AN- From James/Capybara, requesting a tall Ginny and a short Harry with no other specifications.

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Combat on the Quidditch Pitch

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It was an event weekend, which meant Harry and his fellow class of Aurors had all drawn the short straws and were assigned to stay in the office and wait for their fellow senior Aurors to simply begin dropping off witches or wizards that needed to get written up.

They got to practice and perfect their paperwork filing this weekend.

So far, Harry had been handed over a sneakthief, a prostitute and her john and two blokes that got into a brawl while cheering on opposing Gobstones opponents. The day had only just started too.

"I can't believe the amount of crap that goes on at these Festival Weekends! I wonder just how bad it was when the World Cup was here," Ernie complained as he had just got back from the cells and started writing up his report on the illegal goods smuggler that had been brought in.

Harry had gone to that World Cup event and with there having been so many people from different countries around the world he would imagine it was several times larger than this country Weekend event.

He felt bad for the poor sods that were Auror initiates then; the number of quills they must have gone through.

"Wotcher," Auror Tonks greeted him as she came over with a scruffy looking man, he was so short that he barely came up to her chin, and Auror Tonks was not a tall woman by any means. "Here's a treat for you. Have fun adding to his file." She pushed the man into the chair by his desk. "Catch you later Mundungus Fletcher."

Harry gaped at her as she twiddled her fingers at him in farewell, then tossed him a balled-up piece of parchment that held her account of Fletcher's arrest.

"It weren't me, she's got this one all messed up," Fletcher started.

Harry ignored him and uncrumpled the paper, trying not to worry about the number of people around him that were greeting and dropping comments at Fletcher as they walked passed.

This one was going to give him a hand cramp for sure.

Four hours after he'd dealt with Mundungus Fletcher, things at the office had calmed down immensely. Everyone at the Festival would have been too busy cheering on the different recreational Quidditch teams to be getting into too much trouble.

Ernie and he were sitting on the desk at reception, just waiting for someone else to be walked in. Ernie was flexing his hand, "it's going to be useless to me tonight."

Harry gave a laugh, "guess it's high time you found yourself a girl then." He too was looking at his hands, trying to think of what spell might get rid of all the ink he'd smeared over them so he wouldn't have to stand at the sink and scrub them raw.

There was only an hour left of their shift. If no one else was brought in then there wouldn't be any overtime needed from them and they could go and have a drink at the pub.

Both of them were praying there wouldn't be anyone else brought in.

Then they heard it.

In the distance there was the sound of a lift dinging followed by voices, several voices. Then Harry heard the sound of another lift arriving to their floor and more footsteps and voices.

The voices grew louder and it kept sounding like there were more of them being added, which meant more lifts had arrived to their floor.

Harry exchanged a look with Ernie and they slid off the desk. Harry stared at the door and Ernie called out 'incoming' over his shoulder to the others.

His eyes grew wide as the doors finally opened and magically expanded to start letting in the many people that were being brought in to be written up. It looked like it was two full Quidditch Teams and as many Aurors.

"Holy shit!" he exclaimed under his breath.

"Whoa," Ernie sounded as shocked as he was. "That's a lot of gingers."

Harry blinked and focused his attention on the persons that were being brought in. It was two full Quidditch Teams that were being brought in; there were seven people wearing blue and white and another seven wearing emerald green. Every last one of the players had an assortment of mud and blood on their faces and jerseys, and all of the team wearing green were gingers.

Tall gingers.

He doubted a single one of them was under six feet.

How was he supposed to look imposing to these guys when he was only 5'9 and had nowhere near the bulk on him as the shortest of the lot?

"Auror Potter, Auror MacMillan!" greeted their leader, Kingsley Shaklebot. He wasn't supposed to be working at the festival, but must have jumped in when things got out of hand. "Which of you is going to volunteer to take care of the instigator?"

Harry fought the urge to give a swallow, particularly at the small smirk and little twinkle in his boss' eye as he challenged them. "I will," he said as he stepped forward.

"Good man, here you go," Kingsley held a hand out behind him and waved for one of the other Aurors to bring the person forward.

To his everlasting shock, it was not one of the burly men that was brought forward then, but a woman, one that looked to be about his own age. She was wearing the green jersey and had just as much blood and mud on her as every one of the other players. She also looked quite pleased with herself.

And attractive.

Beside him, he heard Ernie give a very quiet groan of disappointment that he hadn't volunteered himself for the task.

Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and the few flyaway hairs she had were matted down, likely from sweat, they clung to her face and somehow highlighted the freckles on her nose, below which there was a line of dried blood. Her lips looked full, he didn't know if that was natural or a result of the hit she'd obviously took considering the cut at the corner of her mouth. She was breathing hard too, still catching her breath. He couldn't help picturing the strain those deep breaths might be taking on her sports bra beneath her jersey.

He nearly swallowed his tongue before recalling his duty. "Name?" he asked.

"Ginevra Weasley," she told him. "You can call me Ginny." She gave him a wink then.

The gingers behind her gave a snicker. "Be gentle with him, Gin," one of them called out.

She attempted to smile, but it turned into a wince.

"Let's get you sat down for processing," Harry told her in his most professional voice and took her arm to lead her back to his desk.

Her hands were magically bound behind her, he freed her of that as he sat her down, but did magically bind her to his chair, to which her response was 'kinky', and he tried not to smile with humor.

"Alright," he started as he pulled out the form that needed filling out. "Tell me what happened by your account."

She rolled her eyes. "Is this really necessary? It was a Quidditch Pitch brawl. It shouldn't require this leaving the Pitch."

"So, the fight was due to something that happened during the game?"

"Yeah, those pricks thought I'd be easy picking and were sorely mistaken." Ernie was walking passed the desk with a sandy haired guy from the other team, whom Harry now recognized as Cormac McLaggen, a fellow Gryffindor that had been a year ahead of him, his eye was blackened and he had a cut like a claw mark down his cheek. "That one kept trying to make passes at me and was getting aggressive about it, so I took one of the twins bats and aimed a Bludger at him. When that didn't work I drove him into a goal post. Things just kind of escalated after that."

His brow furrowed at the mention of twins and did another look around and saw that two of the ginger men did bear a remarkable resemblance to each other.

"Then what? He enacted his revenge on you?"

"He tried," she scoffed. "The idiot couldn't deal with losing, seems to think he can play all seven positions on his own, so my being able to out maneuver him had him getting really sore." She attempted to smirk again, and again was unable to because of her lip. She held a hand to it then, wincing again at the contact.

He would have healed it for her then and there, but they needed to get a picture of the physical damage done to each of the players before they could get them cleaned up.

"Anyhow, he was finally attempting to play in his position as Chaser and I did a feint with the Quaffle, which he fell for, then I hit him straight in the face with it. He wound up on the ground after that. We all did."

"And that's when the fight broke out?"

"No," she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms, sending a glare in McLaggen's direction. "It was after he insulted our mother," she said loudly so everyone could hear it across the bull pen. She then lowered her voice again so she could tell the story directly to him. "We Weasley's will take any kind of abuse you want to throw at us personally, but if anyone says anything about our mother, they're getting their arse handed to them."

He stared directly at her as he processed how she'd just said that her entire team had the same mother.

That was seven children!

"Surely anyone that could have and raise seven children would be able to defend herself!" he couldn't help blurting out.

"Damn right she can!" Ginny agreed aggressively. "But she shouldn't have to." She looked in the direction of Ernie. "Oi! Make sure you put in that report that he's here because he got beat up by a girl!"

All her brothers laughed at that, and a few of the members of the blue and white Quidditch Team too.

He and the other Aurors needed a minute to calm the room down again because some of the blue and white team started getting loud while defending themselves and all the Weasley men started chirping at them. Ginny didn't join in, she just sat there looking proud and watching the show.

Once the statements were completely taken, along with the pictures of the injuries, Harry needed to heal her up before putting her in a detention cell.

It was unnerving how she kept her eyes on him as he tried to concentrate on getting the mud wicked away along with the blood. He kept uncovering more freckles.

It was the way she had to tilt her head down to him too.

It should have been intimidating, she was three inches taller than him, but her features were so soft and feminine. He could see she took care in her grooming, her eyebrows were perfect, her hair held this slight flowery fragrance, even after having played Quidditch and rolling in the mud, he could still smell it.

"You haven't been an Auror long, have you?" she asked once he was done cleaning her up.

"No. It'll be another year before I'm the one bringing you in for the rookie to write you up after the game," he teased.

She frowned then. "I'll do my best to hold my temper until the championship game then. That way, even if the game is called a draw, we'll still know that we won."

"The Weasley team is that good, is it?" He opened the cell door and guided her in, then shut it. She had the whole room to herself as she was the only woman that had been brought in so far.

"No," she told him through the bars. "Only five out of seven are really spectacular. The other two Chasers are simply because we needed the players to qualify. Bill and Percy have their strengths, Quidditch just isn't it."

"You're the only one scoring then?" He had a hard time believing that. There were three Chasers for a reason, and it wasn't that he didn't believe she was a good player, but there had to be at least two good Chasers to make it an interesting game.

"Yes. And Charlie's the one to secure our win."

He turned away from her then so she wouldn't see him cracking a smile.

The last of the rest of the teams were getting squared away and he went to his desk to finish up her paperwork. Then he had to create a file for her. When he went to check if there were any files on the Weasley's he saw that not a one of the siblings that were brought in had been in trouble before, which was a good sign, that meant that they wouldn't need to pay their way out or do community service, they'd just need to keep on the straight and narrow for a few years.

It was a half hour later, when he was just about to leave, that a short, plump and very angry ginger woman came in, with who he assumed was her husband, in tow.

Harry could hear her shouting 'where are those brats' from the reception area.

Auror Tonks was the one that went out to greet the woman, and Harry strained his ears to hear her.

"Mrs. Weasley, I presume?"

"Right you are, dearie. Have you locked up all my children? Did they give you any trouble? Tell me honestly now."

Harry could see Mr. Weasley smartly standing there and looking up towards the ceiling as he let his wife take charge of the situation.

"They didn't give us any trouble. It was just a simple case of combat on the Quidditch pitch. No one has any lasting injuries and no one is pressing charges," Tonks told the woman.

"Well, that's a relief at least. May we see them?"

"You can take them all home now if you'd like. Sounds like you can take care of the discipline just fine on your own."

"Really?" Mrs. Weasley sounded a little too pleased for Harry's liking. She took a step closer to Tonks. "Any way you can line them up against a wall for a little beratement?"

Harry checked over his shoulder to see if Ernie was pay attention to this as well. He was, and he looked about ready to burst out with laughter.

Tonks called Ernie over then and the two of them let all the Weasley's out of the detention cells and lined them up against the wall of the bull pen and Harry watched in fascination as Mrs. Weasley paced back and forth in front of her children with her arms crossed while all of them held the expression of small children being scolded.

Ginny stood at the end, she'd let her hair down in the cell and it made her look younger.

It looked like they'd all lined up in order of age; like they'd done this several times before and knew what was coming.

Mrs. Weasley stopped in front of the oldest and pointed her finger at him, "you are days away from being married young man! All the work I've been putting in, all the back and forth and compromising with your bride. My hands are nearly raw from all the preparations I've already started. That would be for nothing if you wound up locked in a cell on your wedding day! And you," she turned to the next, "you've been back in the country for a week and already you're getting into trouble again. I thought you would have learned how to keep yourself in check after dealing with dragons for so many years!"

Dragons? Harry looked over to the Auror that had done the intake on the second eldest, who caught his eye and nodded, then flexed his bicep to show how strong this chastised man was.

"You're to be standing up there with Bill, and you're damned well strong enough to keep him from doing something stupid like this!" Now she moved to the other son, who somehow looked more polished than the rest of them, his back was straighter anyhow. "Speaking of keeping them from doing something stupid, Percy, you're the sensible one! I couldn't believe my eyes when I found out that you were part of this as well. You've got a job here at the Ministry, one that you've always wanted, why would you even chance putting that on the line?!"

All seven of the Weasley's started to explain, but her glare stopped them all short. She moved on to the next son, or sons, as she was looking at the twins as though they were the same person. She opened her mouth to berate them but it didn't seem like she could find the words, so she just moved on to her last son. "I'll assume that you joined in because it's what your brothers were doing?"

"Ginny was the one who-" he started.

"Excuse me?!" she interrupted him. "Ginny started this?" She turned her attention full onto her only daughter. "Quidditch and fighting?" she shook her head in disappointment. "I've long gotten over the fact that my only daughter was never interested in dresses and tea parties, but Quidditch and fighting? And you instigated it?" She pointed her finger at her daughter, then clenched her fist and put both her fists on her hips, her face turning red. "I was married by the time I was your age! I had my first child on the way!"

Ginny's expression turned from one of shame to one of indignation immediately. "You've got us lined up in order, aren't we supposed to be getting married in the same order," she mocked.

"You couldn't even find a date to your brothers wedding!" her mother countered in exasperation.

Harry felt a bubble of happiness rise in his chest upon hearing that; it meant she was single.

"Well, maybe that's why I wanted to wind up in here tonight," she waved her hand at the bull pen and all the people occupying it, whom Harry just realized were mostly men, and those men were mostly single. "Hoping to catch the eye of one of these blokes."

"It's working," remarked a sneakthief that had been brought in a few minutes ago.

Mrs. Weasley whipped around and lay her scowl on him. "You mind your tongue, or I'll be scolding you next."

"I love it when the mums come in to collect them," Auror Moody commented quietly.

It startled Harry to realize he was standing so close, usually one could hear Moody approaching from ages away.

"Is it always like this?" he asked the grizzled senior Auror.

"They don't normally line them up like this, but I remember that Molly Prewitt from before she was married, when she used to pick up her brothers Fabian and Gideon. Now those two, they were clever blokes. She would lay into them just like this and they were both a foot taller than her as well."

Mrs. Weasley had just chastised her daughter again, but Harry hadn't caught what she'd said, and Ginny was talking back to her now. "So, the next time someone tries to knock me off my broom and then insult my mother, I should just ask them if their single instead?"

"You lot caused all this ruckus because someone insulted me?" Mrs. Weasley had just lost some of the anger behind her voice.

"Yes," the seven of them all said at the same time.

"Good on you," said Mr. Weasley. It was the first thing Harry had heard him say. "Now how about we all troop home for a cuppa?" He then put his arm around his wife's shoulders and guided her towards the exit, and all his children started following along behind them.

Ginny turned her head back before she left and caught his eye, then gave him a wink and a cheeky smile.

"I'd take that as an invitation if I were you, boy," Moody told him before limping off.

Harry wasn't too sure about that, but he was officially off duty now.

Trying not to seem like he was rushing after her, he collected his things and headed out of the office as well, but the lift doors had already closed around a bunch of red heads by the time he reached the hallway.

It was probably for the best, he thought. She'd was likely just winking at him in jest.

She was very pretty though, and she liked Quidditch and wasn't squirmy around the sight of blood or mud. He really liked that she had fought back against that prick McLaggen when he tried to throw her off her game, and how she'd defended her mother.

Finding a someone to date in the line of his work though, that was just strange.

His mum too had been trying to tell him he needed a girlfriend. He hadn't had one since the start of his Seventh Year at school, he'd been too busy and the relationship had been such a disappointment that he didn't want to put in the effort again right away.

Harry reached the lift and saw that the call button had already been pressed, then he looked around and saw her leaning against the wall, waiting for the next lift.

"Auror Potter," she greeted him casually, there was something extra in her tone though.

"It was only you that didn't fit in the lift with the others?" he wondered aloud skeptically.

"Volunteered to take the next one. I'll let her rant and rave at the others so she'll have less energy when I get back home."

The next lift came available and he gestured his hand for her to go first.

"I think I'll wait a bit longer, but you go ahead."

"No, I'll wait with you. Be warned though, there'll be about five more Aurors just coming off shift soon."

"I'd rather them than being sat inside our cramped kitchen and listening to mum on a tear." She was insinuating something, leaving an opening for him, he could hear it.

This was a chance for him. "Er, I was going to go to the pub for a drink," he offered.

She had a glow come to her cheeks then. "Is that an invitation to join you? Nothing against it in the Auror rule books?"

"It wasn't a lot of trouble you've gotten yourself into, and my supervisor essentially told me to go after you." Her eyebrows raised at that and he felt his face warm. "Something about you looking back and winking at me."

"You're interested then?" she asked with surprise. "Even though I'm a tall, ginger brute with a sassy mouth?"

"Can't say I'm keen on you making it sound like you're being self-deprecating; I'd rather say I'm interested because you're a tall, ginger brute with a sassy mouth."

She pressed the button for the lift again. "Looks like we're going for drinks then."

He grinned at her.

He was excited by this turn of events; it had been a crap day of criminals and paperwork, and now he was about to go on a drinks date with a woman that held a lot of potential.

The lift arrived with no one else in the carriage and they stepped into it.

"I've got a clean suit by the way, just in case," he joked.

"In case?"

"Er, yeah, you know, your mum mentioned a wedding and you needing a date." He felt awkward now having said it. "I was just… erm, kidding."

"Getting ahead of yourself more like," she teased. "How about we just start with the drinks?"

"Yeah, I already regret trying to make a joke of it."

"Don't," she shrugged. "You've already seen me at my worst. If you're still interested after the drinks, I'll ask you then if you want to see me at my best."

"Sounds fair."

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