Set late 1945.
It was nearing to midnight in a vacant pub when a young man in a set of shabby robes strolled in. The young waitress, an eighteen-year-old beauty, had fallen asleep on the bar when the tolling bell awoke her.
"Coffee," he called hoarsely and she prepared a steaming mug. The man sat at an empty table, running his hands through his thick brown hair, and the girl approached him.
"Minerva?" The man questioned after raising his eyes to look over the girl, who promptly dropped the coffee cup and having it splatter down her bare legs.
With a very quick swish-and-flick of the man's wand, the coffee was sitting in front him - filled and steaming, leaving no mark on the floor.
The man smiled brightly up at her, causing her to tuck an arrant curl behind her ear, "I didn't expect you to remember me. I was a year younger than you, a Slytherin no less. Studious, rule-abiding Minerva McGonagall - you wouldn't have given me the time of day."
"Tom?" She said with an intake of breath.
"So you do remember."
"How could one forget? You're a hero. The avenger to the whole Chamber of Secrets fiasco."
"But no one remembers the heroes."
"Oh that's a lie!" She said, blushing as he cocked an eyebrow to her sudden outburst.
"The hero is famous because he tickles everyone's fancy, real people aren't like that."
"Yes, they are!"
"Slytherins aren't like that."
"That's beside the point. Slytherin or not, heroes never get forgotten cos they've done what no one else was capable of doing. They're famous."
"Villians are infamous, though. They challenge all the seamless perfection of the world."
"People need a little seamless perfection, Tom."
"Like you? Smartest witch of her year, bussing tables at some unknown pub?"
"Yes, me. The witch most likely to suceed who tumbled off her feet at first notice."
"What if you had blissful perfection? The kindof perfection where you knew that once you'd achevied something you'd never have to be sad again. That kindof of perfection that goes along with power."
"But no one could be that powerful. Maybe Merlin, maybe Grindewald, even. But d'you think anyone's life is ever peachy keen in every aspect?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"If you study long enough, and gather enough followers."
"But then you'd just be a smart person followed by the type people who can't stand up on their own."
"There's a change coming about, Minerva. I'm inviting you to join me."
"Of course there's a change! We're merely weeks after the end of a war, Tom."
"Did you support Grindewald?"
"If he had suceeded, then we couldn't have done anything about him! If he did and we'd followers of his, we'd have gotten killed, or worse, thrown in Azkaban. The best is to lie low."
"Is that what you're doing, nothing you're proud of just to stay alive?"
"What kind of change are you talking about, Tom?"
"I've been travelling, talking with powerful witches and wizards, Minerva. They've given me more than I could ever imagine, taught me more about the Dark Arts Hogwarts could've ever dreamed. After a few more years of studying, I'll be able to re-emerge stronger than ever. No one could defy me."
"And you want me?"
"Yes! You and I, two of the best of our kind, fighting a battle against all that is wrong in this world."
"So in order to acheive this blissful happiness, we'd have to stomp out what we didn't like?"
"There's no other way to go about it."
"There has to be a battle where you can, at least, embrace what's wrong."
"But who wants to embrace something that's useless?!"
"I do!"
"Suit yourself."
And he stood, with a dangerous flash of his eyes, and walked out the pub. Minerva leaned back her chair, a bad habit still lingering from school. She twisted her hair up to the top of her head, thinking about what the young man who had just sat in front her had to say.
Perhaps there was no such thing as blissful perfection without a little stomping, but she'd be one to not give up before finding it.
Author's note: all dates set from The Harry Potter Lexicon Timeline, http:www.hp-lexicon.org. Tom was a year younger than Minerva, dissapeared in 1945 and returned so dark he didn't look the same. Grindewald was defeated by Dumbledore in 1945 and since I don't know the dates, this is set weeks afterward. Minerva McGonagall, pub waitress. Who'd have thought it? She doesn't got to Hogwarts til 1956. She's eighteen here.
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