March 11, 1999

"Oy! Theo! Hey!" Ginny jogged to catch up with her unlikely ally. Theo looked up from his books as he attempted to read and walk at the same time.

"Hey Ginny, I thought I told you I don't have time to liaise anymore. I don't even have anything you'd want right now."

"Yeah, I got your resignation letter in the post yesterday. I actually had some questions about that. Your letter said we couldn't tell anyone about any illicit activity that occurred while we were working together, but we didn't do anything but talk."

Theo stopped in his tracks as he looked at the ginger with a wicked grin on his face. "Ginevra Weasley, are you really going to pretend that you didn't come on to me every chance you got?"

Ginny slapped Theo's shoulder while she shrieked, "No, I did not!"

"I had to tell you on at least three occasions that you didn't have to exchange favors for my information, but you kept offering. I wonder what dear sweet Harry would think of this behavior."

Ginny rolled her eyes dramatically and stomped her left foot, "Theo, that's enough. I have such good intel right now and I can't share it with anyone in Gryffindor. It'll get back to Hermione and she'll know it was me who ratted."

"Ginny, I don't know how tuned in you are to the rumor mill these days, but you should know that whatever you heard about how I celebrated your brother's birthday is probably true. It was a trip and I am paying dearly. Snape has me doing so much detention that I literally do my homework while walking between classes and during meals. It's annoying having to eat and do essays at the same time when I'm spending my evenings chasing what I think is an imaginary boggart. Uncle Sev hasn't let me go before midnight since I got back."

Ginny sighed, "You know, when you asked me to make sure Hermione was at Ronald's party, I had no idea you and Draco were going to literally disappear for days. Hermione didn't say much about the disappearance because she doesn't say anything about anything anymore, but she was obviously distraught. Is it true that you guys ended up in the Caribbean at one point?"

"Yup, it was an exquisite experience. I'm not sure it's worth the price I'm paying now, but I never see Draco anymore so I had to make our last hurrah worth it."

"Last hurrah? No one is dying, Theo, he's still your friend."

"Does it feel like Hermione is still your friend?"

Theo's acute observation stunned Ginny into silence. Of course, Hermione and Ginny were still friends, but things certainly were different. Change was inevitable with age, sure, but Hermione had definitely pulled farther away than Ginny.

Desperate to change the subject to something less hurtful, Ginny said, "Theo, if Snape has you that busy, how are you not more tired? You seem relatively okay."

"Oh, I have a completely legal… method. I have my ways, Ginevra. That's all you need to know."

Theo turned to walk into the Great Hall for lunch.

Ginny walked with him to the Slytherin table, positively refusing to drop the subject. "Did you really not learn anything while you were gone? You had three days with Draco and no Hermione and you learned nothing? I won't buy that for a moment."

"I heard the Weasleys don't buy much of anything anyway," Theo snapped, the first sign of his exhaustion finally showing.

"The Weasleys don't, but I'm dating a trust fund baby who saved the wizarding world. You think I don't get what I want when I want it?"

Theo, clearly impressed with the youngest Weasley, finally levelled with her, "Fine. You show me yours and I'll show you mine."

Ginny beamed, "Well, I wouldn't have said it quite like that, but okay. It took a lot of work to ensure that Hermione made it to Gryffindor Tower for Ronald's birthday, I actually think you owe me for that."

"That's terrible intel."

"That's not the intel, dolt. I was just saying it took a lot of work to get her there. She didn't want to be there and it was fairly obvious to anyone who knows her at all. She and Ron are still quite tense with each other and he felt the need to make more than one comment about your best friend."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, that's why no one's let it slip to him that she moved out of the castle months ago."

"Wait, he's that mad and he doesn't even know they're living together?"

"My brother has a long memory for grudges."

"Seems silly to use those powers against your best friends."

"That's what I keep telling him, but whatever. Hermione was faking having a good time as best as she could when someone spilled butterbeer all down the front of her shirt."

"Does this someone happen to have red hair and make a habit out of ignoring well-written resignation letters?"

"It's possible," Ginny shrugged. "Anyway, you and I both know butterbeer leaves a sticky film even after the best cleaning charm so I told her she could just go up to the dorm and change."

Theo's smile reached Ginny's as she continued, "She obviously doesn't have any clothes in there anymore so she was forced to go up there with me. It's hard to avoid a one-on-one chat when you need something from the person who wants to chat. Anyway, she went digging through my trunk while I asked if her new home is nice and if I can visit at some point. She ignored all of my questions, picked up a new shirt and went to the bathroom to change." Ginny's whole face lit up at her final sentence.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay. That's not a great story, Ginevra."

"You don't understand! We spent all summer together and never once left the room to change."

"Sexy."

"It wasn't like that."

"I already had a visual so it doesn't matter if you deny it now."

Ginny shook her head dejectedly, choosing to ignore Theo's reactions until he finally got her point. "I confronted her about her sudden sense of modesty and she blushed crimson."

Theo's jaw dropped dramatically, "Salazar! She's pregnant, isn't she? That makes two. We only need two more to get the record from 1966. I bet we get there."

Slow-blinking at that last thought, Ginny carried on. "I thought that too, at first. Because she'd have to redo any glamour charms she had when she changed but no, this is way better."

"Damn, I'm really hoping to collect on that bet."

"You've got to quit betting on stupid stuff."

"It's not stupid if you win."

"If you say so. No, she has tattoos!"

"So? Wait, is that all? Granger has tattoos? That's not that exciting."

"I know you go to the tattoo parlors every chance you get, but this is big for Hermione."

"What's she got? A cute tiny heart on her hip or something?"

"You mean a dragon on the back of her right arm and a giant mandala on her shoulder where it looks like she's starting a sleeve?"

Theo snorted into his pumpkin juice. "How big are we talking?"

"If she wants to keep them hidden, she has to wear collared shirts with long sleeves."

"Dang. Good for Granger."

"I don't know if it's good for her or not, at this point. I don't really care if she wants tattoos but she's also really skinny. I don't think she's gained back half the weight she lost during the war. I tried to get her to talk to Madam Pomfrey or anyone about it, but she refused point blank."

Theo looked lost at that observation.

"Hermione also wouldn't tell me anything about her tattoos. All I know is she didn't have them when we got on the train in September because I don't think I saw her body over Christmas break. The only thing she would talk about was me not telling anyone else, that was important to her."

"You're such a good friend," Theo pointed out while he drank his soup.

"That's what I've got, your turn."

"You should talk to your boyfriend."

"What?"

Theo rubbed his eyes as he repeated himself and pulled his homework back out, "You should talk to your boyfriend."

"That's what you learned while you were on your adventure? That I should talk to my boyfriend?"

"Yes."

"That's terrible intel, I should have made you go first."

"Yes, you should have, but one of us is in a house known for being cunning and one is in a house known for being reckless."

"You mean brave?"

"I meant what I said, Ginny. Talk to Harry." Ginny huffed in a most Mrs. Weasley-like fashion.

"I know," he said as he picked up his quill and motioned that she should go back to the Gryffindor table, "I'm not happy about the state of things either. I don't understand how The Chosen One keeps getting chosen for things. Especially when I would be great at those things, but the world just insists on being unfair."