His Daughter

Author: Leta McGotor

Disclaimer: I own nothing but some characters like Nostradamus Crehl and the McDrake family including Richard McGonagall. The other belongs to JKR.

DamesFan: "Verkorkste Kindheit" – na ja, sowas in der Art. Ist eigentlich ein Wunder, dass sie keine schlimmen Psychosen (oder so ähnlich) hat. Deshalb braucht sie ja Albus so dringend. Danke für dein Review, bis dann.

Baby.cee: I'm really trying to update soon. But every time I have updated I don't want to write anything and so it happens very often that I write a chapter and update at the same day. Thank you for your review.

SherbetKitty: Yep, they were good ones, although my parents argued over Christmas. But now that is over, forgotten and no one speaks a word about it. It's fantastic that you like the chapters, thank you for your review.

Becca: Thank you for reviewing

Chapter 17 Revealing in public

It was a long corridor, too long in her opinion. Why had people such long corridors? Even the ones in Hogwarts were shorter. And then the stairs. Down and down and down. At every bottom there was a new corridor or staircase and it all seemed endless. Minerva didn't know where she should go and so she always stayed near Professor Crehl, who was also running down the corridors and stairs, although she was faster that he. From time to time she felt weak and had to lean against a wall. Her health and strenght hadn't returned completely yet, but now was not the time to rest, now was the time to do something and quick.

Again and again they ran down some steps, turned around a corner until finally they arrived in front of an old oaken doubledoor. Without waiting or knocking Minerva opened it and entered a huge hall. Hundreds of heads turned in her direction and no one was a friendly one. Some of them even shook their heads in disgust or looked angry. A child, especially a girl should not go to trial like this one. Wasn't she educated?

But that all didn't matter to Minerva. She hold her head high and stepped down until she reached the bottom of the stairs. There she stood in front of an old man with a grey beard and a big red nose. With his wide open eyes he looked sceptically at her with an unspoken question written all over his face. Next to him sat another man. He was tall, pale and looked all but friendly. In his eyes Minerva was only someone, who wants to disturb this trial without having a reason, not that anyone would have a reason to disturb such an important trial. A bit on, on a stool with chains all over there sat no other than Albus Dumbledore. He looked stressed, worn out, but lovingly and with interest in her direction. He was glad, that she was alright. He hadn't seen her since the hospital and there she hadn't been awake yet. But he also looked worried at her, because he didn't know what she would do next.

Carefull Minerva cleared her throat, knowing that Professor Crehl was behind her to help if she should need him.

"You must stop this trial. Albus Dumbledore is innocent. We have the evidence that show that no other than Duncan McDrake should sit there, but not he.", she said. Her words were to hear in the whole hall and all the people had become silent.

"And your name?", sat the tall man and looked through some of his papers.

"Minerva McGongall."

"The daughter of the victim?", asked the man with the red nose and his eyes became even wider.

"No. I'm the daughter of his wife but not of him. He is my father." Minerva answered and pointed in Albus' direction.

"You were very ill, right? Come to your senses, girl. This man was your teacher, nothing more and now he is the murderer of your father. Can anybody bring that girl out of here and into the caring hands of St. Mungo's ?"

"I'm perfectly earnest. Richard McGongall was never my father. And I won't go until you have seen the evidence and say that my real father is innocent."

"That's right. Everybody has the chance to prove his or her innocence. It happens that we have found the real murderer and before he goes to Azkaban he wishes to reveal some other facts about the man who ordered him to murder Richard McGongall." Professor Crehl said and looked seriously at the two men in front of him.

"You had your time before this trial started.", said a voice form the mass of the spectators. When Minerva turned around, she saw no other than Duncn McDrake standing in the middle of the court room looking dangerously desperate at the men, who were able to decide about the destiny of Albus Dumbledore.

"That's right:", started the tall man but the other stopped him.

"But we can't sent an innocent to Azkaban. You are allowed to show your evidence and than we will see."

"I'll go and catch him.", answered Professor Crehl with a nod in Albus' direction and than vanished out of the court room. Minerva stayed where she was.

"And where is the evidence that this man Professor Crehl and my niece spoke about is not a liar? He could say everything and we don't know whether it is the truth or not.",interfered Duncan McDrake again. "We don't know how much they pay him."

"We are not you, uncle." Minerva shot back at him. "And maybe I have other things than only this man. Can you imagine what will happen if I tell the whole story about Richard McGonagall, about my family and how you thought about it all?" Duncan McDrake only laughed.

"Come to your senses, Minerva. You must learn that your parents are dead, but don't be frightened, I will help you.", he answered, as if Minerva did this all because her parents had died and she got not enough attention. That fact made her very angry and so she shot back at him.

"So do you think. But I'm not going back to you. You are the murderer of the husband of my mother. You are the one who wants to see my father in Azkaban. You are the one, who is to blame for death of my mother and for her unworthy life while her marriage." Suddenly Minerva turned around and pulled her shirt over her head. Some bandages followed it to the floor before she stood there with her naked back for all to see. The mass of spectators gasped.

"Do you see my back? Do you see all the scars? They remind me every day on my life in that family. They remind me of all the things Richard McGonagall did to my mother and to me. You knew the whole time that he tortured us with curses, blows and sometimes he gave us some poison to see its effects on the human body. You knew it the whole time. And then my mother died and my real father learned that he had a daughter and that was dangerous for you and your fine reputation. You never liked Richard McGongall but you never did something against him. But couldn't let it happen that this is known in public. And so you ordered someone to murder him and it was you, who blamed my father, it was you because he would fight against your opinions and he would do something against you at all. You are no better than Richard McGongall was."

Minerva screamed that all. Forgotten where the people around her, forgotten was the hall full of spectators, forgotten was the court. It simply didn't matter to her, Albus Dumbledore – her father – was all she had left and she would fight to keep him, she would't let him go. Now she panted. She was weak, had no strenght left in her after her speech. Her whole body aced and little red points danced in front of her eyes, but she remained standing there, proud that she had managed to speak about it, proud that she had done something to help her father, to prove his innocence. Tears poured down her cheeks, but she wasn't ashamed of them. For the first time in her life she wasn't ashamed of something as weak as tears. She was proud of them.

The court room was silent. No one spoke and it seemed that most of the people hold there breath. Duncan McDrake only stood there nd looked at Minerva before he shook his head with a small smile on his face.

"You are like your mother. She was as stubborn and proud as you are. Nothing could break her, I thought. But then she married Richard McGongall and I learned that even she was weak. Weak people are useless people and so was she and I knew so were you."

"Yes, so she is and she can be proud that she is like her mother and not like you or Richard McGongall. Minerva is indeed a human being, filled with passion, with life, love, curiosity and with weakness. She belongs to the little group of human beings who will fight for all this things and she can be proud of it." Albus Dumbledore said into the silence.

"You are a lunatic, too, you fool." Then he went up the stairs but some of the aurors stopped him.

"I think there are a few points we have to discuss, Mr McDrake.", said the man with the red nose. The other nodded and looked again through his papers. "So you gave the order to…"

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