Hi everybody, another short one-shot from me, this was written for the one line competition 2. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter...I wish I did, but I don't.
The locked door fascinated and puzzled her. The solid oak door looked like any other in the castle it resided in, but there was something about it that rendered her unable to stop staring at it. Maybe it was the rich brown colour of the stained oak that was scarred with knots and lines of age, or could it have been the brass knocker that was twisted into a shape that was as beautiful and ornate as the carved patterns and designs that adorned it. There was no handle and this added to the sense of mystery and magic that cast its spell over the door and whatever lay behind it.
The saying 'curiosity killed the cat' had never been taken seriously by Minerva McGonagall, whenever she was told as a chlid her retort was always that cats had nine lives and that she'd be fine. This curiosity had landed her in trouble many times throughout her years at Hogwarts and it had never really left her. No matter how hard she tried to resist temptation, her curious nature always won in the end.
On this particularly uneventful day in June, she was staring at the only door in the office of Albus Dumbledore that she'd never seen the other side of. Albus had gone to help Cornelius at the Ministry and while he was gone, she was determined to satisfy her curiosity. She walked across the office, past all the randomly placed little whirring gadgets and trinkets, over to the door.
Her eyebrows furrowed as she noticed that the door had no handle, only a knocker. How was she going to get in? Well, anything was worth a try so she knocked. Nothing happened. Ok, that didn't work. How else could it open? Would she have to knock a certain number of times or in a certain tune in order to open this door. There were so many possible ways to open this door, Albus could be back at any time and he'd probably think of her as nosy for trying to get through a locked door in his office. How would finding her so close to just pounding on a door that obviously held secrets behind it. Despite the consequences, she had to know what was behind that door. It was worth at least a few tries.
After several tries at guessing the combination she needed to unlock the door including Albus' age (which took an awfully long time), the number of letters in his sister's name and a number of other things that came to mind, before something came to mind. Albus had a liking for muggle sweets... lemon drops and lollipops? It was worth a try, the current password to his office was 'custard cream' so why wouldn't this work? Once again she attempted to open the door, but this time she got a result. After hearing a series of clicks come from the door, it creaked open of its own felt immensely proud of herself when she saw the door open and her curiosity immediately got the better of her as she stepped into the mysterious room behind the door.
It was completely bare apart from a single thin column that held something small on it. It was rather dark and all of the light in the room seemed to be drawn towards the column in the centre. Her curiosity had gone into overdrive. All the sound in the world, exept for the sound of her heeled boots clicking on the stone floor, seemed to have drained away to leave utter silence as she arrived at the column and looked at what was perched on top of it. She let out a small chuckle as she looked down at the single serbert lemon labelled "for emergencies only." Albus would have a sherbert lemon just for emergencies, it was who he was. Leaving the secret room she left the Headmaster's office in favour of her own, because she had some marking to get on with.
Half an hour later, Albus Dumbledore entered his office and crossed the room to the door without a handle. As he knocked, he sang quietly to himself "Lollipop, lollipop,oh, lolly lolly lolly, lollipop." When he entered the room he walked over to the column and picked up a bag of sherbert lemons labelled "For meetings at the Ministry only!"