Chapter Text
The Montreal Magpies were a mediocre team, often finishing the season in the middle of the pack. Which, in a good year, qualified them to play in the European Cup, but not the ICW Championship. Since Harry had joined them, the years have been better, and they now reliably qualified for the cup, and even made it to the round of 16. The Porto Peacocks on the other hand were a staple of the Portuguese League, and usually a safe bet for the title. However, in recent years, they had suffered a streak of bad luck and injuries, leading to their recent elimination from the ICW Tournament, and the consolation placement in the European Cup.
Harry had been looking forward to this game, and with the recent injury of David Oliveira Esteves, and their lacklustre reserve, he had thought that the match was a foregone conclusion. The stadium in Porto looked like an ancient amphitheatre, and while far smaller than the one where he first saw Viktor Krum more than a decade ago, it had a very unique charm. He half expected the match to begin with the words 'Avē Imperātor, moritūrī tē salūtant', and the Quaffles to be replaced by some wild beasts they had to fight. What he had not been expecting was to face off with their grinning captain as the balls were released.
"Hi Gin," he chuckled as the Chasers were off. She replied with a two finger salute as they rose higher above the pitch. "Fancy meeting you here."
"I have a better chance at matching you than Patricia."
"Two times zero is still zero, Ginevra."
"Oh, you are going down, Potter," she hissed, still grinning.
"But not on you," Harry replied and dove towards the Portuguese goals in a feint. Ginny followed him through the first three seconds, but then broke off the pursuit and instead turned towards the middle of the pitch, gaining altitude to get a better view. Soon, she was joined by her former fiancé.
"Remember, I replaced you on the Gryffindor team, with a 100% win rate."
"You won one match."
"I won two cups when you were not playing," she continued, still grinning. "So you found yourself a metamorph? Did you want to replace me, or finally live out those fantasies about Tonks?"
"But you see, Shego is no metamorph."
"She is green. Which, admittedly, is hotter than I would have thought before seeing her."
"Yet you don't see the best part. Shego, despite being green, is not even a witch," Harry stage-whispered, which, given the full stadium they were in and the speeds they were moving at, was almost a shout. Ginny's head snapped around, and for a second, she just stared at him, before she burst out laughing so hard, Harry had to grab her blue-and-gold chequered robes to stop her from sliding off her broom. He used the lull to scan the pitch below, but the snitch was nowhere to be seen.
"Olha, dar em cima da nossa Apanhadora pode não ser falta, mas é jogo sujo do Potter!"
Whatever the commentator had said, Harry was surprised to see Ginny reply with a rude gesture, much to the amusement of the crowd. With a glint in her eyes, she then slammed into Harry's shoulder first, forcing him into a roll before she was the one to shoot towards the grass pitch. He was quite sure this was another feint, but he decided to shadow her.
"Talvez vocês doi deveriam continuar isso num quarto, hein?"
Ginny flipped the commentator off once more, and Harry decided that maybe he should learn Portuguese to be in on the joke. Or at least find a translation charm.
"You know, given how many of your hairs Kreacher still finds at Grimmauld, replacing you would just be a matter of brewing enough Polyjuice Potion."
The elbow he received in response was expertly aimed at the edge of his protectors, but it did not cover up the snort that escaped Ginny. "Why do you think I cut it short?"
"So that your mother won't recognise you."
"Merlin, don't remind me of that lecture. Ginevra, no proper wizard would want you when you have shorter hair than any of your brothers. I swear, I was this close to telling her that I won't need to find a wizard because I have a girlfriend."
"You do?"
"Gotcha, in your dreams," she replied with a different expression than when she was usually up to mischief. Then again, this was the closest Harry ever had been to her while she played Quidditch, so maybe this was just part of a game plan to distract him.
"Now that you've mentioned it, certainly."
"I was willing to pretend, just so that she would leave me alone," Ginny said with a roll of her eyes. Goal for Montreal. "Mind you, the lecture would probably only have changed from my haircut to the lack of grandchildren then," Ginny laughed as her team took the lead once more.
"She is still mad at you, then?" Harry asked, side-by-side with her. The bumps and tackles they traded were technically against the rules, but since neither of them complained about foul play, the referee's whistle stayed silent.
"Yes, because clearly a relationship only exists for her to be drowned in grandchildren. I thought Ron's brood would get her off my back at least for a couple of years, but if anything, that only put oil in the fire."
"I'm sorry you have to deal with that."
"It's not your fault. Well, it is because you thought you could get the Ministry to change its ways, and stayed on even after that dead-end posting. But that was then, I'm over it."
"How gracious of you," Harry snarked, only to see the Magpies down by 30. He had to catch the snitch, lest he ended up like Krum during the '94 world cup. "You know, I think you would get along with Shego quite well. You both like the same noise you call music after all.
There, below the referee!
"Look at me, I'm Harry Potter, I'm such a snob, I only like songs if it tells a deep and meaningful story, because I can't comprehend the story the music itself tells," Ginny snarked back. "Maybe I should tell Mother that you would like to accompany her to the next Celestina Warbeck concert."
"Please, that's cruel and unusual punishment."
Harry had been carefully manoeuvring them to get into a position where he had the direct line to the snitch, trying to keep her unaware of the impending defeat. However, she must have caught a golden glint, because in the blink of an eye, she was off. Harry had the inside line, but given she was maybe half his weight, Ginny was faster to accelerate, and much of his advantage was moot when she was ahead and could fly on the same path. But whereas she was quicker to accelerate, once he built momentum in the dive, he was catching up. Quickly.
A Bludger was aimed at Ginny, who dodged, then the iron ball clipped him and Harry found himself almost spinning into the stands. However, this meant that the second Bludger missed him completely and carried on until it hit her squarely between the shoulder blades. In turn almost toppling her over. And just like that, the Snitch was gone, and they were back to square one.
"So how's the wife?"
"I don't know, has Hermione stopped blushing yet?"
"She's your wife, not mine."
"I was only trying to make her feel better. She kept bitching about her date with Smith, and I thought she could use some encouragement," Ginny whined, and flipped her broom upwards until she was going in the opposite direction.
"Look, I am no expert on women, but even I know that 'I'd totally do you, I'd fuck you so good, you'd forget all about men' is not the most suave way to hit on one."
"I wasn't even trying to hit on her, only to make her feel better after what that son of a two-Knut cunt said."
"Two Knuts? Have you seen the woman? Her clients would be the ones charging," Harry said, and rolled out of the way of a Bludger. Another aborted dive for the snitch later, they were once again side-by-side.
"I still plead the Firewhiskey defence!"
"Look, I was drunk too, but I didn't hit on Hermione," Harry pointed out, as the Peacocks scored again. His team was down by 70 now, and if he didn't catch the Snitch soon, his role would be reduced to delivering the coup de grâce.
"That's because you have a girlfriend. Don't tell Dad she is a Muggle, though, or she'll run for the hills."
"Don't worry, I know a guy for introductions with your father," Harry chuckled as he imagined Drakken happily babbling about his crazy inventions, and the conclusions Mr Weasley would draw from whatever maniac idea the Doctor was working on this week.
In the end, Harry was the one to Catch the Snitch, for a final score of 340:340, which led to a penalty shoot-out. And while he was the better flier, Ginny had gone from Hogwarts straight to playing as a Chaser, first at Portree, then Holyhead before her international transfer. Which gave Porto effectively four chasers, to Montreal's three, all of whom were worse than their Portuguese counterparts. With predictable results.
Later that night, Harry got a message from Luna, asking him if he wanted to meet up. He did not think much of it, until he got to the part where she suggested meeting up Palácio de Cristal that he had to raise an eyebrow. While it was curious that she was in Porto, there were many plausible explanations, especially when it came to Luna. So he told Shego that they would be meeting one of his friends from school, and to simply roll with whatever oddity she had come up with. It was not until he saw her and Ginny waiting for them arm-in-arm that he realised that this was not a reunion between Hogwarts friends, but a double date. The resulting teasing was merciless.
"Did you hit your head on the way here?"
Those were not the words any man would like to hear after asking the most important question, but Harry could see the deflection from a mile. Perhaps shortly after throwing back an alien invasion and jumping out of an exploding spaceship had been too soon, but that was spilt milk now. His heart was still hammering, the adrenaline not yet out of his system. The Death Stick in his hand still hummed with the destruction it had wrought, seemingly happy with the slaughter the likes it had not caused since Grindelwald. "I am completely serious. And even though we fought our way through an alien mothership and, oh yeah, apparently aliens are real, I did not hit my head on anything."
"Aliens are real, wizard is shocked," Shego mocked before frowning. "Why would you want to get married? To Me?"
"Because I love you."
"I am a professional criminal and wanted in twelve countries. I'm not exactly what people call 'wife material'," she pointed out, but did nothing to remove the arm Harry still had around her back.
"I am pretty sure that driving back an alien invasion will get you a pardon."
"Legally maybe, but everyone will still know what I have done and will likely do again. It's the life I've chosen for me, and I'm fine with everything it entails. But you, I've seen how you are treated back in England. Worship does not even begin to describe it. You already have a legacy there –"
"I had a legacy when I still crapped my nappies, and most of it was propaganda, if not outright lies."
"No matter what you think, I am not a good person. I have tortured people. Killed them. Enjoyed it."
"Been there, done that."
"What? You?" Shego asked, speechless for the first time this night. Which, given the wrecked bridge of the alien spaceship they were standing in, was quite the feat.
"I know I haven't talked much about the war I fought in, but that's because those are not happy memories. It was not a heroic struggle, we were a bunch of teenagers, stuck in a mess way out of our depths while the government decided that the Third Reich was a good thing to copy. I've never seen the camps, but I've seen the list of people deported there, and I know there was no one left there after Voldemort fell. Thousands were being murdered, and two or three children were the only ones trying to stop it. At the end, I was so far past my breaking point, I tortured a foe for spitting on a teacher I wasn't particularly fond of," Harry explained and reached for her hand. "I've killed, probably around a score directly and many more when I crashed a dragon through a building. And for some reason, everyone saw me as the leader, the general."
"That explains your nightmares."
"You noticed?"
"Light sleeper. I know we all have our demons to fight, but I didn't know yours. Now I do."
"Spilt milk. My point is, I've also taken many lives, and can't even deny that I enjoyed it. Hell, I don't even want to know how many Lorwardians were inside those walking tanks of theirs, or aboard the ship we blew up," Harry said, and lowered his voice. "And it was fun – liberating even. I like helping people, even if that often means resorting to violence."
"You know, I really expected you to freak out at some point.," Shego replied quietly and kicked a broken flight stick halfway through the cavernous room. "We have a good thing going but I never saw marriage in my future. I know what I am. There will be a day when my luck runs out and they'll lock me up somewhere where I can't get out."
"You are a thief, an amoral mercenary, but in the end you –"
"Look, I admit that somewhere in the deep black bottom of my heart, there might be a speck of decency. But is that really enough to want a future with me?" Shego asked with a frown. "I'm the sort of person who considers a bank job a fun night in town."
"Again, I've done that before. Although not for fun," Harry mused and kissed Shego's forehead. "If it worries you too much, we can just stay the way we are. But if you worry about being locked up somewhere with no way out, let's just say I would like to see the prison that would keep me out."
"I want you, for as long as you'll have me," she said and pulled him down into a searing kiss. One that answered the big question better than any words could. Yet when they broke apart, there was one worry Shego had to voice. "I don't want to drag you down. You would never be able to have a normal life with me."
"Normal life? That ship sailed the moment a prophecy was made while my mother was pregnant with me," Harry dismissed with a laugh. "At one point, I had hoped to just have a normal life. Even after learning about magic. But that was not to be."
"Well, as normal as a wizard can be, then. I know what is expected of you. I've read that newspaper of yours."
"Other than a handful of friends and Andromeda, who has been the closest thing to a mother I know, the whole lot can just sod off. You or the adoring public, that's the easiest choice in my life."
"I don't want you to wake up in ten years and regret this. Regret me," Shego said, her voice more vulnerable than he had ever heard her before.
"Regret is an old friend –"
"You're twenty-seven."
"And I've been blaming myself for deaths since I was fourteen," Harry said and shook his head. He summoned a shard of Lorwardian armour and shaped it into a ring, gold inlaid with the burgundy alien alloy. "There are many things I regret doing or not doing. But being with you is not one of them."
Shego took the ring from his hand and slipped it onto her finger. "Then I hope you are ready to disappoint many, many people."
"Let them be disappointed. Ron and Ginny like you after you've drank them under the table, Luna is happy as long as I'm happy, and Hermione likes you ever since you helped her loot Malfoy Manor to the bedrock," Harry chuckled. His friend had given up on magical Britain just like he had, but she could carry a grudge like no one else. "Andy is a Black at heart, and you'd fit right in with our family."
"Then I hope you have a couple of more acquaintances you want to rob blind. I don't really see myself as a housewife, you know."