"He obliviated you Minerva."

"No…it's not…no!" Minerva stepped back from Voldemort and he allowed her to. She was dimly aware of the painful throbbing in her upper arms but the turmoil of her mind forced everything else away. She stumbled on some of the broken pieces of her vanity that now littered the room. He made to steady her but she held up her hand to stop him.

"You're lying," she argued but her heart wasn't in it. The pieces just seemed to fit together as though a veil had finally been lifted from her mind.

"That is an incredibly feeble attempt Minerva. You know it's true, you can feel the truth of my words." He circled her momentarily and then leaned in behind her. "I have never lied to you."

Suddenly her own anger swelled and she whipped around to face him, her arm bent back to slap him. Before she could blink he had her wrist clenched tightly in his hand. The worst part was watching the smile form on his thin lips.

"My my, Minerva. Quite a temper you have."

"Lies, that's all you've ever offered me." Even with the growing anger in his eyes, Minerva could not help but continue. "Or don't you remember promising me that once you graduated we would travel the world together, we would uncover and harness magic that no mortal since Merlin himself dared to even dream of. Even better was the night you convinced me that your only desire in life was to make me happy. Or was that just a means to an end in order to get me to spread my legs?" Here she stopped and he slowly lowered and released her hand.

"I may have stretched the truth." He said through clenched teeth. Anyone else would have died on the spot if they had said what she just did, questioned him the way she did. However, none were Minerva.

Tears were beginning to build in her eyes but she would not shed them. She would not cry especially in front of him, the one responsible for them. Voldemort saw them shining and felt an almost painful urge to soothe her.

"I did not lie when I said I wanted to travel the world with you. You may be the only person whom I would ever wish to share such secrets with. And when I spoke of my one and only desire to make you happy, it wasn't far from the truth."

She nodded mutely, her lips thin with the strain of keeping her tears at bay.

"I may have had other motives in seeking greater power, other incentives, but you have always been the one I've wanted to share it with. The only lie in that declaration is that I have other desires, but none outweigh the feelings I have toward you."

She choked out a quiet sob and turned away from him. But having none of that he grabbed her arm and whirled her to face him yet again.

"But enough of this, what have you to say to your precious Dumbledore's betrayal?"

Minerva tried to wrench her arm out of his grasp but he held tight.

"Why?" She asked quietly and looked into his eyes. "Why did you even bother to come back? Was it so you could rip open my heart was more?" Not that I've ever been able to piece it back together, she added mentally.

"I've come back to claim your heart, not rip it out. But if that's what it takes to get you back I'll shall endeavor to do my worst." He brought her even closer to him. "I will do whatever it takes to get you back Minerva, back by my side where you belong; have belonged for all these years."

Minerva could only stare at him and a deeply buried part of her heart stirred hopefully. This time she did nothing to stop it, for in that same part of her heart she knew the truth. However it would take more to convince the rest of her.

"I've never belonged to anyone."

"We'll see."

"I have to know."

He had no need for an explanation for what she was referring to. The thing he found most refreshing about Minerva was her lack of constant questioning. She only ever questioned when it was truly something she did not understand; and that was a very rare occurrence. There was no exhausting verbal banter, but only banter that he found most intriguing.

"Then we shall ask him."

Knowing instantly what he meant Minerva wasted no time. She slipped out of his grasp and practically ran out of her bedchamber, leaving him to follow or stay; either way she was headed for the truth. As it was so late and there were no students out of bed, she deemed it appropriate to run through the corridors. Though he followed at a more subdued pace she could feel his presence as though he were at her side. Hadn't she always felt him there, just buried beneath layers and layers of denial?

***

Severus looked up sharply when the door to his office flew open and landed with a sharp bang on the stone wall. It knocked several of the delicate instruments on a shelf nearby to the floor but neither of the two occupants in the room gave it any thought.

"Minerva," Severus sneered. His annoyance at her sudden arrival vanished when he saw the look in her eyes. They were blazing with anger and the magic around her crackled dangerously.

"Get out." She growled and he bristled.

"I would hardly think you need reminding that I am the Headmaster now and this is my office."

"I think it wise should you choose to take the lady's suggestion, Severus."

Severus nearly choked when the Dark Lord himself walked in behind Minerva.

"My Lord." He bowed low and settled his eyes on Minerva when he straightened. He addressed Voldemort but kept his gaze on the Transfigurations professor. "I was unaware of your presence in the castle." He flexed his right arm involuntarily and it was not lost on his master.

"No one knows I am here, a fact I can trust will not leave this room."

"Enough." Minerva interrupted. "Get out or I will make you." She warned as she finally settled her gaze on Severus. In her eyes he saw what he never expected; pure untainted anger. Whatever she had come to settle in this office with Lord Voldemort he was now extremely curious to find out. But with the new discovery of Minerva's dark side he found he quite wanted to leave the room. No doubt she would carry out her threat and Voldemort would not stand in her way.

Even before Severus' robes vanished from the doorway, Minerva was already striding to the place where Dumbledore's portrait hung on the wall. For all intents and purposes he looked to be sleeping but Minerva knew better. She hadn't spent the last forty years with the man and not picked up on even the most subtle of his behavior. She sent a warning spell at the painting and almost immediately his eyes opened and those piercing blue eyes settled on her, took in Voldemort's menacing presence, and then slid back to her.

"Oh Minerva," he sighed softly. She almost broke right then and there.

"Tell me it's not true." She pleaded just as softly. If it were any other situation she would have found it strange that anyone would be begging a portrait for affirmation. As it was the situation was too grave to allow any other feelings than dread and betrayal.

The portrait's eyes closed in pain and Minerva knew the answer.

"Then tell me the truth, for once." She demanded, her anger eating up and spitting out the last vestiges of the woman she was a mere hour ago. Here was the man she had dedicated her whole adult life to, but he had lied to her, failed her. Slowly she realized that what she was experiencing was her world falling apart. Everything she had worked so hard for now seemed impossibly small and unimportant. It was all a fake, an illusion; she was nothing short of an old man's pawn in a never ending game.

"You have to understand Minerva," Dumbledore's portrait began but she interrupted him.

"Don't you dare tell me to understand!"

Much like Voldemort's earlier rage that had ended with a bedchamber in shambles, Minerva let her own out. Her fury unleashed itself as she swung her wand high and slashed it through the air. Everything seemed to stop for one short moment in time before it all erupted. All of the delicate silver instruments shattered where they stood. The books flew off the shelves, papers shredding midair as the covers ripped apart. The chairs, desk, and even the windows exploded in a shower of glass and wood.

Voldemort had quickly cast a shield around himself knowing full well what Minerva was capable of. He needn't have worried about protecting her; her wrath was doing a splendid job of that on its own. He watched her in amazement as the air around her fairly sizzled. Her hair was being whipped around by the sheer force of her magic and though he could not see her eyes he knew that they were lit up by the wrath that consumed her. He had never witnessed anything like it before and was in awe of her power. Oh yes, he was right to have chosen her as his queen.

Just as it seemed she had spent herself her arm raised once more.

"Minerva please," Dumbledore implored, quite taken aback by the display of her powers.

"You have no more hold on me Albus." There was a deadly edge to her voice that would make even the most hardened wizard or witch shrink back. Even Dumbledore's portrait seemed to shrink in on itself even though it was impossible for it to die. It could be destroyed but the person could not die again.

"Neither can you possibly tell me what to do with my life anymore." The finality in her voice was followed by the final blow. Every one of the portraits that hung on the walls shuddered and then all at once the canvases exploded in flames, licking the stone walls menacingly. The cries of the inhabitants could be heard screaming in horror, scurrying out of their frames to escape; all but one of the portraits.

She had left only one portrait unscathed and when she next leveled her gaze on the portrait of Albus Dumbledore there was absolutely no traces of the Transfigurations professor left. The portrait had tears rolling down its cheeks.

"I have left you for two reasons. First I want the complete truth." Minerva demanded as she tried her best to calm her magic. The echoes of the portraits' screams were still resonating quietly and the flames had burned themselves out leaving only the charred remains of the frames. Torn pages were still fluttering softly to the ground where they formed a thin layer upon the broken pieces of wood that used to be the furniture.

"Yes Dumbledore, the whole truth this time if you please. Else I fear our dear professor here will undoubtedly do more damage." Voldemort had now come to stand directly behind Minerva and she unconsciously leaned into him; something that was not lost on either Voldemort or Dumbledore. Voldemort could still feel waves of magic coursing from Minerva and he let them wash over him.

"I have never lied to you Minerva." Dumbledore unknowingly used the exact words that Voldemort had used on her earlier.

"Neither have you bothered to tell me the truth. Tell me now Albus before I get really angry." Sparks were starting to shoot from the tip of her wand.

"Where do you wish me to begin?" Dumbledore asked, resigned to the fact that he must now tell the truth he had hid for years.

"The last time I saw Tom. Our recollections of that day differ dramatically."

Dumbledore looked uncomfortable but finally began to explain.

"When Tom graduated from Hogwarts I knew without a doubt he would try to recruit you to his following. I was afraid that he would intimidate you into taking the mark and thus binding yourself to such a cause for the rest of your life."

"I would never offer her such a lowly position and you know that. She would have ruled by my side, not as some lowly servant. Tell us what you were really afraid of." Voldemort interjected coldly.

Dumbledore sighed. "If you must know, I was afraid of losing you Minerva." Here the portrait looked at her. "Despite what you may think of me now, I have always loved you. To see you in the arms of the man who I knew to be completely corrupt, and would surely do his best to corrupt you, was too much."

"But it wasn't your decision." Minerva responded coming back to the main reason she felt so betrayed.

"I was also afraid that you were willing to follow him to the ends of time if that's what he asked of you. So when you two met in London I decided to…to…," here he stopped unable to admit what he had done all those years ago.

"Say it," Voldemort hissed. His cold white hands had crept up along Minerva's arms and he was once again holding her tightly in his grip. She did not even wince at the pressure on her newly forming bruises for the magic still flowing so strongly in her veins made her unaware of the pain.

"I wiped your memory." Dumbledore finally admitted. "I had watched the both of you interact all day and knew that this might be my last chance to save you. So when you parted with promises to meet later that night I intercepted you and obliviated any memory of having made plans to meet Tom. So I replaced your memory with one of a simple goodbye; one that did not include a rendezvous."

Voldemort hissed angrily and stepped away only to start pacing.

"I have wondered for over forty years as to why she had not shown up. I was so consumed with anger that it nearly drove me mad. Now I know that it was never her doing but yours." He spat at the portrait. "The years wasted because of your treachery."

It was a testimony to the portraits own grief over his deed that he did not rebuke the Dark Lord's accusation. Minerva had gone slightly pale but the steel glint in her eyes had not diminished.

"How could you? My life, the life you have stolen from me, has been a lie. Everything I have done has been for you when it turns out that none of it was real."

"My love for you was real." When she did not answer he went on. "Minerva there was no other choice," pleaded with her.

She gave a mirthless laugh and said, "Something you took from me. You, who have always given free will such a high priority, are a hypocrite. All your fine talk of the choices we must make in life and how deeply they affect our lives and those around us. How does it feel for your choice to come back and haunt you?"

Voldemort started to laugh and Dumbledore looked at him sharply.

"Oh you foolish, foolish man. Did you not stop and consider whom you were toying with?" Voldemort goaded. He started to circle Minerva, giving her a complete once over as he prowled around her. "You must have had some idea as to her power, for surely I would only want the best at my side. Besides that glowing omission, you have seriously jeopardized everything you have worked so hard for."

The threat was not lost on Dumbledore and he looked to Minerva for affirmation that what Voldemort was saying was impossible; that she would never join forces with him. She stared back at him coldly and if she weren't such a lady she would have spit at him.

"I have spent too many years trying to be someone I am not. Loving someone I should not when the one I should have been with thought I had abandoned him." Here she looked at Voldemort. "No more will I deny my true nature and that of my heart. I have and always will be the Dark Lady."