Think of England

Minister Fudge glanced up from the report he'd been reading when there was a knock on the door of his office. He was quite sure he had no more appointments this late in the afternoon....

"Who is it?"

The door opened to reveal a red-haired girl, no older than fifteen, clad in Hogwarts robes and blushing furiously.

"I'm very sorry for intruding, Minister, but I absolutely have to speak to you, and your secretary seems to have left already, so I couldn't ask her to ask you to..." The sentence faded into some unintelligible murmur; the girl was clearly terrified.

Fudge sighed. He was not an unkind man, but it had been a rather long day. "Very well, since you're already here, you might as well enter, Miss - "

"Weasley, Sir. Ginevra Weasley." The girl entered hesitantly and closed the door behind her.

Fudge frowned. "You would be Arthur Weasley's daughter, then? Is he sending you?" This did not bode well; with the notable exception of young Percy, that family was trouble. Stubborn supporters of Dumbledore, to begin with. And great friends with that half-crazed boy hero.

"Oh no, Sir - and please, please don't tell him that I came here!" There were tears in her eyes now; Fudge quickly ushered her into a chair because she seemed close to fainting.

"Are you all right, Miss Weasley? Here, have a glass of water, you look dead on your feet."

She gave him a watery smile, her fingers brushing his as she accepted the glass from him. "You're too kind, Minister - I really don't feel too well, I'm just so worried and afraid... would you mind terribly if I take off my robe? These school uniforms are suffocating, and it's rather warm in here..."

Before Fudge could answer, she had shed her black school robe to reveal the typical blouse and pleated skirt - though it seemed to Fudge that, in his school days, the girls' blouses had been less form-fitting and the skirts a good deal longer. This one didn't even cover her knees - and the girl certainly had fine legs...

Fudge blinked, shocked by this train of thought. He was the Minister for Magic. He was not checking out the legs, or any other body parts, of an underage schoolgirl who had come to his office in good faith. What was the matter with him lately?

The Minister cleared his throat and tried to sit up straighter. "Well, what can I do for you, Miss Weasley?"

God help him, now she was leaning closer. Fudge began to sweat. Had the two top buttons of her blouse been undone before? He certainly hadn't noticed until she'd presented him with this view of her... her...

Her voice was soft and so low that he had to lean in to hear her. "I came to ask you a favour, Minister. I've wanted to talk to you for such a long time..."

x - x - x

"You can get rid of that cloak, Harry; we're three streets away from the ministry by now."

A tad reluctantly, Harry shrugged off the invisibility cloak and stuffed it into his bag. Ginny eyed him curiously. "Well, did you get them?"

Grinning, Harry patted the bag. "At least twenty of them. Colin is going to develop them for me, and then this will be the last we've ever heard from Minister Fudge, believe me."

"I'm still not fully convinced that he's really going to resign because of this."

"Ginny, these are photos of him and a half-naked underage girl on his office desk! Can you imagine what would happen if these were printed in the Quibbler?"

"Yes, Mum would skin me alive", Ginny murmured, "and I'd thank you to not bring up any details about the last hour, I've been traumatised enough."

Harry gave her a critical look. "You don't look traumatised to me."

Ginny pouted. "I will be if I don't get my reward, Harry."

Harry blinked. "What are you talking about? You agreed to do this because we both know that we have to get rid of Fudge - the wizarding world stands no chance against Voldemort if he remains at his post!"

"I agreed to do what you asked of me, Harry", Ginny reminded him calmly, "and you said that you owed me for it, didn't you?"

"Yes, well, I certainly did, but... I mean, what do you want, anyway?" Harry found that he was rather dreading the answer; the glint in Ginny's eyes didn't bode well at all.

Neither did her hand on the back of his neck when she stepped closer. "You know exactly what I want, Harry." She was practically purring now, like a cat who knows that the mouse has no escape route left and is determined to enjoy the kill as much as possible.

True to that image, Harry's answer came out rather squeaky. "Ginny, what are you on about? I thought you were dating..."

"Never mind that." There was a steely edge to her voice all of a sudden. "I let a disgusting old man grope me while you were taking pictures. If you thought that I would be satisfied with your undying gratitude, you're very wrong, Harry."

Harry took a deep breath. Obviously, it had been a bad idea to underestimate her; the way she'd... well, had her way with Fudge should already have told him that, but at the time, he'd been too busy staying hidden under the cloak, not making any noise while taking pictures, and keeping his breakfast down. Ew. Ginny might not be traumatised, but he certainly was - and the idea of having to repay her now almost made him gag again. He knew that everything in life came with a price, but some things were just not on.

Harry had found out long ago that when push came to shove, the side of his character that he called His Inner Slytherin came in quite handy.

"Alright, Ginny. No-one should have reason to think that I'm not a man of my word."

Plastering a smile on his face, he put his left arm around her waist and pulled her closer while his right hand was reaching into his pocket for his wand.

x - x - x

"It was a lovely walk, Harry. Thanks for accompanying me."

"You're welcome, Ginny. See you later!"

With a nod, she wandered off towards Gryffindor tower, the slightly puzzled expression still on her face.

Harry sighed. He wasn't proud of what he had done to her, but if she'd got her way, he might have had to Obliviate himself afterwards - and he had a Minister for Magic to blackmail.

Which left him with another obligation to fulfil. Harry took the camera out of his bag and eyed it warily; contrary to Ginny, Colin had been clear in advance about the reward he was expecting for lending Harry his most prized possession.

Very clear.

With a determined expression, Harry put the camera back into the bag and walked towards the dungeons where Colin had his darkroom. He'd already behaved like a Slytherin on two occasions today, and given the results, he didn't regret it - but now it was time for some Gryffindor bravery.

Even if he had a sneaking suspicion that Colin would want to take pictures.

FIN