WOOSH!

Ginny came tumbling out of one of the fireplaces in the Ministry of Magic Atrium. Hermione, who had been staying with the Weasleys, had Flooed there ahead of Ginny and was glaring at the repaired Fountain of Magical Brethren. What bothered her most was the graven image of the sappily happy house-elf.

“Hermione, the world isn’t going to change in a day,” Ginny said sympathetically as she joined her.

“I know, it’s just that no one wants it to change,” Hermione replied. “I feel like I’m beating my head against a stone wall. Everyone thinks it’s okay to enslave a race of beings.”

“Hermione they …”

“… like it, I know. But look at Dobby. Now that Dobby knows what freedom is, he enjoys it. And Kreacher was trapped with someone he neither loved nor respected.”

“Kreacher was —”

“I know what he was,” Hermione said. “He was no more or less than a product of his environment. And his situation was made worse by the fact that he had no choice about where he was employed.”

“Maybe you’re right, but right now we have to see Tonks,” Ginny said. The girls had been invited to spend the weekend and see a Quidditch game. Since Tonks was an Auror, Mrs. Weasley was okay with letting the girls go. Tonks figured any relief from the pressure of worrying about the war was a good thing.

Ginny tossed a bit of change from her pocket into the fountain, and Hermione did the same. Then Ginny grabbed Hermione’s hand and dragged her to the security desk to get their wands checked. Ginny, still dragging Hermione, then made a dash for the lifts. They knocked into a witch carrying an armful of parchment and sent a paper airplane memo off course.

“Sorry,” Ginny said as she, Hermione, the witch, and the memo arranged themselves in the lift.

“Kids,” the grumpy witch muttered.

Embarrassed about upsetting the witch, the red-haired teenager was silent and still in the lift. Her brown-haired companion held in a laugh. The old witch got off at the level for the Department of International Magical Cooperation. The girls broke into a fit of laughter when she got off. A wizard got on just before the lift doors closed. They’d never met him before, but his young face seemed to indicate he was fresh out of Hogwarts.

“Are you girls here for Auror training?” he asked.

Both teenagers blushed. They were flattered he thought they were ready for post-Hogwarts training.

“Actually, we’re just visiting a friend,” Hermione replied. “Tonks.”

“Nymph?” the young man asked. “Don’t tell her I called her that,” he added in a whisper and grinned. “We were in the same year at Hogwarts. When did you girls finish?”

“We haven’t yet,” Ginny admitted. “I’m in fifth year.”

“Sixth,” Hermione added.

“Really? You girls don’t look that young …”

“Charlie!” Tonks exclaimed as the lift doors opened. Her long hair was a bright ketchup color — the exact opposite of Ginny’s natural red.

“Charlie?” the girls questioned.

“Parks, not Weasley,” Tonks replied as all three stepped off the lift.

“They know Charlie Weasley?” Charlie questioned.

“This is his baby sister, Ginny,” Tonks said, gripping Ginny by the shoulder.

Ginny was warmed by her touch, but she attempted to shift away from it. She hated feeling guarded like a little girl. She got enough of it from Ron; she didn’t need it from Tonks.

“Little Ginny?” Charlie questioned. “When she came to Hogwarts with her mum she was just …” He gestured smallness with his hands. “This is a young woman,” he said, touching her cheek. Ginny was suddenly quite uncomfortable.

“Not quite a woman,” Tonks said, steering both girls away.

“Git,” Tonks mumbled when they were a good distance away. “He has a thing for young girls.”

“What?” Hermione questioned.

“Well, I don’t want to be crass, but he likes them … unspoiled.”

“In other words, he likes virgins,” Hermione said.

“Yeah,” Tonks replied.

Tonks still had a protective arm around Ginny as she wove them through the Auror cubicles. Neither girl had visited Tonks at work before, so they didn’t know what to expect. The main portion of Tonks’ cubicle wasn’t too surprising. There were a few clippings here and there of dark wizards and witches. Central among these were the escaped Death Eaters. But they noticed the right wall of her cubicle was quite different. It was filled exclusively with pictures of one woman.

Ginny, who was free from Tonks’ grip now and looking slightly relieved for it, examined the pictures closely.

“Cynthia Wholey?” Ginny questioned. “She’s one of the top ten Chasers in the world.”

“Yeah, she’s my special Holyhead Harpie,” Tonks said with a wide grin.

“You know her?”

“Yeah, really well,” Tonks said, staring dreamily at the pictures. Cynthia was a short, black woman with close-cropped, curly hair. She had a round face with dimples on each cheek, and she was winking at Tonks from the picture. “I met her at Hogwarts,” she told them. “She was two years above me. I can’t wait for you two to meet her.”

“Meet her? Really!” Ginny exclaimed.

“She got us tickets to the game,” Tonks told Ginny. “I’ve told her all about you, so she’s already quite keen on you.”

“Tonks!” All three young women turned to see Cynthia standing in the doorway.

“Cyn,” Tonks said, getting up and running to throw her arms around her neck. Cynthia seemed much shorter in person, no taller than Ginny. Tonks, who wasn’t really all that tall, still stood a head above her. For some reason (maybe because of Viktor), Hermione had always thought that Quidditch players were tall and overpowering. Viktor hadn’t exactly been burly, but he’d had a nice size to him. When she read about the Holyhead Harpies in Quidditch through the Ages, she had imagined the entire team as tall and scary Amazons.

“Cyn,” said Tonks,” this is Hermione.”

“Hermione, that’s a mouthful,” Cynthia said. “You got a nickname?”

“Nothing I like,” Hermione replied. Ginny, who had often heard Hermione complain about the whole ‘Hermy’ thing, giggled slightly at this comment.

“And this is Ginny Weasley,” Tonks said. “She’s the little Weasley on the school Quidditch team.”

“Just like your brother Charlie, eh?” Cynthia questioned, shaking her hand.

“Not exactly,” the young girl replied

“What position do you play?”

“Seeker in fourth year, but hopefully Chaser this year,” Ginny replied. “I fancy being a Chaser more than a Seeker.”

“Why?” Cyn questioned.

“Constant action. Seeker’s only exciting at the last minute.”

“I know what you mean. It’s basically ‘stay out the way until you see the snitch.’”

“Yeah,” Ginny replied with a grin. It was nice to connect with a real Quidditch star.

Ginny hadn’t even bothered to glance at something that had Hermione raising an eyebrow: The two women had been holding hands ever since they broke their hug.

“We better get going if we plan on getting there in time,” Cyn said.

“One moment,” Tonks replied. She grabbed a quill on her desk and quickly scratched something on a bit of memo paper. She flicked her wand at it, and it folded itself, zoomed off the desk, and headed down the corridor.

“Let’s go,” Tonks said.

Everyone headed for the lifts and climbed inside. The lift rattled down to the Atrium where the women discovered that all the Floo fires had long lines.

“You’re going to be late if you wait with us,” Tonks said to her friend.

“Yeah, I suppose I’ll have to Apparate,” Cyn said. “See you and the girls there. And —” she pulled Tonks close and whispered something in her ear that caused her to giggle.

“Later,” Tonks said, pushing her away. And with a pop, Cyn was gone.

Hermione and Ginny exchanged curious looks as Tonks shoved the girls into a Floo line. The line moved pretty quickly, and the next thing they knew they were at the English Quidditch Stadium. The stadium wasn’t as large as the Quidditch World Cup one. It was about the size of the pitch at Hogwarts, but it had more room for spectators.

After they’d settled in their seats, Hermione looked around at the crowd and magical vendors as Ginny chatted about Quidditch stats with Tonks. The crowd was about a fourth the size of the World Cup audience, and most of them were wearing Tornados badges.

“I don’t think this group will be friendly if your friend’s team wins,” Hermione stated.

“Who cares,” Tonks said, changing her facial complexion to the teams’ trademark dark green and adding a white double H on each cheek. She made her hair short and spiky and as green as her face.

“Hermione?” a soft voice behind them questioned. “Ginny?”

They turned to see Cho Chang standing in the aisle near their seats. Knowing what happened with Cho and Harry that past year, Ginny wasn’t sure how to react to her.

“Hi, Cho,” Hermione said with a bit too much cheer.

“This is our friend Tonks,” Hermione said to Cho. “Tonks, this is Cho Chang, a friend from school.”

Ginny thought it was a bit rich of Hermione to call Cho a friend. After all, Hermione had been quite conflicted about Harry and Cho’s up-and-down relationship last year.

“Hello, Tonks,” Cho said, looking a bit put off by her green, emblazoned face.

“Hi Cho,” Tonks replied.

They all stared at each other awkwardly for a while before Cho broke the silence.

“Well, I have to catch up with my dad,” Cho said, walking off.

“Wait!” Hermione shouted at her. She ran up to her and said something Ginny and Tonks couldn’t hear through the crowd.

“What’s with them?” Tonks asked.

“Cho and Harry dated last year,” Ginny explained. “She thought Hermione and Harry secretly fancied each other, which couldn’t be further from the truth. But it caused enough problems to break them up.”

“Are you sure they didn’t secretly fancy each other?” Tonks asked.

“I used to fancy Harry. I think I’d know if Hermione was feeling that way about him,” Ginny stated defensively.

“If you used to fancy him, maybe you don’t want to see it.”

“I’m totally over Harry.”

“Oh yeah? Got your eyes on someone else?”

“Sort of,” Ginny said blushing.

“The game’s about to start,” Tonks said. “Oi! Hermione.”

Hermione turned and saw Tonks waving her over. She said good-bye to Cho and joined them. Ginny was half frowning as she sat down.

“I can’t believe you wasted time talking to her,” Ginny said, crossing her arms.

“Don’t be mad at Cho. It just wasn’t meant to be for her and Harry,” Hermione said. “Cho’s … sweet.” There was a glow in Hermione’s gaze that disturbed Ginny.

“Anyone who gets as pouty as she got about a Quidditch game is a twit. Good lord, you win some and you lose some. You don’t cry about it,” Ginny said.

“You don’t understand. It was bigger than a game, Ginny,” Hermione stated.

“Was it?”

“Yes, she’s deeper than you think. Sometimes a Quidditch game isn’t just a Quidditch game. Sometimes it’s just one bad thing on top of another. Last year was hardly heaven for her. She’d been in a bad emotional state since Cedric died.”

“Why do you care so much about it? Her stupid friend is the one that got us all in trouble!”

“That’s her friend, not her,” Hermione replied softly.

“And what about the way she bad-talked you to Harry?”

“She was just trying to figure out where she stood with him.”

“I can’t believe you —” Ginny sputtered.

The two girls continued to argue until Tonks interrupted to tell them that the game had started.


It was an exciting game, and Cynthia played brilliantly. Unfortunately for her side, so did the Tutshill Tornados. There was a lot of cheering as the Tornados’ Chasers brilliantly passed the Quaffle. Despite the brilliant passing, they failed to score more often than not thanks to the Harpies’ talented Keeper. The Seekers searched for the Snitch, which might have scored them an early victory, but the little golden ball seemed to be playing a good game of hide without the seek. Even though Cynthia brought her top game, the other Harpy Chasers didn’t seem to fly as smoothly. The Tornados eventually pulled 100 points ahead. Forty minutes later, they were 150 points ahead, so the only hope for the Harpies was the Snitch. But it was the Tornados’ Seeker who saw the snitch and pursued it. The Harpies’ Seeker managed to knock her off course. The Harpies managed to gain 20 more points, so once again winning the game depended on the Seeker. Just as the Harpies scored another goal, the Snitch was spotted again. The Seekers shot after it like twin bullets, and both sides shouted for their team’s Seeker. The Harpies’ Seeker barely managed to grab the Snitch, causing a wave of disappointment from the Tornados’ supporters.

“Best snitch race ever,” Tonks declared. “Come on, let's go to the team tents.”

Tonks led the girls out of the stands and down to the Harpies tents. By the time they got down there, the members of the all-female team were in various stages of undress as they shed the robes they wore for the game and put on their casual wear. Even though they had seen other women in their knickers before, there was something about the sight of a room full of athletically toned bodies that had both girls a bit hot under the collar and perhaps blushing a little more than they intended. None of the women on the team seemed to care that two unfamiliar teenage girls and a woman with a green face had entered. Cyn appeared out of nowhere and ran up to Tonks; she was clad only in her underwear, which made Hermione and Ginny look away the second they saw her.

“You played brilliantly,” Tonks said.

The two women stared at each other, and Ginny felt a weird vibe. She almost expected them to kiss (though they didn’t), and the thought caused an unexpected lurch in her stomach. She’d felt there was something a little beyond “friendly” between them earlier, but she’d dismissed it. But now she wondered … Ginny glanced at Hermione, wondering if she felt it, too.
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