Minerva VII

Lovers old and lovers new

Renew tired souls and speak most true

The second worthiest gift for she

Forgiveness be the key

About half past nine in the evening...

What else could possibly go wrong now?

Albus and I connected in the main corridor leading to Gryffindor Tower, and then in my 'official' rooms. I didn't let him get a word in edgewise initially, as with everything going through my mind I was determined to have the first...and most probably the last word on his stupid chauvinistic attitude to keep me in the dark. It isn't going to work of course; the keeping me in the dark bit. The chauvinism; labelled as concern, I've had to live with for years, and Albus is hardly likely to change at this end of his life, much though I would wish it otherwise. It was more that he let me flay him with my tongue, and not only that, but he didn't try his usual tactics to supplicate me and argue his reasons for his temper.

Once I'd drawn breath, Albus hugged me close and whispered his apologies softly in my left ear, all the while suggesting gently that it might be prudent to take this discussion elsewhere. When he pulled back from me, Albus made sure to link my right arm with his left as we walked back along the corridor to my rooms. Thank heavens the students were already in their respective Common Rooms, as the nine o'clock curfew had already chimed.

I needed his re-assurance given everything else that's happened tonight. There are students missing from every house; including Gryffindor, much to my disgust. They've left to join up with Riddle, of that I have no doubt. Draco is missing as well, and though I would have wished it otherwise, I'm not really that naïve, much though I would have liked to have been in this instance. I just hope he finds himself not too badly injured so that I...so that I might have the chance to help him see the error of following blindly behind a parasite.

I just don't know if I could live with myself if I found him dead on the grounds or I ended up facing him in a duel. It would; in that very moment, be as though every nightmare had come back to haunt me a thousand fold.

Please, just let him stay safe...

About 10:30 pm in the evening...

I've just come back from the Infirmary. Albus and Poppy were busy conferring about Severus as though he wasn't there sitting on the edge of a bed adding his own knut's worth every so often. It was almost comical, and I would have laughed if not for the ashen look on Severus' face and the pervading feeling of tension overlaying the whole scene. Albus walked over to me as soon as he noticed Severus staring directly at me; filthy look firmly intact, and briefly appraised me of the events I'd missed since he'd left my rooms an hour ago. At my gasp, Severus just bluntly stated that he'd 'had enough bloody sympathy to last a lifetime' and he was retiring to his rooms post haste. When I asked Albus what the bloody hell was going on, he merely patted my hands and started waffling about it being not really what I might think that it is...and that I shouldn't be upset, but that I needed to remember the circumstances he'd just relayed to me.

I swivelled around to level my gaze at Severus as he snorted, but before I could open my mouth, Severus swept past me looking quite sheepish, and he escaped before I could ask him exactly what was going on.

And so I asked Albus bluntly to tell me exactly what had happened...and I could tell he wanted to misdirect the query, but he's never been able to do that when I ask him a direct question. It seems Miss Granger was in the Potions classroom when Severus was 'taken ill' and that she was quite shocked and is now all too aware that Severus' activities have been discovered in the most macabre way imaginable.

The night just keeps getting worse. Missing students, Albus leaving me for a 'meeting' with Remus, Hermione emotionally shocked by Riddle's idea of retribution, and Severus...left with the prospect of losing an arm, all the while worrying when some of his old 'compatriots' will try and finish the job.

I can't be bothered waiting for Albus to arrive. I just want to crawl into bed and wake up to find that it's been a horrible nightmare.

Just before midnight...

I was in a sound sleep when Albus Flooed to my rooms making enough noise from his office to wake every ghost and portrait in the castle. He nearly became my latest Transfiguration project...nearly. It was the look of resignation and age gracing his features that stopped me – just. Albus said he needed me to get dressed quickly and then meet him in the fifth floor Staffroom. He also added that I had to bring the journal (Yes, this one...the one I didn't think he knew about), with me. He stopped me asking anything too complicated by assuring me that it was nothing sinister in the interim, but that all of the secrets he'd been keeping from me would be laid bare in the next little while.

I nodded briefly and told Albus that I just needed to dress and that I'd be there momentarily, so I'd best keep my word and be on my way.

Everything is about to unravel to the ultimate conclusion we've all been dreading. Harry is not ready. None of us is really ready, least of all the students who will no doubt be forced to face their classmates shortly across a most grim divide. How can anyone be ready to face off against someone; no matter how depraved, and then duel until only one is left?

I don't know the answer, but no doubt I'll soon find out...so soon that my heart is racing in anxiety at the dread consequences of it all.

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