Her Chance Gone

A/N: Many thanks to Miss Ang., who is my beta reader! I also want to say thank you to all my reviewers. Your reviews have been great and spur my muse on. This chapter is mainly scene setting but I hope you still enjoy it.

Chapter Thirteen: Looking for her

Albus had lost count of the times he had searched Hogwarts for Minerva. He had tried every place he could think of and some places just in case. It was like she had disappeared into thin air. He wouldn't have blamed her if she had. He asked the portraits if they had seen her and asked them to get word to him if they did. He ignored them when they wished him good luck for his wedding the next afternoon.

Minerva was obviously not in the school but Albus didn't know where else to look for her. As he stood still, looking out of a window, an idea came into his mind. Xiomara and Poppy would know where she would go and all he had to do was ask them.

He quickly made his way along to the hospital wing. He hoped they would help him but, then again, did he deserve their help? All was quiet in the hospital wing and Madame Pomfrey was nowhere to be found so Albus decided to try Madame Hooch's private rooms. He hoped that she would be in. Five minutes later, he found himself outside the quidditch mistress' rooms and he knocked loudly.

"Enter if you dare!" came Xiomara's voice.

"Madam Hooch?" said Albus as he poked his head around her door and smiled softly.

"Professor Dumbledore!" exclaimed Xiomara, jumping up off the chair and grabbing her dressing gown. "I was expecting someone else."

"I am sorry to disturb you," he told her. "I will be gone before Severus arrives."

Xiomara looked at him suspiciously. How did he know that she was expecting the potions master? She pushed those thoughts to the back of her head as her curiosity took over. She wanted to know why the Headmaster was calling on her at this time of night.

"What I can I do for you Headmaster?" she asked. "Pre wedding nerves?"

"Nothing like that," he answered. "I was hoping to have a word with you and Madame Pomfrey."

"Poppy is out treading the light fantastic with Alastor but I am here," replied Xiomara, who was growing more and more interested in the reason why he was here. "So what's on your mind?"

"I am searching for Minerva," he told her.

"Well I hate to point out the obvious, Professor," said Xiomara, who thought it rather odd that he had come to ask her where his Deputy Headmistress was, "but at this time of night she is usually curled up in bed."

Albus didn't feel in the mood to banter with his colleague and jumped straight to the point, telling her about their argument but making sure he didn't mention what Minerva had blurted it out. He waited patiently as Xiomara tried to think of places Minerva may have gone and as she thought of one, she wrote it down on a piece of parchment. A few minutes later, she handed him the list and told him that she would contact Poppy and see if she knew any other places. She promised to contact him if Minerva returned or if she thought of any other possible places the Deputy Head might have retreated.

"Working through the list is going to take a while Professor," she told him. "What about your wedding?"

"I need to find Minerva," he simply answered before dashing out of the room and making his way to the first destination.

Twenty minutes later, Albus made his way into the Three Broomsticks and asked around for any sightings of Minerva. There hadn't been any sightings of her and that didn't surprise him. He knew Minerva to be a private type of witch and if she had wanted to be alone, she wouldn't have gone to the Three Broomsticks. But, it was best that he looked in anyway.

He read over the list of possible destinations Xiomara had given him. They ranged from the public library in Diagon Alley to her quiet cottage up in the Highlands of Scotland. He cursed himself. Why hadn't he prevented her from running like that? Why hadn't he spoken up while he had the chance to do so? Why had he defended his reasons for marrying Regina? He was angry with himself for not picking up the signs. How could he be so stupid? She had spoken the words he had longed to hear from her and instead of sweeping her into his arms, he didn't do anything. He had decided that he would find Minerva with plenty of time to spare. He could then return to Hogwarts and talk with Regina before the wedding started.

Albus made his way through the list of places, becoming disillusioned each time he came away empty-handed. He had never been good at searching for things without map references and compass directions. Even as a child he would always lose at hide and seek. He was frustrated with himself and with Minerva now. It annoyed him that she could just disappear when things had become to close for comfort.

Albus apparated to Minerva's summer cottage and received no answer when he knocked the first time round. He knocked again and this time the door was opened by an out of breath house elf. Albus had inquired after the mistress of the house and had been told that she had not resided at the cottage since she had left for Hogwarts. The house elf did offer assistance by informing Albus that Minerva had a godson that lived in the village and that she might be visiting him. Albus thanked the house elf for the information and made his way down into the nearby village, only to find out that she hadn't been there either. He was tired and in desperate need of a warming mug of hot chocolate to pick himself up but he knew that he had to find Minerva and repair the bridges that had been broken since he returned from his break with a fiancée in tow.

Meanwhile back at Hogwarts, Xiomara had managed to get in contact with Poppy, who had cut her date with Alastor short so that she could come back and try and get some sense out of the overly excited quidditch mistress.

"I asked him about the wedding," said Xiomara who was almost jumping up and down on the spot with excitement "and he simply said that he needed to find Minerva. Oh Poppy what do you think is going on? This is so exciting! It's like one of those soppy muggle movies you are always telling me about."

"Xio!" replied Poppy as she placed a hand on her friends shoulder to calm her down. "Min is at my place in Hogsmeade. She owled me from there saying that she told Albus everything and that she was resigning first thing in the morning. She doesn't want anyone to know where she is."

"Why didn't she owl me?" questioned Xiomara, who was rather put out.

"She didn't want the owl into be intercepted," replied Poppy as she sat down and sighed.

"Well, he is out looking for her Poppy," revealed Xiomara. "That has to mean something. Maybe he wants to tell her that he loves her and that he was just in shock before."

"What if it's not that though," asked Poppy?

Xiomara collapsed onto the floor and toyed with the fringing of the old fashioned rug beneath her. She was sure that the Headmaster wouldn't be going to the lengths that he was to find Minerva so he could sack her. It took the quidditch mistress to the early hours of the morning to convince the reluctant medi-witch to write a letter to Albus telling him where Minerva actually was and then another hour before she finally sent it.

Dear Headmaster,

You will find Minerva at Madame Pomfrey's place. I am told you know where it is!

Regards ,

Xiomara Hooch.

To be Continued