Author's Notes: While this definitely borrows elements from The Fall of Man, I don't consider this a retelling of that particular Genesis story. Um, I don't have much else to say right now. Reviews make me very, very happy.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything mentioned here.


The Fall

Ridiculous. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. Those words repeated over and over in Minerva's head, as if they were a broken record. Ridiculous. You are nothing but a ridiculous school girl.

She could hardly believe the events of that morning had actually transpired. Her face felt flushed as she remembered them. She sat on the floor of the girls' dormitories, leaning against her bed and hoping that she could be alone for awhile. She was utterly ashamed of her behavior. How could she show her face in his presence again; how could she sit there and listen to him teach her class; how could she do those things ever again after what she had done?

It had started out like a typical Saturday morning. At ten o'clock she had knocked on the door to his office, something she had done every Saturday since the start of term. As usual, he had welcomed her in, and they had resumed her animagus training.

This particular Saturday morning, however, had held an twist to it. It had started out normally, but it had proved itself to be utterly different from the rest of them. Where it had diverged in its course was that she had finally reached success. She had completed the transformation and had become an animagus at last, something she had been trying to do for quiet a few months now.

Upon completing the transformation, she had been filled with a great deal of emotion. She had been overcome with both triumph and joy. Looking back, she saw that her emotions had been the serpent. Yes, indeed, her emotions had caused her to do it. They had very much been the serpent, just like the animagus lessons had been the Garden of Eden. Her next action had been eating the fruit.

She had taken the forbidden fruit. She had done it; she had kissed him. She, Minerva McGonagall, had kissed Albus Dumbledore.

He had reacted in a shocked fashion. She had never once hinted that she harbored thee types of feelings for him. Normally, she was very skilled at hiding her emotions. On that particular Saturday morning, however, she had slipped. She had slipped with that kiss.

He had pulled away immediately.

"That was highly inappropriate, Miss McGonagall," he had said coldly.

Miss McGonagall. He had never called her that before; it had always been Minerva. Minerva, this; Minerva that; Minerva his favorite student. Miss McGonagall sounded so strange and foreign as it emitted from his lips. By both the look in his eyes and his tone, she knew that things between them would never be the same again. Clearly, he no longer saw her as his prized student, his protégé, but merely an impulsive school girl.

"I'm sorry," she had whispered. Truer words had never been spoken: she was very sorry. She was sorry that she had eaten the fruit from the tree; she was sorry that she had ruined things between them; she was sorry for her reckless and sinful behavior.

"You should go," he said to her, and his voice held no emotion.

Minerva did as she was told; she accepted her banishment. As she exited his office, she knew that her Garden of Eden would be no more. She had eaten from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; she had taken the forbidden fruit. What had been could be no more.

Thus, her exile from him began.