i. Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition ||Round XII Pair them up | Appleby Arrows | Beater II | Write about your two characters in an enemies relationship | Albus Dumbledore & Minerva McGonagall
#3. (quote) In a world gushing blood day and night you never stop mocking up pain
#5 (food) strawberry
#14. (word) fix
ii. Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry || November Event | National Princess Day | Princess Adora - She-Ra - Alt: Write about a transformation
Words: 2,3121
A.N.: This is a Dystopian!AU and parallels to the Stockholm-Syndrom are mentioned
Thank you Sophy, love, for beta-ing!
will you follow if I show you my scars?
In a world gushing blood day and night you never stop mocking up pain. You don't believe me? Well, let me tell you a story…
Once upon a time, there was a war raging in the wizarding world. It was a terrible fight between good and bad, light and dark, right and wrong.
At first, there was nothing more but a short, well-intended discussion between two friends – a witch and a wizard, trying to figure out a way to restore peace in their world. They were both well-known and respected within their community and both were powerful and influential in their own ways. She was courageous, loyal, loved strawberries and had the heart of a lioness. She was named Minerva after the goddess of wisdom and, ironically, war. He was strong, kind, adored sweets and had the strength of a phoenix. He was named Albus, meaning the white one.
Admittedly, they argued some days over seemingly unimportant things like school budget, ministry decisions or articles about transfiguration. But then again, who didn't?
Both of them dedicated their lives to protecting their families, friends, co-workers and educate their students in the best way possible in order to prepare them for the fight against Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters.
For years, they kept their eyes on young Harry Potter, the famous boy-who-lived. Of course, neither of them would admit it, but the fear of losing the boy troubled them greatly.
Taking all this in consideration, one could say that Albus and Minerva lived indeed quite harmoniously.
Then what is it, you may ask, that tore them apart in such a drastic way? That turned people, who once were the best of friends, into enemies?
Well, some would say that magic always comes with a price. In this story, the sacrifice that had to be paid was a good soul…
It starts like this:
…
In the beginning, there was only a simple idea – impulsive, provocative, and perhaps crazy enough to work. Albus had tried for years to figure out a way to beat Tom Riddle and his followers, and now, after what felt like an eternity, he might have found a solution.
Immediately, he called Minerva into his office. Naturally, no one, not even his hand-selected members of the Order were allowed to know about this, but during the years they had worked side by side, Albus had learned that she was the only person he could trust.
(At least that's what he thought.)
…
Minerva listened closely to what the Headmaster had to tell her. She sat right opposite to him; in one of his oversized office chairs which in her opinion didn't meet the required standards of a man in his position.
Nevertheless, she had worked with him long enough to know that some things about him would never change – the chairs and his terrible sweet tooth.
But Albus was a grown man. If he didn't want to listen to her preaching about how too much sweets would one day be the death of him, she couldn't force him to listen.
Albus had made a big secret about his latest plan, and once he finished elaborating, Minerva was quiet for a moment – far too stunned to give any sort of reply.
"I know it's a lot to ask, Minerva," he said and stared into her emerald eyes.
Minerva's breathing calmed only slowly, and very contradicting to the feelings of utter nervousness and uncertainty that were sending shivers down her spine.
'It's for the greater good,' she thought, 'think about the lives you can save if this plan really works. Think of how all our problems could be fixed.'
Swallowing one last time, she nodded slowly.
"I will do it, Albus," she whispered, "even though the mere idea frightens me."
The white-bearded man got up from behind his desk and put a comforting hand on her shoulders.
"You're a brave witch – a Gryffindor – and the only one strong enough to pull through with this."
…
You might now ask what this was all about. Well, all I can tell you is that this idea – that was supposed to end the war and offer the perfect opportunity to defeat Lord Voldemort – backfired in the most cruel of ways. It was a turn of events not even Albus could have anticipated.
But I'm getting ahead of myself… Here, take a look on how the story goes on.
It continues like this:
…
The plan itself – its theory – was quite simple. After all, the only thing she was expected to do was come up with a suitable reason and sneak into the Dark Lord's inner circle – and in doing so gather as much information as possible, perhaps even prevent the one or other Death Eater attack. It sounded quite logical in the beginning, but soon Minerva realized that the 'carrying-out' part of the plan was not even close to easy. On the contrary, it was one of the most difficult things the witch had ever done.
Minerva had always been a very ambitious witch, and no matter what task she was given, she tried her best and wouldn't stop until she reached her goal. Even if that meant spending time with the person she detested most on the planet.
(At least, during that time.)
As she felt the cold, pale hand touching her own, she gave her best not to shiver. The bony fingers closed around hers with a strong, firm grip and in doing so preventing her wand from shaking.
"Do it," Voldemort's hoarse voice whispers into her ear as she points her wand at the young woman in front of her. "Do it!"
When Minerva hesitated, the Dark Lord didn't wait a second. "Imperio."
The witch felt it coming towards her, slowly, and putting itself over her like a veil. Minerva tried to resist the curse, she used all her bravery and courage, all her willpower, but it wasn't enough.
The feeling of losing control over her own body was something she would never forget. The thoughts that whispered inside of her head, telling her to what to do, forcing her arm upwards once more to kill the innocent young woman in front of her… it was too much for her.
When Voldemort released her from the spell, he stared at her and cackled. "You have potential, my dear, and I'm glad that you finally decided to join the right side. But you need to practice. Extensively. Or you will suffer the consequences."
This said, he slapped her – hard. Minerva fell to the floor and when she lifted her head again several minutes later, she came face to face with the hollow eyes of the victim she had just killed.
Despite her best efforts, tears spilled from her eyes and her body started to tremble again. She tried to pull herself together again – thinking about the vast and almost unreal memories that she had pushed into the back of her mind. She tried to recall them, to get something to hold on to, but the time she had already spent with this monster was taking its toll on her.
Memories faded, people's faces blurred, voices sounded strange. The only image that became clearer and clearer within time was the one of a white-bearded old man with half moon glasses on top of his crooked nose.
Immediately, anger boiled up inside of her for she remembered that this man was the one responsible for the pain and sorrow she had endured in the last couple of months.
'Perhaps,' she thought bitterly as she got up from the cold stone floor and brushed the dirt off her emerald robes, 'Tom told the truth. Perhaps Albus had been playing with her all this time. Perhaps Tom was fighting on the right side instead.'
All the thoughts in her head that jumped around in a criss-cross pattern caused started to hurt. By now, she wasn't even sure what to think anymore. She didn't know whom to trust – most of all, she had lost the feeling of what was right and what was wrong.
…
As you can see, I wasn't exaggerating things. The once so easy sounding mission of joining the Death Eaters and spy on the Dark Lord took a turn for the worse.
Not only had Minerva troubles with her judgement, she also lost control about who she was. The constant company of Voldemort, the way he treated her – firing curses on a constant basis, breaking her will, and forcing her to kill – and last but not least the way he played with her mind was more than she could take.
Every now and then, he would show her pictures of people she apparently once knew. It was a sort of punishment whenever she had failed one of her tasks. Because after the pictures were shown, he would modify her memory.
Of course, you might ask yourself why he didn't erase all her memories at once? Well, Voldemort could have done that, but he wanted her to suffer.
Additionally, as it turned out, one of his spies had somehow overheard the conversation Dumbledore had with his Deputy all those years ago. And he wouldn't be the Dark Lord if he were not to use this knowledge to his own advantage: Turning these old friends into the worst sort of enemies imaginable.
And he did succeed:
…
Years after it occurred, people started calling it 'The battle of the Astronomy Tower'. Young Draco was very useful in getting into the castle, though the original idea for it came from Minerva herself, and she was indeed very proud of it.
She had all right to be; it took her a long time to work herself up to the position she now held. Having beat Bellatrix with her outstanding skills and knowledge, she was soon known under the title 'Dark Lady', and naturally, she acted accordingly.
Pushing the last door open to the top of the tower, Minerva flicked her wand effortlessly – not even moving a single muscle on her face when her fellow Death Eaters got pushed out of the way by a wave of air.
Briskly moving forward, she snipped her fingers and a rope bound itself around the white-bearded man in front of her.
"Minerva," he whispered and small tears were glistening in his deep blue eyes.
The witch moved her hand and the rope tightened. A hitched, painful intake of breath was to be heard.
Then she took a step towards him, pressing her wand into the flesh on his throat.
"It's been some time, Albus," she hissed into his ear – the anger, fear, and pain all mingled up in her hoarse voice.
"Minerva – "
She shoved back the sleeves of her robe and his eyes widened upon gazing at the many scars and burns that were engraved into her skin. The Dark Mark seemingly small in comparison to everything else.
"Do you wish to see more, old man?" she asked, sarcasm dripping from every single word she spoke. "Do you want to see what happened to me? The pain your brilliant idea caused me?"
She turned around and showed him her back. He swallowed hard at seeing the damage that had been done to her once so perfect skin.
"This," she continued, "is all your fault."
"Minerva – "
"Be quiet," she shouted and slapped him on the cheek. "I'm not here to talk. I'm not even here to make you suffer."
For a moment, hope flickered in Albus' eyes, but when he looked into her gleaming face, it vanished as soon as it appeared and got replaced by utmost fear.
"As friends we met," Minerva mumbled and stretched out her wand so that it was pointed right at him, "and as enemies we shall part again."
Without the tiniest bit of remorse, the witch spoke the killing curse.
The air was blowing through her long waves of ebony hair and the moon was illuminating her. With her mind and soul darkened, she watched in satisfaction as the man whom she thought responsible for her pain, fell backwards from the tower – the sound of shattering bones a few seconds later filling her with a joy she hadn't felt in years.
For a moment, she just stared at the body in the far distance, then she turned around, wordlessly, and with her robes swishing behind her she joined the battle.
…
Now you know what happened, or at least most of the story. Terrible isn't it?
But how do I know all of this? How do I know the story about the Dark Lady?
Well, I'm ashamed to say that I was the spy who overheard Minerva and Albus' conversation.
And my, how I wish I had not told anyone about it. It would have spared everyone a lot of pain.
Ironically, not even Voldemort was spared.
Minerva mercilessly continued her path of destruction, pursued power over everything else, and even ended up killing the one who-mustn't-be-named.
In times like these, no one is safe anymore. Once, people thought they were living in dark times. Well, they probably never lived under the Dark Lady's regime. She lost her soul and what was left of her heart had turned into stone – the once so kind, strawberry-loving and caring witch had been transformed, forever. Instead of peace, there is now war. Instead of comfort, there is pain. Instead of happiness, there's only fear.
The story, as sad as it is, had to be told – I feel a lot better now that you know the truth. The guilt of being responsible for all this was starting to get the better of me.
At the beginning, you wouldn't believe me. What about now? I think you all agree when I repeat my earlier statement that in a world gushing blood day and night you never stop mocking up pain.