()()()

Casanova

()()()

Ginny closed her eyes tight and tried to find the strength to pretend to be sympathetic about yet another one of her teammates falling under the spell of the team owner's son. It was the same conversation every time; they thought they had changed him, they thought things were going to work out, the relationship had all signs pointed to things going well, he made them feel so special.

Blah, blah, blah.

Fools, every last one of them.

Okay, maybe not every last one of them. The first few girls that had given in to his advances, that was understandable, but now this was the sixth girl on her team, over the course of four years, that he'd dated for a few weeks and dumped; and Ginny was just tired of hearing it.

She was especially tired of trying to warn them off of him.

She'd known him in school. Harry Potter had dated a few of her friends back then also, he'd made a few passes at her as well. He'd been her Quidditch Captain for her last two years of school and occasionally mentioned that the sight of her didn't exactly make him gag. Of course, the wording he'd used was much more flattering than that; not that she'd ever fall for his tricks though.

After the first few times he'd said something to her about them potentially going out and her colorful language used to turn him down, they started butting heads.

It was nice to have so much of the female population of Hogwarts not needing to wipe their eyes dry in her last year of school because he'd left.

But then she got signed on by the Holyhead Harpies at the same time that the Potter Family became owners of the team; then he was back in her life again.

Ginny understood that he was attractive, that he was smart, that he came from money and knew how to dress himself and chew with his mouth closed. Considering the number of girls he'd cycled through and just how happy they were when they were in the relationship, she assumed he knew what he was doing in bed too. What she didn't understand was why he felt the need to use their gym and equipment when he could have gone absolutely anywhere else. And why did he have to use it when he knew they were using it too? And why on earth would he think it was a good idea to mix business with pleasure by dating women on the team his family owned?

He'd dated and dumped two of her teammates before they spoke to each other for the first time out of school, before then they'd just glared at each other, and their first words were simply each other's names. A quick 'Ginny' from him followed by a 'Potter' from her.

Now Harry had another of her teammates heartbroken and she just couldn't pretend to care anymore; the closing of her eyes and meditative breath were doing nothing to help fight the urge to roll her eyes and walk away.

Fiona was sitting on the bench with her head in her hands after a truly terrible practice and she was surrounded by all the other girls that had been duped. Fiona didn't need her pretending to pout for her sake. So, Ginny just grabbed her change of clothes and left the changeroom to head to the other one so she could take a shower.

There were a few changerooms in this stadium, the one closest was the one she opted for, and one of the showers was already occupied. That didn't bother her though, it was all Harpies in the stadium today.

"Hey," she called out to whoever was in the stall. "Were you looking to get away from the drama as well?"

She heard a splash of water and an 'mhmm' in response as she pulled off her clothes and stepped into her own stall and started up the hot water. "Fuck, was it ever a cold one today," she groaned as the hot water began to work its magic. "How many practices do you figure it's going to take for Fiona to get over Casanova? I think it was four for Bethany and three for Maggy. You would think that they'd all have learned by now to stay away from him but he must have a magic cock or something that gets them thinking he's anything special."

There was a laugh as the water in the next stall shut off. It wasn't a feminine laugh.

He hadn't even spoken yet before Ginny realized her mistake and let out a long sigh as she rested her forehead against the tile.

"You think I've got a magic cock?" Harry asked. She could tell he was smiling as he asked it.

She scowled to herself. "That's the only reason I could think of that would keep these girls so ridiculously happy one minute and dissolving into tears the next. It's not like they're charmed by your winning personality." She grabbed her soap and started lathering up her skin quickly, trying to get her shower routine done with as fast as possible so she could get out of there.

"Hey, I've got a great personality, you've just never stuck around long enough to realize it."

"I've had the unfortunate experience of spending far more time with you than I care to and you're brawn over brain, just looking for the next place to get your dick wet. If you could do this team a favor and start picking your prey elsewhere then it might give us the chance to have decent practices and better game performance."

"Hey! I am completely upfront with everyone I date about what I'm looking for. It's not my fault that they keep picking up hints I haven't dropped and think I'm falling madly in love with them. I'm just looking for fun before I settle down. Your teammates have been coming to me, not the other way around."

"You have the option to turn them down!" she protested. "Don't you care about how well this team is doing? Haven't you learned from your mistakes?"

"I'm still a young man, I have needs," he dismissed her argument.

"You're a sex addict, you need a love glove and lube."

"You're just a prude."

"I am not! You're only saying that because I won't screw you." She shut off the water and pulled the shower curtain to the side, poking her head around it cautiously, and saw him standing there, holding out her towel and smirking at her.

Evidence of him using their gym equipment was all over his barely covered body; muscle definition. It made her scowl more; did he have nothing else to do all day but exercise and find a fuck buddy?

"Stronger women than you have said the same thing, and then do you know what happened?"

She glared at him and snatched her towel out of his hand, closing the curtain to dry herself off out of his sight. "Let me guess, you seduced them."

"Didn't have to, they would just show up at my place after a dry spell or a rough night or whatever and ask me to 'take the edge off'."

She wanted to respond by saying she would never be one of those kinds of girls, but then she'd be a hypocrite; because she had done that exact thing to her last boyfriend three months after they'd split up. She'd missed the intimacy part of the relationship more than the sex part and just wanted to be held and enjoy the feeling of cuddling under a blanket with their naked flesh keeping their bodies warm.

To show up at someone's place that you hadn't ever shared an emotional connection with though, that she didn't think she'd ever do.

Ginny wrapped the towel around herself and pulled the curtain back. He was still standing there with the towel wrapped only around his waist, and low on his waist as well.

"You can't possibly be trying to move on to the next girl already, are you? You just dumped Fiona last night, or this morning, I didn't really listen, I just saw the tears and tuned her out."

"I'm just a young man, looking for love," he told her mockingly.

"And I'm just a woman," she said with a fake swoon, "not falling for your shit."

They heard the door in the other room open and heavy footsteps heading their way. "Harry!" a loud voice rang out that sounded a lot like the senior Potter's voice. "I thought I asked you to stay away from the girls on the team! No, I specifically requested you look elsewhere for getting your kicks."

The steps were drawing nearer and Ginny couldn't help beaming.

"Your daddy's mad at you," she taunted him with a whisper.

Harry narrowed his eyes at her and raised an eyebrow in challenge. "And what do you think will be going through his head when he sees you and I alone in here and only wearing towels?"

That observation of his made her panic.

For all of half a second.

"Nice to know I'm not the only one telling you to start fishing in another pond," she said loud enough for Mr. Potter to hear. "Now stop blocking my way, you being in here is creepy enough."

The footsteps stopped, Mr. Potter was still out of her sight, but not out of his sons, and Harry looked to his right, then back at her, then to his right again.

"Get away from that stall, Harry," Mr. Potter said in a very trying voice.

"She's trying to stir up trouble," Harry told him. "We were talking, that's all."

Ginny stepped forward and pushed past him, hitting him hard with her elbow as she did so. "You deserve any trouble you might get." She nodded at Mr. Potter before collecting her things, keeping a firm hand on her towel. "And listen to your father and I, Harry, start finding your girlfriends somewhere else."

It was no small mercy that there wasn't any backlash on her from that encounter. She'd left the changeroom right away and walked to the closest single stall bathroom to get dressed. The next few days she kept waiting for her coach to pull her aside, or the team manager, to tell her she was suspended for the way she'd talked to the owner; but it never came.

And Harry Potter stopped coming around the stadium too.

There were three peaceful months of practice and games where there was no guy drama, no distractions during practice, and everyone's game improved.

Then they played their last qualifying game to get into the final rounds of the National Quidditch Championship for the season and they had dominated the other team and come out on top. Ginny was out celebrating with the team and had several drinks in her, danced with a few men, then called it a night and stepped out into the cool air on Diagon Alley. She could practically feel the steam coming off of her and her body temperature was brought down.

She started walking in the direction of the twins shop, where she planned to sleep off her drink. She was too intoxicated to Apparate and really didn't want to get caught up in the Floo and become nauseous.

When she was a block away from the bar a few men came out of a pub, they were clearly much more drunk than she and talking loudly. Then they started heading in the same direction as her and began chirping at her. She didn't want to start walking faster to get away from them and give off that she was scared, but the twins place was still about a mile up the road and she wanted to get away from the men behind her quickly.

Another pub was just up ahead and she heard one of the two men behind her making a lewd comment that included the words 'alone' and 'alley', so she went straight for the pub and burst through the door, then made a bee line for the bathrooms at the back.

In her haste there had still been time to take note of how many patrons were in this pub, and some of them were females. Judging by the cleanliness of the loo, this pub catered to women just as much as men, though she'd never been here before.

Ginny splashed some water on her face and patted it dry, took a look in the mirror to see if her makeup had been screaming 'harlot' and giving off the impression that she was asking for it, and it wasn't; the eyeliner wasn't heavy and her lipstick had worn off a while ago.

The bartender called her out when she stepped out of the loo.

"Oi, the loo is for paying customers."

She glanced at the exit and didn't feel like pressing her luck with those men again, so she took up on a stool and ordered a drink, something non-alcoholic, while she waited for her nerves to calm down.

There was always the option of sending a Patronus to Fred or George to come and get her, but that made her feel weak.

Someone took up in the seat beside her and she felt his eyes on her.

"I'm not in the mood to be hit on," she said without looking at him.

"Well, we both know that doesn't get me anywhere anyhow."

She turned her head sharply and saw Harry Potter sitting there. It looked like he'd been out at an event; he was wearing dress robes that were now hanging off him loosely.

"Wow, of all the gin joints in all towns in all the world, I just happen to walk into yours," she chuckled.

"Casablanca."

"Yeah." There was no shielding the surprise on her face that he knew that.

"You're not the only pureblood family that has an appreciation for Muggle things."

"Clearly."

"Aren't you supposed to be out celebrating with the team I am no longer allowed to be around?"

Her jaw dropped open, then she started giggling. "Your father banned you from being around us?"

"That's right."

She giggled even harder.

"It isn't that funny." There was a whisper of a smile on his face though.

"Yes, it is! You dated your way through most of the age-appropriate women on the team, so your father had to ban you! Had you already promised him several times to stay away? Is that why he had to bring the hammer down this time?"

"Can I help it that I'm irresistible to women?" he asked pompously with a hint of gest.

That was a 'yes'.

"So have you been trolling for victims elsewhere or did you figure out another use for your hand?"

"I do just fine no matter where I am, thank you very much."

She scoffed at him and twirled her straw around in her drink.

"Why are you in here?" he asked again.

Ginny thumbed in the direction of the door. "There were a few men following me and making comments, I came in here to get away from them."

He sat up straighter and turned his head sharply toward the exit. "They followed you? From where? How many of them? Do you want me to do something about them?"

"Whoa, calm down Lockhart, I can take care of myself."

"Hey! I resent that. Lockhart was proven to be a fraud."

She simply raised her eyebrow at him, making clear that was her intention.

"I can be gallant!" he protested.

"I'm sure you think so."

"Fine, well, I'm walking you home."

"I don't need you to."

"I didn't ask if you did. You just told me you're getting harassed on the street, if you got hurt or something happened, then I'd never forgive myself. So, this is for purely selfish reasons."

Ginny scowled at him and put a few knuts down on the counter. "Fine. But I'm leaving right now."

He stood up without hesitation and followed her out. The streets were now empty and she set a steady pace towards the twins place once again.

"The team's been doing much better since you stopped shagging the girls on it," she said as a way of starting to make conversation while they walked.

"It has been told to me on more than one occasion that I can be distracting," he said unabashedly.

"What is the longest period of time that you've had a girlfriend?" He was always moving from one girl to the next, he must be either looking for something specific or be very against the idea of having someone be his everything. "Haven't your parents been together since they were in school? I've seen them together, they're head over heels for each other. Don't you want that?"

"Yeah, I do. That's exactly what I'm looking for, I'm just not finding it, so why waste my time after realizing that? Isn't it better to break things off when I realize that 'she' isn't it for me?"

Ginny frowned because she couldn't argue that point.

"My dad knew my mum was it for him for two years before she finally gave into him and they've been together ever since."

"And he realized she was it for him while he too was 'shopping around'?"

"No," Harry shrugged. "He says he just knew. And she kept on turning him down until one day she didn't."

"It wasn't like that at all for my parents. My mum pursued my dad but made him think it was all his idea." She chuckled as she recalled the way her mum told the story. "Dad was all bumbly and adorable and didn't know a thing about women, so she just kept inserting herself in his life; helped him straighten his robes, knicked some of his assignments so she could hand them back later and say that he'd forgotten them somewhere, stuff like that."

Harry laughed. "And that worked?"

"No. But he wound up growing comfortable enough with her that when she finally gave up on playing coy and pulled him into a broom closet he was pulling her to him, not pushing her away."

"Do you hate when people tell you the story of how they got together with their spouse? Don't they always make it seem like it was the most straightforward decision of their life?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Your parents, my parents, they tell it like they knew all along. Meanwhile, I could tell the story of how my last girlfriend and I met and it too would sound like it was meant to be, but it wasn't. Now I'm 'fishing in another pond' as you put it."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. And we're here." She pointed up at her brothers joke shop and the flat above it.

"I always knew the twins would wind up doing something to this effect."

"It is a lot smaller scale than they want it to be, but they've got big dreams."

"You're really gorgeous when you smile."

She hadn't realized she was smiling as she looked at the sign for the joke shop; she was just so proud of how they'd taken their passion and turned it into a career, like her. Harry making a comment like that to her made the smile drop of her face pretty quick though.

"Thank you for walking me. I can honestly say that your company wasn't terrible tonight as it has been in the past."

"You've never properly talked to me in the past," he pointed out.

"Because you're always lacing every conversation with innuendo or hitting on me or my friends," she defended.

"Well, if I tried to simply be your friend in the past you wouldn't know, would you? You've always thought poorly of me and read into every little thing I say, just looking for a reason to dislike me."

"I don't have to read into anything you say. You're a guy, you say exactly the first thing that comes to mind without thinking about rephrasing it. I know you can be a decent person, but how on earth am I supposed to want to get to know you when you've made multiple previous attempts to ask me out in the past?"

"Excuse you, but I'm not the person I was when I was sixteen, are you?"

"Sixteen?! It was only a few months ago that you were leering at me in only a towel. How much have you possibly grown in personality since then?"

"I wasn't leering at you, we were making banter, playing a game."

"Maybe you were playing a game, I was trying to wash off a day of practice and you just had to stand in my way wearing only a low hanging towel so you could show off how much you work out."

He gave her his signature crooked grin then, "I knew you noticed."

Ginny let out a groan of frustration and turned around. "Goodbye, Harry."

"Until we meet again, Ginny."

()()()

"Hey, Ginny. Do you and Rob want to come out to mine on Saturday? A few of us are getting together for drinks," Fiona asked happily. It hadn't taken her long to move on from her 'devestation' of losing Harry and had found a new boyfriend that she was perfectly happy with and eager to show off.

Ginny had started dating someone a month ago and had unfortunately let his name slip, a rookie mistake that she was regretting right now. "Rob and I split. But I'd like to come."

"Awe," Fiona pouted.

"It's not a big deal. It wasn't love and it didn't last long." Trying to play it down wasn't going to work, but she had to try.

Rob had been nice, he had been attractive, and he had been a complete slob that didn't know what purpose the oven served. Ginny could live with the fact that her new boyfriend still had some growing up to do, but she couldn't live with the fact that he couldn't be bothered to at least tuck away the porn magazines when he knew she was coming over. She didn't want her relationship to be a 'project'.

It was a pity though, he was a perfect gentleman when they went out, the sex was good, not great, however, aside from his teenage-like ways, she just wasn't feeling it after the 'newness' wore off.

She'd started the relationship out with hopes though.

"Looks like it's the season for break-ups," Amber chimed in from the other side of the bench in the locker room they were in. "My brother and his wife are separated now, Gwen finally kicked Kennedy out, Harry Potter broke up with Gisele something-or-other, and they were together for a record three months, and now you and Rob."

Ginny shrugged. "Christmas can be a stressful time for couples, and now we've got Valentine's Day around the corner too."

She'd heard about all those break-ups, her mum was still a terrible gossip and lunged for the newspaper stand whenever a new Witch Weekly came out. Potter and his latest girlfriend had an article about their break-up in there which included several photos of them exiting buildings or sitting close to each other.

This was going to be an annoying Valentine's Day for a lot of people; she was scheduled to attend some gala that night as a representative for the Harpies, something she'd immediately signed up for a month ago when it was announced so she would have an excuse not to have a date.

Maybe she did realize that her and Rob wouldn't last all along…

The day of the gala she had practice in the morning and went straight from the locker room to the hair salon, which was packed. Her scalp massage was not nearly long enough due to the number of other women that were waiting their turn. Her hair still looked all glossy and soft when she got home though, that was the whole point of having someone else deal with it. And it still looked great when she was in her dress and heels with her makeup on and standing in a dimly lit room full of heart-shaped confetti with a drink in her hand and a smile on her face.

The team owners were here tonight so she had to make sure she was in excellent form and circulating.

She'd done these kinds of events before and it was a great way to meet certain people in society, and to find out which ones to avoid. Like the senior Mr. Crabbe who was leering at her from a few tables away and trying to catch her eye. Thankfully, a waiter had passed between them when she noticed him and she was quick to take an appetizer off the tray he was carrying and turn around to search for another high top table that had just enough room for her.

It was a small surprise to see she was suddenly surrounded by Potter's.

"Miss Weasley, you look lovely tonight," Mrs. Potter greeted her.

Ginny was always a bit jealous of how easily likable Mrs. Potter was, her smile was always so natural, and she was a real beauty; a natural beauty.

"Thank you, you do as well. Actually, you always do, but tonight especially."

"I whole heartily agree," Mr. Potter announced and kissed his wife on the forehead, then they shared a small chuckle.

"See? Nearly twenty-five years and they're still like that. That's why I can't keep a girlfriend," Harry told her quietly.

"Yeah," she had to agree.

"You do look nice tonight."

She didn't bother responding to that, she just looked down at the food that was on the plate in front of her. It looked really good, but she had no idea how she was going to gracefully pull off eating it.

"These stuffed mushroom caps are going to get all over the front of my dress," she said to him quietly.

"What are you talking about? You just eat one all in one go."

"I can't do that; I'll be chewing like an animal for a full minute if I do, and I am not a graceful chewer. If I try to take a bite of one it'll shoot juice at me and dribble all down my chin; also not a graceful look."

"What about the chicken skewer?" he offered her the appetizer that he had in front of him.

"Same problem, I can't sink my teeth into one piece and rip it off. I bet the event planner was a guy." She pushed the plate towards him. "Do you want it?"

He took her plate, picked up one of the mushroom caps and popped it in his mouth whole, gave five large chews, mouth closed, and then swallowed and gave a smile. "Delicious, if a bit cold."

She couldn't help but smile at him over that.

The music started growing louder and it was clear that the reception portion of the evening was over and the dancing was starting.

"Harry, we need to take to the floor," his father told him.

To her surprise, Harry held out his hand to her.

Ginny looked over to Mr. and Mrs. Potter, but they'd already started towards the dance floor.

"Don't you have a date tonight?" she asked.

"No. I just had my break-up with Gisele announced in all the papers."

"Two weeks ago, sure. I would have thought you'd moved on by now."

He rolled his eyes and frowned, then took her hand himself and started leading her toward the dance floor, then suddenly she was in his arms and he was leading her around, guiding her through the steps with great ease.

"Why do you continue to insist you know me?" he asked. "You really think all I want is to make my way through every available woman? I'm not picky, that's true, I think there could be potential in anyone to make a proper partner, I just happen to be very bad at finding the right person."

"It's nice that you aren't picky, but maybe you should start to be. I've had countless friends that started dating you and you have an uncanny knack for making each and every one of them feel so special. I don't know how you do it. Is it a love potion? Do you recite poetry? Do you simply make yourself act like the perfect person for them until it is their turn for them to act perfect for you and then you realize that they're not what you want so you drop the act entirely?"

His swift movements slowed then and he stared at her calculatingly. "I suppose that last one sounds about right." He said this like he hadn't realized it before now.

She grasped his hand a bit harder and pushed slightly so he would catch the hint that they needed to resume the dance at proper speed. He blinked a few times and did as she subtly requested.

"Maybe you should knock that off. You've been doing it for, what, ten years? Having a relationship start out honestly might be a better way to approach it."

"Is that how you do it? Because it hasn't seemed to work out for you either. I heard that you're single again."

"When my ratio of wins and losses gets as high as yours then I'll consider taking a good, hard look at how I approach my relationships, until then I'm not looking to stay attached to someone just for the sake of having a convenient shagging partner."

"You're a woman, you don't need to search very hard for a convenient shagging partner."

"You're rich and handsome, neither do you."

He chuckled. "I've got a family name and a lot of free time. When I'm not at a board meeting or something I'm bored and wander into a gym or a pub, both of which have proven good places to find a girlfriend. I'm not looking for casual though; I'm looking for permanent."

"And this is what you say to all of these girlfriends to get them on your hook, isn't it?"

"How is it that you are so blatantly truthful?" he wondered at her. "Since we first met you've always just said whatever is on the tip of your tongue."

She shrugged and let him give her a twirl. "When you grow up with as many people in a household as I did, if you aren't talking, you're getting ignored. I got used to talking, so there is little room for a filter."

He grinned at her. She didn't understand why, she was trying to get him to take her words seriously.

"Really though, telling my gender that you are looking for 'the one' and you'd like to know if they're it, that's just asking for trouble."

"What do you propose I do then?"

"If you're serious about it, maybe you should hire a match-maker. It used to be a common practice among the Purebloods."

"I'm not-"

"Not that kind of Pureblood," she cut him off, "I know, neither am I, but there are still some around and you only have to tell them what you are looking for in this 'perfect match' of yours."

"That sounds like a good way of giving me a list of hearts I can break. I've done some subtle vetting of my past girlfriends myself before and they always sounded right at the beginning."

The song changed, but they kept on dancing.

"And what was wrong with the last one?"

"She didn't want kids."

Ginny's jaw dropped. "You'd only been dating for a few months and you were talking kids already?" He nodded. "And she doesn't want any? I couldn't imagine never wanting children."

"Well, you come from a large family, so I would imagine you've seen that as an eventuality."

"I'm surprised she didn't see that as something you would eventually want though. You're the last of your family line, I imagine your parents have given you subtle hints about it."

"You would be right."

They carried on their conversation as the dance numbers changed, twirling and moving around the dance floor without missing a step, and as they carried on Ginny forgot that she was supposed to find him irritating and pretentious, but she didn't remember that she was meant to feel that way until she got home.

The next morning as she was fixing her breakfast she kept trying to come up with something he might have done the previous night that she found irritating… and she couldn't.

It wasn't hard for her to understand now why so many women had fallen so hard for him.

The bastard was so damned smooth and likable if you gave him the opportunity to sweet talk you.

Had he been sweet talking her though?

His hands hadn't wandered at all while they were dancing, she couldn't recall a single innuendo, and he didn't ask her to leave with him, or even if he could call on her sometime.

Had they just become friends?

They had! She was now friendly with Harry Potter.

Her teammates were going to kill her if they found out!

By the time she'd finished breakfast she wasn't bothered about it anymore, there was little chance that her teammates or anyone else would find out that she and Harry spent the whole of last evening engaged in pleasant conversation.

Then the Daily Prophet showed up and she'd leafed through the headlines until she saw a picture of the two of them on page six; smiling as they danced, then her laughing as he gave her a dip.

"Oh. Fuck."

The team manager wouldn't care because it was good exposure, the team owner wouldn't care because he was there and knew that nothing untoward had happened. But her friends, and her mum, them she didn't need seeing this. There was no way to stop it though.

Ginny flipped the paper closed and scowled at the advertisements on the back page.

She didn't mind seeing her name in the paper, but not in the society section! She wanted to be associated with Quidditch and charity events, not the British gossip column!

She looked over to her fireplace and figured it was best she tackle her mum first.

Two hours later she was walking into the locker room at the Harpies stadium riding an emotional rollercoaster based on feelings of annoyance and defiance.

Two of her brothers had been at The Burrow when she'd gotten there; they and her parents had all seen the paper and while she was explaining the innocence behind the picture to her mum, her brothers were making kissy faces at her and waggling their eyebrows.

Now she was three cups of tea in and the caffeine was making her energetically annoyed. Thus the need to show up at the stadium to use the gym and empty pitch for a work-out.

Judging by the empty state of the locker room, everyone else was enjoying their day off.

When she got into the gym, however, it was not empty.

"I thought you had a lifetime ban from working out in here?" Ginny asked Harry who was taking advantage of the section of the gym dedicated to the Muggle sport of 'basket ball'. She got a lot of use out of that section, the ball was around the same size as a Quaffle and the net was a much smaller target than she was usually dealing with.

Harry was paused half-way through 'dribbling' down the court to the net. Judging by the amount of sweat that had gathered on his shirt, he'd been there for a while.

"Er, not strictly speaking. I'm just sort of… banned from it when you and the others are around."

Ginny grinned at that and raised her eyebrows in question. "Does that mean you're going to bugger off now and hand that ball to me?"

He held it up with one hand. "Or we could play a game. Muggle's call it HORSE, but it's the same as QUAFFLE."

"What? Why don't they call it 'BASKET'? It's got more letters and it actually relates to the game being played."

He gave her an amused look, "alright, we can call it BASKET if you want."

She went over to him and knocked the ball out of his hand, getting the feel for the way it bounced off the ground again as a means to warm up. "Did you see that picture of us in the paper this morning?"

"Yes. And for a moment there I didn't realize it was us, I thought it was my mum and dad."

"There's the resemblance with you, certainly, but I look nothing like your mum, her hair is a much darker red and she's got several inches on me."

"You were wearing heels, to be fair. But it was more the way we were dancing that threw me off. It looked like we'd been doing it for years."

Ginny lined up a shot and got the ball through the net. "What can I say? I'm a natural at everything."

He caught the ball as it rebounded toward him off the wall. "I'll bet you are," he smirked.

"Ah, there he is," she pointed at his face. "I was wondering where smarmy Potter was last night. Do you save all that energy up for when you've got us innocent girls alone?"

"And there she is, just ever the pessimistic. Don't you ever get tired of thinking the worst of people?"

"I don't! Just this morning I thought you and I were becoming friends."

Harry checked the ball to her and she checked it back to him. "Then, as friends, I say we enjoy this friendly game."

It took nearly an hour for Ginny to win against him; he might have had the height advantage, but she was a professional Quidditch player and had a lot more experience than him when it came to chucking balls through nets.

"Yes!" she cried out, pumping two fists in the air when she'd finally gotten her last shot through, then promptly fell down on the floor so she could catch her breath against the cool ground.

Harry came to lay down beside her, putting a water bottle in her hand first. "That is a lot more fun when you play with another person."

"It certainly is. You're pretty good. If I wasn't such an amazing Chaser, you might have won."

"You are the top," he agreed.

For five minutes they just lay there catching their breath in companionable silence.

"I think I like you," he said, breaking the silence.

"As it turns out, you're not so terrible yourself."

"Food?" he asked.

"Shower first."

Once more she found herself standing in her kitchen that evening wondering what the hell had happened that day. She and Harry had not only gone for lunch, but they'd spent the afternoon walking through the port district of the Muggle town he'd brought her to for fish and chips. They'd talked and browsed a few shops and simply spent a pleasant, sunny afternoon in each other's presence.

Before she knew it the clock in the square they'd wound up in chimed six and she simply gave him a 'laters' by means of farewell and came home.

()()()

Three Months Later

She was hanging out at his place again. How this came to be the thing she did after a Weasley get together, she wasn't quite sure, it just happened naturally; she'd come home from one a few months ago and there'd been an owl for her from him asking if she could give him a female perspective on some furniture he was getting for his place. So, she'd gone over to his.

Chatting with him had been a great way to decompress from her siblings and parents after their picture had been in the paper and after that first time he'd asked for her assistance, so the time after he asked for her help, she reached out to him when the Weasley family lunch had been loud and boisterous and he'd taught her how to use a Muggle gaming system he had.

Now she didn't even bother asking permission, she just showed up at his place.

He even started keeping her preferred wine and nibbles available just in case.

It was incredibly nice of him.

"This chair was a great choice," she said happily once she'd snuggled up into the cushy grey chair she'd picked out for his place that had the nice wide arms on it for her to set down her glass.

"Yeah, and it goes really well with the blanket you picked out," he said in jest.

She knew he liked the chair, he just enjoyed teasing her about how much she liked the chair.

"Once I've got a permanent home, I'm getting one just like it. And I'm going to put it in front of a window that looks out over a garden or water or something."

"And in the meantime, you'll just have to keep on visiting me."

"That's the plan," she said happily.

He put a bowl of pretzels down on the arm of her chair and went over to the wireless, switching it on because there was a Cannons versus Torandos game about to start.

"Remember when you mentioned I should try one of those match makers?" he asked.

She turned to him in surprise. The question seemed to have popped out of nowhere. Ginny had essentially been under the impression that he was taking a break from dating.

"Are you really going to try that?" It was hard to keep the disappointment out of her voice. He'd become a source of comfort to her, if he started dating then he wouldn't be available to her anymore; no more fish and chip lunches, no more hanging out and listening to the games together, no more comfy and aspirational chair that would cost her a months wages.

"I already reached out to one."

A shock ran through her. "You're really serious about settling down, aren't you?"

The game started up but she wasn't listening to it, she was entirely focused on Harry and what he had to say about this match-making witch that was going to hypnotize the person that was quickly becoming her best friend into being a 'husband' to some undeserving gold digger.

Harry let out an exasperated sigh. "I've been saying it to everyone for years that I'm looking for the right person and that I want a marriage like what my parents have, why is this so hard for people to believe?"

"Because it is," she sighed and pouted at her bowl of pretzels. "So, when do the dates with potential suitors start up?"

"So far we've just been talking about what my qualities are and what I'm looking for."

Ginny still felt like their roles were reversed. She should have been the one on the look out for a husband, he was supposed to be looking to hang on to his freedom for as long as possible.

"How many dates do you suppose you'll have to go on with potential match's before you find out if you truly click though?" she wondered.

"Well, that's the thing. While I was talking to her she was laying out the way the whole thing worked, about the do's and do not's; essentially pointing out how if I'd really been looking for a lifetime commitment then I'd been doing it wrong."

"What?" Ginny smirked. "Like laying it on thick and then shagging them and expecting a 'happily ever after' banner to appear?"

"Essentially," he dismissed her candor. "So she told me that she first wanted me to remain single for a while to make me…"

"Look like less of a player," Ginny finished for him.

"Yeah," he admitted. "Then she said that I should spend a lot of time with my potential match to make sure we click on a base level, one that wasn't romantic."

"That's weird. I would assume match-making was all about getting things done and over with so they could move on to the next client."

"Me too, but I thought that part made some sense though. Not 'business' sense, but this woman I went to see is basically retired and boasts of her success rate, which is why I chose her."

A cheer from the wireless made them both jump and turn their heads toward it. The Tornadoes had scored.

"Anyhow," he continued. "So, yeah, she said spend a lot of 'non-romantic' time with a potential match to make sure we both click properly, only then should I start paying more attention to the attraction part."

"What?" Ginny laughed. "Well hopefully you'll find her attractive to start off with and just attempt to suppress your urges until you realize you click."

"Same for her, I would hope," he replied cheekily.

"Oh, come off it, you know you're an attractive guy. She'd have to be blind not to see it." He'd been near the top of the 'most eligible bachelors' list for years, and it was only in a small part due to his money. Harry was undeniably cute. Some might call him hot, she'd only ever thought he was cute. Cute meant more to her than hot.

"Oh, I'm glad you've finally admitted I'm attractive to you," he grinned and gave her a wink.

"Yeah, yeah, good on you," she dismissed and picked up her wine to take a sip. "Alright, so when do I start losing my friend to some strange woman you're trying to 'click' with?"

"Well, you don't have to, actually."

"What?" she smiled. "Have you already started wooing someone and not mentioned it to me? Do you just not invite her over when I'm going to be around?"

At that question he started fidgeting. "Er, no. Thing is, this match maker's approach, with it, er, the potential 'match', the match, well she doesn't necessarily need to know that I'm hoping for our clicking as friends to turn into something more."

Ginny frowned at him as she tried to make sense of what he'd just said. Meanwhile, the Tornadoes scored again on the Cannons and the wireless erupted with applause once more.

"So… you've been secretly dating someone?" she asked. "And even they don't know about it?"

He adjusted in his seat again and cleared his throat. "Er… yes."

Harry finally met her eye and they stared at each other for several long seconds. And she was completely not understanding what he was trying to say.

"You," he admitted. "I've been trying to… erm, you."

Somehow the room grew both cold and hot at the same time. Her face was burning up, but her hands and feet were freezing. And the large room seemed somehow smaller; it all appeared to have closed in around the two of them so all she could make out was Harry and a blur of color behind him.

Her lips were dry.

Another sip of wine would probably stop her throat from feeling so dry as well, but her cold hands felt heavy now.

"Ginny?"

At the sound of her name she gave an exhale and it pushed back the walls that had been pressing in on her. She could lift her arm now, and she did, so she could take another drink.

"I'll just, get you some more wine."

He got up and she turned to focus her eyes on the wireless.

There were so many thoughts running through her head at the same time that it was all coming out as a white noise of nothingness. She couldn't call up a single clear thought out of the multitude of going's on in her brain.

He came back and refilled her glass, leaving the rest of the bottle within her reach, and sat down again, remaining silent and waiting for her to say something.

Once she'd finished her glass, she reached over for the bottle and refilled it. She was calm enough now that her thoughts had sorted themselves out some.

"Was this match-maker the one to suggest you try this stunt on me?" she asked, trying not to sound annoyed; because she didn't know yet if she was annoyed.

"No. Well… yes, but only after I'd brought up your name."

"Then… how long have you been…"

"Since the morning we played basketball together. I went to see her the morning after the gala."

"Running into me in the gym though?" she asked, wanting confirmation of whether that had been a stunt of his.

"Happy coincidence," he assured her. "It just sort of set up the rest of this, er, trial, to fall into place."

"This 'trial', that I knew nothing about," she pointed out.

"Well, you have to admit, we have grown pretty close over the last few months."

"Yes, because I thought you were my friend!" she said loudly.

"I'm trying to be your friend! I just also happen to be hoping for more as well," he defended, matching her volume.

"So now what? The trial's over and you're just laying it down on the table that you've been vetting me to see if I'm wife material?" she asked incredulously. "Did I pass your test or fail it?"

"Pass," he assured her. Then upon seeing her reaction realized he shouldn't have just admitted that. "I'm not asking you to marry me! I'm asking you to consider for a bit whether you could possibly fathom something more coming of this. We get along great now that you don't only see me as some lothario, and you have to admit you have a good time when we're together. You've just told me you find me attractive."

"That was a trick!" she gasped.

"Not… necessarily," he said unconvincingly. Then he sighed and put his face in his hands. "Ginny," he groaned. "I've had a thing for you since we were in school together, you know that. I've never denied it, or that I find you attractive. Now I know it runs deeper than me being attracted to you."

"Bully for you! What's the next test? Shag until the sun comes up and see if we can make that work as well?"

To her amazement he grew incredibly tense at that, and his voice got really deep and restrained too. "Please, don't make suggestions like that unless you're going to follow through. You don't understand the number of times I've had to stop myself from… even a light breeze could… just, don't say that, okay?"

To her utter amazement, she did feel something stirring in her loins from his reaction.

Was he saying he hadn't so much as touched himself over the past several months, or that it simply hadn't been enough because he'd wanted her so badly this whole time?

Had he been fantasizing about the two of them together for longer than this trial of his had been going on? As far back as when he'd attempted to ask her out in school?

Her hands certainly weren't cold anymore.

She'd let go of her anger now she could see how it was affecting him. "But dating would be the next step, wouldn't it?"

He was still tense but nodded in response.

She took her glass off the arm of the chair and set it down on the table and stood up. "I have to go. This is a lot and I can't give you an answer right now."

He stood up too, and as soon as he did she turned around and headed straight for his fireplace.

When she got home she locked up her Floo and made sure that her door was sealed before heading to her bathroom to wash her face and try to cool down. She stared at herself in her mirror as she dried her face and hands.

Harry fancied her.

And he fancied her enough that he had been willing to spend three months becoming one of her favorite people before admitting that she meant more to him than 'friend'.

This could have been a rouse. He could have been playing some long con with her to make her eat her previous words and determination not to become another one of his prey.

But right now she was alone in her flat and she didn't want to think that he was baiting her or using her, she wanted to believe that he was being honest. She changed into her pyjamas and slipped under her covers in the dark and lay there, looking up at the ceiling. Her fingers were twirling a piece of her hair around as her other arm rested on her pillow.

He wanted to take her to bed and spend the whole night shagging her. She bit her lip at that thought. He wanted to kiss her lips. The hand that was playing with her hair moved off the pillow and toward her chest. Her breasts weren't that big, but he'd still thought about them, hadn't he? Had he been spending their shared time resisting the urge to fondle them? To kiss them? Her nipples grew hard at the thought. She palmed them herself and wondered if his hands would feel the same or better. One hand stayed where it was and the other trailed down her stomach to gently graze the inside of her thigh. If she let him, would he be gentle about touching her like this?

She'd never fantasized about a real person touching her before, whenever she'd been alone and looking for a release it was always a figment of hers or someone else's imagination; a story character from a borrowed harlequin romance novel. To be touching herself, working up to properly touching herself, and picturing how desperate he'd looked in that moment when he'd begged her not to say things she might not follow through on; he felt forbidden. Before they'd become friends she'd thought he was just a cad, someone that she could have shagged if she'd wanted to, and one that wouldn't have meant much to her at that. Now though, he was her friend, he was a good friend.

Her hand moved up her thigh and she spread her legs slightly apart. A good friend would most certainly want to make sure that she got a restful nights sleep, wouldn't they? And that restful nights sleep could be brought on by their hand touching her clit and working it over in luxuriously slow circular movements.

As her hand was occupied with the familiar movement, her brain kept showing her the different ways in which her 'friend' could make her cum if she'd let him. He could use his hand, like she was doing, or his tongue, or both followed by sliding his cock into her, meanwhile still grinding against her until she cried out his name.

Repeating that thought process in her head her hands continued working furiously until she did just that; called out his name.

When she came down from her high she couldn't believe what she'd just done.

She'd thought about Harry while pleasuring herself. And so soon after she'd been thinking it unfathomable that they could have a romantic relationship.

Instead of drifting right off into a comfortable sleep like she normally did after an orgasm, she lay there thinking over everything she knew about the way he operated with the women he'd dated. To her knowledge he'd never pursued women very hard, he'd never needed to though, his lines about how he was looking for 'the one' had all his past girlfriends dropping their knickers with little to no hesitation.

She can't have been the only one to have said no to him initially though, right? This wasn't just him looking to prove a point that he could trick that small list of women who'd turned him down to eventually give in to his charms, right?

If this all was a game, then he was either the worlds biggest jerk or a megalomaniac.

If this all wasn't just a game though, and he really did think that she could be the one for him, and he'd truly forced himself to stop from pressing for something more before now because he wanted them to have a foundation first; could she be willing to try?

Her heart had been broken by boyfriends before and she'd managed to carry that pain with her and keep it to herself until the hurt slowly dissolved away. So, regardless of how it might turn out, if they did try and he did find some fault in her and cast her aside, she wouldn't be making a scene like the rest of her teammates had.

And he had become a really good friend after all. She'd never tried that approach with previous boyfriends either.

Ginny took her time thinking over the dilemma; she tried inconspicuously to ask her teammates about how previous relationships of theirs had started, sure enough two of them talked about Harry and another one chimed it, none of the stories sounding at all like how she'd come to know him and his feelings. She considered her own feelings too and found herself warming to the idea of being more than just friends with him.

He'd let her into his personal space, hell, he'd let her decorate his personal space and she was so comfortable around him now. There was a high probability that snogging him would be good, and shagging him would likely be really great too.

It was a week and two days after he'd told her that she turned up at his flat, using the door this time instead of the Floo, because they weren't just friends anymore.

"Ginny!" he announced, looking very relieved to see her on his doorstep at eight in the evening.

She held up hand to stop him from saying anything more, then took him by the collar and pulled so they would meet halfway in the distance between them and kiss for the first time.

Her imagination hadn't gotten carried away on her, he was an incredible snog.

"Tell me again that you aren't just duping me?" she pleaded between kisses as he pulled her into his flat and closed the door.

"I'm not," he promised. "And if I can't convince you of that, then just know that this will turn out to be a very long con."

She pulled him closer so that their pelvises would touch and she could feel his 'long con' growing longer against her. "Months?" she asked.

"Decades," he assured her before they helped each other off with their shirts.

()()()