15th February 1973

Minerva stifled a yawn and rubbed her eyes tiredly. She had hardly slept all night, no thanks to the dreadful cold she had managed to contract whilst in Caithness. However, with the end of the year fast approaching, she could not let the Order, Dumbledore and least of all her cold get in the way of her work and students.

Nevertheless, she had to admit that the constant Order meetings, which had lately become more frequent, and her lengthy night-time talks with Albus had started to take there tall on her. It did not help that her father's health was quickly deteriorating which, along with all the other things that weighed down on her mind, made her feel constantly worried thus worsening her already bad sleeping habits.

Reshuffling her stack of unmarked homework, Minerva tried to push her dark thoughts away by checking her watch for the umpteenth time that evening. Giving an impatient sigh, she could no longer conceal her irritation at the young third year she had given a detention to that morning, who was now nearly 15 minutes late. Standing up abruptly, she contemplated going to see Professor Slughorn and report the student to him. However, just as she was about to leave, there was a loud knock on the door and the short third year entered, a pink flower barrette in her mousy hair.

'Ms Umbridge, you are a quarter of an hour late. Explain yourself!'

The girl gave a simpering smile. 'Why Professor McGonagall, I thought you said to be at your office at 8.15pm?'

Minerva pursed her lips. 'I said eight o'clock sharp-'

'Well I must have misheard you,' interrupted the student.

If it had not been so late and Minerva so tired, she probably would have told Umbridge off for her lack of respect. However, it was 8.30pm and Minerva just wanted to get this over with. Going back to her desk, she gestured at the girl to follow her.

'The essay you handed in the day before yesterday on Gamp's law is almost identical to Lucius Malfoy's. Would you care to explain why this is?' Minerva flicked through her stack of marked papers and retrieved Ms Umbridge's one. 'I do not want to give you a zero on your essay; however, this is the second time that your work has resembled another student's.'

'I'm afraid I don't know what you are talking about, Professor,' answered Umbridge, a malicious gleam in her eyes.

'I do not like being lied to!' Minerva said flatly. 'As I said, I do not want to give you a zero, however, if you don't tell me why you did this then you will leave me with no choice.' When Umbridge did not speak Minerva continued. 'If it was a matter of time and you could not write an essay in the time I had given you then you should have talked to me before Wednesday. If you did it because you did not or do not understand the topic then you should have talked to me after class, again, before the due date!'

When Umbridge gave no indication that she was going to justify her actions, Minerva felt her irritation grow. 'I would like you to re-write this essay and give it to me by Friday, else I will give you a zero. In the next 10 minutes I would like you to write a plan of your essay and then for the remainder 20 minutes I will review your work and we will discuss your plan. Understand?'

'Why of course, Professor,' said Umbridge sweetly, already moving along to the desk directly facing Minerva's.

The rest of the detention past quickly, and Minerva was pleased when Umbridge was dismissed and she could finally go back to her private quarters, undisturbed by anyone.

However, as she rounded the last corner to her quarters, she walked straight into Dumbledore who like her, had been lost in his own thoughts, unaware of the world around him.

'Goodness gracious, Albus!' exclaimed Minerva, clutching his chest. 'You gave me a fright!'

Dumbledore righted his glasses, which had slipped down his nose, his eyebrows raised slightly in surprise. 'I have to admit Minerva that I did not expect to see anybody on my way up.' He smiled and Minerva noticed that it did not quite reach his eyes.

'Neither did I.' Minerva smiled back, however, a small frown had started to appear on her forehead. She noticed that he was wearing a travelling cloak and, despite his attempts to look cheerful, looked tired and possibly sad. Her frown deepening Minerva asked, 'Where have you been?'

'I could ask you the same, my dear.'

Minerva fought hard not to roll her eyes. 'I have just had a conversation with Ms Umbridge about her work lately. I gave her a detention you see. How about you?'

'There were some delicate matters I had to attend to.'

Dumbledore smiled again but Minerva was not fooled. She opened her mouth to ask more on the matter, however, closed her mouth almost immediately. Having known Albus for as long as she had, she knew there was no point trying to get information he didn't want to give, out of him.

She shrugged. 'Well, I hope you sorted them out.' She patted him lightly on the arm, 'Goodnight Albus.'

Dumbledore bowed low, 'And to you, my dear.'

A little bemused at this little meeting, Minerva shook her heads and continued down the corridor, her mind mulling over the strange encounter. It was not until she was safely in bed, did she stop thinking of Dumbledore's recent strange behaviour and fell into a dreamless sleep.

Finished correcting all my chapters! Yay for me! :) Have a great day! :) It would be amazing if you could tell me what you think so far!