companies she modeled for, her family and all of their litter, other magazine representatives and photographers, Margarita's own photographer, Ginny's ex-boyfriends, Benjamin Turner's brood of children, everybody's dates, and a small sprinkling of Ginny's other close friends. All in all, there had to have been over one hundred and fifty people in attendance, and everyone was going crazy.
The popular colors of the night were most definitely scarlet, blue and gold. The entire of the Puddlemere United team and all of their dates and children had managed to pull off blue or gold, and everyone else had tried to kept to scarlet, blue or gold, and Meghan Duke, Kirley's sister, who played for a team with deep purple and gold robes, remained neutral in a lovely light gold satin dress, if not looking a little nervous, being the only non-Puddlemere player at the party.
The presents were piled onto a lovely Queen Anne's table in the foyer, nearly reaching the second floor.
Margarita had grown up fairly wealthy and had toured France, Spain, America, Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and England by the time she had turned eighteen. Her mother was the American Head of the Magical Games and Sports Department and her father played for the best American Quidditch team, of the six. Her younger sister Amanda was Ginny's age, and was managing the Quidditch team on her own, and her youngest siblings, Sofia and Oscar, were currently beginning their schooling in America, the eagerest and most athletic and boisterous of their year.
Kirley Duke had pulled her aside to explain how the seating arrangements had been made. Names were divided into several groups, such as reporters, athletes, friends, musicians and business managers. And then, fifteen different bowls were made to put one from each group and their dates, if they R.S.V.Ped for one, until it was fair and square.
Margarita eyed Kirley suspiciously. "Duke, I've known you since you were shoving your dirty nappies into your sister's hair."
Meghan smiled. "He hasn't stopped."
Kirley shot his sister a dirty look. "What exactly are you trying to imply, Miss Li?" He asked, turning on the charm for his old friend.
"Why on earth would you be explaining this if you hadn't put me at some horrible table with yucky cheese and an old boyfriend?" Margarita asked, her hands on her hips. Kirley didn't answer, and Margarita needed at least a whole paragraph from Ginny, in addition to a few lines from friends and new teammates.
She walked towards the redheaded money making machine, and took in her appearance. Margarita had learned to write faster than anyone she knew, because she hated the Quick Quotes Quill, having been misquoted herself many a time during her more scandalous, spoiled heiress years. She reached into her hairdo and stealthily pulled out a scroll and unfurled it flat with her wand.
Quickly, she penned, "Kirley Duke threw a fabulous party at Ginny Weasley's enormous new Scotland estate to break in the new place and to soothe the pain of national humiliation, not that Miss Weasley looked it at all. Even in the loosely populated area of Scotland where Miss Weasley's new home lies, precautions were taken to ensure no Muggle saw the robed glitterati of the magical set. Thus, skin was shown and what a fabulous party was thrown."
"Tell me, Miss Li, since you seem to be such a fashionista, precisely why does it seem like I've walked into a lingerie store every time I go to a party?" The familiar and soft Scottish drawl made Margarita jolt up instantaneously. She didn't reply, but just went on to describe the thin, pale pink silk slip dress Ginny wore, with a black lace choker barely holding up on account of the ruby that hung from it.
"Oh, Miss Li, you wouldn't happen to be holding the awkward actions as an adolescent against an athlete, would you?" Damn, damn, damn. He'd used alliteration, and one thing she'd always loved about his voice was the way it sounded when he used alliteration. Call her strange, but she was a journalist who was a sucker for accents.
"Damn you." Margarita murmured, turning and almost smacking right into him, not realizing that he had been leaning over her bent form while she had been writing.
Oliver Wood smiled down at the second girl he'd ever really noticed. Margarita had been a year younger than he had been during the World Cup Semi-Finals, and her father had been a competitor, just like he had been. Unfortunately for Oliver, Margarita's father's team had advanced and Puddlemere, representing England, had not, but in the long run, Oliver had become a fan of the team, and he followed them to the World Cup. Margarita had just graduated and having calmed down from when they had initially met at a World Cup in France; Margarita was drinking, using and having a gay old time, while Oliver, a naïve sixteen, couldn't understand why anybody would do that—they formed an odd friendship. She, the former darling of the tabloids, who had just turned to journalism as her escape, and he, the newest cute face of the sports magazines, who had always found Quidditch to be so intoxicating, he needn't have an escape.
Both were inescapably attractive to the other; Oliver with his rugged good looks and supposed oblivion to the opposite sex, the same sex, or any sex for that matter, and Margarita with her exotic good looks, her secretive smile, and her worn-in dancing shoes that had tread on some of the world's hottest dance spots and her contradictory need to be a homebody.
But they were on different paths. Oliver had never experienced the world outside of Quidditch, or even the one surrounding it, and Margarita had been to hell and back. Oliver had needed someone who was willing to experiment with him until he could feel worthy of her, and Margarita had needed to settle into being an adult before she could tell him she wasn't worthy of him.
An odd romance.
"Damn me? Well, I suppose if that's the reason why everybody's out in their lingerie at formal parties, then…well, I'd like to say the straight male population should each give their right testicle to me, but what on earth would I do with them all?" He loved being taller than her. He was half a head taller than she was and he loved it. Oliver felt that he could protect her better; he felt that he could intimidate the lingering stares away—he felt more worthy of her.
"Make them into sinfully disgusting toys and sell them to Catholic schoolgirls?" Margarita countered softly, unsure of how to speak to him now. It'd been so long.
"Naughty, naughty…weren't you a Catholic school girl? Snorting cocaine or whatever it is up your pretty little nose and drinking rum and coke out of glass bottles in Tijuana?" Oliver asked, drawing her into a hug. "I hope you kept the uniform, kinky love."
Margarita loved it when he tried to say Spanish words.
"Oliver, you pedophile!" Harry Potter called to him and Oliver turned his head around to see a crowd of his old Quidditch teammates from his school days gathered near the fireplace. Margarita's face fell. She was starting to compromise herself merely because she was flirting with one of Britain's top bachelors, who happened to be an athlete, and it was her job to write of these little ditties of information that nobody but old women and young women really cared about.
But, unexpectedly, Oliver scooped her up into his arms and carried her over to the alumni of former Gryffindor Quidditch players.
"Ladies." Oliver said, motioning to everyone. They all laughed and Oliver set Margarita down on her feet properly. Margarita noted that Ginny Weasley's delicate fingers clutched a crystal champagne flute nearly transparent with glittering liquid, but it's glitter didn't match that of the huge ruby pendant dragging down the thin strip of black lace around Ginny's throat. Her silky hair fell in thick tapers to her shoulders.
"Lovely pendant." Margarita said, smiling, and the chatter dimmed to a low volume quickly and awkwardly.
"Thank you." Ginny replied graciously. "It was a present."
The others could see the gears turning in Margarita's head. It was obviously a present from one of the group, as Ginny's flawless ivory skin began to color. Only the Weasley twins, Oliver or Harry could have purchased it for her, and since Oliver was pulling her comfortably close, and her own brothers couldn't possibly have made her blush the way she did.
Fortunately, Kirley began tapping on a champagne flute with a fork, and the party had to break up into tables.
Ginny found herself sandwiched between Harry and Kirley, and uncomfortably, at that. Margarita wasn't fairing too well, between Oliver and Luna Lovegood.
"Little Ginny is a strong girl. I know it, because this one time, I called her a harpy, and not in a good way, and she decked me. I was out for three days." Kirley began, pausing to relish the laughter. "Gin has been so lucky to receive so many talents. Her business sense and her daring have helped her out since she haggled over prices in Diagon Alley to stealing her brother's brooms and practicing at night. When she was fourteen, oppression at Hogwarts School nearly prevented her friends and all those who knew what was right from protecting Hogwarts; from protecting, England."
Harry's fingers gently clutched Ginny's wrist, and he could feel it heating up.
"Most of the press doesn't like to mention any of this. Gin started out in a great family; this loving, large and boisterous family where anyone could've gotten lost in the crowd. But her family was not only loving, large and boisterous; but also accomplished. Her eldest brother was a Head Boy and moved on to become a curse-breaker at Gringotts, her brother Charlie was one of the best athletes Hogwarts had ever seen and became a dragon handler in Romania, and her brother Percy became Head Boy and moved on to be one of the fastest rising Ministry employees ever. Her playful brothers, Fred and George, were known 'as a pair of Bludgers themselves', and their entrepreneurship and their love of pranks created one of the most popular joke companies ever. Ron's struggle to become a great Quidditch player and his knack for chess began his road to the Quidditch League draft. And of course, her loving parents, Molly, a housewife with a steady hand, loving nature and strong endurance and Arthur, a hardworking Ministry official who always did what was right, even though it wasn't profitable."
The Weasley family beamed at one another. Kirley had always longed for a place in the Weasley family; as his was, though loving, small and disconnected. When he and Ginny had split up, he was thrilled that she liked him as a friend, which meant he could have any of the Weasleys over for tea at any given time.
"Most of the press would like to pretend that Ginny was just a little girl who started off wrong, failing to mention her first year on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, she replaced Harry Potter, one of the finest Seekers Hogwarts had ever seen, because of the oppressive Ministry rule over Hogwarts. They'd like to start her off, usually, as a fifteen-year-old beauty on a broomstick, making her life seem simple and glamorous. But it wasn't. Ginny struggled with keeping up with the current events, which she was already involved in, had an on-and-off boyfriend in her house, had to keep her stellar grades up, play Quidditch and serve as a prefect. She and artist Dean Thomas finally called it quits after the Quidditch Cup when Ginny finally realized she couldn't take on anymore.
"That summer, Ginny searched for a job in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, as she eventually wanted to move up to London for the Quidditch League Draft try-outs. There, she ended up meeting who was about to become seventh year Blaise Zabini. The pair knew each other from school and the model and Ginny had sizzling chemistry. Unfortunately, at the time, Blaise was looking for an accessory and Ginny wasn't looking for a relationship. For some odd months, they continued their charade, until Blaise finally and accidentally snagged her a break with a modeling job and the pair figured out they weren't what the other needed.
"Ginny's sixth year. Memorable as the year of the defeat of Voldemort. Ginny disarmed his right hand, Bellatrix Black-Lestrange, and Harry got to avenge his beloved godfather, the framed Sirius Black, murdered with his cousin's own wand. As Harry and Ginny and their friends wearily walked through the streets of London on their way back to Hogwarts, not wanting to be picked up by the Knight Bus until they were in Diagon Alley, there was something more than magical between everyone—there was a bond unbreakable by time.
"The next year, Ginny was on her own with close friend Luna Lovegood as the Insomnia ads began to surface. Her brother Ron warned her that she, as of the middle of her last year, she had better start looking more of a Quidditch athlete than a supermodel if she wanted the Draft to look at her. Ginny followed his advice and she was added to the Harpies' reserve team. She added another pair of modeling contracts to her belt, and a notch to it—me."
Ginny tried not to blanche at the sight of Kirley's pensive pause.
"It ended when Ginny's position as a reserve ended and her career escalated. Another rocker entered into her life and exited with the Harpies' downfall at the League Cup that year. Quidditch became an all-absorbing thing to Ginny. She was devoted to the Harpies. She ended another happy relationship with another member of the League who happened to be matched against her in the All-Star League Play-Offs for the National Team. While Ginny played better than he did, his team won.
"This year, in the middle of the season, Ginny was dropped from the Harpies based upon her teammates' jealousy of Ginny's success on and off the field, in business and in life. While this betrayal was upsetting, the comforting arms of the team she was traded to consoled her more than the money ever could, and she moved in here.
"Welcome to a new chapter, Ginny Weasley. You've been secretly training, secretly starring, secretly more successful than any magazine could say, and now, you're not so secretly stronger, and better, now that you're here, with Puddlemere, surrounded by all your friends and family, and, hell, some journalists too, and you deserve every bit of it."
Everyone applauded and stood, and Ginny struggled to keep the tears in her eyes. "Thank you, Kirley. Thank you so much. Thank you, everyone, for coming here today and comforting me for the past few weeks. It's been tough, but I know I'll be happier in the Puddlemere family than I ever was with the Harpies. Now tuck in!" Ginny clapped her hands, and the lazy Susans began to twirl, filled with good food.
"So…" Margarita began, as the table began to empty when the music began to play. "How's Katie?"
"Married." Oliver answered, showing Margarita his left hand. No ring. "We broke up last year."
Margarita nodded. She should've known that. "You okay with that?"
Oliver smiled and nodded. "Kate and I had a great time, and we outgrew each other."
"You talk about yourselves as if you were Quidditch uniforms." She murmured uncomfortably, leaning over the empty table sadly.
"You know I grew up, right?" Oliver asked softly, scooting closer to her.
"You know I never needed you to, right?" Margarita replied, and Oliver brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face and behind her ear.
"I know you didn't." Oliver managed, whispering in the ear he'd just grazed with his fingers. "But…I couldn't live being with you if I felt incomplete, because it wouldn't be your fault—you complete me."
The faint tinkling of the piano. A masculine hand with long, thin fingers lovingly placed on the small of a pale pink silk back. Hands clutched. Sleekly dressed bodies swaying together, pressed together, a pale, manicured hand on the shoulder of a blue dress shirt, closing the space between them.
"Thank you." Ginny whispered. "For the gift. It was very nice…I mean, it is very nice."
Harry nodded, his cheek brushing hers. "Have I found a purpose?"
Ginny's features wrinkled, and she pushed a little on his shoulder to separate their bodies a little. "What?"
"You yelled at me…before Christmas. About not having a purpose." Harry said, his brilliant green eyes meeting hers, a trickle of fear melting into their cold look.
"I can't answer that question." She told him, her voice getting a little louder.
"Why? Is it because you don't think I really want the Puddlemere position?" Harry asked, his tone too getting louder and a little weak all at the same time.
"I can't answer that question because you're the only one to know if you have a purpose, a new one, anyhow." Ginny told him, flushing, and closing the space between them, forcing him to whisper.
"But you could tell me I had no purpose." He muttered and she stepped back.
"I didn't know you took me so seriously, and it was so obvious, Harry, that you were merely on this earth in the physical, because all your life since you became a Hogwarts student was determined to keep your friends, your family—everybody safe from an enemy greater than ever. And that was a great purpose. But it's been so long since we've not had to deal with something like this none of us know how to function, yet alone those whose entire lives have revolved around fighting the powers of evil. You were just so lost, Harry, and now, I wouldn't know! You can't expect me to pass an opinion about you when I barely know you." Ginny broke off as the song changed to a fast minuet. "Harry, only you can decide whether what you're doing is making you happy. I can only observe when you're unhappy, because that's usually the only time I see you unguarded."
Ginny wandered back into the crowd, leaving Harry on the dance floor.