Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.

"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her.

Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.

Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street.

On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat still sitting on the brick wall.

He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.

"Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his robes he was gone.

Minerva McGonagall on the other hand had decided to stay and watch over Harry just until he was found by his aunt and uncle after that she would go enjoy a mug of strong mulled wine at Hogsmeade.

She slept all night underneath the muggles car eyes fixed on the small boy.

Time seemed to travel slowly and Minerva began to worry the boy might catch cold before morning.

Against her will her heavy cat eyes closed on the scene and she fell asleep.

She had been so stiff and so alert on the child that she did not wake until she heard the piercing shriek that made her shoot from under the car.

Mrs. Dursley had opened the front door to put the milk bottles out and had discovered the baby.

Mr. Dursley had come running at the sound a very remarkable feat if you considered his enormous size.

By that time Petunia was reading the letter and Minerva was about to walk away satisfied that the child was at least safe.

But then she noticed something peculiar.

Mrs. Dursley had picked up the child and headed down the street with him. a curious look on her shoulder.

McGonagall quickly followed her while pretending to be interested in a blade of grass flying through the air.

She watched as Mrs. Dursley stopped in front of the dumpsters, held up the child looking at his face just once she shoved him into a black bag found on the ground and with a quick fling she tossed the entire bundle child and all into the smelly trash bin.

Without so much as a guilty expression on her face she turned around and walked away.

Where the cat had been watching McGonagall sprang forward and stepping on another box she quickly searched through the dumpster for the bag.

Finding it she ripped open the bag and pulled the tiny bundle to her chest tears streaming with sadness.

How could any woman be so heartless?

Didn't she know there were woman who would have killed to have a baby? Would kill to even raise a child?

Minerva held Harry close, what would she do with him?

Maybe a quick letter to Dumbledore would be in order?

Penning a fast owl with just one hand using a brick wall for a surface she wrote,

"Albus, We have a small emergency, it's about Mr. Potter, his family rejected him, the aunt she she threw him away, she shoved him in a filthy garbage bag and tossed him in a dumpster, I rescued him but what should I do now?"

Minerva

She sat on a nearby bench as the feel of the boy pressed against her arms brought back painful memories.

She had been young, and she was married to a young man named Steven Curtis McGonagall, much against the wishes of her parents who were both old fashioned and wanted her to marry a Ministry wizard but poor Steven had at the time been to them nothing more than the bartender at the Leaky Cauldron this was back before Tom was even thought of.

But she had been young and restless back then never much interested in the rules her mother had set down for her.

She was very taken with Steven from the time she had been but a fifteen years old girl.

When she had turned seventeen she had ignored the begging of her Parents who had arranged for her to marry the son of the late Minister of magic Hector Fawley who in her mind was much too old for her, Minerva had gone and eloped with Steven announcing to her mother that they had done it so fast because the two had discovered she was pregnant with Steven's child.

But only two years into the marriage tragedy had struck her life.

She had gone into check on her then one year old son to discover that the baby was not as she had thought but was dead.

Minerva had taken the boy to the Saint Mongos wondering how it could have happened so fast and so easily.

But the only explanation she got was that somehow his tiny little heart had just for some reason stopped.

Minerva had been in shock for days afterwards and Steven started coming home late reeking of whatever alcohol he had drowned his own pain in.

One day when she had just put away the groceries she had just bought and was beginning the night's dinner Hector had stopped in for a visit but it was not a visit of friends.

No he had come with some very bad news.

Steven had been found at the Leaky Cauldron dead from alcohol poisoning.

Minerva had cried for both her son and her husband for months and had then she had gone crawling back to her mother's arms in a world of heartache.

At her mother's urges she had taken up work with the ministry for a few years, as they had hoped that with Steven out of the way she would now find in her heart to love Hector instead.

But she had decided that moment she had watched his funeral that she would never marry another man, she just didn't believe she could handle that kind of pain a second time.

The sudden appearance of a man shook the memories from her mind looking up she found Dumbledore looking at her with sad knowing eyes.

"You look sad Minerva why?" He asked carefully he always had seemed to care about her and in her heart though she tried to deny it stealing herself from future pain she cared for him too.

"He, Harry reminds me of my Matty." She admitted.

Albus nods "well his Family refuses to take him so I guess he will have to be taken to an orphanage instead."

Minerva felt maternal instincts stir.

"Wait please, we can't send him to an orphanage they are horrible to him." She protested.

"What else would you propose me to do, Minerva?" He asked kindly.

"Well what if, what if I were to take him? I could raise him as my own?" She offered hardly believing her own words.

Albus thought for a moment and nodded

"If you are sure you can handle it then that would be a very ideal situation." He agreed.

"Done, he'll come home with me." She decided.

Wrapping the baby in her robes she turned her back on Albus and walked off down the street.