A soft knock on the door made Minerva look up from the book she was reading. A good muggle novel- Agatha Christie, she had always loved those nice detective stories. She'd read them all about a hundred times- she still loved them. With a small smile on her face, she carefully closed the book and laid it aside.

"Come in!" she then spoke in her usual, "professional" voice. Her face softened somewhat as her Noctua came in.

"Noctua, hello! How are you?"

But as she saw the paleness of the girl's face- the tiredness that was so easily readable from her eyes, she continued, with a bit of worry in her voice, as she pointed at one of her large chairs

"Do sit down! You look…"

With a faint smile, Noctua sat down.

"No need to be worried, Auntie. I am just tired. Today was such a busy day."

Minerva smiled.

"Yes, it was. But I am very proud of you, Noctua. A Gryffindor! By the way, have you already met your fellow students...?"

Noctua grinned. "Yes. In fact, they kind of attacked me with the question whether I was or not related to you. I seem to quite resemble you."

Minerva smiled and softly stroked the long, ebony tresses of the girl.

"You do." she then muttered silently. "You do."

The girl nodded. "I know, Auntie. I really was proud of it when Hermione, Harry and Ron told me…"

With this, her aunt interrupted her quickly.

"Oh!" Minerva shrieked laughingly. "You've met the famous Gryffindor Trio! Three notorious troublemakers, my dear, but… well, utterly kind-hearted…

She chuckled softly.

"So maybe we'll get a Gryffindor Quartet this year… But, dear, I am truly glad you like them. Actually, I just am extremely glad you're in Gryffindor. The Sorting hat quite took its time."

Noctua smiled faintly and nodded.

"Yes, it did. I was quite… but in fact, I wanted to ask you something."

The look on her face was serious now, and Minerva raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Yes? Do ask."

"Has my mother ever attended Hogwarts? She always told me she didn't. But the Hat said so."

She stared at Minerva with her large, light blue eyes. Asking. Pleading.

Minerva couldn't ignore it. Yet, she was frozen.

The Sorting Hat had recognized… it had recognized Noctua as being her mother's daughter. Of course it had… And probably as her father's daughter as well. Minerva hadn't thought of that… What did she… What could she do? Tell the girl everything and…

She couldn't. How could she ever do such a thing, a thing that would break the girl's heart…

But Noctua was pleading. Her eyes were asking desperately...

The nervous biting of her lips. The slight tremble of her dark eyelashes.

Every slight movement she made asked that one question.

And as Noctua grabbed her Aunt's hand- did she understand how difficult this was for her, perhaps?- Minerva took her decision. She had to tell the truth.

"Yes," she nodded softly, hardly daring to look into the girl's eyes. "yes, your mother has attended Hogwarts."