Chance Encounters of the Close Kind

Adrian Pucey was not the type for Ministry functions. Unlike other Slytherins, he hated getting dressed up, he hated the small talk, the pandering, the simpering, the bad food and the tepid wine. There was a time when he lived for shit like this, but after a war in which he\'d seen so much death and after finding a job he adored because one man decided to give him a chance when no one else would, he found these things to be tedious and time consuming.







But he was one of the old families and the Ministry had invited him in a show of affected solidarity. The Malfoys were there (no surprise) as were the Parkinsons, the Greengrasses, the Notts (he gave a double take when he spotted Lavender Brown on Theo Nott\'s arm, what the hell?) and even Crabbes and Goyles. There were also Muggleborn families, half bloods and those Purebloods deemed blood traitors like the Lovegoods and most importantly the Weasleys.







Because they were all here drinking bad wine and eating stale hor\'dourves to celebrate Arthur Weasley\'s appointment as Minister of Magic. Shacklebolt had conceded his position, stepping down to take over Scrimgeour\'s job as head of the MLE and Arthur Weasley had been unanimously voted in.







Ade couldn\'t have cared less except for the fact that Bill Weasley was his friend and he had come out to support him more than anything. Personally, all he really wanted to do was sit and mope in his room. He couldn\'t get Ginny from the night before off his mind. The way she tasted, smelled, felt, sounded... it was all indelibly marked in his mind. There were also the sheets. He\'d woken that morning and in the light of day, he noticed the blood against the dark gray. It was just enough to have his blood run cold. She\'d been a virgin. He\'d been so angry at that moment because while he\'d gone slowly, she could\'ve been treated much better had he known. Granted he\'d been pissed at the time so he wasn\'t entirely certain HOW much better she would\'ve been treated, but he\'d like to hope that it would\'ve been enough. She couldn\'t have enjoyed that first time.





And then there was that comment about Maeve. How did she know his baby sister? He should be worried for Maeve\'s safety, but oddly he got the impression that was the last thing on Ginny\'s mind. Her words had been caring, if rushed.





He wanted to see her again, but had no idea how to contact her.





Jerking his thoughts away from Ginny, he took a sip of the wine and suppressed a grimace. He wasn\'t so far from his Slytherin roots that he didn\'t know how to act, but he also wasn\'t so far that he didn\'t struggle to pretend he didn\'t hate the cheap wine, either. A flash of red out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and all his focus turned on the gorgeous red head that had just walked in the room. He was floored. He watched Ginny\'s eyes light up as she walked immediately over to Arthur Weasley. "Fuuuuuuuck!" he sighed. Pulling out a chair, he slumped into it and plopped his head in his hands. "Mother fucker." He\'d just slept with his best friend\'s little sister AND taken her virginity. Shite, he was so dead.



Ginny had taken a healing potion before going to sleep the night before, and so she managed to walk without limping funny the next day.





She\'d taken her time preparing for tonight, and knew that she stood out. As soon as she\'d walked into the grand ballroom where the function was being held, she\'d felt eyes on her. Of course, that wasn\'t a new feeling for her. As a Weasley, as Harry\'s girlfriend back during the war, she\'d gotten used to people looking at her. And the flaming red hair didn\'t help.



She kissed her father\'s cheek, smiling broadly, then turned to where her oldest brother was sitting, alone for a change since Fleur was home with the baby. "Seems you and I are both here stag. Think I can have the first dance?" she asked with a grin.



"Of course, bean," Bill replied smiling back as he took her hand and lead her out to the dance floor. Pulling her into his arms, he held her hand with his right and placed his left on her hip. "Nervous about tomorrow? Have you been studying?"



Ade watched them from where he sat and took a hefty gulp of his wine. He didn\'t think Ginny would say anything to Bill about their one night stand, but he waited on pins and needles no less.



"Utterly terrified. But it gives me a good excuse to turn in early," she grinned, not being a big fan of these events any more than Ade was. "I shouldn\'t have gone out last night, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, I just don\'t know. I don\'t know if I\'m ready. I don\'t want to make you look bad, too, after you went out and got me the interview," she said softly, laying her head on his shoulder while they swayed in time with the music.



"You\'ll do better than me, I can almost guarantee it," he replied, laying his head on top of hers and grinning. "There\'ll only be three people there, me, my second in charge and the Goblin in charge of the department and the Goblin is very... human friendly shall we say. After decades working with us, we\'ve sort of rubbed off on him. He can be quite funny when drunk so remember that and try not to be so nervous. I wish I could tell you more about the test but it changes from person to person."



With a sigh, she looked up at him. "I keep telling myself it can\'t be worse than the final battle and I wasn\'t at all nervous then. Why the hell am I so nervous now?" she asked, chuckling softly at herself. The song ended then, and she looked around wondering if she should sit this one out or keep dancing. Just then, her eyes lightened on Ade sitting at a table looking at her funnily. She felt herself blanch, the flush. Part of her wanted to go to him, see if he\'d want to dance, but... the self-preserving part of her warned her off of that. After all, he had seemed more than willing to let her go the night before and hell, he\'d never even asked her full name. She\'d been a one-off. It would be best to just remember that. Even if she\'d never forget him. After all, he\'d been her first.



Bill looked over where Gin was looking and noticed Ade turning away as if he\'d been watching them. Looking back at Gin, she appeared to be gathering her composure. "You alright Gin?"



Ade had to get out of there. The room was closing in on him and he couldn\'t breathe. He\'d fucked his best friend\'s baby sister and he wanted more. He needed to do something, anything. Another song was starting up so he stood, found the first mildly attractive, unattached woman and asked her to dance. She agreed, of course and Ade took her hand and led her out to the dance floor.





Ginny watched, feeling her heart clench in her chest as he showed her just how little she\'d meant to him, not even asking her to dance but instead finding an attractive Slytherin from Ginny\'s Hogwarts class.



Or maybe, now that he\'d apparently made the connection with her family name, he wanted even less to do with her than before.



"Yeah," she said distantly as she watched Pucey\'s hands caress the woman\'s bare back. "Yeah, I\'m fine."



Bill didn\'t believe that for a minute, but didn\'t press. Unlike his other brothers (except maybe Charlie) he didn\'t pry into his baby sister\'s love life. "Let me get you something to drink and then we can get some air, all right?" he murmured, rubbing her back tenderly.



Ade glanced over at Ginny and Bill walking off the dance floor and toward the refreshment table. The air was still tight and oppressive around him. "Let\'s get some air," he said softly to the girl. She giggled annoyingly and nodded. He didn\'t want to think, didn\'t want to consider the ramifications of what he was doing nor think about Gin at all, so once they made it to the balcony he pressed the girl up against a wall in the shadows and kissed her deeply. There was no hesitation in the girl\'s response and in fact, she began running her hands down his chest. She knew what she wanted and made no bones about seeking it out. Ade, on the other hand, closed his eyes and tried to imagine these were Ginny\'s lips he was kissing and her skin he was caressing even if it wasn\'t quite working out that way.



Celine, knew who he was, of course, and what he represented. Her family had been Sorted into Slytherin for three generations, but they weren\'t an old pureblood family like his. When he\'d asked her to dance, she\'d seen the opportunity it presented and had lept on it. It didn\'t hurt that he was amazingly built.



Once he started kissing her back, she felt like purring. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she clung to him, rubbing herself against him so that her skirt began to slip up her thighs.



Hiking one leg onto his waist, he unzipped his trousers and slipped his cock out of his boxers. He ran one hand between her thighs and found her soaking. She smelled different than Ginny, not like honey and spice, but more fake, more... just not her. Forcing those thoughts from his mind he slipped off the girl\'s knickers and thrust deep inside her. She wasn\'t tight like Gin had been and it only disappointed him. Why did he keep comparing the two?





Celine had no idea that she\'d been compared and found wanting. Instead, she wrapped her arms tighter around his neck and lifted her other leg, letting him carry her weight as he thrust into her, her back slipping up and down on the wall. "Oh, Salazar, yes!" she gasped, her head dropping back and exposing her neck as he pumped into her. "Oh, yes! Harder!" she cried softly.



He wasn\'t hearing this, he wasn\'t listening to the girl\'s commands and instead thrust harder and faster into her until he came with a soft grunt. That had been one of the least satisfying shags he\'d ever had. Setting the girl back onto her feet, he cleaned them both up and returned their clothes and her hair back to their original states. He also cast an contraceptive charm on her, ignoring the niggling in the back of his mind. "Thanks," he muttered, even though she didn\'t do what he\'d wanted her to do and that was erase Ginny Weasely from his head.





Celine felt a hint of disappointment when he remember a charm, wishing she\'d have that avenue open to continue trying to maneuver him, now that she\'d set her sights on him. He didn\'t seem to be cooperating, though.



Sighing softly, she stretched up and kissed his cheek. "Owl me," she murmured stepping back and tugging on his collar to ostentatiously straighten his bow tie but really just to continue touching him. She was still pulling her dress down and patting herself as another couple stepped onto the balcony, and seeing the girl in particular stop and look at Adrian, Celine felt her hackles go up. She stepped closer to him, pressing her breasts into his arm, and held onto his elbow. "Now that we\'ve had a bit of air, shall we go back and dance? Or was that the kind of dance you were looking for?" she asked in a voice pitched to carry.



Ginny and Bill had come out onto the balcony just in time to hear her strangled gasps of pleasure, and Ginny could feel her face alternately flush and pale. She\'d known she didn\'t mean anything to him, but hearing how little she\'d meant hurt. The other woman had clearly enjoyed herself, he\'d tried for her. Must be because she was a Slytherin or something. She must count for more.



The cheap wine she\'d drank earlier was roiling in her tummy, and she was torn between screaming at Ade right there in front of her brother and Pucey\'s bimbo, and vomiting right there on the floor.



Ade looked over and felt a stab of guilt though he wasn\'t sure why. Ginny was a one off, she made that very clear the night before. So why when he looked over at her stricken face did he felt like the lowest common denominator and a piece of shit? It didn\'t help that Bill was there too looking disappointed in him which merely served to compound the guilt. "We should probably head back in," he muttered, ducking his head and walking past Bill and Ginny and back into the ballroom. It was the second to last place he wanted to be, the first being out on that balcony.



"Look, I\'m tired and I have a long day tomorrow. I\'ll... owl you later," he said to the girl whose name he could barely remember. "Have a nice night." With that he turned and high tailed it out of there, his stomach feeling as though a nest of snakes had just burst inside him.



Bill looked over at Gin and whipped his hand out to catch her before she fell. She was swaying precariously on her feet looking very pale in the moonlight. "Are you all right?" he murmured, guiding her over to a chair on the other side of the balcony Ade had been on and sitting her down. The smell of sex was wafting over to them and even though he doubted Gin would be able to smell it, he could with his partially werewolf enhanced senses. "Do you want something to drink?"



"No. No, I\'m fine. Really," she said with an attempt at a reassuring smile. "I should probably go home anyway. I do have an early morning tomorrow. I think it\'s just the anxiety over that making me feel a bit off tonight," she said, wondering if he\'d believe her. It was at least mostly true, even if a big part of the problem was completely unrelated in the form of a very sexy bad-boy Slytherin who had taken her virginity and now wanted nothing to do with her. That at least was obvious.



Bill of course didn\'t believe a bit of it. Gin could be a good liar when the occasion called for it but she looked too rattled to be able to pull it off. Still... he didn\'t press when every Weasley instinct in him was crying out that he should. "Okay. If you need any help, don\'t hesitate to call. I should get going too actually. I have an early morning as well and I miss Fleur and Victoire." Leaning over, he kissed the top of Gin\'s head and gave her an awkward hug from where she sat. "You\'ll be fine tomorrow."



"Yeah. Kiss my beautiful niece for me," she said, standing and giving him a hug before going into the main ballroom to hug her parents and tell them she and Bill were going home since they had work early the next morning. Too caught up in the celebrations, they merely nodded, more than a bit tipsy themselves, and told her not to wait up.



Finally getting out of there, she made it home hardly remembering how she got there. Still in a daze, she made it to her room, stripping off her gown and collapsing into bed after setting the alarm, wanting only to forget what she\'d seen and heard so that she could be at her sharpest for the next morning.





*****



Ade woke with the worst headache he\'d had in a long time. Once he\'d gotten home, he\'d immediately set to drink himself into a stupor. It was the only way he\'d been able to get Gin out of his mind enough for him to sleep.



Maeve had woken him by blasting her music loud enough to wake the dead, but it had probably been a good thing for that. He was going to be a bit late as it was. Hopping into the shower, he bathed quickly, dressed just as fast and ran downstairs. He took enough time to toss back a potion to kill the hangover and grabbing a cup of coffee and a croissant, he ran out of the house, Apparating mid-sip.



"Sorry I\'m late," he muttered, hurrying into the interview room and carefully avoiding Bill\'s look.



"Send in the first applicant," Proudfoot, their Goblin supervisor, called out.



Justin swallowed nervously, as a goblin showed him into the conference room where the interviews for the open cursebreaker position were being held. He wasn\'t sure if he should sit or stand, so he stood here, feeling like a fool until the red head tipped his head toward the chair.



"Uh... hullo," he said, gulping a mouthful of air with his nerves.



"If you were being charged by a wild slavering rabid hippogryff and you only had a container of Muggle floss for protection, what would you do?" Ade spoke up after a moment of silence in which they let the poor boy stew. There was no right or wrong answer and actually it was one that Ade thought up off the top of his head, but the boy\'s response would let them know how he would think on his feet and thus give them both reaction time and personality of the recruit.



Justin stared at the bald man as though he were insane. Maybe he was.



"Uh... I would... uh...."



Frowning, Justin desperately sought a connection between personal protection and floss and failed to find one. "Um... stretch it across the path to stop it?" he finally finished a bit hesitantly, not at all sure confident that was the right answer.



Carefully hiding his smirk, Ade looked down and took a few notes while Bill asked more traditional interview questions. The boy was very smart, but rigid. He lacked that certain flexibility and easy goingness that one needed to be a curse breaker. He could do the job, but he wouldn\'t fit well on the team.







"What do you think?" Bill murmured, putting aside, if not forgetting Ade\'s behavior the night before after Justin had left.







Ade shook his head and explained why he didn\'t think Justin would fit. Bill agreed and called out for the next applicant.







There was one spot left and fifteen interviews. Ade sighed and scrubbed his forehead after the fourth. "This isn\'t shaping up so well," he murmured to Bill once the fourth interview had left.







"I have faith we\'ll find the right one," the older man replied enigmatically which should\'ve put Ade on alert but his headache from that morning was returning with full vengeance.



Ginny had sat nervously with the other interviewees as they were called in one at a time.





Just then, a goblin poked his head into the room and called for Ginny. Standing, she straightened her robes, and patted her hair. She\'d chosen her robes very carefully. They were shortish, stopping a couple of inches above the knee, and sleeveless, but not terribly snug with a high neckline. They were borderline sexy, but not, at the same time, revealing. Wheat they did show off was the fact that she was in physically prime shape. They also made it simple to get to her wand in its thigh sheath. Her hair was loose, long in the back, but pulled back form her face with a pair of combs her Aunt Tessie had given her as a present when she\'d finished Hogwarts. Simple, but elegant.



The goblin nodded to her, motioning that she should follow, and led her across a hall to a conference room, holding the door for her and then following her in. She glanced around quickly, smiling at her brother and the goblin she\'d heard so many stories about, then spotted Pucey. She blinked, hard, surprised to see him sitting there. HE was her brother\'s second? Oh, fucking hell mother-fucker DAMN IT!



Would he not want her because of their past? Not that it was really a PAST mind. SHITE SHITE SHITE!!!



Still, other than the brief hesitation, she didn\'t let it show, moving confidently into the room and taking the vacant chair at the head of the table, a smile on her face that was unforced, if a trifle nervous.







This had to be punishment. That was all there was to it. Why else would this girl continue to haunt him? Even as he cursed the day Ginny Weasley graced his doorstep and put him completely out of sorts, his eyes roved over her hungrily. Even two days later he could still feel her all around him. His senses were still consumed by her. Jerking such thoughts away, he returned to the task at hand, looking down at his notes without seeing them.







"What would you do if you were being pursued by a wild, rabid hippogryff with only a container of Muggle floss as protection?" he asked, looking up when he was finished.







Bill glanced over at Ade, noticing something flicker in the other man\'s otherwise guarded expression. The tension rocketed up almost to an exploding point and Bill could smell the emotions roiling off his best friend and baby sister, though he wasn\'t quite able to put a name to the colors he was smelling.



Ginny gave him a curious look, wondering what the hell kind of question that was, then shrugged.



"Well, first of all, hippogryffs are pretty much untamable, regardless. I, unfortunately, have had a bit of experience with them. And I don\'t think they can actually get rabies, as the bird physiology is their predominant form, the mammalian parts only superficial. But, be that as it may, I think I\'d bow so that it wouldn\'t kill me on sight, pray for the best, and use the floss as it was intended. On my teeth. Merlin knows neither Hermione nor Mum would ever forgive me if I died with something stuck in my teeth. But I don\'t see anyway it would be useful against a hippogryff," she said with a shrug and a quirky smile.







Bill chuckled softly and Ade relaxed enough to crack a grin. God, she looked cute, Ade thought looking back down at his notes.







Leaning forward, Bill took over the rest of the interview, grinning as he did so. He always knew Gin would be a good fit, but her interview just confirmed that. "We should have an answer either way for you by tomorrow," Bill said standing at the end of Gin\'s interview.







He shook her hand and while Ade didn\'t want to shake Ginny\'s hand, he stood anyway and held it out for her to take. "Good interview," he murmured, his eyes drinking in her features once again.





Ginny took his hand, feeling a bit tentative, and was surprised at the spark of... something... that passed between them at the contact. But his features didn\'t change, and so she did her best to keep her face impassive. "Thank you," she said softly, then noticed that she was still holding his hand and hastily dropped it. Letting go hurt, and she wanted, very much, to scream at him right there in front of her brother and his boss, but she didn\'t. Couldn\'t. Wouldn\'t. She wanted this job, and fuck if he wasn\'t an interviewer for it.





Fighting down the surge of nausea, she turned her attention to the goblin, shaking his hand before her escort once more out of the room. She cast on quick glance over her shoulder, but his attention was on the stack of paper in front of him, and that made her stomach churn harder.



What was it going to take to convince herself that he wasn\'t interested? That she\'d been a meaningless shag. He\'d gone out of his way to show her he\'d moved on already. Hell, he hadn\'t even waited twenty-four hours to find another cunt to fill. So why was she entertaining this... this....



The door shut, and she walked woodenly down the hall to the Apparation point. She wanted to just go home and curl up in a ball and cry.



Hurrying now, she went home to do just that.







"Would you mind telling me what that was all about?" Bill murmured as they took a short break between interviews.







Sighing softly, Ade sat back in his chair and ran a hand over his bald head. Bill technically had the right to know considering it was very likely Ginny was going to be on their team unless they had a stellar interview between her and the end. "I don\'t know," he whispered, leaning forward and sinking his head into his hands. "Honestly... it\'s confusing and completely fucked up."







"Is it going to affect your job? Gin was damn good and I\'m not speaking as her brother here. I want her on the team, is this going to be a problem?" Bill asked, cocking an eyebrow. He knew what was going on between Ade and Gin. The glances, the tension, the awkwardness... they were all indicators of a night gone very wrong, something Bill had been on the receiving end of a couple of times. But it wasn\'t his place to butt in unless asked and knowing Gin and Ade, they wouldn\'t ask.







"No. You know me better than that," Ade sighed. "Whatever... personal issues Ginny and I have will be put aside for the team."







"Good. I\'m holding the both of you to that."







Ade nodded and took a sip of his refreshed coffee, fighting back his headache. All he wanted to do was go home and sleep even if the prospect of his large empty bed was completely unappealing.