A/N: This is probably the worst and less interesting chapter of the entire story, but I needed a change of mood for a while before going back to the drama... I hope you don't find it too boring and, I promise I'm done with confessions... although there is still something Minerva has to tell Severus, but that's going to be an interesting part.

Anyway, to any American reader that this story can have, Happy Thanksgiving ^_^

Enjoy ^_^

Hogwarts 1997

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Chapter 26

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What friendship is about. Rolanda Hooch

"So?" Minerva asked Madame Pomfrey after she'd examined her.

"I told you, sweetheart, I am not taking any risks," the nurse replied without looking at her while writing down some notes.

"How can letting me go to my own rooms be a risk?" the Transfiguration mistress wondered.

"Because no efforts means no climbing stairs, for instance," Poppy declared.

"Alright, then I'll ask Rolanda to fly me up to my chambers."

"No flying either," the mediwitch stated, and with a lower voice she added, "not that Rolanda would be pleased to help you out right now."

"What does that mean?" Minerva asked, and the nurse seemed to suddenly realize she'd said that outloud.

"Nothing," she tried to lie very badly.

"Poppy, what's wrong with Rolanda?" Minerva insisted.

"She's upset with you," the nurse confessed.

"Why would she be upset?"

"Why do you think?" Poppy snapped, "You hadn't told her about Severus and, this secret pregnancy… It was too much, she feels betrayed."

"You mean she… she knows, how?"

"She was there when Filius told everyone to stop Alecto," Poppy explained, "then she left the Hospital Wing really upset."

"Why didn't anyone told me earlier?" Minerva exclaimed, "I need to go talk to her..." she sat up on the bed and Poppy tried to stop her.

"I can't let you do that, sweetheart," she said.

"Poppy Pomfrey, you can rather help me to Rolanda's rooms or you can step away, but I am going right now," Minerva stated.

"What's the matter?" the Headmaster suddenly stepped in.

"Oh, Severus, thank Merlin you're here," the nurse muttered as she struggled with Minerva, "could you please help me keep her in bed, please?"

"Sure," he walked towards the bed and Poppy stepped aside, "Where were you trying to go, my dear?" he asked gazing at Minerva as his hands brushed a few locks of her untied hair behind her beautiful tiny ears.

"I need to go to talk to Rolanda," she said with a broken voice, her hormones taking over her rational self, "she's upset with me and…"

"Say no more," he said, "let's go."

"Severus, I don't think…" Poppy began to say.

"Don't worry," he looked at the nurse while he helped Minerva stand on her feet, "I won't leave her side," he looked back at the patient while the mediwitch walked away muttering some curses, "I was actually coming to bring you this," he said handing Minerva her own wand.

"Where did you find it?!" she wondered, grimacing when she was finally standing.

"Hidden behind some bushes," he said, and she held herself on his arm as she magically changed her clothes and combed her hair.

…

When they reached Rolanda's door, Minerva realized she wouldn't have gotten there if it hadn't been for Severus, who had not only served her to keep her balance at every step, but had also carried her up the stairs.

"Maybe she's not in her rooms," he said after two knockings with no response.

"She is," Minerva insisted, and she knocked again, this time announcing herself, "Rolanda, it's me, please, open the door."

"She's clearly not here," Severus said.

"No, she is," Minerva wasn't about to give up easily, "she's just stubborn as hell."

"I wonder who she resembles to," he muttered, watching Minerva knock the door again.

"Ro, please, we need to talk," she said, "I know you're mad at me, I just want you to listen to me-." Suddenly the door opened.

"Is he going to send his friends after me if I don't," Rolanda snapped when she saw Severus standing next to Minerva.

"He just walked me here," she replied, "he won't come in."

"Good," and the Flying teacher hold the door open while Minerva effortly walked in.

"I'll be waiting-" Severus was saying when Rolanda slammed the door, "here," he finished.

"Rolanda…" Minerva began to say after she was able to sit down on one of the armchairs.

"Do not say 'I'm sorry'," Hooch interrupted, "you've lied to me for months, so I won't believe you if you say you're sorry." She was standing up, a few steps away, her arms crossed in front of her and not looking at Minerva.

"You're right," she said, "I've been keeping a lot of things from you and the others," she admitted, "but Severus thought…"

"Do not even mention him," Hooch raised her voice, "you've been shagging him while making us believe you were in great danger," she said, "I can't believe you made us all stay so you could fuck that bloody murderer."

"Rolanda that's not true," Minerva said.

"Isn't it? Aren't you just pregnant with his baby?"

"I am, but…" she tried.

"But? But what, Minerva?" she was yelling now, raising her arms to the air, frightening Minerva, not because she was scared of Rolanda hurting her, but because she'd never seen her so furious, "Are you going to tell me that he forced you now? Uh?" Minerva almost choke on her own breath, she suddenly felt sick and though she was going to throw up right there, but she held the feeling and looked at her friend going mad in front of her, "Is that it? Is it now when you try to tell me that you're just the poor poor victim of our depraved Headmaster? Just like when he tortured you, right?" she let go a dry laugh and Minerva's eyes filled with tears, "I bet you didn't really dislocate that shoulder, why would he take you to a different dungeon if not? You were only staging it, playing all of us…" her voice broke for a moment, "I… I just don't understand Minerva…"

"That's because you got it all wrong," Minerva sobbed, looking at the back of her friend, trying in vain to stand up on her own because of the pain, "we've been friends for more than forty years, Rolanda, do you really believe me able of doing what you just said?"

"I didn't believe you able of lying, and you did lie to me," she said, turning around and looking at a struggling Minerva trying to stand up and about to lose her balance. She ran towards her and made the professor sit down again, and knelt beside her, "shouldn't you be in the Hospital Wing?" she suddenly asked kindly.

"Not knowing that one of my best friends is mad at me," Minerva replied.

"I am not mad," Rolanda stated, "I am disappointed."

"Rolanda, I swear I was honest when I told you my reasons to stay," Minerva explained, "I never thought this… situation would bring Severus and I this 'close' again."

"Again?"

"Well, you see… last year was complicated," she closed her eyes, not sure if she should be telling or not but tired of keeping things to herself, "Severus did kill Albus but, only because he asked him to."

"What do you mean?"

"It was all a plan to get Severus closer to the Dark Lord, a crazy stupid plan that would only occur to Albus Dumbledore," she paused, "he was dying, of a curse, so he thought it wouldn't be a great loss if he was killed sooner," tears came up to her eyes again, "I begged Severus not to do it, and he tried to prevent it of happening but… it happened."

"So you and Severus…"

"It just happened, but it wasn't anything serious, not back then," she explained, "it was complicated so we kept it a secret, not because it felt wrong but because it would only make things worse if anyone was to find out that we… anyway, the night Dumbledore was killed Severus ran away and it was over or, at least, so I thought."

"When he came back…" Hooch remembered the day the Death Eaters entered the school and attacked her and Poppy.

"He came to warn us, so we would be gone the next day… he did all that was on his hands to protect us and I just made his job harder by staying, and making you all stay with me," she said.

"You could have told us," Rolanda said, "that he was on our side, that he…"

"No, I couldn't, he isn't supposed to be in our side, Ro… He has to pretend to be a Death Eater to stay close to the Dark Lord, have his trust," she explained, "that's why he thought it would be easier if you believed him a traitor, and I agreed."

"Was it necessary to make us believe he had punished you after helping me…"

"I wasn't staging anything, Rolanda," Minerva confessed, "I made Severus hurt me," she said, "Alecto had asked him to punish me and if he didn't they would get suspicious. I made him do it."

"This is just crazy," Hooch stood up and walked away.

"I told Poppy that night," Minerva said following her with her eyes, "and Pomona learned after Filius was attacked by Alecto. I guess I should have told you then but, there was so much to explain… I never seemed to find the moment."

"What about this pregnancy? Were you going to keep it from me too, until you couldn't hide it anymore?"

"Apart from Filius, nobody knew about it, Rolanda" Minerva said, "not even Severus."

"Why is that? Aren't you just so happy with him?" she replied with a sarcastic tone on her voice that annoyed Minerva a little bit.

"I didn't know if it was his," she confessed, ignoring the bitter mood of her friend and knowing she should just be honest with her if she wanted her forgiveness.

"What do you mean?" Rolanda turned around and looked at Minerva again, "Who else could it be, Minerva?

"Carrow," she confessed with a broken voice and she could see it on Rolanda's eyes that she was getting to the right conclusion but didn't want to believe it, "it was the night of Halloween, you noticed I was acting weird the following days, remember? You asked me if I was upset about something because I wasn't much talkative in the professor's lounge..."

Severus was beginning to get tired of waiting, wondering what those two women were saying to each other, when all of a sudden Hooch came out of her rooms, passed by him with a very angry face and marched down the hall saying no word.

"Severus! Severus!" he heard Minerva yell and he rushed inside. He got to her just on time to prevent her of falling down, "You have to stop her!"

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"I've told her, she became mad, she's going after him," Minerva spoke very quick, suddenly taking her hand to the left side of her body and grimacing with pain.

"Calm down, I'll take you to Poppy," Severus said.

"No," Minerva said, "You must stop Rolanda, she's going after Carrow. She'll kill him."

Severus stood for a moment, thinking why would he want to go after her if seeing Carrow suffering had been his only thought since he'd learned what he'd done only two days ago.

"Severus, they'll kill her if she tries to attack him," Minerva insisted, and it hit him then, that the Carrows were a lot more powerful than Rolanda and that if she upset them they would torture her to death. So, leaving Minerva alone, he ran away.

While going down the halls, Rolanda Hooch remembered the first time she'd met Minerva. It had been during their student years… She had tried to enter the Hufflepuff Quidditch team but hadn't passed the first flying test, which she didn't understand because she'd always thought she was good. So she asked for help to one of their prefects, Pomona, and she said she knew just the right person. Rolanda would have never thought a Hufflepuff prefect would send her to a Gryffindor player, but when she saw Minerva flying with such skill, doing pirouettes with no fear of falling and going faster than anyone she'd ever seen before, she knew there was no one else better; and Minerva had accepted without hesitation, even though she would be helping her to get into a rival team.

With her wand ready, Rolanda was about to blow up the door in front of her when a hand pulled her backwards and against a wall.

"Let go of me," she said before even realizing it was Severus the one holding her.

"You don't want to do this," he said.

"Let go of me, Severus, " she repeated, "I'll hex his balls and then I'll kill him slowly."

"I can't let you do that," he said, reminding himself why, because the idea of letting her go was tempting, "unless you want to end up with Charity."

"But we can't let him walk around the school as if he'd done nothing..." she replied, more calmed.

"Nobody wants to see him dead as much as I do, Rolanda," he said, releasing her of his hands, "but if we did something now, we would only be making things worse for everyone, for Minerva, for the baby..." he said, "What do you think will happen with them if they learn a Death Eater has been killed in the school?" he stared at her and Rolanda felt like those eyes were someone else's, because she'd never seen them so shiny, "If you really love Minerva," he said, "then, help me keep her and the baby safe."

"I told you she shouldn't have left the Hospital Wing," Poppy Pomfrey told Severus while being in Minerva's private rooms.

"Rolanda and I will carry her back downstairs," he said.

"That won't be necessary," the nurse pointed out, "she can stay here but I don't want her out of the bed until she's able to stand on her own feet."

"I am not a baby," Minerva yelled from her bedroom.

"But you're carrying one," the nurse stepped into the room to look at her friend as she talked, "and if you have any intention of having it, you'll do as I say."

After that the mediwitch left and Severus walked her out in case there was anything else to be said.

...

"I'm sorry I made you leave the Hospital wing," Rolanda said, sitting at the edge of Minerva's bed.

"It wouldn't have happened if I hadn't lied to you, so it's not your fault."

"He really loves you," Hooch smirked at her friend, "Severus."

"He does," Minerva said and she blushed, "you know, he asked me to marry him when the war was over."

"Oh Merlin, what did you say?"

"I said yes, of course..." Minerva replied with a wide smile on her face.

"So you're engaged! I can't believe that wasn't the first thing you told me."

"Well I haven't told anyone else yet... You're the first to know," Minerva said, "not like we can celebrate it here, anyway."

"But it's not a secret, is it?"

"As long as the Carrows don't find out..."

"Good, because I can't wait to tell Pomona, and Poppy, and..." she laughed and bended over to carefully hug her friend, "I am so happy for you."

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TO BE CONTINUED...