Disclaimer: Usual disclaimers apply. I don't own Harry Potter or the Harry Potter universe, of course. This one was written for the 2013 Teachers' Lounge Christmas Exchange, for Martine Lewis, who is a Harry/Ginny fan and who likes Quidditch stories.

A Lonely December

Another night, another city.

As she sat atop her broomstick, her teammates beside her, waiting for the announcers to call to begin the game, Ginny Weasley was beginning to tire of life on the road. Her team, the Holyhead Harpies, the British and Irish Quidditch League's 2002 champions, were on a goodwill tour of North America. Ginny loved the opportunity to travel, but spending a month on the road was beginning to tire her out. Especially when that month was December.

Ginny had never missed Christmas with her family in all of her twenty-one years. Even that terrible Christmas of her sixth year of Hogwarts, when Ron was on the run, Bill, Fred and George were in hiding, and Voldemort's minions were spreading terror throughout magical Britain, she still had Christmas with her mum and dad. But this year...

This year she was going to be stuck on the other side of the Atlantic. She wouldn't even be able to get an international portkey back home, because the Harpies would be playing the Canadian Quidditch League champions at the exact time her parents would be serving Christmas dinner at the Burrow. It wasn't fair at all.

It would also be only her second Christmas without her boyfriend, Harry Potter, since she started Hogwarts a decade previously, long before she and Harry were ever together. Other than the Christmas where Harry was on the run with Ron and Hermione, she had spent every Christmas with him. But he drew the proverbial short straw and would be manning the Auror Office this Christmas, along with a couple of rookie Aurors. So Ginny was reduced to spending the entire month of December without her family, without her boyfriend, touring two strange countries she'd never been to before.

At least that was a novel experience.

The tour had gone well so far. It was a thirteen-city tour, playing the four best teams from the CQL and the nine best from the United States Quidditch League. The highlights were to be the game against the Moose Jaw Meteorites on Christmas Day, and the game against the American champions, the Baltimore Buccaneers, on New Years' Day. So far, the Harpies were seven-and-two against the various North American teams, and the two times Ginny had failed to catch the snitch, she lost the race for the little golden ball by less than an arms' length.

This was the fourth-last game – Christmas in Moose Jaw was in three days, then the game against the American runners-up, the Peoria Prestidigitators on the twenty-eighth, and then the Baltimore game.

Then she could go home. To England. Her family.

To Harry.

She hadn't spent this much time away from him since the Battle of Hogwarts, and she missed him terribly. She missed his humour, his electrifying presence, his laugh, his smile, his touch, his love for her. She missed how he would tease her to get her famous temper flaring, and how he would then calm her with a word, or a touch, or even sometimes a look. She missed flying with him, walking with him, talking with him, waking up with him.

She just missed him.

Nine more days and she was done.

The words of the announcer began to reverberate through the stadium thanks to the Amplifying Charm. Ginny's French had improved over the years, thanks to the efforts of her sister-in-law Fleur, but the announcer's accent was as different from Fleur's and the accents of the English speakers on this side of the Atlantic were from her own. French not being her native language made it hard to understand, but "Gwenog Jones et les Harpies de Holyhead!" was comprehensible in any accent. Ginny and the rest of her team flew into the stadium, and flew a circuit of the stadium, waving to the cheers of the local crowd, who had never had a team from the BIQL grace their pitch.

The welcome the Harpies got was nothing compared to the deafening cheers heard when the announcer said, "... Henri Lamoureux et vos Fusiliers de Fermont!" Lamoureux, the Fusiliers' seeker, gave Ginny a friendly nod as he emerged into the stadium. He was apparently the favourite for seeker on the Canadian World Cup team for next year. With any luck, Ginny would have a chance to face off with him in a years' time.

She wished Harry were here to see her play.

All thoughts of anything other than Quidditch left her mind, though, as the referee released the Quaffle, and she flew into the air.

There was a letter waiting in her room after the game – a five-hour long slog ending in a 510-350 victory for the Harpies. She smiled as soon as she saw it was from Harry. He owled her a letter every game day, and she replied immediately.

His letter started off as always with him telling her how much he missed her. Harry wasn't much with words, but his straightforward sincerity in telling Ginny how much he missed her was better than any flowery poetry.

Merlin, she missed him.

He also told her about the two rookies he was working with, one of whom was Dennis Creevey, who showed tremendous promise. The other, Bernice Tomlinson, was enthusiastic but undisciplined, and Harry was at wits' end trying to impart some of his experience to her.

Her favourite part of the letter was when Harry told her that he and Ron made a point of catching her games on Wizarding Wireless Network's sports station whenever they could. Her father popped in to the Auror Office to listen with Harry and Ron to her last game against the Walla Walla Wands, and when Ginny had caught the snitch, and Ron was cheering so loudly, shouting, "Yeah! That's my sister! Best seeker in the League! Woo!" that someone from the Department of Intoxicating Substances came and yelled at him to keep it down.

Harry ended the letter by telling her how proud was of her and how much he wished he was with her.

Ginny wiped a tear from her eye, smiled, and picked up a quill to write him back.

The only good thing about losing to the Moose Jaw Meteorites was that Ginny got to see their famous victory display, trailing sparks from their brooms after they won. She had heard they once nearly got cited for a violation of the Statute of Secrecy for doing their display over Muggle towns in the Seventies, until someone pointed out the local Muggles just assumed they were planes from the local air base. Still, it was safer to keep it in the stadium.

After she returned from the locker room, a small pile of Christmas gifts awaited her in her hotel room – including robes from Mum and Dad, flowers and chocolates from Ron and Hermione, some kind of wooden carving from Luna that looked like a snake strung through a bird-of-paradise, and a pair of delicate diamond earrings from Harry. But the best gift of all was that the hotel had arranged international Floo calls back home as a Christmas treat for the visiting team, so she flung the Floo powder into the fireplace, called the Burrow and stuck her head in the fireplace.

After the wishes of Happy Christmas from her parents, Ron, Hermione, Bill, Fleur and George, Ron said, "You were robbed, Gin! I swear their seeker must have fouled you."

Ginny smiled at her brother's support. "No, he just made a tighter turn than I did. Didn't matter, anyway – we were down 190-30 anyway. Maddy was pretty sick – we didn't really have a chance." Ginny was privately of the opinion that the illness of Maddy Lennox-Addington – the Holyhead's keeper – was eggnog-induced more than anything, but was going to keep that to herself.

"Did you get my gifts?" Ginny asked everyone. Each of them were pleased with their gifts, especially Ron.

"I loved the jersey," he said. "But who are the Rochester Ravens?"

Ginny grinned. "They've been at the bottom of the US League for the last four years. They're the American Chudley Cannons."

"Hey!" shouted Ron, offended. "If that's the case, Rochester's coming back next year. Just like Chudley!"

After some more holiday chat with her family, she asked if Harry had stopped by. Ron shook his head. "Some wizard in East Looe got obliviated today, and Harry and Dennis have been investigating all day. He won't be able to make it to say hello. Sorry."

Ginny sighed.

Gwenog obviously had a talk with Maddy, because the keeper was near perfect the next match as Holyhead roared to a 240-20 victory over the Prestidigitators in less than an hour. As Ginny took a victory lap around the pitch after catching the snitch, she glimpsed a familiar head of black hair on the top level of the stands at midfield. As a smile grew upon her face, she flew towards him, leaping off her broom and onto the bench practically before she came to a stop.

"Harry!" she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him until one of the spectators around him laughed and shouted, "Get a room!"

"What are you doing here?" Ginny asked. "I thought you were stuck in the Auror Office until after the new year?"

"Ron volunteered to take my shifts," Harry said, "so I could come see the end of your tour. I've missed you so much this month."

"Oh, Harry, I've missed you too. More than you can imagine."

Harry laughed. "After you're done in the locker room, let me take you to the best restaurant this city has to offer."

"Or," Ginny said, running her hand up and down his arm, "we could just go back to my room, and order room service..."

Afterwards, Harry and Ginny relaxed in each others' arms. "I have something for you," he said.

"I got your gift, Harry," she said, pulling back her hair to reveal her diamond earrings. "They're lovely. I haven't taken them off since Christmas."

"I actually have something else," he said, waving his wand and summoning a small box from inside his robes. "I'd been planning this for a while, actually, but being without you this past month is something I never want to repeat. And I want next year, and every year after that, to be with you." He got off the bed, and knelt beside her on one knee, holding open the box to reveal a beautiful diamond ring that obviously was a set with her earrings. Ginny gasped as Harry asked, "Ginevra Molly Weasley, will you marry me?"

For the first time since she was a third-year, Ginny found herself speechless in front of Harry.

Harry, thankfully, was more amused than anxious at Ginny's sudden lack of vocal ability. "Ginny?" he asked, a playful note in his voice.

She still couldn't articulate any words, but nodded vigorously as tears of joy streamed down her cheeks. She let Harry place the ring upon her finger, and then pulled him up and threw her arms around him as they fell on the bed once more.

Three days later, she sat on her broom once more, waiting to be called in the Baltimore Quidditch Field with the rest of the Harpies. She looked at her left hand, and although all she saw was her Quidditch glove, she knew the ring was underneath. She hadn't taken it off since Harry slid it onto her finger, and didn't plan on doing so anytime soon.

Marrying Harry had been her dream since she was a small child, and first heard the story of the Boy-Who-Lived. But once she actually met him, and knew him not as the hero of legend, but as her exasperating-but-beloved brother's best friend, and then as her own personal hero who rescued her from possession and certain death, her dream took on a new meaning and a greater intensity. At times it seemed Harry could never like someone like her, and at times she feared for his safety so much it seemed like she would never get to be engaged to him. Intellectually she had known for a few years this day was probably coming. That didn't make it any less emotional when it did.

But now she had to put thoughts of Harry aside, and concentrate on the match, the final one of her tour. As the announcer called, "And give a warm welcome to the British and Irish champions, the Holyhead Haaaaaaaarpies!" and Ginny and her team entered the stadium, she couldn't help but see Harry cheering for her in the front row.

The good news had travelled fast, because as the announcer introduced each of the Harpies, when he got to her, he called out, "And finally, the Holyhead seeker, the newly engaged Ginny Weasley!" The Baltimore crowd gave her an especially warm ovation before the Buccaneers were called into the stadium, and the crowd's deafening roar took all Ginny's thoughts away from her engagement and onto the game.

Well, almost all of them, she thought, with another glance at Harry as the referee threw the Quaffle in the air. Win or lose against the US Champions, this was going to be Ginny's best year yet.