Chapter Three
The next morning Minerva woke slightly later than normal, as her eyes flickered open, the ring on her finger beamed up at her in a way that Minerva found positively sickening. Still at least it wasn't singing, Minerva thought blearily, as she rubbed her eyes sleepily and tried to recover from an unusually late night with Albus.
Suddenly the ring opened it's mouth wide and began to sing loudly, far too loudly for Minerva, who'd had a little too much fire whiskey the night before.
"Good Morning, Good Morning,
The sun is gaily dawning,
Wake up sleepy head do,
Your hair's a mess,
It looks like a birds nest,
And you need a shower too."
At once Minerva shot bolt upright in bed, her emerald eyes blazing with righteous fury as she stared in disgust at her finger. "How dare you serenade me in such a manner !" She snapped, "I certainly do not need a lecture about cleanliness from a ring, a quite ridiculous ring at that."
For a second there was silence, and then in a sad little voice the ring began to sing once more, and as it sang tears poured down it's face and dripped onto Minerva's pristine white linen sheets, where they made a tiny puddle.
"Oh don't you like my song ?
I feel so bad,
So terribly sad,
I'd really hoped we'd get along."
As the song ended the ring sniffed mournfully, and gazed up at Minerva piteously with pleading tear filled eyes. Minerva snorted in disgust, trust Albus to give her such a badly behaved ring, whatever did she see in him ! For a moment Minerva's face softened as she remembered how his twinkling eyes reminded her of blue summer skies, and how soft and warm his lips had felt when he kissed her. Then she noticed how the ring seemed about to launch into a second verse of it's song. "SILENCE !!!" Minerva thundered threateningly, "THERE WILL BE NO FURTHER SINGING WHILE YOU ARE ON MY FINGER."
The ring's eyes were like two round circles of terror, it's mouth frozen in a half open state as it gaped at Minerva in petrified silence. Minerva felt a surge of triumph in her - she expected no further trouble from the ring. While Minerva dressed and prepared for the day's classes there was silence, the ring did not dare to sing again and Minerva was confident that it would behave itself for the rest of the day.
Before going down to breakfast Minerva cast an invisibility spell on the ring, being an intensely private person she did not want to spend her entire day fielding questions from curious students. As Minerva entered the great hall, Albus' eyes met her's, following her adoringly as she walked towards the table at the head of the hall. As Minerva took her seat Albus sparkled merrily at her in a way that made her want to forget all about propriety, and fall on him right there in front of the entire school and kiss him. Suddenly Albus' face saddened as he gazed down at her ring finger and saw nothing, at once Minerva felt a surge of guilt.
"I turned it invisible." She whispered softly, smiling at him reassuringly and hoping that he would see the love in her eyes and understand.
An answering smile lit up Albus' face, and his eyes regained their normal twinkle as he nodded in understanding. Under cover of rescuing his deliberately dropped spoon from the floor, Albus slipped his hand tenderly into Minerva's, intwining his warm fingers with her's for a few precious minutes as he smiled into her emerald eyes. Minerva supressed an uncharacteristic urge to giggle as they held hands secretly under cover of the table. She felt almost like a naughty school girl holding hands in class, though she'd never done anything like this in her school days, having been far more interested in books and Quidditch than romance.
Albus seemed to sense Minerva's mood as he mischeiviously ran his finger along her thigh for a brief second, which made her jump like a skittish kitten and spill her porridge all over the table. While Minerva muttered embarrassed apologies to Professor Slughorn, who had been splattered with lukewarm porridge, Albus chuckled softly and cast a quick cleansing spell. When peace and order had been restored and the other professors were once again chatting among themselves, Minerva kicked Albus sharply in the ankle. Then grinned triumphantly to herself as he tried to turn a yelp into a cough, and ended up swallowing his bacon the wrong way, which left him coughing and spluttering for several minutes, as students stared at the staff table and wondered what was going on.
"Serves you right ..." Minerva whispered, as she slapped him unnecessarily hard on the back.
"It was worth it my dear." Albus whispered softly, as he slipped his hand into her's once more, and beamed radiantly at her in a way that she found absolutely adorable, though she would never have let him know that.
When breakfast was over Albus made his way to his study, and Minerva headed towards her classroom. Minerva's first class of the day were the third years, renowned as needing a firm hand to keep them in order.
At first all was peaceful in the transfiguration classroom as Minerva handed back the student's assignments. Minerva frowned as she picked up the last scroll, the girl had studied under her for a year now and yet didn't even seem to grasp the fundamentals of transfiguration, as for her writing and grammar it was appalling. "Miss Guppy come up here at once." Minerva snapped, her lips set in a thin line of irritation and disapproval.
Unwillingly a dark haired girl with a sullen looking face made her way to Minerva's desk, well aware that she was about to recieve a severe lecture at least.
" Miss Guppy, would you care to explain why you have failed to grasp even the basic principles of transfiguration, despite spending over a year in my class ?" Minerva demanded to know, "This scroll is appalling ..."
Suddenly to Minerva's dismay, she was interupted by the ring which began to sing in a very disapproving voice.
"Your scroll was the worst I've ever read,
It gave me a pain in the head.
I don't want to gripe,
But your scroll was tripe,
Only fit to be burned.
Really, what have you learned ?"
As Agatha Guppy gaped open mouthed at Minerva's finger, as though unable to believe what she'd heard, Minerva fired a death glare at the invisible ring, and without thinking snarled, "Silence or else."
Agatha's eyes were now like giant round saucers of surprise, as she seemed frozen to the spot, unable to take her eyes from Minerva's finger.
"Don't stand there staring at me like a stuffed gold fish." Minerva snapped in a no nonsence voice that demanded obeidience, "Get back to your seat at once."
Agatha Guppy jumped slightly, and then with another disbelieving look at Minerva's finger shot back to her seat. As Agatha took her seat Minerva glared at her furiously as though everything was her fault. Agatha immediately buried her nose in her book and tried to pretend that she didn't exist.
Minerva's back was rigid with fury as she turned to face the blackboard, once her back was to the class she snarled furiously at her ring, "Unless you wish to be melted down into scrap metal you will be silent in my class."
As soon as Minerva's back was turned Agatha couldn't resist whispering to her friend, "McGonagall's finger just sang at me ..."
As Agatha's friend stared at her in disbelief and wondered if she was joking, Minerva swung round and her fiery gaze swept the classroom, silencing the whispering instantly. "There will be silence in this classroom for the rest of the lesson, or there will be severe consequences." Minerva said ominously. That was sufficient to make all her students snap their mouths tight shut and focus fully on the lesson - for a time at least.
For a while all was normal in Minerva's class, as she continued with her third year transifguration lesson. Minerva had spent the last minutes giving individual attention to students who needed help, and had just summoned Dougal McDonald, a tubby blonde haired boy, up to her desk, when to her horror and dismay the ring decided to sing again. Minerva's lips set in a determined line as she did her best to ignore the song. Dougal however was clearly distracted as his eyes darted between Minerva's singing finger, and the stoney face of his transfiguration Professor, who seemed utterly unaware of the singing.
"Excuse me Professor," Dougal said tentatively, "But I think your finger is singing at me ..."
The ring's song had increased in volume and was now clearly audible throughout the classroom. Minerva gritted her teeth, her face a picture of outrage and fury, she was going to murder Albus Dumbledore for this. As Minerva stood seething silently, a thin piping voice sang,
"Oh transfiguration is just the thing to learn,
With it's powers you can turn
A glass into a tabby cat,
And a bowl into a bright red hat,"
The rest of the ring's song was drowned out by a wave of giggles that was beginning to sweep across the classroom, growing louder with every passing second, a few daring troublemakers even began to applaud and one boy called out "Encore, encore." Minerva's cheeks were growing ever redder with embrassment and rage, as her eyes flashed dangerously.
"SILENCE !!!" Minerva bellowed, "I will not have such intolerable behaviour in my classroom, you will all write a 12" scroll on the correct way to behave in class and hand it to me tomorrow." While the class gaped at her in dismay, and scarcely dared to breath lest her fury descend on them again, Minerva whipped out her wand and cast a silencing spell on the ring. As Minerva waved her wand in the air, the entire class cringed as one. "That should shut you up ..." Minerva snarled at her finger, as the students stared at her as though they doubted her sanity.
Minerva's silencing spell had the effect of reducing the volume of the ring's voice, so that it was only audible to Minerva but did not prevent it from singing at every oppourtunity. Minerva spent the rest of the lesson alternately shooting death glares at the ring, or commanding it to shut up, while her class tried desperately not to giggle.
Minerva's other classes that morning were much the same, the ring persisted in singing about everything and anything, despite Minerva directing her fiercest glares at it and ordering it to shut up. All her attempts to use magic to silence it failed, and by the time it was lunchtime she had a headache and was seething with rage at Albus Dumbledore, and the embarrassment he had caused her with his ridiculous engagement ring. She had also handed out multiple detentions to students who had been foolish enough to whisper in her earshot, about :- "Why was Professor McGonagall behaving so strangely ?, "Did you hear her telling her finger to shut up all the time?", and "Was she going as crazy as Dumbledore ?"
News of Minerva's strange behaviour had spread round the school like wildfire, and as Minerva swept along the passage in a cloud of fury she passed huddled knots of students and professors, deep in whispered discussion. Even when not in her animagus form Minerva still retained the heightened feline hearing, and she could clearly hear them muttering things like :- "Behaving most strangely ...", "Keeps singing at her students ...", "Spent the entire lesson telling her finger to shut up, would you believe ...", and "Been hanging around with Dumbledore too much obviously."
Minerva's cheeks flushed bright red with burning fury, her mouth compressed in a thin line, she looked almost as though she would explode at any moment. 'I am going to murder Albus when I get hold of him.' She thought as she stormed towards Albus' study.
Author's Notes
Sorry for taking so long to update this story, I got distracted by many other things, including being very busy, then I struggled for inspiration. The next chapter is also complete, just needs error checking. So I will publish it within a few days. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far, and please review, since it's encouraging to hear what people think. One more chapter to come, and then the story is complete.