This is a piece I wrote for RJ's How I met You Challenge. My couple was McGonagall and Urquart and the prompts were, pink, ironing board, toenails, "Anyone got a knight in shining armor? Mine turned out to be a loser in tin foil." and it had to take place in The Leaky Cauldron with a Drama/Romance genre. A big thanks to Pottermore/Harry Potter Wiki for all the info.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I give gull credit to J.K for all of her brilliance, I merely borrowed some of it to write a story.
She had stayed up all night thinking about it. How could she go through with it? How could she give up her magic, her lifestyle, her whole being for something as simple as "love"? She couldn't do it. But I love him. You don't know what love is, you are eighteen! Anyone can find a knight in shining armor. What if yours turns out to be a loser in tin foil? And what about your goals and aspirations? Are you just going to throw away everything that you have worked so hard for? Were all those countless hours dedicated to mastering spells, all those late nights spent doing research, those promises you made to yourself about being the best – were they all for nothing? Are you going to spend the rest of your years living as a Muggle, with your back hunched over the ironing board, fixing up your husband's laundry without using magic, pretending to be the perfect, happy housewife, as your mother did? No. No, that was the deal-breaker. She refused to have her future play out as her mother's did. She was not going to be miserable. And marrying Dougal, even if she did love him, and being forced to conceal her magic would make her miserable. That was it then. There was nothing to be done. She couldn't, she wouldn't marry Dougal McGregor.
The next day she met him by the field. The same ploughed field that he proposed at. He arrived looking as charming as he always did. A big smile on his freshly tanned face, a casual button-up shirt, and some jeans. Behind his back Minerva could see a couple of flowers peeking out from what was obviously a bouquet. As he got closer Dougal's smile seemed to take over his whole face and upon reaching her, he thrust the flowers, a bouquet of green, white, and pink, into her arms and swung her into one of his heartfelt hello kisses.
Minerva's heart broke a little.
"Hello beautiful," he said, a mere whisper that she could feel on her own lips and all down her spine.
"Good morning Dougal." Minerva gently pushed away from his embrace focusing her eyes on the flowers, some of which, she noticed, were crushed from the impact of the two lovers' bodies, in her hands.
"So what is it you want to talk about?" Dougal asked as he carelessly thrust himself on to the grassy carpet beneath them and made a motion with his arm inviting Minerva to sit next to him.
Minerva ignored his invitation and remained standing, there was no point in sitting next to him when she knew that he would soon be on his own feet, repulsed by the idea of being near her.
"I-," she took a deep breath, knowing that there was no good way to say what she was about to, "I can't marry you Dougal." She had said it so silently that she was afraid that he hadn't heard, but upon seeing him get up and snap his face in her direction she knew that he had.
"Wh-wh-what do you mean you can't marry me? Is this some sort of joke?" Minerva could see the hurt in his eyes and her heart broke even more, but she knew that what she was doing was necessary.
"No, this is not a joke. I would never fool around with something like this. I thought about it all night and- and I realized I should never have accepted your proposal." She stared back down at her flowers and noticed that there seemed to be little drops of water hitting the leaves.
"Never should have- never should have accepted? What in the bloody hell do you mean by that? Everything seemed just perfect yesterday. What happened to make you change your mind?" Dougal was angrier now and he began to raise his voice. He turned toward Minerva and gently cupped her face into his hard, callused hands, forcing her to meet his eyes, "Is it me? Was it something I said? Is it where I come from? I can provide for us, I can make sure that you never need anything and make you happy." The tears were streaming down her face now and she noticed small pools beginning to form around his own eyes.
"No, no. How could you think that? It's – it's not you it's me. I just – I just don't think I am ready. I'm only eighteen for Pete's sake! I- I just can't go through with it." Minerva was sobbing and she tried to turn away to leave, but Dougal, feeling that she was trying to run away, pulled her in and kissed her flat out on the mouth. Minerva just pushed away, using some force this time and turned , beginning to run towards home. She just needed to be ought of sight. She just needed to be out of sight and then she could apparate into the comfort of her own room.
Right as she was turning into a corner where she knew that she would be hidden from everyone's eyes, she heard Dougal howl into the peaceful morning air, "I LOVE YOU MINERVA MCGONOGALL!"
But it didn't matter. Minerva knew that she could not return his feelings. For how can someone love without a heart? And Minerva McGonogall no longer had one. No, she had left her heart in pieces scattered around the field. And with that final thought she disapperated.
Several days later Minerva McGonogall found herself sitting in front of the bar at the Leaky Cauldron. Her eyes were all cried out and if someone were to ask her about a certain son of a certain farmer she would have claimed no knowledge on who the person was. She had just arrived in London and was giving herself a day to adjust before starting work at the Ministry. She merely sat there, twirling her straw, and looking down at her Butterbeer, enjoying the company of herself and thinking how she was destined to live a sad lonely life (funny how in trying to avoid being miserable she had simply managed to stumble into that feeling) when all of a sudden a wizard who was obviously several years older than her took the empty seat at her side.
"Hey Tom, give me some Butterbeer please." The wizard turned to see Minerva sitting there staring sadly at her own Butterbeer.
"You know I hear that adding some troll toenails brings out the butterscotch flavor in the Butterbeer." Minerva looked up realizing for the first time that she now also had the company of a random wizard.
"Uhm- I'm sorry sir did you say something?"
"Forget it kid. I'm Urquart. Elphinstone Urquart." He stuck out his hand waiting for Minerva to do the same. She stuck out her own hand and limply laid it on his while he shook it.
"I'm Minerva McGonogall." A brief look of acknowledgment crossed Urquart's face, but quickly disappeared to be replaced with a look of amusement.
"Really? As in the Minerva McGonogall that just won the Transfiguration Today Most Promising Newcomer Award?" Urquart did not wait for her to respond, but instead assumed that he was correct and went on "Impressive. Although not as impressive as my Wizard Weekly Most Charming, Talented, Funny and All Around Best Person Award." Minerva couldn't help but smile at Urquart's obviously made up award.
"See. Much better. You know if you were to smile more often, you could probably win the Most Charming part of that award." Urquart was smiling himself, and Minerva noticed that he seemed to be trying to flirt with her. Maybe, she told herself, I won't be sad for the rest of my life.
So Minerva spent the rest of her day talking to this man whom she hardly knew and even found herself laughing at some of the things he said ("Yes, as a matter of fact I did manage to beat a ferocious suit of armor that was possessed by the ghost of an angry barber with flimsy little twig"). And when the day was over and she started work the next day, she was surprised to learn that Elphinstone Urquart, the very charming man that she had met the day before, was her boss. And while she did not forget her first love, Minerva found that another man was beginning to pick up the broken pieces to mend her heart.