My first Fanfic, so please be nice! Thirteen-year-old Minerva McGonagall returns to Hogwarts and tries to make it through her third year, facing old enemies and gaining new friends along the way. R/R please!
Also, I think it worth mentioning that I take several liberties with canon as far as the age of certain characters: Tom Riddle is in the same year as McGonagall, and Hagrid (shown in later chapters) is a first year.
Disclaimer: As completely awesome as it would be, I most certainly am not JK Rowling. Thus, I do not own Harry Potter. I simply own this story.
Chapter 1: The Journey to Hogwarts
Just as abruptly as it had begun, the summer holiday ended as September arrived once more. On the morning of the first, a small family of four could be seen traveling the streets of London, carrying numerous bags, suitcases, and a cage containing a small, brown-and-white ferret, which chittered madly and looked around at the crowds in the streets around them. People passing this odd group occasionally glanced back at them, though most simply went about their normal business, to distract to notice much of anything else. Soon, the group had arrived at King's Cross station at quarter to eleven, loading their luggage onto the trolleys and pushing them down the platforms. As before, a handful of people looked back at the caged ferret as they walked by, but the family took no notice of them, walking briskly towards the far end of the platforms.
Lagging behind her parents and brother slightly due to the weight of her trolley, Minerva glanced around at the crowd, making sure no one was looking her way as she quickly took out her wand, pointing it at the strap of her school trunk that she had just noticed had snapped and muttering, "Reparo," before hastily shoving it back into the front pocket of the absurd Muggle dress she had been forced to wear for the journey. She stopped next to her brother and stood in front of the metal barrier between platforms nine and ten as her father, a kind-faced, slightly balding man, turned to them both. "We'll take this in pairs, as this is Nicolas' first time. I'll take him through first, and then Minerva, you can go with your mother after us," She nodded curtly and stood back as he took her brother's arm, smiling at him warmly before they ran head-on at the barrier, going right through it as though it wasn't there. Her mother smiled and held out her hand. "Ready, dear?" Minerva smiled back and took her hand, eager to change out of the ghastly clothes and into her school robes. Rather than sprinting at the wall, which would have been difficult in the dresses they both wore, they simply strode towards it casually and stepped through, none of the passerby noticing their sudden disappearance.
They came out on the other side onto the now-familiar Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, the scarlet steam engine of the Hogwarts Express billowing smoke on the tracks nearby. Minerva caught sight of some of her friends and waved to them as her mother led her over to where Nicolas and her father were already waiting, her younger brother looking around at the scene, his mouth slightly open. Her father glanced up at the large clock hanging from the side of the same wall they had just come through. "Two minutes until eleven. You two had better get aboard." Minerva hugged him and then turned to her mother, who kissed her cheek and told her to stay out of trouble. She climbed aboard the train and waited a few moments before Nicolas joined her, and together they set off in search of an empty compartment.
It took several minutes for them to find an empty car, forcing them to head to the far end of the train, by which time it had already began moving away from the platform. Sitting down inside and closing the door, Minerva looked out the widow just in time to see the station disappear as the train rounded a corner. Turning to Nicolas, who had taken the seat across from her, she opened her mouth to ask him if he was feeling nervous but stopped as the door slid open again and Minerva's friend and fellow Gryffindor Augusta Prewett popped her head inside, her long blonde hair falling into her face. "Minerva! Do you mind if I sit down? Sorry, everywhere else is full…." Minerva smiled and nodded at her, and she muttered a thank you and sat down next to her, then noticed Nicolas. "Is this your brother?" She asked.
"Yes, this is Nicolas. Nick, this is Augusta. We're in the same year." Nicolas looked at her and held out his hand tentatively, which she shook with a small smile, before turning back to Minerva. "So how was your summer? Better than mine, I imagine. I crashed my broom when I was riding it outside and broke a window, my mum almost killed me. And before that I lost my wand, took two weeks to find it, I'd left it under a tree in our backyard. And then last week…." Her voice trailed off and her face turned a faint red. Minerva, feeling sorry for the poor girl, decided to break the silence. "My summer was alright, I suppose. Mostly I talked to Nicolas about what house we thought he'd be in." She smirked faintly before nodding at him. "He's convinced he's going to be a Hufflepuff." Augusta smiled and looked at Nicolas. "Well, that wouldn't be so bad. I know everyone says Hufflepuffs are a bunch of duffers, really they're-"
But they never heard what Hufflepuffs were, because at that precise moment the compartment door opened again. Minerva looked around and saw her least favorite person in the world standing in the doorway: Tom Riddle, flanked by his cronies Lestrange and Avery. Riddle and Minerva had been mortal enemies from their very first day of school when he had called her friend Sally MacDonald a Mudblood. Riddle somehow managed to appear to the rest of the school as a respectable, hard-working young man, but Minerva was not convinced, nor was any of her friends. Unfortunately, the only one of the teachers who seemed to share her views was Professor Dumbledore, the Transfiguration master, and as such he managed to get away with quite a lot.
"Well, well, well. I guess it was too much to expect you not to come back, McGonagall, but I can't say I'm not disappointed," Riddle drawled, Lestrange and Avery smirking menacingly behind him.
"I don't remember asking you to join us, Riddle," Said Minerva coldly, but he didn't seem to be paying attention. "And who do we have here?" He asked, looking a Nicolas with a wicked gleam in his eye. Nicolas looked from Riddle to Minerva, unsure of what to say. Minerva spoke for him. "None of your business. So if you don't mind, we were just in the middle of something." Again, Riddle did not seem to be paying attention. He was looking from Nicolas to Minerva, his eyes widening as he saw the resemblance. "Ah, another McGonagall has come to Hogwarts, has he?" He sneered, and Nicolas turned a furious red. Riddle continued, "Another Gryffindor hopeful, I'd expect. You'd be lucky if you're even sorted at all. You're sister had the Sorting Hat on for almost ten minutes before it finally put her in Gryffindor just to move things along…."
It was Minerva's turn to blush. True, she had taken longer than anyone else to be sorted in her first year, but that had only been because the Sorting Hat had been trying to decide whether to put her in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, and in any case it had hardly taken ten minutes. Nevertheless, she bit her lip in embarrassment and Riddle laughed cruelly. Across from her, she saw Nicolas balling his hands into fists, looking up at Riddle with a look of deepest loathing. "She's in Gryffindor because she has courage, something a miserable git like you wouldn't understand!" He spat. Riddle looked rather shocked at his words, having expected a meek first year to be able to torment. Minerva shot Nicolas a warning look and he fell silent, but he continued to glare at Riddle, who looked from him to Augusta to Minerva. "You're brother better learn to watch his mouth," he said, his usual smirk returning to his face. "Wouldn't want anything to happen to him his first year at Hogwarts, would we?"
And, with a final, false salute, he left the compartment, Lestrange and Avery following obediently behind him. Nicolas turned to his sister. "What's his problem? You didn't do anything…." Minerva chuckled.
"Nick, Riddle isn't the kind of person who cares if you've done something or not, he just likes finding people to harass." Nicolas thought about this for a moment before turning and looking out the window, a sour expression on his face.
At lunchtime the middle-aged wizard with the food trolley came around with sweets and bottles of butterbeer. Minerva got three bottles for each of them and a large pile of cauldron cakes, which they ate vigorously over the next hour, toiling away at the time by telling stories about their sorting in order to cheer up Nicolas, which worked rather well. At nearly half past seven, long after they had changed into their Hogwarts robes and darkness had fallen outside the compartment window, the train began to slow down, finally grinding to a stop. Minerva got to her feet, followed by Nicolas, who began trying to grab his trunk from the top rack. "Leave it," she said. "They'll bring it up to the dormitories after the feast." He nodded, following her and Augusta out of the compartment.
They made their way towards the front of the train, stepping out through the nearest exit door onto the platform of Hogsmeade station. Over the loud voices of hundreds of students, they could hear the gamekeeper, a kind old wizard named Gordon, calling out "First years! First years, over here!" Nicolas said goodbye to them and headed over with the other new students to where Gordon stood waiting by the boats, a lantern in one hand. Minerva watched him for a moment before walking with Augusta towards the carriages that waited at the foot of the stone steps leading down from the platform. She stepped up into one of them with two other students, a Hufflepuff sixth year whose name Minerva did not know and a Gryffindor boy named George Longbottom. As Augusta stumbled into the carriage after her and sat down, she noticed George and smiled faintly, looking down and turning bright red as he turned his head towards her. Minerva smirked and looked out the small window as the carriage began moving of its own accord, rocking and shaking as if pulled by some invisible horse, making the steady trek up to the castle.