Disclaimer in Part 1
THANK YOU ALL!!!! Yay, I love feedback!! So thank you MK, Athenia McGonagall, Fallen Dragon, tolazytosignin, LinZE, Selene, stoneygem, cat, Lemon-Drops, Aeryn Alexander, GEM, Desiree, minerverette, Laura, redwoman06, VoyICJ, Jade, Hannah-Freya, and PrincessWitch (WOW, I didn't think so many people would like it! But thanks for such great FB!) So this chapter's for you all! (Oh, and if I missed someone, I'm REALLY sorry, but I don't think I missed anyone, so enjoy!) And now on with part 6.
Part 6
Minerva had planned to tell Albus about Tom's 'visit' as soon as she arrived at Hogwarts, but after thinking about it for a week, she decided against it. Instead, she focused on her new teaching position and her relationship with her fiancé. The year went by quickly and before she knew it, it was summer break, where, once again, she and Albus decided to stay at her cottage, which she decided not to sell.
"Minerva, surely you don't mean that." Albus said questionably, obviously disagreeing with what his fiancé thought.
"Of course I mean it." Minerva replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I don't need, nor do I want a huge fancy wedding, Albus, all I want is a nice, small, simple ceremony with close friends and family only, and in which the end result will be us as a married couple."
Albus sighed as they sat at the small table in front of the cottage. "Minerva, I know what a proper wedding should be like, and I want to be able to give it to you."
"I don't need a huge wedding, Albus. Believe it or not, I'm not saying this because we're trying to keep a low-profile, it's about me feeling comfortable on the most important day of my life. Now if you can look me in the eye and tell me that you want a huge wedding that will take YEARS to plan, then say so now."
"Or forever hold my peace." He said smirking. "Well then, why didn't we just get married this past year?"
"Because I want a summer wedding, which will take a few months to plan and Hanna is on tour with the Appleby Arrows until October, and I am NOT having my wedding without her."
"Ok, ok, so we're waiting until next summer." Albus interrupted her before she went on for another half and hour listing reasons to support her position. She smiled.
"Good, you understand. Oh, look, the mail's here." She said seeing an old barn owl flying towards them, eventually dropping a copy of the local wizard's newspaper as well as two letters into Minerva's lap before settling on her windowsill.
"Who are the letters from?" Albus asked, always curious about the new gossip, even if he didn't believe a word of it.
"Hmmm, well one's from Hanna, probably going on and on about her latest date with 'Charles'." Albus chuckled at the way she dragged out his name, "and the other one is from.No!" Minerva threw the envelope away from her and stood up, slowly backing away from it but never taking her eyes off of it.
"Minerva, what is it? What's wrong?" Albus asked immediately going to her side and trying to calm her down, but she just kept staring at it and shaking her head repeating 'no' over and over again. Finally Albus went and looked at the sender's name.
"Who's Lord Voldemort?" He asked looking up at her, right before Minerva passed out.
~~~~~
Minerva refused to talk about it after she had regained consciousness, and promptly burned the letter without opening it. Although she said she was better, and after a few days, appeared to feel better, Albus knew her well enough to know something was terribly wrong.
A week before the school term started, Albus' office.
"I really wish you would just tell me who he is."
"I don't want to talk about it, Albus, I've told you that before." Minerva said sternly, getting very annoyed that he wouldn't just drop the subject.
"Minerva, I'm worried about you."
"Well don't be, I told you before, I'm fine."
"No, you're not." Albus said crossing his arms over his chest and looking down at her where she was sitting.
"Oh, so now you know how I'm feeling better than I do?" She asked getting up and putting her hands on her hips. "It's my business, Albus, not yours."
"Wrong, we're getting married, so it's our business if something's bothering you." He sighed, "Minerva, I know you, and despite acting like nothing's wrong, I can tell that this is troubling you."
"I can deal with this alone, Albus, I'm a grown woman, I don't need you to protect me from everything." She said in a softer tone then before, but still stern.
"Minerva," he said gently taking one of her hands in his and leading her to sit down next to him, "I know that you can take care of yourself, but I hate seeing you like this. I tried to ignore it all summer, but I can't do it any longer, please my love, just tell me, who is Lord Voldemort?"
Minerva looked into his eyes, into his soul that was crying out for her to trust him. "Tom."
"What?" He asked furrowing his brow.
She closed her eyes, "Tom Riddle, he told me he went by Lord Voldemort now."
"When did he tell you this?" Albus asked, trying to think of anytime when they had run into him.
"Last summer, after you left, he showed up at the cottage."
Albus' eyes widened, "Oh, my God, are you alright? Did he try to hurt you?"
"No, he didn't hurt me, Albus, but he was..strange. Not just like he was when I knew him as a student, but, it was like he was obsessed with me."
"What do you mean, obsessed?" Albus asked, trying to keep the rage that was building inside of him in check.
"He kept telling me how I belonged with him and not you, how you were afraid I'd become more powerful than you and that I was his and he'd make me realize it one day. He called himself Lord Voldemort, but said I could call him Tom and that one day I'd be his Lady. Oh, Albus he sounded like he was mad!" She looked at him with fearful eyes.
Albus pulled her close to him, "Shhh, it's alright, you're right, he's crazy and mad."
She pulled away from him, "I know, it just scared me to see him like that, to hear what he was saying, especially when he got that look in his eyes, like pure evil, pure insanity."
"Perhaps I should owl the headmaster of Beauxbatons and warn him about Tom."
"No, I don't want anyone to know what he said to me, or that he even came near me. I know I'm being selfish, Albus, but they'll figure it out, perhaps he only did it to scare me. Get back at me for not returning his affections."
He looked at her, "Alright, I won't say anything, but I will owl the headmaster and ask him how Tom's been doing so far, see if he's done anything strange since he began teaching there." Minerva nodded, not seeing any harm in that.
A few weeks later..
"He said that Tom was acting like the model teacher, a little bit shy perhaps, but nothing too strange so far."
Minerva nodded, "He probably just did it to try and scare me, and he succeeded too."
"Minerva.."
"No, I won't dwell on this, I can't, I have students to teach."
Albus smiled, "Well then, perhaps you should get teaching."
She smiled up at him, how did I get so lucky? "I love you so much, do you know that?"
"Yes, but never stop telling me, because I'll never stop telling you how much I love you." He said before they shared a short, sweet kiss, and then they parted, because, after all, they do have actual work to do.
~~~~~ The weekend before Christmas break officially begins..
"Ahhh, a wedding! It's about time!"
Minerva shook her head and sighed, "Hanna, you've known that we were going to get married before even I did, so why are you so shocked?"
"Because I never thought it would be before I got married." Hanna said with a smirk on her face. The two witches were sitting at one of the tables in the Three Broomsticks and talking about anything that they might have forgotten to write about since the last time they saw each other.
"Oh, ha ha, that was so funny." Minerva said in a sarcastic voice. "Seriously, Hanna, you will be able to make it, right?"
"I don't care if the Minister of Magic himself asked to see me play, I wouldn't miss your wedding for the world!"
"The Minister of Magic will be there." Minerva said smirking as Hanna spit out some of her butterbeer.
"What? The Minister of Magic, THE Minister of Magic, is going to be at your wedding?"
"He's Albus' second cousin, and they're very close, more like brothers than second cousins." Minerva said casually, "Besides, he regards Albus as being more famous than himself, so he sees it as an honor that he was invited, seeing as how it's going to be so small and informal."
"Yeah, about that, Min.."
"Minerva, not Min."
Hanna smirked, "Yeah, sure, whatever you say Min. Now about this 'small and informal', how many people exactly are going to be there, oh, and who's in the wedding party?"
"Well, you're my Maid of Honor.."
"Don't worry, I'll throw a real nice bachelorette party." Hanna said grinning.
"Hanna, behave." Minerva said in a warning tone, and then continued, "Then Poppy, Arabella, another one of Albus' cousins', I'm sure you'll recognizer her when you see her, and Violet are going to be bridesmaids. Nicolas (Flamel) is going to be the Best Man, don't say a word Hanna." Minerva said before Hanna could start complaining, "Albus' brother Aberforth, Alastor, and William will be the ushers, and then there's about 50 or so other people that will be there, and that includes everyone's dates and all of the children."
"Ok, who are Violet and William again?" Hanna asked.
"Oh, Violet and William Potter, He was one year ahead of us and she was a year behind us."
"Oh, yeah, I remember them now, wow, they're already married?"
"Uh huh, I think they got married the week after she graduated. Apparently they're waiting to have children though, at least for another few years."
Hanna grinned when Minerva said this, and after a few seconds Minerva noticed.
"And why are you looking at me like that?"
"Because you had this 'oh I can't wait to be a mother' look on your face when you mentioned them having children."
"I did not!" Minerva said turning a shade of pink, causing Hanna to laugh.
"Sure you didn't, that's why you're turning red. Don't worry, Min, I'm sure you'll have a whole litter of your own in a few years."
"Hanna!" Minerva exclaimed, turning even redder then she was before, and causing Hanna to laugh even more then she already was.
~~~~~
"Are you alright, my love?"
Minerva looked up to a pair of twinkling blue eyes and she smiled, "I'm wonderful, we're wonderful." She said placing a hand over her soon to be swelled stomach. Who would have believed that it had been 5 years already.
Albus smiled and covered her hand with his own, pride and joy shining through his face with the knowledge that she was carrying his, their child.
"I love you, Minerva."
"But she doesn't belong to you" Hissed a voice from the shadows, making them both turn around, Albus shielding Minerva from whatever it was. "She belongs to me, old man, she is My Lady!" He said as he came out of the shadows, pointing his wand at Albus.
"Tom..NO!" Minerva cried as Albus dropped to the floor.
"You're mine now, Minerva, you belong to me, not him, and you should be carrying my child, not his. We'll have to correct that." Tom said advancing on her, but she found herself trapped, unable to escape him as he pointed his wand at the child growing inside her.
"NOOOOO!!!!" She screamed sitting up. She looked around frantically as Albus burst through the door.
"Minerva! What's wrong, are you alright, what happened?" He asked quickly as he rushed to her side.
She blinked, taking in her surroundings. It was her cottage, they weren't married yet, she wasn't pregnant, and there was no Tom in sight.
"Oh, Albus." She cried throwing herself into his arms, "It was horrible, a horrible nightmare."
"Shhh," He cooed while stroking her hair, "What nightmare, what happened."
"We..we were married, and I was pregnant.."
"And that's horrible?" He asked confused.
"No, that was wonderful, but then he came, and he killed you, Albus, right there in front of me, and then he was going to kill our baby, because he said I was his and I should be having his child and not yours." She cried into his arms, and he understood.
"Tom." He said softly and she nodded into his chest. He closed his eyes, how could he assure her that he could protect her? "Minerva, Minerva I love you so much, I would do anything to protect you, you know that right?"
"You can't always be there for me, Albus. You have other responsibilities." She cried softly, but he heard her. He didn't know what to say. "Stay with me, Albus, please." She asked him and he nodded.
"Of course, my love." He said and he got under the covers with her and pulled her against him, her tear stained face still against his chest and she was holding him like she would never let him go. "I love you, it's going to be alright." He whispered to her over and over again until her sobs subsided and she fell asleep, with him following a little while later. Both safe in each other's embrace.
End of Part 6
OK, the next part might not be liked very much, and you may actually have to wait another week for it (it's my turn for a round robin, so I'll be working on that before I can work on this again.) But I know what'll happen in the next part and I'll try and get it out as soon as possible! Thanks for reading and responding!
THANK YOU ALL!!!! Yay, I love feedback!! So thank you MK, Athenia McGonagall, Fallen Dragon, tolazytosignin, LinZE, Selene, stoneygem, cat, Lemon-Drops, Aeryn Alexander, GEM, Desiree, minerverette, Laura, redwoman06, VoyICJ, Jade, Hannah-Freya, and PrincessWitch (WOW, I didn't think so many people would like it! But thanks for such great FB!) So this chapter's for you all! (Oh, and if I missed someone, I'm REALLY sorry, but I don't think I missed anyone, so enjoy!) And now on with part 6.
Part 6
Minerva had planned to tell Albus about Tom's 'visit' as soon as she arrived at Hogwarts, but after thinking about it for a week, she decided against it. Instead, she focused on her new teaching position and her relationship with her fiancé. The year went by quickly and before she knew it, it was summer break, where, once again, she and Albus decided to stay at her cottage, which she decided not to sell.
"Minerva, surely you don't mean that." Albus said questionably, obviously disagreeing with what his fiancé thought.
"Of course I mean it." Minerva replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I don't need, nor do I want a huge fancy wedding, Albus, all I want is a nice, small, simple ceremony with close friends and family only, and in which the end result will be us as a married couple."
Albus sighed as they sat at the small table in front of the cottage. "Minerva, I know what a proper wedding should be like, and I want to be able to give it to you."
"I don't need a huge wedding, Albus. Believe it or not, I'm not saying this because we're trying to keep a low-profile, it's about me feeling comfortable on the most important day of my life. Now if you can look me in the eye and tell me that you want a huge wedding that will take YEARS to plan, then say so now."
"Or forever hold my peace." He said smirking. "Well then, why didn't we just get married this past year?"
"Because I want a summer wedding, which will take a few months to plan and Hanna is on tour with the Appleby Arrows until October, and I am NOT having my wedding without her."
"Ok, ok, so we're waiting until next summer." Albus interrupted her before she went on for another half and hour listing reasons to support her position. She smiled.
"Good, you understand. Oh, look, the mail's here." She said seeing an old barn owl flying towards them, eventually dropping a copy of the local wizard's newspaper as well as two letters into Minerva's lap before settling on her windowsill.
"Who are the letters from?" Albus asked, always curious about the new gossip, even if he didn't believe a word of it.
"Hmmm, well one's from Hanna, probably going on and on about her latest date with 'Charles'." Albus chuckled at the way she dragged out his name, "and the other one is from.No!" Minerva threw the envelope away from her and stood up, slowly backing away from it but never taking her eyes off of it.
"Minerva, what is it? What's wrong?" Albus asked immediately going to her side and trying to calm her down, but she just kept staring at it and shaking her head repeating 'no' over and over again. Finally Albus went and looked at the sender's name.
"Who's Lord Voldemort?" He asked looking up at her, right before Minerva passed out.
~~~~~
Minerva refused to talk about it after she had regained consciousness, and promptly burned the letter without opening it. Although she said she was better, and after a few days, appeared to feel better, Albus knew her well enough to know something was terribly wrong.
A week before the school term started, Albus' office.
"I really wish you would just tell me who he is."
"I don't want to talk about it, Albus, I've told you that before." Minerva said sternly, getting very annoyed that he wouldn't just drop the subject.
"Minerva, I'm worried about you."
"Well don't be, I told you before, I'm fine."
"No, you're not." Albus said crossing his arms over his chest and looking down at her where she was sitting.
"Oh, so now you know how I'm feeling better than I do?" She asked getting up and putting her hands on her hips. "It's my business, Albus, not yours."
"Wrong, we're getting married, so it's our business if something's bothering you." He sighed, "Minerva, I know you, and despite acting like nothing's wrong, I can tell that this is troubling you."
"I can deal with this alone, Albus, I'm a grown woman, I don't need you to protect me from everything." She said in a softer tone then before, but still stern.
"Minerva," he said gently taking one of her hands in his and leading her to sit down next to him, "I know that you can take care of yourself, but I hate seeing you like this. I tried to ignore it all summer, but I can't do it any longer, please my love, just tell me, who is Lord Voldemort?"
Minerva looked into his eyes, into his soul that was crying out for her to trust him. "Tom."
"What?" He asked furrowing his brow.
She closed her eyes, "Tom Riddle, he told me he went by Lord Voldemort now."
"When did he tell you this?" Albus asked, trying to think of anytime when they had run into him.
"Last summer, after you left, he showed up at the cottage."
Albus' eyes widened, "Oh, my God, are you alright? Did he try to hurt you?"
"No, he didn't hurt me, Albus, but he was..strange. Not just like he was when I knew him as a student, but, it was like he was obsessed with me."
"What do you mean, obsessed?" Albus asked, trying to keep the rage that was building inside of him in check.
"He kept telling me how I belonged with him and not you, how you were afraid I'd become more powerful than you and that I was his and he'd make me realize it one day. He called himself Lord Voldemort, but said I could call him Tom and that one day I'd be his Lady. Oh, Albus he sounded like he was mad!" She looked at him with fearful eyes.
Albus pulled her close to him, "Shhh, it's alright, you're right, he's crazy and mad."
She pulled away from him, "I know, it just scared me to see him like that, to hear what he was saying, especially when he got that look in his eyes, like pure evil, pure insanity."
"Perhaps I should owl the headmaster of Beauxbatons and warn him about Tom."
"No, I don't want anyone to know what he said to me, or that he even came near me. I know I'm being selfish, Albus, but they'll figure it out, perhaps he only did it to scare me. Get back at me for not returning his affections."
He looked at her, "Alright, I won't say anything, but I will owl the headmaster and ask him how Tom's been doing so far, see if he's done anything strange since he began teaching there." Minerva nodded, not seeing any harm in that.
A few weeks later..
"He said that Tom was acting like the model teacher, a little bit shy perhaps, but nothing too strange so far."
Minerva nodded, "He probably just did it to try and scare me, and he succeeded too."
"Minerva.."
"No, I won't dwell on this, I can't, I have students to teach."
Albus smiled, "Well then, perhaps you should get teaching."
She smiled up at him, how did I get so lucky? "I love you so much, do you know that?"
"Yes, but never stop telling me, because I'll never stop telling you how much I love you." He said before they shared a short, sweet kiss, and then they parted, because, after all, they do have actual work to do.
~~~~~ The weekend before Christmas break officially begins..
"Ahhh, a wedding! It's about time!"
Minerva shook her head and sighed, "Hanna, you've known that we were going to get married before even I did, so why are you so shocked?"
"Because I never thought it would be before I got married." Hanna said with a smirk on her face. The two witches were sitting at one of the tables in the Three Broomsticks and talking about anything that they might have forgotten to write about since the last time they saw each other.
"Oh, ha ha, that was so funny." Minerva said in a sarcastic voice. "Seriously, Hanna, you will be able to make it, right?"
"I don't care if the Minister of Magic himself asked to see me play, I wouldn't miss your wedding for the world!"
"The Minister of Magic will be there." Minerva said smirking as Hanna spit out some of her butterbeer.
"What? The Minister of Magic, THE Minister of Magic, is going to be at your wedding?"
"He's Albus' second cousin, and they're very close, more like brothers than second cousins." Minerva said casually, "Besides, he regards Albus as being more famous than himself, so he sees it as an honor that he was invited, seeing as how it's going to be so small and informal."
"Yeah, about that, Min.."
"Minerva, not Min."
Hanna smirked, "Yeah, sure, whatever you say Min. Now about this 'small and informal', how many people exactly are going to be there, oh, and who's in the wedding party?"
"Well, you're my Maid of Honor.."
"Don't worry, I'll throw a real nice bachelorette party." Hanna said grinning.
"Hanna, behave." Minerva said in a warning tone, and then continued, "Then Poppy, Arabella, another one of Albus' cousins', I'm sure you'll recognizer her when you see her, and Violet are going to be bridesmaids. Nicolas (Flamel) is going to be the Best Man, don't say a word Hanna." Minerva said before Hanna could start complaining, "Albus' brother Aberforth, Alastor, and William will be the ushers, and then there's about 50 or so other people that will be there, and that includes everyone's dates and all of the children."
"Ok, who are Violet and William again?" Hanna asked.
"Oh, Violet and William Potter, He was one year ahead of us and she was a year behind us."
"Oh, yeah, I remember them now, wow, they're already married?"
"Uh huh, I think they got married the week after she graduated. Apparently they're waiting to have children though, at least for another few years."
Hanna grinned when Minerva said this, and after a few seconds Minerva noticed.
"And why are you looking at me like that?"
"Because you had this 'oh I can't wait to be a mother' look on your face when you mentioned them having children."
"I did not!" Minerva said turning a shade of pink, causing Hanna to laugh.
"Sure you didn't, that's why you're turning red. Don't worry, Min, I'm sure you'll have a whole litter of your own in a few years."
"Hanna!" Minerva exclaimed, turning even redder then she was before, and causing Hanna to laugh even more then she already was.
~~~~~
"Are you alright, my love?"
Minerva looked up to a pair of twinkling blue eyes and she smiled, "I'm wonderful, we're wonderful." She said placing a hand over her soon to be swelled stomach. Who would have believed that it had been 5 years already.
Albus smiled and covered her hand with his own, pride and joy shining through his face with the knowledge that she was carrying his, their child.
"I love you, Minerva."
"But she doesn't belong to you" Hissed a voice from the shadows, making them both turn around, Albus shielding Minerva from whatever it was. "She belongs to me, old man, she is My Lady!" He said as he came out of the shadows, pointing his wand at Albus.
"Tom..NO!" Minerva cried as Albus dropped to the floor.
"You're mine now, Minerva, you belong to me, not him, and you should be carrying my child, not his. We'll have to correct that." Tom said advancing on her, but she found herself trapped, unable to escape him as he pointed his wand at the child growing inside her.
"NOOOOO!!!!" She screamed sitting up. She looked around frantically as Albus burst through the door.
"Minerva! What's wrong, are you alright, what happened?" He asked quickly as he rushed to her side.
She blinked, taking in her surroundings. It was her cottage, they weren't married yet, she wasn't pregnant, and there was no Tom in sight.
"Oh, Albus." She cried throwing herself into his arms, "It was horrible, a horrible nightmare."
"Shhh," He cooed while stroking her hair, "What nightmare, what happened."
"We..we were married, and I was pregnant.."
"And that's horrible?" He asked confused.
"No, that was wonderful, but then he came, and he killed you, Albus, right there in front of me, and then he was going to kill our baby, because he said I was his and I should be having his child and not yours." She cried into his arms, and he understood.
"Tom." He said softly and she nodded into his chest. He closed his eyes, how could he assure her that he could protect her? "Minerva, Minerva I love you so much, I would do anything to protect you, you know that right?"
"You can't always be there for me, Albus. You have other responsibilities." She cried softly, but he heard her. He didn't know what to say. "Stay with me, Albus, please." She asked him and he nodded.
"Of course, my love." He said and he got under the covers with her and pulled her against him, her tear stained face still against his chest and she was holding him like she would never let him go. "I love you, it's going to be alright." He whispered to her over and over again until her sobs subsided and she fell asleep, with him following a little while later. Both safe in each other's embrace.
End of Part 6
OK, the next part might not be liked very much, and you may actually have to wait another week for it (it's my turn for a round robin, so I'll be working on that before I can work on this again.) But I know what'll happen in the next part and I'll try and get it out as soon as possible! Thanks for reading and responding!