And Forgive Us Our Trespasses

Chapter One

Her eyes were green.

It was strange, Albus Dumbledore admitted, that it had taken him more than forty years of friendship and- later- love to finally recognize that simple fact of nature. For green they were- green like the emerald eyes of the cat she was, bright, radiant green, as they were fixed on his face, glimmering and filled with anger.

And he felt frightened.

For what wasn't even the first time in his life, he realized that Minerva McGonagall could be- was- a dangerous woman indeed.

But no, that wasn't completely true. He really had to stay realistic- really. What was the woman in front of him more, after all, than a school teacher, than a middle-aged, strict Scottish woman, than the witch he had known for fifty years and had loved for at least forty...

And yet he knew she was so much more- but found his voice back in the end.

"Minerva, you know this is hopeless."

But was it? As soon as the words escaped his mouth, Albus realized the lie in them- and he couldn't lie to her. To everyone, if need be, but not to her... to Minerva, who for so many years had been the personification of Truth itself...

Yet "Hopeless, Minerva!" he repeated, despite the piercing, so well-known gaze which he- almost, almost...- could not resist.

"I am sorry..."

But that simple sentence did not suffice- neither for him, nor, as he well knew, for her.

She had her lips clenched closely together- mouth nothing more than a white line scratching her still beautiful face- whilst her eyes were poignant in all their darkness. Albus couldn't suppress a shiver as she hissed, fists balled

"You're not."

"I am."

She was angry, that he knew, but he also knew he was right. It was the best thing to do for both her and him, and after all, he had in the end appeared to be the bravest of both of them- at least he'd had the courage to face the truth.

Unless she really still believed...- but no, she would not be deceived.

Or would she?

She stood there, literally shaking with anger, scowling, stuttering- and he did the only thing he could do. He grabbed her wrists rather roughly and pushed them down beside her body, approaching her in the process.

"Minerva, stop it..." he soothingly began, but her eyes shot fire.

"Release me! Now!"

As he did not obey, she fell into a desperate, strange kind of anger and spit- spit right in his face, mouth twisted in fury and faint victory as he in a reflex released her.

Raising his fingers to his face as if to grasp what had just happened, he knew what had happened as soon as he felt as well as read in her eyes the sweet poison that she was the very epitome of.

"Don't you love me anymore, then?"

It was a dangerous, a crucial question, and she herself realized it, but she had to know the answer- for in his words now lay her destiny, the very destiny she had tried to fight for what felt like eras of the world.

"No, I do not, Minerva."

And it all collapsed before her eyes.

Yes, she would follow the fate that had been drawn out for her years earlier.

No, it hadn't been worth fighting after all.

Yes, the time had finally come.

Minerva's heart closed with the door behind her back.

And she never heard his next, guilty, silent words.

"But I worship you, Minerva Astoreth McGonagall- and I fear I always will."

by Nerweniel