A/N: Here we go! Are ya ready?
See disclaimer, Chapter 1.
-0-
The next day, after a day of marking 7th Year essays and answering correspondence she'd put off through the week, Minerva was getting ready for her date with Harry and the butterflies would not sit still. After Harry told Hermione where they were going, she'd left him with the kids and come to Minerva's rooms to help her get ready.
"Hermione, I don't know about this," Minerva muttered, looking at herself in the mirror
"Do you trust me?"
"You know I do," Minerva muttered with a frown. "I just don't know about this."
"This?" Hermione said, standing beside her in front of the mirror. "Looks divine," she whispered. "I'll be very surprised if he can even speak for the first ten minutes."
"Hermione -"
"Hey," Hermione said, drawing her focus from her reflection. "I'm serious. You are beautiful, Minerva. Please don't ever doubt that."
"I have never been beautiful, Hermione," Minerva whispered. "Bookish, smart, mousey."
"Min," Hermione scoffed. "You've never been mousey."
Minerva snorted and sighed, smoothing the deep red dress over her flat stomach.
"I'll never be able to eat dinner in this," she muttered. "I'd only need to look at a bread roll for it to show."
"I thought you said you dated?" Hermione chuckled, reaching up and letting her hair down. "You seem very skittish."
"I did date," she said, biting her lip. "At a time when the showing of skin was considered taboo."
Hermione laughed but fiddled with Minerva's hair until she nodded to the mirror.
"There."
She'd pinned back a little of it and somehow managed to find some curl in it. Minerva was shocked at how pretty it looked.
"I'm not sure I've ever looked so," Minerva searched for the word.
"Hot?"
"Fancy."
"You have," Hermione smiled. "The day you received your Order of Merlin, you looked pretty bloody fancy." Minerva blushed.
"I was wearing robes."
"And tonight, you're going Muggle."
"Can you at least give me a clue?"
"Nope," Hermione chuckled. "But you'll like it. He's pulling all the stops."
"I don't," Minerva frowned, wrapping her arms around herself. "I'm not sure he realises I'm just a simple woman. I don't," she bit her lip. "I'm not," she sighed. "I have not had a lot of social outings in a long time. My idea of a good time is a good cup of tea and a book, Hermione, I don't know -"
"Relax," Hermione said gently. "Just breath for a moment. Harry," Hermione waited and Minerva rolled her eyes, looking up at her. "Loves you. Loves you so very much, Minerva. He has always been a man who wants to experience things." Hermione made a face. "I have a theory that it's because he never experienced things when he was a child. But that does not mean he wants to experience them at the expense of your comfort."
"I'm being silly," Minerva muttered.
"A little, but I get it," Hermione smiled.
"He's -"
They looked at each other and both laughed.
"He really is," Hermione smiled. "Go out and enjoy yourselves. I never thought I'd say this about Harry Potter, but you're both similar in the way you work." Minerva asked the question with a look. "Doggedly," she laughed. "Go and have fun for a change! Enjoy yourselves. There's been precious time to do so before now. Seek new things and all that."
"Thank you, Hermione," Minerva whispered, turning to look at her properly. "You know that I would never -"
"Min?" Hermione smiled, wrapping her arms around her tightly. She sighed into Hermione's hair. "He said something to me the other day that has given me comfort ever since."
"Oh?" Minerva whispered.
"He reminded me that I wasn't losing my Harry and he wasn't losing his Hermione. Rather, we are instead, gaining a Minerva. And I've never been happier to know that."
Minerva smiled and pressed a kiss to Hermione's temple, wiping the lipstick off with her thumb.
"You are an extraordinary woman, Hermione Granger. As soon as I can shove Logan out of the door, I hope you'll consider taking his position. It's high time we had a potions professor that was competent."
"What?"
"I had the idea today, at tea," Minerva smiled. "I'm ashamed that it took as long as it did."
"I'm not a teacher!"
"Yes you are," Minerva soothed. "You have been for years. And mastery or not, I'm the Headmistress, I make the rules. Do your mastery while you're teaching. There's a precedent and it's not like I can't prove your competency."
"I would love to," she blinked. "The security, family, I," she hugged Minerva again. "I would love to."
"Good," Minerva grinned. "Stop skulking in his rooms then. Get out and see the other Professors. You're staying with Harry for convenience, but I will find you some rooms if you like?"
"I think we might all need that?"
Minerva blushed, deeply and closed her eyes.
"That was cruel," Minerva breathed.
"Not really," Hermione giggled. "He has a plan for that too apparently."
"Hermione -"
"Right, I'm going. He's coming here to pick you up in," she glanced at the clock. "15 minutes."
Minerva gaped at her.
"I," she looked down at herself. "Are you sure?"
"Min, if you make it to dinner, I'll be surprised." Minerva looked at her, trying to understand what she was saying. "Let me put it this way, if I were into women, I wouldn't let you out of the house looking like that, and," Hermione stepped out of the door but poked her head back around. Minerva really should have known. "I'd cancel dinner and just throw you down and have my way with you."
"HERMIONE!"
The door closed and there were a few titters from the portraits outside her bedroom but she didn't care. She didn't feel exactly comfortable, but as she looked at herself, she had never seen herself as she was now. She was much less voluptuous than Hermione, but she wasn't without curves. The dress seemed to know that and accentuated those curves to great effect. She'd chosen her own underwear and her breath caught at the thought of him seeing them. It wasn't anybody's business, but she'd often taken to wearing rather promiscuous underwear under her robes, simply because Robes felt so boring sometimes.
It was often the only way she could make herself feel a little feminine.
A knock at the door put her heart in her throat and she looked at herself once more. Nodding and with bated breath, she walked to the door, ignoring the shocked gasps and took a deep breath. She reached out, already smiling and pulled open the door, turning at the last moment as one of the Portraits called out her name.
She coughed as a cloud of something covered her face. She blinked, feeling the grittiness in her eyes and as she tried to blink it away, the whole room spun.
"What?"
"Time to go, Headmistress," a voice she wasn't expecting said into her ear. "I've waited long enough, wouldn't you say? I'd rather have you before that asshole does."
"Minerva!"
"No," she muttered, trying to step away, towards Albus' voice. Her bare feet felt heavy. She'd left her wand on her desk. "No, I -"
"Night night!"
The world went dark.