Author's Note: Ginny has finally arrived! Also, just so everyone knows, some character deaths in the book will be ignored for the purposes of this story. Thank you everyone that has followed and reviewed this story!
Disclaimer: Who would be silly enough to think I'd have any claim to this? Everything you recognize belongs to JK Rowling in all her splendor. (Also, for now there will be no more P!ATD)
Over the next week, Theo spent more time at that bar than at his own flat. In his defense, it was because every time he tried spending time at home, Stella or Riley would show up to pack away another box or two to move out. He could not stand to be in the same place as them, so he walked around the corner to the bar. The bartender, Arnold, already knew him of course, but they became quite good friends with all the time he was spending there. Exactly a week from the day of the cancelled wedding, he was sitting at the bar talking to Arnold when someone plopped down in the seat next to him.
"Can I get a scotch, Arnold?" the woman asked with a smile.
"Anything for you Gin," he replied and supplied her with a drink.
Theo glanced over and found the woman to be of slight build with long red tresses and chocolate eyes. Her smile is what got him though, it was as though there was some big joke and only she was in on it. Smiles like that were rare in his experience and if someone could laugh at the world around them, they may just be worth knowing. He knew exactly who she was of course after seeing her on the cover of magazines for years. Ginny Weasley was the star chaser for the Holyhead Harpies.
"Oh, Gin, this is Theo. Theo, this is Ginny," Arnold introduced them properly.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Theo," Ginny inclined her head taking in the man next to her. He had light brown hair and hazel eyes that were just a bit more green than brown.
"Likewise," Theo nodded to her and wondered if she knew who he was. They had been at Hogwarts together, but he was a year older than her and they had been in rival houses. His name was not unknown to the press however, so she might. Her choice of drink was identical to his, so he inquired, "Scotch?"
"It's my favorite," Ginny responded taking a slow sip of her drink and kept eye contact over the brim of her glass.
The evening progressed slowly with the two of them stepping around each other carefully, discussing things like fine scotches and different breweries that caught their fancy. Finally, Theo revealed that he owned Ginny's favorite brewery and the caution they were using about their identities was swept away. Theo asked Ginny about quidditch and she questioned him on life in the business world and finally, the question arose.
"So, I have friends at the Prophet, but I do know that not everything there is to be taken at face value. Is it true you called off your wedding minutes before it was supposed to start?" Ginny had been wondering since she sat down what the answer would be.
"Sadly, the Prophet has it right, though I'm not sure who gave them the story," Theo mused. There were many disgruntled guests at the wedding and it could have reasonably been any of them.
"I believe you have the bride to thank for that slip up," Ginny said, "Luna refused to run the story in the Quibbler because she said it was trashy to air someone's private life in a magazine. So at least it won't be in every single tabloid.
"You know, that is actually comforting, though I can't seem to think of how. I thought she loved me and then all the sudden it came out that she had been seeing a muggle man for months during our engagement and had never broken it off. While I was at my stag party, she was with him. I thought marriage was meant to be more than a way to get money or status or whatever it was that Stella was after, but apparently I was wrong," Theo could not stop the words from pouring out of him. He was hurt and unsurprised that Stella had sold the story about their breakup to the paper. No doubt every story showed her as the broken hearted beauty who only wanted to be married to the love of her life. That must have been what his lawyer had been calling about in the past few days. He had gotten around to returning their office's calls. No doubt they wanted to force the paper to print an extraction with an accompanying apology.
"No, you are completely right. Marriage is about love and respect and so many other things that have nothing to do with power and wealth," Ginny assured her new friend. He seemed so sad that she could feel her heart starting to ache for him a little. No one deserved to be that miserable.
"I will believe that when I see it," Theo answered.
"I will hold you to that, Theo," Ginny returned. It was now her personal goal to cheer him up and make him forget about the horrid woman who broke his heart.
"What is the funniest thing someone said to you this week? And do not spout off something that's ironically funny because she said it," Ginny prefaced because she was certain Theo would find a way to twist it back around.
"Last week at the bar, Draco turned to me and said, 'If you aren't going to send the wedding gifts back, may I keep the wine rack?' Looking back it was not even that funny, but I could not stop the loud guffawing noise that was issuing from my mouth," Theo responded.
"I think you were in shock," Ginny rarely sugar coated things and this was no exception.
"Arnold, I think we're going to need another round over here," Theo put a couple more galleons on the countertop and shook his head, "Also, it does not matter if I was in shock, it was hilarious at the time, and therefore, it was the funniest thing I'd heard all week."
"Fine, but I think you should find something entertaining to do to get your mind off things rather than sit in a bar every night," Ginny responded. Theo explained that he could not stay at his house in the evenings because Stella and Riley would pop in without warning and Ginny began to think of a plan.
"Does she still think she can win you back and that's why she's always showing up or is she a very petty kind of person?" Ginny asked him.
"I would not have dreamed to call her petty before last Saturday, but now I think that might be it," Theo said morosely.
"Alright, we're going to stage a sit it in your flat tomorrow night. Get all of your friends that know what happened and I'll bring a few people and when she turns up we'll all just stare at her until she grabs her things and leaves," at the time, Ginny thought this was brilliant, but that could have to do more with the fact that she was four rounds in.
"Alright, she usually shows up in the evening hours, but never before seven thirty," Theo was willing to try anything to get her to leave permanently.
"I have practice in the morning, but I'll bring some people around, let's say seven?" Ginny started to rise from her barstool when Theo's fingertips settled lightly on top of her hand.
"Do you have to go?" Theo's brain was a bit foggy and the redhead that had kept him company was standing there looking lovelier than she had any right to at midnight.
"Yes I do," Ginny smiled at him, hoping that he was not going to ask her anything inappropriate.
"My place is closer, you could always stay there for the night and leave in the morning," Theo suggested.
"I will not be your rebound Theodore, but I will be your friend," Ginny said before heading toward the door. She turned before exiting and threw him a smile and a wave and then left the building intent on her own bed for a nice night's rest.
Ginny woke up the next morning tangled in her blue comforter and her hair trying its best to strangle her. The alarm she had set was not doing her any favors by being just out of reach and she nearly toppled out of bed trying to reach it. Her fingers were stretching toward the other edge of her night stand and she accidentally hit the picture frame that held the photo from her birthday the year before picturing herself, Hermione, and Luna in front of the Diagon Alley Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes shop with Fred and George. The frame toppled off the stand and hit the ground before her sleep addled mind could catch it and Ginny resigned herself to fixing the glass for the third time this month. Clearly she needed to find a better place for it.
Ginny got ready for practice by pulling a brush through her hair and grabbing a slice of toast from the breakfast plate Luna was making. She slid shoes on her feet and left the flat saying goodbye to her friend and flat mate. Ginny apparated just outside her door and landed right in the foyer of the training compound. The special wards on the building let anyone with clearance land within the complex while reporters and fans were allocated to the landing zones outside the walls. Her team was already in the changing rooms when she rushed in and made it to her locker.
"Rough morning?" Adela asked.
"More like a rough night," Wendy laughed a bit at their friend.
"Both?" Ginny replied weakly.
They got out onto the pitch and the warm up exercises brought Ginny back to the realm of the living by easing the stress from a rushed morning and waking her up fully from the fog of too many drinks the night before. She never got hung over in the true sense of the word, but the morning after too many she knew it.
The team grouped up after warm ups and started working on different player formations for the chasers and beaters while their seeker, Adela, was practicing her Wronski feints. Ginny's fellow chasers, Wendy and Chaz, were looping up and around each other, trying to confuse the opponents while the beaters flanked their little whirlwind on the lookout for bludgers. Truly there was not another team on the pitch, but as their coach was often fond of saying, 'If you don't do it like a real game now, you won't do it right in a real game!'
They practiced for a few hours before hitting the workout room where Ginny's preferred method of exercise was yoga. There was not a yogi to lead, so the teammates took turns leading the sessions every third practice. The other days they had endurance training and weights. Ginny let herself go during their practice, letting her limbs do the thinking while she felt blissfully calm.
After their two hours of yoga, the girls all showered and then went to lunch together at the café just down the street from the compound. They did not all go out together often because whenever they tried, they wound up being mobbed by photographers which was not always ideal. This lunch time tradition however was always safe because the owners of the Vernal Café were understanding of their plight and had rules about cameras and harassment in place. The paparazzi had tried a few times and found themselves ousted from the building as well as the hundred feet around the building.
"So, why were you so tired this morning?" Chaz asked.
"I thought you were doing dinner with your parents last night?" Hadley added.
"I was at my parents and decided a drink was in order before I got home, so I went to Arnold's bar for a pick me up," Ginny responded.
"Were they on you about Greg?" Ellie asked sympathetically. Ginny had been dating a wizard named Greg for months when she woke up one morning and decided that there had to be more than the mundane normality that accompanied dating him. She did not want to be complacent with anything, so she told him that she could not see him anymore and moved in with Luna that evening. Her parents had been baffled and Molly never failed to bring it up somehow during their family dinners.
"It was just mum a couple of times, but the twins helped deflect the attention," Ginny shrugged. There had definitely been worse dinners, so she was not too concerned about that.
"Okay, if you were at the bar for a drink, why did you stay so long?" Adela asked.
"I wound up meeting Theodore Nott and we had drinks together before I went home," Ginny explained. Her friends' faces were a variety of expressions, though most leaned toward a more licentious manner and Ginny had to defend her actions, "Not like that!"
"Oh sure," Hadley teased.
"Don't worry Gin, I believe you," Wendy said with a wink that clearly stated that she did not.
"Guys, leave her alone," Ellie was the newest teammate and the others were trying to corrupt her with little success. At this moment in time, Ginny was glad for it.
"There was nothing romantic! We were talking about scotch for a while and then his recent failed nuptials and, oh what are you guys doing tonight?" Ginny explained the Stella situation and asked them to help later tonight. Adela, Ellie, and Chaz wound up being able to come, which was a bit surprising. Ginny had just assumed that they would all be busy, but the more the merrier she supposed. She was going to ask Hermione and Luna later in the afternoon when she met them at the flat.