Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter as I could never be as amazing as Queen Rowling.
Author's Note: I was looking for some GinnyxBlaise fics to read earlier and was saddened by their low numbers, so I decided to post this earlier than I thought I would. I hope you enjoy it!
Normally, when one goes to a club, they have to wait in line with everyone else or pay off the person manning the door. For Ginny Weasley that was never a problem. When she went to The Marauders she simply walked to the door bypassing the line completely. Tonight was no exception; she leaned in to give Justin Finch-Fletchley a kiss on the cheek and walked right in. A few people waiting called out complaints but were shushed by the people surrounding them. Everyone knew who Ginny was and for the first time since she could remember, it was for something she was proud of. For her whole life, Ginny had either been known as the girl who was in love with Harry Potter, or Ron's little sister. That all changed when she got out of Hogwarts. The Holyhead Harpies recruited her right after graduation and two years later, she was their star chaser.
The club she was entering was owned by Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. A few years ago that sentence would have gotten someone evaluated for possible mental deficiency at St. Mungo's, but since Ginny's fifth year the Slytherins in school had been working on behalf of Dumbledore and the Order. They were opposed to Voldemort's regime and all that he stood for. The younger generation thought that he had brainwashed their families and did not want to wind up in Azkaban for something they had nothing to do with.
Harry ran the business side of the venture with Hermione helping with the books, while Draco ran the front end. He was the perfect host. Whenever a wealthy client came in, Draco made sure they were happy and would always come back. He even kept the common everyday witches and wizards happy. People never left the club with a complaint. Everyone who worked for the pair had gone to school with them at some point. Some disgruntled applicants thought it was a biased way to run a business, but Ginny agreed with the boys that it was better to hire people they knew and trusted than strangers that may not have their best interests at heart.
"Hey, Gin," Terry Boot was tending bar as usual when Ginny managed to get to him.
"Hello, Terry. Can I get a butterbeer?" She was not a fan of hard drinking especially when she had an early Quidditch practice the next morning.
"Not a problem. Where's Morag?" Terry asked. He knew that wherever the red head was, her best friend was never far behind.
Morag MacDougal was another chaser with her and had graduated from Hogwarts a year ahead of her. She had short dark hair and bright blue eyes that always lit up when she came up with a crazy idea, which she was prone to doing.
"She's meeting me here later, she had a date tonight," Ginny explained as Terry handed her the bottle and pointed out where Draco and Blaise were.
Morag may have been her best friend, but they were only two of their quartet; with them was Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini. At first it had been an uneasy friendship on Ginny's part, but Morag had lived with the two for years in Slytherin house and so by the time Ginny graduated they were almost inseparable. Drink in hand, Ginny made her way to where the boys were holding court in the VIP section.
"Good evening Vince, Greg," she greeted the bouncers who said hello and let her through without question. She walked through the doorway and saw the usual crowd sitting on comfy furniture sipping from glasses of different sizes and colors. Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass were seated on a loveseat opposite the door sharing a glass of red wine while Anthony Goldstein and Ron faced each other over a chessboard. Hermione was sitting at a table deep in conversation with the Patil twins that looked interesting, however, what caught her attention was the sight of Draco, Theodore Nott, and Blaise crowded over a piece of paper with Harry in the corner.
"Hello boys, now what are you all up to?" she asked, sliding the paper toward her with a single finger so she would not smudge anything.
"Harry is a genius! You know the Marauders' Map? Of course you do, but anyway, we've finally been able to replicate it for the club. Now we will always know what's going on, even if we aren't on the premise," Theo said excitedly. He and Ron worked security for the club and they had been trying to work out how to recreate the map for the better part of three months.
"You forgot the best part," Blaise spoke up, "If you say the right code, the map will show you previous times so if anything ever happens we can rewind it, like a muggle video."
"Did Hermione teach you what that was?" Ginny questioned with a smirk.
"Maybe, but I know I used it correctly this time," Blaise pretended to look offended, but he was just too easy going to pull it off.
"Ginny, even after all this time, it is really odd when you smirk," Harry told her.
"I promise it's even funnier when you do it," Draco clapped him on the back with a laugh and asked where Morag was. For some reason, this made Theo laugh so hard he would have fallen off his seat had Blaise not propped him up.
"I didn't hear anything all that funny in that," Harry commented, wanting to know what exactly he had missed.
"You all remember when she set me up with that idiot, Sally-Anne a few months back? She was a Hufflepuff when we were in school together and apparently Morag had heard she had a thing for me and being the lovely friend she is, decided to set me up on a blind date," he explained but was cut off by Ginny, "Yes, we all know. You had a terrible time and vowed your revenge…Oh."
"How bad, Theo?" Blaise asked.
"Do you guys remember Zacharias Smith?" Theo questioned. They all remembered Smith of course. He was as brainless as they came with an ego that rivaled Cormac McLaggen's, and that was saying something.
"If he shows up at the club, can we arrange for Justin to keep him out at all costs?" Draco looked slightly sick at the thought of the blonde showing up at his club.
"Draco, mate, we own the place. We can do whatever we want," Harry reminded him.
Ginny decided to go and tell Justin herself, rather than allow Draco and Harry to break their own 'no magic' rule by sending a message. She walked out of the room letting Vince and Greg know that she would be back momentarily. The walk was slow due to the sheer amount of people in the club and that a good number of them attempted to start conversations with her, even with the blaring music. The only person that she would have spoken to would have been Susan Bones, but she was pulled onto the dance floor by Colin Creevey as she was saying hello. Luckily for Ginny, she made it to the entrance just as Morag and her tail did.
"Justin, Draco and Harry want Smith kept out of the club," she whispered in his ear before melting into the shadows behind him. She could hear Morag trying to tell Smith to save them a place in line while she had a word with Justin, but he would not budge from her side.
"Morag," Justin spoke loud enough for them all to hear as she hastened toward him, "Harry and Draco need to talk to you about something important in back. They did not mention what it was but it sounded urgent and very private."
"Thank you Justin," she responded walking purposefully to the door where Ginny was lounging against the wall. When Smith tried to follow, Justin blocked him and said, "Sir, you will have to wait in line just like everyone else."
"But my date just went inside," Ginny could tell he was trying to sound commanding, but it just came out like a toddler whining for a treat.
"She has urgent business with the owners of the establishment, whereas you are here as a guest. I think it's safe to say that your date is over," Justin's tone brooked no room for arguing. When they were in school, Justin had been a bit spindly and would not have stood up to the wind, however, this older version of him had filled out rather splendidly. Sometime during the war, he had also grown a backbone to match his new figure, though Ginny could never pinpoint exactly when it had happened.
Ginny linked arms with her friend and went back to the room where Theo was no doubt telling the boys as quickly as he could what kind of funeral he wanted and who to hire as his replacement once Morag got her hands on him. Sure enough, when he caught sight of them coming through the door, he dove behind Hermione, hoping she would protect him from the irate dark haired chaser.
"You prat!" she started yelling immediately, her blue eyes flashing, "You could have picked anyone. Anyone! And you had to pick Zacharias Smith?! Have you been smelling potion fumes? Are you mentally incapacitated? I could very well have gone to Azkaban for murder tonight because of you and your petty revenge!"
"Now Morag, listen. Perks followed me like a puppy for two months before I finally confronted her and she ran away crying like a third year when I told her we would never be together. Now we can't even be in the same building without some kind of flare-up. I did not go too far," His voice was steady the whole time, but only stuck his head out from behind Hermione while speaking and as soon as he finished, he ducked behind her again. After a few moments, he stole a peek from behind his human shield and was rewarded with her shaking her head at his folly and she said, "Just you wait, the next time you go on a date, you should be very cautious."
"Does this mean I don't get the old Silver Arrow?" Harry joked. Theo had an extensive collection of old broomsticks that he had divvied up only moments ago between the Quidditch players in the room.
"Better luck next time Potter," Daphne's eyes were crinkled at the edges and she wore a bright smile and joked, "Maybe we can orchestrate something to get old Theo to kick the bucket for you."
"You only get to kill Nott if he trains a replacement first. If he didn't then Ron would have to do that around his chess schedule," Draco put in, nodding toward Ginny's brother who was still immersed in the game set before him.
"Checkmate," Ron watched happily as his queen smashed the last remaining defense for Anthony's king, "We are not killing Theo, I will not allow it."
"Oh look at how he's grown," Morag teased, "Just think, a few years ago and they were shooting hexes at each other."
"We were children then, now, we are men," Ron scoffed at them.
"I am man, hear me roar," Pansy snickered, making Ron's face color a bit, but luckily for all them, he had matured, so now he did not take everything personally.
"Hello everyone," a voice said from the entrance.
"Fancy seeing you here," the second echoed his twin. The Weasley twins were always welcome at the club because they had a contract with Harry and Draco. Every few weeks, they set up elaborate indoor firework displays for the club and were currently trying to expand and sell other merchandise to the patrons of The Marauders.
"Where are Alicia and Angelina?" Ginny asked. Her brothers' girlfriends played Quidditch as well, only for a different team than herself and Morag. Usually, they were with the twins whenever they came to the club.
"Alas, they are both working late, something about working out a new strategy for the game against the Wasps," George explained.
The twins retreated to a table with Harry and Draco to discuss something about the upcoming firework show while everyone else chatted quietly amongst themselves. Ginny loved the people that gathered in the back room because she knew all of them. They may not have all been on the best terms with each other during school, but it was all behind them. She looked around to see that Ron had started up another game, only this time with Theo. Hermione had moved to discuss how business was doing with Daphne's store in Diagon Alley. She had opened up an apothecary last year with her cousin Astoria and it had flourished. Next to them, the Patil twins and Anthony were having a loud conversation about work. The twins were travel writers with several notable books to their name, while Anthony had a flourishing career as a curse breaker for Gringotts. It sounded as though they would be going somewhere in the Amazon together in the fall. Pansy, Blaise, and Morag were to her left and ushered her over.
"Ginny, please help," Pansy implored her, "This buffoon refuses to let me redo his wardrobe and I need a project."
"I thought you were working on a new line for the show you were doing in Paris?" Ginny questioned. Her friend was a wonderful clothing designer, but she was always seeking something new to work on. Ginny always kept her guard up in case Pansy decided that she would be her new project.
"I've already finished it. You should stop by the studio so I can show you the sketches. Anyways, Blaise has been wearing the same boring outfits since we graduated. It's just so," she grappled with a word to fit her thoughts on his wardrobe, "so, tedious."
"Hey, I happen to like my clothing. Nothing fancy or flashy," Blaise argued.
"Yes, but this is the reason you haven't had a date in months. You need to do something or you're going to stay in your rut," Morag pointed out with a mischievous gleam in her eyes.
Blaise simply rolled his, but Ginny had to put her two cents in, "I thought you were going to go to dinner with that girl, oh what was her name? We met her outside Fortescue's the other day on our way to the zoo with Teddy and Victoire."
"I decided not to, she seemed kind of uppity," Blaise said crinkling his nose in distaste.
"Really? I thought she seemed quite nice," sometimes she simply could not fathom the way Blaise's mind worked, "However that proves that he could get a date if he wanted one, and besides, I like his clothes."
"How about I do you then?" Pansy asked excitedly.
"Somehow I don't think Daphne would be okay with that," Morag snickered.
"Not like that, as in, give her a new wardrobe," Pansy sighed exasperatedly and rolled her eyes. She caught her girlfriend's eye across the room and could not help the way the corner of her mouth turned up in a smile.
"Hey, I always look good and am in no short supply of dates," Ginny through her hands up in front of her as though it would help protect her from Pansy's plotting.
"Oh yeah, a date with a couple of little kids at the zoo is definitely romantic," Pansy raised an eyebrow at her as though daring her to argue.
"I went on a date last night. It was a real date too," Ginny was starting to panic and was quick to defend herself because she was receiving nothing but silent laughter from Blaise and Morag.
"Really? Tell us about it and maybe you'll get off the hook and I'll go find Hermione," Pansy was curious about it because Ginny had not mentioned that she had even met anyone.
"It was just a bloke I met here last week. Do you remember when it took me so long to get the drinks that you almost sent out a search party?" she asked and they nodded their heads, "Well, his name is Warren and he took me to dinner at that new place that we wanted to try in Hogsmeade. It was a date and it went well, so you see, I am in no need of a makeover. Whereas, Hermione could do with something other than her subdued color scheme."
"Hmm, fine, but you're walking a thin line Gin," Pansy assented, just as Ginny knew she would when the words 'subdued color scheme' came into play.
"I'll keep that in mind. Also, you are all invited to the Burrow for the picnic on Sunday afternoon," Ginny told them before she could forget, "All the usual suspects are invited too, I just figured I'd tell you now while I still remembered."
"Alright then, I'll spread the word around the room," Pansy smiled brightly and set off to tell Daphne and the others.
"You did not tell me you had a date," Blaise made it sound more like a question than a statement.
"Don't worry, she did not tell me either," Morag looked slightly put out by the fact that her best friend had not bothered to tell her about it.
"You both have nothing to worry about, I did not tell you because there was nothing to tell, I'm not going out with him again and so it was pointless to talk about it," Ginny explained.
"So the whole bit with Pansy was just to throw her off for a night?" Blaise looked skeptical when Ginny nodded, but Morag knew exactly how her friend felt. Pansy had tried getting her tiny manicured hands on her the previous summer and it had ended in an explosion that left the pair not speaking for several weeks. Morag had finally thrown Draco at her in order to get back into the girl's good graces. He was not too pleased at the new wardrobe, but it had worked out quite well for Morag.
As the night came to a close, everyone had been invited to the Weasley picnic in a couple days and Ginny was ready to go home and curl up in bed before the early morning she had planned. She and Morag shared a flat that was close enough she could have walked if she really wanted to, but walking the streets of London after midnight was asking for trouble. So, they said their goodbyes and made their way to the apparition point outside the club to return home.
Author's Note: I do not have the other chapters of this written up yet and it's a bit different from the other things I have written, so please let me know what you think and what you think so that I can make sure to put more of what people will enjoy into the next sections.