A/N: First Fanfic ya'll! I am planning on writing a series of oneshots about when various characters realized that Jily was OTP. I definitely would love reviews and tips on how to improve slash potential character PoV's to include. Thanks for reading!
….
Minerva McGonagall
It was the afternoon before students left for holiday break in the winter of 1975 when Professor Minerva McGonagall first felt the need to retire.
Indeed, this desire directly resulted from the recent actions of a group of "too smart for their own good" boys in her own damn house. Drained by the hectic chaos of their latest prank (and later baffled by the apparent attempt at romance from one individual in particular), for a fleeting moment Minerva genuinely considered not returning from the holiday break. She had no qualms about passing on her teaching and head of house duties to someone with higher levels of patience that could handle the utter ridiculousness of these four students.
But her dream of witnessing Gryffindor win the Quidditch Cup quickly banished the thought to the back of her mind.
"How on earth," she began. "Could you possibly think this would be a good idea?"
The four boys in question occupied the seats adjacent from her desk. The boy with hurricane hair exchanged a smug glance with his equally mischievous counterpart Sirius Black. Peter Pettigrew attempted to hide his nerves by staring nonchalantly back at the professor but his hands wrapped tightly around the arm rests gave away his fear. While Remus Lupin merely gave Minerva an innocent shrug.
"As the resident purveyors of magical mischief " said James.
"-it is our utmost duty to ensure that our fellow wizards and witches," continued Remus.
"-do not suffocate under the outdated societal expectation that children be forcibly detained in hopes of acquiring 'knowledge'." finished Sirius.
With her lips set in an impossibly thin line, Minerva's face initially looked extremely unimpressed by the students; however, a flash of amusement danced flashed in her eyes at Sirius' response.
"So, the education system you mean?"
"Precisely professor!" said Peter.
"We knew you would understand," Remus said smiling.
Understand! she snorted to herself, there is no way I could even attempt to make sense of the behavioral practices of this bumbling band of baboons that parades about as students!
Early this morning, the self-proclaimed "Marauders" had taken it upon themselves to steal several nifflers from Professor Kettleburn's office and release them into the living quarters of the fifth year girls'. The theft and property damage alone justified at minimum three weeks detention and sixty points removed from Gryffindor, but combined with the fact that the boys had somehow charmed the creatures to get…excited upon direct human contact was deserving of a new type of punishment entirely. Truthfully, Minerva hopedto Merlinthat the difficulty and discomfort the boys underwent in order to gain the knowledge behind that bit of magic would be enough to deter them from doing something similar in the future. But she would take no chances.
"Honestly Minerva…may I call you Minerva?" asked Sirius in manner that indicated he was clearly going to continue addressing her in an overly familiar manner regardless of her actual response.
His cheek was met with a withering glare from the professor.
"I think she prefers Minnie, Padfoot," said James. "It's much more intimate that way."
Sirius nodded, "A truer statement has never been said Prongs!"
"This brilliance is why we keep you around you know," said Peter.
"Huh!" scoffed James "not my dashing good looks then?"
"Frankly, I wouldn't call them dashing," said Remus.
"If someone was dashing away from them maybe," added Sirius.
While the three boys chuckled at James' pout following their teasing, Minerva stared at them coolly until they answered her original question.
"We were merely trying to repurpose our energy into something more productive," said Remus.
"Per your instruction of course!" added Peter.
"My instruction?" she questioned disbelievingly.
"You see Minnie," said James as Remus handed him the scroll that was buried his robes. James then began to read Remus' neat cursive handwriting aloud, "It is the case that on September the Second of the year Nineteen Seventy-Five Anno Domini, you stated and I quote: You four need to find a better means of releasing all of this built up energy! Instead of engaging in these mindless tricks might you consider engaging in school related extracurricular activities instead! end quote."
"I was referring to joining the school Gobstones club!" she said dryly. "In no way did I recommend the releasing of nifflers into the fifth year girls' dormitories!"
"But Professor, we were just trying to promote awareness for the desperate need for a Care of Magical Creatures Society," said Peter.
Sirius continued, "Precisely Wormy, my friend! If this club had been in existence at the time we allegedly released these creatures into the dorms the girls certainly would have known the proper methods of capturing them."
"Despite the fact that you four definitely, not allegedly that is Mr. Black, made it impossible to capture them using traditional methods?"
In fact, the Marauders had charmed the nifflers so that they could only be frozen upon hearing the phrase the Marauders are the most brilliant, handsome, and all around incredible young men to ever walk these halls and deserve nothing but our utmost love and lavish affection. If she were being honest with herself, Minerva would have admitted to being a bit impressed with their spellwork, but she knew better than to even hint at any such feelings in front of the boys, lest they take it upon themselves to attempt to impress her further.
"It wasn't so much destruction of property," explained Remus.
"As it was…encouraged renovation," said James.
Minerva once again held back a snort. "And the need to charm the creatures so that they would confuse Miss Evans' hair with jewelry?" she asked.
"We needed her to be preoccupied professor," said Sirius.
"Yeah, if anyone could figure out our prank it would be Evans" said Peter.
"Not that she would ever verbally admit her love for us," Sirius responded thoughtfully.
Remus guessed, "She'd probably just ask Emmaline to do it."
"Fair enough," said Sirius. "In any case, Minnie it's just us here, you can admit that hearing Meadows screaming about, trying to protect the nifflers from stealing My favorite grandmother's jewelry was hilarious!"
"Bloody brilliant of us."
"Indeed"
"Truly some of our best work!"
"Not to mention," James cut in. "It was awfully romantic wasn't it?" he said with a dreamy expression.
Three heads snapped towards his direction in a mix of confusion and bewilderment, while Minerva's face shifted from strict to one of utter bemusement.
"Romantic!" exclaimed Peter.
"What aspect of," Remus coughed and looked slyly at the professor, "renovating the girl's dormitories could be considered romantic?"
James explained, "Well, since nifflers are only attracted to beautiful things, it's only fair that they be attracted to Evans!"
His answer was met with blank stares on all sides.
"Miss Evans lost several chunks of hair because of your prank and was forced to go to the hospital wing because of your actions. " said Minerva
James had the decency to look abashed. "I was just trying to give her a compliment!"
"By sending her to the infirmary?" Remus said in an incredulous tone.
"Merlin, Prongs you're thick." said Sirius.
"Mr. Potter, why would you think that it would be remotely romantic to have someone send you magical creatures that ripped out your hair?"
James put his head in his hands and groaned as the idiocy of his actions fully sunk in, while Remus shot him an extremely disappointed look.
"Well, when you put it like that," he moaned, "It's readily apparent that that was a prattish thing to do."
"Clearly it's because you are a prat, Prongs!" admonished his lycanthropic friend.
"Why couldn't you have used your words like a normal person?" asked Peter
" Yeah! I can't believe I almost lost a finger so you could pay Evans a compliment." said Sirius.
James turned his head and stared at his friend in order to convey his unamusement.
"A finger Prongs!" he continued "And my favorite one no less!"
Minerva cleared her throat. "Mr. Potter, might I suggest that next time you want to tell a girl you fancy them, you give them a nice gift instead of sending nifflers to attack them."
"I don't fancy her, I just-"
"Save it, Potter your sheer lack of intelligence in this situation has honestly rendered me incapable of further discussion on this topic. I want you all to leave my office immediately and pack up your belongings for the train tomorrow morning."
The Marauders then began to shuffle out of the room, James with a look of slight devastation on his face.
"Oh! And since you boys are so fascinated by magical creatures I am sure you won't mind tutoring all of the younger students in the subject next term." she added as they walked out.
Her suggestion was met with such over dramatic groans and muttered obscenities that she almost cracked a smile.
Sirius in particular looked aghast at the prospect.
Minerva then turned back to look at the papers on her desk before noticing that only three of the Marauders had left her presence.
"Erm, Minnie?" asked James, "When you say a nice gift…"
She responded, "Something thoughtful and with minimal extravagance as Miss Evans does not seem the type to enjoy ostentatious displays of affection."
"Right, well thanks." he replied while moving to leave her office. However, he changed his mind before crossing the threshold and turned back to face his head of house.
"I didn't do it because I fancy her you know. Because I don't. Not at all, I mean Evans is just too bloody annoying for anyone to ever think of her as fanciable! She offers to help Slughorn re-organize his potions cabinet after we've spent ages sneaking into the classroom and arranging the ingredients so that its nearly impossible to find what your looking for. She's always the first person to do spells correctly in Charms no matter how much I try to distract her and she keeps giving the first years the proper directions whenever we try to trick them. Plus, she keeps treats in her pocket for Filch's demon cat, which is just plain weird, Professor! Not to mention that probably bad luck to snog a redhead anyway and–".
Minerva then cut off his rambles.
"Potter," she said.
"Yes, Minnie?"
"I don't care."
"Right," he said blushing "well, thanks again and Happy Christmas."
As James shut the door behind him, Minerva McGonagall smiled at the boy's infatuation.
Well she thought that boy is clearly out of his depth.
But she rooted for him nonetheless.
…..
Rather exhausted from the lunacy that transpired over the past couple of days, Minerva resolved to ignore any attempts at tomfoolery on the train ride home. Though this essentially only meant she had to avoid the last compartment (as that space had been claimed by the Marauders during their first year), she was feeling especially cautious that morning and elected to claim a seat at the very front of the train. Unfortunately for her, not all the Marauders had elected to sit in their usual area as James Potter had waited at the front of the train in hopes of finding Lily. As a result, Minerva was within sight of a slightly awkward conversation between a very pretty redheaded girl with a woolen cap on her head that was decorated with faded colors and a lanky bespectacled boy whose fingers were running rapidly through his permanently messy black hair.
Now, Minerva McGonagall was a well respected witch, who often prided herself on her ability to always behave in a professional manner. And as such, she would never consider eavesdropping on a conversation that she had no business overhearing. So instead of acknowledging her lesser desires, she opted to assist the younger students in loading their belongings into the side of the train.
And if an unknown third party happened to accidentally cast a personalized amplification spell on Minerva so that she was able to listen to a certain exchange between two of her favorite Gryffindors…
Well that as out of her control entirely.
"I am sorry Evans," said James. "I didn't mean to…I never thought that you would be…I only wanted to –"
"You really need to think things through more," she responded. "Sometimes your pranks can be funny but this was…" she distractedly touched the cap on her head and sighed, "this was too much."
"Yeah, my mum tells me I need to do that all the time," he responded sheepishly.
"Honestly, I don't understand how someone so intelligent can act like such a prat!"
James looked delighted at her slight compliment but had the good sense not to smirk. However his hazel eyes sparkled with a special kind of happiness nonetheless.
"I knew you thought I was smart, Evans"
She rolled her eyes before giving his arm a firm whack. "So not the point Potter!"
He looked at her apologetically.
"It's alright," she continued, "Pomfrey said that the hair that grows back will be much stronger because of the potion in any case."
James shot her another remorseful glance and quickly pulled out a small circular box from his robes. He quickly handed her the gift and began fidgeting with his hands.
Lily then slowly opened the box, almost as if she were expecting something from Zonkos to pop out and smack her in the face. But all the box contained was a slow spinning white rose and a soft melody of a song forgotten long ago.
The girl was silent for a moment before asking, "How did you know?"
He cleared his throat, "Marley told me about how your mom died this summer and she mentioned that her name was Rose and that you were upset because this was gonna be your first Christmas without her so…" he trailed off.
Lily gently traced her fingers over the curves of the flower's petals before bringing the music box in closer, with a gentle smile blossoming upon her face as she did so.
"And the song?" she asked.
"You hum in class sometimes, especially in Potions and I noticed that Sniv –Snape makes you stop 'cuz it distracts him and all but I always thought you sounded –the song sounded pretty so I charmed the rose to play it whenever you opened the box."
She gazed at the gift in wonder and smiled wider. "My mum used to sing this song all the time when she baked" she explained.
"Oh, I erm I didn't realize that. Sorry if it's too much then."
"No it's alright, Potter." She said, "More than alright in fact its completely wonderful."
James' face radiated with such sincere joy that Minerva felt herself grinning back at the sight. The two teenagers then stared at each other for a moment before the train's whistle brought them back to reality.
Lily looked away at the sound before turning back to face him. "Thanks James," she said while placing a kiss upon his cheek. "Have a Happy Christmas." Lil quickly scurried onto the train in search of her friends' compartment in hopes that he would not see the faint blush dancing across her face. James on the other hand made no attempts to hide the blinding smile that stretched across his own.
Maybe Minerva thought to herself it would be worthwhile to stick around just a little bit longer. Just to see how this plays out.
She gave a toast at their wedding.
Thanks for reading! Please Review!
