I bet you didn't know that opac is capo spelled backwards. ;)

I don't have nearly as much money as JK. Posting this will not change that fact. Sadface.

Cheers. :)

Sunday "Honors" meeting.

Ginny never thought she'd be in this position again. It had been years since dueling during their DA meetings, yet here she stood, with her wand trained to the love of her life about to unleash the fiercest bat-bogey hex known to wizard kind.

"So it seems you have an unbeaten record there, love." The red head said with a dark chuckle. She glanced once more at the wall, clearly mocking her with its statistics. The stone wall held over 40 names, Hermione's carried over a hundred ticks in the won column and was the only one without a single tick mark in the loss column. She gulped audibly, looking at the woman she was now facing.

"Hey sweetheart, don't take this personally." Hermione said with a Cheshire cat grin. She could hear the cheering behind her, and saw the cheering behind Ginny.

"Flipendo!" Hermione said under her breath. With the flourish of her wand the brunette sent the spell towards her opponent. The red head just nearly missed it; the yellow lightning caught her in the right shoulder and flipped her backwards. The athlete rolled on landing and caste a silent stunner towards the brunette, who dodged it seamlessly.

"Expeliarmus!" Hermione called, watching Ginny's wand fly backwards and into the crowd of people cheering behind her.

Hermione took a few steps towards Ginny, watching the girl launch herself into the crowd after her wand. Once she had the ten inch wonder back within her grasp she turned around and caste a very powerful bat-bogey hex, silently, and straight at the smiling brunette.

Hermione had been waiting for this, stalling for this exact moment so she could deliver the show stopping final blow. She flicked her wand right before the hex hit her and projected it back to its owner, without even a whisper of an incantation. It was a spell she came by one day in the restricted section whilst researching for Dumbledore, and had been using ever since and recently perfected it.

Ginny was unaware of such a spell, as were most people, and therefore never saw the hex coming back to her.

As soon as it hit Hermione's target square between the eyes you could hear a sharp yell come from the red headed woman. Hermione couldn't hold back a chuckle as she saw her lover and long time best friend running around madly. Huge bogeys shaped as bats flew out from her nose and swarmed around her head, pecking at her face menacingly.

"Finite Incantatem!" Hermione said, unable to wipe the smile off her features.

"That… was… cheating!" Ginny barely made out between chunks of snot.

"No… I don't believe I have ever cheated in my life, actually." Hermione said smugly.

"You used my signature hex! That's so not right!" Ginny panted, clearly upset with the older girl.

"It's not my fault you're so damn predictable…"

"Hey, hey ladies! Let's not fight! You'll get her next time stud, I have no doubt." Ja'qule said, clearly holding back his own fit of laughter.

"Yeah, Baby. It's just a silly duel. You'll get me next time." The brunette winked for good measure but was met with a sour freckled face.

"Oh… come here…" the brunette cooed to the red head.

"I dun wanna…" Ginny said dejectedly, but moved into the brunettes arms none the less. It was undeniable, how safe she felt in the smaller woman's arms, even if she was the cause of her recent distress.

"I don't like you right now." She said dejectedly, nuzzling into Hermione's brown ringlets.

"You smell good." Ginny said, a blush creeping up her face.

Hermione pulled away, remembering there were over 40 witches and wizards crowded around them, watching this scene unfold.

"How 'bout you give the lady a kiss on the smackers! Come on now! Give her a go!" Candy yelled in riot fashion. Cheers of encouragement could be heard from all sides, making the two witches blush scarlet.

"Hey, just 'cause she can take me in a duel, doesn't mean I can't wipe the floor clean with every single one of you! So quit embarrassing my lady!" Ginny yelled back good naturedly.

"Hey, Ja'qule." Hermione said softly, pulling the tall man to the side. "I'm going to leave early today. Gin leaves for Germany tomorrow and I don't know when I'll get to see her again…"

"I understand. Take care, Hermione."

"Thank you so much! Come on, Gin."

"Uh, what now?"

Three years ago, England.

"You are going to have to sign here, and here. Oh, and don't forget the back there, that's your buyout clause. Do you need a quill?"

Ginny looked up from the contract rudely shoved under her nose and trained her eyes to the snotty woman she'd been ignoring for the last two hours.

"No, thank you." she said lightly.

"Kill 'em with kindness. Ain't that right, mum?" she thought to herself. She flipped to the first page and began reading. Half a paragraph in she heard the woman clear her throat in annoyance.

"Can I help you?" the red head asked, kindness wearing thin on her all of a sudden.

"Yes actually, I'm in a bit of a hurry, if you could please sign the contract as I have more important clients to meet with."

"Forgive me, but I will not sign any piece of paper without reading every single bit of fine print." It was something Hermione always cautioned her to do.

"Hermione…" she thought, feeling the painful void in her chest expand and collapse. Suddenly she felt claustrophobic, the room closing in on her. She could feel her heart rate take off and her blood pressure sky rocket. She needed to get out of here fast.

"Hand me your quill, please." She said in a slight panic. The woman across from her shot her a confused look as she dropped the quill into her shaking hand.

"Are you alright?" she asked politely.

"Yes, splendid. Where do I sign again?"

The woman pointed out the X marks and Ginny went to town without having a clue as to what she was getting herself into. She pushed the papers forward and stood up from her seat.

"You are fired, by the way. When I am named the hottest Quidditch player of this century, you'll remember how you lost me as a client because you had more important things to do. Good day."

Ginny grabbed her jacket and practically ran out of the conference room and into a line of journalists and photographers.

"Accio Nimbus!" she muttered behind a tight smile, sending a prayer out when she saw the broom stick make its way over to her. She shrugged her jacket on, dodging the questions and photographs and jumped on her broom as it whizzed by. She could feel the bitter fall air prickling her skin as she accelerated faster than necessary. Only up here did she feel alive. Only up here could she allow herself to miss Hermione, the one person who obviously never gave a damn about her. She fingered the ring in her pocket and preyed her love was still out there and okay.

After the Sunday "Honors" meeting.

"How do you like being a Quidditch superstar?" Hermione asked casually.

"Um…" Ginny thought about it for a minute, not sure exactly how she felt about her career choice. "It's got it's perks, but it defiantly has it's downfalls."

Hermione linked her arm through the red heads pocketed one.

"Give me some of both."

"Okay, well the traveling is awesome. I have been to six contenates, and sixty-three countries. More cities I can count and more hotel rooms then you could imagine. Downside, I hardly ever get to see my family. In the beginning that was good, it was what I wanted. An escape, I guess. But once I started patching myself together, I took it a step further and made amends with everyone in my past. Now I only get to see them during holidays and the occasional game they some how afford to come to."

"That was only one of each, give me more." Hermione insisted, tightening her grip on the redhead's muscular arm.

"Well, I love playing and it never gets old. But… the girls are fucking cut-throat. If they aren't fucking you, they are fucking you over."

Hermione couldn't hide the small frown playing at the corner on her lips. The thought of Ginny fucking her teammates, or any other woman for that matter upset her more than it should have.

"I don't follow quidditch… at all. I actually didn't even know you played professionally. Subconsciously I think I knew you would make it to a professional league, and that's why I've avoided it like the plague."

It was Ginny's turn to frown, not liking how much effort Hermione seemed to put into forgetting her existence.

"Herm,"

"It's Emma now, baby."

"Uh, yeah. That. What would have happened had we not seen each other at that party Friday night? Would you have ever come back? Would you ever have reached out? Or would you spend the rest of your life numbing yourself up on redheads and 24 credit semesters?" Ginny tried, but she couldn't hide the fire lurking beneath her words.

"Honestly, I don't know, Gin. I know I have dreamed about you almost every night for the last four years of my life. I know I have written you thousands of letters, all feeble attempts to explain why I did what I did, and how it in no way was your fault. I know that-"

"I was going to tell you." Ginny said, cutting the small woman off mid-sentence.

"What?" Hermione asked, clearly baffled by the statement.

"The day you went missing. I was going to tell you that I was in love with you that night. I had a dinner planned out that my mom helped me make, and I had background music picked out. I even had a ring I saved up for. Worked at the shop for a couple weeks to get the money for it."

"Oh, Gin. I'm… oh I am so sorry…" Hermione had no clue what else to say. She felt her heart swell with affection for the red head, but also felt it deflate with her own personal failure.

"I have it on me, at all times. I use to tell myself it was 'cause I wanted to be prepared. I just knew I'd find you one day and I'd be damned if I'd let you get away from me again. After awhile I started convincing myself you were dead. Or you hated me. That you must be happy, somewhere in the world where I'm not around to love you. So I stopped carrying it around incase I'd run into you, and instead held onto it to remind me of you. Of your smile, and your laugh. Of how heartbroken I was when I waited one day too late to tell you. It served as a reminder of how worthless I really was. Recently I started wearing it, and not just keeping it in my pocket."

Ginny brought her left hand out of her jean pocket and up to eye level.

"It reminds me that even though I never got the chance to offer it away, my hearts been taken since I was 11 years old." Ginny brushed a tear from her face, training her eyes in front of her. She was unsure where they were walking to, but trusted Hermione would be able to get them there in on piece.

"That was a Claddagh ring, wasn't it?" Hermione asked, shame riddled in her voice.

"Yeah. It's still meant for you, too. Doesn't fit me right, constantly falls off. I lose it more than my flat keys."

The two remained silent on their trek to where ever it was their feet lead them.

"I'm sorry…" Hermione was finally able to vocalize.

"Yeah, me too."

Hermione took a look between them, they ray of light barely visible in the light of day.

"I'll never be able to make up for this." Hermione thought to herself. She felt Ginny slip her hand into her own.

She felt the ring she had failed to notice before and shivered at its coldness.