It was midnight, and the current Headmistress at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was pacing in her office, a small stone basin clutched tightly in her hands. Minerva McGonagall had aged considerably within the past year; she was no longer the smiling young girl of her youth, but a sad and hardened old woman. Her black hair, tied back in a severe knot, was streaked with silver, and her hands shook for lack of sleep. Ever since the return of the wizard known as Voldemort, she had been plagued with vivid nightmares – memories of her seventh year.
Holding the Pensieve with trembling fingers, Minerva whispered, "There must be something that Albus and I overlooked. Something that will save us all…."
She set the Pensieve on her desk and gazed into it. There, in the silvery substance that it contained, floated an image of a handsome boy with dark, wavy hair and a very charming smile. His Head Boy Badge gleamed.
Minerva, taking a deep breath, drew her wand and dipped it into the Pensieve. Instantly, the silver liquid-light began to swirl. She closed her eyes.
When she finally opened them, she was no longer standing by her desk in her office, but in the middle of an empty classroom. She was in the process of smoothing out her robes when the silence was broken by two bickering voices.
Turning towards the source of the sound, Minerva watched as the handsome Head Boy and a young girl with long black hair and a Head Girl badge pinned to her robes walked into the room. The girl was gesticulating wildly; the boy merely watched with his arms crossed, looking amused.
"I think Divination is very woolly, if you ask me," the young Minerva scoffed. "Setting store by all sorts of predictions and prophecies. I mean, really, Tom."
The boy called Tom flinched at her casual use of his name, but his expression evened out so quickly that Minerva was left wondering if she had really seen it.
"Minnie," said Tom lightly, addressing the young Minerva. "You know as well as I do that many of the greatest witches and wizards have practiced Divination. Merlin, for instance." He paused. "No, what I think is really useless is Muggle Studies." This last he spat out as though it were a hideous blasphemy.
Minnie seemed appalled. "Oh, but Muggle Studies is fascinating!"
Tom snorted. "Hardly what one would call magic. Besides," he said with a sneer, "Mud – I mean, Muggles, should never even be allowed into Hogwarts."
Minerva had seen enough. As the classroom dissolved around her, she caught one final glimpse of Tom's self-satisfied smirk and her own look of horror before she found herself standing once again beside the Pensieve.
She sank into her chair, utterly defeated. "I had forgotten how much hatred he had, even at seventeen. This is going to be more difficult than I thought."