~~ Chapter Thirteen: Another Unexpected Twist ~~
"… in an old castle on the banks of Loch Lomond. The cause of death appears to be a severe mauling by an unidentified creature, possibly a werewolf. It is unclear who will take over the position of Minister of Magic, but names on the short list include Albus Dumbledore, Meredith Longbottom, Tony Clearwater, Arthur Weasley, and Eko Chang. Until one has been decided upon, Chang is acting as interim Minister."
Oliver Wood set his copy of the Daily Prophet down and looked at his three companions. "Can you believe this?"
"Tell me about it," Hermione Granger said. "Who would try to kill Fudge?"
"Someone didn't try to kill Fudge," Ron Weasley pointed out. "Someone did kill Fudge."
"Ron," groaned Harry Potter, rolling his green eyes, "we know that."
Ron poked his Divination book with his finger. "Oh."
The four Gryffindors were studying in the library – well, at any rate, studying was what they planned on doing. Then Oliver opened his newspaper and saw the headline on the front page: Minister of Magic Found Dead in Scotland, and studying quickly dropped back on their list of priorities. They didn't know what to make of this event, but they knew it would reshape the wizarding world.
"Do you think Dumbledore will become the new Minister of Magic?" asked Hermione. "He was offered the position before Fudge, you know, but turned it down so he could be Headmaster here."
"He did it before, he'll probably do it again," said Oliver. "Fudge has been Minister for a long time, as long as Dumbledore's been Headmaster here. All that experience erased in a few seconds won't be easily replaced, not even by Dumbledore. My money's on Eko Chang personally, but I wouldn't be surprised if your father got it, Ron."
"What I want to know," Ron said, "is how some creature killed Fudge in the first place."
Three pairs of eyes stared at him.
"Well, think about it," he continued. "Fudge is one of the most powerful wizards in the world. I mean, couldn't he have Apparated or something?
"That's a good point," said Harry.
"That is a good point," Oliver agreed.
"Yeah," said Hermione.
Ron nodded. "I thought so, too."
"Me, too," added a voice from behind.
The four of them turned around to see who had spoken. Harry was the first one to match the grey-eyed, blonde-haired face to a name, and unable to control himself, he leapt up out of his chair and threw his arms around the other boy in a zealous display of joyfulness. "Draco!" he cried, embracing his friend tightly.
Draco winced, and Harry remembered his injuries. "Sorry," he said, letting go and taking a step back.
Draco smiled and rubbed his rib cage. "Good to see you, too, Harry."
"Welcome back, Malfoy," Oliver said, unable to hide the smile of delight on his face. "It's good to see you alive and well."
"Alive, anyway," Draco replied.
Even Ron and Hermione was having trouble refraining from smiling, but more so because Harry's actions were so entertaining than because they were glad to see Draco Malfoy. Draco spoke to them first. "Hi Ron, Hermione."
"Hello," the two of them replied in unison.
Draco sat down at their table between Harry and Oliver. To make room for their new companion, Oliver slid closer to Hermione. She didn't seem to mind much. "This news is going to have the whole world in a frenzy," Oliver said, getting back to Fudge's death.
"What was he doing in Scotland, anyway?" asked Draco.
Oliver checked the newspaper. "'Fudge received a letter from an unknown source that prompted him to go to Scotland. Ministry officials believe he was following a lead on…'"Here, he stopped, and stared at the page in confusion.
"A lead on what?" asked Ron.
Oliver collected himself and finished reading. "'… a lead on the recent massacre at Malfoy Manor, the residence of the eminent figure Lucius Malfoy and his family. Malfoy was away on a business trip at the time of the massacre and it is believed he is secure at the moment. Malfoy's son, Draco, was at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and is also confirmed alive. The current whereabouts of the two surviving Malfoys remains undisclosed for safety purposes.'" He set the newspaper down. "Do you think there's a connection between the attack and Fudge's death?"
Draco shrugged. "It's possible."
"Should we ask Dumbledore what's going on?" inquired Oliver.
"What are the odds that he'll tell us anything?" said Harry.
Hermione folded her arms across her chest and frowned. "Oh, right."
Just then, Harry had an idea. "Hey, Draco, what about your father? Do you think there's any way to pull information out of him?"
"Not unless you use a truth serum," was Draco's response. "He doesn't like to talk about things like that. Even if he did, you all know how good of a liar he is. He can lie without even realizing it; he's so used to doing it that it becomes a subconscious reaction."
"So what do we do?" Hermione asked. "Wait and see if anything turns up?"
Ron looked at Harry. "I have an idea, but only as a last resort." He leaned over and whispered his scheme into Harry's ear.
Harry cringed and stuck out his tongue. "No way, Ron. That's just wrong."
"I never said it would have to come to that," Ron said.
"I know," Harry responded, "but still… what if…?" He couldn't bring himself to finish the thought.
"What's your idea, Ron?" Oliver asked.
"No!" Ron said. "It's a bad idea. Forget I ever mentioned it."
"Well, it's bound to be better than anything else we have at this point," said Hermione, and Draco and Oliver nodded their heads in agreement. "Tell us."
"Now you've done it," groaned Harry, and covered his face with his hands.
Ron shifted uneasily in his chair. "Well, who does Dumbledore trust more than anyone else at Hogwarts?"
"Professor McGonagall," said Oliver almost immediately.
"Right," said Ron. "So, I was thinking that one of us could use Polyjuice Potion to change into McGonagall like Harry and I did that one time last year and find out that way. But forget it, that's not a good idea!"
Oliver and Hermione looked at each other, and Ron's heart sank when he saw that they were smiling. "Ron, that's absolutely brilliant," Hermione said. "We'll get started on it immediately! Now, who will go?"
"I think you'd make a good McGonagall, Hermione," Draco commented.
Hermione nodded. "Yes, I was thinking that, too. Okay, we'll need to start stewing the lacewing flies at once, and we'll need leeches, and knotgrass, and powdered bicorn horn… hey, do any of you know when the next full moon is?"
"Stop!" Harry cried.
Oliver, Hermione, and Draco all shot him surprised looks, as did several other students in the immediate vicinity. Harry's face reddened, and he lowered his voice down to a near whisper. "There's something you guys don't know about McGonagall," he said, and he relayed to them the events he and Ron witnessed under the invisibility cloak the night Ron lost his wand.
"Well, fancy that," Oliver said when Harry finished his story. "Yet another unexpected twist."
"Ooooh," Hermione cooed, "that is so sweet!"
"Yeah, it's sweet," said Harry, "but with that thought in mind, are you sure you still want to impersonate McGonagall?"
Hermione's blissful expression quickly vanished and was replaced by a look that suggested she had just eaten frog brains. "Ewwww!!!"
Ron laughed. "Not so cute anymore, huh?"
"It is," Hermione insisted. "I just think I'll leave that job to the real Professor McGonagall."
"All right, so ix-nay on the polymorphing," said Oliver. "Where does that leave us?"
Hermione put her elbows on the table and rested her chin in her hands. "Right back where we started."
Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape had agreed to take turns watching Alina Terringer as she recovered from her near-death experience. The Musical Enchantment instructor was still unconscious, but Madam Pomfrey and the rest of the medical staff assured everyone she was recovering well. At the moment, Snape was in his sixth-year Potions class and Lucius was sitting by Alina's bedside, once again attempting to make progress in Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
Reading provided little joy for him. His mind was too busy jumping from one thought to the next to concentrate on any single task. The event that kept coming up again and again was the death of Cornelius Fudge. Lucius had read the Daily Prophet that day, and although he usually kept his distance from that particular source of information, the news concerning Fudge's death worried him. According to the Prophet, Fudge was in Scotland investigating a lead on the massacre at Malfoy Manor. Why wasn't I informed?, Lucius wondered to himself. More importantly, what killed Fudge, and was it connected to the massacre at all?
Lucius closed his book and set it down. At this point, he was wondering if he would ever finish it. Reading was one of the few things that could calm him. If that couldn't provide tranquility for him, what would?
"Malfoy?"
Lucius jumped when he heard the voice of Alina Terringer. Her eyes were halfway open and fixed on him. "What happened?" she asked. "Where's Draco?"
"Draco is alive, thanks to you," Lucius replied. "He was released this morning."
A smile of contentment appeared on her face. "Thank goodness for that." She closed her eyes for a few seconds, then opened them again. "Why am I alive? I should be dead."
"I don't know much about what happened, but according to Dumbledore, you fainted before all of your life force could be transferred to Draco," Lucius explained. "Twenty-four hour medical surveillance and several batches of Severus's healing potion didn't hurt, either."
"Where is Severus?" she asked.
Lucius felt a twinge in his stomach. He didn't know why, but hearing her refer to Snape by his first name made him feel uneasy. "Right now, probably instructing the sixth-years on how to make memory potions."
"There is something troubling you," she said. "What is it?"
"Nothing," he insisted, a little too quickly.
Alina's honey-colored eyes seemed to stare straight into his soul, and he couldn't hold his composure under her gaze. "All right!" he finally blurted out. "Cornelius Fudge's body was found yesterday in a castle at Loch Lomond." That wasn't a complete lie; he was concerned about Fudge's death, but it wasn't all he was thinking about.
A small gasp escaped her lips, and her eyes grew wide. "What happened?"
"According to the Daily Prophet, he received an anonymous letter that claimed someone had information for him regarding…" His eyes fell, and he bit his lip, unable to continue.
"Regarding what?"
"The massacre at Malfoy Manor."
Alina closed her eyes and shook her head slightly. "This is horrible," she said. "Have they appointed a new Minister of Magic yet?"
"Eko Chang is the interim Minister," Lucius answered. "The other possibilities are Dumbledore, Meredith Longbottom, Tony Clearwater, and Arthur Weasley."
Alina couldn't help noticing the contempt in his voice as he spoke Arthur Weasley's name, but she knew this was not the time or the place to bring that up. Instead, she asked if a cause of death had been determined.
"They don't know for certain, but right now, the popular theory is werewolf," he said in response to her question.
"How long have I been unconscious?" she asked.
He counted off the days in his mind. "Three days."
"There was a full moon exactly one week from yesterday, then," she said. "When was Fudge killed?"
Lucius was beginning to see where she was going with this. "He was alive two days ago," he said. "So that means it couldn't have been a werewolf."
"Exactly."
"But if it wasn't a werewolf, then what was it?"
"You're asking the wrong person, Mr. Malfoy."
"Sorry," he apologized.
"Don't worry about it."
It was a fairly neutral conversation, Lucius was surprised to discover. In their last conversation, they even found some common ground. Maybe he could learn to get along with this woman after all. Everyone else, including his son, seemed to admire her, even though she was a Muggle-born. Snape's ultimatum ran through his mind again: "If you don't make a move soon, someone else will." Part of him wanted to, but common sense told him that idea was ludicrous. He was a pureblood, and a Malfoy at that. It wouldn't work. It just wouldn't.
Lucius rose to his feet. "I will inform Severus that you are awake."
Alina blinked in acknowledgement and nodded her head slightly. "Hurry back."
Had he not been in such a hurry to leave the room so she wouldn't notice his slightly flushed look after she spoke those words, he would have seen the warm smile that appeared on her face as she watched him go.
"… Fudge is dead. The Ministry has been weakened. We are vulnerable."
Albus Dumbledore was in a frenzy over the death of the Minister of Magic, and justifiably so, too. Minerva McGonagall was trying her best to calm him down, but having little success. After dinner, the two went to Dumbledore's office to discuss the incident, and he had been ranting and raving about it for almost ten minutes straight. Minerva finally gave up on that task, though, and let the headmaster finish out his rant.
Dumbledore sighed and sat down in a chair next to the one she was seated in. "I don't know what to do about this, Minerva," he admitted. "I am at my wit's end."
Minerva wanted to say something, but none of the words that came to her mind seemed appropriate. "We can't give up," she finally said. "We cannot let this enemy, whoever he is, think a few hits will destroy us."
"Fudge was investigating a lead on the Malfoy massacre," Dumbledore said. "Whatever killed him must be connected to that incident somehow." Unable to sit anymore, he stood up and started pacing back and forth. "Fudge was mauled by some sort of creature. They seem to think it's a werewolf. A creature left claw marks on the trees and nearly shredded up Hagrid's door. The prime suspect in that is also a werewolf. Could the Malfoys have been attacked by a werewolf, too?"
"The marks Hagrid found were much too big to be a werewolf," Minerva replied.
"All right, so it's a very large werewolf…"
"Albus, sit down. You're making me dizzy."
He didn't sit down, but he did stop his pacing. "Maybe I'm just going crazy," he said.
Minerva stood and walked over to him. "You're not crazy," she assured him, taking his hand. "Times like these would make anyone behave a little on edge."
Dumbledore smiled at her and drew her into his arms. "Where would I be without you, Minerva?" he asked, kissing her on the forehead.
She didn't answer. Minerva rested her head on his chest, and for a few moments, they were as statues, silent and motionless. It was Dumbledore who eventually broke the silence by whispering those three words that were so simple, and yet so profound. "I love you."
Minerva lifted her head to kiss him on the cheek, then returned it to its previous position. "And I love you," she replied.
Dumbledore's mind drifted back to when he first met Minerva. He was the Transfiguration instructor, and she was the bright young student who took to the subject like a moth to flame and quickly became his prodigy. The two formed a friendship that was considered by some to be inappropriate between student and teacher, mostly because they were so comfortable working together and the undeniable fact that Minerva was a very attractive young woman. She had been stunning in her youth, and even now, over seventy years old, she still retained much of her original beauty, at least in his mind. After graduating from Hogwarts, Minerva, at his encouragement, went away to study to become an Animagus. They wrote to each other often, all the while making sure to keep their relationship at a strictly platonic level to avoid scandal. She got a job at the Ministry of Magic, and after Dumbledore became headmaster, he could think of no one better to take over the vacant position of Transfiguration instructor than Minerva McGonagall. Once again, they were working together.
Then, a little over two weeks ago, it finally happened. He wasn't quite sure how – it all happened so quickly. They were going over what they knew about the attack at Malfoy Manor when Minerva dropped her pen and they both bent over to pick it up. Their fingers touched, their eyes locked, and before he knew it, he was kissing her. Even now, neither one was sure how it happened. It just… did.
Dumbledore was old, over a hundred and fifty years, and he didn't know how much longer he would be around. If only he had confessed his love for her years ago! They would have been able to spend much more time together. But there was no use dwelling on the past. The future was all that mattered, and he knew what he had to do.
"Minerva," he whispered, "I don't know how much time I have left in this world, but I do know that if I can spend it with you, my life will be complete." He held her at an arm's length and looked deep into her dark eyes. "Will you marry me?"
In her heart, Minerva had entertained thoughts of this moment, but she never seriously thought it would happen. All she wanted to do was cry out, "Yes", but the power of speech had left her. Finally, she gave up on a verbal response and kissed him.
"Is that a yes?" Dumbledore asked when the kiss ended.
She laughed and kissed him again. "Yes, with all my heart, yes!"
A/N: Yes, I threw in some more OC's in this part… I needed some random high-ranking officials in the Ministry of Magic, and couldn't locate any in my sources. I tried to connect each of the three I made up to a student at Hogwarts. Meredith Longbottom is now Neville Longbottom's grandmother, Tony Clearwater is now Penelope Clearwater's uncle, and Eko (pronounced "echo", like the bouncing back of sound waves) Chang is now Cho Chang's father. (Hopefully you already know who Albus Dumbledore and Arthur Weasley are, ha ha) Fun stuff.
Some more quick notes to reviewers –
Aeryn Alexander – Thanks for all your reviews. And no, it wasn't wolves or werewolves… it was something else… *mad giggling* Hopefully these two chapters cleared up some of the Snape/Alina thing.
VoyICJ – Good news! Both Draco and Alina are awake! Yay! Hee hee… yes, lots of new questions, and even more on the way… And don't worry, there will be lots of AD/MM in the future. Originally, they weren't going to be as developped as they are, but they're so much fun to write that I just had to go into detail. ^_^
Auri – Yes, I am very evil. *bows* And yes, it will get much darker… the darkness is already starting to surface in this chapter, what with Fudge's death and all. I don't know if it'll get really dark anytime soon, though… there are a few romances I want to develop first. *laughs*
Jerrica – Yes, I did have you in mind when I wrote Oliver. ^_^ I think you two have a lot in common, ha ha.