Chapter 6: Vanishing Point

Gin looked around the club, disheartened, and elbowed her brother.

"If he's here I don't see him. Sorry, Gin." HR shrugged.

"It's fine. Thanks." Gin leaned against the wall near the door. "Um, why don't you go back to Lily? I'm going to get some air."

After her brother left Gin looked out at the crowd of people, not actually believing what she was seeing. It should have been so normal, just a magical club in London, not a big deal, but it seemed to her as if it was from someone else's life. As she made it to the doorway she showed the bouncer her cigarettes and he let her through and pointed off to the side of the building. When she arrived at the spot Gin stood next to the wall a polite distance from three other women and two men who were smoking and obviously together. After lighting her cigarette she leaned against the wall, exhaled, and looked down at the ground, letting her dark hair fall in front of her face.

It was while she was thinking of what she would actually say to Hugo when the voice interrupted her.

"Got a light, pretty lady?"

She glanced up and recognized him immediately; Lily's old boyfriend Graham Kent, the asshole who'd hit her when they'd broken up. Her brother had, as her Uncle Nate liked to tell the story, beat the living shit out of him using Muggle fighting techniques he'd learned from Lavender. A quick glance at his face revealed that he hadn't recognized her. "Sure." She pulled out an antique Zippo lighter that she'd bought in an old shop in Richmond, flicked open the lid and sparked the flame.

Graham took a long drag off of his cigarette. "A Muggle lighter? That's something you don't see everyday. I'm sure you have more surprises than that."

Gin tossed back her hair. "You have no idea."

After putting his arm against the wall and leaning towards her Graham gave her a leering smile, lip curling up at one side. "Maybe I'd like to find out."

"Kent, you want to get arrested again? You're just lucky the last bird dropped the charges."

Three men and two women walked forward, one of the men lighting a cigarette as they approached. Their shapes were dark, but when they materialized from the shadows one face was unmistakable; Hugo Weasley. Gin felt her stomach drop as she saw him. He'd grown a bit, if that was possible, and his Weasley-red hair was cut short. He had grown a goatee which looked all wrong on him in her eyes. She couldn't look at anyone else, but it was obvious that with her recent transformation he didn't immediately recognize her.

"Piss off, we're just talking." Kent took a long drag off of his cigarette, exhaled in the direction of the newcomers and flicked his hardly-spent cigarette towards their feet. "If you Aurors are going in, I'm leaving. The class of this place just went down a few notches."

They all watched him walk away. Gin stood next to the wall, and when she lifted up her cigarette to take a drag her bangles jingled. She saw Hugo's eyes narrow on her, and suddenly she knew that he had recognized her. She waited for a sign, something to let her know that he wanted to say something to her, but it never came. He turned without saying a word and walked towards the entrance of the club, leaving his friends standing in the smoking section.

"What's up Hugo's arse?" One of the women, a tall, blonde with green eyes looked over at the men, who shrugged. She tuned to Gin. "Kent didn't do anything, did he?"

Gin shook her head. "No. He didn't. Just his regular skeevy shit."

"So you know him?" The blonde looked over at Gin. "Do I know you?"

"Holy hippogriffs! Virginia? Is that you?" The dark-headed man asked, but he knew it was her.

Gin nodded. It would be Finn Waters, one of her brother's old Hufflepuff roommates, who recognized her. He'd definitely grown up since the last time she'd seen him, filled out and looked much more mature, but that only registered in passing. She felt numb, as if he body was moving and responding without her control. "Yeah."

Finn turned to his fellow Aurors. "You lot go on ahead; I'll meet you inside." They didn't question him, as he didn't phrase it as a request but more of a command. "Virginia, I can't believe you're here. Hugo…"

"He saw me. He knows." Gin took another drag off her cigarette. "I wanted to talk to him, but that wasn't how I imagined seeing him again. Finn, how's he…"

"Oh no, not my place, I'm not getting in the middle of this. That's between you two." Finn shook his head. "But I will take you to him. Least I can do for HR's little sister."

As Virginia followed Finn back into the club she ran into Mary Caroline, who had obviously been looking for her. She quickly made the introduction, but Mary Caroline knew there was more going on from Gin's body language. Her shoulders were slumped and she had her arms crossed over her chest. Without asking Mary Caroline followed them over through the crowd to a corner booth where the Aurors sat with their drinks. Hugo had several shots lined up in front of him on the table. As they stood there at in front of the table Finn finally caught the other Auror's eyes, and they left the booth. Gin ignored everything around her and slid into the booth opposite of Hugo.

As soon as she'd sat down Hugo reached up, grabbed a shot, and downed it. After sitting the empty shot glass back on the table very gently he just looked at her.

Finally the silence was too much for Gin. "Hugo…I…I don't know where to start."

He reached over and downed another shot. "Goodbye would be a good opener. Wait, you don't know how to say that word, do you? It's rather easy. Compound word. Good and bye. Just put it together. You can do it, you're a smart girl."

"I never meant to hurt you." Gin began fingering the hem of her shirt. "I never did."

Hugo snorted. "Little too late for that now. Why don't you go try and find Kent? You'd be a good match."

Gin lowered her eyes. "I deserve worse for what I've done to you. I'm so sorry."

Hugo stared at her for a long time. "All those letters during the war, the ones I read when I didn't know if I'd wake up the next day, did you mean a word of them? Because sitting where I am right now, with what I've been through, it sure as hell doesn't feel like it."

She could feel the tears coming but took a deep breath to stop them. "Yes, Hugo. I did. I do, I mean…"

"Well you've got a crazy way of showing it. Do you know what it was like to get that package? I was in remote training, way out in the fucking mountains, and we got one mail drop a month. I got three of your letters and the package, so I opened it up first. There was the ring, no note, no explanation. I thought the other letters might explain things, but they just told me about Italy and how you loved me."

Gin reached across the table and took one of Hugo's shots. After drinking it down she let the burn of the firewhiskey fill her up. "I lost it, Hugo. I think I lost my mind. And when I got it back again I didn't know how to change things."

"So you just ran away." Hugo took another shot. "Really fucking mature. And I thought girls were supposed to be the mature ones. Exception to the rule, I guess."

"I deserve that and more, Hugo. You deserve to hear everything…"

"Not tonight." Hugo downed his last shot. "You don't get to choose. I do. And it's not tonight. Goodbye, Virginia. Did you learn how to say that after our lesson?"

Gin slid out of the booth. "I'm at Mum and Dad's. If I'm not there they'll know where to find me. Goodbye, Hugo."

"Huh, first time for everything." Hugo looked at her blankly until she walked away.

The music was muffled and everything seemed to be moving in slow-motion as Gin made her way back to the VIP area to find her family and Mary Caroline. She held the tears in until she sat down and looked over at Finn, sitting next to HR and Mary Caroline. For some reason seeing her friend talking to her brother's old roommate was the straw that broke the camel's back, and the flood began. She sat against the back of the booth and covered her face with her hands, swatting away the hands that reached out to her.

Finally she stood up. "I'm going to Colony House. Don't follow; just let me be alone, please."

Instead of going straight to Colony House Gin Apparated to The Leaky. She didn't know why, exactly, except for the fact that she could use a drink and it was the first place she could think of. As she walked in several heads turned her way, taking her Muggle clothing in and registering slight disapproval, but she didn't care. After taking the stool furthest away from all of the other patrons she sat her purse down on the counter and took out a small compact. Her smoky eyes were gone; all of the makeup had run, leaving her a mess. She was in the middle of fixing her face when someone sat down next to her.

"Virginia?" Alice Longbottom sat down next to her. "What happened? I heard Al found you, but I didn't know you were back home."

"I saw Hugo."

"Oh." Alice was silent for a moment. "It's on the house. What do you want?"

"Flaming Dragon."

Alice stood up quickly. "Coming right up."

Gin ignored the rest of the Leaky. She had finished fixing her makeup, but she continued to stare at her reflection in the small mirror. When she finally looked up the Flaming Dragon sat in front of her, and she realized that she had no idea how long it had been there. She sipped it slowly.

When her drink was almost finished she could see someone else sit next to her with her peripheral vision but she didn't acknowledge them; instead she drank the last of her drink and started to rise when she felt a hand on her arm.

"Virginia…"

She looked up to see her mum, hair pulled back and wearing one of her father's old shirts. "Oh Mum. I've made a mess of it. I saw Hugo, and…"

"Alice owled me. Don't be mad; she was worried about you. Come on, Gin, let's go home."

When they arrived at Colony House instead of walking inside Melody headed towards the garden. Virginia followed her silently until they sat out in the garden chairs next to the overflowing flower bed. Without thinking Gin pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Surprisingly, though, after exhaling and waiting for her mum's condemnation of smoking, she didn't hear a word.

Finally she looked over at her mum. "I know I shouldn't smoke. Sorry."

Melody shook her head. "To be honest that's the least of my worries right now. Your father and I had a long talk the other night, and I'm afraid you've inherited a lot of the best and some of the worst of both of us. Like smoking."

Gin's head snapped up. "What do you mean the worst of both of you?"

"My nasty streak, your father's black moods, his smoking…and my impulsiveness. You've always been your own person, Gin, even when you were a little girl. Maybe it's because you were the first girl, or later when the twins were born and they had each other, and HR had the Potter boys and…" Melody trailed off suddenly.

"And Hugo."

Melody nodded slowly. "Yes, and Hugo. You were a hard child to raise, Virginia. Mione was hard for obvious reasons, but for you it was different. Sometimes I wondered if you were too smart for your own good." She closed her eyes for a moment. "What happened, Gin? You and Hugo seemed so happy? I worried about you when you got engaged so quickly after he returned from the war. Mione as well with Scorpius. I hoped that you knew what you were doing and wouldn't regret it. Do you regret getting engaged?"

Gin shook her head and stared at the stars. "No. I don't regret that at all. I regret a lot of other things, though." She took another drag off of the cigarette. "He was…I've never seen him like that, Mum. I know I've hurt him, horribly. I…" After another drag she tossed the cigarette onto the grass and put it out with the toe of her shoe. "I don't want to talk about that right now, Mum. Hugo deserves to hear it first. It's the least I can do."

Melody nodded. "So what now, Gin? Are you going to stay here? You're always welcome at home."

"I don't know. I've got a lease on the flat in Richmond for the rest of the year. Mary Caroline and I have talked about opening a gallery there, but right now I guess I'll find a place in London. I'm not going back to Witch Weekly, though."

Her mum laughed softly. "No, I'm afraid that bridge has been thoroughly burned. Made meetings interesting for a while, to be honest. Why don't you come inside, take a hot bath and get a good night's sleep. Think on it; you don't have to do anything right away."

"Ok. Oh shit. I left Mary Caroline at the club. She's going to…"

"She's with HR, Mione and everybody else. She'll be fine. Come on, let's get you inside."

Gin woke with a start, her heart beating rapidly, sweat coursing over her face. The dream had been so vivid, not even the morning light through her bedroom window could easily dispel it.

She'd been flying over a large body of water but there wasn't a broom, it was as if her arms were wings. Thinking back quickly she realized that her arms were wings, long, powerful wings with white feathers. The day was bright and clear, mountains hazy in the distance, and the wind rippled over her face as she descended towards the water. A white bird with a long neck swam slowly on the surface of the water, and as she came close to it the bird's feathers began to change from white to black. The other bird turned at her approach and made hissing sounds, flapping its wings at her and snapping its bill. When she finally landed on the water she looked at her own reflection and saw the face of a black swan. As she opened her bill a stream of colors spilled out, flooding the water, turning the vegetation bright orange, blue, and yellow, all of the different colors. The other black swan returned, circling overhead, almost landing several times. On its last approach right before it could touch the water Fulvio Nesci broke the surface and shot at the swan with a Muggle gun, missing it but forcing it to circle higher. Nesci turned to her, but instead turned into Chance, the wizard from Richmond. He pointed the gun and said "You'll never be any good or get what you want."

That was the moment she woke up.

After collecting herself and standing under the shower until her fingers turned into prunes Gin wrapped a towel around her torso and a small towel around her head. Even the fact that her hair dried much more quickly with her new style couldn't shake the dream from her mind. Once she'd put on an old t-shirt and a pair of jeans with paint splatters she headed into the kitchen, still in a daze, and it took her several seconds to realize that Mary Caroline was eating breakfast with her father.

"Morning. Sorry about last night." She sat down next to Mary Caroline. "Didn't mean to leave you like that."

"It's ok, don't you worry about it." Mary Caroline took a sip of coffee. "Are you ok? How are you doing, sugar?"

"Definitely been better." She reached for the teapot and poured a cup of tea. "Mum still asleep, Dad?"

He nodded. "I was asleep when she came to bed so I have no idea how late she was up. She's got a meeting later at Witch Weekly so I don't think we'll see much of her today." He adjusted his glasses a small bit. "So, Mary Caroline here has been telling me that you two are thinking about starting a gallery in Richmond."

"Oh, yeah. Um-hmm." Gin took a sip of tea. "Maybe we could open one in London, too. Saying we have shops in Richmond and London might bring in some more business."

"Oh, that's a good idea. You know how those old Richmond types love to act like they've got something special. If we had London on our window you know you'd get people like Annabelle Worthington in the door." She looked over to Hank. "Annabelle's one of the snootiest, social-climbing…"

Hank laughed. "I know about old Richmond types. I'm from Virginia, remember?"

Mary Caroline laughed and waved a hand at him. "Of course, I keep forgetting."

After a long lull in the conversation Hank took a deep breath. "So…what's on tap today? I'm heading over to Hogwarts, but I've already given Mary Caroline the nickel tour, doubt there's anything special left. You could always…"

"We're going to look at shop locations, Dad." Gin looked over to Mary Caroline. "Right?'

"Oh my, this is going to be great. I can see the sign now, Williams & Twom…Williams & Boyd Galleries, London and Richmond. Or maybe it should be Boyd & Williams?"

"Williams & Boyd." Gin shook her head. "Sounds better."