A/N: I know, I know, it's not Secrets and Lies and Birds of Fire, but it is Secrets...Okay, that wasn't funny. But I am working on that. We are very close now precious-es.

This is a sweet, but weird, one that came to me like a fever-dream. So just roll with it. I enjoyed it, at any rate. I hope you do too! I, once again, am going to just post the whole lot day by day - there are 8 chapters so see you every day for the next week and a smidge.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

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Hermione held her breath as she watched this mystery woman pull herself up, onto Minerva McGonagall's desk. Hermione had been sitting in the Transfiguration classroom consulting some of Minerva's books for her homework when the door had opened. Hermione had immediately Disillusioned herself, knowing she was technically breaking the rules but instead of Minerva, as she'd expected, it was a woman she'd never seen before. Minerva McGonagall stepped into the classroom barely three minutes later. Hermione didn't dare even open her mouth in case the woman heard her heart beating in her throat. Minerva's hearing was legendary and Hermione had always wondered whether it was due to her Animagus transformations or just good or, as sometimes was the case, bad luck.

The woman Hermione didn't know was sitting demurely on Minerva's desk, her legs crossed showing a split in her robes that went up to her thigh. Minerva stood at the door, staring. It was so bizarre that Hermione could only stare as well. That someone, this mystery woman, would be so bold to actually sit on Minerva's desk, let alone so brazenly. Hermione really had no idea what was going on.

"Come here," the woman demurred.

Nobody ever told Minerva McGonagall what to do but Minerva went and as Hermione watched, she fell into this woman's arms. Hermione bit her lip until it bled as they kissed deeply, messily, desperately. Hermione had never seen such a thing and though a part of her wanted to turn away, she couldn't. Minerva McGonagall was snogging this mystery woman, on her desk, in her classroom and it was utterly enchanting.

The woman undid Minerva's robes and pushed them off her shoulders. Hermione really did close her eyes then but cracked them open after one of them chuckled. Thank Merlin they were wearing clothes. She continued to watch as Minerva slowly undid the woman's robes and looked properly at her Transfiguration professor as she'd never seen her before. She had a much slimmer body than Hermione had ever noticed and as Minerva returned the favour to the woman, pushing the robes off her shoulders, Hermione noticed that while she had rounder hips, she was still trim and fit, nonetheless. If Hermione looked half as good as either woman when she was Minerva's age, she would have nothing to be upset about.

"I've been waiting for you for ages," the unknown woman whined. Hermione closed her eyes again and then decided that was much worse.

"You have been here for, at most, three whole minutes," Minerva chuckled, pushing the woman's hair over her shoulder. "And you know I have duties to perform."

"Hmm," she muttered as Minerva nuzzled her neck. "To your wife of exactly twenty-three years," the woman hissed as Minerva bit down on her collarbone.

Hermione made one of the biggest mistakes of her life and gasped as her brain processed that information. Both women stopped and stood. They looked around the classroom wearing identical scowls.

"You did lock the door, right?" the woman asked.

"Kathrine," Minerva scoffed. "Of course I did."

"I do like it when you call me by my full name. Makes me feel like a naughty schoolgirl."

Minerva groaned and had Hermione been clever enough to have silenced herself already, she would have done the same. Minerva took one more look around the classroom and pecked this Katherine's lips. She turned away and walked back to the door. Hermione desperately fired an Alohamora at it, in the hope of making it seem like Minerva had left it unlocked and someone had poked their head in. Minerva reached for the handle and stared as it opened. Hermione sagged and thanked her good aim. Minerva turned back to Katherine with a sheepish smile.

"Ah," she mused as she closed it.

"Merlin, Min," Katherine giggled. "That's that argument over, then. Take me home, wife. I'm ready to celebrate our anniversary and I'm not interested in waiting a moment longer."

Hermione just stared as Minerva locked the door and laughed joyously - in a way that Hermione had certainly never heard - as she slid back between Katherine's thighs. Dainty feet locked behind Minerva's bottom and Minerva picked her wife up off the desk and disappeared through a door at the back of the room. Hermione finally let out a sigh of relief and realised she'd been holding her breath. She waited just a moment to make sure they weren't about to burst back into the classroom and then raced back to the Common Room.

Her essay could wait. She didn't need that book, she didn't need the extra information. She gathered her things from the table in front of the fire and rushed upstairs to her room, dropping the papers by the bed, putting on her pyjamas and sliding under the covers. It was there that she laughed, hysterically at first and then genuinely for a good fifteen minutes.

Minerva McGonagall. Had a wife?

She shook her head at the ridiculousness of Hogwarts as a whole. That one of the most misunderstood teachers, a woman who was famed for her solitary ways, was married. And for more than twenty years! She chuckled a few more times and fell silent as she considered her next move. Ginny would have used the information to invent salacious rumours that would crescendo up and down the school. It was the one thing about Ginny that Hermione didn't really like. Harry probably would have completely broken down every time he saw Minerva and Ron would have passed out on the spot - she sneered - or worse.

She wasn't really sure what Hermione would do. That, in part, was why she agreed to come back to Hogwarts when Minerva asked her. Hermione Granger was all alone in the world and she had no real place in it either. She was figuring out who she was, in the safety of the only home she'd ever known in the Wizarding World, but it was slow going. At every turn, she felt the need to be better than she was, to do more things than everyone else. She was desperate to receive as many official papers to say she belonged as she could get her hands on.

Now, however, she was an unofficial secret keeper. Not that she minded. Hermione loved Minerva McGonagall in a way that she'd only ever reserved for her parents. Minerva had looked out for her at every turn, but especially after her parent's departure had come to light. Minerva had been the first person on her doorstep, the first one inside the completely empty house. She'd held Hermione when she broke down and cried and then, Minerva had stayed for three days, camping out on Hermione's bedroom floor with her before persuading her to come back to Hogwarts.

In all that time, she'd had a wife waiting at home. It was humbling.

People often teased her that she must have a crush on Minerva McGonagall. She was easy prey, after all. The teacher's 'pet'. She was used to those comments after so long, but as they'd aged and everything had turned sexual, some of the more nasty ones had turned her nose up.

Was she gay? Yes, she was actually. Were the women who caught her eye similar to Minerva McGonagall? She wasn't sure. She'd been out with a total of two girls her whole life. One as a dare on the last day of primary school, that hadn't really counted, and one during the summer of their fifth year. Melissa had been fun, if quiet, and Hermione cherished those memories for the rest of that year as the last 'normal' thing she'd done in her life.

One thing she did know was that she didn't have a crush on Minerva McGonagall, no matter what everyone else muttered under their breath. What she felt for Minerva was deeper. In fact, it was more like a deep and soul-binding, platonic, love. The kind that develops when a person takes such good and kind care of a person that they cannot help but love them in return.

And yes, of course, she knew that Minerva only presented a version of herself, even to her. She'd wager that she'd seen more of Minerva's real personality, but she'd wager more that the only person who perhaps knew her properly was the wife. But never, in any of the times she'd sat in Minerva's sitting room - in Minerva's private rooms - had she noticed evidence of a wife.

She shook her head and sighed.

She felt the need to thank Minerva for all she'd done and once she'd done that, she decided that she wouldn't intrude on her life anymore. Life had been hard for all of them. The woman deserved some time. Resolving to think about it more in the morning, Hermione rolled over and was asleep before she'd even had a chance to pull the covers up to her chin.