Disclaimer: See chpt. 1
Dedicated to: The trio infernale, exploring unknown territory, finding new ways, and scaring themselves to death doing so. *lol*
A big thank you to Sarah (Oktaria) for letting me use her centaur's mountain!
And of course another huge thank you to my reviewers!
Minerva clutched her cloak tighter around her body. It wasn't a cold night, but Minerva trembled terribly. The forbidden forest was completely dark, thick clouds stopped the moon from shining, and Minerva was scared.
She held her wand protectively in her right hand, the tip of it the only source of light she had. She had told Albus she would meet an old friend in London. Albus didn't know many of her university friends, so he wouldn't be able to check whether she was really there or not.
This was the first time she was inside the forest on her own. Usually Hagrid or at least Albus accompanied her. She jumped on every sound, and all the time looked around to make sure there was no one hidden behind the trees or tried to sneak up on her.
She wasn't exactly sure how she would get to the Centaur's place. The myths about the place differed, and Minerva only knew that it was a place of great magic only few humans had seen so far. Centaurs kept mostly to themselves, and loathed humans. She wasn't sure what to expect when she reached the place.
She remembered Hagrid telling her how to reach the place, but with the dark Minerva was quite sure she would get hopelessly lost.
She rounded another corner, and then stopped dead in her tracks. The clouds had opened to let the moon shine through. The moonlight illuminated a small mountain.
This had to be it, Minerva thought to herself, as she started to climb up the steep path. At the end she found a large platform. Three large foundlings stood on the left side. Another small path led up to another smaller platform on the right side. There further four foundlings stood, casting huge shadows in the moonlight.
Minerva wondered whether the number of the foundlings, 7, had any meaning, but thought she probably would never get an answer.
She knew that the centaurs had chosen this place over 800 years ago, and she just could imagine hundreds of them lying in the sand, bathing in the sun or watching the stars at night. She wondered why there were no centaurs right now. Turning around she tried to see whether someone else was on the platform.
"It was clever of you to come tonight." A cold voice said from the shadows, and Minerva was glad that she had been able to muster enough strength not to jump at the sound of the voice.
"You didn't leave me much choice, did you?" She replied equally cold.
A man stepped out of the shadows, and Minerva instantly took a step backwards. She didn't know the man, which surprised her, because she somehow had thought she must know the man who hated her husband so much.
"Don't try to recognise me, you won't, and if it helps you, I don't know you as well. I am merely here to represent my boss." He studied her with a cold glare, and she squirmed uncomfortably under his glare, but stared back stubbornly. The man was tall and broad, and had a hard face. A scar ran over his left eyebrow, and Minerva was sure he was the one his boss send to scare the people, who wouldn't want to obey.
"What is it you want me to do for your boss?" Minerva asked with as much contempt in her voice as she could put into it.
The man stepped forward, and Minerva could only barely stop herself from reflexively taking a step backwards. He held a small folder out to her which she took wordlessly.
"Hermes will visit you in exactly two days, have the needed information till then." With that he turned around and left. Minerva stared after him, and then looked at the folder.
Who was Hermes? Her question was quickly answered, when a black owl rose from one of the foundlings and followed the mysterious man.
Why did she have to come here today? Couldn't the owl have brought her the folder? She concluded that this meeting had the purpose of intimidating her even further.
She took a quick glance inside the folder. There was a simple sheet of paper inside, with the name of a document on it. It also told her in short sentences what the document contained. Mostly it was about Order business: Plans of near missions, the location of some of the gathering points and such things.
She quickly memorized the name of the document and burned the folder right away. She didn't want to carry evidence of her doing around with herself.
***
Minerva arrived back at Hogwarts one hour later, every part of her body feeling numb and frozen. She hoped desperately that her husband had already gone to bed.
When she opened the door to his rooms she instantly spotted him sitting by the fire, doing some paperwork. He looked up, when she entered and smiled gently at her.
That smile faltered though, when he looked closer at her. He got up and walked towards her, and was surprised to find her embracing him, and holding on to him.
He was shocked at how cold she was, and gently led her over to the sofa, where he made her sit down. He conjured a cup of hot tea, and watched with satisfaction as she drank it.
"Minerva, did you walk back from London?" He was glad to see her smile at this.
She shook her head: "No, of course not, it was just… nothing really, I guess."
He made her look at him by turning her face gently towards him with one hand, while the other lay comfortingly on her arm: "Was it something that happened tonight?"
Minerva shook her head, and then looked deeply into his blue twinkling eyes: "You know I love you more than anything, don't you?"
Something about the way she said it, disturbed him slightly, and he took her face in both his hands: "Minerva, dear, you're scaring me a little right now."
She kissed him gently, before snuggling up to him: "I am sorry, Albus. I think I am just being strange."
He gently stroked her hair: "I love you, when you're strange." When he got no answer he looked down, and realized with smile playing on his lips, that she had fallen asleep in his arms. He kissed the top of head, and let her sleep.
***
When Minerva woke again, she was still lying on the sofa, a blanket covering her, a pillow being lovingly stuffed under her head.
Stretching lazily her gaze fell upon a small notice, telling her that her husband expected to be back in the late afternoon and that he loved her. Sensing the opportunity she got up and walked into Albus' study.
The large desk was a mess, something that wouldn't make her search for the document any easier, but she had approximately four hours before Albus would return.
She turned to the left first and started to go through all the folders and lose sheets of papers. A soft chirping sound made her look up after half an hour of fruitless search. She looked directly into the golden-brown eyes of Fawkes, the mighty phoenix of Albus Dumbledore.
She sat down in Albus' chair and stared at the phoenix, who had flown over and now sat opposite of her on the desk.
"Oh Fawkes, what am I doing here? I am betraying the man I love more than anything." She absentmindedly patted the bird's head, and gave him one of the special crackers reserved for him.
Fawkes cocked his head and looked curiously at her, before he took off again, flying through the room for a few minutes and then settling down on his perch once more.
Minerva continued her search for another hour, before she found the document lying hidden in a secret drawer, which only persons Albus truly trusted could open. This made Minerva feel incredibly guilty once more.
She looked through the document and removed some sheets of paper, she considered to be too sensible, such as the information where Grimmauld place was. She put the folder on the desk and duplicated it, before storing the original one back into the drawer.
She took the second folder with her, hiding it in her drawer, knowing that Albus would never search through her belongings. The pang of guilt was back.
***
Two months passed and Minerva was content to realize that her missions mostly consisted of searching for documents and handing them over to Hermes. It pained her when Albus returned from Order meetings with a slightly desperate look, because another mission had failed, but mostly she was able to send "the boss" the more unimportant documents. She always made sure she didn't duplicate those papers that held sensible information.
Aurelia visited her parents quite often now, and Minerva enjoyed watching the progress of her daughter's pregnancy.
School had started again, and her students kept her as busy as they usually did.
"Professor McGonagall?" Minerva looked up at the sound of Ron Weasley's exited voice.
"What is it Mr. Weasley?"
The young boy stared out of the window: "I've just seen a black owl!" Instantly everyone in the classroom started to crane their necks in order to see the bird. Minerva had seen Hermes fly by as well. He had been trying to get to her the whole morning, but every time he arrived someone else was already with her.
"I am sure you did, Mr. Weasley." Minerva replied coolly, and saw with satisfaction that everyone returned to copying their notes from the board.
After the lesson had ended she released her students to lunch break and hurried to her own office.
Sure enough Hermes already sat on her desk, looking as displeased as an owl could look. She quickly walked up to him and took the plain envelope he carried from him. She offered him a cracker, which he took carefully out of her hand. He had started accepting the crackers the last time he had come to her, and it made Minerva smile gently. Hermes looked at her once more before setting off again.
Minerva quickly opened the envelope and took out the contents. The first thing was a photograph of a middle-aged wizard. She studied it for a moment, and came to the conclusion that she didn't know him. The next thing was a note informing her about a dinner party this Friday.
The last sheet of paper had a singled command on it:
Kill him!
***
Muahaha, evil cliffhanger I know *lol*. Please review and tell me what you think! Just press that lovely button down there on the left!