A/N: I'm not too happy with today's flashback, but it's all I could come up with. I hope this is not too confusing, things will be clear soon.
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Who is Isobel O'Flaherty?
part 4 - the transfiguration class
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She stared at Albus with her last tears hanging at the corner of her eyes, waiting for his answer.
"I promise, my dear," he finally said, "this baby will never know who you were."
"She has a name, Albus," she snapped, "I'd like it if you could use it."
"I don't think naming her after your mother is clever, Minerva," he pointed out.
"I don't think giving her away is the right thing to do," she replied, "but I have agreed, so save your opinion to yourself and call the baby by the only name she has."
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"Are you sure this is the right one?" Isobel asked to her friend as they entered a nice classroom, with student desks at both sides, leaving a corridor in the middle that ended at the teachers' table, where a nice tabby cat was watching the students taking their places, but there was no sight of any teacher.
"Of course, I'm sure, all our group is here," Berta responded, "come on, let's sit here."
They sat on the second row, right behind a couple Gryffindors talking about dragons. Berta quickly entered the conversation while Isobel, who was still having a hard time believing that dragons existed, even after everything she'd seen for the past weeks of her life, watched the cat on the professor's desk. It made her remember of the cats that would come to the orphanage back garden to eat the rests of their lunches and dinners. The orphanage teachers didn't like the children playing with them but, they would never listen, they liked those cats because they were like them, they had no home.
When the large clock on the wall struck nine o'clock, the cat moved to the edge of the table, jumped and, before touching the ground, it was gone. Where there should be a cat, there was now the tall dark-haired witch who had read their names during the sorting ceremony.
"My name is Minerva McGonagall," she said elegantly walking around the desks, ignoring the thrilled expressions on the students faces, while a charmed piece of chalk wrote her name on the blackboard behind her desk. "I will teach you the art of changing the appearance of any object, which is, in my opinion, the most elegant type of magic you can be taught." She stopped at the end of the classroom and everybody turned around to look at her as she continued talking, "What you have just witnessed is a demonstration of animagi, a complicated but fascinating branch of transfiguration which you might learn more about during the last years you'll spend in the school, if you pass your OWLs with great marks." The professor opened one of the cupboards and took a small box, "but for now, all you must worry about is punctuality and paying attention. As long as you are always here at the time the class begins, give me your essays in time, listen carefully to all my suggestions and put interest into whatever we're learning, you will pass my subject," from the little box on her hands, professor McGonagall took out some matches that she handed to the students on her way to the front of the classroom, "If you neglect any of those points, you will not only fail Transfiguration but will not be allowed to come back into my class." she concluded firmly, "any questions?"
Isobel looked around, nobody raised their hand, and she wondered if it was because they were playing with the matches they'd been given, or because they were afraid of the professor.
"Good," McGonagall said standing in front of them holding a match on her left hand with only two of her fingers so everybody could see, and her wand on the other. Suddenly her voice changed completely, from that of a sergeant, to that of a little girl with a new toy, "let's begin the magic."
Isobel was sure she'd seen the shadow of a smile on the professor's face, but it was gone fast. WIth a move of her wand, McGonagall had just transformed the match between her fingers into a shiny needle and was now expecting them to do the same.
By the end of the class nobody had been able to get a needle from their matches, but Minerva had been more than proud to see that at least about four students had managed to make some change on their little stick, and that one of them had been Isobel.
She was clearly going to be a good student, she was a powerful witch with a great future ahead and, Minerva could only feel happiness for that because the little girl deserved it.
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At lunchtime, Minerva was glad to find out Albus was gone for some Ministry matters, because she didn't want to encounter him yet. But her happiness didn't last long, Severus took the seat next to her at the teachers table.
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TO BE CONTINUED...
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A/N: I'm stopping this here for two reasons: 1. I have to leave to work, 2. I don't know what Severus is going to tell Minerva yet. I hope you enjoyed this part ;-) I know this is going slowly and nothing seems to happen, but you'll really like it at the end, I promise!
