Chapter 2

Many thanks to my betas, Cafe Mercury and PDRSJ56, and my muse, Poultrygeist99. All mistakes are mine; if it's wonderful, thank them.

J.K. owns them. I just borrow them for a while.

~oOo~

Two days later, Ginny was leaning against the counter at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Her mum had not been happy when she decided to join her twin brothers at the shop after leaving Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry five years ago. The twins, however, reminded Molly that anyone who could repeatedly cast a Bat-Bogey Hex on them really should be working with them.

Ginny’s efforts and the twins’ instincts had paid off; Fred and George had recently promoted her to the President of their mail owl division. They claimed they needed more time for research and development, but she suspected they really needed more time for lunch with their girlfriends. Ever since her promotion, they had taken daily three-hour lunches.

As a matter of fact, at the moment her brothers were still at lunch. They had been making themselves scarce around the shop since their party when the orb had revealed her secret.

The twins stopped by Ginny’s flat first thing Sunday morning. If she hadn’t been so angry she would have laughed when she opened her door to find them kneeling before her as they apologized. She knew she’d forgive them eventually—but not yet.

“Hi, Ginny,” a male voice said, interrupting her thoughts.

When she looked up, she saw Oliver Wood.

Oh, bugger! Ginny thought, feeling herself start to blush.

Oliver was beautiful. He had wonderful dark brown hair and eyes.

Quidditch training has definitely left him with a body to admire, Ginny thought. I’m definitely going to kill my brothers.

“Hi,” Ginny said quietly, not quite meeting his eyes.

“Um, are Forge here?” Oliver asked as he looked towards the rear of the shop.

“Nope, went to lunch with their girls.”

“Would you mind if I left them a note?”

Ginny gave him a shy smile and she shrugged. She distractedly grabbed a quill from the pile beside her and handed it, along with a piece of parchment, to Oliver. She noted he had been stopping by the shop about once a week since her parents’ picnic. Sometimes he’d stay to chat with her if the twins were out.

Oliver scribbled a note and passed Ginny the folded parchment. “Thanks,” he said, noticing how breathtaking she looked today. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, showing off her high cheekbones and warm brown eyes.

“I need to get going,” he muttered. “I’ll see you later.”

“Um, okay. Bye.”

Bugger! Ginny thought, watching him depart. After the party, he can’t even manage to talk to me any more. I will find a way to pay back the twins for embarrassing me.

A few hours later, Fred and George returned to the shop.

“How was lunch?” she asked them.

“Okay, but George was too gobsmacked to say more than a few words.”

“Sod off, Fred.”

“Leave George alone,” Ginny chided Fred. “You weren’t much better when you started seeing Lyra. Oh, and Oliver stopped by while you were gone.” Ginny handed the parchment to Fred, then headed to the back room to look over some reports she’d received by owl that morning. After Oliver’s visit, she knew it wasn’t safe for her brothers to be in the same room with her.

Forge,

Oliver

Fred, shocked, looked up handing the note to his brother. “George! The Weasley truth quill works great!”

“Oh, Ginny...” they bellowed in unison.

Ginny wandered to the front of the store.

“What?” she responded, wondering what her brothers were up to now.

“It seems you have an admirer.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ginny shot back, hands on hips.

Grinning evilly, Fred slid the parchment to Ginny.

Ginny read the note, then stared at it in shock. Her brothers started making kissing noises.

“Sod off!” she exclaimed, walking quickly back to her office with the parchment in her hand.

After her brothers had left for the night, Ginny stood in the middle of the store and carefully removed the parchment from her pocket. Hugging it closely, she danced around the room like a ten-year-old the day her Hogwarts letter arrived.

~oOo~

Fred and George sat in their flat later that evening drinking Butterbeer and listening to a Quidditch match on the wireless. Fred lounged across the worn settee while George sat in one of the comfy armchairs in their flat. Headmistress McGonagall was only a little surprised when they begged her to let them acquire their two favourite chairs from the Gryffindor common room. But, when they offered to send several comfortable chairs, she allowed them to take them.

“You know, it’s now our job to get Ginny and Oliver together,” George said suddenly, breaking the comfortable silence.

“I know,” Fred replied. “She was so embarrassed after our party. Crabbe... I can’t even fathom it.”

“We owe it to her after that secret was revealed. I hope she forgives us soon.”

“You know Ginny,” Fred assured his brother. “She’ll brood for a while, but the fact that she let us exist at work today, unscathed, gives me hope.”

“Well, we can’t let her know we are trying to arrange this—she’d hex us,” George pointed out. “I’m not even sure if she fancies Oliver.”

“Didn’t you see the glint in her eye when she saw the note? She is definitely interested.”

“Shall we make this project interesting? Maybe we should put a little wager on which one of us manages to get these two together?”

Fred eyed his brother suspiciously. “What did you have in mind?”

“I think the loser should provide the entertainment at Mum and Dad’s party next summer.”

“Hmm...,” Fred mused with increased enthusiasm. “But to make it interesting, the winner won’t reveal the assigned entertainment until the day of the party.”

“And, no magic allowed!” George declared.

“Deal. Whichever one of us successfully sets up Oliver and Ginny wins!”

As George sat back in his chair, he took a drink of his Butterbeer as he began to dream of what he would have Fred do when he won the bet.

~oOo~