Last time on Baiting Lockhart: Minerva was being all angsty, remember?

There was a knock on the door. Wiping her eyes she went forward, wondering if the Weasleys had somehow gotten word another way…

But it wasn't the Weasleys at all.

She had needed him, and so he had come.

And now we join our heroes in the real story.

The door opened. And they both stood looking at each other for a moment that seemed to stretch on into forever.

All he wanted to do was to drink in the look of her. Had she always been this beautiful? This perfect? Maybe it was true, what his mother used to say: maybe distance really did make the heart grow fonder? But his musings quieted as he took in the redness of her eyes and the discarded tissues on the desk.

He stepped forward, barely realizing that he was in danger of banging into the table that separated them. Minerva needed him. That was all that mattered right now.

"You came back." She whispered.

"How could I ever stay away?"

Suddenly, she crumbled. Minerva McGonagall, the Scottish Storm, fell apart.

She sobbed as she told him of the entire goings on while he had been gone. How everyone was so frightened and how she had felt so inadequate. How Ginny was gone and no one could do anything about it. How she had wished so much that he would come back. Albus realized how much she must trust him to be like this and just held on, comforting her.

Gradually she stopped crying. Dumbledore was reluctant to let her leave his embrace; she might not ever be back if she left now. So instead he started humming.

Yes, humming.

Why not? They always danced together at Ministry balls, and Minerva always said that she loved dancing. It really did seem the only logical way to keep her with him.

He hummed his favorite waltz, The Blue Danube, because it was the only one he could remember. They began to sway in time to the impromptu music and slowly but surely, Minerva's own voice rose to join his.

And for one shining moment, things were ok. The way they should be.

But then reality came crashing through the door in the form of the terrified Weasleys.

Arthur Weasley was scared. Terrified. Horrified. Scared out of his bloody mind. His family is the most important thing in the world to him. And now…

Ginny. His little girl. She's gone. And he couldn't do a single thing about it.

He felt so helpless, so small. He should have found a way to protect her. But surely Dumbledore can help? He'll know what to do right?

And as Dumbledore explains that he can't help, all Arthur wants to do is curl up and stay away from the world.

His little girl.

Molly is sobbing by now. He tries to be of some comfort, but he's crying too. Arthur puts an arm around her shaking shoulders and lets her lean into him.

When she looks up at him he notices once again that her eyes and Ginny's are identical, down to the last golden fleck. He has to look away and he hates himself for it.

His baby's gone.

He's never going to break up her fights with Ron again. Never going to stop the twins from teasing her again. Not going to read her anymore muggle fairytales. Not going to see her laugh or smile or cry or yell or just breathe ever again.

Never again.

He tries, without much success, to listen to Albus. He knows that there's got to be something that'll help the pain in Dumbledore's words. But maybe he doesn't want to learn to cope. All he wants is his daughter back, but if this pain is the only thing that's left, he'll take that too. It's better than nothing, right?

The door bangs open and Molly screams. For a moment Minerva thinks she is seeing a ghost. Or four.

Gasps sound and she stands still, hand over her heart.

They're ok.

She wants to laugh with relief. She wants to cry again because they're all right. She wants to rant and rave at Potter and Weasley because what the hell were they thinking? But she doesn't. She settles for hearing the whole long, twisted story. She has the slightest feeling Potter is leaving something out, but says nothing. Not now, when everything is finally good again.

Minerva watched, detached from the scene, as Albus sent the Weasleys with Ginny to the hospital wing. Poor girl. Poppy would take good care of her. She smiled when Ron's face brightened as he heard that the mandrake potion was ready. She stood lost in her thoughts until she heard her name.

Albus' eyes were twinkling. "I think this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go alert the kitchens?"

"Right." She turned, keeping all emotion from her face. "I'll leave you to deal with Potter and Weasley, shall I?"

Minerva nearly burst out laughing at the looks on their faces.

Once in the corridor, she couldn't help it; her face broke into a huge grin. She resisted the urge to yell and skip to the kitchens. It really was amazing how many emotions a person could go through in a day.

After the visit to the kitchen and the usual mobbing it entailed, Minerva went to get her students up.

First, she woke the faculty. She quickly explained everything to teacher after teacher, reliving the joy of Ginny's rescue again and again. Snape was the only teacher who didn't hug her, laugh, or cry. Thankfully. Snape would show emotion in front of Minerva the day he kissed Sybil. Willingly, that is. That was the one thing Minerva could count on. Well, that and Albus. He had come back. She still couldn't get over it; it still felt like a dream—a wonderful, romantic, beautiful dream. And she didn't want to wake up ever.

After she finished waking the staff and snapped out of her cliché-ridden train of thought, she went to the Gryffindor common room. She woke the Weasleys first, so as not to shock them in front of their entire house.

Finally, she made her way to the great hall, where a feast was waiting. A feast and her three best friends.

"He's back isn't he?"

"Did he kiss you?"

"What happened? What did he do?"

"Do we want to know what he did?"

"Rolanda!"

"So what did happen, then?" asked the hawk-eyed witch.

"We danced around my office."

"That's it? No snogging?"

"What did you dance to?" asked Emily, throwing Rolanda a stern look.

"The Blue Danube."

"Oh, a waltz, how romantic!" exclaimed Sarah.

Minerva couldn't help herself, she grinned. "Yeah, it was."

They squealed in perfect unison and the ear-splitting sound reminded Minerva of earlier.

"Oh, by the way," she smirked "I couldn't help but overhear Sybil's mutterings today." She looked pointedly at Rolanda.

"Oh?" Rolanda tried to act cool, but the others could see that her eyes were darting around trying to locate the nearest exit.

"Yes. And she did have some -ahem- interesting information."

Sarah was impatient. "Oh, get on with then, tell us what she said!"

"Well," continued Minerva, obviously glad that the attention was not focused on her anymore. "She seems to have come across a pair of over-zealous inhabitants of the castle using an abandoned classroom rather inappropriately."

"Kids these days." Rolanda shook her head and backed towards the door. "No respect."

"Uh huh. Kids. Riiiiiiiight."

"Oh no." laughed Emily "you didn't."

Rolanda was starting to sweat. "What? I didn't do anything, I swear. Hey, don't look at me like that!"

Minerva rolled her eyes. "Fine" she said loftily, "I'll just go tell Albus about the bad influences our students are exposed to and—"

"Fine! It was me and Severus. Happy?"

"Not particularly." Sarah scrunched up her nose. "Is his hair really as slimy as it looks?"

"I'll have you know he has a scalp condition!"

Minerva, Sarah and Emily were still laughing as the students and other faculty began to arrive.

Rolanda thought the feast went marvelous. You know, apart from the scathing looks from Trelawny, the laughter and teasing from her friends and the confused glances from Severus. Well, in all truth, Severus was rather cute when he was confused…

Anyway, the feast was definitely on her top ten list. The food was superb, everyone was happy and healthy once again, Dumbledore and Hagrid were back where they belonged, and the fact that Severus was holding her hand under the table didn't hurt either.

But the best part of it all was when the petrified students entered the hall. Everyone stood and applauded for them as they made their way to their seats. Rolanda couldn't help but laugh at the way Granger ran to Potter and Weasley yelling her head off about how they had solved it. Even more so as she watched the awkward exchange between Ron and Hermione. Right then and there she resolved that if they weren't together by fifth year, she would do something about it. After all, she thought, glancing to where Albus and Minerva were laughing and sitting rather close to each other, This matchmaking scheme would be over with soon enough, and it would end successfully; she was sure of it. She'd need something to keep her occupied…

It was nearly four in the morning when the students were finally sent to bed. The teachers all made their way to the staff room for what Albus described as a 'debriefing.' Minerva merely raised her eyebrows when he said that. She doubted very much that he'd be able to get a serious conversation going with this lot. At least not tonight.

She was right. The 'debriefing' turned out to be a continuation of the party. It was loud and rambunctious, with bad music courtesy of Sarah who had weird taste and a rather potent punch thanks to Pomona. Sometimes Minerva had to wonder if being with teenagers day in and day out had affected her colleagues in some way. She was sure that this was not the way respected professors charged with the molding of young minds were supposed to act. Not at all. But all disapproving thoughts were pushed from her mind when Albus asked her to dance. This year had been an emotional roller coaster to say the least. She deserved some fun.

The rest of her night (Morning) was spent laughing and spinning around the dance floor in Albus' arms. Minerva wouldn't have changed a thing.

It was very late, or very early depending on your view, when Albus escorted Minerva to her rooms. They had a laugh watching each of the portraits reactions, which ranged from scandalized to pleased to angry to sleepy and confused and then back again. When they finally the entrance, Albus found himself more reluctant to part than ever.

"Well this is it."

"Yeah." Albus was mentally beating himself up. He was Albus Dumbledore, for Merlin's sake! Famous wizard, defeater of Grindlewald, Headmaster of a prodigious school for magic and the best he could come up with was 'yeah'. Pathetic.

"Goodnight then, Albus." Minerva rather disappointed, turned to enter her rooms.

Suddenly, Albus realized that this might be his only chance. Summoning all his Gryffindor courage, he grabbed her hand as she turned and instead, swung her to face him.

"Forgive me."

And then he kissed her.

No bells rang and no fireworks exploded (though had the Weasley twins known there probably would've been) but it was perfect. Everything that they wanted summed up into one moment. And when they broke apart, breathing heavily, they both realized that although things could not go back to the way they had been before, the future couldn't have been brighter. And neither could their smiles.

"I love you, and I always have."

Minerva beamed. "Good. Because I love you, and I always will."

A/N: Ah, good ol' fashioned fluff. Does it get any better than that? I don't think so. Sorry for the angst-y bits that have been going on, but I feel it was important. Anyways, as this was officially THE END, I feel I should say goodbye, but I don't really want it to end yet. And so, I have a proposition. REVIEW AND TELL ME IF YOU WANT AN EPILOGUE. If not, well then, you've all been wonderful. Thank you to everyone who favorited this story or me, and every one of you guys who reviewed, they really helped me along. Oh and thanks to Molly, the story's biggest fan ever, and my numero uno beta. I LOVE YOU ALL—Sloane (lost logic)

Beta's Note: I think I've had as much fun as Sloane working on this. In the reviews that I know will come, be sure to tell Sloane I should beta all her work, because honestly, what would this story have been without my poem?-Molly (Poem-Yoda)