Ginny was seated on an overstuffed couch, awkwardly balancing her teacup on her knee because the table was overflowing with magazines.
"I'm surprised you've even got a teacup, Zacharias!" Ginny smiled up at the former Hufflepuff's embarrassed face.
"Me mum makes me use it when she comes round. Says I need to have some proper crockery for her. Never needed it when I was a kid, but now I've moved out of home…" he shrugged.
"My mother never even visits me!" Ginny returned, "says that if I live at a pub, she'll visit me as often as she visits the pub… which is about never." Laughing, she sipped her tea whilst Zacharias moved some papers off a chair so that he could sit down.
"So, to what do I owe the pleasure, then? This's not just a social call?"
Ginny smiled calmly. "I've got a proposition for you."
Zacharias lifted an eyebrow, glanced around at his tiny sitting room, then returned his gaze to meet Ginny's. "Don't seem to have much to lose, you know."
"Wear this," Ginny fumbled as she handed over the earring. "It'll bring you some pretty good luck, and it'll help me out."
Turning the earring over, Zacharias grinned. "Should have you over for tea more often, if you bring jewellery round all the time!" He took out a piercing that Ginny hadn't seen before – on the top of his ear, almost lost in the curl of his ear ridge – and replaced it with the gold ball. "Fits pretty good," he patted his ear, and Ginny nodded when she realised that it could hardly be seen there.
"Looks good," Ginny smiled, and she continued the polite conversation until her tea was finished, and Zacharias indicated that he had somewhere else to be. It was nice to see that, for some people, life was normal.
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Slumped on her bed next to Hermione, Ginny let out an exhausted sigh. "Talking with Harry… was like pulling teeth. Why didn't you want to go?"
"Seriously, Ginny… He never would have agreed to see me. Not even if I'd promised that all I wanted to do was chat. All he sees when he sees me is the past, and Harry doesn't like to be reminded of the past." Hermione pushed her hair out of her face. "And I don't know why you insisted on me visiting Blaise Zabini…" Hermione may have embellished the story slightly when she informed Ginny of what happened, but Ginny laughed so loudly when Hermione finished that the brunette decided it was justified.
"How utterly… Slytherin! Where's he going to take you?" Ginny choked out around her guffaws.
Hermione shrugged open-handedly, flopping down to lay on the bed beside her friend. "I have no idea. Merlin, why did I even agree? Ron would…"
Ginny stopped laughing, sat up, and pinned her friend with a direct look. "Hermione, Ron is an arse. You haven't worn your ring in five months, and I've never seen you happier. You said yes to Blaise because it's nice to be liked. I'm pretty sure Blaise knows you're not too serious – and not too interested in him! From what I've heard, the man runs at the first whiff of commitment. Pansy tried to get her claws into him, and he took off to the Mediterranean for a year!"
"I suppose you're right. I bet he didn't expect me to say yes, just wanted to get in contact with Snape. I'm so gullible." Hermione sat up as well. "I should do that, I suppose."
Ginny grabbed her friend's wrist as she made to get up. "Girl, he liked what he saw. Don't you mope about because he's a playboy. Enjoy your dinner with him, laugh, have a good time, and forget the past."
Hermione met her friend's eyes, tried to smile and failed, then rushed from the room. Ginny suspected that she'd been about to cry. Shaking her head slowly to herself, Ginny rolled under her covers and was asleep before the sheets warmed up.