"Albus, are you in here?" Minerva peeked into his study, hoping to find him behind his desk as usual. The room was dark and oddly silent: no rustling of parchment, or fire crackling or portraits snoring. "Albus…" She now entered the room and looked around, although she knew it was useless. He's gone. "A-Al…" suddenly she broke down. The rush of emotions took her completely by surprise and she found herself in tears. Her knees felt weak and unable to hold her steady for much longer. She barely maade it to the couch beside the fireplace, and practically collapsed on it. "I'm so sorry…" she whispered, almost hoping he would be somewhere in the room, listening in.

Flaskback.

Albus stood up and suddenly the room became silent. He looked around the table carefully one last time to make sure no staff member was missing. "As you all know, I must leave to attend some business with the Ministry of Magic, I know it will be an agitated couple of weeks, since classes are about to start, but I'm afraid I can't delay this." He was silent for a moment. "Now good evening to everyone, and I will see you in two weeks time in time for the Sorting Ceremony of our newcomers. Minerva, Severus, Hagrid, Filius and Pomona, I will ask you to stay; everyone else is dismissed."

Once the seven of them were left alone, Albus started briefing them on the situation regarding the Philosopher's Stone and how it should be protected. Each of them, one by one, was assigned the task to design a different kind of protection barrier for the Stone.

"Severus, I expect you to command the project in my absence. Pomona and Filius I need you to start working right away, and Hagrid I will need to assign you a special task, we can discuss it in my office in a while. Minerva, I expect you will be able to take over my paperwork, if that is not too much to ask of you."

Minerva was about to glare but she wasn't sure she had quite understood what had just happened. "Just that? No big project for me?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what am I supposed to do? Shouldn't I work on designing a barrier too?"

Albus suddenly broke eye contact, clearly trying to avoid her gaze. "No, I just want you to handle the paperwork."

"WHY?"

"Because it's enough work for one person, plus I doubt you'd be willing to help..."

"Albus! How dare you!"

"Minerva, you will do as I say!" His voice suddenly sounding rather stern, almost angry. "As of the past few weeks, you have been fighting me over every decision I've made. If I'm going to have you as an enemy and not as an ally, then I might as well get a new deputy!"

Jaws had dropped. Minerva's eyes were glistening.

"W-w-what have I done?" Everyone around them expected Albus to give an answer that would clarify everything. Instead, he just walked past Minerva, leaving her in a state of utter shock.

"Minerva, I don't know what to tell you. All you have done lately is try to… to… I need you to be on my side Minerva! Last week you decided not to talk to me because of something that happened eleven years ago, when you knw perfectly well wa had no choice but to leave that boy with those muggles! This week, it's that you are completely against protecting one of the few items that Voldemort might want to make use of to finally return… what is wrong with you?" Albus stood before her desk, the look on his face indicated that he was reluctant to accept was he was being told.

"Wrong with me? Really Albus? Excuse me, but I simply cannot understand why The Order can't deal with this whole Philosopher stone affair in a different way. It just doesn't seem a great idea to hide that thing here, where all of our students might be endangered! In addition to the fact that there must be other ways to hide it safely-"

"And what exactly do you suggest!?" this time Albus seemed furious.

Minerva was clearly upset too, her stern expression, beautiful as it made her look, was beginning to take over, but she had never stood before such an infuriated Albus Dumbledore. She stood from her chair and walked firmly towards the centre of the classroom, where he stood amongst the empty desks. "I cannot believe, that after all we have been through, after all these years… you don't trust me."

"It would seem to me it is the other way around." He stated somewhat coldly.

"But Albus… I love you." She looked into his eyes as she said it for the first time. Those words she has always longed to say, that had always remained unspoken, but that both of them had always known to be true. He looked right back into her beautiful green eyes, apparently impervious to the statement. She reached for his face, in the hopes of… just feeling him… but just as she was about to touch his face, she backed off, intimidated by the coldness of his eyes, which she had never seen before… ever.

Throughout the following week, Minerva dealt with the paperwork just as she had been told. In her spare time however, she knew she had to find a way to prove him wrong; to show him how much she actually supported him, even when she did not agree with him. She needed to mend what she had done, and especially, what she had said…

She would come and go from the library, looking for ideas, complex defensive spells and basically anything that could be of use. She spent a whole weekend scribling on parchments and she barely slept. She only came up with a good idea when she was about to give up. It was Sunday evening, and about the time when she and Albus would usually get together for a game of wizard chess. She prepared the chess board even though she knew he wasn't coming, but at least, she could pretend it was just another week, and that he wasn't away and terribly mad at her. She sat by the fire and stared at the chess board, occasionally taking one of the pieces in her hands, just to look at it closely in the fire light. "Oh, I wish I could help you…" but just as she was saying this, the idea came to her.

She knew that she had to talk to Severus now; coax him into letting her help. But she knew that wouldn't be hard, since it was obvious that once he heard her idea, he would give in. When Albus came back home, he would know how mistaken he had been.

Only a week and a half later, Minerva's effort had paid off, and she was now standing on a giant marble chess set. It had taken Filius and Severus' help to put it together, but she couldn't be more proud about her idea.

"Minerva," she turned. Severus steps echoed as he strided across the marble floor. "Albus is here."

She stared at him blankly. Damn it. She had been so busy that she hadn't stopped to think about this particular part of the plan… what would Albus' reaction be?

"It was a good idea." Severus stated. "He will be fine with it." Her concern must have been written all over her face for Severus to notice. As he was leaving he heard Severus' voice in the distance; he was talking to someone, and when Albus' voice reached her ears her heart started racing.

In what seemed to be seconds later, he was standing before her.

Silence.

"Minerva, look at me." She did.

"Why do you do this to me?"

"Albus I was only trying to help."

"Minerva… I… can I really not trust you anymore? Can I not trust that you will do what I need you to do?"

Her tears had started falling. She had failed again.

"I wanted to show you that I could do this Albus, that I support you, that I can help you even when I don't agree with you decision." She almost sounded like she was pleading.

Albus sighed.

"Take this," he handed her a stack of parchments. " They are from the Ministry. Can you simply answer them?"

She took them and looked at him. She was in tears, exhausted from the lack of sleep and effort she had put into this project and clearly broken hearted, but he didn't look into her eyes, and he didn't seem to care. "Go now Minerva."

TBC.