Chapter Three

Minerva sighed as she quickly threw some clothes into a small suitcase. Since they were going to Sweden, she'd picked them from her so-called "winter wardrobe", but honestly, her looks were the least of her worries now.

"Minerva, why are you going if you don't like him?"

She almost rolled her eyes as she turned around, looking straight into the honest brown eyes of the plaintive, lithe figure that was her little sister. Megara's arms were crossed, the head slightly flopped.

"Meg, have you ever really thought of the existence of something called, um... duty?"

"It was a question answered by a question, Minerva knew, and she knew she was being unfair as well. Megara was but fourteen years old, how could she ever realize the core of this business, that which was even confusing to her, to Dumbledore?

As her little sister bowed her head and started studying her own fingernails, Minerva sighed and walked over to her, throwing an arm around her slender shoulders.

"Meggie, I know you think that what I am doing is useless- stupid even. But it is not, I promise you. I cannot let him leave on his own now, after he's asked me to accompany him. Think about Seanair, think about Seanmhair, and then answer my question. Is it worth it? Is my travelling to Sweden with a man I neither like nor esteem worth the chance of revenge on their murderer?"

Megara couldn't possibly give another reply than

"Yes, it is."

But her brown eyes, so different from her elder sister's, gave away the fact that she hated letting Minerva leave. Minerva, ever-observantly, noticed that too and softly squeezed her little sister's small hand.

"Will you come back, Min?"

The softly spoken sentence of her usually so noisy sister, along with the begging look in her eyes, nearly broke Minerva's half-frozen heart. She hugged the slender girl and determinedly nodded.

"Of course I will, Meggie. I won't get myself killed- Dumbledore, that's another story, but I won't!"

This got the smaller girl smiling again, but still with that serious look in her eyes, Megara shook her head.

"Dumbledore shouldn't get killed either... Grindelwald has killed enough people, as you said... but Min, will you please be careful? And will you write to me?"

With a soft kiss on her sis's cheek, Minerva made that promise.

"Have you packed everything, Minerva?"

"Yes, Father."

Minerva looked up from the book she was reading. After finishing her packing, she had decided to go to bed early, but the inviting cover of "Pride and Prejudice" on her bedside table had once more proved irresistible and she'd ended up curled up in her chair in front of the fireplace.

Now, probably hours later, her father stood in the door-opening, smiling at the peaceful sight of his eldest daughter. There was worry in his eyes, though, and Minerva lowered her stocking-clad legs to the floor again, inviting her father to take a seat. He did as she silently asked, still smiling but with a serious gleam in his dark green eyes. His big hand squeezed her thin one as he silently nodded.

"Well, daughter, you have made your choice."

The so-called optimistic tone in his low, baritone voice didn't deceive his daughter. She knew he was afraid, and she knew he basically didn't want her to go. She voiced that idea immediately.

"I know you don't want me to go, Athair. "was her calm reply, laying the book aside with a faint sigh. Why oh why did this have to be so difficult?

"But I have to- I promised to do everything in my power to help destroy Grindelwald, and so I will. I am sorry I haven't waited for your approval, though..."

The tall man with the quiet eyes simply smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

"You haven't needed my approval for any of your actions since many years, Minerva. You know that." he answered warmly.

She smiled and nodded.

"I know that, Athair, but it still means a lot to me. And it pains me to see you sad because of my decision."

The man shook his head and looked into the eyes of his brave, eldest daughter, assuring her of the mistake in what she'd just stated.

"I am not sad, Minerva. I am frightened. Since- since..."

Tears in his eyes were blurring the misty green, and Minerva looked down at both their hands.

"Since Moira's passed away, you've been this family's engine. Without you, we would have collapsed, we would have been lost. Your mother was and is..."

He soundly swallowed, and Minerva bit her lips. The thought of her mother, who'd passed away some years earlier, was still difficult to her. To both of them, in fact.

"...very dear to me, to us all. But while we totally lost it- I as well as little Megara- you fought on, you didn't give up, you just straightened your back and used all that natural stubbornness that flows through your veins to not bow, but to live. You lived, Minerva, and you kept up alive. We cannot lose you- I have come to rely very much on you, my daughter..."

Here, he trailed off, but Minerva saw the tears in his eyes and knew they were readable in her eyes too. Softly squeezing her father's large hand, she shook her head.

"And I will never leave you, Athair, nor will I ever leave Meggie. I'll always be your daughter, but please understand I cannot neglect this duty either. It's something I have to do, even though I dislike the person who will be my companion."

This made her father smile again. He knew his daughter didn't like her ex-teacher, and though he had never quite understood that rather irrational dislike, he had accepted it. His mature, wise daughter probably knew what she was doing. On that day, though, he thought it his duty to at least a bit soften her spirits.

"Minerva, I know Professor Dumbledore, and he's a good man. I know you don't like him, but give him a chance. You have to co-operate, that's simply necessary. You have to co-operate to survive..."

It was the second time that night that Minerva made a promise- but even though she had both meant them, she knew the second would be the hardest to keep.