AN- Requested by tsunako-tan07, wanting a Slytherin Ginny and a Gryffindor Harry.

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Cute, But Effective

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She was torn between wanting to track him up and down the field and wanting to do her own method of searching for the Snitch. He was easily the best Seeker the school had seen in ages and she was not playing in the position she wanted. It was amazing that they'd let her on the team given that she was female, it was nearly unheard of that they let a female play on the Slytherin Quidditch Team; the last female to play on the team was near forty years ago.

The only reason she was playing now is because she was a reserve and Malfoy, the team Captain, kept disappearing and letting the team fall to the wayside, so she'd simply stepped in and assigned herself as the reserve and started joining in the practices.

Her brothers were not happy when they found out she was on the Slytherin team. They didn't want her playing Quidditch at all, save for Fred and George who had always supported her no matter what. Her mum was furious when she found out too.

Oh well though, she'd made the decision to strike out on her own when she was eleven and the Sorting Hat was stuck on her head, she wasn't going to let her family's opinion stop her now.

The memory of her sorting was clear as mud in her head, she'd been entirely nervous and had no idea what the sorting involved, the echo of her brothers telling her about battling trolls and casting whatever spells she knew that would dictate where she would be sleeping for the next seven years, it had her in a trance from the moment she stepped off the train to the moment she was sitting up on a stool, facing the entire student body. Upon learning that it was just a thinking cap that prodded her mind to find out her personality traits, she grew stubborn and a little resentful at the lies and teasing.

Thus, the hat suggested Slytherin and she rolled with it.

To say she regretted that decision, there was a different answer at the forefront of her mind depending on the day. She'd got on surprisingly well with her dorm mates, which made it okay, she'd had spats with her family, which made it not okay, she'd received alright marks in Potions because the professor favored his own house, which made it okay, she'd tried out every year for the Quidditch team to be told that her gender was an issue, which made it not okay.

Overall though, being in Slytherin did give her an advantage that her brothers didn't have; the gossip was infinitely better than whatever she could have overheard in Gryffindor Tower. The prissy snobs scattered about the Slytherin Common Room with their 'high in society' parents and custom made clothes, they didn't always notice her only a few feet away with her second hand books and rolled up boys uniform trousers overhearing them talking about the Ministry of Transportations mistress getting knocked up and the like.

It had been a lot easier to blend into the background when she was a younger student; six and seventh year students hardly paid any attention to anyone under fifth year.

Now she was a Fifth year herself and she'd been making some decent coin off of these, usually, overlooked kids from well off families that she would tutor and gain a few tidbits of information from.

And now that Malfoy had decided he couldn't be bothered with Quidditch anymore, even though he was Captain, he'd given in to her nagging and let her fill in for him while he was off doing whatever he was doing.

Playing against Harry in the first game of the season was a challenge though. She wanted to prove that she was a better Quidditch player than most, however seeing as Harry was born to play Seeker, it might not come off that well.

She decided to tail him for the first bit; part of the job of the Seeker was to make sure that the spectators had something to watch, so blocking him from catching the Snitch before there was even a show is what she needed to do. Which was why she found herself hovering above the pitch beside him, keeping an eye out for Bludgers and glints of gold below.

"Malfoy, you're looking a lot more female than usual," Harry commented.

"What's it to you, Potter?" she asked in jest, putting on her best impression of Malfoy. Harry chuckled. "I don't know where he's at or what he's up to," she told him in her normal voice. She knew he was keeping a close eye on Malfoy, she knew he suspected Malfoy was already a Death Eater, she'd eavesdropped on conversations between him, Ron and Hermione often enough. While Ron and Hermione didn't believe Harry, she didn't think it was too far-fetched of an idea, though considering how defeated her Captain looked when he finally consented to let her play, she gathered that could be linked to his family's relationship with Tom.

Harry had never outright asked her anything about her fellow Housemates, whether he didn't consider her to be a reliable source or simply just didn't consider her at all, she wasn't sure.

"He let you take his place on the team and you didn't have any follow up questions as to why?" Harry turned his head to look directly at her and she matched his stare.

"If you want something bad enough and it's finally granted to you, do you press your luck by asking questions about why, or do you just take it?" she asked him.

A hint of a smile came to the corner of his mouth, "I usually ask questions and press my luck."

She grinned at him, "I don't know why I bothered asking. Of course, you do. That's why you've had so many detentions and set backs."

"You saying you don't want to know why he's no longer interested in Quidditch?" Harry pressed. "Why he would pass up on an opportunity to instigate something with me? Last year he did what he could to get me banned from playing Quidditch, now he just couldn't care less?"

She gave him a flirty smile and batted her lashes at him, "maybe I'm saying that besides wanting so badly to be on the Quidditch Team, I also couldn't chance passing up on spending this quality time with you myself." Then she blew him a kiss.

He was all too easy to tease.

For the first few years of her knowing him she'd been the one to blush and fumble over her words, but now the tables had turned. Not that he would blush and fumble over his words when he saw her, but the boy simply did not know how to deal with a girl flirting with him, even in jest.

She laughed at his reaction. "Awe, it's adorable when you get all bashful and flustered. I think I just might be able to throw you off your game enough to win!"

He recovered some, enough that he was alert in time to dodge out of the way of an oncoming Bludger. "That's not very sportsman like!" he protested.

"That's because I'm not a sports-man. Sorry darling, but I can use my feminine powers of distraction on you all I like to throw you off your game. Ask the ref, there's nothing in the book about that."

The poor boy looked to be at a loss for words and she decided to take pity on him and dive down in a feint.

The game went on for an hour, with the Gryffindor team absolutely crushing the Slytherin in points, then they saw it, the Snitch. She was closer but he had the better broom. Side by slide they wound up flying after it, her bumping hard into him to knock him out of the way, and the gentlemanly bastard he was, bumping her ever so lightly back. Ten feet away, he was gaining on it as it soared away from them. She gave him another knock and they were neck and neck again, then he started getting ahead of her again. Knocking him away wasn't having enough of an effect. She knocked him once more so they would be neck and neck again, then turned and licked his cheek on impulse. Now she was in the lead as he fell behind and a moment later the Snitch was in her hand, game over.

Yet Slytherin still lost. The final score was 210 to 180 in favor of Gryffindor.

Gryffindor was cheering and the rest of the crowd simply clapped their hands.

Ginny spotted Harry heading down to the ground and she came down to land beside him.

He looked stunned, which was fair considering this was the first time he hadn't caught the Snitch, save for when he'd passed out mid-air in her second year.

"You alright?" she asked, proud of herself for beating him, but still upset that they lost.

"You licked my cheek!" he said in amazement.

She snorted a laugh and shrugged, "yeah, well, I had to make my mark one way or the other. Sorry, I can fight dirty sometimes too, it comes with the whole 'silver and green' thing."

"Harry!" one of the Gryffindor Chasers yelled, trying to call him over to them. "What the hell happened?"

She and he were still standing several feet away from anyone that might overhear them.

"I can't believe you licked my cheek!"

"Well, I hardly had the time to full on snog you as a distraction, so yeah, I did the next best thing in my power." She felt giddy about having pulled that move now. It had been so ridiculous and whimsical a distraction method.

"You don't think everyone saw that, do you?!" he now asked in a panic.

"Clearly not since your team is all assembled over there looking equally as confused as you are," she said with a nod in the direction of the red and gold players. It appeared that there was to be no congratulations in store for her from her own team, who were now headed off to the showers.

"Could you not tell people what you did?"

That request confused her, and kind of insulted her. Sure, Slytherin had a reputation for playing dirty, but it was hardly a case of her having held onto his broom to prevent him from flying, like Malfoy had once done. Wonderful, there was to be no praise from her team for the catch and no laughs from it from anyone apparently; Harry was starting to look horrified by the memory of it.

"Fine," she deadpanned. "I have no idea what you're talking about. It was a complete fluke, you are still the far more superior player." She put her broom over her shoulder and turned to head for the showers, tucking her hand that was still tightly clasping the Snitch into her pocket as it would be the only indication of what she had managed to accomplish here today.

Days after the match and the only person that had brought up her performance in the game was Professor Slughorn, he'd thought she'd flown wonderfully. Neither Snape nor Malfoy had said anything about her saving them from a thoroughly embarrassing defeat.

That wasn't true, the twins had sent her a letter commending her for her performance. They hadn't been there, but they knew how good of a player Harry was, so they were impressed, even if it was the Slytherin team she was playing on.

With no assurance that she would continue being able to fill in for Malfoy, she still kept showing up at the Slytherin practices, watching and hoping that one of the Chasers would wind up with an injury. She received no airtime during these practices, she just sat on a seat in the stands with her decade old broom beside her just in case, making note of how the other players were falling short in their efforts.

She hadn't noticed him before he started talking to her, but suddenly Harry was there, tucked just out of sight of the players by the exit from the stands. "Malfoy seems to be showing up to these practices just fine," Harry commented.

"Sometimes," she agreed, now watching how he was tucking something away in his pocket. "But the practices aren't nearly as long as they should be, and his mind is clearly on something else, otherwise I've got a full list of drills he should be running."

"And even after how well you did in the game, they aren't letting you join in right now?"

"I'm a last resort; here and at home." She targeted that comment hard at Harry, who spent plenty of time playing Quidditch with Ron and the twins during the summer, but heaven forbid they ever invite her to play. Ron had even laughed at her once for showing up with a broom to a pickup game once; to which she'd responded by cutting up one of his Chudley Cannons shirts so it became a crop top.

"Too bad you aren't in Gryffindor, you'd have made the team now for sure."

She knew that was the case. "Even though I play dirty?" she asked as though his answer wouldn't bother her.

"I don't know if I'd be happy, as the Captain, with you going around and licking the opposing team in order to win the game, but you're an excellent flier."

She tried not to smile at the compliment. "Sorry about that. I guess I felt that if I proved something during the game it might change… this situation," she gestured to her seat in the stands and then to the players in the air. "It has proved to change nothing though. I'm just stuck here getting no practice in, and my House Quidditch Captain would clearly rather be somewhere else."

"Maybe you should just tell him you're taking over as Captain," Harry joked. "Use your 'feminine wiles' on him."

Ginny gave a shudder, "gross. I'm not batting my eyelashes at him even if it had the slightest possibility of getting me in the practices."

"Nice to know there's a line you've drawn somewhere over who you'd be willing to dupe," he muttered.

She scoffed. "It's called flirting, Harry. For most people it's harmless, sorry, I didn't realize you were the delicate sort. I'll refrain from so much as breathing in your direction from now on, I promise." It had bothered her that she still had a thing for him after all this time and him being like this over her teasingly flirting with him was really making it worse.

"That's a bit drastic."

"Yeah, well you're being a bit annoying now. How about you start being friendly while you spy on Malfoy, or you can just bugger off to another spot on the pitch so you don't need to talk to me at all?"

"I'm not trying to annoy you." He sounded honest about that at least.

"Well, if this is you trying to be friendly then you need to work on a different tactic. I've apologized for my method of distracting you during the game already, there's no need to suggest that I'd go on and snog whomever to get on my house team. It's insulting."

"What?! I never said I thought you'd do anything of the sort!"

"Yes you fucking did," she growled at him. She picked up her broom and headed to her closest exit, which he was conveniently standing in the path of so she had the opportunity to give him a shoulder check as she passed.

"Ginny! Come on, that's not what I meant," he protested and started following after her.

"Maybe it wasn't, but how convenient that all guys have that crutch card of calling every girl that bests them a slut or something similar to make them feel better."

"I've never called you that! I would never call you that!"

She stopped on the steps and took a deep breath. She knew he'd never called her that, but that doesn't mean no one had ever called her that. The people in her House could be a bitter and nasty lot so over the years she'd been called a few things whenever one of them was in a mood, she'd had stories made up about her because last year she'd been caught sharing a chaste kiss with a boy in Ravenclaw. She never thought she'd hear Harry make that kind of insinuation about her though; and if that's what he was willing to say to her face, then what was he saying behind her back?

Harry caught up to her and then came around in front of her path to block the stairs. "Ginny, what is wrong? I thought we were just joking! You were dishing it out, how come I can't? In fact, if I were to do to you what you did to me then there is no way you would be okay with that situation. If anyone has the double standard here, it's you!"

She stared at him with her mouth hanging open.

"See! Even me mentioning it has you shocked, so how would you like it if out of nowhere, I did this," then he took a step up and licked her cheek. It wasn't a small lick either, it was a big one, he even got some of her lips with his tongue, all the way up to just under her eye.

When he stepped back down he appeared proud of himself for a moment, then seemed to have registered what he'd just done and then slipped into the same dumbfounded expression he'd had after she'd done it to him.

So, she started laughing.

"I did not mean to do that," Harry said slowly, sounding entirely confused by his actions. This only proved to make her laugh harder. "Ginny, I'm so sorry!"

She had to sit down on the steps and recover. "So," she started, wiping a tear of mirth from her eye, "the amount of forethought you put into that is the amount I put into when I did it to you. How likely are you to go up to the next person you see and do that?"

"Not at all likely," he blushed and grinned.

"Well, there we have it, don't we?" She stood back up, took one step down so that they were eye level and put her hand on his shoulder. "I guess we both have standards on who we're both willing to lick."

A moment of awkwardness passed between them as they both realized how true, and salacious, that sounded. Now she truly noticed how little space she'd left between them and as her cheeks heated up it was as though it was due to his body heat radiating out to encompass her.

"That's not what I," she started, then raised one foot back up to the step she'd been on, but before she could move, Harry's hand came down on her waist. She could see the question in his eye, the same question that she had at the forefront of her mind; were they both interested in each other like that? Interested enough that they could forget what school Houses they were in and that his best friend was her brother?

And yes, she did have pretty specific standards when it came to the list of who she was willing to lick as a means of distraction in a Quidditch game, and it only had one name on it.

She was the one to lean forward and kiss him, she knew him, well enough to know he would have stayed there like a statue forever until he knew for sure she was interested, that way he could pass it off as a misunderstanding if it wasn't the case. Well, it was the case, she liked him and from the way he was kissing her back, he liked her as well.

Harry was a popular person, everyone gossiped about him, she knew exactly who at the school he'd kissed before and how terribly it had turned out. She didn't want this moment to be turned into some laughable gossip, she wanted to kiss him with all the longing she'd been storing up and hiding away from prying eyes of those who would tease her for it because he'd been too far out of her reach. With their lips touching, hands reaching out to pull each other closer, she forgot that they'd just been in an argument and that anyone knowing about this could be complicated to explain, it just felt too good to think of anything other than how to make it last longer.

It was a crisp autumn day, snow about to fall at any point, but as they continued snogging in the stairwell she started growing very warm. It was too warm for her scarf. She tried tugging it off but it was an infinite style, she had to pull away from him in order to get it over her head. When she managed to pull it off they lost their balance a bit and nearly tumbled, Harry caught them by grabbing onto the railing with one hand while he grasped her waist with the other.

"Sorry," she whispered.

"It's fine," he took her hand and led her down the next few steps until they were on the next landing, then turned them around so she was backed against the wall. They stared at each other for a moment, his eyes twinkling in a way that she hadn't seen for some time, before he lowered his head to her lips once more.

By the time they broke apart she was breathless and sweaty, despite the coolness in the air. It could have been an hour that had passed of wandering hands and lips. They'd both lost their scarves and gloves, jackets open and his shirt was untucked from her running her hand up and down his back.

"We should probably talk about this," he said into her neck, kissing her below her ear gently.

"The 'what this means' conversation?" She regretted thinking it, let alone saying it out loud. "Since when do you even consider me someone you would snog like that?" That question she was truly curious about. She didn't care whether he wanted to keep this quiet, she wanted to know when it was that he'd started realizing she was female.

He groaned quietly in protest to the question. "I've liked you for a while, but you teasing me like that at the game is what really did me in. Yet another reason why that wasn't a fair move."

"So you're saying I should have tried licking you sooner?" she smirked and kissed his cheek.

"Please don't suggest licking me right now, I'm struggling as it is."

She grew warmer at the innuendo. He'd brushed against her a few times while they'd been carrying on, but she could tell he'd been trying to be respectful and keep that at somewhat of a distance.

"And I suppose you know that I've liked you for quite some time."

"Not properly," he said as he pulled back, looking down at her. "You've never made yourself all foolish like the other girls that just seem to want me to ask them out so they can say they've gone out with 'Harry Potter'."

"That's true," she smiled. "I'm glad you can tell the difference now between who wants you because you're 'Harry Potter' and who wants you because you're 'Harry'." She reached up to stroke his cheek and adored the way he leaned into her touch.

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"You don't give a shit about the team, Malfoy!" Ginny nearly yelled at him in the corridor. "If you don't give a shit, and I do, then why don't just let me play? Keep the Captain title, it doesn't seem to mean anything to anyone anyhow, but let me into the practices, let me run the drills. None of the other members of the team seem to want to stand up to you because of the pompous prat you are, but I'm not afraid to tell it to you like it is. You suck. You've always sucked. Daddy bought your way onto the team and now, like the spoiled brat you are, you don't want to play anymore; so let me play!"

They were going to be playing Hufflepuff in a few weeks and the last few practices she'd watched after the Gryffindor game were just making her more angry. Slytherin wouldn't have to simply rely on playing dirty if they could figure out how to play to their strengths, and she knew what their strengths were.

"What gives you the right to chase me down the corridor making demands like this?" Malfoy sneared at her.

"I've got something you don't, it's called talent." She crossed her arms and glared at him as the rest of the students around them gave a resounding 'ooh' at her clapback.

"I say you're just feeling all high and mighty now that you're dating the Golden Boy there," Malfoy gestured behind her, where she knew the sixth year Gryffindors were standing. "Getting shagged regularly giving you some extra confidence?"

"Oi!" an angry protest sounded out from Ron.

"Apparently you haven't been listening to me before now if you think I've just gained confidence. Do you not remember tagging me in to cover your ass in our last game? Do you not recall hearing about me beating the Golden Boy in your absence?"

Now there was another 'Oi', this time from Harry.

"Admit it, you can't be assed to do the job of Captain, so just let me. I'm not saying I can guide the team to victory in a sportsman like way for the first time ever, but maybe, just maybe, we might score more than three times with a real Quidditch player giving some pointers."

"FINE!" he yelled for everyone to hear. "You annoying, pint-sized, nagging, insolent, shrew of a peasant, you be the one leading the practices! I don't care anymore!" His face was fully red and looked about ready to spit, he stood up straight and cast his eyes over to Harry, "I never thought I'd say these words, but good luck to you, you're going to need it with this one." With that he turned around and stomped off.

Ginny turned around to, with a smile on her face, so she could give her boyfriend a hug in celebration. "I made the team!"

"He also insulted you in the process giving in," Hermione pointed out.

Harry hugged her back and gave her a small kiss on the top of her head.

Ron had been surprisingly okay with their relationship thus far, though it had only been a few weeks, and they promised not to snog in his presence. The twins had been told and they were glad of it, they didn't outright say that, but they hadn't sent Harry anything explosive, so that spoke volumes. And of course Hermione was fine with it, she and Hermione had always got along alright, they were even quite friendly, possibly best friends.

"Did you have to call me 'Golden Boy'?" Harry asked quietly.

"He started it," she shrugged and smiled.

Malfoy had been noticeably growing more pale and withdrawn over the last few weeks as they moved closer to the Holiday break. Ginny believed Harry was right when he suggested that Malfoy might have been given a mission from Tom that he wasn't equipped to come through on, and rather than feeling sorry for him, she decided to use that information to her advantage and just keep nagging him until he caved to her demands; like he just did.

Perhaps her joining the team wouldn't just be a blessing for the Quidditch Team, but for Malfoy as well; he couldn't manage the team and he likely wouldn't be able to manage whatever else was distracting him either. She was just removing one of two impossible tasks on his plate.

She is a Slytherin with a heart of gold, after all.

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