Disclaimer: Harry Potter and everything that goes with it belongs to J.K. Rowling.
Chapter 2
Ginny crossed her legs. Then uncrossed them. Then crossed them. She bit her lip.
Where is she? It is fifteen minutes past noon already! Ginny thought. Ginny knew she was being unreasonable, but couldn't help being anxious. Her ice cream was starting to melt and she wondered whether she should just eat it to keep her mind off of her eminent customer.
Even after a day to contemplate it calmly, Ginny was still on edge. It shocked her on many levels that the wife of the famous Harry Potter would call on her services.
The idea to start up this business had come to Ginny in a startling revelation a month ago. It had started out as an idea for a private investigation agency. Mystery was Ginny's true calling. Ever since her first year at Hogwarts, when she had found a mysterious diary that wrote back and had eventually expelled the malicious memory within it, Ginny had become a magnet for dubious activity. In second year, she had figured out that Sirius Black, the mass murderer, had been penetrating Hogwarts' walls by transforming into an animagus form and she had informed Dumbledore. Of course, due to her young age and insignificance in the grand scheme of things, they had never told her what had become of Sirius Black; Dumbledore merely assured her that Sirius Black would be bothering Hogwarts no more. Then, in her fifth year, she had noticed strange behaviour on the part of the infamous Slytherin, Draco Malfoy. Through her investigations and persistent nosiness, she was able to prevent a full-scale death-eater attack on Hogwarts. It was after this that articles about Ginny Weasley started cluttering the pages of the Daily Prophet. Even her exploits from her first and second years were shared with all of Wizarding Britain. The only person who was given more media attention than Ginny at that point was Harry Potter.
Despite her fame, thoughts of a career were put on hold during the war. Even after the Battle of Hogwarts where Harry Potter defeated Voldemort, she was too busy putting the pieces of her broken family back together to even think of starting her own independent life. However, in the last year, life had started to settle into a safe routine and Ginny became restless. Then, on the fourth anniversary of Voldemort's defeat, there was an extensive article in the Daily Prophet chronicling all of Harry Potter's achievements, starting with his legendary survival of the Avada Kedavra, to his daring ventures in France with his guardian, Lupin, and then his crucial undercover work for the Order of the Phoenix when he was only sixteen years old – the same year that Ginny had been doing a little undercover work of her own, Ginny had realized.
Suddenly, Ginny had known her calling. She wanted to catch the bad guys. Of course, being Ginny, she felt that she had to create some sort of twist to it. There were plenty of criminals and dark wizards crawling the streets and being followed closely by aurors and investigators. But who was there to catch mere arseholes? Why should men who use women and throw them away not be punished for it?
So Ginny had asked Luna Lovegood to place an ad in the Quibbler for Witch's Watch private investigation service, asking potential customers not to answer her ad using the name of her business – for secrecy purposes - but to identify their intent with the use of pink parchment.
It had never crossed the youngest Weasley's mind that Hannah Potter would be her first customer. It was insane! That would have to mean that Harry Potter, the saviour of the wizarding world, was one of those loathsome men, and to Ginny that was a most frightening thought.
Suddenly, she saw Hannah's features, which were familiar to her from many photographs in tabloid magazines, through the ice cream shop's door. Anyone could identify her long, sandy-brown hair and blue eyes from a kilometre away. Ginny straightened her back and rearranged her face to hide her edginess. Hannah spotted her quickly and gave a small smile in acknowledgement, making her way to the table. She sat down in silence, reached a hand into her purse, and threw what looked like a small red address book onto the table between them.
"What's this?" Ginny asked bemusedly.
"Look inside," said Hannah, quietly.
Ginny opened its pages, and saw that every page was filled with recordings of times.
Four O'clock. Five Thirty. Three Twenty-Five. Four Forty-Five.
"After months of falling asleep before Harry returned home, I started staying up and recording the hour that he'd slip into our bed quietly trying not to wake me. Soon, he started staying out so late that I couldn't possibly keep myself awake. So I started going out and staying out late as well, roaming the pubs, hoping that either I'd find him or that I'd return home the same hour as he did. I never did."
Ginny remained silent, not wanting to interrupt; it almost sounded like Hannah was in mourning.
"We never make love anymore," Hannah continued sadly, "Neither do we argue. It's like he doesn't care anymore, and worse, like he's found someone else." Now her voice gained a hard edge, seemingly brimming with suppressed fury. "He must've found someone else! He's a man, and a straight one at that, but he never looks at me in 'that way' anymore. How do you explain that? He's cheating on me, and I won't stand for it anymore."
Ginny was shocked for a moment, but quickly regained her composure and cleared her throat.
"Well, if he is cheating on you, I assure you I will not let him get away with it," Ginny claimed confidently, trying to hide her utter disbelief that Harry Potter could ever be an adulterer. "Right now, you are my only client, so I can devote almost all my hours to Harry. He works with the auror department, correct?"
Hannah nodded.
"Well," Ginny continued, "I can't follow him into the ministry, unfortunately, but I will keep an eye on him at all other hours of the day and night. Just give me his work hours and your address and I'll be set." Ginny hesitated for a moment. "Is there – er – anything else I should know about him that might help me with the investigation?"
Ginny knew that what the Potters must value most is their privacy and didn't want to pry too much. But then Ginny realized that she was being quite dense – to pry too much was exactly her job.
"My guess is that he's seeing more than one woman. He has too many loving fans pouncing on him every day to resist the temptation," Hannah replied derisively, "so be extra-vigilant. I want you to catch him in the act so that there is unquestionable proof that Harry is a cheater and that his gallant image is a complete fraud."
Ginny detected an unguarded bitterness in Hannah's voice. But then she wondered...
"Hannah, I hope you don't mind me asking, but did you ever ask Harry what he did when he was out all those nights?"
Hannah snorted. "Of course I did."
"Well, what did he say?"
Hannah raised her eyebrows and twisted up one corner of her mouth in an ironic smile. "He asked me to trust him."
After receiving Harry Potter's schedule and discussing her daily wage with Hannah, Ginny started walking to George's shop to help with the extra stock. It was one o'clock, the sun was hitting her face, there were families out and about shopping and eating, and it was overall a delightful day in Diagon Alley. However, Ginny felt like she had just been punched in the guts. The next day, she would be spying on Harry Potter to try to find proof of an illicit affair. It was inconceivable. It was absurd! The saviour of the wizarding world!
Now, Ginny, don't let preconceptions get in the way of your job, she thought to herself, Potter, above anything else, is a man. Despite defeating Voldemort, it is entirely plausible that he could be a dishonest husband. She knew absolutely nothing about him... yet. The next morning, her investigation would start and she would eventually learn the truth.
Comforted by that thought, she reached Weasley's Wizard Wheezes with a bounce in her step. What she saw when she entered the shop, however, stopped her in her tracks. Ginny gasped.
Papers were scattered everywhere. Boxes were overturned. Displays were knocked over. On the far wall which was visible from the doorway were written two terrible words in a sickly green colour.
Blood Traitors.
Ginny sprinted into the shop, searching frantically through the aisles. Where are George and Ron? Where are they? Oh Merlin! If anything happened to them, I d-
There was George, sitting on an overturned box with his head in his hands, and Ron pacing furiously up and down the aisle with a piece of parchment clutched tightly between his fingers.
"George! Ron! What the fuck happened here?" Ginny cried.
George and Ron turned their heads toward her. Their eyes were shot.
"Here." Ron handed her the length of parchment he had crumpled in his fist. Very cautiously, she peered down at the words.
If you do not remove your filthy presence from Diagon Alley by the end of November, you're whole red-headed, blood traitor family will be dead. ~S.