Hi! So, it's been kinda long since I've last posted on Harry Potter, and it's been a century since I've written in English. But well!

First things first, this is a OS on Severus and Minerva as a couple. I do realise they are not a particularly popular pairing, but I do enjoy seeing them together. I have a huuuuge background story for them, which might make you accept the pairing a bit more, but it is in French. Anyway, please do enter here with an open mind as to that pairing. (To sum it up, they take years warming up to one another, take years accepting their feelings, and are always in a respectful/loving relationship)

Furthermore, I am FRENCH. Yep... so there will be mistakes and weird sentencing, that's for sure. I do apologize. Please be kind. I'm exercizing my command of the language, but it's obviously far from perfect.

And finally, I've written this as an order from BobSherlock, a friend of mine. She's proof-read it and approved soooo...! It's an OS. It might be followed by others but I don't commit to anything because I just don't know yet! As it is a present, it's rather light and sweet, no big deal!

Well, now I hope you ENJOY. And please leave comments. They do make my day!

Love, xxx, Bergère

Ghostly surprise

It was their night to take the shift and check on the whole castle. It was the deep of the night, mid-February, and they had, at last, finished their round in the upper parts of Hogwarts, which is to say they didn't have to go outside anymore for the night. That was a relief. Minerva was standing stiffer than ever, her whole body cold, from her toes to the tip of her fingers, and everywhere in-between. Yes, she could have cast a heating charm. Yes, she could have. But that would have implied lack of discretion, and probably some nasty jokes from Severus, who never missed an occasion to mock her. So she felt cold. He probably did too, actually, but he was very good at hiding stuff like that.

He had slowly approached her, in the dark, one step at a time, inclining his tall figure towards hers. At some point, he brushed her arm with his. She shivered slightly. She knew they wouldn't speak – they didn't… Well, no, truly they spent their whole time speaking and arguing and bickering and whatever else you would name such friendly intercourse. But since they'd kissed, then hated each other's guts, then kissed again, and settled in an intimate though righteous relationship in which every kiss, every touch, every trace of sensitiveness was covered in layers of good manners and silent discretion, they didn't speak about it. So, as his arm slid in her elbow, slightly pressing her flank, she kept silent and even repressed a sigh. They were both out of their comfort zones, looking uneasy and trying to project the idea of carelessness, when every inch of them was entirely focused on this contact, remotely related as it was to an embrace.

However, as they went on, she relaxed in his arm, and he slid closer to her. They walked slowly now, looking in the darkness, in the distance of the corridor. They were close to the entrance of the Library. The huge wooden door wasn't closed, but it never was. Nevertheless, she directed him towards the room, the door creaked and opened wide. No light was in sight, and no noise either, but lots of students had homework to do before the holidays and it was a particularly favourable moment in the year for students to stay late, working or Merlin knew what. They lit their wands and walked in. Severus let go of her arm, and took the lead, lurking around the Restricted Section which was indeed empty.

"Hominem revelio," she whispered, "no one here."

"Good." He nodded, and came back to her. They were, truly, alone.

He hesitated, wondering whether he dared or not, forgetting in the process if he desired it deep inside. In the end, he breathed heavily and got closer and leaned it, kissing her. Her lips were cold from their walk in the wind, but she still gave him a definite sense of warmth and wellness. Right now she was, truthfully, both fire and ice. The feeling was most exquisite, as unsettling as it was, and filled him, as kissing Minerva McGonagall always did, with a different notion of himself. As for her, she couldn't escape a weird movement of surprise, every time they shared such a moment. It wasn't judgement or hesitation, truly. Only just the remnants of her older conscience. He was, after all, so much younger. Still, she grew close to him, pressing close to his heart. Yes, still, this felt good, and right, and as long as no one felt the need to talk about it, everything was fine.

The air was pure, but in the darkness something like a cough echoed, a feather-like sound which had them both start anyway. He was about a foot from her, already, and she was looking around for anything, anyone. Still the Library was airily silent and seemed perfectly empty. There was barely a shimmering, somewhere close to the high tall windows. A weird chuckling shimmering, as it were. She cleared her throat which had kept the tightness of the emotion of a kiss, and lit her wand again.

"Who's here?"

"Where?" asked Severus, turning towards her with a shudder.

"Over there, up by the window. I think it might…"

"Yes, that'd be me, lady and gentleman."

Moving from its high position, with a gracious movement, a ghost grow closer to them and clearer in the light they produced. Disappearing for long amounts of time, she had become a master in the art of making herself completely forgotten, and then, every now and then, go around the Library pranking and mocking around. The Library Ghost, as she was called, had once been a student. She never said anyone when she'd lived or died, but it had obviously be a good 200 hundred years, because most modern records seemed to acknowledge her come-and-go existence. She stopped in front of them with a huge grin. Minerva side-glanced at Severus, but he was glaring at her with such an intensity there was no way he'd gaze at his colleague and lover for even a moment.

"Being naughty, are we?" joked the ghost.

He felt himself redden a little, but did not avert his eyes from hers, pretty determined not to look a fool more than he already did. Minerva's lips were pressed so tight she could feel her jaw hurt a bit. The three of them let an awkward silence linger, one of them obviously enjoying the situation a lot more than the two others did.

"Well, well, no need to be ashamed. I wouldn't have bet on you two sneaking around to snog in the library, but I've seen things far worse," she added with a suggestive movement of her eyebrows. "And I've also seen far worse in terms of match."

"Lola!" exclaimed Severus, losing his patience – which was always pretty short anyway.

"Oh. You know my name," she said, "getting so close to him he could feel her weird coldness."

"Yes, I used to hang around a lot in here, when I was younger and friendless. You actually befriended me, hassling me so I'd go after my one true love, remember?"

Minerva had never heard of such a story, but remained silent and as discreet as possible, drinking in the information while thinking on the weirdness of the whole thing. How could they have been stupid enough to forget there was a bloody ghost roaming in these parts of the castle!

"Yes, right," she said with a bored shake of her hand, "you never did listen to me at the time."

"Indeed," answered Severus in that icy tone he so easily used.

"Well, well, I shall go now," said the ghost with a wink.

"Go?" asked Minerva, stepping in at last. "But you never ever leave the Library. That's altogether the one thing that everyone at school knows."

"Oh but it's not a rule. Merely a habit of mine. Habits are made to change, wouldn't you say?"

"Maybe…" she shrugged in a long hesitant way, not quite sure all this was as innocent as she made it sound.

"But why the rush?" asked Severus with a frown.

"Well, when something extraordinary happens, don't we all hush around with the news?"

There was a pause. The air stood still, for a moment, no one moved. The obvious truth that she was most probably just kidding around didn't even strike them. They stood stupid and staring for a moment before exclaiming together:

"Please, don't go to Albus!"

"You can't possibly go talk about this to the Headmaster."

Taken aback at how synchronized they'd been, they turned for a split second, exchanged a look, and then their whole attention was back on Lola. Rather like two hunted beasts in front of the tiger. A tiger who, obviously extremely amused by the whole situation, burst out laughing in a high-pitched voice that could hardly have been any louder. She went on chuckling for some time, before flying through the wall with a:

"Goodbye my friends!" that didn't inspire much confidence.

They found themselves facing one another, utterly dumbfounded, and mostly terrified at the notion of Albus Dumbledore coming in and commenting, acting or even just knowing about their love affair. It was Minerva who recovered first. She stood as tall as she could, absolutely un-sensual, and her voice cut through the air:

"And couldn't you have remembered she dwells here?"

"Me?" he exclaimed. "As I recall, you didn't warn me either!"

"And?" she went on. She had no point to make, and neither did he. Whatever.

"Well then I don't see how this is my fault more than it is yours," he attacked.

"If one must enter into technicalities, you kissed me. Remember?"

"And then you embraced me."

"Let's not talk about that," she cut through. "All I'm saying is, we could have avoided this situation."

"Precisely, we could have, Minerva."

"Oh don't start with this childish nonsense!"

"Childish. I do hope you are kidding, Minerva, because I most certainly can see one person acting like a child, right now, and that would be you."

"Are you saying I'm immature?"

"I'm saying what I said. Which was pretty straightforward."

"You are ridiculous!" she exclaimed, hiding her discontent behind disdain.

"All that contempt won't make you right, Minerva! And it won't make the bloody situation right either. I swear, if Albus…"

"Yeah well if so… don't you dare put it down on me!" With that, she stormed out, leaving a weird silence behind her. But her footsteps came back, and she slid her head through the half-opened doorway: "And finish the shift, will you!"

"And why would I do this?" he yelled as she walked away.

"Consider it an order from the Deputy Headmistress!" Her voice came back to him in a haze, distant, but clear enough. He would have thrown something at her with great pleasure, but leaving the room angrily, he complied, taking large forceful steps as he went.

.

The next morning saw a rather rigid breakfast at the teachers' table. Severus and Minerva were sitting on either side of Albus, by some misfortune, avoiding each other's gaze and taking angry bites at their food, both somehow fearing that the other play a prank of some sort on them as a revenge. Their true problem, however, was the tall bearded man, smiling happily at his crumbled eggs and fresh tea, who stood in-between them. As disinterested in the other as they tried to look, they were both devoured by a similar curiosity: did he or did he not know? By the looks of him, there was no knowing it. At some point however, probably aware of the heavy silence that weighted all around him, he turned to Minerva with the terrible twinkling of his blue eyes that usually meant, in situation such as this one, trouble.

"You can never guess, Minerva, what happened to me yesterday night!"

"Indeed, no," she answered in a rather strangled voice. Behind Albus, she could see Severus, torn between fear and amusement, his black eyes going from her silhouette to Albus' with obvious impatience. He, lucky as he was, did not need to act like everything was alright under the ever-scrutinizing gaze of the Headmaster.

"Well, Lola Andrews, the elusive ghost of the Library, came to see me."

"Oh, really?" She could feel her throat tightening and her heart beating faster. O Merlin, was this bad. Would Albus really expose them in front of the whole school? And why on earth did it have to be her and not him taking the toughest blow!

"Yes. A most welcome though unexpected surprise, I can assure you! She's so rarely out of her bookish universe."

"I didn't even know her full name," she spluttered out, at a loss for something to say that wouldn't hasten the inevitable end to this conversation.

"It's Lola Andrews. A most lovely muggle name. She told me that yesterday night."

"Did she now?" she asked, a tiny bit of anger showing in her voice this time. Had the ghost decided to make a show of her news? It was very like her!

Albus let some time go by. She wasn't going to ask what the ghost had come to say, there was no way she'd do that! But looking at her friend with this paralyzed expression was growing harder and harder. Behing the Headmaster, Severus knocked his tea, and hurried around with Albus' sleeve to clean up the mess: as angry as she was with him, she couldn't help but feel thankful for the momentarily distraction that gave her some time to compose herself. Turning back to her, Albus finally concluded:

"Yes, she came with very nice news! I must say I am delighted."

"Are you?" she asked with a doubtful note in her voice.

"Well yes. Why would you be so surprised, Minerva? You haven't even heard the news yet! She has decided to play a more active part in the life of the castle, to help its inhabitants, and so on. She said she had a revelation, around midnight, that the library was, she said, a loving place, but not enough maybe for her."

"Really?" She suppressed the urge to sigh her relief. Whatever the ghost had in store for them, it wasn't a grand revelation to the eyes of the world – that is to say, to Dumbledore.

"Yes. Her belief is that she can help students with the knowledge stored in all those shelves. She said there's lots that is meant to be known, but also lots that is meant to remain hidden, and that some people sometimes are… How did she put it? Yes! are quite unable to feel the difference. Nicely phrased, uh?"

All she could do was nod, seeking Severus' eyes behind the Headmaster. Could this really be happening?

"So yes, she thinks she might be able to… You know, to make the Library and the school in general both less and more secretive. I must say, I do adore this idea. It's a very mature view for a teenager."

"Isn't she some hundred years old?" asked Severus, making Albus turn.

"Oh yes. But some people keep their young spirit forever!"

This time, she just couldn't keep it. A short chuckle escaped her, and she was delighted to hear Severus' laugh echo hers, for just a second.

"Well what is so funny?"

"Nothing, Albus," he answered, "your enthusiasm is quite adorable sometimes."

"Did you just say adorable?" asked the old man with mock surprise.

"Unsettling if you'd rather", he amended.

His eyes met Minerva's and she couldn't help it, the thinnest trace of a smile crossed her lips as they shared complete understanding of a situation in which Albus was played and thought himself the clever man. Still, knowing that someone knew… that was indeed rather unsettling.