The Prowess of McGonagall
Disclaimer: These characters are wholly owned by J. K. Rowling, and thus I have no claim to them. Please enjoy, review, and share.
Authors Note: This story is going to be mostly canon. I am sorry if some chapters are short, such as this first one. I am still planning the late stages thus do not want to add too much in the early stages. My goal is not to have extremely long chapters, as I personally enjoy slightly shorter ones. If you have not guessed already, this is the story of McGonagall prior to the first war…
Backstory: "And all along the corridor the statues and suits of armour jumped down from their plinths, and from the echoing crashes from the floors above and below, Harry knew that their fellows throughout the castle had done the same... Cheering and yelling, the horde of moving statues stampeded past Harry; some of them smaller, others larger than life. There were animals too, and the clanking suits of armour brandished swords and spiked balls on chains." (HPDH)
McGonagall stared at Harry, "Go Potter! Find what you need before it's too late!"
She closed her eyes and thought back to a time when she had yelled the same words at a young Lily Potter. In these seconds her mind exploded in memory - having never removed them such as Dumbledore did in his life. They crashed over her, cascading to a starting point. All in the blink of an eye.
Chapter One
Minerva blinked slowly as her eyes wandered over the horizon from her hometown's sea wall in Caithness and looked at the barely perceptible mountaintops – her eyes scouring for the mountain that contained her home the past 7 years. Naturally, being over 150 miles to her south there was no way she could see it, but it still was worth looking. She turned back to walk home, unable to apparate because there were several muggles walking around. She hated this. After school she took two weeks for herself and joined some friends on a trip to France, in a large wizarding city. There you could apparate from shop to hotel, her favorite part was flying over the local mountain range.
Her disdain for the muggles came from a lack of knowing much about them. All they knew about her is that she went to a boarding school in the south, name undisclosed. All she knew about them was that they deplored anything abnormal or out of the ordinary especially if something ripped them from their day to day droll. She didn't hate them personally, in fact she had a slight moment of pity for them a few years back. A car accident had killed a muggle boy and his mother. Had the town access to magic, like the city she visited, the boy and his mother could have flown home, a much safer form of travel she concluded. She stepped up to the door of her home and walked inside. She saw her briefcase by the door and gave a slight sigh.
"Mini! Have you packed everything you will need in London" cried out her mother, Isobel. The rather thin woman came out of the drawing room and held her hand on her hips.
"Yes mum and you know I don't like that you keep asking! It is packed and ready." she exclaimed. Her mother just looked dewy eyed and gave her a huge hug for her stature. Her father walked in smoking a pipe. Silently Minerva casted a breeze around herself and her mother to rid them of the smell.
"When is your train leaving Minerva?" Her father asked. He preferred that no one say words like apparate. The reason stemmed from when he discovered his wife was a witch. Only revealed to him several years and one child later.
"Train? I'm-" She was cut off, and once again, no matter what, her father only wanted to hear 'normal' muggle words.
"Please - I don't want, just pretend OK?" her father pleaded for some normalcy. In fact he had already told several members of his congregation that Minerva was going to the London School of Business to further her education before going into a banking profession. It was a longshot, but the normal people of Caithness gobbled it up.
"Yes father… 7 o'clock."
She didn't want to press him too hard, but at least accepting she was going to apparate to London and not really force her to take a train there! Minerva simply waited until he left the room so she could talk to her mum about these things alone. When he left Minerva took her mother's hands and spoke gently to her. Minerva really wished that her mother could accompany her.
"If there is ever a chance you could visit-" She was cut off.
"No Mini, your father will not let me leave while the church is looking for a new Bishop to lead the county. But he will let me brew potions in the attic, so if you could send me some of these" She handed Minerva a roll of parchment with, she assumed, ingredients. "Mail them by owl to my sister, she will come by in the next few weeks to visit your brothers."
It was a slight surprise that her mother was 'allowed' to brew potions, it was the right of a witch to do such things. Sadly, there was no changing her father mind about how normal witches and wizards were.
"Yes mum, anything else before I leave?"
"I don't believe so - wait, are your things packed?"
"Yes they are in my briefcase, with an Extension Charm so I could fit my broom"
"You know as well as I you cannot fly in London! Why not leave it for Malcom, he can join the Quidditch team!"
"I honestly had not thought of that!" She unclicked the case and withdrew a boom, handing it to her mother she warned her brother in the other room, "Not a scratch Mal, do you hear me?" He ran in gave her a huge hug and promised.
"I am late!" She gave her family a kiss each and walked out to the back garden. There she reached her mum's small greenhouse and turned on the spot.
Minerva opened her eyes and saw she was several steps away from a phone booth. She walk towards it and stepped inside. The booth, she knew, would transfer her from ground level to the Atrium on floor B8. Minerva dials 62442 on the telephone, and it lowers down to the M.O.M, hopefully in time for her 7:30 job interview. Minerva wandered to herself as she was lowered over a huge crowd if working for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement truly was her aspiration. It seems such a waste of her talents to sit behind a desk every day.
She reached the floor of the atrium and walked firmly through the crowd. To her left and right Ministry officials popping in to her left and right. She smiled briefly to herself, but then it seemed short lived as she heard a disgusting childish giggle. Surely not!
"McGonagall!" barked out Dolores Umbridge, "What are you doing here?"
"Umbridge, I happen to have graduated from Hogwarts. You are on what, your 7th year?"
"I am, but I am also headed to an interview at the DMLE, for an internship… You look displeased"
"I believe - we have the same interview." As much as it pained her, it looked like Dolores was truly pained to see this occurring.
"Well may the best candidate win?" She picked up her pace to the elevators and both were whisked away. Moments later they arrived at the DMLE section of the M.O.M.
A secretary wordlessly hushed them and motioned to have the young witches sit and wait. Dolores opened her mouth and the woman just shushed her. After about 10 minutes the secretary spoke.
"Mr. Virum will be with you shortly Ms. McGonagall."
Minerva thanked her, and right after a dashing young man stepped of the office behind her. It must have been Mr. Virum.
"Ms. Minerva l! So good to have you here, if you don't mind I and going to interview Dolores first, it will not take long and then we can get on with yours!" He beamed at her, and then continued, "Dolores, as you know, Minerva has penned a wonderful paper on Transfiguration! She managed to win the Transfiguration Today 'Most Promising Newcomer award'."
"I know" Dolores said curtly. She then giggled like a poisonous toad and amended her statement, "I honestly thought they only gave these awards to pure-bloods."
The secretary glared at her, Mr. Virum looked aghast, and Minerva just shook her head. Dolores sat back in her chair and mumbled something about not being told. Dolorous then stood up and walked to his office door. She was several heads shorter than him yet still seemed to have scared him from smiling again. After the door closed the secretary spoke to her.
"My name is Amelia Bones, welcome."