Chapter 1, Good afternoon, Mr Potter

Harry Potter didn't quite knew what to expect from the meeting that would soon take place in Orion Black's old study on the second floor at Grimmauld Place. He had never thought about professor McGonagall as a young girl, the idea itself was absurd, almost more so than to imagine a young Dumbledore. He couldn't for the love of his life imagine the stern transfiguration professor as a Hogwarts student, laughing with friends in the Gryffindor common room. Despite this, he still understood that McGonagall must've been young once too, but it had never occured to him that she was almost exactly the same age as… well, him. It was Hermione, of course, who had studied the old classlists she had found in the Black family library and found out that a Minerva McGonagall was sorted into Gryffindor September 1 1938, the same day as Tom Riddle was sorted into Slytherin.

"It doesn't make sense!" Hermione had said, clearly distressed by some incorrect information. "McGonagall was born in October 1925 while Tom Riddle was born in December 1926, she should be one year above him!", since the transfiguration professor hadn't been at Grimmauld Place at the moment, Hermione had searched through the entire library and by the end of the night come to the rather logical explanation that McGonagall had been sick the entire summer and autumn of 1937 and had therfor been unable to attend school. Harry, on the other hand, hadn't been really interested in why his teacher had been in the wrong year, he was more concerned about the fact that she had attended school with the boy who would later become the most feared wizard of all times. As he sat in an armchair in the old, dark study, Harry wondered if it really was such a good idea to talk to McGonagall. If she had known something important, wouldn't Dumbledore have told Harry that then? Dumbledore and McGonagall were good friends, better than some other members of the staff, and Harry knew there was a reason why McGonagall had been appointed second in command at Hogwarts. The memories of his old mentor suddenly made Harry's eyes tear. He could still think about Dumbledore for minutes sometimes before remembering what had happened that terrible night in the Astronomy Tower. Suddenly, Harry heard a firm knock on the door, he swallowed hard before calling: "come in".

Just like always, there was an air of pride as Minerva McGonagall entered the room and closed the door behind her. She strode gracefully through the room, reminding Harry of her animagus form.

"Good afternoon, Mr Potter", she said, giving Harry her famous, stern look, and sat down in the other armchair in the room without waiting for an invitation.

"Good afternoon, professor", he said and watched the older woman adjust her glasses and taking off her pointy, black hat that matched the dark robes she was wearing.

"I understood by the letter Miss Granger wrote to me that you had some questions that might help the three of you with your… assignment that Albus left you", McGonagall said, not wasting any time on smalltalk.

"That's correct, professor", Harry said, slightly taken aback by McGongalls direct approach.

"I'm not sure how I could be of any use, Potter, but if I can contribute with any useful information, I will of course do so", Harry nodded, pleased with McGonagall's answer.

"Thank you professor, every detail could be of great use in the long run", Harry said, still slightly unsure on how to approach the subject.

"Well go ahead then, I don't have the entire afternoon", McGonagall said urgingly.

"I.. Well, we, well, Hermione really…" Harry stammered and McGonagall rolled her eyes.

"The point Potter, if you please", she said, her voice dripping with impatience.

"Alright then. Well, Hermione found these classlist from Hogwarts in the library, and she kind of found one with your name on it", Harry started.

"Yes, I did went to Hogwarts once, Potter, even if you might be having difficulties imagining it", McGonagall said sarcastic.

"I don't professor, of course you've gone to Hogwarts. Anyways, on the same classlist we found another name", Harry said, gathering all his Gryffindor courage.

"Yes, I might believe you did. I wasn't the only student in my class"

"Well, the name we found was Tom Riddle", Harry saw how the look on McGonagall's face froze, her expression remained unreadable. Harry didn't knew for how long they just sat there, but to him it felt like eternity. When the spell finally broke, McGonagall regained har usual, composed and stern facial expression.

"I'm afraid I can't help you Potter. I don't know much more about Tom Riddle than any of my other classmates", she said, Harry couldn't help but noticed that her tone was cold.

"There must be something you can…", Harry began but didn't get to finish his sentence.

"I'm afraid not, if you'll excuse me, I have some urgent matters to take care of at Hogwarts. I run a school, nowadays, as you might've noticed. Good afternoon, Mr Potter", with that McGonagall rose from her armchair and walked out of the room before Harry could say anything more.

"I bet she knows something", Ron said later that night when Harry, Ron and Hermione had gathered in Ron's and Harry's room. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Don't be stupid Ronald, why would professor McGonagall lie?" Hermione said and shook her head at Ron's comment.

"I hate being the one breaking it for you Hermione, but professors can lie. Remember Lockhart, the fake Moody… ever heard of Trelawney?" Ron asked and Hermione gave him a dark look.

"Of course I know that teachers can lie, I just didn't think professor McGonagall was the type…", Hermione began and Ron groaned.

"Come on Hermione! Everyone has secrets, even McGonagall, she's not some kind of saint, you know", Ron said and Hermione turned to Harry.

"What do you think, Harry? You were the one talking to her", Hermione asked and Ron smiled, satisfied with his temporarily win. Harry sighed, he hated when their meetings turned into arguing competitions between his best friends. Both Ron and Hermione was competitive and more stubborn than most people Harry knew, and no one ever surrendered willingly.

"You both have a point", Harry said, taking his usual role as playing Switzerland. "I agree with Ron on the fact that it seems like she knows something. On the other hand it seems very out of character for McGonagall to do something like this", he said diplomatically. Harry yawned as he looked on the clock, 01.13, more than time to go to bed.

"We'll continue tomorrow", Hermione said as if she'd read his mind. "But I think we all can agree on that another meeting with McGonagall is necessary", she continued and Ron nodded. Harry just agreed, happy that his two friends didn't argue about something for once.

Well, this is some kind of attempt on a multi-chaptered fic in english... I've been walking around with this idea for ages, but I didn't know how to write it, and today I just thought "why not write it from someone else's point of view?". Brilliant! It's probably typos everywhere and loads of grammatical errors, feel free to point them out, but please, be nice, there's no use in being rude. Keep in mind that english is not my first language and I tend to mix american english and brittish english, which some people finds annoying.

And most importantly, what do you think? Is it worth continuing?

Thanks for reading!