"You know this isn't exactly what I meant when I said I'd help you ensure that the traps were working, right?" Maggie hollered, her arms strapped tightly to her side.
She was currently entangled in about thirty feet of Sprout's Devil's Snare. Although she knew that remaining calm was the key to slipping past this barrier, she couldn't help but feel slightly nervous at the constriction she was facing.
"You have a horrible habit of thinking I care about your discomfort!" Snape called up from below Maggie.
"You have a horrible habit of being an absolute git every second!" Maggie replied with a roll of her eyes.
Not even a few seconds later, Maggie struggled through the last limb of Devil's Snare and landed gracefully on the floor below. With a quick stretch of her legs, she clambered up and dusted some dirt from her emerald robes.
"Pity," Snape replied. "I was hoping those horrible robes would be ruined down here quite honestly."
"Didn't know you were the fashion icon of the decade," Maggie countered, taking her glasses off and wiping the lenses on her robes.
"I don't have to be a fashion icon to take notice they are dreadful," Snape said in a monotone. "I mean honestly, your entire family has been in Gryffindor since the dawn of time. Why the emerald robes? And tartan? You and your mother both!"
"We're Scottish, you idiot," Maggie scowled. "Now are we done here? I don't think anyone with anything less than expert knowledge in herbology could get past those bad boys, don't you think?"
Snape paused for a moment, looking up at the bulking limbs of Devil's Snare. He eyed the plant mysteriously, as if waiting for it to let him in on a secret.
"I suppose." Snape said in a note of finality. "Having to spend an extra hour with you has been tragic enough."
"Your bitterness never ceases to amaze me, Snivellus," Maggie tutted as she put her glasses back on her nose.
"Yes well not all of us had a personal parade for their minimal achievements every day in the Great Hall."
Maggie scoffed.
"Oh, Severus. I don't pity you an ounce. James and his lot were bad but you were just as bad. You weren't any angel if I remember, Mr. Will-You-Join-the-Ranks-of-the-Dark-Lord?" Maggie scoffed as she clambered her way up the Devil's Snare once more.
"What's in the past is in the past!" Snape snapped as he jumped up after Maggie, gripping a limb of the Devil's Snare.
"I didn't bring this up. You did." Maggie snarled back at Snape once they had exited the room where Fluffy was now sleeping peacefully.
"We didn't all have the noble Minerva McGonagall as our mother figure," Snape said with a hint of bitterness in his voice.
Maggie suddenly felt the first tiny wave of sympathy in her life toward Severus Snape. She knew deep down that she would never forgive him for any of his actions but in that very moment, she saw him as a fellow human being. And for Maggie, that was a start.
Maggie bit her lip slightly and stared at Severus, as if debating what to say next.
"I still got loads of detentions though," Maggie offered with a slight raise of her eyebrow.
For a split second, a small smile played on Snape's lips before he gritted his teeth and scowled.
"You deserved every one of them."
"Probably." Maggie agreed with the faintest of smiles. "See you later, Severus."
A few hours later, Maggie sat in her office grading papers. Every time she flipped a parchment over to correct, she immediately got distracted and thought back to her encounter with Snape.
Maggie thought that perhaps with Harry being at Hogwarts, Snape might be loosening up a bit. Maybe seeing Lily's eyes roaming the halls again brought some sort of peace to him in some odd way.
Just as Maggie was about to give a perfect grade to Percy Weasley's potions paper, Minerva barged her way into Maggie's office.
There was a bright, elated smile on Minerva's face. It was the same smile that she had worn when Hermione put on her Hogwarts robes for the first time.
"This might be one of the most interesting days I've had here at Hogwarts!" Minerva exclaimed, a rare smile lighting up her face.
"I think I can agree with that," Maggie said slowly, wondering if her encounter with Snape was worth mentioning.
"You won't believe what just happened at the Quidditch Pitch just now!" Minerva clapped her hands tightly together.
For a brief moment, Maggie's heart fluttered. Perhaps once Hermione had actually mounted a broomstick, she felt the ancient call of her foremothers and realized that Quidditch was meant for her.
"Oh, sweet Merlin and all the gargoyles!" Maggie stood up abruptly. "Don't tell me that Hermione has finally found her calling! I knew she would! She just needed time is all, mother. All it takes is one flight and boom! You're hooked! What did Rolanda say, does she reckon she'll be a good Seek—"
"Merlin, Maggie!" Minerva chastised. "I thought you'd outgrown your rambling!"
"Well what happened?" Maggie demanded.
Minerva looked uneasy but quickly tried to conceal it.
"Er…Harry Potter is the new Gryffindor Seeker." Minerva said quickly, dropping her eyes to the floor for a moment.
"Oh." Maggie said simply, not wanting the disappointment to show in her voice.
"Hermione did very well herself," Minerva soothed her daughter with a firm grip on her shoulder.
Maggie shrugged nonchalantly and rubbed the back of her neck.
"Oh I'm just pleased she's having a good time at school," Maggie smiled softly.
"But you wish she had been the new Gryffindor Seeker," Minerva smiled sadly.
"Harry Potter?" Maggie suddenly asked, her attention going back to the mention of her godson. "Seeker? He's James' son surely! How can this even be possible? You have to be a Second Year?"
"Hogwash," Minerva waved her hand dismissively. "I'm positive I can get Albus to bend the rule."
Maggie scoffed incredulously.
"Where was this rule when I was a First Year?" Maggie laughed with a shocked expression.
"I daresay he may be even better than you and James combined," Minerva clapped her hands with enthusiasm.
Maggie felt her cheeks stretch nearly beyond capacity in a broad smile. She felt a strange flutter in her stomach.
"He'll need a broom!" Maggie immediately went to stand up.
"Where are you going?" Minerva furrowed her brow.
"I won't have my godson flying on a Cleansweep now will I?" Maggie asked her mother as if it were obvious. "Nimbus or Firebolt line? Ah, I think Nimbus if you say he's going for Seeker. Nimbus were always better with jerky movements. Firebolt had the boost for Keepers. Nimbus it is!" Maggie announced excitedly as she made her way over to the fireplace.
"If I didn't know any better I'd call this favoritism," Minerva observed her daughter with a smile playing at her lips.
"It's a godmother getting her godson a gift," Maggie replied with a cheeky grin.
"That's one way of putting it." Minerva said with a shrug.
Later that night, Maggie and Minerva shared a tea while discussing Harry Potter's newest position on the Gyffindor Team.
"The exact precision as James," Minerva recalled with a dreamy look in her eye, as if thinking back to a far off memory.
"I don't doubt it," Maggie agreed with an eager smile. "I can hardly wait to see the first practice. How is Hermione doing in Transfiguration? She didn't come to my office at all yesterday."
"Just as we both assumed she would," Minerva laughed. "Straight marks in everything. She's a model student, not unlike you, save perhaps the constant trouble making."
Maggie frowned a bit, cupping her tea closer to her chest.
"I don't think she's making friends," Maggie finally confessed.
Minerva pursed her lips, eyeing her daughter carefully.
"It's not even Halloween yet," Minerva offered. "Perhaps she hasn't had much time to find friends. The First years usually get bombarded with studying."
Before Maggie could respond, there was an urgent knocking on Minerva's office door. Maggie looked at her mother, eyes wondering if she was expecting someone. Minerva shrugged.
As Maggie went to open the door, her heart sank.
There stood tiny Hermione, her bushy hair hiding most of her face but her mother could make out her tear-stained cheeks and red eyes.
"Oh, love," Maggie frowned as she ushered her daughter in and quickly shut the door behind her.
"Hermione, dear what's wrong?" Minerva instantly asked at once.
"Everyone hates me!" Hermione exclaimed a frenzy of sobs, instantly clutching her mother around her waist.
"Surely not everyone can hate you, love," Minerva offered as she gently brushed some of Hermione's hair back.
Maggie in turn hugged Hermione, back gently rubbing circles in her back as they made their way to the couch to sit.
"Why don't you take a deep breath and tell me what it is that's bothering you?" Maggie asked her daughter as she wiped some cascading tears from Hermione's red little face.
"D-Draco Malfoy keeps calling me names!" Hermione spluttered, another sob wracking her body. "And the Gryffindors aren't any b-better! They all think I'm a Know-It-All. They think I'm spoiled because of you and G-Gran…" Hermione could not control her tears anymore and they came pouring out.
For the first time in Maggie's parenting life, she was at a loss. She looked over to her own mother in desperation, gesturing toward Hermione who was hugging Maggie fiercely.
"What do I do?" Maggie mouthed to Minerva.
Minerva, ever clever, pursed her lips and nodded only once at Maggie, a sign that she was about to handle everything.
"Hermione, dear," Minerva called her granddaughter over to her, arms out and inviting. Hermione wiped a few tears from her face and gingerly made her way over to Minerva, immediately feeling comforted.
"Professor Snape called me an insufferable know-it-all," Hermione whispered from her cozy spot in her grandmother's emerald robes.
"He what?" Maggie instantly fumed.
Minerva shot Maggie a warning look and Maggie in turn bit the inside of her cheek roughly but said no more.
"And did it ever occur to you that some people might feel threatened by your unparalleled intelligence?" Minerva looked down at her beloved granddaughter.
Hermione furrowed her brows for a long time, eventually looking up at Minerva and shaking her head.
Maggie caught on at once. She quickly made her way over to her daughter, brushing back heaps of her messy brown hair.
"Hermione," Maggie began. "If I promise to tell you something will you keep it a secret? Just between the three of us?"
Hermione wiped away the last of her tears furiously, then stood up from her grandmother's arms and took a seat by Maggie on the floor by the fire.
Once Hermione nodded her agreement, Maggie gently rubbed her hands together and adjusted her glasses.
"Well I actually went to school with Severus Snape," Maggie confessed a bit awkwardly. "I went to school with Harry's parents too. The thing is, sweetheart, is that throughout your life you're going to come across loads of Severus Snapes and Draco Malfoys. I went to school with some of them too. Sometimes you have to take the higher ground, do you know what that means?"
"I take it that it's not literal?" Hermione looked up questioningly.
"Right," Maggie agreed. "What I'm trying to get at is you are brilliant, love. Brilliant just the way you are. You have been your entire life. All of these people who bully you or make fun of you feel inferior to your intelligence. Don't ever let their own insecurities get in the way of shining as the bright young witch you are. I guarantee if you continue to remain true to yourself you will be the brightest witch of your age."
Hermione looked up at her mother as if she couldn't believe what she was saying.
"Do you really think so?" Hermione said breathlessly.
"Absolutely," Maggie replied.
"Without a doubt, there's never been a question in my mind," Minerva added, looking at her girls from her seat on the couch.
"Well what do I do when Snape is rude to me in the classroom? I can't just lose House Points for Gryffindor every day!" Hermione said in a panic.
"Leave the House Points issue to me," Maggie smiled. "And as for the classroom portion, don't do a thing. There's nothing wrong in knowing every answer. Do you think any hero in history was a slacker? Not one! Intelligence is nothing to look down upon. He's a fool himself for making a mockery of you. It's probably because he hasn't washed his hair since we went to school together."
At that last part, Hermione allowed herself a brief moment of giggles. Maggie smiled at her daughter's giggles, happy to hear those sweet angelic sounds compared to her heartbroken sobs.
"Thanks, mummy," Hermione smiled genuinely.
"Anytime, love," Maggie kissed her daughter on her head. "Now off to bed, yes? I'll walk you to Gryffindor Tower."
Minerva sat alone in her office, waiting for her daughter to return. There was a broad smile on her face, one not unlike that which she wore when Maggie won her first Quidditch match against Slytherin.
There was a soft rapping at Minerva's office door which she knew all too well. As she opened her door, there stood a small hawk at the floor.
Just where the hawk was now stood Maggie, her dark hair in a messy bun and her glasses nearly hanging off of her nose as usual.
"Didn't think it'd help the bullying if they saw her mother walking her to bed," Maggie chuckled as she closed her mother's office door behind her. She stretched out her arms a bit and cracked her neck.
"Or you just wanted to stretch your wings a bit," Minerva's lips danced in a smile.
"I really love being an Animagus," Maggie sighed with a hint of her usual cockiness in her voice. "I mean, honestly. A hawk? Anyway, how do you think she'll manage, mummy?"
"Just fine," Minerva replied instantly. "You did wonderfully, sweetheart. Truly wonderfully."
"I just so happened to learn from the best," Maggie smiled.
The next day at breakfast, Maggie arrived extra early and took a seat at the staff table that was facing directly toward Gryffindor's own table. Minerva barely made it in before the owls came swopping in with letters and packages.
Maggie could not suppress the grin that was forming on her face once she saw Hedwig flying in with Harry's new Nimbus 2000. She felt the strangest sense of sadness and joy.
Once Harry had realized the broomstick was for him, his face lit up in shock and excitement. Maggie smiled over toward her mother as the two watched Harry and Ron unwrap the broomstick. Now, nearly half of Gryffindor table was begging Harry for a glimpse at the sleek and shiny new Nimbus 2000.
Harry was smiling just as broadly as ever, looking around as if he would find out who gave this most memorable prize to him. He caught Maggie's eye for the briefest moment, smile and gave her the tiniest of waves. Maggie pointed to the wrapping that was on the table.
Harry quickly fumbled through the wrapping and found a small bit of parchment.
Dear Harry,
Years ago your father got me a broomstick not much unlike this one. I hope that this broomstick brings you as much joy as the one your father gave me did. Let's get the House Cup?
Forever in the Potter's debt,
Prof. Maggie McGonagall