Stories of the Hogwarts Sisterhood

Disclaimer: Athena and Oliver's twins belong to me. As for the rest, see "What can I do to forget about the love between us" (why the hell did I make such a long title..)

Disclaimer 2: Some of characters' words came from "Divine Secrets of the Ya- Ya Sisterhood" (Both book and movie) So you may find their action and their words familiar. And I don't own them.

Ships: AD/MM, Madam Hooch/OC

Note 1: Ok, like what Freelancer said: My fic, my rules. So instead of 80 years older than Minerva, I make Dumbledore to be 8 years older than her! *grins*

To flamers: I don't take kindly to flames, so back off, if you know what's good for you.

Rated PG for a bit of swearing

Thank you for all your reviews! *Dances around* 101 reviews! Thank you so much once again! *hugs*

Gross Reality: I have my own way of telling a story. If you don't like it, I believe you could go to hell.

GEM, Minerva of Tortall: Let's see, the bar scene, the strip-off-clothes scene and the airplane scene and Minerva, I have add your two favorite lines, they are in the next chapter

Dedicated to my friends in the Albus/Minerva group-Thank you for consoling me.

Chapter 15: A Sad Memory and a Trap

The next evening, Mandy heard someone knocking on her door and when she opened it, she saw Minerva, Poppy and Georgia, grinning.

"Surprise, surprise, Mr. Jonathan Wood's henchmen." Mandy said, rolling her eyes and left the door open to let her friends in.

Minerva sighed in frustration. "Mandy, we had gone through this yesterday, Jonathan is not here and we are not, I repeat, not his henchmen."

Mandy sat down on her armchair. "If you are and if he is back, I have one thing to say about that: It's not going to work between me and that bastard."

Minerva looked at Poppy and Georgia then at Mandy, who is now sitting sideways on her armchair and swinging her legs. "Listen Mandy, no one on Earth, and I mean no one knows better than us how cruel Jonathan Wood is to you, we are not here to dispute that, he broke your heart and that fact is not going to change!"

"Then why are you here for?" Mandy asked.

"Have you forgotten already? This Sunday is your birthday!" Poppy said in disbelief.

"Of course I remember." Mandy said. "My 70th birthday."

"So we are here to give an early celebration." Minerva said.

"The Hogwarts Sisters' way." Georgia added. "And the way is: go for a few drinks at the Leaky Cauldron."

"Drinks?" Mandy asked blankly.

"Yes, drinks. D-R-I-N-K-S." Minerva spelled.

"But we haven't drunk since....since...." Mandy said, trying to remember when was the last time they celebrated a Sister's birthday in the Hogwarts Sisters' way.

"Since my birthday and the day when we received the news about William's death." Poppy said quietly.

"Yeah! Since...." Mandy stopped. She looked at Poppy, who sighed and had her head low. Then she started quietly. "I'm sorry, Poppy. I shouldn't bring it up. You and William were best friends."

"You didn't mean to." Poppy mumbled. "It seems like yesterday when I have my 20th birthday party....."

***

1953

"Let's see how long you take to blow out 20 candles!" Mandy challenged at Poppy's 20th birthday party. It was a huge party throw by Mr. and Mrs. Pomfrey themselves. All the guests were there, Minerva, Mandy, Georgia, Albus, Nicholas Longbottom, Jonathan and so on. All except William Potter and Don Weasely. A long banner with the words: "Happy Birthday Poppy!" was hanging near the roof, where it stretched from one end of the room to another.

Poppy, who was wearing long light blue dress robes, took a deep breath and started blowing the 20 small candles that were struck on a big rectangular cake, decorated with big light blue cream roses and white icing. By the time she had finished, she was out of breath.

"All right! How long did she take?" Mandy asked Joe Black, who was doing the timing.

"10 seconds." Joe said, looking up from his pocket watch.

"Hm, that's a bit slow." Mandy observed. "I can blow out my candles in 5 seconds."

"That's because you have Jonathan to help you, so that doesn't count." Poppy said and Mandy blushed. After she had cut the cake and distributed them, she called: "All right, guests! You can dance if you want to! There's other food on the tables so help yourselves!"

"Hey Poppy! The band is great!" Joe yelled to Poppy, nodding his head to the music played by the band that Poppy's parents hired. And he continued his dancing with a pretty girl with blue eyes and blond hair.

"Poppy, where's William and Don?" Dumbledore asked. "Did you invite them?"

"Of course I did, Professor, William is my best friend and he is an Auror now. He had a case out of the country yesterday but he promised me that he would be back in time for the party. But I don't know what's keeping Don." Poppy said. "But, in case he didn't make it to my party, he gave me this." She said, smiling as she showed Dumbledore and Minerva a pin entwined with two serpents, the symbol of health. (Like the one she is wearing in the movie)

"And Robert Lupin?" Dumbledore asked again.

"Oh, you know Robert, he always late." Minerva said before Poppy could answer. She picked up a small cheese cracker and said: "Albus, open wide and say 'Ah'."

"Aaahhhh" Dumbledore said and Minerva put the cracker neatly into his mouth. She smiled sweetly as Dumbledore closed his mouth and started chewing.

"You two lovebirds are making me sick." Poppy said and Minerva giggled as Dumbledore lifted his wife's left hand and kissed her wedding ring, then her fingers. "Stop it." Poppy laughed.

Dumbledore dropped Minerva's hand and Minerva called Mandy and Georgia over. "I would like to make a toast to Poppy Pomfrey." She said, lifting her glass of wine. Mandy, Georgia and Poppy lifted theirs too. "Cheers." Minerva said.

CLINK

Went the glasses and the Hogwarts Sisters drank their wine in one go.

"Happy 20th, Empress Sweet Flower." Minerva, Mandy and Georgia said.

"Thank you, Queen Cold-as-Ice, Countess Rising Sun and Duchess Sleeping Butterfly." Poppy said, grinning.

Someone knocked on the door and when Poppy went to answer it, Robert was at the door with a bouquet of red poppies.

"Sorry, I'm late." Robert panted and handed Poppy the bouquet. "Happy birthday, Poppy."

"Thanks." Poppy said, taking the bouquet. "Come in. By the way, do you know whether William and Don are coming?"

"I don't know, Don said that he would be on time..." Robert said, stepping into the house and Joe yelled: "Robert Lupin! You are here at last!!!!"

Poppy closed the door slowly. What's keeping those two pranksters? When Poppy just about to return to her guests, someone knocked on her door again. She opened it and saw Don standing at her door. "Don! I'm so glad to see you! I was wondering...." She stopped when she saw a serious look on Don's face. "Don, are you all right?"

"I don't know what to say...." Don said with his head low and when he lifted his head up, his eyes were filled with tears. "William has left us, Poppy." He said quietly.

Poppy's eyes filled with horror. "What?" She whispered.

"I said William is dead! Killed by a Dark Wizard!" Don yelled hysterically and the whole house went silent.

The guests stared at Don and Jonathan rushed through the crowd, reached Don and griped his shoulders tightly. "You are joking, right?" He said nervously and tried to laugh.

Don shook his head slowly. "I wish that I was."

"You are messing with us." Robert said. "Shake your head and say you are messing with us."

"I'm not messing with you." Don said to the guests.

"Shake your head, Don." Poppy said.

"Poppy, you got to listen to me, I am not making this up. This is real."

Poppy shook her head in disbelief weakly, and then suddenly she kneeled to the floor, buried her face in her hands and started sobbing loudly. The boys looked grim. Mandy and Georgia hug each other and started crying.

Minerva turned to Dumbledore, whose face filled with agony, and whispered: "Oh Albus, how could this have happened to him?" She whispered and Dumbledore took her into his arms as she wept quietly in his embrace.

***

2003

"I am sorry to bring that up." Mandy repeated apologetically.

"It's all right." Poppy said, sniffed and wiped away her tears. "All right, let's go for a few drinks."

"Are you sure?" Georgia asked.

"Yes, I'm sure." Poppy said, smiling. "Come on, let's go. I need a few drinks to forget about this."

"Okay...." Mandy said slowly and got up from her chair.

When Minerva got up from her seat, she made sure that Mandy was not looking and checked her robes to see if the Love Renewal Potion was still in her pocket. She smiled in satisfaction and left with the rest.