Several hours later—and across town—Ginny stood patiently waiting outside of a small shop in a Muggle shopping district watching people walk past. She had originally wanted to go to Diagon Alley for this task in particular, but had decided against it when she realized how many people would question her purchasing a wedding dress. To wizards, she played on a high profile Quidditch team and was dating a world famous wizard. To Muggles, she was just any other girl.
She sighed as the wind kicked up and upswept her hair. It was a surprisingly blustery day as she clutched her coat tightly around her and checked a nearby clock. Just as she began to think about how Hermione was running surprisingly late, Hermione suddenly appeared from around a corner looking bothered.
"I'm sorry I'm late," Hermione said. "I got held up at work with an issue concerning the murder of a house elf."
"It's okay," Ginny said with a smile. "I wasn't waiting long. What's this about a house elf murder?"
Hermione let out an annoyed sigh. "You know how hard I worked to get house elf legislation pushed to the point where they're garnered some, albeit still pitiful, rights?"
"Of course," Ginny said as the two of them began walking down the street together.
"Well, there are always idiots who think they're above the system," she said, "and this one in particular," she paused to take a breath, "the same one who's been warned twice before about his treatment of his house elf, went fully mental yesterday and ended up poisoning his elf with chemicals."
"How horrible!"
"It's heartbreaking," she said, "but legislation has only been pushed to the point where house elves have the right to report mistreatment. There's been nothing done to truly punish those who have mistreated them."
"I don't understand," Ginny said.
"Basically," she continued, talking very quickly as her cheeks flushed with anger, "the house elf in this case had reported his caretaker twice before for abuse. However, since the current law states that it takes three complaints to ensure a visitation and inspection of the home, nothing was done. Even if he had complained three times, the elf would have just been removed from the home, and that's only if the abuse was serious enough. The caretaker would only be fined and then they would be perfectly allowed to acquire a new elf if they liked." She paused to catch her breath again before slightly shouting, "So, this idiot kills his house elf and now he's ONLY facing a fine of 1,000 Galleons, and I'm the only one who seems to care!"
"Oh, Hermione…"
Hermione shook her head. "I've been working so hard for the last few years to get fairer legislation passed for disadvantaged creatures, but every time I think I've made real progress, something like this happens. I feel like I'm back at square one."
"At least there are people like you out there fighting for them. I mean, look at what you've done for werewolves. Lupin would have been so proud that you single handedly led the push for werewolf employment laws to be rewritten."
Hermione calmed slightly at the thought of this.
"You can't save the world at once," Ginny said, resting her hand on Hermione's shoulder, "but you have to know you are making a difference."
"It just makes me so mad," she said once they stopped across the street from the store they had been looking for. She glanced at Ginny. "But I'll stop talking about it for now. I know how excited you are to do this. You don't need me putting a damper on things with all this work talk."
"If it helps you to feel better about it."
"But it doesn't," she said flatly as they crossed the street. "I'm just working myself up more."
Ginny blinked a few times and stared at her in surprise. On her soap box, preaching of the injustices of the world, was one of Hermione's favorite places to be. Particularly if she was as agitated as she was. Not wanting to talk about it seemed almost odd.
"I do enough of it at work," Hermione said, as if she was suddenly reading Ginny's mind. "I do need a break from it from time to time."
Ginny hid her smile from her as she held the shop door open for her. She knew exactly who had put that way of thinking into her head considering it had practically been Ron's motto to her. If one good thing had come from her brother and Hermione's relationship, it was that Ron had managed to instill a sense of calm into Hermione that helped her to realize that pulling back wasn't always a bad thing. Hermione had done the same for him as far as instilling a sense of urgency.
"Look at all these dresses," Hermione said as she looked around. "That one just there is really nice."
"It is," Ginny said, staring at a sleeveless gown. "Hopefully you'll like the one I picked out as much as—"
"Hello!" said a sales woman who was wearing far too much makeup. "Can I help you with anything today?"
"Hi," Ginny said politely. "I actually have an appointment for a fitting today."
"Wonderful!" said the woman. "Can I have your name?"
"It's Weasley," she said as the woman gestured for the two of them to follow her. "And I also have a bridesmaid gown put aside under Granger."
"Is that you, dear?" the woman asked Hermione.
Hermione nodded as the woman ran a long finger down a ledger.
"Yes, here you are!" she said pleasantly. "Excellent, we'll have you both set up over here in this dressing room. I'll be right back with the gowns."
"Thank you," Ginny said, but the woman had already disappeared behind a curtain.
"I'm excited to finally see it," Hermione said as she sat down on a nearby chair in the dressing room.
"I'm excited for you to finally try on yours," Ginny said. "It's nice to finally get you down here."
"I know, I know. I work too much," she said heavily. "Between work, helping you and Harry with the wedding, and making time to see Martin, I have to wonder when I sleep."
"You sleep?" joked Ginny before the sales woman returned with two garment bags in her hands.
"For you," she said to Hermione as she handed her the first bag. "And the other for the bride-to-be. Now, who'd like to go first?"
"She would," Ginny said, pointing to Hermione. "She's yet to even see the dress in person."
"Oh, it's lovely! Go on, then! Right in here." She pulled a curtain back. "And I'll be right back with my things to make alterations."
"Thank you," Hermione said as she stood and took the bag into the dressing room. Ginny took Hermione's vacant seat and hung her dress nearby as she listened to the noises of a garment bag being opened.
"So, how are things with Martin going?" Ginny asked casually.
"Okay, I suppose."
"You suppose?" Ginny asked with an eyebrow raised. "What does that mean?"
"We just got in a small argument last night and we haven't spoken since because I left early this morning for work."
"What was it about?" asked Ginny, doing her best to restrain herself from following with the words, 'this time.' The truth was that the last few weeks of Hermione and Martin's relationship had been peppered with "small arguments." Martin, like Hermione, was a workaholic, and while this sort of relationship worked well for them initially—with both of their schedules as tight as they were—in a lot of ways, it caused for quite a bit of friction.
From what Ginny had gathered, their arguments were often round about ways of declaring whose job or work load was more important that particular week—seeing as they both worked in Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures—and which of the two of them was overreacting to the others claim that they were just too busy for anything else at the moment.
She could hear Hermione sigh heavily from inside the dressing room. "Yesterday, we both were free for dinner, so we decided to make it into a special occasion since," she laughed, "when was the last time we got the chance to do that? Anyway, it was all very sweet and romantic and we ended up talking about your wedding, which led to our future together."
Ginny made a face as she anticipated what Hermione was going to say next.
"All right in there?" the sales woman asked as she reappeared with her hands full of pins.
"Yes, thanks," Hermione said as she stepped out from around the curtain. Ginny smiled widely as the sales woman let out a small gasp and clapped her hands together.
"Beautiful!" the sales woman said. "Look how lovely you look!"
"Hermione," Ginny said excitedly as she watched her step in front of the large full length mirror. "You look amazing!"
"This dress is amazing," Hermione said with a smile and glanced down at it.
"I love this sleeveless number," the sales woman said to Ginny. "And this deep shade of green is lovely with her skin tones."
"It really looks fantastic," Ginny said, circling Hermione in the mirror as the sales woman adjusted her dress. "It's better than I could have imagined. And you barely need any alterations."
"It fits perfectly here," Hermione said, gesturing to her waist and bust. "It's just a little long."
"And we'll fix that," the sales woman said as she got on her knees to fuss with the bottom of the dress. "With your chestnut hair and eyes, you'll look very earthy wearing this color." She turned towards Ginny. "But why such a dark green for springtime?"
Ginny shrugged. "I like this green. My fiancé likes this green. That was really all we went on."
"Yes," the sales woman said absently. "Your hair color probably pops dramatically against the green. It's almost a shame you'll be wearing white."
"Right…" Ginny said slowly, catching Hermione's eye through the mirror. She seemed to be trying to smile.
"Now we need just a few pins here," the sales woman continued as she poked around Hermione's underarm, "And that should do it."
"Great," Hermione said, hoping off the platform in front of the mirror and catching her reflection in it once more before heading back into the dressing room.
"I'll be right back to take care of you," the sales woman said to Ginny as she went to greet a woman who had just entered the store.
"Great dress, Ginny," Hermione said from back inside the changing room. "It feels like it'll be comfortable as well."
"I knew you'd like it," she said happily as she fixed her own hair in the mirror. "Oh, so you have to finish telling me your story about Martin."
"Oh," she said, as if suddenly remembering. "Well, you will never actually believe what he said to me once we got to talking about our possible future together."
"Uh-oh," she said, sensing something troubling in Hermione's tone.
"He mentions that if we were to get married, he'd want to wait a bit to have children. Which is fine, but it's that he wants me to quit my job and stay home to take care of them that I had an issue with."
Ginny's eyes went wide. She knew exactly where this was going.
"I told him that, while I want children one day," she continued in a slight huff, "and that I would take some time off to be with them, there was no way I was giving up my career and what I've worked so hard to achieve."
"Absolutely not."
Hermione appeared from the dressing room. "Well, he didn't seem to understand where I was coming from. He claimed that his mother stayed home with him and that he feels it made him a better person versus whether she would have worked. He doesn't think it's right when a woman who can afford to stay home, doesn't."
Ginny's mouth dropped a little. Did Martin know Hermione at all?
"So, since he would be working," she continued in a patronizing tone, "that means he'd be set to take care of me and that I could afford to stay home."
"And what did you tell him?" Ginny asked as she stood to make her way inside the dressing room.
"Exactly what I said before," Hermione said as she sat down. "I mentioned that my father made plenty of money to support my family, but never would have dreamed that my mother would give up her dental practice. I asked him if he even knew me at all, and he tells me that it's not even worth worrying about until we reach that point."
Ginny laughed. "You've got to be joking?"
"I wish," she said, rolling her eyes. "Oh, yes, let me marry and have children with someone who expects time and coercion to change my mind. Perhaps if he ignores the issue now, it'll just disappear in a few years and I'll just settle down."
"He's in for a surprise, then."
"You're damn well right he is," Hermione said, actually swearing. Ginny poked her head out from behind the curtain to look at her. Hermione rarely swore. Ginny had maybe witnessed her do it twice in the years she had known her.
"It just made me so angry," Hermione continued, "as if I need more things in my life to add to the frustration."
"He's mad if he thinks you'd actually do any of this," Ginny said before disappearing back behind the curtain. "You're mad since you didn't hex him to pieces."
"I know," she said grumpily. "This is a huge issue. He can't expect me to change who I am, and I can't expect him to change what he thinks."
"You're right."
"We've only been together for a little over ten months and it's only just started to really get serious, but I've started to wonder…" She trailed off.
"Wonder what?"
"Well," she began slowly, "perhaps we're both just really stressed out because of work and it's just nerves and what not, but things were so much better early on in our relationship and to see them turn this way—"
"Don't make excuses," Ginny said. "Please Hermione, you were the one who taught me that."
"I'm not. At least, I don't think I am." She paused for a long moment. "I do care about him though, and it's just so disheartening to see him actually think this way. I mean, what would you do if Harry asked you to quit Quidditch to raise your kids?"
Ginny didn't answer right away. "Well, not that I think he'd ask me to, but I'd almost have to quit playing once I started having children, wouldn't I?"
"What?" she asked loudly. "Why?"
"Because it's not exactly recommended, or plausible, to fly around on a broomstick once you're pregnant. Sure, if I had one kid I could easily miss one season, get back into shape, and be back for the next, but…" she hesitated, "I don't want that."
"You don't?"
"No. I want two or three kids, and I want them to be close in age to each other." She sighed. "Sure, my brothers could be prats, but having them there meant the world to me in retrospect. If I wanted to keep playing, then that's a good three to five years at the very least where I would have to kill myself training after every child just to get back into well enough shape to play professional Quidditch…" She paused. "And if I take time off from start to finish, then the team will have moved on without me, as would my career."
"So, you're going to quit?"
"Playing Quidditch, yes," she said. "But I'm not going to quit working. I'd find something else to do or else I'd go mad. To be honest, I've only given it a little thought since there are no kids to speak of yet. When the day comes to really make that decision, I will."
Ginny stepped out from behind the curtain as she spoke these words. Hermione beamed upon seeing her. She was dressed head to toe in a white dress that flowed nearly to the floor as it came just off the shoulder. The material was silk-like and hugged her frame in a loose, yet classy way. Ginny could actually see Hermione getting teary eyed.
"Ginny," she said quietly. "You look…There are no words!"
"That's a first," she said, smiling as Hermione got up to inspect her dress.
"This is the sort of thing that makes me realize this is all real," Hermione said warmly.
"I know," she said as they both observed her in the mirror, "and it's a crazy feeling."