Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Harry Potter.
Written for Months of the year Competition.
December: Write about situations growing darker around your character.
Prompts: Weary and Hogwarts.
Minvera McGonagall had grown weary of war a long time ago. It was a shame the rest of the world hadn't as well. No matter how many times the Ministry denied that Voldemort was back, she knows that he has returned and that the war has begun again.
It doesn't matter what part of the castle, she goes to she can see it in the students faces that they know it too. They're just children who need protecting from the darkness that is slowly and silently infesting the Wizarding World, but she can't keep them safe anymore.
She wonders when she's alone at night how much longer Hogwarts will remain a safe place.
It was never made public last time, but Voldemort was weeks away from trying to take over Hogwarts before that terrible night Godric's Hollow.
Albus had told her that the day after Lily and James funeral, the world was darker then too, but there was hope that it would get lighter.
She knows a great many things that the public don't about the last time and many things that are going on now that haunt her.
Like how Albus knew if Voldemort and his army had attacked Hogwarts, then there was no way they would have won. How to spare any Muggleborn student the pain of ending up in the hands of Death Eaters he was going to kill them himself. She couldn't imagine him ever doing something like that, but the seriousness of his voice when he'd told her, still echoed in her mind years later like a cruel taunt.
Albus had made her promise days before that if, all hope was lost and Harry was dead, then she must do whatever is necessary to ensure that none of the students end up as a plaything for Death Eaters.
She'll do it just like he would to save them from a fate worse than death even if the thought of it tears her heart into pieces.