Yay new story, new fandom. I was reading OotP (the book in which this story is set) and this pairing has always intrigued me. Anyways, this rated for later chapters, please enjoy!
She was wet, cold, hungry, and so tired she couldn't see straight. All she really wanted was to go home and curl up in her warm bed and sleep for a few days. Instead her sense of duty and loyalty over ran her needs and she found herself standing in the grimy foyer of the Order's headquarters wincing at the crashing sounds coming from the kitchen and Tonk's continuous stream of apologies. She was reluctant to enter despite the warmth and the smell of cooking food.
Remus Lupin hurried out of the kitchen, trying to escape the heat and the noise and looked extremely relieved to see her standing there. "Professor McGonagall, it's good to see you," he said, coming forward to help her with her drenched cloak.
"Remus, please, I am no longer your teacher or colleague, you can call me Minerva," she said in a tart voice, too tired to bother with pleasantries or even common courtesy it seemed.
Remus hid his blush by turning in the direction of the coatroom, her sodden cloak in his hands. "Sorry about that," he said with forced cheer in his voice. "Old habits and all that."
She sighed, now she had to soothe his ruffled feathers, "I'm sorry Remus, I don't mean to snap. It has been a long…" she trailed off as she staggered, suddenly dizzy.
"Are you alright?" he was suddenly back at her side with his hand on her elbow to steady her, his voice laced with concern.
"Yes. I am fine," she snapped. And promptly fainted.
Lupin was fast enough to catch her before she hit the ground and now as he stared down at her pale face, he was amazed. She had never shown any sort of weakness before, never one crack in her severe facade.
He stood in the dark hallway, her thin, limp body cradled in his arms, at a loss as to what to do. Warm orange light and the chatter of voices seeped through the crack underneath the door and Remus took a few steps in that direction, wondering if he should ask for help. Then he remembered just who he held in his arms and how much she liked her privacy.
With the children home on Christmas holiday, they were over crowed as it was. He supposed he could put her on the couch in the study- a room that Molly and the children had tackled a few days previous- but he knew for a fact that sleeping on those small couches was uncomfortable as it looked. He would have to put her in his own room because with Buckbeak having taken up residence in the only remaining guest room, there was really nowhere else to take her.
Decision made, he moved down the hall and up the stairs, careful not to jostle the exhausted woman in his arms. He kicked open his bedroom door with his foot and winced at the clattering sound it made as it bounced off the wall. Minerva, still out cold, didn't even twitch.
Ever so carefully, Remus laid her on the bed. His hands hovered over the clasp of her robes, knowing this wasn't exactly appropriate, but figured that he would rather suffer a dressing down tomorrow morning then watch her suffer through a cold. Gently he rolled her on her side to pull the soaked material off her, wondering want exactly she had been doing to end up so saturated. The boom of thunder answered that question and a quick glance out the window told him that it was pouring outside.
He quickly turned his back on the semi-naked professor lying in his bed and busied himself with hanging up her robes so that they may properly dry. As he went to draw the thick drapes across the windows to block the noise of the rain pounding against the window panes, he noticed a glow out of the corner of his eye.
Swiftly he twirled, plunging his hand in to the pocket of his robe in search of his wand. He paused when he noticed that the glow seemed to coming from the woman on the bed. Worried that this might be a killing spell sent by a death eater or something along those lines, he took a few steps towards the bed, running through a list of spells that could be used to banish the light. He pulled up short when he saw what the soft white-blue light was actually doing.
It was if time was reversing itself. He had always thought Minerva to be in her late sixties, but now he watched fascinated as the wrinkles shrunk in on themselves, flesh delicately firmed in places and softened in others, and the small signs of old age disappeared. The glow faded around the body of a woman who couldn't have been a day over thirty. And still she slept on, oblivious to the changes she had undergone.
A knock on the door startled him from his reverie.
"Remus? Are you in there?" Molly Weasley called through the door.
With another glance at Minerva, he crossed the room to the door. "What is it Molly?" he asked not unkindly, opening the door only enough to wedge his body in the gap and block the view into the room.
Molly eyed him, slightly suspicious at his odd behavior. "Is everything alright?"
Remus ran a hand through his longish hair that was in desperate need of a haircut. "Yes, of course, you startled me is all."
Mrs. Weasley gave him a small smile of understanding. There were hard times and everyone jumped at shadows. "It's alright love, come down when you're ready, dinner is on the table." That said, she bustled off down the stairs.
Lupin was careful to shut the door behind him. He stole another glance at the woman, but she hadn't stirred. Swiftly he pulled off his robes and rummaged through the wardrobe looking for a clean set. He found some that didn't look to ratty and pulled them on.
He still didn't know what to do about the transfiguration professor- if that was even who she was. Still he couldn't just leave her lying in nothing but her lacey emerald bra and matching panties, her pale skin pebbling in the cold air.
Going back to the wardrobe, he routed around until he came across a slightly holey blanket, but none the less, thick and warm. He draped it over Minerva then charmed it to keep her sleeping.
Before he left, he placed silent alarm spells about the room, if she tried to leave, he would know. He tapped the doorknob, heard the lock click and walked downstairs to the kitchen, suddenly weary.
X*X*X*X
Remus was distracted throughout dinner and the meeting that followed. He hardly tasted his food and barely uttered a word. Luckily he had been cooped up at Grimauld Place with Sirius the past few days and had nothing new to report, except perhaps that he was beginning to relate to the stircrazyness that his old friend was feeling. Every time he tried to focus back on the meeting, no doubt important things were being said, his mind jumped back to the raven-haired beauty sleeping upstairs.
It wasn't until the meeting was drawing to a close, an hour past midnight, when someone noticed that McGonagall was missing.
"Where is Professor McGonagall?" Alsator Moody asked in his rough, gravelly voice.
Lupin looked up from the spoon he was fiddling with, alarmed. Then he glanced around guility to see if anyone noticed his suspicious movement. No one had. They were all looking around the table as if Minerva would appear among them at any moment.
"Maybe her assignment for Dumbledor carried on longer than we anticipated," Lupin said, trying to act as if he had no idea where the professor was.
Others at the table murmured their agreement and a few voiced heartfelt concerns for her well being and then the subject was dropped as people gathered their things and straggled out the door to catch a few hours of sleep.
Remus saw Molly eyeing him again and knew that his silence at the table had not gone unnoticed. He quickly made his escape back upstairs, pleading a headache to Sirius who merely grunted at him.
"Lumos," he whispered to the darkness of his room and the soft light from the tip of his wand illuminated the shadows.
Her hair had worked free of the pins that normally held it in a tight bun, and her rich black hair spread across the plain pillows. She had burrowed deeper beneath the blanket so only her nose and forehead showed. Lupin paused at the bedside and considered waking her up to talk. But he was so tired himself, his eyes scratchy and red.
He pulled on a pair of striped pajama bottoms and pulled back the covers of the bed and slipping beneath them, leaving Minerva on top. He was asleep before he could register the softness of his pillow.