Disclaimer: None of the recognizable characters and settings belong to me. They are all the intellectual property of J.K. Rowling. I'm just playing around with them for the fun of it…no monetary gain is sought.

This story is dedicated to scatteredlogic for her cherished friendship and all her invaluable help.

Chapter Twenty Eight: Come Along Quietly, and No One Else Will Be Hurt

Minerva drew herself up to her full height and walked as calmly as possible towards the two men by the door.

"There's no need to make a scene. I fully intend to go with you quietly and willingly," she asserted in a firm voice.

"Really?" The taller of the two Aurors sneered. "It looks to me as if you were getting ready to skip out. We were warned that you probably knew we were coming for you, and that you might try to escape us. Seems as if we arrived just in time."

Minerva nodded in agreement but attempted to reassure them. "I was leaving the school, but I was only going as far as my home. You'd have found me there had you come a bit later."

The short, beefy Auror shook his head in disbelief and asserted sarcastically, "Sure, you say that now that we caught you, but in my experience, if you give criminals a chance, they always run, and they always lie about it. You just didn't get the chance."

"Nonsense," Minerva snapped sharply. "I am not a criminal, and if I'd wished to run off, I've had plenty of time to do it."

By this time, she'd come up beside the two men, and the shorter one reached out and seized her roughly by the arm to assert his control over the situation. "No one admits to being a criminal, lady, so it doesn't really matter what you say. We'll let other people sort out your lies. You can give your excuses to the magistrates, that's what they're there for anyway. We're just here to take you to Azkaban to await trial. Now, hand over your wand."

To Minerva's dismay, the entrance hall was beginning to fill up with gawking students and staff who were all quite alarmed and disconcerted to discover their Deputy Headmistress being arrested. All her hopes of preventing just this very scene from occurring had been dashed spectacularly. She noticed that Filch was now standing to one side looking as if someone had just handed him a particularly tasty sweet and was watching the goings on with amazed and excited eyes.

Minerva sighed. Why did she think that this was only going to get worse? "I don't have my wand on me," she said.

The Aurors exchanged knowing glances. Then the tall one sneered into her face as she looked up at him. "Being an obstructionist isn't going to help your case, Professor." He sneered at her title. "Now, hand over the wand." As he spoke, the shorter one shook her sharply.

"I do not have my wand on me. You can search me if you must, but you won't find it," she asserted firmly, grimacing as the shaking snapped her neck painfully.

"That's enough talking back from you!" the shorter Auror sneered.

Then without warning the short Auror shoved her roughly back into the taller Auror's arms, who grabbed her firmly and yanked her arms back behind her, holding her tightly as the shorter man began to run his hands down over her body. "We don't need your permission to search you if you won't cooperate, Professor. So we'll just have to check for ourselves, I guess." he said with a slight smirk as she shivered at the nasty gleam in his eye.

"Leave her alone!"

Suddenly, a young irate voice came from the direction of the dining hall. Everyone in the entry hall turned to look as Harry Potter came sprinting out of the doorway towards the Aurors who were abusing his Head of House. His usual sidekicks were backing him up.

Minerva's heart began to race horridly. The last thing she needed or wanted was for any of her students to get involved in this debacle…especially not Harry. It could only lead to more trouble.

Pulling against her captor in her frustration, she turned towards her approaching student and called out to him with a firm voice. "Harry, no! Stay out of this. It's not your concern."

Harry came to a stop a few feet from the suddenly defensive Aurors and Minerva. Ron and Hermione came up to stand on either side of him. All three frowned angrily at the bullying officials who glared back and fingered their wands nervously, stopping just short of actually drawing them on the students.

Snape began to move across the entrance hall. Obviously, he was going to have to get involved before Potter made everything worse than it already was. His insides were trembling with fury at having to watch those idiots treat Minerva so roughly without being able to stop them, but standing in the doorway to the Great Hall, with a huge smile on his face, was Draco Malfoy. The young Slytherin's eyes glittered malevolently, and he kept smirking at Snape as if he was sure that they were sharing some delicious joke. If the Potions master could've killed the insufferable brat where he stood, he would've done it without a moment's thought, but instead he could do nothing except walk the ever thinner tightrope that was his role in this convoluted life he led.

The shorter Auror glared at Harry and said, "Listen to the old lady, kid. This is none of your affair. You don't want to end up getting yourself arrested for interfering in an official Ministry investigation."

"You have no right to barge in here and treat Professor McGonagall like that!" exclaimed Harry hotly.

"Yeah, kid, we do. We're official representatives of the Ministry of Magic. We're just performing our job here by arresting this criminal according to the law. If you know what's good for you, you'll simply stay out of it," the Auror shot back.

Harry began to look around for someone else to appeal to. He hoped to see Professor Dumbledore, or maybe Professor Flitwick, but unfortunately, the only authority figure he saw nearby, was Professor Snape. Not his first choice under any circumstances, but hopefully better than nothing. Angrily, the young man stepped up to Snape and began to plead with him to intervene.

"You have to stop this, Professor. You can't just let them treat Professor McGonagall this way. She couldn't have murdered anyone. You know she couldn't!" He stared accusingly at Snape, daring him to argue.

Snape directed a dark frown down at Harry, while inside his heart was pounding furiously with his own suppressed anger.

"Quiet, boy. This is none of your concern," he snapped sharply. Then before Harry could retort, he turned to the Aurors, who had now stripped off Minerva's cloak, and were searching her even more thoroughly, still looking for the wand that resided securely within his own pocket and addressed them in as calm a voice as he could manage.

"You know, I was under the impression that prisoners, who were only under the suspicion of committing a crime, were no longer held in Azkaban, but instead were held in the holding cells at the Ministry until trial."

The shorter Auror tore his eyes away from his searching of the prisoner and considered Snape calmly.

"Well, this is a bit more serious, isn't it? This is murder, and Acting Minister of Magic Gallagher ordered us to take her directly to Azkaban Fortress. We weren't to be according her any special treatment just because she works here. So that's what we're going to do. The evidence against her is very strong, and her incarceration is being pushed through from the highest levels of power. We don't argue with that, and you'd be smart not to argue with it either."

Before Snape could say anything further, Harry grabbed him by the arm and yelled, "Help her, Professor."

Snape shook Harry off his arm and hissed, "Mind your manners, Potter. This is none of your concern."

"You want her gone, don't you? You hate her!" Harry exclaimed angrily, allowing his instinctive dislike of Snape to override his better judgment. "That's why you won't help her. Well, if you won't do anything, then I will."

Snape felt as if Harry had struck him. Hate her? If the brat only knew…

Harry stuck his hand in his pocket to pull out his wand and tried to take a step towards McGonagall and the Aurors, but before he could follow through with it and possibly get himself arrested as well, Snape seized his arm firmly and hauled him back. "Fifty points from Gryffindor for your insolence, Potter, and if you don't get a hold of yourself this instant, I'll make it one hundred."

Damn you, Potter, you arrogant twit, he thought desperately, this isn't helping her. Can't you see that you're just making things worse? Stupid boy.

Snape raised his eyes to Minerva and found her looking back at him with understanding. Her voice cut through the hubbub of muttering that now filled the hall and reduced it to silence. "Harry, listen to Professor Snape. This isn't your fight, young man, and if you don't step back and behave right now, I'll take additional points away from you." Even though I no longer have the right, she realized with a sudden pang.

Harry gaped at her but ceased struggling with Snape and stood by sullenly instead.

Determinedly, Minerva turned back to the Aurors with exasperation in her voice. "This has gone far enough. I'm not resisting going with you so there's no reason to prolong this any further. I do not have my wand on me so you'll just have to accept that and take me as is. After all, it's me you're here for, isn't it, not my wand?"

The short Auror turned to his taller companion, who shrugged and stated reasonably, "She doesn't have it on her or you'd have found it."

Frowning determinedly, the shorter Auror, who seemed to be the one in charge, then turned back to Minerva and stated firmly, "All right. If that's the way it's going to be… Minerva McGonagall, in the name of the Ministry of Magic, I hereby formally charge you with the murder of Henry Grant." Then he produced a pair of iron handcuffs, which he handed to his companion, who placed them on Minerva's slender wrists and closed them tightly, binding her arms securely behind her back.

This action raised another uproar from the watching crowd. Several students protested that they shouldn't be doing that, and Irma Pince and Pomona Sprout, having come out of the Great Hall to see what was going on, both started forward to Minerva's defense, exclaiming that that sort of treatment of their colleague was hardly necessary.

Becoming alarmed as the watching crowd suddenly surged towards them, both Aurors pulled out their wands and aimed them at those heading their way while pulling Minerva viciously back and shoving her roughly up against the wall behind them.

Suddenly, a voice rang out strongly over the noise and confusion of the hall and every face there turned upward to stare at the impressive figure of Albus Dumbledore standing halfway up the main staircase with a thunderous expression on his face.

"Quiet!" exclaimed the Headmaster.

Once he had their undivided attention, he addressed the crowd of students that lingered in the entry and in the doorway to the Great Hall.

"All students are to take their places at their respective tables immediately. None of this concerns any of you. Now go."

Reluctantly, all the students turned away from the excitement and began to file off into the Great Hall to have their breakfast, casting final fascinated glances behind them as they went. All except Harry, who yanked his arm angrily from the Potions master's grasp with a final murderous glare for his hated teacher and turned to address the Headmaster fervently.

"Professor Dumbledore, you can't just let them arrest Professor McGonagall. It isn't right."

Dumbledore had now descended to the ground floor and addressed Harry sternly. "This isn't any of your concern, Harry. I know that you're worried about your Head of House, but this is my responsibility, and I will take care of it. Now, please join your classmates in the Great Hall. I'll address everyone shortly. In the meantime, go and begin your breakfast."

As Harry hesitated, the Headmaster added more kindly, "It'll be all right, Harry, now please go."

Still obviously reluctant to leave, Harry shot a worried glance at Professor McGonagall, followed by one full of loathing at Professor Snape, and then he stomped over to the entrance to the Great Hall where Ron and Hermione lingered, waiting for him. Once all the students had disappeared into the hall, Dumbledore nodded to Professor Sprout, who reluctantly followed the students inside and closed the doors behind her.

That left Irma Pince, Argus Filch and Severus Snape as the only witnesses in the hall. The three of them congregated behind their leader facing the Aurors and their prisoner. Filch had sobered his eager expression upon the appearance of the Headmaster, but his eyes still gleamed avidly as he moved behind the professors and the librarian and simply continued to watch expectantly. This was certainly more excitement than he'd come across recently, and sure beat the heck out of fixing the blocked plumbing in the fifth floor Prefect's bathroom, which was what was on his schedule for the morning.

Irma was beside herself with fear for her friend. Now she understood what Minerva had meant when she'd spoken of having to leave Hogwarts and possibly not being able to return. Obviously, she'd known that she was about to be arrested and hadn't wanted to burden Irma with the knowledge. Though it was certainly some sort of mistake on someone's part. Minerva would never murder anyone, after all. Hopefully, the Headmaster would be able to straighten everything out quickly. Irma directed her expectant gaze on Dumbledore, hoping fervently that he could once more pull a rabbit from his hat as the Muggles say and prevent these horrid men from taking Minerva to Azkaban. The librarian shivered at the thought of her friend ending up in such awful surroundings.

Snape stood behind his Headmaster and tried to keep his face impassive, though he could feel the conflicting emotions churning around inside him as he looked at his lover's pale, worried face. This was all such an unnecessary waste. Things should never have been allowed to go this far. Why did Gryffindors insist on following the rules to their own detriment? Such nobility of spirit was a total waste of time if they ended up losing their lives in the end without accomplishing anything in the process. If she'd only told him what was going on sooner.

But would it really have made any difference? He shivered involuntarily. What could he have truly done? Standish looked upon him as an ally, a relationship that he'd encouraged. It would have been very difficult to have openly defied the man. If he'd come to Minerva's defense against the Dark Lord's wishes, he'd have ended up in far worse straits than she was in now. So would it have really helped for her to have confided in him? Grimly, he admitted to himself that perhaps it wouldn't have mattered, but confiding in Albus was another matter altogether. Standish was obviously relying on his ties with the Wizengemot to influence this whole proceeding. Well, Albus' ties were even stronger, his power greater. He might have been able to deflect all of this before it ever got to the point of her being arrested.

If she hadn't been so stubbornly set on protecting everyone at Hogwarts, she'd have seen the sense of that course of action herself, but as usual with Gryffindors, they never saw the trees because they were too busy looking out for the whole damn forest. Thinking of herself, instead of the greater good of the many, was something that Minerva was simply incapable of.

Hopefully, it wasn't too late. Hopefully, Albus could still stop this travesty before it went too far, before Minerva ended up being sacrificed to the nasty, selfish revenge of her buffoon of an ex-husband.

"Now," exclaimed Dumbledore calmly as he approached the Aurors who had pocketed their wands with the disappearance of the threatening crowd and were calmly facing the few people who were left with slightly wary eyes. "What is this all about?"

The shorter Auror shot a slightly nervous glance at his companion, who tightened his grip on Minerva again, and then stepped forward to face the Headmaster. He withdrew a roll of parchment affixed with an impressive official looking seal from an inner pocket and handed it to Dumbledore. "We're here by order of the Acting Minister of Magic to arrest Minerva McGonagall for the murder of a wizard named Henry Grant. The charges are all spelled out in this arrest decree if you want to read it."

Dumbledore took the roll of parchment without comment and opened it up. Then he stood there and read it over carefully while all of them watched him quietly. Finally, he raised his head and looked sadly at Minerva. She dropped her eyes away from his gaze and began to stare at the floor. This wasn't the way that she'd wanted him to find out about this. How disappointed in her he must be now.

"Surely this could have been handled in a more civilized manner. There was no need for the two of you to force your way in here and abuse my professor as you were arresting her." Dumbledore's voice was calm but sharp edged.

The short Auror bristled. "We didn't force our way in here, we knocked on the door and he let us in." He pointed accusingly at Filch, who shrugged and hastened to reassure his employer.

"That's true, Headmaster. I had no way o' knowing what they wanted, now did I?" Filch explained.

The Auror nodded firmly and continued, "And we were well within our rights to be firm with the prisoner if she put up any resistance, which she did. So don't think you can go getting any of these here charges dropped because we didn't adhere to procedures, because we were very careful to follow the rules. If you have any problems with this, you can take it up with the Ministry of Magic and Madam Bones herself, as she's the one who drafted the decree. Now, we'll be going, and we'll be taking our prisoner with us."

Minerva spoke up suddenly as the tall Auror tightened his grip on her arm and began to pull her towards the door. "I'm sorry, Albus. This should never have happened. I was hoping to be gone before any of this could occur. Please, forgive me for all this disruption."

Dumbledore shook his head. "It's not your fault, Minerva. Don't worry, I'm sure that we can get all this straightened out in no time."

She took a slightly shaky breath and nodded, not believing a word of it. There really wasn't any point in telling him differently though, she thought guiltily to herself. He'd find out the truth of things soon enough on his own anyway.

As the Aurors opened the door to the castle to leave with their prisoner, a blast of cold air swept in to make everyone inside shiver instinctively. Before she was dragged out of the castle for what could be her last time, Minerva found her eyes seeking out those of Severus for one last bit of connection to take with her into the unknown future that faced her now. The bleakness of his expression as he stared back at her brought tears to her eyes as the door closed behind her, shutting out her happy life, perhaps forever.

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Next Chapter: Azkaban.