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SIYE Time:15:50 on 29th March 2024
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It takes a bucket
By Lady_Ancora

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Category: Post-HBP
Characters:Albus Dumbledore, Harry/Ginny, Minerva McGonagall
Genres: Fluff
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: PG
Reviews: 9
Summary: The story is not really possible, and much less probable; But what if Harry returned to school after HBP, and what if he and Ginny hadn't wokred things out over the summer? What and how long would it take them to get back together? Pure Fluff
Hitcount: Story Total: 3840





Author's Notes:
(A/N) Well, actually this is stupid. The idea came to me in the middle of the night, and didn't leave my head again. So, it's just stupid, and fluff. Please leave a review, and even if you don't like it, that doesn't matter just review, that would be cool :-) but please don't take this serious

Lady_Ancora

By the way, thanks for nominating my story. I don’t know who did it and I really hadn’t thought that anyone would nominate it...even if I didn’t win, the nomination alone was great!




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Disclaimer: It’s not mine...never been, never will be. Harry Potter belongs completely to the wonderful JKR






It takes a bucket



“Albus, you know how much I appreciate your opinion...but no...I have to disagree this time.” Said Minerva McGonnagall, totally convinced of her statement. The white-bearded man in the portrait at the wall smiled knowingly, and scratched his chin for a second as if considering something. McGonnagall watched him impatiently, an inviting smirk on her lips.

“Whatever you think, dearest Minerva.” He said, and looked at her through his crescent-shaped glasses. “But never underestimate an old, and how I dare say, rather expecrienced man.” McGonnagall arched her eyebrows at the word experienced, however, the smirk didn’t leave her lips.

“We’ll see.” She said, nodding. “And believe me, Albus, you shouldn’t underestimate an old woman. Ever heard of feminine intuition?” Dumbledore, however, suddenly grinned deeply and popped an acid drop into his mouth.

“I have.” He said, sucking his acid drop delightfully. McGonnagall was sruprised by his reaction, and wondered what might have amused him, when a knock on the door interrupted their...er...conversation.

“I’m afraid we have to postpone our little talk, Albus.” Said Minerva McGonnagall, walking over to her desk and putting some parchments into an order.

“Don’t worry, I believe there are more important things, right now.” Dumbledore stealed a glance at his golden pocket watch, and looked up again, surprisedly. “Oh dear, it’s that late already, I should have been gone already twenty minutes ago. Thank you for the pleasant conversation.” McGonnagall nodded, and before she really knew it, Albus Dumbledore had left his portrait, after popping another acid drop into his mouth, of course.


“Come in, please.” Called the headmistress and sat down behind her desk. The heavy door slowly opened, and a red-haired girl entered the room. “Ah, Miss Weasley!”

“Good afternoon, professor.” Greeted Ginny Weasley. “Professor Sprout told me you wanted to see me?”

“Yes, indeed. Could you imagine why?” Asked the headmistress, and looked directly at the sixteen year old girl in front of her. Ginnys glance wandered to the floor, and examined the woods grain as if it was the most interesting thing in this world. Of course, she could imagine why — but admitting it would be the death of her.

“No, I’m sorry.” Ginny lied, hoping that McGonnagall perhaps didn’t talk of what Ginny thought she was talking. McGonnagall arched her eyebrows again, amusedly, this time.

“Well, I hadn’t expected you to say anything else. But sneaking out of the castle over the weekend, is definetly channelled into breaking the rules. I highly suggest that you know about that.” Ginny began to bite her lip remorsefully. Sure enough, McGonnagall was talking exactly of what Ginny had hoped she wouldn’t be talking of.

“Fred or George might have mentioned it...” Admitted Ginny, a lame smile playing on her lips, her eyes literally begging for the headmistresses mercy.

“I’m sure about that, yes.” Said the old woman slightly sarcastic. “So what am I to do with you, then?” Ginny looked up, very unsure, and surprised all the same, because this had been the reaction she had expected the least. She had expected McGonnagall to yell at her, to take fifty ( or more?) points from Gryffindor, or to threaten her with a reprimand.

“I don’t know?” Muttered Ginny, questioningly.

“What about you do something charitable?” Suggested McGonnagall, but the tone of her voice told Ginny that it wasn’t quite a suggestion. More like an order. Charitable wasn’t the common thing to Ginny, but she had expected worse punishments.

“Of course, professor.” Said Ginny, her expression now more comfortable, and her mood almost good, by now.

“Fine.” Minerva McGonnagall exclaimed, getting on her feet. “So we’ve already resolved another problem. And the floor in front of the hospital wing does truly deserve a proper cleaning by the time.” Ginnys eyes widened immediately at the last sentence and her jaw dropped.

“Without magic?” She asked, truly shocked, and the smirk once again crossed McGonnagalls lips. It wasn’t fun to punish pupils, to her, but this time, Ginny Weasley had really deserved it. How could she try to disappear for a whole weekend without considering anyone noticing it?

“Without magic.” Repeated McGonnagall, and Ginnys shoulders sank. Her expression turned pained, when she imagined herself with a feeble cleaning cloth, kneeling on the floor, her wand sleeping in her cloak. It was so not fair. After all it wasn’t even really her fault.
Ginny turned to leave, without saying another word. It would take her the whole next weekend to get that floor clean without her wand. Wonderful. Well, okay, she hadn’t got too much planned. Actually she had nothing planned, but never mind.

When she reached the door, something struck Ginny, and she turned around again, a confused expression on her face.

“Professor?” She asked, visibly irritated.

“Yes, Miss Weasley?”

“You didn’t ask me what I was doing the whole weekend long, not even why I left the castle!” Not that Ginny was so eager to tell her, she was just wondering why McGonnagall wasn’t interested in it.

“I’m quite sure that you don’t really want to tell me, and I’m even more sure that I don’t really want to know.” Well, she had a point.



****


The following Saturday, Ginny was making her way to the corridor in front of the hospital wing. Her mood was bad. So bad. I mean, really bad. She couldn’t imagine anything worse than cleaning this floor the whole day long. This would be the most terrible weekend of her life. Perhaps.

In her right hand she held a bucket full of water, and in her left the cleaning cloth. It was a rather sunny day, for the first weekend in November, and the whole school was enjoying the last sunrays this year might hold for them. Ginny shot a longing glance out of the window, and sighed heavily.

Some little first years ran away at her sight, but Ginny didn’t care at all. She could imagine that she looked quite frightening with the expression her face wore, but it didn’t matter after all. Ginny walked around the last corner and her breath nearly got stuck in her throat, when she saw that this bloody corridor was even more huge than she had remembered.

Wonderful. It was nothing but wonderful. She had to scrub the floor for probably the rest of her life — and the most ironic thing about it was, that she wasn’t even the one to blame! It was his fault, entirely his fault!

Ginny dropped the bucket, and some water spilled over the edge when it hit the floor, but it was still standing upright, at least. She sighed again, very slowly, and very heavy, also very dramatically. But unfortunately it didn’t change her situation.

But she got the idea...it was slowly forming in her head...the perfect plan...

Ginny looked around carefully, but she didn’t see or hear anyone. Well the first years would avoid this corridor for sure. Madam Pomfrey wasn’t in her office, and there wasn’t anyone else around....so...why couldn’t she just quickly clean this bleeding corridor with a spell and then get away?

She took her wand out, and looked over her shoulder. But there wasn’t even Mrs Norris in sight.

“Lavando Ter...” Ginny began, her wand raised, but she froze immediately by the sound of someone clearing his throat very audible. Totally horrified, Ginny turned around.

“Chrm, chrm.”Said the person again, and Ginny let out a breath of relief when she noticed that it wasn’t Umbridge. Well she wasn’t teaching here anymore, but appearing out of nowhere had really been one of Dolores’ Umbridges talents. And indeed the imitation had been really successful — but wait! Oh no! It was Madam Pomfrey, and that was nearly as worse! Ginny quickly hid her wand behind her back, and tried to think of anything to say for her defense.

“Oh, er...Madam Pomfrey, hello.” Fluted Ginny when nothing better had come to her mind, and she put on the most innocent smile she possessed. Ginny slipped her wand back into her cloak, and brought the cleaning cloth into sight, demonstratively. She waved it back and forth, but Madam Pomfreys eyes lasered into hers as if she wanted to beam her away.

“I’m not stupid, Miss Weasley.” Said Madam Pomfrey, her voice colder than anyone could have imagined. “I’m watching you. All the time. So don’t even TRY to take this wand out again.” With that she turned her back on Ginny to walk over to her office, which unfortunately revealed best view over the whole corridor.

Ginny exhaled lamely, and stopped waving the cloth. She stuck her tongue out at Madam Pomfreys back, and ran her hand through her hair. She was thinking of any way to come out of this, but her brain seemed to be switched off. Snorting angrily, Ginny gave in to her fate and hurled the cloth into the bucket.

This fairly sucked.

****


It had to be some time around six, or seven, maybe even eight; when the person responsible for this catastrophe, came to Ginnys mind again. She had tried to strangle the cleaing cloth very often, to make her anger blow away, but she hadn’t succeeded, unfortunately.

It was his fault, well and maybe a little bit of her own stupidity.

If it hadn’t been for the Halloween ball (that again had been Parvati and Lavenders idea...) it wouldn’t have gotten this far. There had been no way she went to this ball, absolutely not. Because seeing him in tuxedo, and with a tie, was bending her knees every bloody time. It was like a curse. She couldn’t resist men with tuxedos. And she could never resist HIM wearing a tuxedo!

It had been the very same problem at the wedding. The only thing she had tried to do was getting out of Harrys sight....because he had worn this absolutely hot, dark grey tux. And she knew she would never get through such a torture again. No way. That was why Ginny had decided to not go to the ball.

And time had somehow developped her plan, and she had eventually gotten a letter from Fred and George, and so she had ended up, deciding that she would visit them over the weekend. It had been the perfect plan.

She had slipped out of the castle during dinner, and made sure no one had noticed. Once she had arrived in Hogsmeade Ginny had used the fireplace at Zonkos and flooed over to Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes. Well, yeah, the plan had been perfect. Almost. When she had gotten back on Sunday morning, Pansy Parkinson had crossed her way, after overhearing a litte conversation with the assistant in the joke shop. And what to say, the first thing this silly cow had done, was walking to Professor McGonnagall, and telling her that Ginny Weasley hadn’t been in Hogwarts overnight.

Ginny remained scrubbing the floor, not noticing that she was cleaning the same spot since full ten minutes. The only thing she was aware of, right now, was that Harry Potter was the one to blame!

Because he was the one who had kissed her last year, out of the blue.
Because he was the one she had spent the few most gorgeous weeks with.
Because he was the one who had broken her heart, by breaking up.
And because he was the one she couldn’t stop thinking of.

And if she could stop thinking of him, then she wouldn’t care if he was wearing a tuxedo or a bloody nightgown or nothing at all!


“I believe this corner is clean, now.” Ginny looked up, totally starled and saw that it was Madam Pomfrey, waking her from her trance. Ginny got up and wiped her hair from her forehead. “I reckon it’s enough for today, you can do the rest tomorrow.”

“Okay, I’m off then.” Said Ginny in relief, grabbing the bucket, and turned to walk away.

“Just a second.” Called Madam Pomfrey, and Ginny turned around again. “Professor McGonnagall, wants to have a few words with you.” Ginny raised her eyebrows, nodded again, and then took off towards the headmistresses office.

Ginny watched the floor all the time, and tried to count the paving stones to keep her eyes from closing. She was so tired of all this scrubbing and cleaning thing, and Ginny hated the imagination that she had to continue tomorrow. She yawned deeply, and suddenly noticed a wet spot on the tip of her right shoe. Ginny bent down to wipe it away — and sudddenly something bumped frontally into her with full power, and she found herself hit the floor hardly with her back.

“OW! Watch where you are going, you overgrown idiot!” Ginny shouted, and looked up, when she suddenly met a pair of green eyes. “Oh gosh, Harry!” Harry ran his hand through his hair, and brushed some water off his cheek.

“I’m sorry Gin, but honestly, you were the one not watching were you are going.” He said amusedly, and got up. Ginny blushed immediately, when she noticed that he was right. Why did she have to bump into Harry out of all students Hogwarts had got? It was so not fair.

“Oh...er...yeah.” Ginny admitted. “There was a wet spot at the tip of my shoe, you know, and I wanted to wipe it away, so I bent down...and...” Ginny slapped her forehead with her hand, to stop herself from rambling. “Whatever. Sorry, Harry.” He smiled slightly, and offered her a hand. Ginny gratefully took it, and let herself be pulled to her feet, only to notice the real dimension of this crash.

Harrys shirt was soaked to the skin, because of the damn bucket, and the terrible thing about it was, that the white shirt was so really much transparent now...and bloody hell! This was nearly as worse as the tuxedo thing! Ginny forced herself to stop staring and therefore looked to the floor. However, her glance wandered back after deciding that she had watched the floor long enough already.

“What are you doing?” Harry suddenly asked, and Ginny remained dumbfounded until she realised that he was talking of the bucket and the cloth.

“I was...doing something charitable.” She explained, nodding.

“Oh.” He replied, scratching his neck thoughtfully. “You were cleaning the floor.” Ginny laughed.

“Yeah, well, that’s the same to McGonnagall, obviously.” She said, and smiled at him. Ginny reached out for the bucket, and Harry handed her the cleaning cloth.

“Harry, I really am sorry...er...because of your shirt...” Ginny bit her tongue when her glance slipped over to his quite well developped chest once again. “And for yelling at you. Hasn’t been one of my best days after all.”

“It’s okay.” There was an awkward silence building up between them, and Ginny told herself to remain calm. She wasn’t standing next to Harry Potter, whose shirt was transparent, and who looked some kind of real hot. And she wasn’t imagining to kiss him straight on the lips, and to run her fingers through his messy hair, and — STOP!

“I haven’t seen you in quite a while.” Commented Ginny to stop her bloody brain from thinking such things, but she could kill herself for this statement the very next second, because she had only seen him yesterday evening at dinner. Harry gave her and awkward glance, and Ginny cheeks reddened again.

“So where are you going now, by the way?” Asked Harry.

“Oh...er to McGonnagalls office, because Madam Pomfrey told me that McGonnagall wanted to see me. I don’t have the slightest clue what she wants, but never mind. Why?” Said Ginny, and Harry smiled nervously.

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you, so could we...er...maybe...meet later?”

“Oh.. erm...talking, that would be...great. What about we find out what McGonnagall wants from me, and then we can go for a little walk, outside?” Suggested Ginny, and watched the dirty water in the bucket whirl around. That is, the few drops of water that were left, after their crash. Somehow, Ginny couldn’t look Harry in the eyes tonight. They stood opposite each other like two awkward children, both knowing that they were being stupid, and both knowing that they had to change it now, or never.

“Yeah, okay.” Agreed Harry, and the two of them took off towards McGonnagalls office together.

Ginny had to stiffle a giggle suddenly, because recalling their highly demanding conversation, she realised that a proper talk was really needed. They had been talking to each other like this for the whole year, and not to forget, the whole summer as well.

And it seemed so stupid to Ginny. However, after all, it had been his decision to break things off, and the only thing Ginny knew about it, was that she couldn’t be friends with him like she had been before. Either she was his girlfriend, and she could love him, and spend her time with him, or she was nothing, and their conversations would remain like this for the rest of their lives, and she would be unhappy forever.

This was a rather level-headed assessment of her future. And Ginny decided that she’d rather be his girlfriend than nothing at all. Things had to work out. No matter how, they just had to work out.

“Are you sure, you want me to come in, too?” Asked Harry, when they stood at the bottom of the staircase. Ginny nodded, and was about to take his hand with her free hand, when she remembered that she wasn’t actually supposed to do that. He followed her up the stairs in silence.

“It’s open.” Stated Ginny, rather surprised, and watched the open door suspiciously. Harry carefully looked inside, and looked for the headmistress, but don’t seeing her, he suggested they could wait inside just as well. So they walked into the room and left the door slightly ajar.

After eyeing the office closely, Ginny stood opposite Harry, again, and her stomach was flipping around for some reason. She placed the bucket at her feet. Ginny bit her lip and tried to look into his eyes, rather than staring at his torso again. Ginny desperately searched for something to say, even if it was only a dumb phrase about Quidditch; but she couldn’t think...the only thing her brain was telling her was the word emerald. Bloody emerald. And yeah it was true. His eyes were bloody emerald.

Harry seemed at least as uncomfortable with this situation as Ginny, and in silence they both felt very stupid, and wished that McGonnagall would at last come through this door. But somehow, the headmistress didn’t honor them with her arrival, and Ginny knew that this had no future, and if it wasn’t Harry to break the silence, well then it had to be her.


“Well.” Ginny began, her voice hoarse, and her heart beating rather loudly. “I guess, we can talk now and here just as well, can’t we? I mean, rather than standing here and...er...yeah...waiting.” She smiled nervously.

Oh god, did I really just suggest that? I don’t want to tell him everything now, I’m not sure if I want to tell him at all,...considering it...


Harry gulped, and Ginny could almost sense the tension between them. And she silently stabbed herself. Now, there was no way back.

“Gin, I ..., I wanted to tell you...that...”

“Yeah?”

“That...I mean...” Harry looked completely lost, fighting with his words, and Ginny was almost dying for him to go on, she didn’t think her lip would resist the biting of her fierce teeth much longer.

“Just say what you mean.” Ginny assured him in a whisper, and Harry ran his hand through his hair again.

“When we broke up...when I broke up with you...it’s just...it was....” Ginnys heart began to beat faster, and shivers spread to every ounce of her body, and she thought that he was finally saying it. “I was wrong, you know, and now...it’s just...”

As much as Ginny wanted him to go on; she had to admit how awfully cute he looked, stuttering in front of her like that. She could have that for the rest of her life. Well, ok, she could maybe have that for ten more seconds, because if it took him any longer she thought she might just burst...

And as her glance met his, she unconsciously took a step forward, and everything seemed to slow down suddenly. It seemed like all the weight was being shifted from her shoulders within seconds — when suddenly fate took control of this situation — and made Ginny trip fully over the bloody bucket, right into Harrys arms.

“AHHHHH!”

Crash, boom, bang.

“Ouch!” Harry muttered, seconds later, after he hit the floor, but Ginny wasn’t able to say anything at all, because she found she was lying right on top of Harry, and his arms held her tightly around her waist. Harry seemed to notice it as well, by now, because he grew silent, and the gap between their faces became dangerously small....and smaller...

“Are you okay?” Harry suddenly asked, barely audible anymore, when his face was only an inch away from Ginnys anymore. Ginny was like hypnotized, and feeling his breath graze her cheek, seemed to make her brain stop thinking. She wanted to reply that she was far more than okay, when she was cut off by his lips on hers.

Ginny told herself that she shouldn’t do this, but - Merlin it was bliss!

She felt her hands running through his black thick amount of hair, just like she had imagined it minutes before, and Harrys hands still lay on her waist, her skin burning heavily. Kissing him again, after so many months felt nothing but right, and Ginny was really getting into it.

Yeah this fairly was what she could have for the rest of her life, exactly this. Their kisses intensified, and everything became blurry...the fact that they were in the headmistresses office, the fact that they had broken up for the noble didn’t come to their minds,...that is, until...

“Chrm, chrm!”

“CHRM, CHRM!” Ginny shot her eyes open in shock, and Harry did the same, their gazes met for the matter of a second, before they wordlessly decided that they should perhaps stop. It was hard to pull away, but Ginny knew she had no choice...sigh. So she slowly turned her head, and saw, how could it have been different, Minerva McGonnagall standing in the front door. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest, and she seemed rather....er...angry.

Why, really this was annoying. Teachers never came when they were needed. McGonngall could have bumped in about two minutes earlier, when the silence had been threatening to kill them. But fine, now that they er...had worked things out on their own, she came in. Wonderful.

“I can’t believe it!” Exclaimed McGonngall. “Miss Weasley, Potter. I AM gonna get out of here, and return in ten seconds and I HIGHLY suggest you take this time to SEPARATE yourselves!” She slammed the door, and Harry and Ginny both winced at the sound.

Ginny was biting her lip, and turned her head back to face Harry, and suddenly they both burst out laughing. Ginny rolled over, and Harry got up and pulled her to her feet, for the second time that day. When they were on their feet again, they straightened their clothes, and Ginny tried to get her hair into any order again. (Harry didn’t even try to straighten his messy hair, since the attempt would miserably fail — what by the way really did him some good.)

“Well, that was what I wanted you to know, mostly.” Harry admitted, slightly red in the face, and Ginny giggled.

“Oh, okay, then...I have to say, that I share your opinion, Mister Potter. We should talk more often.” They both grinned, and then the door flung open again. A very furious Minvera McGonnagall stood in front of them, breathing heavily (you would think Harry and Ginny were more out of breath...) If looks could kill, well...

McGonnagall crossed the room without a word, snorted, and sat down behind her desk.

“I’m not gonna comment this.” She said, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Harry and Ginny shot each other a surprised glance, when McGonnagall opened her eyes again. “But the floor of the Great Hall hasn’t been cleaned properly in quite a while. I hope you haven’t anything planned for tomorrow, because it might take a while.”

Ginny surpressed her grin, and didn’t dare to look at Harry, because she knew she would laugh out loud then. So she just nodded and tried to remain serious. Cleaning the floor wasn’t too bad, after all. Especially cleaning the floor with Harry.

“Right, professor.” Muttered Harry, and Ginny heard at the tone of his voice, that he wasn’t quite able to hold his laugter back much longer, neither.

“You might go.” Said McGonnagall, her face expressionless. They took off for the door. “Oh, and Miss Weasley, don’t forget the bucket.” Ginny obeyed, grinning, and grabbed the bucket, before closing the door. Ginny would definetly give this bucket a very special place, because if it hadn’t been for the bucket...well maybe Harry would still be stuttering...


Minerva McGonnagall sighed, when she heard laughter and footsteps from outside, and held her head in her hands, shaking her head.

“I can’t believe I lost.” She muttered, and delighted giggles coming from the wall above made her remove her head to look up again.

“Well, Minerva, I told you so.” Said Albus Dumbledore. “I knew I could rely on Harry.” McGonnagall smiled lamely.

“I could have sworn it would take them longer. At least one day, only one day!” She said, her voice slightly desperate.

“I just knew that they would get things together before my birthday.” Said Dumbledore, and chuckled merrily. “Don’t be sad Minerva, feminine intuition is one thing, male intuition is the other.” Minerva McGonnagall got up, and held her head up high, as if demonstrating, that she hadn’t lost any of her honour.

“I’m not sad.” She stated, snorting, and Dumbledores expression grew even more amused. He knew that Minerva would eventually calm down. She always did, and he didn’t blame her, since he knew it was hard for her, losing three times in a row wasn’t very pleasant.

“I have lost this time” McGonnagall announced, raising her finger towards Dumbledores portrait. “But who could have known that Potter would get his arse up and talk to her so soon?” She let her finger sink, and put on a decent smile. “This isn’t the end! Next time it’ll be me, winning.” She took a deep breath, and smiled satisfiedly, whereas Dumbledores interest seemed to be woken up suddenly.

“Now, that you’re already talking of the next time, Minverva, there would indeed be something very exciting. What do you think, do Mr Weasley and Mrs Granger make it before Christmas?” He popped a piece of candy into his mouth, and scratched his skin thoughtfully.


THE END
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