Author's Note: Oh lordy a new chapter! As you can see I have a deep and abiding love for Ginny Weasley (as long as she's not banging Harry Potter). I actually had to trim this chapter waaaay down as I wrote an entire section with Ginny going shopping. It was fun to write and maybe fun to read but really didn't belong here. Enjoy and WARNING: Ginny is a salacious sports star who happens to like women. There may be references. If that offends you then toodles!

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Ginny had been having a rather delightful dream involving a set of twins she'd met on holiday the year before when a scream pulled her from sleep. She woke up with her hand still a little busy and her brother Ron looking so pale she half thought Voldemort had risen from the grave and was in the room.

Then she realized what her hand was doing. And that her brother was in the room. They stared at each other. Their eyes wide. Finally, "Ron if you're just going to keep staring I'm never going finish."

Well that did it. He actually fainted. Right there! In the room. If she'd had any idea where her wand was she would have caught him but as it was she just had to watch her brother hit the floor like a big ol' lumpy sack of potatoes.

It kind of ruined the mood. So she went and took a shower (a little more chilled then usual), poked at the giant bump on the back of her head and got dressed. By the time she got out of the bathroom the lumpy sack of potatoes had moved.

She found him downstairs with a book of memory charms in his lap.

"Oh now you're just being a baby," she remarked.

"I've seen it Ginny. I can't—I can't unsee it." He turned to look at her, blushed and turned back to the book. His jaw was all set like it did when he'd made a decision and wasn't about to change it. "I think the Obliviate might be a bit much and I don't trust you not to bungle it. But there's a ten minute memory charm in here that should do the trick."

"Because you really want a woman with a bruised brain working delicate memory charms on you."

"I saw things," he said in a harsh whisper. He'd gotten to where he could look at her, but only from the sides and only at her shoes. "It'll only take a moment."

She sighed and flopped down on the couch next to him. Thankfully he didn't go running and screaming, but he did clutch his book of charms a bit tighter. "And if it goes tits up and bounces back on me? I rather like knowing who I am."

Ron waved his hand, "I saw the stuff they gave you. Two of them make you immune to memory charms for up to a week."

"Yeah, but I'm not allowed to apparate or transfigure. I'd hazard a guess that memory charms on other people are out of the question as well." She put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him as seriously as she could under the circumstances, "So you're just going to have to get over the fact that you caught me tickling the tulips."

He turned red again and then started making the wonky face he made when he was about to throw up. He threw the book at her and stood up.

"You're a terrible person Ginny Weasley."

She put her hands in her lap like a proper little witch and said politely, "It's perfectly natural. Mum said so."

That had him clutching his head like his head like he was in pain and groaning loudly.

"You're being a baby!"

"Wanton woman," he cried.

She grinned. "Wanton Weasley," she shot back.

He groaned again and headed for the door.

"Where're you going," she called after him.

"Work! And I got Lily off to school this morning thank you very much."

Her "thanks" came out around the same time he slammed the door shut.

Alone and suffering a monstrous headache Ginny leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes. Only she'd slept more than eight hours already and wasn't the least bit tired. She tried listening to a bit of wireless and messing around in the kitchen but her body got tired quickly and she had to sit back down. Then she had a go at reading but her eyes kept crossing and her brain seemed to throb in her skull.

That's when she noticed her car keys dangling on the hook in this kitchen. The healer had told her no heavy duty magic and no apparating but he hadn't said a thing about operating a motor vehicle.

#

She was being awfully nosy and she knew it. Ron would balk at it if he'd known what she was doing. But Ginny was bored and from a family of meddlers. It was in her blood to matchmake and fiddle with relationships.

So when she got in her car and tried to figure out where to go she'd settled on Hermione's new office. It was easy enough to find once she used the little screen thing Harry had put in her car. It was like the Marauder's Map, only for the whole of London. He and her dad had put it together after she'd told them she was going to get her own car.

In her father's jolly voice it told her when to turn left and when to turn right and when to stop. Finally it brought her to a seedy looking warehouse on a tributary of the Thames.

Well, Hermione's business venture certainly didn't believe in wasting money. The warehouse looked to be half rusted out and the ones all around it actually looked to be in worse condition.

Big doors that seemed to take up most of the walls had been thrown open and she could see clear through to the other side and to the river beyond. She got out, locked her car door and threw up an anti-theft hex just for good measure.

Inside the warehouse looked a little nicer. Most of the floor was taken up with giant crates and owls swooped in from the open doors on the river side and nested in what looked like a rookery on stilts up above. There was an office up there too, but its shades were closed. A few men and women tutted around the building, but none of them seem to notice her.

Until a gorgeous brunette with skin like caramel spied her. They shared a brief look before the other woman grinned and jogged up to her. "Can I help you," she asked.

It took Ginny a moment to place the woman's funny sounding accent, "You're South African," she said in surprise.

"And you sound positively British. Now how'd you get in here?"

She waved to the giant door that was still open, "I walked?"

The brunette's smile grew broader. She had nice teeth and a petite little nose and warm eyes, "As you can see the way back out is free and clear."

"You'd like me to avail myself of the door?"

She nodded. "I would."

Ginny shifted and put up her best pout. It was a great pout. It'd gotten her out of more than one ticket and into more that one bed. Once upon a time it had drove Harry into all kinds of delicious frenzies. Until the whole thing with the French ambassador. He'd found it rather awful after that.

The brunette just kept smiling and—did she just lick her lips? She did! Ginny moved in a little closer. "But I came all this way." She thought about reaching out and touching the woman, but that might make it seem like she was coming on too strongly.

Or, more likely, that'd bee when Hermione would come around a corner.

"Any particular reason," the brunette asked. She'd crossed her arms over her chest like a bouncer. Only she was skinny and bundled up in a worn looking brown leather jacket and purple scarf. So it came off more like a fetching pose.

Ginny smiled. "My friend works here I think? Hermione Granger?"

The brunette's smile faltered, but only briefly. "You mean Thomas? Mrs. Thomas is my boss and she would have mentioned you—"

"If I'd told her I was coming. I wanted to surprise her."

The brunette seemed to be growing more frigid with each moment. "Why," she asked suspiciously. Her dark eyes narrowed.

Ginny sighed, "Right I guess I should introduce myself. Ginny Weasley." She held out her hand to shake the other woman's, "old friend."

The other woman took the offered hand, "Sarah Ratters. New friend."

She had a firm grip and a calloused palm, but her hand was warm in Ginny's own. "Does this mean we'll have to fight," Ginny asked, "to be Hermione's besty."

"Oh naturally. A duel at dawn."

"I much prefer a good wrestling match."

Sarah blushed and her caramel skin took on a strawberry tone. She looked like she was about to stutter something out when the woman herself rounded a corner and saw them.

Hermione had her hair pulled back and was wearing jeans with knee high boots and a blazer. She looked fit. Professional. Attractive. Positively straight. And confused.

"Ginny. How'd you get here?"

"I drove?"

"You've got a concussion."

She shrugged, "I'm on potions. They just said I couldn't apparate. Nothing about cars."

That comment seemed to particularly pain Hermione because her brow furrowed and she sighed loudly and rubbed at her head. "Come on upstairs," she finally said, still rubbing at her head and not looking at Ginny. She spun around and headed for the office up on stilts.

Ginny waved goodbye to the lovely Sarah Ratters and followed.

Upstairs Hermione had carved out a rather nice little office. It was free of dust and brightly lit. The windows facing into the warehouse were shuttered but the ones facing the river weren't and it afforded them a dreary view of the Thames and bleak grey sky.

"Nice view."

Hermione moved around a giant desk and sorted through big stack of parchment. "I expect it will be come spring," she said without looking up from her search.

"And the place is nice too."

Hermione did look up at that, "Sarah managed to pick the seediest, cheapest warehouse possible."

"But at least she's pretty."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Yes she's quite good looking. If I were you I'd totally go for that."

Ginny grinned. "Does that mean I have your permission?"

"No. It means stay far, far away from my employees. I remember your fifth year. Practically destroyed the sixth year boy's dorm room with drama."

"That was when we were kids. I'm an adult now and I've gotten very good at compartmentalizing my romantic engagements." She went and sat on the edge of Hermione's desk. "You won't even know we're seeing each other."

Hermione leveled her with a glare.

"Yikes. It's like you're spiritually channeling McGonagall and my mom."

"I'll do more than channel them if you try dating Sarah."

Ginny nodded, "Fair enough, but that means I can ban you from dating someone too."

She actually looked bewildered at that. She started to protest but Ginny quickly continued, "I saw you last night with my ex-husband."

"Ginny. Harry and I are—"

"Friends. Believe me. I've heard that one before. And so has Harry."

"No really. We are."

"I know what happened Hermione. Before you disappeared from our wedding?"

Hermione, who didn't get emotionally rattled often, especially when it concerned matters of romance, blushed. From the top of her head to some point well past her collar she turned bright red, and she opened her mouth, maybe to apologize or rationalize it, but Ginny waved her hand. She did't want to hear it. Any of it.

She'd long ago forgiven Hermione for the things she'd told Harry hours before he married Ginny. Forgiven her for the things she'd done. She had to, what with being an adulteress herself and all. It would be positively hypocritical for her to judge Hermione.

"Does Ron—" Hermione finally squeaked out.

"No." Harry had wanted to tell him. He'd felt guilty and assured Ginny it was the right thing. But she remembered how Ron had pined after Hermione and she'd remembered how jealous he got any time Hermione had looked affectionately at Harry. To know the woman he'd loved had left him and then snuck into a tent to kiss Harry would have undone him, and might very well have destroyed his relationship with Harry.

Hermione was looking down at the scrolls on her desk. Thumbing through them without actually reading any of them. "It was an accident," she said softly. "I was…I wasn't in a good place and he was…" She looked back up at Ginny in utter seriousness, "I'm sorry."

Ginny shrugged, "It's fine Hermione."

"Is it?"

"Well, it wasn't. But it is now. Though I haven't a clue how we'll break it to the kids if he starts dating you."

"That won't happen."

It took Ginny a moment to realize Hermione was talking about dating Harry. "You're not going to ask Harry out?"

Hermione sighed and leaned back in her chair. She was staring at some abstract point overhead. Her brown eyes were distant and dull. "My husband died three months ago. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to move day to day. How to survive? And I've got kids who miss their dad and are stuck in a whole other country. I don't have the time or the energy to try a relationship. Especially one with as much baggage as what's between Harry and I."

Ginny had only seen the kids from afar, only heard of them and their father from Ron and Harry and Hermione. To her they were a concept more that people. So she had to think of her own children and think of a time when she and Harry were happily married and each other's world.

It was a stretch and had her going back further than she'd like. But if she considered it long enough she could see where Hermione stood and she could understand the overwhelming loneliness and grief.

She decided right then and there that her great plan to put the two together would have to go on hold indefinitely. She didn't know Rose and Hugo but she knew it wouldn't be fair to them to have a new dad and siblings foisted upon them.

Hermione had returned her focus to Ginny and watched her warily.

"All right, stand up woman." She didn't actually wait for Hermione to stand up. It was much easier to just reach down and yank her up. Hermione had a few inches on Ginny, but she was slim and sleek where Ginny was solid. Hermione sort of did something between a screech and a yelp and fell into Ginny's arms.

It was just a platonic friendly hug. Nothing as salacious as the hugs she usually gave to women she wasn't related to. Hermione sighed and gripped Ginny tighter.

"Hermione," she said against the taller woman's shoulder, "this hug is fantastic, but I think I'd rather have my arms around young Ms. Ratters."

Hermione squeezed her tight, "you do and I'll have my hands around you ne—"

And then the door burst open and the aforementioned Ms. Ratters rushed in all breathless and breathtaking. And she stared. And stared. Hermione made no indication that she wanted out of the hug that would soon be lasting an almost inappropriate amount of time.

"Um, ma'am?"

And the spell was broken. Hermione pulled back and asked, "What is it Sarah?"

Sarah waved her hand, "Don't stop on my account. That hug gave me about forty different mental images I'm going to need to rifle through when I'm alone."

"Who says you need to be alone," Ginny quipped.

Hermione's hand lashed out and caught Ginny in the stomach. "Any other reason you came bursting in?"

Sarah looked from Hermione to Ginny then pressed on. "We've got a problem with our" she glanced back at Ginny and seemed to edit whatever she'd meant to say, "sources here."

Hermione's eyes narrowed and Ginny got an overwhelming urge to hide from the cleverest witch of their age.

"What kind of problem," she asked.

"Big."

"Ginny, will you excuse us?"

Ginny actually wanted to stay and find out what a business associate could do to get Hermione so angry but it would have been rude to stay so she gave Hermione a farewell hug, winked at Sarah Ratters and left the office.

She was nearly to her car when a meaty looking wizard ran up out of breath. "Ms. Weasley right? Mrs. Thomas wanted me to give you a ride home."

"Why on earth would—"

"She said you had a concussion and shouldn't be driving."

"I drove here"

He shrugged his thick shoulders, "She told me to drive you ma'am. And when Mrs. Thomas gives me an order I like to follow it. It's kind of my job."

She didn't especially want this American meathead driving her car, but she also didn't want Hermione showing up on her doorstep with that freakishly scary look she'd had in her office.

"You can drive, but that means you have to go with me this afternoon to pick up the kids."

He nodded. "Meeting the kids of the Holyhead Harpies's best chaser in forty years? It'd be an honor."

"You're a fan?"

He blushed, "I had a picture of you on my wall all through high school."

All through high—there would be retribution. She wasn't sure when or how, but she'd see that Hermione suffered for giving her a fanboy chaperone.

Oh she would suffer.