Chapter 3: Separated

Unfortunately, the next morning he was summoned to the Ministry of Magic, and he wasn't able to return until the morning before classes started. It was not the kind of reception he had been hoping for, either: he was directed to the headmaster's office and found Minerva there with Dippet. She appeared perfectly at ease, and Albus suspected that she had no more idea why they were there than he did.

"Ah, Professor Dumbledore, have a seat." Dippet seemed nervous. Albus could hear his toe tapping out of time with his thumb as his other hand fumbled and dropped a quill. "I'm afraid I have to ask you to stop walking on the grounds and in the forest with Professor McGonagall." After looking uncertainly from one of them to the other and seeing neither of them inclined to speak, he continued, "I've heard you spent Christmas Day with her family, and I just can't risk the kind of scandalous talk that might result if you continued your walks." Both of them continued to stare at him in icy silence. "A man your age shouldn't be monopolizing the time of so young a woman." Finally, frustrated by the lack of any response, Dippet practically cried, "Have you nothing to say?!"

Mildly, Albus replied, "You're addressing me as though the decision were solely mine. It isn't."

"You're the elder here, Dumbledore. By a lot."

Minerva stood, looking stern, clearly tired of being talked about rather than addressed. "Am I to understand, Professor Dippet, that you are directing me to confine my friendships to people close to my own age?"

Without looking at Minerva, Albus smiled, imagining her lips pursed, watching as Dippet floundered. "Well… Um… That is… Uh… Yes."

"How close?" she asked in clipped tones.

"What?"

"If you are ordering me not to be friends with people who are not near my own age, then I need to know how close." Dippet appeared bewildered, and Albus wondered whether Minerva would have to draw him a diagram. "For example, is there anyone on the faculty whom I may befriend or are they all too old for my friendship?"

"Well, I imagine there's some flexibility." Dippet knocked over his inkwell with a gesture. Hastily trying to clean it up, he continued, "It's just that in this case," he gestured between Minerva and Albus, "there's such an obvious incongruity."

Standing even straighter than before and raising her head so that she had to look down her nose at Dippet, Minerva calmly stated, "I disagree."

"I beg your pardon!" Dippet was clearly astonished.

"Being an educator yourself, Professor Dippet, you are surely aware that incongruous means inappropriate or absurd, but different does not necessarily have a negative connotation. I see nothing inappropriate or absurd in my friendship with Professor Dumbledore. And I have no intention of ending a friendship when you have no right to order me to do so. If you insist, then I will be forced to resign, effective immediately."

"But classes start tomorrow!"

"If I no longer work here, then that really is not my concern."

Albus could see wheels turning in Dippet's head, desperately trying to determine how to keep Minerva on the staff while ending this relationship. "But you can't be involved with him. He was a teacher here when you were a student."

Albus had been sitting back in his chair enjoying watching Minerva calmly but fiercely put Dippet in his place, but now he spoke up, "Technically, Headmaster, I was released from my contract during Minerva's last year as a student, and employed by the Ministry of Magic. I was not at Hogwarts on a single class day that year, or even on the Hogwarts grounds a single day that the students were."

Dippet looked back and forth between them, clearly unhappy with the outcome of this conversation. "I may not be able to insist you end your friendship, but I must insist that you not walk the grounds or forest together."

After Dippet had weathered icy stares from both Albus and Minerva, Albus finally relented, "Very well. May we go now?" Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Minerva's shocked and offended expression, but he refused to acknowledge it.

"Yes. I think you'd better."

Out in the hallway, Minerva turned to Albus, furious. "Why did you agree?!"

"Minerva," Albus replied in a calm and soothing tone. "Sometimes it's best to give people what they think they want. And now that he thinks that he has won, I think that it has been far too long since I've had a proper dueling partner to practice with."

He saw her head cock and the beginnings of understanding blossom in her eyes. "We may not be able to WALK together on the grounds, but he said nothing of working together."

"Precisely."

They planned their first practice session for the following afternoon when there were sure to be plenty of children around – which would make Dippet less likely to raise a stink. They met out on the lawn and set up a transparent barrier so that if their spells missed each other, they wouldn't hit students. This was wise since their dueling practice soon drew an audience. As expected, Dippet showed up and looked on disapprovingly but didn't interfere.

As the crowd of students grew, they stopped to confer briefly and then resumed, using only spells the students (at least the seventh years) would know. Afterwards they left in different directions, to avoid being accused of walking the grounds together. Each was trailed by a group of students following with questions

Albus was impressed by the students' interest in how powerful the spells they had already learned could be. He cautioned them that all these spells required careful practice, and promised that future practice sessions would include useful spells unfamiliar to most students.

Several weeks passed during which Albus and Minerva sat together at meals and practiced dueling together every day. Minerva taught Albus some of the new spells that had been approved while she worked at the Ministry of Magic, Albus began teaching her some of the dueling techniques he had learned over the years, and they both improved their skills. It was not satisfying for Albus, and he could tell that Minerva was frustrated. But after so many years of waiting even to see her, Albus had patience, and he waited for an opening.

He feared Minerva would not be as patient.

One day as Albus sat in his office marking papers, his door began drifting shut. When he looked more closely, he saw a tabby cat repeatedly rubbing its cheek on the door until eventually it closed.

Albus smiled and suppressed a laugh. "Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."

The tabby grew and transformed into Minerva who sniffed and asked, "How did you know it was me?"

"Do you imagine that I do not keep up with the list of animagi? That I would not particularly notice when a person I had met appeared on the list? That I would not refresh my memory when she joined the faculty?"

Minerva appeared surprised. "I hadn't realized that you had given me any thought in the sixteen years I was away from Hogwarts."

Albus smiled, stood, and strode towards her. "Minerva, I thought of you, dreamed of you, almost every day."

Taking his hand and returning his smile, she admitted, "I dreamed of you, too."

This mutual revelation hung between them as their joined fingers twined and he caressed her face as she stroked his hair. Very slowly they drifted together until their lips met and moved together, savoring their first moment of intimacy.

Until there was a knock at the door.

Jumping apart, they stared at each other in panic for a moment before Minerva transformed back into a cat and Albus went to open the door. Fortunately, Albus's height drew Dippet's eyes up, and the tabby escaped unseen.

The next day Minerva was visibly startled to hear her name spoken in her empty classroom. As Albus appeared, he apologized. "I'm sorry, Minerva. I should have warned you that I can make myself invisible at will."

As she rose, Minerva smiled. "Teach me that someday."

"Of course. It's really not hard."

Taking his face in her hands, she clarified, "Some other day."

As their lips met, her tongue sought entry to his mouth and her hands slid, one into his hair and the other under, on his neck. By the time his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her close in response, invisibility and teaching were far from Albus's mind.

When the tabby shut Albus's door the next day, he began to tease her. "Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."

But she would have none of it. "Shut up and kiss me, Professor Dumbledore."

Albus soon grew accustomed to sharing embraces and kisses with Minerva every day, in addition to meals and dueling practice. He found it pleasant and comfortable, but not entirely satisfying, and he became increasingly distracted by thoughts of other diversions they could share.