Chapter 4: To marry or not

Over the Easter holiday, Albus jumped when arms wrapped around him as he sat at his desk.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." Minerva looked worried and he turned and rose to lightly put his arms around her. "I'm concerned about you, Albus. You've been brooding lately, more and more. Please tell me what's wrong."

As Albus stared into her eyes, he knew there was no point in avoiding the subject any longer. Soberly, he caressed her cheek as he explained, "I love you, and I want to marry you."

Minerva's eyebrows rose skeptically. "And would that be so bad?"

Allowing himself a small smile, Albus admitted, "It would be marvelous." Gradually the smile vanished and he finished, "But we can't marry."

Minerva looked hurt, as he had expected she would. Quietly, in a voice that caught as though she were about to cry, she asked the inevitable question: "Why not?"

Taking a deep breath, Albus revealed a part of his past that he had long tried to forget. "Soon after I joined the Aurors, my parents were killed by a dark wizard we were pursuing. Even my brother has been held hostage a couple times, though everyone seems to recognize that he's too stupid to murder. Or maybe they figure he's more of a burden to me alive. But you're clever and powerful – enough to be easily recognized as dangerous – and if we married, you would be a very attractive target for any witch or wizard who wanted to harm me."

Stroking his face gently and holding his gaze, Minerva whispered, "And here I thought you were just worried about what people like Dippet would say." She made a sound like a laugh, but there was a tear meandering down her cheek. "Albus, I love you. Whether we're married or not, if people recognize that, the danger will be the same. I don't want to give you up because of something that might happen."

After wiping away her tear, Albus took a deep breath. "Perhaps we should both take a week to think about this and see if we can come up with something we can agree on."

Still looking hurt and no longer meeting his eyes, Minerva nodded and then left him standing alone in his office.

The week that followed was terribly painful for Albus, and, he was sure, for Minerva. They continued their daily dueling practice and sat next to each other at meals, but they hardly spoke to anyone. And they did not visit each other's offices. It was the loneliest week Albus could remember, far worse than all the years without Minerva. Motivated by this, he considered every option he could think of. And the night of the sixth day, he inked a note to Minerva to set up a time and place to talk. This he sent with Fawkes, who had been hearing a lot about Minerva – particularly this past week – but who had never met her.

The next evening when Albus appeared in Minerva's office at the appointed time, he found her pacing, arms crossed over her chest, looking unhappy and uncomfortable. "Minerva?"

She turned her sharp gaze on him, eyes flashing. "You should have told me you have a phoenix."

Albus was perplexed. "Does that make a difference?"

Gesturing expansively, she explained, "Only when he comes bursting into flames in the middle of my bedroom late at night."

"Minerva, I'm sorry. I forgot how startling Fawkes can be." Albus adopted what he hoped was a penitent expression. "Please forgive Fawkes and me."

After a few seconds more of glaring at him, a smile crept onto her face. "How could I remain angry with you?" She moved towards him and set her hands over his heart. "And now you should hear the conclusion I've reached. It may not please you."

Albus smiled. "I was just thinking you may not like the conclusion that I reached. Please, let me know your thoughts."

Nervously, Minerva looked at her hands on his chest and took a deep breath before returning her eyes to his. "I see no acceptable alternative to marriage. However, if you would prefer, I would consent to as secret a marriage as we can arrange."

His hands had been on her waist but now moved to her shoulders. "I reached the same conclusion." They grinned into each others' eyes for long seconds before kissing passionately.

For more than a week they did not succeed in having a private conversation because every time they were alone together, they were too interested in kissing.

But on May first, Dippet spotted Minerva as a cat slipping into Albus's office and followed her. Fortunately he only saw her in human form walking towards Albus, but from that time, she didn't dare slink around the castle as a cat.

The next evening Albus appeared in her office and they held each other and talked, both knowing it was overdue and now necessary.

"Obviously I'll be using the invisibility cloak from now on." Minerva seemed disappointed about this or perhaps irritated, Albus wasn't sure which.

In an attempt to console her, he suggested, "At least until you learn to make yourself invisible."

"You'll teach me?" She looked hopeful.

"Any time you like," he confirmed with a smile and a quick kiss.

After smiling into each other's eyes for a moment, Minerva quietly asserted, "We should talk about marriage again."

"Of course." Albus rapidly agreed, though he wasn't sure what she had in mind. When she said nothing, he added, "If you've changed your mind, I understand."

Minerva smiled and shook her head. "I meant when and how."

With a relieved sigh, Albus turned to practical matters. "Well, if we're going to do this secretly, we'll need to wait until summer. I'm going to be working at the Ministry of Magic again this summer, and I have contacts there who can help us."

"I'll be at the Ministry, too. But I don't suppose we can dare see each other."

"Not in public, no. But I'll be staying at my house, whenever I can get away from the Aurors. You're welcome at my house any time you like."

Minerva raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You kept your house after coming here."

Laughing a little, Albus confessed, "After all the work I put into hiding it, I couldn't bear to give it up, even though I probably only spend a few dozen nights a year there. It's comfortable, cozy, and very private. At present only my brother and I can get in – I'll have to take care of changing that. Actually, half the time my brother screws up and ends up in the stone chimney of a long-since burned down house in a field in Wales." Albus laughed at himself. "I'm sorry. I'm rambling."

Minerva shook her head. "I don't mind. It's interesting. So at the very least your brother will have to know about us. Who else should we tell?"

Albus pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Have you ever been a Secret Keeper?"

"No."

"I have. And I know of a charm to have two Secret Keepers, though I've never done it. We'll have to do that fairly soon, so we'll both need to study it. Afterwards, I'd say we should tell our closest family members. At least one person at the Ministry will have to know. And the headmaster."

"That will be fun," Minerva observed with a sour expression.

"At least he'll like that we plan to keep it secret. And we could wait to tell him after we're married."

With a wide smile, Minerva asked again, "Which will be this summer?"

"Absolutely. I'm told the omens are particularly good for July thirty-first."

"Since when do you listen to omens?"

"I respect the centaurs."

Surprised, Minerva asked, "They know that we plan to marry?"

"I haven't told them, but apparently they suspect, even though our walks ended." Minerva nodded, and Albus thought she looked sad that they couldn't walk together any more.

"So," Minerva took a deep breath and began summarizing, "now we need to work on the Secret Keeper charm, and I need to learn to make myself invisible. Other than that, we continue as we have been for the rest of the school year."

"Yes. Though I will try to get away for part of a weekend to work on the spells protecting my house."

"And when the school year is over, we both go to the Ministry. You'll be at your house whenever you can and I'll be spending some time there and some with my family. You're welcome at my parents' house any time, by the way. They quite enjoyed meeting you on Christmas."

"Thank you." Albus gave Minerva a brief kiss. "Probably early in the summer I'll ask you to come meet someone in the Ministry who can help us."

"Mmm," Minerva replied, finding his lips again. Not everything had been resolved, but Albus had no more interest in conversation that evening.

The knock caused them to jump away from each other. Minerva pointed and instructed, "You go that way," as she turned the other way to go around desks to the door. After watching Albus vanish, she opened the door and drew Dippet in. "Ah, headmaster. You must come see the teabags the students transfigured today."

"Very nice. Very nice, Professor McGonagall." As usual, Dippet seemed nervous. "Have you, um, seen Professor Dumbledore at all this evening?"

Intentionally not answering the question he asked, she pointed out, "At this hour, I would imagine that if he is not in his office, he's in his quarters."

"Yes, well, I've checked both. He's not."

"Did you check the library?"

Silently and invisibly from the doorway, Albus thanked Minerva for her quick thinking. After hearing Dippet's negative response, the invisible professor headed to and into the library. Becoming visible and picking up a book in a vacant aisle, Albus headed towards the librarian to build an alibi. "Madam Pince."

"Professor Dumbledore. I didn't know you were here."

"I'm sorry I didn't greet you as I entered. You were rather occupied."

Groaning, Madam Pince agreed. "Can you believe Mr. Hanradan thought he could fool me with a forged note to take out a book from the Restricted Section?"

Albus shook his head. "Young people will dare quite a lot when they believe there is something for them to gain."

"I'm sorry, did you need something?"

"I've been looking for a book on giant wars in the thirteenth century, and this isn't quite what I had in mind." He held up the book he'd quickly taken from the shelf.

"Well, that is quite a good book, but if you're interested in the thirteenth century specifically, then Schwartz is better."

"Thank you."

As he returned to the same aisle, he could hear Dippet's questions and disappointment on hearing that Albus had been in the library for over two hours. Apparently Dippet didn't need to talk with him at all because he left directly.

Over the next couple of weeks, Minerva and Albus added studying to their list of joint activities. Studying the charm that would allow them to be co-Secret Keepers, and also practicing together as Minerva learned to make herself invisible. These work sessions always ended in passionate kisses that ended only because they remembered the panic of being discovered together.

They were nearly ready to perform the charm to become Secret Keepers, but Albus felt there was one other topic they must discuss first, so one evening he broached it. "Minerva, I think there's something else we should discuss."

"Children?"

"Yes." Albus was amazed that Minerva had the same thought.

"It would be quite difficult to keep it secret if I were pregnant and then we were raising a child together."

"Exactly. Which is why it's important that we talk about this."

Minerva sighed, looking tensely into his eyes. "I've never had a strong desire to procreate, Albus, but if you particularly want children, I imagine we could work something out."

"I think we have all the children we can handle."

Nodding in agreement, Minerva raised another matter. "Once we're married and back here, we're going to need a way to get together."

With a smile, Albus explained, "We'll just put a hidden door between your quarters and mine. We can practice that spell at my house." Smile widening, he added, "Which will soon be our house." They exchanged a small kiss. "And I did change the protections on the house so you can get there by Floo – it's impossible to Apparate there. We'll have to adjust the door locks when we're both there.

Smiling, Minerva noted, "Sounds like a plan."

"I may not be there right away when classes are out. Sometimes I suspect that they save particularly long missions for me each year. You will likely have to make yourself at home. For when I'm not there, I've left the pensieve with some thoughts that might amuse you.

Appearing taken aback, Minerva asked, "You want to share your thoughts with me?"

"Of course. We have so little time together." From her expression, Albus wasn't sure she would ever look in the pensieve, but he hoped she would.

"You were going to tell me how not to end up in Wales."

"Yes. The trick is to think the name of the place without saying it. Grey Dale."

"And if I say Grey Dale aloud, I'll find myself in a burned out house in Wales?"

"Yes."

"Well, obviously I'll avoid that." Minerva joked, putting her arms around Albus and drawing him into a passionate kiss.

The next day they performed the Secret Keeper charm and were nearly caught together by Dippet again, leading Albus to later send Fawkes with a wry note that said, "Or perhaps Dippet is the first person we should tell."

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