Minerva McGonagall was unhappy. She survived 3 wars and lost her whole family. Now it was christmas time and once like the last 4 years, was she sitting alone in her Manor in the Scottish Highlands. She was almost 60 years old, but as a pureblood witch and animagus she had another 60 or even more years to live. She just hoped, that she wouldn't have to live through another war. The loneliness was hard, even for her. She was often described as icy or emotionless and none of her students had ever seen her laugh. It was true, she didn't like to let people in, she had a lot of skeletons in her closet and she had lost too many people to see a point in making an effort. It had been a long time since she had felt truly happy, probably over 50 years. She was known to be proper, strong and brave; Minerva McGonagall didn't need to lean on anyone. Usually she stayed at Hogwarts over the Christmas break, but none of the students stayed, the wounds of the war were still fresh and most people wanted to spend Christmas as family. She had not been invited anywhere, probably because no one thought she would appreciate the invitation but also because she was not close to anyone anymore.
She decided to open one of the three presents she had gotten, not many but one from Poppy, one from Septima Vector and one from Hermione Granger-the newest addition to the Hogwarts staff. She thought it was funny, but Hermione still called her Professor McGonagall or Headmistress. They were colleagues now after all, sometimes they even had a cup of tea together and talked about Transfiguration Today.
Minerva opened Hermione's present first, a note fell out of the package. „Dear Professor McGonagall, I hope you will enjoy this present. It is a my animagus form and it will always behave the way I feel. That means if I am asleep the kitten will sleep, when I am happy it will run around and when I am sad it will curl up. I made one for me too, mine is a tabby cat; I hope you don't mind, it was an experiment. When the two are together, it is the utmost adorable thing. It is only the size that it has because I thought it would be nice if it would fit in a pocket. Also they can take messages, so if you put a piece of parchment in its mouth it will take it to me in seconds. This feature would be fun I thought, since we wont see each other during the whole of break and I would hate to miss or weekly tea conversations. Merry Christmas Hermione Granger" She looked into the small box and there was a small brown kitten the size of her palm. It looked at her expectantly and when she started stroking its fur it started to purr.
Trust Miss Granger to make her a gift. She decided to try her kitten out and wrote on a piece of parchment: Dear Miss Granger, I really appreciate the gift. I didn't realized you had mastered an animagus form yet, you really need to show me. I would hate to miss the conversation as well, but if you aren't opposed you could just come to McGonagall Manor tomorrow at our usual time. Minerva McGonagall" The kitten disappeared for a few minutes and then came back with a piece of paper in its mouth: Thank you for the invitation, I will be there if you tell me how. HG Well, that meant she wouldn't be alone this Christmas after all. Just imagine my face and apparate, I will open the wards for you at all times. When the kitten was back she noticed its happiness, Hermione must like to come over.
At the same time in a small apartment in London Hermione Granger was really excited that her animagus experiment was working and she was invited, she had never heard of anyone being invited to McGonagalls Manor before. She must trust me, she was sure. The tabby seemed to be happy, it had been curled up ever since she made it and Hermione was sure that she did something wrong but maybe the Headmistress had been unhappy for quite a while. If that was the case Hermione was glad that a visit would help to get the stoic woman in a slightly better mood.