Time passed. Days. Weeks. Months. She was made Headmistress of Hogwarts after fighting with all she had, to keep the school open.

One evening in late May, she was sitting in her office doing paperwork. An owl flew through the window and she looked up, her eyes roaming over the room that was just like Albus had left it a year earlier. Looking at the owl, she recognized it immediately. Her eyes widened as she hastened to take the letter from it.

Dear Professor McGonagall,

You told me a year ago to call upon you and the Order when it was time.

I think that the time has come.

I will give you more information when we meet, I cannot say any more in this letter.

Sincerely,

Harry Potter

Minerva stared at the letter for a full minute. It was time. Time for Voldemort's defeat? An Order meeting was scheduled for the next afternoon and that was what she wrote back to Harry.

When they met again, Minerva was astounded. He had grown and he was clearly no longer a boy but a man ready to do what he had been destined to do.

Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger were followed by Minerva McGonagall and select Order members when they sought out the Graveyard where Harry had first seen Voldemort come back to life. Spies had told the Order that a Death Eater meeting had been arranged tonight.

The battle seemed short to Minerva. She saw Nymphadora Tonks in a heated battle against Bellatrix Lestrange, the woman who had killed her cousin. She saw Mad-Eye Moody fighting another Death Eater. She saw Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, fall to the ground to avoid a spell cast by Lord Voldemort himself. And all along she was fighting as well.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Minerva heard the words roared over the ear-splitting noise of the battle. Among the graves, fighting stopped; Death Eaters and members of the Order of the Phoenix all turned towards Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort as they both fell to the ground.

All was quiet as the dust settled, the fighting stopped. Then a figure stood and swept his messy black hair back. His face became clear and Minerva could see the scratches, the cuts, the bruises and the relief. She didn't know who started it but soon the graveyard was filled with a deafening roar, coming from the Order of the Phoenix. Death Eaters were bound, their wands were taken away from them and Anti-Apparition Spells were put on them.

Minerva surveyed the scene before her. She saw wounds, bruises on both friends and enemies, she saw exhaustion and relief, she saw… Her eyes rested on a man. A man whom she knew should be tied down. A man, who, in her opinion, deserved nothing less than the Dementor's Kiss. Rage filled her and she began to shake. Automatically she began to stride towards him, her hand clutching her wand.

"Minerva, no!" She felt her arms be pulled around her back.

"Let me go, Alastor!"

"I can't do that!"

"I'll kill him! Let me go!" She was infuriated by Alastor and finally she managed to pull away. She didn't see him try to get a hold of her again as she ran towards the man, shouting, "TRAITOR!"

Severus Snape finally seemed to notice her and his eyes widened as he saw the raging woman charging at him, her wand pulled.

"AVADA KEDAV –" Minerva felt someone grab her wrist and her wand pointed straight upwards as she spoke the last syllable of the curse. Snape looked at her with a mixture of shock and pity.

TBC...