I'm the Harpies' Captain, season 6.
Minerva has her arm around a small second year Gryffindor. The girl's shoulders are shaking as she cries quietly. A part of her heart breaks every time one of her students cries, and it's no different watching Thelma Holmes sob. The door opens slowly, revealing Poppy. Minerva locks eyes with her from across the room as she rubs circles on Thelma's shoulders comfortingly.
"I'll find Checkers," she whispers to the girl.
Thelma looks up at her with brown eyes, tears clinging to her eyelashes. Her voice is thick and yet small when she says, "Thank you, Professor."
The young girl gives her a watery half-smile before she bows her head and scurries passed the Healer. Minerva returns to her desk, capping the ink bottle and moving her quill out of the way. She still has marking to do, but it can wait another hour.
"What are you finding?" Poppy asks, walking across the room. She spells all the scrolls and homework to the side as the tray of a food that has been following her floats down to sit on the cleared spot of the desk.
At the sight of food, Minerva remembers the lunch date the two of them agreed to last week. She pours herself a glass of pumpkin juice as she frowns. "She's the seventh child to have lost their cat this term. There's usually only one or two and the animal is generally found after a month. These ones are just disappearing. It feels wrong."
"And there's no sign of them?" Poppy asks, taking the seat opposite of Minerva. She grabs one of the sandwiches from the tray.
Minerva shakes her head once, taking a sandwich for herself. "If it was only two or three, I wouldn't be so worried, but there's seven missing, Poppy, and they can't have just disappeared; they have to be around here somewhere. I'm going to find them, or at least get an idea of where they might be."
The other woman hums thoughtfully. "I'm really not sure about this. But if anyone can solve the mystery of the missing cats, it's you, dear. Just promise me you'll be careful."
"I'm always careful," Minerva replies. A warmth fills her heart at Poppy's concern. That's what she loves most about her.
Poppy clearly doesn't believe her, raising an eyebrow at her. Minerva just smiles at her lover.
"How's the young Miss Zeller?" she asks, redirecting the conversation.
It works like a charm; Poppy starts talking about the first year who had taken quite the fall during Flying lessons a week ago. Her crystal eyes light up as she talks about healing one of their students. It makes Minerva's heart swell seeing that Poppy cares for the children as much as she does. It's what made her fell in love with the other woman in the first place.
She figures that since cats are disappearing, she'd have the best luck finding them in her Animagus form. It's taken years, but she's as just comfortable in her Animagus form as she is in her own skin. She prowls the hallways just after dusk, just like she's done for the past three weeks. Tonight, though, she puts two drops of Felix Felicis into her drink before her investigation to help her along.
It's barely an hour after she shifts into her cat skin when she feels arms wrapping around her, and being pulled against someone's chest. Minerva instinctively hisses, twisting to see her captor. She recognizes them immediately; she may not be able to identify the woman's normal pink robes, but there's no mistaking who it is—Dolores Umbridge.
Her voice takes on a sickly sweet sound when she coos, "Look at you! Just roaming the castle by yourself. You must be lonely. I know just the thing!"
Minerva doesn't like the sound of that. She extends her claws, digging into Dolores' arms and causes her to gasp, but her grips remains steadfast on Minerva.
"Now, now," Dolores reprimands gently, her voice just as sweet as before, as if Minerva's claws didn't anger her. "I just can't leave you roaming around the castle. Who knows what could happen to you!"
As much as she's itching to transform back into herself, she doesn't. Picking her up doesn't prove that Dolores is behind the cat disappearances. She has to wait until she has proof.
She allows Dolores to take her to her living quarters. It's nearly identical to her own; a small atrium that opens up into a decent sized common room, and from there, a door that leads to the bedroom and personal bathroom. The fireplace in the corner of the room is roaring when Dolores puts her down.
There's no mistaking the wards that activate within Dolores chambers. She's trapped in the woman's living quarters for now; she's thankful that the luck potion doesn't wear off for three or four hours. That's enough of a reason to stay that overshadows the part of her that wants to flee.
Dolores disappears into her bedroom and Minerva takes the time to inspect the common room closer. There are rows and rows of plates with cats moving on the surface. She knows that Dolores is an ailurophile, but this is too much; she is absolutely obsessed with cats. She has a bad feeling about this, yet she doesn't want to reveal herself because she still has no concrete proof.
When Dolores returns, she's holding a plate and her wand, a smile on her face. She places the plate on her table before making a clicking sound, trying to tempt Minerva to her. "Come here, sweet girl. I just want to take care of you."
Minerva turns away, thankful that her behavior isn't unusual for cats.
The other woman tries one more time to calling Minerva to her. When Minerva refuses again, she sees a flash of light before her body all but completely freezes. A rush of fear floods her veins. She doesn't know what Dolores has planned, but she knows she isn't going to like it.
"Aren't you a good girl?" Dolores asks, her voice sickly sweet. It reminds Minerva of how her mother used to speak to her youngest brother when he was a baby. Dolores runs her hand through Minerva's fur. "Your mean owner didn't care about you. No, they didn't. That's okay; I'll care for you now."
Dolores picks her unmoving carcass up and lays her down next to the plate. The smile never leaves her face as she pets Minerva more.
"You'll have all of the friends you could want. You'll never have to worry about your owner again," she coos. "Just think of how beautiful of an addition you'll be to my collection."
Understanding and panic rush through her mind. She's heard stories of witches and wizards using dark magic to seal souls inside of portraits and objects, and she's about to become a victim to it. Just as she's just about to transform back to save herself, there is a loud, pounding knock on the door.
Dolores sets her wand down with a soft groan. She runs her hand down Minerva's body once more, whispering softly and sweetly, "After they leave, I'll make sure you're never alone again."
The moment Dolores' back is turned, she tests her body to see if the binding curse has worn off. She's surprised to find that she has full mobility. Jumping off the table as quietly as possible, she makes her way across the room and slips out of the door as she hears Filch say, outraged, "He never came back and apologized!"
Halfway down the corridor, where Minerva can no longer see the two of them, she transforms back into herself. A moment later, Dolores rushes out into the corridor, Filch hot on her heels.
"Where is the cat? Filch, you must've seen it," she cries out angrily. "Minerva, did you see a cat?"
She turns to face her captor. Dolores' cheeks are red. Her outfit, which is somewhere between cherry blossom and coral, seem to compliment the angry blush. There's several quips Minerva would like to make, but she bites them back. Instead, she says, "It passed me a couple of moments ago. It turned left up ahead."
Dolores hurries off in direction she was told. Minerva wastes no time in going back to her chambers. Her luck is going to run out soon, and she would rather the bad luck that follows the usage of Felix Felicis to happen in the safety of her living quarters.
When Minerva walks through the door ten minutes later, she's relieved to spot Poppy writing at the table in her common room, a pair of lilac rimmed reading glasses perched on her nose. Her lover takes one look at her and puts down her quill.
"What's wrong, love?"
The fear and adrenaline slowly drains from her body. She sits next to Poppy and starts to recount her evening.
"There are dozens and dozens of plates, Poppy. I should've known; I should've looked into them at the beginning. She's stealing student's cats and sealing them inside of decorative plates!"
"We need to inform Albus of this," Poppy says.
Minerva shakes her head. She had a lot of time to consider her next move while walking. "It will be her word against mine. Even then, she didn't use that type of magic on me. There isn't enough evidence to prove she was planning to use it either. Even if they believed that she was planning on sealing my soul inside the plate, she could easily argue that she believed I was a cat; it's not illegal to use that magic on an animal."
Poppy takes her hand and squeezes gently. She meets Minerva's eyes. "What are you going to do about it?"
"Just warn students with cats to make sure they aren't wandering the castle at night. It's all we can do, unfortunately," she answers, frowning. She wishes she could do more than that. She opens her mouth to says express it, but she's cut off by Poppy pressing a gentle kiss to her lips.
"It's enough," Poppy whispers when she pulls away a little. "You're right; our options are limited. Warning students is enough."
Minerva huffs out a humorless laugh. "You always know what I need to hear."
Poppy flashes her a smile. "That's easy when all you need to hear is the truth. Now come, there's no point in waking Albus up at this hour. You can be helpful and start proofreading my reports for me."
Picking up a quill, Minerva pulls the finished Hospital Wing reports to herself for revision. In the morning, she'll go to Dumbledore about the disappearances and her findings, even though she knows their hands are tied.
Maybe they can save the other cats from the same fate as the others Dolores has already sealed inside the decorative plates. She's just lucky she had used Felix Felicis or maybe she would've been in the same situation, looking out at the world from a plate hanging on Dolores' wall.
Character appreciation: 18 - (Career) Professor
Disney: T5 - Alt, write about a character helping someone out, and it ending up badly for the character
Book Club: Nibs: (word) helpful, (plot point) comforting someone, (dialogue) "He never comes back and apologizes."
Showtime: 7 - (action) Crying
Buttons: O4 - glasses, D2 - "I should've known.", P2 - MinervaPoppy, W1 - young
Lyrics: 10 - And I got nervous, thinking "What's she gonna do?"
Ami's audio: 5 - Write about someone who is trapped somewhere.
Emy's Emporium: Italy 2 - Hogwarts, Spain 2 - Write a fic that takes place at night, Portugal 3 - Write about someone with an obsession
Angel's Arcade: Sora - (trait) brave, (color) red, (word set) light, promise, truth
Bex's biscuits: Jaffa - [word] Writing, [Emotion] Anger, [Harry Potter type thing] Magical Portrait
Pinata: easy - set at Hogwarts
Days: Hug your cat - Alternatively, write about a cat animagus.
Color: cherry blossom
Elemental: (object) Fireplace
Shay's musical: 10 - write about someone no one likes
Gryffindor: Minerva McGonagall, (ability) Animagus
Eastern: Contortion - [Dialogue] "I'm really not sure about this.", [Word] Shadowing, [Colour] Pink, [Action] Whispering
Southern: maze - lilac
Northern: Felix Felicis
Insane: 361. Ailurophile - cat lover
365: 57. Coral