Hey guys :)

It's been a long time since I wrote a 'Harry Potter' fic, but I finally decided to write one again. This time it isn't about Harry/Hermione, but a story about Professor McGonagall comforting Hermione after the troll incident.

And this time you don't need to worry about me uploading on time, because it's just a Oneshot.

Just a warning in advance. I'm not a native speaker, which means grammar mistakes are possible. If you find some mistakes point them out to me or keep them ;I

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. I'm just burrowing them for my own ideas, hehe.

'Potter, Weasley you can go!' Professor McGonagall barked. Both boys were ready to leap out of the girl's lavatory, Hermione right behind them. But before the three were out of the door, their head of house held them back.

'Miss Granger, you're coming with me.'

All three first years froze. Slowly the boys turned to look at Hermione, unsure what to do. After all, she lied for them, while it had been their fault from the beginning that she had been here in the first place.

Hermione noticed their hesitation and was surprised. She was still scared and the adrenalin pumped through her body, but some warmth filled her, at Harry's and Ron's hesitation to leave her alone. Who knew? Maybe she made some friends today after all.

Harry and Ron still stood frozen, unsure what to do, but when they saw Hermione's urging gesture, that told them to get out of here, and the glare that their professor send them through her spectacles, they practically sprinted away, thinking that maybe Hermione Granger wasn't so bad and maybe, just maybe could become their friend. One thing was sure through; they needed to thank her later.

Hermione smiled slightly when Ron and Harry hurried out of the door. She was glad that they got her hint. It wouldn't have been good if they had stayed and in the end even selling themselves out. They saved her life and she would lie to a teacher again for them without a second thought. Even after it seemed that they hated her, they helped her without question.

Professor McGonagall watched her three pupil's closely. She had seen how hesitant the boys had been to leave the girl. She had seen the urging gesture of the young witch, ushering the boys out. One thing was sure – there was going on more than she knew and she would make sure to get to the bottom of this.

'Severus…' the head lioness addressed the potions master '…will you take care of the troll please?' and after looking at the shaking form of the Professor for defence against dark arts she added 'And maybe you could take our esteemed colleague to Poppy for a calming draught.' The poor guy really needed some serious help with his nerves.

'I will Minerva.' the dark clothed wizard just said and went to work.

'Miss Granger?' the older with asked and continued when the girl looked up 'Come with me please.'

When she heard her Professor's voice Hermione paled even more, if that was possible. With cold clammy hands and shaking legs the poor girl followed the head lioness through the halls.

What was going to happen to her now? Her head of house already took points from her, so losing points should be out of question. Buy maybe she would get detention, but with whom? She really hoped it would be Professor McGonagall or Professor Flitwick or Professor Sprout. Hopefully not Snape or even worse, Flich. The young with shuddered at the thought of having to serve detention with their mean portions Professor or the greasy caretaker of Hogwarts.

When the next thought occurred to her the little girl stumbled, ignoring the confused look her Professor was giving her and just continued walking. The worst case scenario ran through her head.

What if they would expel her? What would happen to her? Would she still be able to study in another magical school? She knew that there were others, because she read about them and because everyone with common sense should realize that not every witch and wizard could've been taught in Hogwarts. There were to much. But what if another school wouldn't take her, because she had been expelled? Would she have to return to the muggle world and would not be able to do magic anymore? Would she need to go to school with her old schoolmates again?

Hermione had to bit her lip to keep herself from crying. Yes, her schoolmates here in Hogwarts were bad, but not as bad as her former ones in Muggle school. A tear slid down her face when she remembered the names that they had been calling her – rabbit teeth, teacher's pet, bird nest girl, freak and so on. At least in Hogwarts were a little bit better, cause they mostly stuck to know-it-all.

And what would her parents think? They would be so disappointed in her, that she had just made two months in her school. They had been so proud of her and now?

The thought of her parents made Hermione almost sorry that she had lied for Harry and Ron, but only almost. They saved her from the troll after all and didn't deserve to be punished.

When she thought of the troll the young Gryffindor started shaking, slowly understanding how close she had been to death today. If those boys wouldn't have come when they did the mountain troll would've killed her.

The young girl bit the inside of her cheek, but that didn't keep the tears from falling silently. She embraced herself, trying to keep the tears from her teacher, which just turned around and spoke to the girl.

'Miss Granger, please wait in my office for a moment. I'll be with you shortly.' With these words Professor McGonagall led Hermione, who hadn't even noticed that they arrived at their destination, into her office, closing the door behind her and walking toward her private chambers.

Hermione just stood in the middle of her Professors office, unsure what to do. It just became to much for her, the fear of what was going to happen to her, the memories of the troll.

The young girl sank down on the cold stone floor in her Professor's office. Tears were sliding soundlessly down her face. Pulling her knees up she buried her head in them, shaking from the cold, but she didn't care. All she saw in front of her was the troll.

Minerva McGonagall went into her private chambers to collect herself. She didn't want to shout at the poor girl, who seemed so shaken up, but she had to make sure that Hermione understood how dangerous and reckless her actions had been.

Sighing she cleared her coffee table, as much as this young girl was interested in transfiguration, she didn't need to see the new magazine from 'New Transfigurations', because a first year shouldn't read what you could do to … certain private parts of your body. The professor flushed slightly at the thought of the article.

After everything was done to her satisfaction she called for her personal house elf.

'Mina?'

'Yes Mistress, what is I can do for you?' the little female house elf asked exited, her big ears flapping.

'Could you get me a pot of tea for two persons please?' the woman asked and was amused at the big smile she was receiving.

'Of course Mistress, I is back shortly.' And with a crack the creature vanished in thin air.

Professor McGonagall smiled slightly and went to get the girl standing in her office, but when she got back into her office she saw the girl was sitting and not standing. And she was sitting on the cold stone floor, shivering, but she didn't even seem to notice.

The transfiguration mistress was worried. What was wrong with her star pupil? Had she been hurt by the troll?

'Miss Granger … ' she started to say, but then stopped herself. Years of teaching experience taught her that it was better to call pupils by their first name in such a situation.

'Hermione…" she tried again, slightly hesitating, because the girl hadn't reacted at all. 'Are you alright? Are you hurt?'

But the brown haired girl didn't hear her. She was still curled into herself, sitting on the cold stone floor, crying badly. The troll and the possibility of her being expelled where in her mind. The little girl was shaking from the cold and her sobs got worse and worse. She didn't hear Professor McGonagall trying to call her several times. The only sound that was in her ears was the sound on the troll's club made while destroying the porcelain toilet bowls. It rang in her ears, not leaving place for any other noise.

The older woman stood beside her, now really worried. What was wrong with her charge? She had called her several times by now, but she didn't react. Unsure Professor McGonagall kneeled down beside the shaking girl. Carefully she put a hand on her shoulder.

'Hermione, what's wrong? Please talk to me.'

The little girl stiffed at the touch, still lost in her memories of the troll, but slowly she came back to reality. She lifted her head carefully. Still a little bit afraid of being back at the girls lavatory with the troll.

The older woman watched Hermione lifting her head from her legs. Watery brown eyes looked at her and before Minerva knew her charge threw herself into her arms and she had a crying first year in her arms.

Unsure what to do the older woman froze for a moment. Of course as her duty gryffindor's head of the house she had to console crying children before, but most of the time a pat on the shoulder and a handkerchief did the job. She never had a student crying as hysterically as young Miss Granger was now, nevertheless a student crying in her arms.

Hesitating for a moment she pulled the young girl fully in her arms and started rubbing her back and making hushing noises. She didn't try to ask Hermione what was wrong again. As hysterical as the poor girl was she wouldn't get an answer for her. Professor McGonagall was even tempted to call Poppy over to give the girl a calming draught, but thought different of it. She would try to calm down the girl herself first.

After some time Hermione's sobs got a little quitter. Now she was just crying silently, but not hysterically anymore.

'Come on Hermione, let's move to the couch.' The professor said, trying to get the girl off the cold floor, not wanting to her to get sick and also hoping to get her aching bones off the floor. She wasn't as young as she used to be and kneeling on the floor the whole time wasn't doing her knees any favours.

Hermione looked up at her Professor, after hearing her words. She realised just know who was holding her – her transfiguration professor, a teacher – that was inappropriate. Startled she looked up and wanted to move away.

Minerva felt the young girl to tense up. It seems like she just realised that she had thrown herself in the arms of her teacher. Feeling her trying to move away the professor tightened her arms around her pupil, trying to smile assuringly at her.

The brown haired girl felt her teacher stopping her from moving away. Surprised she looked up and found a reassuring smile turned her way.

'It's alright Hermione, come on.' Professor McGonagall said, pulled her up and toward her private quarters, to the couch, sitting down with the brown haired girl beside her. On the couch table stood a hot pot of tea with two cups.

As she heard these reassuring words of her professor Hermione gave in and let herself be pulled on the couch. Her tears started falling a little bit faster again. She didn't deserve such kindness. She lied to her teacher.

'Please, don't expel me, please, please…' the young girl started to blubber again, surprising her professor, who had thought that the girl had calmed down. Where did Hermione even get the idea from that anyone would expel her?

'Shhh, shhh, calm down.' Minerva cooed to her pupil, practically pulling her in her lap. 'No one is thinking about expelling you!'

The older woman had to repeat that sentence a few times until Hermione seemed to hear it, while trying desperately to shush her, running her hands up and down her pupils back. She was afraid that the young brown head was making herself sick with crying so much.

Hermione wasn't hearing anything. She just imagined what her parents would say if she got expelled and these thoughts made her tears even fall faster. Her parents would be so disappointed. After some time a voice pierced her thoughts.

'… no one … expelling you.'

Lifting her head the young girl looked at her professor, at the moment not caring that she was sitting on her teachers lap.

'Really, you promise that you're not going to expel me?' Hermione asked timidly.

Minerva looked down into watery brown eyes and felt her heart going out. This poor girl seemed to beat herself up about it. She was one of the best pupils she has ever seen during her teacher life and still, the girl seemed to worry about letting people down. She was so eager to please, but also afraid to fail.

'Yes Hermione, no one is going to expel you, I promise!' Professor McGonagall said softly, smiling at the girl.

The brown haired girl gave her teacher a small smile and sniffed. The older woman quickly conjured a handkerchief and gave it to her pupil. She thought about asking Hermione to move off her lap and beside her, but she hesitated and let the girl stay on her lap. With the question she was planning to ask the girl she was sure that it was better leaving Hermione where she was.

'Hermione?'

The brown haired girl, who was still wiping her eyes with the handkerchief, looked up.

'Do you want to tell me now what really happened?' The professor asked her pupil.

Obliviously it was the wrong thing to do, because as soon her those words left her words, Hermione once again started sobbing into her Professors shoulder. This time however Minerva's arms went around the young girl instantly. She started stroking Hermione's hair while making hushing noises. The older woman gave the girl some time to calm down.

'Are you feeling better now?' the teacher asked her pupil, when she felt that her sobs turned into sniffles. She felt a soft nod on her shoulder and decided to touch that topic again.

'Will you now tell me what really happened? I don't quite believe the story of you going after the troll alone. You're far more intelligent than that. And Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley looked a little bit to surprised by that story.'

Hermione stiffed at those words. Her professor would be angry with her. And the boys would get in trouble too. Her brain looked for an exit out of this situation, but it couldn't find one. She was already sitting on her professor's lap, for hells sake, how much worse could this get?

Minerva felt the young girl stiffen again and quickly added.

'Don't worry, you're not in trouble Hermione and neither are Mr. Weasley or Mr. Potter. I only want to know the truth about you being in that toilet.'

The young girl lifted her head and looked at her teacher inquiringly, but she only saw honesty and was reassured, that the professor really wasn't having any malicious thoughts. Hermione took her handkerchief, dried her eyes and blew her nose, turning away from her teacher. She contemplated getting down from her lap, but she felt pretty comfortable where she was at the moment and her professor didn't seem to mind.

She took a deep shuddering breath and started talking.

'Well, at charms we learned the levitating spell, Wingardium Leviosa…' Professor McGonagall smiled to herself as she listened to Hermione. Of course the girl had to say the incantation, always the brainer. Actually, her young charge reminded her a lot of herself at that age.

Hermione, not noticing her teacher smiling down at her, just kept talking.

'…Well, my partner was having some problems with the incantation I tried to help him. But he just mocked me and told me to do it myself, which I did. I was the first one to get my feather to fly.'

The girl smiled happily about that. She was really proud of herself for being the first one to accomplish to get her feather floating.

Professor McGonagall looked proudly at her young lioness. From the first meeting she knew that this girl had great potential. She nudged the girl sitting on her lap gently, encouraging her to keep going, while thinking to ask her who her partner was, but in the end decided not to do. Her pupil wouldn't tell her either way, because she was afraid getting others in trouble.

Hermione took another deep breath and continued with her story, realising that the important part was now coming.

'After class I overhead someone mocking me and other people laughing about it. Then someone said that I'm really annoying and it's no wonder that I don't have any friends.'

Professor McGonagall felt her heart clench at this thought. Her first instinct was to hunt whoever said that to her star pupil, surprising herself. Normally she didn't show any favouritism to any of her charges. But the one sitting on her lap had managed to worm her way into her heart. She saw so much of herself in Hermione.

She shook her head about herself and focused on her young charge. The eyes of brown haired girl were slightly gazed over again. Quickly Minerva started rubbing Hermione's back again in a comforting manner. It seemed to help as the girl swallowed the lump in her throat and kept going.

'I ran away to hide in the girls lavatory. Lavender Brown tried to get me out, but I didn't want to. In the end she gave up and went to the feast.'

Hermione had to stop for a moment, sniffing and wiping her eyes. She bowed her head, letting her curls fall around her face. The hand still rubbing circles on her back really helped.

'When I was sure that no one would be around anymore I wanted to get out of the lavatory and sneak back into my dorm. Just in that moment the troll came in and … and …'

The poor girl couldn't continue talking, because hot fat tears rolled down her face once again. She didn't thought she had cried that much in her life before, but the memory of the troll was really scary for her. Just a year ago troll's, giants and other magic stuff were just fairy tales for her. She loved them, but she knew they weren't real. They were just stories. But when a woman with a green cloak rang the bell of her parents' house, introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, the deputy headmistress of a school called Hogwarts and explained that magic was real, proving it by changing into a cat and back into a woman, Hermione realised that the magic out of fairy tales was real. She buried her face again in her Professors shoulder, sobbing heartbreakingly.

'I think I can guess the rest of it. Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley realised that you were missing while the perfects were leading everyone back into the houses. They decided stupidly to come and find you, instead of telling a perfect that you were missing, but they didn't only find you, but you and the troll. In the end they defeated the troll, like I said, by sheer dumb luck. Am I right?'

The professor heard a choked up laugh and felt a tiny nod on her shoulder. Sadly it didn't cheer up the girl like she hoped, as she continued to cry. Minerva kept making hushing noises, her right hand rubbing the girls back and her left hand stroking her hair. She felt hot tears soaking her cloak at her shoulders.

'I w … wa … I was …. so …. so scared!' Hermione wailed. Her body shaking with sobs. She had screwed her eyes shut, but she still saw the troll in front of her.

'He … wa … was … big…' she tried saying.

'I … I want my mummy!' she finally cried out.

Professor McGonagalls heart clenched when she heard the two confessions of her pupil. Sometimes herself and the other teachers seemed to forget that they had muggle born students, who weren't used to having magic around. Some were really overwhelmed and had to be consoled by their teachers. And now, there was this barely 12 year old girl, trust into a world she didn't know and having to face a troll. Combine that with homesickness and having no friends it was completely understandable that the poor girl was having a meltdown.

'Shhh, shhh, shh, everything is alright.' Minerva cooed to her pupil, starting to rock the poor girl slightly.

Hermione felt kind of good in her Professor's arms. She felt safe and secure. The last time she had felt like this was when her mother and her father hugged her before she stepped onto the Hogwarts express. Of course she did write to her parents frequently, but that wasn't the same as seeing them, or even just hearing their voices over the phone. The brown haired girl was simply homesick.

The young girl had come to Hogwarts with so much hope in her heart, that everything was going to be different here, but in the end it wasn't. As much as in her old school she was the odd one out, the know-it-all, the teacher's pet. She just wanted to friends. Was that too much to ask for? Apparently it was, because the other pupil only came to her when they needed help with school stuff. The only one who didn't use her as a walking encyclopaedia was Neville, but the poor boy was much too shy to befriend him.

Hermione felt a smile coming to her face when her thoughts drifted off to Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Even if they weren't friends they had come to save her and thankfully succeeded. And maybe, just maybe she had friends now, if she was judging the last looks she got from them rightly.

Minerva was still rocking the girl slightly, even if she seemed to have calmed down mostly. She still heard some sniffles from the poor thing on her lap.

'Are you feeling better now?'

A shy nod answered her question, though the girl made no move to get off her lap, or raising her head from the shoulder it still laid on.

'I know you miss your parents Hermione.' Professor McGonagall told her young charge, holding her a little tighter, when she heard a choked sob.

'I can't replace them, nor do I want to, but every teacher at this school will listen to the problems of their pupil. I will listen, especially as your head of house. Do you understand that?'

Hermione nodded slightly, still in the embrace of her teacher, snuggling deeper into her. She needed some snuggle time and if she was lucky, she would get some.

The older woman felt her young charge nod and snuggle deeper into her. Normally she wouldn't get this close to a student, but this special one, the one called 'Hermione Granger', had wormed her way into her heart. She tightened her arms around Hermione and allowed the girl to snuggle closer to her.

They sat like this for quite some time until Minerva felt that the girls breathing had evened out. She looked down and sure, the poor dear had fallen asleep on her professor's lap, her head snuggled beneath her chin.

She contemplated waking the poor thing, but decided against it. Hermione's day was long and tiring and she deserved some rest. It didn't take long until the sleep claimed herself, as it was getting late.

Not long afterwards a knock was heard on the door, but neither occupant of the room noticed it, both of them sleeping. After a moment the door opened hesitantly and Albus Dumbledore came into the room. He was worried, because he hadn't seen his transfiguration professor since the incident with the troll and she didn't come to dinner. The sight that greeted him was heart-warming – Minerva was sitting on her couch, young Miss Granger snuggled on her lap, both of them sleeping. Smiling the headmaster took a blanket, draping it over both of them, before leaving the room silently.

The next morning Professor McGonagall was sitting at breakfast, just talking to Madame Hoch, when some laughing pupils, which had just come into the great hall, attracted her attention – three of her young charges – Mr. Potter, young Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger. It seems as the young girl finally had found some friends. Smiling she turned back to her colleague, everything was going to be alright.

So, what do you think? It is worth a review? I hope so ;) You even get some cookies if you write one.

I know that both characters may be a little ooc, but well, it's my story ;)