Out of her Hands

A/n: Many thanks to all the lovely people who took the time to review the last chapter and huge thanks to Ang!

Chapter Three: Turning to Someone

Minerva set her bag down on the doorstep of Number Ten, Alexandra Road and sighed, she knew that coming here wasn't one of the best options but it was the only one available to her. She knew that Poppy Pomfrey would welcome her with open arms; she had been on her to come and stay with her for months but Poppy had enough on her plate. Poppy was seven months pregnant and also trying to prepare a wedding, she wanted to be Poppy Moody before the baby arrived but time was against her and Alastor wasn't being overly helpful.

Minerva raised her hand and knocked on the door quietly, she waited quietly for the door to open. Alastor opened the door and sighed with relief when he saw Minerva on their doorstep.

"Just the witch to help," he exclaimed as he invited her in "Poppy cant decide between royal blue or shy blue tablecloths. Apparently, I am of no use when it comes to vital matters such as colour coordination."

Minerva smiled; helping Poppy would probably take her mind off Albus and what she had just done. Part of her was still in shock that she had moved out of their home but she had had to, it was driving her mad being there alone with everything reminding her of Albus. Minerva followed Alastor through the house and into the living room where they found Poppy sitting awkwardly on a high back chair with colour charts on her lap.

"I have found someone to help you darling!" he said as walked over to Poppy who was frowning.

Poppy looked up and saw Minerva; she quickly shoved the wedding plans down the side of the chair and scowled at Alastor, who looked thoroughly confused. He had thought that Poppy would have been pleased with the help but then he remembered and he mentally kicked himself for being too wrapped up in his own wedding to remember that Minerva had been planning her own wedding before Albus had left to fight.

"You don't have to tread on egg shells around me," said Minerva, she had picked up on the tense atmosphere and smiled at Poppy "You don't have long to plan especially since you want to marry before your arrival, so I don't mind at all lending a hand."

"Oh Min," said Poppy gratefully "are you sure? Its just that the great lump beside me has no idea."

"I do have a name!" grumbled Alastor before he limped out of living, leaving the two witches to talk matching flowers and table wear.

Poppy smiled after him before pulling out the colour charts and place sittings, she showed Minerva what she had planned and Minerva suggested a few seating adjustments to prevent upset. As Minerva glanced over the seating list, she noticed that her and Albus' names were on either side of the future bride and groom. She ran her finger over the red ink that spelt Albus' name and sighed.

"Has Alastor found a new best man?" she asked softly, not looking up from the parchment.

"Oh Min," said Poppy with a gasp "I had forgotten about the seating plan and yes Alastor has found a new best man, his cousin Cecil."

Poppy reached over and took the seating plan from her best friends and carefully erased Albus' name and replaced with Cecil, she hoped that Minerva hadn't seen it but the eagle eyed witch had. Minerva knew that plans had to be made and that Albus was going to be replaced but it was too soon, for her it was. Everyone else seemed to be moving on and forgetting about Albus, Minerva felt thoroughly alone in the world. Poppy reached over and squeezed her hand, she felt bad about doing this in front of Minerva but things had to continue.

"Alastor, has written something in his speech about Albus." Poppy explained, she wanted Minerva to know that Albus was still remembered and would never be forgotten "Its beautiful, it's soppy and Albus would have surely blushed."

Minerva smiled gratefully as Poppy and squeezed her hand with her own, she was thankful that Poppy had mentioned that. Albus had been looking forward to being best man and had been working on his speech ever since Alastor had asked him, Minerva still knew where the half finished speech was and she had planned to give to them as part of their wedding present since Albus wouldn't be reading it out.

"Poppy," said Minerva softly "I have a favour to ask, I know you have plenty of stuff going on already but I wouldn't ask if I didn't need to."

"Of course, you can stay Min.," replied Poppy without giving Minerva the opportunity to ask her the question "your room is already prepared, it has been for a while now."

"Thank you Pops." Minerva replied gratefully "I decided that I needed to get out of that house, I love that place but its not helping me accept the fact that Albus isn't coming back."

Tears glistened in her tired, emerald green eyes, she hadn't wanted to cry again and especially not in front of Poppy who had enough to deal with but she couldn't help it. Poppy embraced her best friend and held her as tightly as she could, her pregnancy bump getting in the way but she knew that Minerva would appreciate the gesture. Poppy had been amazed at first at how Minerva was handing the situation, she had joined the search parties and had never given up hope but as the weeks had gone by, Poppy grew alarmed as she saw her best friend waste away in front of her eyes. The final straw was when Minerva had collapsed in the middle of Diagon Alley, Poppy had forced to her to see sense when she had recovered. Poppy hadn't enjoyed telling Minerva that she needed to except that Albus wasn't coming home and that things had to be arranged. For a while, Poppy had thought her words had sunk in but then Minerva went back to refusing that Albus was dead. Hearing Minerva say that she needed to leave her home because she had to accept that Albus wasn't returning, had been the first admittance of accepting the situation and Poppy was glad for that

"I need closure Poppy," sobbed Minerva "but how it that possible when I don't have Albus' body to bury?"

Poppy didn't know what to say, she knew Albus and had loved him as a brother but she wasn't suffering as Minerva was. Poppy had never been in this position before, she had lost friends and family the dark war but bodies had been recovered and they had been able to mourn properly but Minerva couldn't. Poppy suddenly had an idea, a way of helping Minerva and giving her something she could do to remember Albus.

"Why don't we plant a tree in his memory," suggested Poppy "we could invite his friends and family to the planting and then we can hold some type of wake to remember and celebrate his life."

"He would of have liked that idea," sniffed Minerva as she looked up at her friend and smiled softly through her tears "We could plant it at Hogwarts, he loved that place and his life was there."

So it was agreed that a tree would be planted in the grounds of Hogwarts as an remembrance of a great man, who had died bringing peace to there world. Albus Dumbledore would be honoured for years to come, his memory to be imprinted on the grounds of the finest wizarding school for miles around.

To be continued!