The Wager
Chapter 1
"No," Helena began shaking her head, "too easy."
Minerva's brow arched, green orbs alight with humor, "Hardly."
"He'll say yes without even a date."
Slowly Minerva's fingers rotated the tumbler, "Probably true."
"Then how does that justify hardly?"
With effort Minerva kept her face unresponsive, "Because I have to go out with him."
Helena couldn't help but laugh, "Alright, you have a fair point." Helena held up her hand, "How about we leave it to chance with a few caveats?"
Minerva leaned forward, "The first being that it can't be one of my students."
"That's over half of Britain," Helena retorted.
"And I refuse…"
"Compromise," Helena interjected and nodded to Richard Gibbs, "or back to the original agreement."
Minerva's eyes flickered to Gibbs and back, the thought taking less than a nanosecond as a shudder passed down her spine. "Very well."
"To keep it interesting, the person at least has to be twenty-one."
Minerva barely kept her voice level, "That's scarcely a quarter of my age."
"But it is of age," Helena countered, "and if it is someone younger, it gives me a sporting chance."
A glint passed over emerald eyes as she weighed her options, "Anything else?"
"Only other stipulation is it can't be someone who is married."
"You're sure?" Minerva quipped, "As you seem to be stacking the proverbial deck against me."
"Think you won't succeed?"
"I'm sure that I'll find a way." Minerva stated with a self-assuredness that was standing on an unusual precipice.
"Then we are agreed, the next person who is not homeless, toothless, married, is it?"
Minerva scanned the bar calculating the odds as the door opened and she watched as Albert Jenkins and Alastair Finnegan stepped through. "While I should have said yes a moment ago, we are agreed."
"Damn, wouldn't it be priceless if Potter walked through next." Helena gleefully muttered as she picked up her glass.
"Thankfully, I'd be spared as he is but twenty."
"Figures," Helena muttered, "but it would have been priceless to watch you try and steal him away from the youngest Weasley. Because I don't think you'd have succeeded."
"As if that stopped me last time," Minerva remarked.
"It didn't, but I have to hope that at some point in the not so distant future that one of these bets becomes more than a passing fancy."
"Then you should have added another caveat, as I have yet to meet and speak with any of the previous persons."
"At least as far as they were concerned." Helena leaned forward as her keen hearing detected what she knew her best friend's did, another group was approaching the entry. "However, I do keep hoping that one will cause you to want them to see beneath the face that they see and have an opportunity to see you and even perhaps see past the venerable woman the world believes you to be."
Minerva turned towards the door, "That's what I keep you around for."
"Hockey puck." Helena quipped, "You keep me to pay for your habits."
"If only that were true." Minerva murmured as the door edged open.
"Fair, but it sounded good." Helena remarked as she leaned forward to see who Minerva's next challenge was going to be.
Minerva glanced back to Helena, "In truth, I just like to see you lose our little bets."
A blond brow arched, "Well, for once, I may be in luck," she nodded to the door, a smile spreading across her lips as Minerva turned and saw who had just entered.
Green eyes instantly jerked back to the doorway, and her stomach plummeted as shadows danced off of sapphire robes and her gaze instantly lifted past very feminine curves to the distinct jaw line of one of her former students, Hermione Jean Granger. Her head was tipped back, hair falling past her shoulders as acute hearing could hear her laugh at some joke told by her companion, Ronald Weasley whose hand came from the darkness to slide up her back and settle on her waist; another moment passed and Ginerva Weasley along with Harry Potter strode through.
"Cat got your tongue?" she asked mirth lining her voice as Minerva's gaze slowly turned back around.
"I do hope you are enjoying yourself." Minerva dryly remarked.
"Do I sense a hint of hesitation?" Helena edged incrementally forward, in all the years they had dabbled, not once had Minerva been hesitant.
"A hint, as she along with Potter and Weasley have been through so much." Emerald eyes scanned until they landed on Hermione as she weaved through the crowd.
Hawk like eyes darting to the small group as they sat down, landing and scanning over the brunette. "It's your choice as you don't have to follow through, you could simply lose." Helena could tell Minerva was wavering and grasped the rare opportunity with both hands. "After all, you're three times her age and probably will lose either way as she seems rather enraptured with the Weasley boy."
"That's the best you can do?" Green eyes came back to her friend's visage, "Resorting to muggle psychology?"
"No," Helena could feel Minerva's gaze but let hers remain upon Hermione, "She is rather beautiful, a bit young and a little more…" a smirk playing at her lips, "feminine than you are used to, but from what I've read she'll be able to keep up with you intellectually." Blue eyes slowly coming back to meet green ones, "And physically if it were to go that far."
Minerva reached into her robes and pulled two galleons from the depth of them, and set them on the table. "It won't, and I'll be seeing you in two weeks for your turn."
"You're not even going to barter for an extra week?"
"No, it's a date and a kiss. Both which I shall have in play by night's end." Minerva replied whilst standing, "However, if intimacy had been involved, I may have forgone the bet entirely. And do be a dear and order another round, I'll be back shortly."
Helena was momentarily flabbergasted at Minerva's previous comment, preventing her from responding as Minerva momentarily paused before stepped away from the table and glided toward the loo. In all the years she had known her, and the dares and bets they had bestowed to the other, Minerva had never flinched – no matter what it entailed, until tonight. And she couldn't help but wonder, why the sudden reservation in the harmless bet. As this one was nowhere near as daring nor intrusive as so many of their previous dares were.
She heard the door behind her open and with a sweeping gaze, she turned and felt her lips inadvertently curl into a smile at her friend's proficiency in transfiguration. Damn, she thought, it was one thing to know that was her friend of fifty plus years; it was another thing entirely to see her as somebody else.
She looked on, watching as her friend maneuvered through the crowd with far too much adeptness for one so 'young', but then again, she was sure that was the allure Minerva had been going for.
She would never understand how Minerva could bend the known laws regarding transfiguration, and in essence, be somebody else. Then again, she had never told her how she could do what she did in art of healing…
However, her internal musing was waylaid by Minerva's arrival at the small gathering by the corner of the bar. And she couldn't help but wonder what Minerva would do to garner Hermione's attention, because while she could attach a string of attributes to Minerva's name her patience was often times, rather lacking.
Xoxo
a/n: Well…I needed/wanted a small reprieve from Bonding and opted to return to the world of Have a Little Faith in Me. Alas, much to my surprise, I opened HLFM and am missing several chapters - mildly discouraged; I opted to forgo resurrecting that small gem and scour some other partially started stories and fell back across this small piece. So, I thought I'd share. :)