Dumbledore opened the door quietly to find Minerva McGonagall alone in her office. She sat upright and still.
"Minerva?" He said quietly. She didn't make a move to acknowledge him.
He simply sat and waited.
Seconds turned to minutes. Minutes morphed into hours. Neither knew how long they really sat in silence. When Minerva finally broke free the shadows had receded and daylight filled the office.
"Where has it all gone?"
"What my dear?" Dumbledore inquired.
"Time."
"Behind us." Dumbledore sighed. "Where we can do nothing but look back at it with regret."
"Remember their first year? When sweet little Lily Evans knocked James out for making fun of her friend?" she asked in a quiet voice.
"We sat in my office and she vowed to never speak a word to him again." Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye.
"I was so mad when they bewitched my door with a never ending squeak, it took it a year to fade." Minerva said with a smile. "Not to mention the time they spelled the ceiling in the great hall to replay that Slytherin keeper falling off his broom for a week. And…." she paused. The shadows, forced away by the bright light streaming through the windows, seemed to grow and lengthen again. Brought back by the loss the two occupants of the room bore.
"They were the smartest student I ever taught Albus." Minerva said. "It took me until I didn't have them to realize it. When they graduated, teaching lost some excitement. I was forever looking over my shoulder for Black and Potter, snickering, wands held out and that phony look of innocence on their faces, or Remus with that look of mortification at once more being caught. I miss it so much, and they'll never be there again." Minerva began fidgeting with the papers on her desk.
"The day Lily kissed James on the Quidditch field in front of the whole school I thought I might die of shock." Minerva said. "I never did see two people so much in love. They were a ray of sunshine in an increasingly dark world. Voldemort was gaining power and support and here were to such completely innocent and good people just beginning on this journey."
"Why Lily and James? Why Black?" Minerva asked her voice breaking.
"I cannot claim to know the answer. I can only make of it what I can." Dumbledore answered, feeling old for the first time.
"Harry will never know his parents." Minerva said.
"No." Dumbledore agreed.
"The poor child will be famous for the darkest hour in his life. The moment that he truly lost everything."
"Yes." He once again agreed.
Minerva sighed sadly.
"I am not worried about him." Dumbledore said. "After all how could the son of the infamous James Potter, who was smart enough to bewitch the ceiling in the great hall and daring enough to actually do it, and Lilly Evans, the fiery little girl who punched out boys then kissed him in front of thousands, be anything but extraordinary. He might have it tough but I believe Lilly and James's son is more than equal."
Both sat in mournful silence, remembering the four best friends. Remembering their joy in life and their seemingly unbreakable unity, loyalty and trust.
The very first day of school the next term, somehow, the great hall ceiling displayed words that twisted around the smiling faces all that had fallen in the war.
The teachers smiled to each other reading the words.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
"I surely hope so James." Dumbledore said raising his glass to the ceiling. " I would expect nothing less."
A ghostly chuckle wrapped warmly around McGonagall. That night when she quietly retired to her office the door squeaked. Every time things got hard and she thought she might not have the strength to take another step her office door would squeak. She would smile and tip her head to acknowledge the brightest spark she had ever seen and she always found she had the strength.
