Part Five
Sunday morning was warm and clear, without a trace of the storm that had ravaged the night before. The sun was rising over Cornwall and McGonagall and Snape were beginning to stir.
"What time is it?" she yawned sleepily.
"Try looking at your watch," he muttered, rubbing his neck. "I'm sorry, but I cannot sleep down here again tonight!"
"Yes you can, I can turn it into a bed for you." He started at her dumbstruck.
"Would it not have made sense to do that last night?"
"It was late and there was lightning! I didn't think!"
"Obviously," he teased and she hit him with a pillow.
"Do you have any muggle money?" she asked.
"Why? I never had you down as the gold digging sort." She tutted.
"It's just, I don't have any, and as well as forgetting to mention there was only one bed, Dumbledore conveniently forgot there was only enough food here for one meal, all of which we ate last night." He yawned.
"I have a muggle cash card for a bank account in which I have £10.00. That's just about enough for me, so what're you going to do?" she hit him with a pillow again, closely followed by five others.
Hermione and Harry were hiding in an empty classroom, talking in hushed voices. Ron had gone into Hogsmede with the twins, but Hermione had feigned a headache and asked Harry to stay with her, giving them much needed time to talk. Harry had filled her in on everything he knew, up to the time where Snape had asked him to take the potion to make sure he didn't let anything slip. He had briefly considered that maybe he should have taken the potion, but dismissed the thought with the realisation that Snape was probably just looking for an excuse to poison him. Hermione looked disgusted.
"I…I can't believe it," she muttered softly. "Why would she-why would anyone…" she didn't have to finish her sentence, Harry felt the same way.
"Don't take it so hard Herm," Harry sympathised. "I mean, we all know you're madly in love with McGonagall and all, but-"
"I am not!" she shrieked, hitting him playfully.
"Oh don't deny it, we've all seen the way you look at her!" he teased as she chased him around the classroom.
"I'm about as much in love with her as I am with you!" she was laughing hard, and, diving and grabbing Harry round the waist, she knocked him to the floor and pinned him down.
"Yep, and we all know that after McGonagall I'm your next biggest obsession!" Now both were in hysterics and Hermione had tears streaming down her face at their compromising position. Neither of them had noticed Draco Malfoy slip into the classroom, regarding them both with disdain as Harry tried to kiss Hermione teasingly. But they both heard when he spoke.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Potty and the Mudblood getting off on the floor of an empty classroom. What will people think?"
"Malfoy, you know we were messing around!" Harry snarled as he stood.
"Do I?" the look on his face was pure evil. "Even if I did know that, no-one else is going to. Not the way I'm gonna tell them, anyway."
"You wouldn't!" Hermione cried.
"I will," he smirked. "Just watch me."
"Fine, you go ahead. See if anyone will believe you, which I sincerely doubt!" harry stormed.
"You're delusional Potter, you know everyone's going to believe me, you might as well just accept it. Or it'll just be worse when you realised that the entire student body is laughing at you!" And with that, he turned on his heel and stormed out, leaving both Harry and Hermione feeling distinctly sick.
"Ugh-I think I ate too much, I can't move!" Minerva laughed contentedly; and, leaning back to rest against the bottom of the sofa, she closed her eyes and let her head rest on Serverus's knee.
"Tell me about it, I don't think I can put my plate down, let alone stand up!" he moaned comfortably as he unwillingly placed his plate on the floor.
"You know, it's been seventeen years since I last ate a chip shop meal in the muggle world, and they're still exactly the same. Full of fat and extremely addictive." She observed shrewdly.
"Well they've got to be haven't they? What with the bloody extortionist prices they charge for them."
"Don't moan," she murmured. "It does out me off you so."
"Well the whole fear of lightning thing kinda puts me off you, but you don't hear me complaining do you?"
"Okay, what the hell is wrong with having a fear of lightning? It's not even that rare a phobia, I mean, you said so yourself that your little sister was scared of the same thing!"
"Yes, but I have hordes of sisters, so it could be a rare phobia for all you know," he teased, winding her up.
"Hordes of sister? I never even pictured you with parents to be quite honest. How many do you have?"
"Seven," her eyes widened a little. "And five brothers. My mother had a thing about proving she wasn't superstitious. She head thirteen children and a house full of broken mirrors."
"Didn't it get annoying, having to share with so many other kids?" he started to reply, but paused.
"You were an only child weren't you?" she nodded. "It's fairly obvious you were. I used to love having a big family, there was never a dull moment!" she laughed.
"Okay, carry on talking like that and I may end up thinking that, underneath the Grim Reaper like exterior, you're just a family man a heart."
"Maybe I am," he said, with an unfamiliar twinkle in his eye. "Maybe I really love all children and the only reason I'm so strict with them is so as to hide my inside vulnerability." She snorted with laughter.
"Yeah, and You Know Who is about to start handing out sweets to children in prams!"