A/N: For those of you who didn't read this story back when I first wrote it, the working title was "We Were On A Break!" I'm still using that as I edit. Enjoy!

Most of the pubs the Harpies favored looked more or less the same inside, and the outside of Cloak and Dagger was so crowded when Ginny finally got there after the loss to the Eagles she could barely see anything other than the backs of the people in front of her. But her uniform cloak got her to the front of the line and then through the door quickly, where she found her team and had a glass shoved into her hand almost immediately. Despite the fact that no one could have been there more than 30 minutes or so, several of her teammates already looked quite buzzed.

Ginny had just downed her first shot with Evie and Gwenog when Leandra sidled up to her and flung an arm around her shoulder.

"What memories, huh? Are you planning anything hot here tonight?" She waggled her eyes suggestively and for a wild second Ginny wondered if Leandra was coming on to her.

"Huh . . .what?" Ginny managed, wiggling out from under Leandra's arm and trying to create some distance between them.

"You know, with Potter," said Leandra, jerking her head towards the back of the pub. Ginny looked that way, half expecting to see Harry there, but all she could see was a sea of heads and bottles and glasses floating through the air as the servers levitated them to patrons. But then the crowd shifted a bit and Ginny got a glimpse of . . .

Oh yeah.

The name of the pub hadn't meant anything to Ginny – there were several the Harpies regularly visited – and the little back hallway Ginny could now see was as nondescript as any other leading to the bathrooms. But it was immediately clear what Leandra meant, and what had happened in that particular hallway, and more specifically, in that particular gents' loo.

Ginny suddenly felt depressed. She should be, of course – they'd just lost an important game. She hated feeling that she'd been outflown, and there was no question that Alicia had been better than her today.

But even more than that, there was an emptiness that hadn't been there after other losses. Gwenog and Evie and Katrina were right next to her, breaking down the match play-by-play, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. Normally, Ginny would have been right there with them, deconstructing and trying to figure out how they might change strategies for next time. She didn't really care about that right now. The only person she was interested in talking to about the match was Harry. And he was acting undeniably weird.

He must have known where we were coming, and he didn't want to be back here, with me.

Ginny wondered if there was more to the reason Harry had been reassigned than he'd let on. Not for the first time she flushed at the thought of how much she must have distracted him from his work. Maybe Kingsley even knew she'd been in Harry's office. Or maybe Harry had asked to be reassigned himself, to give him some distance from her.

Stop it, Ginevra. You know Harry wouldn't do that. Not without telling you.

She was certain of that. Yes, he might be intensely involved in his work, but she couldn't believe he would just ask to be reassigned as a way to avoid . . .them. Hell, she was making a huge assumption that he didn't want to see her anymore.

He barely spoke to you tonight, though.

But that was totally different. He was on duty and trying to work on the transition, and talking to Bindi without letting her know that there had been, or was, anything between him and Ginny. It didn't mean anything.

"Hey Ginny, come on, we're all doing flaming butterbeer shots!" Ginny looked up and saw her entire team standing around, each holding a large mug of ale in one hand and a shot glass of butterbeer in the other. Their server handed Ginny hers and then, with a flick of her wand, lit all the shot glasses on fire.

"To routing the Eagles next time we meet!" shouted Gwenog.

"To making the playoffs!" added Evie.

"To finding Aurors as cute as Harry Potter so we can all shag them like Ginny!" cried Leandra.

Even as Ginny was turning bright red and looking frantically around to see who might have overheard, the rest of the team was dropping their shot glasses into their ale and downing the entire drink in one gulp.

Leandra finished quickly and wiped her upper lip. "Come on, Ginny, drink up," she called saucily. "Harry might be here any minute."

"Shut up, Leandra," Ginny muttered, dropping in her shot and draining the mug.

"Oh, come on," said Leandra, knocking her hip against Ginny's. "All in good fun. We all just wish we had an Auror as cute and attentive as Harry in love with us too."

"Harry is not in love with me," said Ginny hotly. "Not even close. I told you before, we're just friends."

Leandra didn't say anything, just raised her eyebrows. Ginny knew she should let it go, but she couldn't. She was suddenly sick of all the jokes and innuendo. Leandra needed to understand so she'd finally drop it. Ginny spread her arms wide. "Look around. Do you see Harry Potter anywhere near me? Huh? Cause if he was in love with me, I think he'd want to be around trying to make me feel better after I played like such crap today."

Leandra opened her mouth, then closed it again, looking upset. Finally she said, "but you didn't play like crap, Ginny. You were fantastic. It's just that that Eagles Chaser was unbelievable. I mean, she was like a machine or something up there."

Ginny frowned. "I've known Alicia for years," she said slowly. "She and her husband are friends with my older brothers. Don't you think I would have heard if she suddenly became such a great Quidditch player?"

Leandra shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe it's because she got married. All that sex can be good for your game." She waggled her eyes suggestively. "I mean, it certainly helped yours."

Ginny sighed. Leandra could not be deterred from her one-track mind, and Ginny was tired of trying to change it. She handed a couple of Sickles to the server as she went past and then leaned over to Evie.

"I've had enough. I'm leaving," she muttered. "I need to stop and get my stuff out of the changing rooms at the stadium and then I'll be back at the flat."

Evie looked at her with concern. "Are you okay? Cause if it's about what Leandra said . . ."

"No, I'm fine," said Ginny hurriedly. "Really." The last thing she wanted to do was get into a real conversation about Harry. Leandra's jokes were bad enough, but Evie was one of Ginny's closest friends on the team and yet, they had never spoken about Ginny and Harry's arrangement. Ginny was sure Evie knew what was going on, and it just proved how good a friend she was that she had never said anything about it.

Evie nodded and gave her a hug. "I'll be back later on."

Ginny said goodbye to her teammates and pushed her way out of the pub so she could find a quiet place to Disapparate. The stadium's wards were fixed to allow players to Apparate into the locked front entryway; the night watchman would then let her into the changing rooms.

But it was Auror trainee Gavin Sykes who was there instead. Ginny groaned to herself. She'd forgotten that he was assigned to the Harpies now. Gavin was young, eager, and at last count, had slept with at least three of Ginny's teammates. He'd tried hitting on Ginny at a pub once, but after Harry had begun working with the Harpies, Gavin had mercifully started leaving her alone. That didn't stop his eyes from lighting up in surprise when he saw her standing there waiting to be let into the stadium, though.

"Ginny! I thought I wouldn't see any Harpies until tomorrow afternoon, at the earliest. Aren't you all drowning your sorrows at the Cloak and Dagger? That was some loss today."

"Thanks for reminding me, Gavin," said Ginny tiredly. "I don't know when you'll see the rest of the team, but I'm going home."

"D'you need an escort?" Gavin sounded sincere, but there was something about his expression that made Ginny pause. Harry wouldn't have said anything to make Gavin think I wanted . . . no. Definitely not. He's more obsessed with his privacy than I am.

"I'm fine, Gavin," said Ginny, probably more harshly than necessary. "Anyway, aren't you supposed to stay here on duty?" she asked more gently.

"It's just so boring here," said Gavin with a touch of petulance. "I thought things would be more exciting when I moved to the Harpies. Harry's probably going to get all the excitement with the Eagles."

"I certainly hope not," said Ginny sharply. "Knowing Harry, he'll probably be able to find whoever's behind all this within a fortnight."

"Yeah, hopefully," agreed Gavin. "Well, if you're going back to your flat, don't let me stop you."

"I just need to stop by the changing rooms and get my bag, then I'll Apparate straight from there," said Ginny. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Ginny."

HPHPHPHPHP

Harry stood up from his position kneeling at the floo and ran his hand through his hair. He'd just finished declining Scott Meyer's invitation to go to the Cloak and Dagger for a couple of hours. Nearly everyone seemed to have decided that tonight was the time to take a much-needed break from everything that was going on with the Quidditch situation. Kingsley had sent home the Aurors who'd been pouring over evidence and lab results nearly around the clock and most of the married Aurors like Wolfe and Dirksen were relaxing with their families. Harry could have gone along to the pub, he supposed, although it sounded like it was going to be primarily the newer Aurors, and those without attachments.

Which includes me, I suppose.

But it would have been incredibly intrusive of him to follow Ginny there when she undoubtedly needed a night out with her team after such a tough loss. It would probably look like he was just interested in continuing their "arrangement", and the last thing Harry wanted to do right now was interfere with Ginny's playing.

For a short while during the game and immediately after, he thought he'd succeeded in removing himself from the growing confusion he felt when he was around Ginny. His thoughts had been fairly clear, and he'd been able to watch her play critically and objectively. It hadn't been a relief to lose those feelings, exactly, but at least the temporary emptiness had allowed him to give her some distance.

It hadn't lasted nearly long enough, though. Seeing her again, after the game, had brought nearly everything he'd just tried to hide roaring back. Harry wasn't so blind that he didn't understand what that meant, but he tried not to think about it anyway. He had promised Ginny no interference and he was determined to stick to their agreement.

To distract himself, he wandered into his kitchen and began rummaging around in the fridge for something to eat. He'd barely started eying the truly sad array of food and that a shopping trip was in order when a Patronus – Scott Meyers' fox – dropped down in front of him. It took longer than a second to start speaking and in that quiet moment, Harry's heart dropped into his stomach. Indeed, when he finally heard Meyers' voice, it was out of breath and fraught with calamity.

"Potter . . . explosion . . . Cloak and Dagger. We don't know what . . . there are injured. Get here NOW!" The voice faded away with the fox.

Harry whirled back into the living room and grabbed up his wand, struggling to think like an Auror, to focus on who might be responsible and how the scene would need to be immediately secured to search for clues. There had likely been over one hundred people in the pub at the time, and Meyers had said some of them were hurt. Transport to St. Mungo's had to be arranged, witness statements taken, the press dealt with.

Harry knew all this, of course. But as he turned on the spot and Disapparated away, all his mind could focus on was a single face he knew was at the pub, a single name.

Ginny.