Saturday brought the first Harpies game with Harry in charge. It was a home game but playing the Arrow's anywhere was a hard task, particularly for the underperforming Harpies of this season.

Ever since Harry had bought out the Harpies and taken the team private the news media had been going mad. New stories were popping up all the time. They ranged from the financial consequences and the estimated cost of the buyout to what it could mean for the team's performance. There were also articles spreading rumours that Harry had bought out the team so that Ginny would make the first team and more scandalous stories about how the team was now Harry's harem.

Despite the nasty newspaper articles Ginny was much happier than she'd been in the previous week. She'd been able to play quidditch every day since Harry had taken over and there had already been a positive change in how the team were playing. Her home life had also picked up. Harry was now much busier than he had been since he'd left the aurors, but it had been a good thing. His mind was now occupied and he wasn't spending most of his time around Grimrald place. Which could only be a good thing in Ginny's mind.

Though he tried to hide it from her, Ginny knew that the old Black family house still haunted Harry. It taunted him, reminding him of what could have been, what he lost how much he sacrificed. Ginny knew that eventually there would be enough happier memories around their home to make it easier for Harry to bear but that would only really be papering over the cracks. To be honest, Ginny had wanted for them to get their own house. One that they picked, or even built themselves, not one that was left to them by a dark family that had caused them and the world so much pain. Though she wouldn't mind adopting the Black family liquor selection. She just didn't know how to bring it up with Harry. She knew how he hung on to one the last bits of Sirius he had left but maybe now that they were both working at Holyhead Ginny may have a way to convince him.

Ginny stopped day dreaming when Gwenog came into the changing rooms. She too seemed happier over the week, no doubt because the club was once more a quidditch focused club again. They'd trained hard all week long, Gwenog no doubt pushing them so they can try to catch up on missed time. Ginny herself had pushed herself even harder than she'd thought possible. She knew that now if she got selected people would say it was only because Harry owned the club so she needed to be the best possible player she could be to silence the critics.

Harry had been keeping to his promise to stay out of selection though he had been spotted in the stands watching the practice sessions and having long, in-depth chats with Gwenog afterwards. He'd told Ginny that it was about the Harpies seeker and that he was giving Gwenog some tips on seeker drills and training, but Ginny suspected more. She knew Harry loved to play quidditch, and she wouldn't be that surprised if he tried out for a club before the start of the next season, but if that didn't happen she'd be equally unsurprised if he made his way on to the coaching team. He'd always been a good teacher.

"Okay girls, there's had to be a last minute change." Gwenog said, frowning. "Victoria was hexed in the back by a drunk Arrows fan on the way here." The team cried out in shock and outrage. Ginny didn't know what to think, were people really willing to stoop that low. "I've been told there's no need to worry, she's with healers now and the drunk is in DMLE custody. While she won't be able to play today she'll be back with us for Monday morning training."

Gwenog took a deep breath. "For today that means that Natalie will be moved to starting chaser and Ginny will be chaser replacement."

Ginny gulped.

Of course she knew that for this season she'd mainly be there for injury cover for situations just like this one. But this could be her first game of professional level quidditch. Would her parents be there to watch? Her brothers? Her friends?

She'd always hoped her first game would be momentously announced, put in the paper where everyone she'd ever met could she what she'd achieved. Her parents would be so proud they wouldn't stop talking about it for weeks on end.

But then maybe it was better this way. Less pressure, less expectation. No one in the crowd would recognise her. She'd just be a nobody to forget about after the game if she didn't play well.

Yes, it was better this way. If she came on it would just be like any other game of quidditch she'd played. Yes, this way was best.

The Harpies soon made their way out on to the pitch, the players more subdued than usual the news of the recent attack on one of their own. Ginny took her place on the bench as the starting seven got into position around the centre circle.

Time was seemingly slowing down.

The snitch was released.

Ginny could hear her heart beating, the constant pulse echoing around her ears.

The bludgers were released.

She was starting to feel dizzy, a sinking feeling in her stomach.

After what felt like an eternity the referee blew the whistle as she threw the quaffle into the air.

Players were darting around and Ginny couldn't keep track. She didn't know who had possession of the quaffle. She didn't know if the Harpies were being pummelled by the bludgers or if the Harpies beaters were keeping them safe. She didn't know if the seekers had yet spotted the snitch. Merlin, she didn't even know the score.

She put her head between her legs hoping to feel a bit better.

She didn't know how much time but she wasn't feeling any better when someone tapped her shoulder.

Looking up she saw it was Gwenog.

"Start to warm up, Weasley, you're going to go on in five." And with that her world could have stopped.

She had five minutes to get ready.

She was going on!

She was going to play a professional game of quidditch.

She quickly jumped up. She needed to get ready! She needed to warm up. She had to stretch, get her blood pumping, she was about to play a game of quidditch! You couldn't go into a proper game of quidditch cold. No! You needed to warmed up and ready to go.

She started to jog, doing a couple shuttles in front of the Harpies bench before going into a set of dynamic stretches. Making to focus first on her calves, hamstrings, quads and groin. Manoeuvring a broom at professional standards was hard work on your legs and she didn't want to let her team down. After her legs she focused on loosening up her shoulders, neck and upper arms. While they would also help her control her broom, they also had the added pressure of throwing, catching and controlling the quaffle.

When Ginny felt she was ready she grabbed her broom and checked it over once more. Was the shaft polished enough, were the tail twigs straight enough?

Merlin why did she have to have these doubts now!

There was a stoppage in play and Gwenog screamed "Weasley, go!" and Ginny jumped on her broom and kicked off, she was just about able to register that Natalie had blood pouring down her face from her cut on her forehead but she didn't have time to dwell on it: she had a game to play.

All too soon the referee signalled the end of the time out and the Arrows retain possession from before. Ginny was out of position; she hadn't been ready but she was trying to get back into the right place.

The Harpies liked to play with a woman-on-man defensive structure. The aim was to get close and stay close to one member of the opposition, to frustrate them into making mistakes, being closer also meant that the beaters were putting their own team mates at risk when trying to hit Harpies with bludgers. Their, on average, smaller body mass meant they couldn't make the big one on one hits that other teams favoured but this defensive system still allowed them to be competitive with the bigger, stronger teams.

But it only worked if all the chasers were alert and in the correct pace at all times!

And Ginny wasn't.

And the arrows had seen it. Ginny was rushing to get to her man but could already see the pass in the air! The Arrow's player had had to loop it over Nicola's head so it was taking a long time to fly through the air. Ginny could see it, almost be able to predict exactly where the quaffle was going to fall: right into the arms of the open and undefended arrows chaser. Ginny flattened herself against her broom, trying to get every last ounce of speed from the broom beneath her, trying every seeker tip she'd ever picked up while playing at Hogwarts.

The Arrow's player was looking over his shoulder, tracking the movement of the ball. He didn't know that Ginny was coming.

She allowed herself to smile, she was going to make it.

Just before the collision, Ginny pulled up, her tail almost grazing across the opposition players face, and took the quaffle in two hands before tucking it under one and racing towards the arrows goal hoops.

She could only just hear the roar of the Harpies fans over the rush of the wind and the thump of her pulse echoing around her ear. But she knew what she had to do as she once more flattened herself against the broom to go faster as she shot towards the goal.

Her interception had caught the Arrows unawares so she'd met no defenders on her way towards the rings, the Harpies beaters must have had control of the bludger as she broke away as nothing was chasing her. A quick scan around told Ginny that all the other chasers, for the Harpies and the Arrows, were too far away to be either an attacking option for her to use or as a defender in her way so she knew it was going to be a one on one with the keeper.

She was approaching down the middle of the pitch and hence the goal keeper was guarding the middle hoop, though they still had both hands on their broom so they could control it well to cover the two outside hoops if she shot towards those.

Ginny tried to remember the analysis of the keeper that the team had done in preparation for the game in the week but she was drawing nothing. What side did they favour? Which was their dominant hand? How was their broom control? She couldn't remember anything!

Once she was within ten metres of the hoops, Ginny had made up her mind. She'd pulled this shot off what must have been nearly a million times; at the burrow against Ron, at Hogwarts against the other houses, in training against her fellow Harpies.

She dove to the right.

The keeper followed, guarding the near side hoop.

She shot left.

The angle was tight, the target smaller so her throw had to be on point!

The keeper tried to go the other way but all he could do was watch as the ball passed his out stretched fingers.

Time seemed to slow for Ginny as she watched the ball, she was now behind the posts so she couldn't judge the trajectory as well: she didn't know if it would go in.

The ball passed through the left hoop.

The crowd roared.

Ginny didn't know what to do.

Should she celebrate?

How should she celebrate?

She looked back towards her team mates, they were smiling but quickly turned to fly back to their own half.

Of course!

Ginny almost slapped herself, the Arrows could restart play at any time so she had to get back to their own half so she would be ready to defend the next play.

The Arrows restarted and after her intercept they were doing more conservative, safer passes to their team mates, and as they came into the Harpies half Ginny's opposite man had the quaffle. This time she played it by the book. She got up close trying to bother and frustrate him. Not letting him have any space to pass as she maneuverer herself so that she was pushing him towards the stands and away from any support. She managed to hit the ball a couple of times in her attempts before her opposite spun away and retreated to give him more space for the pass that he then sent to one of his team mates.

Not wanting to make the same mistake as before, Ginny shot up to her man to close down the space. Only he was done when he moved back, once Ginny had started moving towards him he shot towards the goal going round the outside of Ginny in an arching line that would put him in open space in front of the goal with no chaser to cover him.

Ginny tried to correct, turning as quick as possible to try and close the distance but she was chasing him about a brooms length behind. His team mate managed to get the pass off and he caught the quaffle without slowing at all but Ginny didn't give up the chase.

That didn't stop him being against the keeper with no defenders in front of him though. He was approaching from the keepers right, and him being a right hander would make the throw to the unguarded far hoop a bit harder but at professional level that should no longer be a problem for first string chasers. But this man, he seemed to have a problem, he slowed down as he pulled back his arm to throw; he slowed down enough for Ginny to catch and take the quaffle from him completely as she flew over the top of him.

And she may or may not have accidentally clipped his head with her foot as she went passed but that was an accident.

She turned and looked up to see a different Arrows chaser barrelling towards her, looking passed him she saw Nicola in wide open space. Waiting till he was almost on top of her she threw the pass to Nicola before trying to turn out of the way but bracing herself for the impact anyway. And though it was a glancing hit it almost took her off her broom. Apparently this Arrows team weren't her biggest fans. Ginny couldn't stop herself from grinning to herself as she flew towards the Arrows goal to see if she could help. But even without her it was a two on one and the Harpies sunk another goal.

Play continued for the rest of the ten minute blood replacement that Ginny had been subbed on for and then she was called back off the field and Natalie went back on for her. In the rest of that time the Harpies had scored only once more goal and the Arrows had managed to get one in as well that Ginny was kicking herself for. She should have been watching for a loop under play!

But she was happy and pleased with her first ever taste of professional quidditch. She'd scored her first goal and assisted another and most importantly she managed to keep up! She wasn't massively out of her league as all her doubts and fears had been telling her since she'd got this job. She'd kept up and she'd done herself proud.

As she took her seat back on the bench, Gwenog came over. "Good job Weasley, you did good out there." She said with a pat on Ginny's shoulder before walking back to her own seat to continue watching the game.

/

The game finished 260 points for the Harpies to the Arrow's 250. They'd won! Despite the Arrows seeker catching the snitch. Really it was being reported as a Harpies thrashing, the press reporting that the Harpies had been dominant in all areas of the game outside of seeking and that they'd re-announced themselves as a 'real contender' under their new management.

She'd managed not to see anything about herself yet and she didn't know if she wanted to. She couldn't tell if they'd spin it in a positive or negative way. Because while she thought she'd played well, she wouldn't put it passed the more gossip focused journalists to use her inclusion on the team to slander Harry or to stir up imaginary drama.

She was in the team changing rooms celebrating with the team when Gwenog came in.

"Ginny, you've got someone outside wanting to talk to you." She said, she seemed to be masking a laugh but Ginny wasn't sure: she didn't know Gwenog well enough yet.

So Ginny thanked her coach and went outside the changing room. She turned the corner out of the door to see her entire family led by Harry and Teddy at the front of the pack.

She was shocked! How did they get here? She wasn't even meant to be playing today!

"What!? How?" Ginny managed to splutter out as Teddy crashed into her legs.

Harry just smirked at her. "Owning a team has to have some benefits, Gin, and when I heard you were on the bench and I knew there was a slight chance you might be playing for the first time I knew I had to get everyone here." He said as he took the few steps needed to close the gap between them.

Teddy had started fussing, so Ginny lifted him up, balancing the small boy on her hip.

"What do you think, Ted, did I play the well?" Ginny asked him.

His eyes lit up, quite literally as the entire eye ball turned a slightly terrifying gold, and his hair turned Harpy green. "You were the bestest Gin Gin! You scored! And you throwed the ball so good!"

"Teddy's right, Gin, you really were the bestest player out there today." Harry said through a laugh.

"You guys are supposed to say that." Ginny muttered.

"That doesn't mean it's not true." Harry replied before placing a kiss on her forehead and taking Teddy from her arms. "Now I think your other fans want to see you."

Ginny looked passed him to see the rest of her family, she'd almost forgotten it wasn't just her, Harry and Teddy. Her mum was looking at her with a small smile no doubt because of how domestic her and Harry were when they were with Teddy. But she couldn't be bothered to bring herself to care that much. She knew what she wanted their future to look like. Though any more than Teddy would have to wait a while. Like until she was done with Quidditch.

Harry watched on as Ginny was congratulated by her family. Molly and Arthur gushed; Charlie and Ron offered some pointers; Bill, Percy and George laughed at their brothers with her; Fleur, holding Victorie, and Hermione congratulated her on a game well played.

"Thanks guys, but I hardly played. The other girls deserve your praise more than I do." Ginny said.

"But you did play, Gin." Harry's voice came from behind her. She looked over her shoulder as she felt his arms wrap around her middle, seeing him smile widely and Teddy now sat on his shoulders. "And you kicked arse when you did."

Ginny smiled. "You're right, I did play well!"

"Inny play!" Victorie cried.

"That's right, darling." Bill said down to his daughter. "And she kicked arse."

Ginny couldn't keep the smile off her face when she had to go back into the changing room to finish up. The other girls were really kind, telling her how well she played and expressing their love for Teddy, who'd tried to come into the changing rooms with her before she'd caught him and handed him back to his godfather.

"Right girlys!" Gwenog had come back into the changing room now that she'd finished her press requirements. "You played really well today. You set a marker for the rest of this season. I want today to be our worst performance for the rest of this season, we build on what we did today, we get better and we grow as a team." She swept her gaze across the room meeting every players eyes. "But seriously you did brilliantly today. Now go do your recovery, those that the healers sign off can have tomorrow off but I want everyone back in early Monday morning for a review and a preview of the Canons." She paused again. "Great game girls."

The changing room came to life again, everyone going about their postgame recovery rituals as they gossiped and talked about particular moments from the game.

She quickly changed into her normal clothes and stuffed all her Quidditch gear into her kit bag not noticing her coach until Gwenog called her name.

"Ginny, a word please." Gwenog said.

Ginny agreed and followed the coach out of the changing rooms towards the recovery rooms.

"I wanted to warn you, Ginny, about what happened at the post match press conference." Gwenog seemed to grimace at the thought before she took a breath and continued. "Most of the questions were about you. And almost the entirety of those were not about your performance today. They were asking invasive questions about yourself and Harry, about if your relationship had gotten you your place on the bench, which of the other girls were now sleeping with him, that kind of thing. I of course shut these down, telling them of our selection policy and how it doesn't involve Harry at any stage and that any more non-quidditch related questions would get them booted out of the conference."

Ginny sighed, she'd already had her share of unflattering articles written about her for just being Harry's girlfriend. "Thanks for letting me know, Gwenog, guess I should tell my mum to avoid the gossip rags for the next few days."

Gwenog smiled at her. "You did good today Weasley, go rest up and I'll see you Monday morning."

Waving to her boss, Ginny entered the first available recovery room. Taking the seat, the healer quickly casted some diagnosis spells, identifying the worst of the bruises now on her body. She then cast half a dozen muscle recovery spells at Ginny.

"You should be fine; you won't need to come in tomorrow." The healer said. Ginny had to stop herself fist pumping right there. "Have an ice bath this evening and try to stretch and do some light exercises tomorrow, mainly cardio but some light weights would also be fine."

Ginny thanked the healer and made her way home.

/

Ginny slowly lowered herself into her ice bath. Merlin she hated these but she couldn't argue with the results for naturally decreasing her recovery from particularly rough sessions or in today's case a match!

She'd not been able to stop smiling since it had finished.

Ginny Weasley was now a professional quidditch player!

She was now deep enough in the bath that only her head was above the surface. This was the time that Harry decided to come in to their bathroom.

"Room for small one?" He joked.

"If this is you trying to be funny about Teddy getting out of bed again I will kill you." Ginny said, deadpan.

Harry just laughed. "No, he's asleep now, I just checked on him. I was actually talking about myself."

"Really? I'd never have guessed."

"Oh shut up Weasley, just trying to prove that the romance isn't dead just yet." Harry was pretending to sulk and Ginny could have laughed her head off if she didn't have a better joke in mind.

"Then by all means, please join me Mr Potter."

Ginny unabashedly stared at him as he undressed, he must have known she was watching because he undressed slowly teasing each reveal.

Harry then began to lower himself into the bath before yelping and leaping back out.

"What did you do?" He accused the laughing Ginny.

"Re-re-recovery." She managed to get through despite the laughs.

Harry summoned his wand to him, "Oh really and how recovered are you feeling? Have you by any chance been recovering for long enough?" He asked.

"Well Mr Potter, I think so but maybe I should wait a little longer. The team has a new owner and I wouldn't want to disappoint him." Ginny tried to look innocent knowing she was teasing him.

"I'm sure he won't mind." Harry growled before heating the bath up to a more normal temperature with a wave of his wand and jumping in with her.

Hello again, I am back for another swing of the bat.
I hope you enjoyed it. I've based a lot of the quidditch on rugby, for example the blood sub (if you get injured and you're bleeding everywhere you go off and your team has 10 minutes to patch you up and then you can go back on) and the recovery aspects because Quidditch is a physical game.
Please leave a review or PM if you want to know something
An Average White Writer