A/N This follows the fic 'A perfect evening', but it's not really necessary to read it to understand this one.

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A penny for her thoughts - 1

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"You're not doing it" Albus said "Severus, please, tell her she's not doing it"

"Oh, no… no, no, no" Severus Snape muttered, shaking his hands and stepping away from them "I'm keeping myself away from your fights… The last time you put me in between your argument, I ended up with a bump on my head… I'll leave you alone so you can…"

"You're not going anywhere, Severus" Minerva warned him closing making the door close itself magically from the other side of the room "You came here with the plan, so you'll help me convince this dumb old wizard that I'm the right which to do it"

"It's too dangerous!"

"This is about He who must not be named, Albus… I'm afraid it's always dangerous when it's about him"

"I'm just trying to protect you!"

"I don't need your damn protection, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore! I'm a grown witch that wants to do something for the damn Order of Phoenix you created to fight The Dark Lord. And admit it, you know I'm the right person to do this"

"Bloody hell, damn stubborn witch… You win!" he cursed while he was making his way out of the room "Severus, please… Tell her what she has to do. I'll be in my rooms"

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He knocked the door and came in after being invited.

"Is she already gone?" Dumbledore asked to the wizard who had just came in.

"She'll be fine" Severus said "…and you know it, Albus"

"She is the most powerful and intelligent witch of the Order" he told "I have no doubt of her capacity for doing this but… the only though of something going wrong and Minerva getting hurt makes me …" he didn't finish his sentence.

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Next day, at first time on the morning, Albus didn't even knock at the dungeons door before coming into professor Snape's rooms.

"She's not back, yet!" he exclaimed waking Severus up.

"Who?" Severus asked still sleepy and confused.

"Minerva. She's not back. I checked her rooms, she's not there…"

"What time is it?"

"I don't know, the sun is coming up… she was supposed to be here at midnight, didn't she?"

"Yes…" Severus replied quickly standing up and getting dressed in a move of wand "I'll go and check" and he disappeared into the fireplace of his room.

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Minerva had gone to a secret meeting of witches of the dark side in the surrounding woods of London. Severus was the one who would usually do this kind of jobs for the Order but, this time… he would have been easily discovered among all those women. This was the reason why Minerva was the perfect choice for it, she could walk around the crowd and listen all their conversations being in her animagus form. Nobody would even suspect if he was or not a dark witch.

But the meeting was supposed to finish at midnight, that was why both Albus and Severus were now worried about her.

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Once he was out of the school dominions, Severus disappeared to appear back at the exact place where hundreds of witches had been reunited last night. He looked around, there was no signal of her so, he took his wand out and whispered some words. A red light came out from the tip of his wand, he moved it around slowly and at one point, the light became green. He walked following the green light, which became red every time he did a step on the wrong direction.

Suddenly, behind a tree he noticed something, and when he approached it, he found Minerva on the ground. She was half naked, bruises covered her skin and the few clothes that covered her where dyed on blood.

"No" he muttered to himself. He knelt down and touch her hand… it was as cold as ice; she was dead. He took her body on his arms and left the forest.

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Albus was wishing to see Severus appearing with Minerva behind him with some excuse about her delay but, when his friend came back through the fireplace carrying her on his arms, he felt his heart stopping.

"Is she ok?" he asked, giving all his hope on those words.

"I'm sorry" Severus muttered with tears on his eyes.

"No, no! She can't be… No! Poppy should have a look on her, she's Minerva McGonagall… She's… she's the best witch this school has ever met… she can't be… she can't be dead"

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Severus was feeling a lot of pity for that wizard unable to say goodbye to a beloved friend. While Minerva's cold body was being examined by Madam Pomfrey in the school's sickbay, Severus couldn't stop looking at the headmaster. Albus was sitting down in silence, with an illegible expression on his face, until the door was opened and Poppy came out.

"So?" Albus wondered while Severus was already seeing him breaking down after the nurse make him realize Minerva was gone.

"She's fine"

"What?" Snape exclaimed not believing her words.

"She's fine… well… she has some bounds but, her heart and mind are totally alive, the only problem is, she's not waking up… She's unconscious; in coma… it's like if she'd been frozen… Albus, Minerva is alive but, I can't wake her up if I don't know which spell took her to this state"

"How are we going to find it out if she can't tell us?" he said, like if he was upset to himself because of that.

"I could use legilimensy on her" Severus suggested "I could travel through her mind to the moment she was attacked"

"Good thinking, Severus…" Albus pointed "Legilimensy will help us take Minerva back with us but, I'll do the honors if you don't mind"

"But, Albus… not offence but, I'm better than you at legilimensy"

"You are, my dear friend… and you know I trust you in everything, but this time, in order to preserve Minerva's privacy, I think it should be me the one to go into her mind" and not saying anything else, Albus went into the room while Severus stayed there thinking if Dumbledore was really caring about Minerva's privacy, or if there was something on her memories Albus really didn't wanted him to know… by the way, it wasn't a secret that Albus and Minerva McGonagall shared a very good friendship so it wouldn't be strange that they shared more than one secret.

TO BE CONTINUED…

A/N: Next chapter will show Minerva's thoughts… I hope you're enjoying this story… I you do (or even if you don't) leave a review and tell me what you thing^^