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SIYE Time:21:02 on 28th March 2024
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The Aguamator
By DebbieO

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Category: Post-Hogwarts
Characters:None
Genres: Comedy
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: G
Reviews: 33
Summary: Somewhere between the Battle of Hogwarts and nineteen years later Harry and Ginny married and had children. Here's a real-life missing moment between heroics and happily ever after.
Hitcount: Story Total: 4924



Disclaimer: Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions in this story are my own and in no way represent the owners of this site. This story subject to copyright law under transformative use. No compensation is made for this work.



Author's Notes:
I dedicate this to my husband, Jim. May we always be able to laugh at our differences. Thanks to Ella and Hopeless Romantic for the second opinion. I appreciate it.




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Ginny stared determinedly out the window of the family’s enchanted car. This trip to Diagon Alley was really rubbing her the wrong way. Harry was determined to have George’s latest invention, a portable magical gadget that promised to create a powerful jet of water without depending on a wand.

“What is wrong with the Aguamenti spell?” she had asked Harry at breakfast when he mentioned going to town to buy it.

Harry grinned and flushed a little guiltily. “Well, it’s easier, you just press a button…and honestly, it’s a lot more powerful, Gin. I saw the prototype. The stronger settings could peel the paint right off our house.”

“Mhmm…and there is a reason for us to have a gadget that can peel the paint off our house?”

Harry looked down and stabbed his eggs with his fork. “You don’t have to set it that high,” he grumbled. “I can use it to wash the car, clean the porch…”

“Something’s wrong with Scourgify, I suppose? And how often do you actually clean the porch,” she demanded. She rose and took her plate to the sink.

“Erm…you could use it too,” Harry mumbled.

“How much does it cost?” she asked, turning and narrowing her eyes at him.

He dropped his fork on the plate. “Between 200 and 300 galleons, depending on the kind you get.”

Ginny swallowed hard and put her hands on her hips. “We don’t need an Aguamator.” A red flush was climbing up her neck into her cheeks.

Harry’s face darkened and he slid around his wife to put his dishes in the sink. Then he looked directly at her and said, “I want one.”

“Fine.”

It wasn’t fine. Not at all. Harry was continually grumbling about the rising price of Wizarding goods and services. Shortly after the Final Battle and their marriage, Harry and Ginny donated most of the Potter fortune to support the large number of children orphaned by the war. They had money in trust for their own children and eventual retirement, but they tried to live by a budget based on Harry’s salary as an Auror.

Their third child was due in a couple of months and Ginny was putting the finishing touches on the nursery. She wanted to buy James and Al something special so they wouldn’t feel left out when the baby arrived. She’d been out of work for three months with the pregnancy and could not wait to meet their daughter. She was counting on having Harry around more to help with the kids, not less. “There’s no way,” she muttered under her breath, “that I’m going to be stuck at home alone with our children while he pulls extra hours to pay for a stupid Aguamator.”

“Budget,” Ginny continued muttering, “…completely incapable of living by a budget.”

Ginny had gotten on her hands and knees to scrub her frustrations out of the floor, despite being seven months pregnant. She’d had to levitate herself back into an upright position. There was no way she was asking her git of a husband to help.

Now, James and Al were with Mum, and Harry and Ginny were on their way to Diagon Alley. When Harry made up his mind no amount of reason would change it.

She shook her head slightly as she stared out the window. Harry loved toys, both Muggle and magical. She wondered if it was an overreaction to not having anything as a boy. He spoiled their children with the latest and best of everything. She smiled thinking that he spoiled her too. Jewelry, conveniences, anything she wanted, really.

She sighed and turned to look at her husband.

“I’m sorry, Harry,” she whispered.

He nodded, but kept his eyes on the sky in front of them.

“You know, I want you to have everything you want,” she continued, laying her hand lightly on his thigh. “I love you. It’s just…you know, you have everything. When there’s something you like, you get it.” She sighed and started drawing circles on his leg with her fingernails. “I grew up on a budget, Harry. We never had enough and I learned to be careful and practical.”

Harry glanced at her. After considering a moment, he said, “I understand. It must be strange for you to have enough after growing up the way you did.” He reached for her hand and squeezed. “Ginny, we aren’t really rich anymore, but we have more than we need. If you want something, just ask…and when I want something, even if it’s stupid, can you just cut me some slack?”

Ginny nodded, then giggled. “I guess I can do that. So, you’re admitting this Aguamator is stupid?”

Harry dropped her hand and started tickling her leg. “I said no such thing.”

Ginny shrieked with laughter and grabbed his hand with both of hers to stop him. A moment later she said, “I just don’t want us to miss out on what’s really important because we’ve spent our money on things we don’t need.”

“What do you mean?” Harry asked, looking at her briefly, his eyes softening with concern.

Ginny sighed. “I’m afraid that we’re going to overspend and with prices rising the way they are, you’ll have to work more so that we can pay our bills.”

Harry nodded, but kept his gaze focused ahead. She knew he was thinking about what she had said, so she forced herself to stay quiet and give him the chance to consider it. Growing up Weasley, she had learned to yell to be heard over the tumult and fight for every point in an argument. Harry wasn’t like that. He listened carefully and took time to think before he answered. She admired that about him, even when having to wait on him frustrated her.

He didn’t speak until they had landed, cloaked, in a parking lot near The Leaky Cauldron. Then Harry took her hands in his and looked earnestly into her face. “Ginny, I promise that I will never intentionally do anything that will keep me away from our family more than is absolutely necessary. You are the most important people in the world to me. Do you trust me?” he asked.

“Of course, Harry,” she whispered. “I just wasn’t sure you’d thought this thing through.”

He smiled. “Let’s go.”

Harry took her hand in his and before she knew it, they were entering Diagon Alley. Their first stop was Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor, now run by Fortescue’s nephew. Harry ordered Ginny her favorite, Chocolate Chip Magical Mint, and got himself a Triple Fudge Dragon Delight. They reminisced about the many trips to Diagon Alley they had made during and after school, laughing about the time Crookshanks landed on Ron’s head and shivering at the recollection of the trio’s mad escape from Gringotts on a dragon.

When they were finished, Ginny was surprised to find Harry leading her away from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes and up the street to Wunderkind, the premier Wizarding outlet for children’s clothing, toys and furniture. Ginny had long desired a baby swing set up in the window, but Wunderkind was so expensive that she hadn’t mentioned it to Harry.

Harry marched straight up to the counter. “You have a package reserved for Potter.”

“Yes, sir,” the saleswitch answered. She walked into a back room and returned with a large package wrapped in brown paper.

“That will be 274 galleons, five sickles and twenty-five knuts.”

Ginny’s mouth hung open as she watched her husband pay the bill. “Harry, what is that?” she demanded as they exited.

“A surprise for you.” He smiled and led her back toward the Leaky Cauldron. After a few minutes, she tugged at his arm and stopped.

“Wha…wait a minute? Aren’t we going to the Wheezes?”

“Um, no…actually.” His eyes were full of mischief and his mouth twisted in a smirk. “A very wise witch made me see that I don’t really need an Aguamator.”

Ginny stared at him. He was now pink-cheeked and shaking with suppressed mirth.

“Harry, were you ever planning on buying an Aguamator?” Her eyes narrowed as she tried to make sense of all that had happened.

He laughed raucously. “Umm…no, not really. The kitchen floor is nice and clean now though.”

Ginny glared at him for a moment and slapped his arm lightly, before dissolving into giggles. “You are such a prat,” she gasped, holding her side.

“Hmm. Really? Maybe I’ll just keep your present for myself, then.”

She rolled her eyes. “You bought it at the baby store, Harry. It isn’t for me.”

“Isn’t it though? I think you may well change your mind when you see it. But, maybe you’d rather I be the only one who takes advantage of it?”

She tickled his sides. “Just tell me what it is!”

“Not yet,” he said firmly.

“When?”

“You’ll see.”

The ride home was much more cheerful than the ride into town. Harry and Ginny talked, laughed and listened to music. Harry wrapped his arm around her and she cuddled into his side. It was like being on a date again.

He parked the car and they entered the kitchen to a roar of greeting. “Surprise!”

Ginny’s mouth fell open. The room was decorated in soft pastel colors and a pile of presents sat on the table. Every member of her family and many of her friends were standing in the magically expanded room. It was a party.

“What’s going on?” she asked, bewildered.

Hermione stepped forward and hugged her. “Muggles have a tradition called a baby shower,” she explained. “It’s a party where expectant parents’ are given gifts for the new baby.”

Ginny nodded enthusiastically. “I’ve seen those in Muggle movies, you know…the ones we watch on the DVD player Harry bought.” Her eyes were wide.

Hermione nodded and continued, “Harry and I thought it would be fun to surprise you with a shower, especially since you are having a girl and will need things for her that you didn’t need with the boys. And we thought our friends and family would enjoy doing things the Muggle way for a change.”

Ginny smiled at Harry and Hermione. “Wow. I’m very surprised,” she said weakly. “Thank you.”

Harry ushered Ginny into a chair and Ron brought her cake and ice cream. A five-year-old, black-haired torpedo bounded into her lap as soon as she settled. She maneuvered him off her swollen abdomen and onto her left leg, and smiled as she felt a gentle bumping within her belly.

“Mummy, that looks really good,” James said, inspecting the forkful of cake she was lifting to her mouth.

Ginny smirked. “It is very good, James,” she said teasingly, licking the icing off her fork slowly.

“Can I have some, Mum…please?” he said in his most winning voice.

She laughed. “Of course you may.” Ginny immediately cut a bite for James and smiled as he relished it.

A distant crying had Harry out of the room, only to return a moment later with three-year-old Al, who had just awakened from his nap. Harry got some cake and ice cream to share with the boy, while the rest of the party ate and carried on a multitude of different conversations at the same time.

Ginny smiled at her father, who was playing with a Muggle dummy that Hermione had brought as a conversation piece. “Did you know the Muggles actually stuff these in their babies’ mouths to keep them quiet?” he said, repeating what Hermione had told him earlier. “Ingenious, these Muggles…I don’t know how we would have managed without ‘Silencio’.”

Before long, Ginny found herself bowled over by presents. “We’re going to have to be careful not to turn Lily into a brat before she’s born,” she joked.

Finally, a package wrapped in brown paper was before her. She smiled up at Harry, who had handed it to her, and giggled again.

“Open it, Ginny,” Ron shouted.

She tore the paper and gasped. The very swing she’d been fancying lay disassembled in the box before her.

“How did you know?” she demanded.

Harry laughed. “You stop and stare at it every time we’re in the Alley.”

“I do not,” she huffed.

“Do too,” he insisted, laughing harder.

“What is it, Ginny?” Hermione asked.

Ginny looked up at Harry with a wry smile. “My Aguamator.”




This story was inspired by a real life argument my husband and I had about a pressure washer. To husbands, wives and a good sense of humor.
Reviews 33
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