Red Sox Remus & Tight Pants Ginny

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot...and my innate love for baseball.

Summary: Remus and Ginny come across and illegal portkey that transports them to...the World Series? And just what exactly is the Green Monster?

A/N- I was inspired by my Red Sox making it to the World Series, and I couldn't resist adding a Remus/Ginny element to it.

Fall had descended upon the Burrow, and Molly Weasley was pleased to have all her children home on Saturday afternoon. With everyone being grown and out on their own, it was a rare occasion for all the Weasleys to be in one place at the same time. Because of her excitement, Molly had invited several other friends around, and the house and yard were currently bursting at the seams.

Currently, the women- Molly, Fleur, Tonks, Hermione, Katie, Parvati and Luna- were sitting on the back porch sipping lemonade, while all the Weasley men, plus Ginny, Harry Potter and Remus Lupin were off in the field playing Quidditch.

In reality, Remus was not playing Quidditch. He despised flying and only did it when he absolutely had to. He was sitting on the ground below with Arthur watching his friends, having not wanted to stay back at the house with the women.

The two older men watched as Fred hastily threw the Quaffle in the vicinity of the scoring hoops, only to miss by several feet. The Quaffle sailed into the woods. Ginny rolled her eyes. This was the fourth time Fred had missed a goal, proving that he was worthless as a Chaser.

"I'll get it," she said exasperatedly, slowing her broom as she descended to the ground. She dismounted her broom and glared at Fred, still in the sky and looking quite sheepish.

"Ginny," Remus called, "you stay, I'll go."

"No, it's fine," she huffed. "I need to cool down."

Remus stood, wearing an amused smile. "I'll walk with you then."

The pair strode towards the forest in silence. Ginny was still fuming at having Fred as a Chaser on her team. Since it was a small group, each team was playing with only one Beater. Fred and George had flipped for it, and Fred lost, making him the other Chaser.

"So, is my father driving you crazy?" Ginny asked, walking purposefully into the woods.

"How'd you guess?" Remus asked, embarrassed.

Ginny smiled and winked at him. "I've lived with him for nineteen years, Remus. I know when someone is trying not to pull their own ears off."

They laughed, continuing on their walk. After a moment, Ginny spotted the Quaffle. As she bent to pick it up, Remus noticed something lying on the ground next to it.

"What's this?" he asked. Ginny turned and they both leaned down to pick it up, touching it simultaneously.

Instantly, they felt the familiar pull in their stomachs of a portkey. Several moments later, they felt solid ground under their feet again, and they both looked at each other in shock. Remus glanced down at the object in their hands, a Muggle wallet, then back up at Ginny.

"How could this be a portkey?" he asked in a whisper. Several people were milling around, and he didn't want to be overheard. Ginny merely shrugged. Remus quickly looked through the wallet, pulling out various papers.

He looked at some of the papers he'd pulled out. Some were green with various numbers and pictures of old men on them. He assumed they were some sort of Muggle currency. He then noticed two slim, thicker papers.

"Baseball World Series?" he asked. "Boston Red Sox versus St. Louis Cardinals?" He looked to Ginny for assistance, but she was busy looking around.

"Look!" she exclaimed, pointing up above them. The sign said "Welcome to Fenway Park, home of your Boston Red Sox."

"Isn't Boston is America?" she asked Remus.

He nodded. Surely they couldn't be...in Boston? And what was this baseball thing?

"Ginny," he said, "do you know what the baseball World Series is?"

"No," she replied, "but it sounds like some sort of sporting event. I mean, this Fenway Park looks similar to the stadium for the Quidditch World Cup." She glanced around them and turned to whisper to Remus, "Shall we go inside and see?"

Remus agreed, and the two stepped into the queue to get into the stadium. The usher had to physically take the tickets from Remus to scan them with some sort of laser device.

They wandered around the stadium and eventually managed to find their seats in right field, with the help of several ushers.

They sat and watched, since the game had already started. Ginny managed to borrow program from a neighboring fan and proceeded to read about baseball and Fenway Park.

Remus, meanwhile, paid close attention to the loud voice- obviously using the Sonaris charm, he thought- and the other people around him. He also actually watched the game. Of course, he didn't know what was going on, and he wondered where their brooms were, but he was almost enjoying himself.

Suddenly, Ginny started giggling next to him. "What are you laughing at?" Remus asked her.

She slid the program over towards him and pointed at something listed under "Rules of Play." It read, "Once a player has four balls, he may take his base."

Remus looked at her quizzically. "What's so funny about that?"

"Do you know any men with four balls?" she asked with a blush. Remus rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the game.

"Why do they keep calling that thing the 'Green Monster'?" he wondered aloud, pointing to the left field wall. "It doesn't look like a monster at all. I wish Hagrid were here. He would know."

"It says here that the 'Green Monster' is thirty-seven feet high and was painted green in 1946, and it's three hundred and ten feet from home plate...wherever that is," Ginny replied. She looked pleased with herself and turned to Remus for approval.

He wasn't paying any attention to her. He was looking at the players on the field. Ginny followed his gaze from their seats in right field. The first player she saw was labeled number seven. She quickly thumbed through her program for the list of players. She found number seven quickly; his name was Trot Nixon.

"What kind of name is Trot Nixon?" she said. She looked back at Remus, but she noticed that he'd paled considerably. "Remus, what is it?"

He pointed to another player on the field, number eighteen. She hurriedly looked him up. "What about Johnny Damon?" she asked Remus.

"That man's got to be a werewolf," he hissed in her ear.

"Why do you think that?" she asked, looking nervously at the moon that was now in the sky. It was only a half-moon, so she was curious as to why Remus was making that assumption.

"Look at him, Ginny," Remus replied. "That long hair, all that facial hair."

"But Remus," she countered, "you don't have facial hair right now. You're all nice and smooth." To prove her point, she lightly ran her hand along his jaw.

Remus shook his head stubbornly. "He's got to be one. Haven't you noticed?"

She shook her head. "No, the only player I've noticed is that Trot Nixon out there," she said, indicating Nixon on the field. "He's quite a dish."

Remus glared at her. "You just like his tight pants."

She giggled. "They're all wearing tight pants," she said with a giggle. "I've never seen anything like it before. It's brilliant!"

They sat for a few innings just watching the game. Occasionally, Ginny, now being a baseball expert from her reading, would fill Remus in on what was going on or why the players kept changing from fielding and hitting so often.

They cheered with the rest of the fans when Boston scored runs and booed when things went badly for them. Ginny, still enamored with Trot Nixon, cat-called him when he went into his at-bat butt waggle, much to the embarrassment of Remus.

At the end of the first half of the seventh inning, all the fans in the stadium stood, and Remus and Ginny, assuming the game was over, followed suit. Suddenly, however, everyone else burst into song. Remus and Ginny looked at each other, confused at first, until Remus realized the words to the song were displayed on the large vellytision screen. He and Ginny joined in at the end.

"...And it's one! Two! Three strikes, you're out, at the old. Ball. Game!"

"Remus, what are Cracker Jacks?" Ginny asked, as everyone sat down.

"I'm not sure," he replied. "We sang about them in that song. Perhaps they're something to eat at a baseball match." He glanced around and saw a food man walking around. He raised his hand in the air, waving the man over.

"Hey, man," the vendor said, "whaddya want?"

"Have you any Cracker Jacks?" Remus asked politely.

"That'll be four bucks," the man replied. Remus fumbled with the money in his hand, but he eventually paid the man correctly and opened the snack box.

He and Ginny ate their treat hungrily. They were almost to the end of the box when Remus pulled his hand out in confusion. In his hand, he found a plastic ring. He looked at it, then back at the outside of the box.

"This must be the 'prize,'" he mused. "Here, you take it." He offered it to Ginny.

She took it and slid it onto her finger. "Remus, I would expect you to ask my father for permission before you go giving me a ring," she teased.

"Like that would ever happen," he said with a laugh. "Even if I was to ask permission, your father would never give it to me."

An hour later, the game ended, and Remus and Ginny celebrated with the other Red Sox fans over their team's victory. As they exited the stadium, Ginny turned to Remus.

"Reckon we can Apparate back to England?" she asked nervously.

"I think we can manage that," he said. He found a darkened alleyway and pulled her into it. "Shall we do it together, just to be safe?"

She nodded and wrapped her arms tightly around Remus' waist as he raised his wand.

When she opened her eyes again, they were back at the Burrow on the porch. The door flew open and she and Remus were met with several familiar faces.

"Where have you two been?" Molly shrieked. "We've been worried sick!"

"Any why are you...embracing?" George asked teasingly. "Did you go into the woods to snog?"

Ginny immediately realized that her arms were still wrapped around Remus, and she quickly let go of him. "George Weasley! We most certainly did not!" she yelled.

"It's a rather long story," Remus said, "but I think it all started with an illegal portkey." He levitated the rogue wallet from his pocket with his wand and floated it inside onto the table.

"Ah, yes," Arthur said, gazing at the item in question. "We've had some tourists in the area, Americans. I had no idea they were wizards though."

Remus and Ginny quickly told the story of their day at the World Series, while their family and friends gaped at them.

"How fascinating!" Arthur exclaimed. "You spent four hours around Muggles! Oh, I wish I'd been there!"

"Ginny," Harry said with his eyebrows raised, "what is that ring on your finger?"

"Oh, this?" she asked, fingering the ring. "Remus gave it to me earlier."

At this remark, Arthur shot a scathing look towards Remus. Immediately Ginny cleared up any confusion by saying, "It's just a toy ring. It came out of a snack box."

Fred exchanged a look with George, who immediately wrote that suggestion on a piece of parchment.

"Where's Ron?" Ginny asked, suddenly realizing that someone was missing.

"Outside snogging Luna's lips off in the shed," Bill answered, matter-of-factly.

"Well, I think I'll be going now," Remus said as he stood. "It's been a long day."

Everyone bid him good-bye as he left the house. Ginny quickly followed him out onto the porch.

"I just wanted to say thanks," she said shyly. "I had a nice time today."

He smiled back at her. "That makes two of us. I'm glad your mum invited me over. I'll see you soon, though. Good night." He leaned to kiss her softly on her cheek.

"Bye, Remus," she replied.

As she turned to walk back into the house, Ginny looked at the ring on her hand and smiled blissfully to herself. When she walked in, Fred smirked at her. "No snogging in the woods?" he asked disbelievingly.

Ginny laughed as she headed up the stairs. She called back, "Yeah, right."