A sharp, brisk knock broke the peaceful silence within the office belonging to Albus Dumbledore. The aforementioned person looked up with a look of mind curiosity and amusement. "Come in" was his clear and resounding response to the interruption of his work.
A stern, but elegant woman strode briskly into the office. "Ah, Minerva my dear what do I owe this pleasant but unexpected visit to?" He asked at the sight of his transfigurations teacher, head of Gryffindor house, and deputy headmistress.
She walked up to his desk but didn't take the chair he offered to her with a wave of his hand, which was odd for her. Instead she uncharacteristically fidgeted from one foot to the next, almost if she had a lot of pent-up energy that was just waiting to be let out. "Hello Albus" she greeted with a brittle smile.
Concern clouded his previously jubilant face and he inquired, "My dear are you alright?"
She fidgeted even more at his inquire and looked away from him so that he couldn't look her in the eyes. "No Albus, at the moment I'm not, but it'll pass…I just…." She seemed to have a hard time finding the words needed.
He began to rise out of his chair in concern for his long-time friend, when he was startled by her uncharacteristic shout.
"No!" Her eyes were wide with astonishment and something else, something disturbingly like fear. "Albus please don't come any closer" she begged retreating a few steps away from his desk and consequential him.
"Okay" he said raising his hands in a non-threatening manner and slowly lowering himself back into his seat.
At this, a stricken look overtook her face and she began to apologize, "Oh, Albus…I'm so sorry. I-I…" she sighed in exasperation at her inability to articulate her problem and shook her head. She raised her head to look him in the eyes and noticeably stiffened her stance. "Albus I need to take the next three days off."
He looked at her in puzzlement and gently inquired, "May I ask why?"
She again fidgeted and her gaze darted about the room in a show of discomfort. After a few more seconds she again met his gaze and said, "I'd prefer it if you didn't…It's um…it's…" she trailed off blushing. This brought an even more confused look onto the face of her employer. "Albus please don't make me answer that question. I…I'm not in any danger or anything. I just…I need a few days off or it'll be very uncomfortable and embarrassing for everyone."
A look of intrigue surfaced from under the concern that he had for his friend. "why would it be uncomfortable and embarrassing for everyone" was the resounding question that reverberated inside his vast and complex mind. "I can't give you time off without a reason Minerva and you know that."
Minerva sighed and shifted her weight to the other foot before replying. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask me if I asked you not to." She gave him an assessing look and then sighed once again in defeat, "but you're not going to let me get away with not telling you, are you?" At his confirmation that he wouldn't she took a deep breath to steal her nerves and nodded her head. She gave him a sharp look and demanded, "what I'm about to say you will not, I mean will not, tell anyone else." At his nod of affirmation she reluctantly took a seat in the chair after pulling it out so that she was further away from him then she would have been.
She spent a few seconds just assessing him and gathering her nerves. "What do you know of the side effects to becoming an animagus?"
His brow furrowed in confusion at her seemingly out of the blue question but knew that she had as good as promised to tell him what was wrong and she never broke a promise. "The person who gains an animagus form takes on certain aspects of their animal form. Some of the documented side effects have been heightened senses, faster reflexes, a change in appetite, and an affinity for creatures of their alternate form."
She nodded her head in affirmative at his list of the documented advantages of becoming an animagus. "Albus haven't you noticed anything peculiar about what you've just said?" At his blank look she sighed and elaborated, "Every one of those can be considered a positive, or at least neutral, side effect of becoming an animagus. Have you ever heard of a disadvantage?"
He ponded this for a minute, but then shook his head. "Are you trying to tell me that the reason that you need time off is because of a negative side of you being an animagus?" At her affirmative nod he continued to inquire, "what is so bad that you have to take time off and would be uncomfortable and embarrassing for everyone?"
She shifted in the chair and her eyes shifted to look at her hands that were fidgeting in her lap. "Because of my animagus, I go through these phases…." She trails off and looks at him hoping that he's understood and she didn't have to continue. At his obvious confusion she sighed and bluntly said, "Albus, I'm in heat."
His eyebrows shoot up in surprise at this shocking statement. "I uh…um" he shifts in his chair in obvious discomfort. "How…ummm how does that affect others, other than the obvious" he waves his hand at her, signifying the distance between them.
She gives a grim and unhappy smile. "When this happens to me it doesn't just cause a need in me to…um find a mate" she blushes deeply at that. "It also causes me to let off a pheromone that attracts all of…umm sexual maturity."
His brow furrows in thought, "All, you mean both male and female?" She gives a nod of affirmation. "and these pheromones cause people to…" he paused to contemplate a polite way to say it.
"To paw at me?" she finishes with a raised eyebrow. At his nod she continues, "Yes, it has the same effect as a veela would and it's extremely embarrassing for everyone. Mainly everyone else, I just feel…um…needy, while they lose their selves to the pheromones and become very,…well to put it politely, insistent"
"Why haven't you needed to have time off for this…condition before now?" He delicately and inquisitively asks.
She sighs, "It isn't on the same cycle as a cat's is. So, luckily for both my sake and everyone else, it only happens every 3 years and normally falls during the summer holiday, but this year it's off." A contemplative look overcomes her features at that. "I don't know why it's suddenly changed, all I know is that it has and is going to cause problems if I don't leave today."
"How exactly will it cause problems? Couldn't you just stay in your rooms and not come out, have the house elves bring you food?" he inquires.
"No, unfortunately it's a pheromone that I produce, so even if no one sees me they'll still be violently drawn to me. Also, all" and she emphasizes 'all', "creatures are drawn to me, so the house elves couldn't bring me food."
He ponders that for a while and then asks a question that she knew would be brought up after what she'd just said. "If all creatures and drawn to you then where can you go?"
Her lips quirk in a slight smile, "On my property I have a section of land that's warded against everything living, so I stay there for the deration of my cycle."
Albus nods in affirmation and strokes his beard, "Okay, then you have my permission to leave for the three days. I'll have the teachers trade off on watching your cubs and I get to try out teaching again," he finishes with a wide and excited smile.
Minerva nods her head and gets up from the chair and heads to the door. Right before she leaves she turns back around and asks, "What are you going to put on file as to my absence?"
He gives a kind and knowing smile, "That you are going to a friend's funeral."
She nods in acknowledgment and gives a brief smile. "Thank you, Albus." She turns and leaves to pack the necessities she will need for her three days of seclusion.