1st July 1967

Grumbling darkly to herself, Minerva tried in vain to look less ruffled. Rubbing her eyes several times she hurried to the door, which someone had been banging on only moments before. Swinging it open perhaps a little too viciously as the person on the other side of it jumped, Minerva came face to face with Pomona Sprout.

"Minerva," Pomona said hurriedly, not wasting any time to apologise for the lateness of the hour. "A student was caught out of bed by Apollyon an hour ago. The student, Weasley, is in the hospital wing now. Apollyon took it upon himself to give the boy a punishment," Pomona finished looking significantly at Minerva.

Minerva blinked several times before the information sunk in. Clenching her fists until her nails dug deep into her skin, Minerva jerked her head forwards, "Is Albus up?"

"Yes and he is furious. I wouldn't be surprised if Apollyon is packing his bags this very moment," answered Pomona her eyes darting from side to side as if checking to see whether Apollyon was not standing with them in the corridor.

Minerva sighed, "I think it likely, he has had it coming all year… Anyway, was that the sole reason you woke me up for or do I need to go to the Hospital Wing?" asked Minerva in a hushed tone trying but failing to keep the irritation from her voice. Not only had sleep been very scarce these past few weeks thanks to exams but on top of that, this was the fifth or sixth time in the last few days that she had been awoken in the middle of the night because of a student being caught out of bed.

Pomona grimaced and nodded her head.

"Very well, thank you for telling me, Pomona… Hang on," Minerva frowned suddenly, "did you say Weasley was the one caught out of bounds?"

"From what I heard it was Weasley," answered Pomona, screwing up her eyes as though trying to remember.

"Oh for heaven's sake," muttered Minerva more to herself than anybody else. "Thank you, Pomona. I'll see you at breakfast."

"Goodnight, Minerva. I do hope you manage to get some sleep afterwards. Merlin knows we all need it after this year."

"Quite right," whispered Minerva, shutting the door of her room and starting her walk towards the Hospital Wing.

As she walked down the dark hallways only illuminated by the moon shining brilliantly in the sky, Minerva's mind – now a little more awake – was at work. She was very surprised that it was Arthur Weasley who had been caught out of bed and not Bellatrix Black, the person whom she had truthfully been expecting. Black had been caught out of bed several times with a few younger students such as Lucius Malfoy. No teacher had ever discovered what they were doing, however; it wasn't a secret to anybody that many Slytherin's had formed a group whose participants were not too kind towards muggleborns.

Unlike Arthur, Bellatrix was a provocative and cruel student, traits which shadowed her extreme abilities and talents. Arthur Weasley, on the other hand, was a hardworking, kind boy whom Minerva was quite proud of. Starting off as quite shy he had now come out of his cocoon and had made many new friends during his time at Hogwarts. Minerva was proud of all of her Gryffindors and many of her students, however, during her long career at Hogwarts she was always very happy to see the talented, hardworking and loyal students leave the school. Weasley was one of those pupils and she was excited to see what he would be doing in the future.

It was not long before she found herself outside the Hospital Wing. Taking a deep breath and trying to not look as tired as she felt, Minerva pushed the doors open making sure to close them as quietly as possible when she had walked through them. Striding down the dark room, she passed Weasley's bed, the occupant of which sleeping soundly in it.

Feeling a little jealous of him, Minerva tried resolutely not to think of her own bed in her private quarters. On the one hand she was happy that his injuries were not bad enough to prevent him from sleeping, however, on the other hand, she was slightly miffed that she had been woken up at four o'clock and would probably stay awake until morning, whilst Weasley was able to sleep soundly in a comfortable bed until breakfast time.

Finally reaching a door at the end of the Ward, Minerva knocked three times and waited. The curtains were pulled closed, however; the lace curtains were shining yellow meaning that the Matron was awake.

It was not long before the door was pulled open and Madame Lynch's tired and lined faced appeared through the small crack between the door and its frame. "Ah, Minerva," she said opening the door a little wider, "Pomona told me you were coming."

"I wanted to check on Weasley," Minerva replied, briefly turning around to check on the Gryffindor as though trying to prove her point.

"Hm. He was in a right state when we found him," muttered Madame Lynch, folding her arms and then unfolding them just as quickly, "Sorry, do you want to come in?" she asked, shaking herself and looking a tad ashamed at being so rude.

"Thank you," answered Minerva, who then proceeded to step into the small, circular room

Shuffling about, the other woman gave a flick of her wand freeing a chair from a stack of parchment probably half her size.

"I am sorry for the mess," said Elizabeth, frowning and giving an apologetic smile to Minerva, "It's the end of the year so I need to sort through all of their files," she chuckled, albeit weakly, giving a slight nod of the head towards the Hospital Wing where Weasley lay asleep explaining that 'their' meant the students files.

"I hope you will finish by the end of the year. We all need to take advantage of our break, you in particular after all of the students who have managed to break bones or half-transform themselves this year," Minerva replied, taking a seat on the hard, wooden, straight back chair Elizabeth had provided for her.

"Not to mention those who had been hexed and cursed by others," added Madame Lynch solemnly, arching an eyebrow and also taking a seat in her desk chair opposite Minerva's.

Minerva pursed her lips in reply. It was true that this particular year had been a horrible one. Insults flying around the school, muggleborns being hexed, cursed and attacked in the corridors… Minerva had actually been looking forward to the holidays, which was a new feeling altogether. Never, for all the 19 years she had been at Hogwarts, had she ever wished for the holidays to come quickly. However, this year was different and Minerva longed to go back to Caithness and see her parents, brothers, nieces and nephews without always worrying that someone was being attacked in the corridors.

After a few minutes silence where the tick of the clock was very audible and the snoring of the students in the Hospital Wing's beds outside was envious, Elizabeth finally spoke, "I've given him a Sleeping Draught so you won't be getting anything from him until breakfast but I know a little more about what happened to him than Pomona and since you are his Head of House it is best you know everything now."

Minerva nodded.

The matron folded her hands on her lap, however, not before she had vigorously rubbed her eyes trying to stop them from slowly drooping every so often. "Now, I can't tell you why he was out of bed at three in the morning, however, I do know that he was not alone. I don't think he was planning on doing something against the rules," said Elizabeth hurriedly when she saw Minerva's eyebrows raise so high they disappeared behind her hair. "But he was still up to something. Anyway, according to Dumbledore, Apollyon found Weasley and the other person walking outside on the grounds. Naturally, both of the two students tried to run but Weasley was caught by Apollyon who then brought the boy back to his office and… Well, anyway, Dumbledore, as always, was down in the kitchens and on his way back up he heard some… noise coming from Apollyon's office. He decided to go inside and discovered Weasley semi-conscious. Weasley was then brought to me and Albus told me he would deal with Apollyon," finished Elizabeth, pursing her lips significantly, marking the end of her story.

"How bad were his injuries?" asked Minerva.

"Bad enough for him to be forced to stay here for the night," answered Elizabeth.

Minerva nodded and once again the two fell into another deadly silence. When one student gave a particularly loud snore and Minerva's eyes started to slowly droop, Minerva sniffed loudly and stood up.

"Thank you, Elizabeth for filling in the gaps for me. I'll try and get some more information out of him however, there are only two more days until the summer holidays so I'm not sure if we could do anything about it now," she said, walking towards the door.

"All right then, Minerva. Sleep well if you can and I will see you tomorrow," waved Elizabeth, attempting to smile but yawning instead.

"Goodnight," whispered Minerva, so as not to wake any of the sleeping students.

As she walked down the deserted corridors, Minerva thought of perhaps checking up on her Gryffindors since she was out of bed. However, she decided otherwise and instead spent the rest of her walk thinking of the best way to skewer Weasley the next day for having ruined what would have been her best night's sleep that year.