Winter, 1990

Minerva glanced up at the clock and sighed. Time to go. Putting aside the papers she had been grading, she left her office, locking the doors behind her.

Reinforcing security around the school. A pain, but a necessary pain. She was planning to merely check the old enchantments and see if any had worn off yet. After all, protections were not her strong point, and Albus would surely do a much better job than she-

"Minerva," a familiar voice called. She half-turned and smiled at Will Stanton, who jogged the last several steps needed to catch up with her.

She did not understand Will Stanton. Nor did she know him well. He was still as impenetrable as he had been on his first day here, two and a half years ago, and Minerva did not like being in the dark. There were too many things that didn't add up about him.

"Hello, Will," she said, and hoped the friendliness in her voice didn't sound forced.

She did not trust Will Stanton, either.

His answering grin was relaxed, so she supposed he hadn't noticed anything off about her own. "Are you ready to reinforce the wards?" he asked.

"Yes, I suppose so." Minerva shrugged. She wasn't about to volunteer what she was planning to do, so she asked instead, "Are you?"

"I guess." Like her, he seemed rather unwilling to say anything on the subject of what he was doing, and said instead, "Horrible weather for it, isn't it?"

She sighed. "Unfortunately," Minerva muttered, looking out a window as they passed it. Rain. "It doesn't look like it will stop any time soon, either."

Will made a face as they walked down the steps into the entrance hall. "How long do you think it will take?"

"It's taken hours in the past," she replied, and opened the doors as Will opened his umbrella.

A slightly companionable, slightly awkward silence fell as they navigated their way through the mud to the front gates, where Minerva could see Albus, Hagrid, and several less recognizable others, due to a faint light hovering over the group.

"...Fluffy could guard 'em, Professor Dumbledore," Hagrid was offering as they reached them.

Will's eyes widened, and Minerva guessed that he had met Fluffy before. She completely agreed.

They walked into the area immediately surrounding the gates, and Minerva discovered that someone had kindly put up a shield against the rain. Excellent. I was not looking forward to getting drenched.

"Thank you, Hagrid, but I believe the protections we add will be sufficient," Albus said politely, making Minerva sigh with relief, and then frown.

"Albus, what about the Aurors?"

"The Minister told me that I could have several dementors guarding the gates, but not Aurors." He smiled. It was not a pleasant sight. "I told him that I would prefer to have nothing at all rather than dementors."

Minerva nodded. "Of course. I certainly wouldn't want dementors at the school." She shuddered at the thought.

"Yes, I did not like the idea either. However, it does mean that we must be careful with our protections, as they will be the only thing guarding the school."

"Then we'd better get started," Pomona said cheerfully, emerging from the darkness.

Minerva nodded, and got to work.

She sighed with relief, and muttered, "Done." Stretching, she looked around.

The teachers were spread out at various points around the gates. Most of them were still working. Filius was teaching the gates to recognize a picture of Collins, but that was the only spell Minerva could recognize.

She wasn't, she noticed, the first one done; Sibyll, Will, and Severus were all done, talking quietly on the other side of the gates.

"Do we have to wait until everyone is done, then?" Minerva asked as she walked over to them. So much for getting to go inside early.

"Yes," Severus said with annoyance. "Albus said they may need to adjust the new spells so that we teachers can still get through the gates, and that can't be done without our presence, or until all the spells are cast."

"It can be done while some spells are being cast, actually, but then they'd just need to fix it later," Minerva pointed out.

"So we still need to wait," Will said, speaking quickly enough to cut off whatever scathing comment Severus had been about to make.

"Yes," Severus muttered, slumping against the walls.

"You finished quickly, Severus?" Minerva asked.

"I am not an expert on wards, Minerva. There wasn't much I could add."

Neither Sibyll or Will offered any comment on why they had taken a short amount of time, Minerva noted. Then again, Sibyll might not have added anything. It is Sibyll, after all.

Severus noticed, as well. "I don't believe I saw what you did," he said smoothly to Will.

Will said, with a look of barely suppressed alarm, "I, ah, don't have a lot of experience with wards, either. I didn't do much."

Severus raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to comment. Minerva gave him a Look. He scowled at her.

"Later," she mouthed.

He sighed, scowled, and relented.

They continued to wait.

Albus, of course, was the last to finish.

Minerva had no idea what kinds of enchantments he had added to the walls, but she was fine not knowing. She was just glad this was over; it was two in the morning, and she very badly wanted to go to bed.

The adjustment of the spells went quickly, and Minerva paid little attention. She sighed with relief when she realized she could leave, and headed out with everyone else-

-until she saw Will Stanton hanging behind.

Minerva sighed. So much for getting to bed as soon as possible. Sleep could wait, though. Finding out what Will Stanton was hiding was much more important.

It was easy. She fell behind the other teachers, and turned into a cat as soon as nobody was looking.

Ever-so-quietly, she crept back to where Will and Albus were talking.

"...able to add to our wards?" Albus.

"I'm not sure. I..." Will fell silent for a long moment, and said, "Yes, all right."

He pointed all five fingers of one hand, and spoke several words in a strange language. It's not a spell, or not any that I know, at any rate.

The wards flashed a brilliant white for a single moment. Anyone who hadn't seen it would call it lightning. Only Minerva, Will, and Albus knew better.

"Thank you, Will." The two turned to walk back to the castle, and Minerva took off before they could see her.

Albus knows. Whatever this is, Albus knows. And that was the puzzling part. Because if Albus knew...

The implications to that needed thinking about.

"But in the morning," Minerva muttered to herself as she entered the castle. "After I get some sleep."