A/N: It´s late and I am tired. I hope to get some nice reviews when I wake up ;-) Enjoy!

CHAPTER 5

Albus Dumbledore has been very busy the next days. New informations of his spy told him that Grindelwald became more and more paranoid. He´s been killing more and more people lately since everyone was an enemy in his eyes, only waiting to kill him. To stay as safe as possible, he changed his plans almost every day and soon all the preparations Dumbledore and his team had made became useless and new plans had to be made which made everybody more and more desperate each day. Just before they thought the end of this terrible war was near, everything changed again and it felt like starting from the beginning.

Beside his work against Grindelwald, Albus did the best to take care of his son, even if just for some hours before night and of course there was Minerva. Although her wounds seemed to heal quite nicely, it was still an unbelievable surprise to everyone that she has been strong enough to save herself and her baby. Still nobody, not even Albus or better said especially Albus, knew what she has been through over the last months when she simply disappeared.

No matter what he said, Minerva kept the high ice walls around herself, not letting anyone coming behind her and her baby´s secret. He tried to explain to her how he become father and what happened while she was in her Auror training but she made it clear that she wasn´t interested in anything he said and since Perenelle told him that she should rest a lot and any stress could be harmful for her, he gave up for her sake.

So he spent the nights beside Minerva´s bed in a comfortable chair, simply watching her while she slept. Albus wanted her to feel safe again and that´s why he kept her company, knowing that his presence would prevent her from having nightmares. When not sleeping, she simply stayed in bed since she was far too weak to stay or even walk. Not that she tried to because the fear of losing her baby was still far too big.

The only company beside Albus and Perenelle who were checking on her almost every day, was Thomas, the beautiful little boy with his curly blond hair and those beautiful eyes he got from his father.

At first it was a shock to see this little child again but Minerva knew that she just couldn´t blame him for what happened or rather said not happened between his father and herself and so she simply tried to enjoy his company which wasn´t really a hard task since Thommy captured her heart with his first smile for her.

One had to love this little boy who was already as lovely and charismatic as his father. He was the only person who could make her smile and since she had nothing better to do, she spend her time with reading stories to the child, drawing pictures together with him or simply having conversations which have been surprisingly serious for such a little guy but with Albus Dumbledore as father, nothing really surprised her. Especially the baby in her stomach seemed to fascinate Thomas more and more each day and so he spend many hours beside her in the bed with his small hands on her stomach, waiting for another kick from inside and of course his head was full with exciting questions about it and Minerva was more than happy to answer them but one day the questions really shocked her.

"Do you want to stay with the baby when it´s born or will you run away?"

"Of course I will stay. Why would I leave my baby?"

"Well, that´s what my mom did after I was born. I don´t think she ever loved me or Daddy. I just heard the adults talk about her. She wanted to take me away from Daddy but he wouldn´t let her because he loved me too much to let me go. So she went away but that´s not bad because I don´t even remember her. She went away when I was one month old or so. Do you have a Daddy for your baby?"

It took some moments to gain her composure and her voice was slightly trembling from all she has heard.

"Well, no. There´s no Daddy for my baby but I think I can manage on my own."

"That´s a shame," the little boy replied. "Daddy´s are great. Well, my daddy is at least but wait. I have an idea. I need a mommy and your baby needs a daddy. How about sharing? Your baby gets my daddy and you can be my mommy and so we all are happy. What do you think?"

Minerva´s heart almost stopped but she couldn´t let the boy see her shocked impression since he was glowing with delight about his own idea and she just couldn´t disappoint him immediately.

"That´s a very interesting idea but I can´t decide it on my own. I´ll talk with your daddy about this but I can promise you one thing: I will be there for you, no matter when."

Thommy was glowing even more now.

"Sounds good to me. Look Daddy is coming! Now we can ask him. What do you think? I am here, daddy," the child waved and run towards his father, jumping straight into his arms. Not even giving him a chance to respond, he continues talking again.

"Daddy, Daddy Min wants to ask you something!"

"Oh really? Well then, here I am."

Albus´ eyes were twinkling amused while he sat down on his favorite chair beside her bed and cuddled with the small boy in his lap while he looked from his happy little son to Minerva who looked more shocked than anything else.

Immediately he realized that this must have been a quite embarrassing thing for her and before the boy exploded with more embarrassing details, he took the chance to finally speak with Minerva since she´s been sleeping most of the time when he sat by her at night. So he spoke softly to his son:

"How about I speak first to Minerva and while we do this boring adult talking, I suggest you visit Fawkes. He´s waiting for you in my study and I bet he would love to spend some time with you."

A loud "Yay" filled the room and Thommy was running toward the door that led to the office, screaming after Fawkes while he did so.

Albus finally took the time to watch Minerva closely although she did everything possible to avoid his gaze. She was still beautiful with her long hair down and those awesome green eyes were still breathtaking although they seemed to lost their gleaming. He couldn´t stop but thinking that she never looked that lost. There was not much left from the confident and proud woman he once knew. Something must have happened to her and he was determined to find out what.

"I hope Thomas didn´t bother you too much. He´s sometimes too much to handle."

The first real smile entered Minerva´s pale face for the first time he saw her.

"He could never bother me. He is an amazing little boy and I really enjoy spending time with him." She still didn´t look up and continued to play with her fingers.

"I am glad to hear this. So what was it that you should ask me? Thommy looked rather excited."

The soft blush on her face made him even more curious and when she stayed silent, hoping that he would give up, he played her game along and silently waited for the answer. Both knew that he had more than enough time.

Finally, Minerva couldn´t take the silence anymore and sighed loudly.

"Well, he is planning a small family reunion so to say. Since my baby needs a father and he wishes for a mother, he wants to throw us together and make a new family."

She waited for his amused chuckle but nothing happened and when Min finally looked up at him, she saw a serious expression on his face.

"I am not really surprised to be honest. He´s been talking about you all the time. He finds you very impressive and I have to admit that I can understand him. Thomas never really warmed up with other people beside Perenelle and Nicholas but I guess that´s because he knows them since his birth. They are like grandparents to him and his wish for a mother is purely natural."

From the shocked and surprised look on her face, he suddenly realized why she avoided him that much over the last year and he knew he had a lot explanation to do.

"Listen Minerva, I hope you can give me the chance to tell you my whole story. I want you to know that I never forgot the promise I gave you and although it must look different, I never stopped waiting for you and I am still here if you want me but first I hope you will listen to what I have to say first before you made your decision. Please?"

It took some minutes until she finally nodded gently, her face again facing the window almost scared of what to come.

"After you went away, my heart almost broke from missing you but I knew I had to give you the chance to fulfill your dreams and I can´t even explain how proud you made me. I cherished every letter you have send me. I was so happy to see you like that but my heart arched for you every single day. I never stopped loving you, Min and I counted the day until I would see you again. One night changed everything though. I went to the Hogshead to visit my brother Aberforth. I don´t know why but this night seemed even colder and rougher without you and so I tried to drink away my sorrows. I didn´t even saw the woman who sat beside me that night. She tried to flirt with me but I had only you on my mind. I can´t remember much of what happened but somehow I found myself naked with her in my bed. I am not proud of what I did. To be honest, I hate myself for it. The woman, her name was Clarissa, disappeared afterwards but I just couldn´t stop myself from thinking that something went wrong and after some investigations, I found out that she had drugged me, put something into my drink I guess. I almost forgot her but after almost 10 months she came back again, very pregnant, claiming that she was carrying my baby. Of course I have checked whether she said the truth and she didn´t lie. I let her stay, I couldn´t abandon my son. There was nothing that we had in common besides the baby. Nonetheless I was grateful that everything went fine and I got a healthy little baby boy. I wanted to tell you everything but you were in a very important stage of your Auror training and I decided to wait until you would come back to me, praying you would understand this situation but I guess your surprising visit had a very terrible bad timing. A house elf saw you and told me afterwards that you were there. I tried to contact you but you never answered a letter and I can understand you. One day after you made your visit, I woke up in the middle of the night, not that I slept much this night but Thomas was screaming more than ever and when I got out of the bed, I came just in time to see Clarissa trying to get away with the baby. Of course I stopped her and she was so shocked that she let Thommy fall on the ground. I took care of him immediately but then she was gone. I found out later on that she planned on joining Grindelwald and my son should be her gift for him. I don´t even want to think what would have happened if I didn´t stop her that night, if Thommy wouldn´t have cried that loud."

They both sat in silence for a long time, ignoring the dark sky outside and both in deeply in thoughts about all that happened when the door burst open and Thomas came running inside.

"Daddy, it is time to eat and the house elves are waiting with our food. Will you come?"

Albus smiled slightly and nodded towards him.

"Wait for me outside, I´ll be out in a minute."

When the child was finally out, he eyed Minerva slowly.

"Do you want to come with us or do you prefer to eat alone, my dear?"

Minerva couldn´t help but smile slightly. She loved when he called her that and it´s been so long ago.

"I guess I will take a nap before I eat dinner. The whole day left me very exhausted and I have problems to leave my eyes open."

She closed her eyes just after the words were out and Albus took his time to leave the room, giving her the space to think and sleep.