Chapter 7

Minerva the cat yawned and rolled over on the great big waterbed in Nicole's bedroom. She was safe and warm in there as it was pouring with rain outside. Suddenly five house-elves appeared right before her eyes at the foot of the bed. Minerva froze. Maemae spoke very slowly. "We come in peace" she said, with a hint of anxiety in her voice. Minerva had blocked out the magical world from her mind for a few months now and seeing these house-elves was a great shock to her. She recoiled and hid herself under some fluffy pillows on the bed. "Master needs you m'ame!" piped up Faere, a petite house-elf with thick black hair and tiny ears. Merri nodded slowly. "We all need you" she said quietly and snapped her fingers. A magical screen appeared in mid air. The house elves watched as Minerva crept from the safety of the pillows and focused her eyes on the screen. She saw Dumbledore announcing to the school that she had left. Minerva felt awful. Then she saw her first year transfiguration class in tears as Professor Spleen was being horrible to them and teaching them nonsense. Minerva suddenly felt an urge to jump out and take over the class. Then she remembered it was just a mirage before her. The next scene she saw was Dumbledore sitting at his desk talking to Fawkes. "Whatever should I do?" he asked the bird. "I cannot decide when Minerva is not here". Minerva was intrigued. What had happened at Hogwarts while she had been away? She wondered. Finally the last scene Minerva saw was her replacement Verity Spleen wearing heavy makeup and a plunging neckline sitting at her desk in her office writing with her quill. Minerva was furious! "Who does she think she is!" she cried. Then Maemae gently reminded her Professor Spleen was the only replacement teacher Dumbledore could find on such short notice, seeing Minerva had run away.

The house-elves begged her to come back to Hogwarts. Minerva was worried that Dumbledore would be angry and the students would not be happy. She knew if she made the choice and decided to return to Hogwarts it would either turn out very good or very badly. Minerva hesitated. The house elves continued to plead with her and beg her to come with them. Minerva was still undecided. But before she knew what she was doing she had returned to Hogwarts within the blink of an eye with the elves and was now sitting in cat form in the kitchens. Two elves rushed up to her and held out huge platters full of food. Minerva thanked them and tucked in. When she had finished Maemae tapped her on the shoulder and nodded. "M'ame, Tis time that you transfigure yourself into a person once again". She said gently.

Minerva stood up and prepared to transfigure. She knew she would not be looking her best after living as a cat for a few months but did not mind. As soon as she had transfigured Minerva looked down and was shocked to see how tall she was. After all, she had been only a few inches from the ground when she was in cat form. She saw her robes were all ragged and scruffy and her hair was a mess. Nevertheless she was somewhat glad to be back in her old body again. "Well, I better clean myself up!" She said hastily, heading for the door. Just then it swung open and Minerva was faced with none the other than Professor Dumbledore. He looked shocked to see her. Minerva smiled weakly. "Um, surprise!" she said timidly. Professor Dumbledore was lost for words. He stared at her dirt streaked face and torn robes. Minerva blushed. "Uh, the house elves brought me back" she said pointing in their direction, as if she was trying to lay the blame on them. Dumbledore's expression remained blank. The silence was awkward. "Um, I better clean myself up then" said Minerva softly. She headed past Dumbledore and out into the corridor, fighting back tears.

Minerva and Dumbledore sat in silence face to face. She could feel his penetrating gaze upon her as they sat in the darkness of Dumbledore's office. The he spoke. "So you think everything can return to normal now?" Minerva raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" she asked, slightly confused. "What do I mean?" he cried, banging a fist on the desk. "Minerva, you vanished in the middle of the night! I didn't know what I had done wrong!" Dumbledore exclaimed. "Running away? What were you thinking! Here I was left to pick up the pieces and keep everything hushed up!" Minerva had never seen Dumbledore so worked up, yet she let him continue ranting. "And here I went and hired this.this lunatic as your replacement and she goes off and falls in love with Snape! Now here I am left to decide their punishment all by myself and I need you here to help me-but if it weren't for you running off in the first place Snape would have never met Spleen!" he spluttered.

Minerva narrowed her eyes. It was her turn for an outburst. "I thought you wanted me back!" she cried. "The house elves came and begged me to return. Otherwise I would have never thought twice about you Albus Dumbledore!" Dumbledore looked like he had just been slapped in the face. "So if this is the kind of welcome I get, well SCREW YOU DUMBLEDORE! I'm leaving!" Minerva stood up and stormed towards the door, shaking with fury. Dumbledore watched her go but made no effort to stop her. She slammed the door shut, so hard that a few paintings fell off the wall. Dumbledore sighed and looked into the hourglass sitting on his desk. He knew it was not her fault. He should not have started a fight. As Dumbledore watched the grains of sand slip through the hourglass he realised he had just let Minerva slip through his hands. Again.

Minerva was shaken. She allowed the tears to pour freely from her eyes. "Hell I've been crying a lot this year!" she thought to herself, slightly angry she had let herself become such a sook. She had nowhere to run this time. Through watery eyes it seemed the lamps lighting the hallway were laughing at her. She stared at the portraits on the walls. They were smirking at her from the safety of the canvas. Even the stairs seemed to be poking fun at her. As soon as Minerva began ascending the flight of steps to her old office they began to move. Minerva waited patiently for them to return to their old position but they did not budge. She sighed with fatigue and walked up onto the landing, where she sat down and rested her head in her hands. All of a sudden she felt the stairs slipping from underneath her. Minerva looked down to see the stairs moving back to their original position. She quickly stepped back onto safe ground but found herself being dragged along with the stairs. The hem of her robes had become caught in the banister of the moving staircase.

She tried to hang on to the railing of the moving stair but it was out of her reach. She was now hanging between the moving staircase and the landing, clutching the top of the staircase. She could hear her robe ripping and detaching themselves from the banister they had been caught on. Minerva was losing her grip on the slippery cold stone and before she knew what was happening she felt herself falling. It was as if she was a rock, plummeting to the ground, yet in slow motion. The world around her was a blur and she opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out. The portraits that surrounded her looked on in bewilderment. But they could not help her. Nobody could help her. She continued to fall. Minerva hit the cold stone floor with a sickening crunch. There she lay on the hard ground motionless. There she lay; dead.

Breakfast the following morning was a happy occasion for Fred who had been reunited with his friends and brothers. He told them his story and everyone was amazed Dumbledore had not punished him. Ron was thrilled that he had his brother back while George and Licce were relived he had not been reprimanded. They decided to scrap their plan and decided Dumbledore would deal with Professor Spleen anyway. The students were so cheerful that morning and wrapped up in their own affairs they failed to notice something was horribly wrong at the teachers table.

Argus Filch the caretaker was speaking to Professor Dumbledore. He seemed quite tense and his grimy face and hair was more dirty than usual. He did not tell Dumbledore what had happened at the table but he asked him to follow, as there was something he needed to see. Snape was looking at Filch inquisitively. He had heard the last part of their conversation and sensed there was something wrong. Filch noticed that Snape was eavesdropping. "You may as well come too" he growled. "Maybe there's a potion you have to fix this mess". Snape's face remained calm. Dumbledore was very curious and followed him immediately, and Snape followed him. Filch lead the Professors to a most deserted part of the castle which lay at the bottom of the great staircases. It was dusty and dark and filled with cobwebs. The only light to be seen was coming from a torch on the ground next to Mrs Norris; Filch's cat. She gave a great meow when she saw the men walking towards her.

Filch bent down to stroke her and picked up the torch. "I warn you men. This may come as a shock to you". Filch said gravely. He shone the flaming torch over the body of Professor McGonagall who lay motionless with her pale white face turned to the side. Her cold blue eyes were wide open and a look of terror was frozen on her stiff face. Dumbledore was aghast. Even Snape's cold face showed a look of surprise. None of them spoke. "I found her this morning." Filch said solemnly. "Mrs Norris knew something was up and she lead me here." Mrs Norris meowed again, and walked over to Professor McGonagall's body. She rubbed her face against the Professor's hand. Wild thoughts began running through Dumbledore's mind. "Had she killed herself? Right after we had that terrible argument! Had she slipped and fallen? Had somebody.pushed her?" His hands were trembling. Snape was extremely perplexed. "But why is Minerva here?" he asked. "I thought she had left Hogwarts, unless she has been here all along?" Filch nodded. "It is a mystery" he agreed.

Dumbledore raised his hands. "No, no" he said, shaking his head. "Minerva returned to Hogwarts last night" he said. Filch and Snape's eyes shot him looks of confusion. "She came to my office" Dumbledore continued. "She said that the house elves had found her and brought her back." Dumbledore struggled to continue. "Then we had an argument" he said, clearly distressed. "She stormed out and that was the last I saw of her." Dumbledore said dimly. Snape and Filch's eyes fell to the floor. "I suppose we can rule out the possibility of foul play then." Said Filch. Snape stepped towards Minerva and bent down to touch her neck. His expression remained grim. He stood up and faced Dumbledore and filch. "She isn't dead" he said. "What?" cried Dumbledore. "Don't play games with me boy!" he roared at Snape, while grabbing his collar. "Hey, hey calm down!" ordered Filch. Dumbledore released Snape from his grip. Snape did not take offence. He wore a bemused expression on his face. "I never thought we'd see the day" he said distantly. "Are you out of your mind!" barked Dumbledore. "Hey! Come on now." Said Filch. "Let's go to your office Severus and discuss this like civilised wizards!" Snape nodded. "And Minerva? Will we just leave her here!?" cried Dumbledore outraged. Snape glared at him and walked over to Professor McGonagall. He gently picked her up and carried her limp body in his arms. "We shall take her to the infirmary first" he said coolly.

Harry Potter lay in bed at the hospital wing. He had been there for days under the watchful eye of Madame Pomfrey. Naturally, Draco had seized the chance to embarrass Harry and had brought a crowd along to the toilets to see him. Nobody had believed his story about being sucked down the toilet and he had been dubbed "Harry Potty". Even his two closest friends Ron and Hermione had found it funny. He had been sent straight to the nurse and had been given all sorts of things to cleanse and sanitise his skin and hair. Madame Pomfrey had no sympathy for him and looked at him with repugnance every time she came by. He was forced to stay there to make sure he did not spread any germs and was still waiting to be discharged. Harry had never been so embarrassed. He couldn't understand why people thought he swam in the sewer for fun. And to have his two best friends laugh at him-it was more than he could take. Harry rolled over and shut his eyes tightly, wishing it would all go away. Then he heard voices whispering and the clicking of feet against the stone floor. He opened his eyes and could just make out three blurry figures which looked like Snape, Filch and Dumbledore entering the hospital wing. Snape appeared to be carrying a floppy green cloak. Harry didn't think much of it and closed his eyes again, hoping to fall asleep.