Chapter 1
"Merlin's wrinkly testicles" the curse followed the flung parchment and quill across the room. The beautiful melody in the background doing nothing to convince the owner of the voice that things were not so dire after all.
"Why the hell is it so difficult this time? A mutter followed the curse word.
Minerva McGonagall, esteemed Headmistress of Hogwarts school of magic, sighed with frustration as she put away the empty scroll and pulled the piles of paperwork on her desk closer to at least engage in some productive work to show for her afternoon.
Steadily working through the pile, becoming more and more frustrated at the asinine requests from the Ministry of Magic, her hand grasped next month's edition of the Quibbler. The note attached indicated that the editor, Xeno Lovegood, would like her to edit the facts on transfiguration in the article before he printed the copy.
Feeling that the exercise would be a welcome break from her administrative duties, Minerva set about editing the surprisingly accurate article. Wondering who the author was, her glance fell on a poem published on the previous page written by an anonymous poet. Amazed at how the poet reached her emotions, she suddenly found herself humming the tune she was listening to earlier, fitting the words to the melody.
Inspiration struck. Since she was experiencing a creative drought, the possibility of collaborating with the poet may help her reach the deadline for her next studio album. How she found herself in such a pickle she didn't know. The composing of the music rushed through her veins, and yet she couldn't write a single lyric to fit the notes. And time was running out fast.
Without much further deliberation she prepared a scroll and sent a request to Xeno to put her in contact with the poet as she had a business proposition for her. Including the request to also remain anonymous, providing only information she deemed relevant and which would most likely pique the poet's interest, she added the address of her muggle postal details for further communication if she were to receive a positive response.
She returned the copy of the Quibbler as well with her suggested edits and remarked how thoughtful and learned the author seemed. She paused at the thought of asking him why the Quibbler was featuring an article on Transfiguration, thinking about the entertaining way the author seemed to present the discipline to the layman. She had no doubt that she would have more interested students after the article was published. Despite the easy tone of the article the author had been at pains to stress the required commitment needed to follow the discipline. She wished she knew who the anonymous author was.
Using one of her family owls, rather than a Hogwarts owl she sent the bird to Xeno.
Minerva had a rather interesting way of dealing with the demands and stress of her daily job. Since she had first stumbled on a Fender guitar in a small shop in muggle London, she has been writing, playing and singing for years, enjoying the pleasure she derived from an activity few in the wizard world associated with her. While performing at a muggle pub, she was contracted to a music company to represent her. She was happy to perform and release albums, for as long as she remained anonymous and only produced studio albums, no tours or live performances to protect her identity.
Usually she had no problem producing an album each two years, but with recent events in the wizarding world it seemed that her muse had left her.