A/n: I will apologise in advance for the shortness of this chapter, there was only so much I could write without repeating myself. I hope you enjoy it though and the next chapter will have the brothers reappearing. Thank you to everyone that took the time to review the last chapter, I am very grateful!
Chapter 10: Maybe, just a little bit.
Minerva swept upstairs and stormed into the bathroom, kicking the door shut with her foot. The bathroom was usually the most peaceful room in the cottage; it was painted a pale green and had dark green features. A freestanding green marble bath dominated the room and Minerva felt herself drawn to it. She turned on the silver taps and watched the water fill the bath at lightening speed; she reached across and poured some lavender and rosehip bath essence into the bath.
Minerva turned off the taps and went to undress, holding the dress in her hand; she couldn't help but look at the newly required pattern on it. She ran her fingers over the silver thread swirls and marvelled at what a great job he had done. The pattern certainly added some life to her tired plain dress and she was grateful, she had never thought about making alternations such as that to her clothes before but now she a few ideas.
She still couldn't believe how her day had turned out, she had only gone into Hogsmeade to run a few errands and meet up with Alastor Moody who had wanted to discuss their next undercover operative. She had been running late for their meeting when the man she most admired had knocked her to the floor. She hadn't seen him stepping out of Honeydukes and it probably entirely his fault though it had seemed easier to lay all of it on him at the time. If she was truthful to herself, she would admit that she had been acutely embarrassed about being knocked to the floor in front of people and then to find out whom she had bumped into, was a man she admired and often dreamt about meeting. She had snapped at him out of embarrassment, she had made a scene because she had wanted to divert the attention from her on the floor to something else. She had certainly diverted the attention but had made even a bigger fool of herself that she had originally had. She had found the twinkle in his eyes annoying, she felt that she had amused him and Minerva did not like to be laughed at. Once she had opened her mouth, the bitter angry words had just fallen from it without her even realising.
Not only had she walked into and been knocked over by Albus Dumbledore, she had also caused a scene which she had no way of getting out of. She had presented herself a young bitter woman who snapped at anyone regardless of their social standing, she took no prisoners when it came to her infamous Scottish temper. As a child, her parents had despaired at her temper and tried to help her control but she was stubborn and passionate, her temper flare up when engaged in a conversation about what she felt passionate about.
He had come after her to apologise better and she had just looked at him with annoyance, like his words meant nothing to her when in fact, they did. Once the misunderstanding about his brother had been ironed out, she had been glad that he had found the time to search for her. She now understood why people always said how agreeable he was to know, what a gentleman and what a heart of gold he had. She had watched him try to melt her, talking softly, smiling and even mending her dress. He had been trying to make amends and she had crossed wands with him each time. She was disgusted by her attitude towards him, she was ashamed and that had all added to her reaction to him.
Minerva slipped into the warm water, bubbles surrounding her as her body sunk beneath the water. She closed her eyes and saw him, his bright twinkling eyes looking at her. He had the most amazing eyes she had ever seen; long thick lashes framed the pools of blue and made them even more enchanting. She had seen a lot of different emotions flicker through his eyes as they had talked, she had read that eyes were the windows to the soul and she had to agree that Albus Dumbledore's eyes were very readable, if only she had taken the time to read them and not let her pride take over.
As the lavender bath essence made it's presence known up her nostrils, Minerva couldn't help but think what type of sweets he had brought in Honeydukes. He didn't seem like the jelly slug type of man and come to think of it, he didn't seem like a Bertie Bott bean or a toothflossing stringmints man. She had heard that he was fond of all things muggles and wondered if he had been buying muggle sweets, she didn't know a lot about sweets because she would rather nibble on ginger newts rather than suck on a sweet or blow bubbles. She tried to recall his chocolate frog card to see if it had mentioned anything about his favourite sweets but she couldn't think straight, the memory of his eyes were taking her over.
She glanced across the bathroom and looked at her dress again, he had done a wonderful job with and she had a feeling that it was to be her favourite dress from now on. She needed to make amends, to say sorry for how she acted and explain why she acted as she did but then she might end up making herself look even more foolish. For the first time in her life, Minerva felt out of control and it wasn't a nice feeling at all. She wondered how many people had seen her fall to the floor and she wondered how long it would take for her team members to hear about it, they would be teasing her about for weeks to come. She sighed deeply to herself before plunging her head under the water and holding her breath, the warm water washed over her and made her feel light for a few moments before the need for air made her resurface. She needed to do something; she just had to figure out what. What she did know was that maybe she was attracted to him, just a little bit.
TBC….