Diversionary Tactic

Good day!! This is my second Harry Potter fic, and hopefully y'all will like it. It's Oliver/Ginny, although I generally don't read/write about this 'ship, I thought that it would be interesting to use for this particular story. Besides, it truly is an under-represented 'ship...~_^

As y'all should know, I own nothing.

REVIEW!!

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"Oliver! Wait up a minute!" A tall young man wearing a Puddlemere United uniform paused at the sound of the breathless female voice calling out behind him, and turned towards the two teammates he was walking with. A beater and a chaser, burly young men with very broad shoulders, who glanced around interestedly to see what girl could possibly be addressing him so familiarly. Oliver's fans were rather in awe of him, and though they giggled like mad, none ever called him by his first name.

"Hello, Ginny, how can I help you?" Oliver asked, with an easy smile that hid his rapidly pumping heart. It had been quite some time since Hogwarts. And even then, he had been too occupied with Quidditch and other things to pay much attention to the sweet little sister of his beaters, the Weasley twins. Besides, she was only a child, then. A little girl 5 years behind him. After he'd graduated, he went to play for Puddlemere, and she'd continued there. And grown up. Very nicely.

By her sixth year, she had gotten over her Harry Potter infatuation, and had been as instrumental in helping Harry finally defeat Voldemort his seventh year as his other friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. He had read about it in The Daily Prophet. How Harry had dueled with Voldemort while Ron and Hermione had cast countless Petrificus Totalus and Stupefy spells on the Death Eaters. But the Death Eaters outnumbered the heroes, and all would have been lost, had Ginny not followed them to the scene under Harry's invisibility cloak. She had stolen two Muggle toys known as water guns that her father had given Fred and George for their birthdays, and had filled them with undiluted Bubotuber pus, and had shot streams of the vitriolic, highly corrosive substance at the Death Eaters. Confused and frightened and howling in pain as the pus had streamed from nowhere, eaten through their masks and clothing, and caused boils to spring up all over them, the Death Eaters' moments of dismay and distraction had given Ron and Hermione the necessary time to finish casting their spells, and as they did, Ginny, still invisible, had performed countless Accio charms, and relieved the downed Death Eaters of their wands, just as a huge beam of red-gold light shot from the tip of Harry's wand, and hit Voldemort squarely in the chest. The dark lord had given a scream, and simply disintegrated in front of their astonished eyes. Harry, Ron and Hermione had collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, just sitting there looking at their surroundings. All of the sudden, one lone Death Eater had risen from the circle of stunned bodies on the floor, to their alarm. Ginny, seeing that the other three were exhausted, had whipped out her wand, to defend her friends, but the tall man had held up a restraining hand, and with the other lifted off his mask to reveal a very familiar face. Severus Snape still had his ever-present scowl on his face, but his dark eyes were filled with a curious gleam of...admiration. Respect. He had spoken briefly to them. "30 points from Gryffindor, Potter, Weasley and Granger, for aiming curses at your teacher." Then, before Ron could protest in outrage, he gave a half- smirk, half-smile. "As for you, Miss Weasley, 50 points to Gryffindor...for the best use of Muggle toys I have ever witnessed." Then, the aurors had started to arrive, and the press, and after having thoroughly interviewed all of them, had given them a portkey, a broken wristwatch, and they had returned to Hogwarts. The newspaper was screaming about the news of Voldemort's defeat, and the four had found themselves famous. Along with defeating Voldemort, they had also managed to capture Peter Pettigrew "Wormtail", and Sirius Black, notorious convict, had finally been exonerated.

Oliver had remembered reading the newspaper, and seeing his favorite Seeker waving at him, wearing a relieved but somewhat sad smile. Flanking him were the other three. Ron and Hermione had their arms around each other, and Ron, despite his slightly bloody lip, seemed very happy. And, on Harry's other side, Ginny stood, smiling softly, her hair flying like silken fire around her. Oliver had done a double-take. This...this gorgeous, spunky vixen was his prankster friends' baby sister?! That had been five years ago. She had been 17. Gradually, all of them had moved on to continue with their lives. Ron had gotten employment at the Ministry of Magic, Hermione, his wife, had taken the formerly doomed position as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, and was notably the first to stay on for more than a year, and also the first that Snape did not wholly despise. And Harry had joined the Auror's guild along with his wife Cho. As for Ginny...

"So Ginny, is there anything I can do for you?" Oliver smiled down at the lithe redhead. She was wearing slim black muggle jeans and a form-fitting black tank top. Oliver once again wondered at his uncharacteristic strong attraction to her. Geneva Weasley was not beautiful in a classical sense. Even in school, there had been plenty of pretty faces. Cho Chang, now Potter, of Ravenclaw, was one, an exotic Oriental beauty. Hannah Abbott from Hufflepuff, Blaise Zabini from Slytherin, Lavender Brown from Gryffindor, Parvati and Padma Patil...even Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell, now respectively Mrs. Fred and George Weasley, all were quite beautiful. But Ginny had her own peculiar charm, a mix of pixy-like sweetness and pure Gryffindor grit. Now, she was asking him to help her with...QUIDDITCH?!

Oliver blinked. "Did you say that you wanted to try out for a QUIDDITCH team?!"

Ginny giggled, "Yes, the Scarborough Sirens are looking for a chaser. Fred and George and Charlie all think I could do it, but I need to practice a bit, and I was wondering if you could help, since you're the only professional Keeper that I know." Ginny looked at his handsome face, and saw that his eyebrows were still raised very high, and faltered a bit. "Of course, if you're busy I totally understand, I'll just make do some other way..." Ginny, why oh why do you even bother? Didn't you learn from the whole Harry fiasco not to have crushes on blokes that you could never have?

"Oh no, It's perfectly fine. In fact, I'm free right now. Would you like to have a spin around the pitch?" Oliver hurriedly spoke. Ginny smiled.

"Thanks, Oliver. I really appreciate it." He smiled back at her, and led her off towards the Quidditch pitch. "What type of broomstick do you have?" He asked her conversationally.

"A Nimbus 2000." She replied. Oliver quirked an eyebrow at her, then grinned. "Have you heard of the newest broom line, the Golden Flash? They have special broomsticks custom made for each Quidditch position. One of my teammates, beater Roger Davies, you might remember him as the Ravenclaw captain in the Hogwarts days, has graciously gotten them for the whole team. Just today, in fact. I think that the chaser broom should get tested out, what do you say?"

Ginny gasped. "B-but...those cost a fortune! What if I break it?"

"You won't. It's pretty damn hard to break one of them, actually. Let's go now."

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Soon, the two of them were on the Quidditch pitch, in the air. "Okay, Ginny, how would you like to do this?"

Ginny's brown eyes gleamed, "I bet you 10 galleons and dinner tonight that I could score 5 goals in an hour." She said in a challenging voice. A very daring bet, for it was extremely hard to score that many goals in such a short time.

Oliver's dark eyes narrowed slightly. "You're on." With that, he conjured up an alarm clock, which he attached to one of the goal posts. Then, he threw the Quaffle to Ginny, who swooped forward and caught it securely, fiery tendrils of hair curling around her heart-shaped face.

She is good, very good, in fact, Oliver reflected as he dove to block her incoming shot. Time flew by very fast, and in 45 minutes, she had scored 3 goals. He watched as she soared upwards to catch the Quaffle. She was a blur of red hair and slim black clothing. She tried again to put the Quaffle past him, and he was barely able to catch it in time.

Ten minutes later, she had succeeded in putting another goal past him. "Good job, Ginny, but you've only got five more minutes to score the last one!" He called out. "You're going to have to resort to desperate measures!" He continued, a teasing grin on his face.

Ginny abruptly stopped in midair, and her pretty face lit up with a Cheshire cat's grin. Slowly but surely, she flew up to Oliver, and stopped right in front of him, their broomsticks aligned, and their bodies less than a foot apart. Oliver, who was blocking her path to the goal, looked at her in confusion. She did not even try to fire the Quaffle. In fact, she lowered the arm that had the Quaffle, and raised the other one instead, one slender hand reaching up to graze against his cheek. Behind him, the alarm clock ticked away....two minutes left...one minute...45 seconds...

"G-Ginny?" Oliver's voice sounded strangled to his own ears. "W-what are you...." But his words were cut off abruptly when she leaned forward, sealing her soft, sweet, cherubic lips over his own. Oliver stiffened, and nearly fell off his broom in shock, but then, the hand that had been caressing his tanned cheek reached up to tangle in his brown hair, and pull him closer to her. It was a sweet kiss, gentle and tender, but with a hint of veiled passion, and Oliver groaned into her lips as his hand left his broomstick to clamp down on her shoulder, burying itself in waves of red-bronze hair and pulling her closer. And just before the alarm clock jingled, she tossed the Quaffle in a gentle arc over his shoulder, and it flew through the hoop, dead center.

They parted for air just as the alarm clock started to ring, and Ginny, still nestled comfortably against the crook of his neck, smiled up into his face. "I win."

He laughed. She made no move to leave his arms, and slowly, they sank to the ground, still embracing. "I guess you do, Miss Weasley." Their feet touched the ground, and he reluctantly released her to dismount from his broom and let her do the same. After they had gotten off their broomsticks, he glanced at her, unsure of what to do next. But then, she walked up to him, a shy smile on her face. Then, slowly, she put those graceful hands on his upper arms, and lifted up her head to look into his eyes. Then, she planted a feather-light kiss on his lips, and pulled away slightly only to ask him softly, "Do you think I have a chance at getting the position?"

Oliver smiled, and reached up to pull her close to him. She nestled comfortably in his arms, and he gave her his reply.

"Sure, you're pretty good. Although I have one comment to make."

"And what would that be?" Ginny whispered, her warm breath ruffling the hair by his ear.

"That last diversionary tactic of yours...I hope never to see it being used on another Keeper." Oliver murmured into her silky hair.

He could feel her smiling against the side of his face. "Didn't I tell you...you're the only Keeper I know?" She whispered before standing on tiptoe to kiss him again.

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