Telling Secrets

Albus turned his attention to Minerva. He wondered how so many years had passed before it was necessary to tell his little secret. Taking a deep breath, he guided his beloved Min to the couch, and helped her to sit before joining her, he took her hand softly in his, his piercing blue eyes gazing into her intensely uncertain ones. "Minerva, there's something I should have told you years ago...only I never could find the right moment, and as time went on, I decided I wasn't sure it was important, and, well, we love Ana so much... I...I was selfish in keeping it to myself.. you see...I kept tabs on her, the four years she was in the orphanage." For once, Albus seemed at a loss for words, but finally managed to finish what he had been keeping to himself. "You see, the summer after you graduated, I was so in love with you, but there was so much going on in my life, I'd just lost mother, and had to take care of my sister and Aberforth, but occasionally I would slip away to see how you were doing.. I knew that you'd fallen for that McGregor boy, Dougal..so I never showed myself to you.. I watched as you began to show.." There was a slight gasp from Minerva, as he revealed that he'd known she was pregnant, but she didn't speak yet, merely watching his eyes, listening to him tell his story. "And when you went into labor, I wanted to come forward then, I was concerned the babe was a bit early then, to help you through it, but you had your mother, and Malcom and Andreta were so attentive... but Malcom saw me, I guess, because he came to see me after, to tell me about the babe, that she'd been healthy..that she looked a lot like you, and a lot like your mother.." His voice trailed off for a moment, as he reflected back on the way he'd felt when she put her child up for adoption. He'd assumed then that it was Dougal's child, and that she was afraid he'd be angry because she'd turned him down, and refuse to help with the child.

"I went to the orphanage after you left, to see the child, and reassure myself that she would be okay. The headmistress asked if I might name her, so I did. And as the orphanage moved, I followed it, making sure that I always knew where the girl was.. she was a piece of you, when you were still denied me.. and when you joined the ministry, I had all but given up hoping you'd ever care for me the way I cared for you. Then, when you came to teach at the school, we had a second chance to be close! I was so thrilled, right up until the healer confirmed something your brother had said after the baby was born..he said you had had a difficult delivery, and that you were unlikely to have another child. So when the healer confirmed it, I thought...why not reunite you with your daughter, now that you wanted a child... and she still needed her mother, so desperately. She was sad, there, she was considered an oddball.. that's why I suggested you go to that orphanage..how I knew the child's name before you'd told me...because I had named her. I never understood why no one ever told the girl's father...I was a bit disappointed in you for not telling Dougal..it was the right thing to do." His voice at the last was a bit scolding, but he still held her hand softly, waiting for her to react, afraid that she would be angry that he'd never told her he knew, that he'd kept such a big secret from her all these years.

Minerva's eyes were dripping tears as he concluded his story, but at his last words, she choked back a sob. She looked up in wonder at Albus Dumbledore, her former Transfigurations teacher, and now the headmaster at Hogwarts, an impressive wizard by all accounts, and yet he'd gotten this so wrong. She pulled her hands from him, afraid of the hurt she was about to inflict on the man she had always admired, and come to love so much over the past four years. She lifted her hazel eyes up to meet his sharp blues, and took a deep breath. "Dougal McGregor was not her father.. " She said, rather sharply. "I fell in love with him, I think, to get myself over you..I resented you, Albus, for that day under the tree, by the lake...you seemed to get over me so quickly, that for a while I was sure I must not have been the only girl you wooed..."

She paused, thinking back on that summer with regret..why had they not just kept in touch? Why had she been so afraid to tell him? She still didnt' know the answer to that question. Taking a deep breath, she spoke her own little secret. "Albus, Dougal never knew about the baby, because he was not the father...you are Sreana's father."

Albus's slightly graying beard had twitched. She looked down at her hands. A woman who made a formidable opponent in a duel, and an excellent transfigurations professor, made for a nervous young woman when revealing such a deep dark secret. He struggled with the emotions he was feeling for only a moment. After all, he had ensured his daughter's safety, even though he had not cared for her the way he would have, had he known she was indeed his child, and he loved her mother so much, he could never be angry at her long. "Why, Minerva, didn't you tell me?" He asked, his voice soft, slightly reproving, but not accusatory. He merely wanted to know what he had done wrong to make her feel she could not speak with him.

Minnie looked up nervously. "I was afraid...afraid that that evening by the lake had been a mistake..afraid that though I had thought you cared for me, you were only satisfying a lust...I was angry...it seemed that you had swiftly forgotten me, and when I knew for sure I was expecting, you'd just lost your mother.. I wasn't sure how you would handle it.I don't know, Albus, I was young...barely more than a child, and I knew I wasn't ready to be a mother yet...and you with all your goings on, I doubted you wanted to be tied down by a baby.."

Albus leaned forward then, pressing a soft kiss to his beloved's forehead. "I was a busy man, Minerva, with my head full of plans for the greater good of the Wizarding world, but I have always loved you..and now, we have our daughter back, our own flesh and blood is right where she belongs. Things could not have worked out much more perfectly."

A/N: No, that's not the end, merely the beginning of the story really, but the end of the first part of it... please stay tuned...It may take a little while for me to update again, but assuredly not in terms of years, as it has been...hopefully only a few days, tops!