Unsent

by Quill of Minerva

For years letters have been written and remained unsent, till now. ADMM

Title: "Unsent"
Author: Quill of Minerva
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own them but I wish I did.
Summary: For years letters have been written and remained unsent, till now.

A/n: This story is actually a repost. I wrote this years ago and only just found it again so I'm uploading it to here. I am hoping it will spur me on to writing some new AD/MM stuff because my muse has been lost for a couple of years. Enjoy.

"Unsent"

In the dead of night when most people were tucked up asleep in bed, Albus Dumbledore the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was very much awake.

He sat behind his large messy oak desk and looked out of the window and out into the night time sky. The stars and the moon were hidden by big black clouds and darkness seemed to envelop him, the only light in the room came from the roaring fire beside him.

Sleep had never come easy to him over the years but it wasn't the thought of Voldemort attacking or something bad happening to one of his students keeping him awake, but it was the thoughts of her that ran through his head.

Albus Dumbledore never thought he would fall in love, to him the concept of love had been somewhat blurry but love he did. He tried not to because he knew that it would get him nowhere but as much as he tried to forget about love, the more he loved.

The woman in question was beautiful and she didn't know it which only made him fall deeper in love with her. She was intelligent, funny and intriguing, she never seemed to stop amazing him. The only trouble was that she did not love him, she never gave him any inkling that she had feelings for him besides friendship and so Albus loved in silence.

The flickering flames caught his attention and as he turned to watch the flames, his eyes fell upon a stack of letters. They were letters to her and they were also letters never to be read by her.

Minerva,

I'm so glad that you have returned to Hogwarts to teach along aside me. It is a great honour to have you teaching here. I saw you this morning and all my feelings that I had repressed for years came flooding back to me. I thought that I would have moved on from the feelings I felt for you while you were my student, but I haven't. I can't bring myself to tell you that I have always had feelings for you. I'm sorry.

Albus

To Minerva,

How long have we been friends? It seems that we have been friends forever, and perhaps we knew each other in a previous life. (Don't hex me into next week, I promise I will not spout anymore Trelawney rubbish). I have not entirely been honest with you, Minerva, and it eats me up inside because I'm dishonest.

My feelings for you are not what you think, my feelings run deeper than you can ever imagine. I am sorry I have lied to you. Forgive me!

Forever yours,

Albus

To my Minerva,

You will probably think that I am mad when I declare to you in this letter that I have lost my heart to you. I can't bring to tell you of my feelings. I fear rejection and the fear of losing your friendship.

Albus

Dear Minerva

Here I sit in my office with one thought in my head! It's not what you think as its nothing to do with Hogwarts or that damned Ministry. I am thinking of you, yes you, Minerva McGonagall. You consume all my thoughts on a daily basis, I can't get through a day without thinking of you and what my heart holds for you. I am in love with you, very much so and I have loved in silence for some time now but believe me when I say it, it is eating me up inside because I want you.

I have revealed some of my feelings to you and now I must admit, I feel somewhat lighter.

Love

Albus

Dearest Minerva,

I love you and words just can't not describe the depth of these feelings for you.

Always

Albus

To my desire,

How I fall in love with you more everyday.

Yours

Albus

To my unrequited love

I was so scared that I would lose you when word was brought to me that you had been attacked by that stupid woman. I felt your pain and I wanted to take it away from you and suffer it myself. I wanted to tell you that I love you but I can't. The great Albus Dumbledore is scared.

Love you forever

Albus Dumbledore wasn't the only one still awake in the early hours of that morning. A black-haired witch sat curled up in a large comfortable high-backed armchair, with a tartan blanket wrapped around her. She had been seated like this for some time with one thought running through her intelligent mind.

Minerva McGonagall found that night time was when these thoughts of him consumed her, during the day she was able to control her thoughts because she had her students and her classes to occupy her day.

Part of her felt like a lovesick teenager while the other part of her was full of deep regret and sadness. When she was hit by those four stunners, her thoughts had been with him and how she had let him down. She remembered waking up in St Mungo's and seeing him standing over her, his blue eyes full of concern and something else which she couldn't put her finger on. That glint had also consumed her thoughts, she had perhaps read too much into it and nothing had come of it.

Minerva got to her feet and made her way over to her four-poster queen-sized bed, she sat on the edge and opened her bedside cabinet drawer. Inside where a bundle of letters bound together with a thick red ribbon. They were all addressed to the same person : A. Dumbledore.

She ran a finger over the bold italics of his name and sighed sadly. She had tried not to love him but all her efforts had been in vain, because she loved him with all her heart and more. Her empty, lonely heart longed for him and it only belonged to him. She had hid her feelings well over the years, masking them for friendly concern but she was tired, so tired of running from her feelings. She placed the letters back in the drawer and shut it. She crawled into her bed where she was always lonely and sank down against the pillows, pulling the heavy covers over herself.

As the large grandfather clock struck four a.m., sleep claimed Minerva and she dreamt of him as she always did.

Dear Professor Dumbledore,

I can't believe that tomorrow I leave Hogwarts and step into the big bad world. Thank you for being my greatest support through my years here, you have always believed in me and for that I am truly thankful.

I'm sad about leaving here because it means that I am leaving you. We have spent so much time together this past year and the feelings I thought were just a school girl crush run deeper than I had ever imagined, they have grown into love. I need to write this letter because I need to get it out in the open. You will think of me as a silly little girl no doubt but what I feel isn't silly, it's love. Everything I am today is for you and no one else.

Goodbye professor

M. McGonagall

Xx

To Professor Dumbledore,

I am flattered that you would even consider me when searching for a replacement for you once you become headmaster. I am sorry to disappoint you but I can not accept the offer, it would be too painful to work alongside you. I have worked hard to try and forget my feelings for you and I have just managed to mask them. I fear if I return I would make life uncomfortable for both of us.

Yours

M McGonagall.

Professor Dumbledore,

I would be honoured to accept the Transfiguration post. I look forward to working alongside you but I must reveal something to you before I take the position. I am in love with you Albus, have been since my last year at Hogwarts. I have tried to push the feelings aside while I have worked as an Auror, but alas I have not been successful. Will this cause problems between us when I arrive? I know that you could never love me as I love you but I needed to get this off my chest.

Yours

M. McGonagall

Dear Albus,

I should have listened to my head before I accepted the job, this is too hard for me to do. To see you everyday and not being able to reveal my feelings. I feel as though I'm being suffocated by these feelings, which have only increased as I am around you everyday. I need to flee from Hogwarts.

Minerva McGonagall

Dearest Albus

What more can I say but I love you!

Minerva

Xxx

Albus,

The direct approach displayed in this letter will no doubt shock you but I feel the need to be direct. You may even find this unexpected and as though it has come out of nowhere, but I can assure you that it's something that has been brewing up for sometime and you know me well enough by now to know that I am not one to mess about.

I am in love with you, Albus. I have lost count of the years that my heart has wanted yours for, the years roll in to each other and I remain tormented by my lack of courage (Merlin knows that this is not a Gryffindor trait.) I want to spend the rest of my life with you not as a friend or a colleague but as a lover, Albus. I wish that you would return my love in the intimate sense rather that just the friendship sense. Since I took up teaching, our friendship has grown and I do not want that to be ruined, that is why I haven't brought myself to reveal this to you. I have written you countless letters but haven't sent them to you. I am determined to send this one to you and then I will pack my bags and leave Hogwarts. I wish you could love me, Albus, more than you do already, I want you to want me in the physical sense and I want us to love.

Love always

Minerva

To my dear Albus

As the stunners hit me all I could think of was dying without letting you know what I felt for you. It made me realise that the time is short and I have wasted so much time in hiding from you. I need to tell you and I may get my heart broken in the process but at least I would have told you.

All my love

Minerva xxx

That night when the two professors were finally asleep, two mischievous house elves wandered into their separate bedrooms and swapped the letters. The house elves along with the rest of the school were growing tired of the silly dance the two supposedly intelligent professors were doing around each other, it had been going on for years and the chance to reveal all to each other was now taken out of their hands. The elves had been approached by the portraits to swap the letters over and the elves had jumped at the chance to help.

Dobby had crept into Albus Dumbledore's office and picked up his letters to Minerva and had replaced them with Minerva's letters to him. Instead of putting them back in his office Dobby had wandered into the headmasters bedroom and put them down on his bedside table. Fawkes looked up at the sound of someone in his master's rooms but closed his eyes when he saw Dobby, who had one of his fingers to his mouth. He slipped out of the headmasters rooms and handed the letters to Winky who darted into Minerva's bedroom and put the letters in her drawer before running back out to join Dobby who was smiling. Winky hadn't been sure about the plan but Dobby and the other house elves had assured her that she wouldn't get in trouble. The two house elves returned to the kitchens and settled down for a while before they would have to be up again to prepare breakfast for the school.

The morning sun shone through the drapes of Albus Dumbledore's bedroom and he pulled the covers over his head, hoping that he could just get a few more minutes of sleep but he knew he would have to get up and get ready for breakfast. He pulled the deep red covers off and sat up in his bed, rubbing his tired eyes as he adjusted to the bright sun. A stack of letters wrapped up with a red bow sat on his bedside cabinet, he was sure that they hadn't been there when he had crawled into bed and it was too early for the owls to arrive. He reached across for the stack of letters and saw that they were addressed to him. The emerald green swirlly writing was very familiar to him and he wondered why Minerva had written so many letters to him. There must have been about twenty or so letters in the pile and Albus was extremely curious about them, he was trying to decide whether to open them now or get ready for breakfast first. He decided that he would shower and prepare for the day ahead before sitting down beside the fire and reading the letters. He showered and dressed in record speed that morning and carried the letters back into his living room where he sat down in his most comfortable of chairs and opened the first letter.

Minerva McGonagall woke up as a gust of wind blew through her curtains, her green eyes flew open and she stretched to wake herself up. She pulled the covers around her and told herself she should wear more sensible nightclothes. A smile graced her lips as she thought about the shocked faces of her students and fellow professors if they knew that she wore silk strapless nightgowns with slits that came up to her thigh. She sat up in bed and tucked her feet underneath her as she unplaited the braid she had put her hair in the night before, she brushed her long silky black locks and thought sadly that she was waking up alone again. She placed her ivory hairbrush, which had been a gift from Albus some years ago, on her bedside cabinet and noticed that her private drawer was slightly opened, she was sure that she had closed it the night before. She went to close the drawer but something caught her eye and she pulled her drawer open to have a better look. Her letters to Albus were no longer in her drawer, in their place were about twenty letters addressed to her in the headmaster's familiar royal blue writing. She picked the letters up and flicked through the pile, noticing that they were all addressed to her. She pulled the covers tighter around her as she settled down against the headboard to read them, getting ready for the day ahead would have to wait for now as she had more pressing things to attend to at that moment in time.

Albus Dumbledore came to the end of the last letter and then stared at the pile of opened letters. Was his mind playing a cruel game with him or was someone in the school playing with him? He picked up one of the letters again and reread it, this was definitely written by Minerva's hand. Could these letters be genuine? He quickly got to his feet and swept into his office. He searched high and low for his letters to her but couldn't find them. It was indeed a mystery, one than needed to be solved. He didn't want the letters falling into the wrong hands.

Minerva sat curled up in her bed with tears brimming in her green eyes as she came to the end of the last letter. She clutched the letter to her chest and tried to regain some of her composure. These letters – were they true and were they really written by Albus? Thoughts raced through her mind as she thought and struggled with her feelings. Another question popped into her head: Where were her letters to him? She jumped out of bed and searched her room, she pulled the drawer out of her bedside cabinet and tipped the contents out but found nothing. She bit her lips as she tried to think where they would have gone to. Minerva stood up and looked around her bedroom, she suddenly came to a decision. Gathering every ounce of Gryffindor courage that she had, she quickly swept out of her rooms and made her way along to the private rooms belonging to Albus Dumbledore.

Minerva raced along the corridor quickly before her courage left her. She had forgotten to put on her tartan dressing gown and her long black hair was flowing behind her as she walked. The corridors were empty as the students and fellow professors were probably getting ready for breakfast. She ran up the stairs leading to the headmaster's office and swept along the corridor. She didn't notice that she passed three of her lions as she made her way to see Albus.

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other with wide eyes as they watched her sweep by them.

"Was that McGonagall?" questioned Ron.

"Yes!" answered Hermione. "I didn't think she would wear something like that to bed."

"Wonder where she is going?" asked Harry as he peered after their head of house.

"Rather obvious I think," commented Ron, "there is only one place she would go dressed like that and that's Dumbledore's bedroom!"

"Ronald Weasley!" scolded Hermione as she glared at him. "Don't be so crude!"

"I'm only pointing out the obvious!" he remarked. "Come on, I'm starving!"

The trio made their way down to the Great Hall quickly while Minerva found herself being transported up to the headmaster's office. As she stood in front of the door, she felt her courage disappear and she simply stared at the door.

Albus was pacing up and down his office when he heard a noise from outside, he waited for a knock to come but it didn't. He slowly walked over to the door and pulled it open, only to see the most amazing sight in front of him. Standing before him was Minerva McGonagall, a gentle blush had crept on to her cheeks as she looked back at him. Albus smiled softly at her and then realised what she was wearing. She was dressed in a deep blue silk nightgown that left very little to the imagination. It clung to her lithe frame in all the right places, showing off her womanly body. The slit on the right side of her body went half way up her thigh and the neckline of the gown was dangerously low. Her black hair hung loosely around her shoulders and down her back, she looked enchanting but she also looked freezing.

"Minerva!" he finally said as he managed to focus on her face rather than her body. "What's the matter?"

Minerva looked at the man in front of her and came to another decision. She flew into his arms and captured his lips with hers, she kissed him hungrily. Albus was caught completely off guard by her and was frozen to the spot. He wanted to kiss back but for some reason he couldn't make himself do it. She pulled away when she realised this and looked down at the ground as she cursed herself and her bloody Gryffindor courage. She started to retreat away from him and head for the stairs but Albus captured her thin arm with his hand and pulled her back to him.

"Minerva?" he asked. "What has gotten into you?"

Minerva couldn't look into his twinkling blue eyes, she wanted to flee and leave Hogwarts. What in the name of Merlin had she just done? Of all the stupid things she had done in her life, what had made her kiss him? She could feel herself shaking as she stood in front of him. When she realised what little she had on, she cursed herself even more.

"My dear, please talk to me!" he pleaded as he pulled her back into his office and closed the door.

"Don't be so nice to me!" she snapped.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I've just made a fool of myself," she replied, still refusing to look at him, "you're making it worse by being nice, just let me go."

"I will not let you go, Minerva," answered Albus as he wrapped a blanket around her shaking shoulders.

"I'm sorry for throwing myself at you like that," she said as she held on to the blanket. "What must you think of me!"

"I think of you as I always have Minerva," he answered as he laid a hand gingerly on her knee. "You simply caught me off guard, I thought something terrible had happened."

Minerva looked down at his hand on her knee and felt rather uncomfortable, Albus seemed to notice and went to remove his hand. Minerva suddenly grabbed hold of his hand and held it with her both hands.

"Albus," she said finally looking up at him, "I need to be honest with you."

"Please go ahead my dear," he urged as he looked into her beautiful green eyes, he wanted to hold her but resisted for the time being. "You can tell me anything."

"Over the years I have written several letters revealing feelings to someone who I quite literally adore, those letters have now gone missing and others were put in their place," she began. "I do believe that I got carried away and now I think someone was playing a rather cruel trick on me."

"You say letters?" questioned Albus. "Who were they to?"

"They were to you," answered Minerva who blushed brightly.

"I do believe that I have your letters, Minerva," he told her, his hand gently caressing her knee.

"Oh Merlin!" mumbled Minerva.

"Were the letters that replaced them… were they by any chance from me?" he asked with a small smile.

Minerva nodded and looked down at her bare feet. Albus used his spare hand to cup Minerva's face and tilt it upwards so she was looking at him. He ran a finger over her ruby red lips and smiled at her.

"Dearest, the letters were no trick! I did indeed write them to you over the years. It seems that we have had some help in delivering them."

"You mean..." began Minerva.

"Yes. I love you!" he answered.

"But when I kissed you..." she began again.

"You caught me off guard Minerva," he admitted. "I was completely overtaken by your beauty as you stood before me and when I felt your lips on mine, I wasn't sure if it was really happening."

"Oh Albus," she sobbed lightly. "I love you too."

Albus let his hand travel up her thigh till it reached her hip, she felt him pull her towards him and capture her lips with his. The kiss was soft and tender as neither wanted to rush the moment. Minerva felt his arms wrap around her waist and she felt him lift her onto his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss, to which a deep moan escaped his mouth. The kiss progressed and Albus ran his fingers through her silky black locks, he couldn't quite believe that this was finally happening. He needed to find whoever had given them a helping hand and thank them.

They pulled away from each other and looked at each other, Minerva felt herself come over all shy and she looked away only to feel a hand on her face again, turning it to face him again.

"Did you mean everything you wrote in those letters?" he asked.

"Every word, dear Albus," she replied. "I just never had the courage to send them."

"I meant every word as well Minerva," he told her as he ran his hand up and down her arm. "I do think though that you had more courage than you think you did. You came to me wearing this."

"Oh!" she mumbled slightly.

"You won my heart all over again when I saw you standing outside my office," he said with a warm smile. "How would you feel about breakfast in bed?"

"Why, I thought you would never ask!" she said as she flashed him a rare but beautiful smile. Minerva felt herself being picked up and cradled lovingly in his arms as he headed towards his bedroom.

Their letters were no longer unsent and their feelings were out in the open now. They could explore their feelings together now and as the bedroom door closed, they made a promise that they would always tell each other how they were feeling.