Sorry for the late update. Hopefully, you enjoy the chapter despite the wait :) Also thanks for the reminders about Cho and Dean! I'll amend my mistakes!
30 September 1997
Minerva brushed the feathers of her quill gently against her lips as she read a student's essay in her classroom. No matter how she looked at it or tried to interpret it, she could make neither head nor tail of their argument. But she did not want to write as much on their homework because she did not want to discourage the student, whom she knew had clearly tried.
She lightly bit her bottom lip, and her eyes drifted to the window. She could see the dementors moving eerily across the fields. Though she would have liked them to patrol the grounds further away from the school, a part of her was still glad that the dementors had kept their word. Indeed, after a rather snappy conversation with Severus following two students fainting in her classroom, Minerva had managed to persuade him to make them stay beyond the gates. Their presence was still nevertheless felt across the entire school.
Minerva shivered and closed her eyes. Concentrate, she thought. Moping would not do anyone any good, she silently told herself. She forced herself to bend back over the essay she was marking, attempting to both ignore her own tiredness, the dementors outside, and Pomona who was rather noisily trying to heal her plant. A few broken stems as a result of the plant being dropped, quite by accident, Minerva recalled.
"Ouch!" Pomona said suddenly. She inhaled sharply, then brought a finger to her mouth and sucked it to stem the blood flow.
Minerva produced a handkerchief and gave it to Pomona. "Do you need help with anything?" she asked.
Pomona averted her gaze. "No, I think I almost have it."
"Are you certain?"
"Yes, Minerva!" she replied rather shortly. "I'm fine."
Minerva sighed, laid down her quill on the table and pushed her papers away from her so that she could give Pomona her full attention. "I don't think so," she said. "What is it?"
"Nothing," Pomona insisted. "I'm fine—"
"Pomona—"
"—Really—"
"—please. Out with it now or the problem will merely stew. Both you and I are well past the age when we should find speaking our minds too difficult."
Pomona pursed her lips. "All right," she said. She sat down on her stool and moved her plant to the side so that she and Minerva could see each other clearly. "All right, I am upset."
Minerva was not surprised. "You are not alone in that regard, Pomona," she said, and she pursed her lips as she thought of what had transpired that morning in the Great Hall.
Amycus had been telling a first year off — Thomas Cooke — for goodness knows what, Minerva recalled. Finnigan had noticed and had taken this opportunity to insult Amycus. Minerva had not been in the room at the time, though from what she had heard from Filius - who had been in the room - Seamus Finnigan's words were not ones to be repeated. The result of Finnigan's actions had been Amycus hitting him so hard on the cheek that Poppy had needed to fix Seamus' teeth afterwards.
"I don't think I have ever seen you tell off a colleague like that before," Pomona added. "You didn't even deem Dolores bad enough to shout at her like you told off Amycus this morning."
Minerva was silent for a moment. "I sense that is a reprimand," she said quietly.
"It is an observation, Minerva," Pomona said, exasperated. "Amycus and Alecto are not being at all discreet, you know," she added. "They want us all replaced - you in particular."
Minerva clucked her tongue. "So I should have not raised my voice after one of our students had been hit by his teacher?" she said hotly.
"Of course not! No!" Pomona closed her eyes and pressed her fingertips to her eyelids, suddenly looking entirely miserable and worn out. "Someone had to do something but—but I am worried for you, Minerva... You know, I did not want you to come back to Hogwarts this year."
Minerva blinked. "You never told me that."
"Because I knew you would not listen to me," Pomona said. Her hands dropped to her lap, but she still did not look Minerva in the eye. "We're treading a fine line now, Minerva. Amycus, Alecto and Severus won't let things go. Like Dolores did not let things go. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Minerva sighed. "I think I do," she said tiredly. "My actions this morning will come back to bite me — that is what you believe? But, Pomona, while I am still here, the students will always come first."
"I am not saying that they should not, Minerva," Pomona said, and Minerva was aware of a usually absent sharpness in Pomona's tone. "Just that you should let us step in sometimes. It needn't always be you."
"But—"
"But nothing, Minerva." Pomona interrupted. She sighed. "I don't think you realise how similar you are to Dumbledore - always thinking about others before yourselves."
Minerva looked down and away at the window. It was dark outside. There were no stars in the sky - just the moon, which illuminated the see-through coats of the dozen dementors gliding across the grounds. "I'm sorry," she said, and she meant it.
Pomona did not say anything, instead leaning forward to reach out and hold Minerva's hand. Then, suddenly, the classroom door burst open and both Minerva and Pomona jumped - Pomona's hands returning to her knees. Minerva was on the verge of reprimanding the student for entering a classroom without knocking until she took in the wild and frightened look in Cecily Moore's eyes.
Minerva began to stand. "What is it, Miss Moore?" she asked immediately.
"I—" Cecily Moore's eyes darted between Minerva and Pomona - clearly she had not expected to find both of them in the Transfigurations classroom. "Madame Pomfrey needs your help, Professor McGonagall," she said, then promptly burst into tears.
Pomona was on her feet in a heartbeat. "Come along and sit yourself down, Cecily," she said kindly, guiding the girl to one of the chairs in Minerva's classroom. She shared a look with Minerva and Minerva, understanding Pomona's look, nodded and swiftly made her way out of the classroom.
As she left, Minerva heard Pomona gently reassure her and then question the Third Year to get more information out of her.
It was not long before Minerva reached the Hospital Wing. As she approached the large oak doors she had already had hundreds of terrible thoughts blossom in her mind involving terribly injured students - in particular, Thomas Cook who mightn't have been so lucky as to have escaped punishment that morning, as Minerva and Pomona had thought.
Minerva pushed open the doors to the Hospital Wing and was unexpectedly greeted by a quiet and peaceful scene. The lights were dimmed and the only noise was the gentle swishing tail of Poppy's Patronus - a fox - as it looked through the window and surveyed the moonlit grounds. Its ears twitched when Minerva entered the room, and it turned briefly to face her before looking away again.
Minerva made her way to the back of the Hospital Wing where Poppy's office was. A faint glow came from behind the lace curtains. Minerva could just about make out Poppy sitting at her desk by the window, head bent over what Minerva assumed to be some work.
Poppy opened the door before Minerva knocked. "I saw you walk in," she said. "And I have a spell on the door to tell me when someone enters."
She walked inside the room, dimly lit by a candle, and sat back down at her desk. Minerva pulled up a chair and sat down too.
"I had Miss Moore burst into my office today. She told me that you sent her, Poppy," Minerva said. "Urgently."
Poppy sighed and Minerva was struck suddenly at how much her former student had changed. Poppy's blond hair was now laced with grey, and she had it tied up in a bun at the nape of her neck. She wore glasses now; small, round and wiry reading spectacles that sat on the bridge of her nose. And a small engagement ring hung on a delicate chain around her neck. Minerva had not seen it many times before but, from her own personal experiences, she understood why it had taken so long for Poppy to wear the ring again.
"Well, I could not very well alert Severus," Poppy said. She sat up straighter and her nightgown covered the chain around her neck, and the ring given to her many years ago by a young Healer Poppy had met during training, and who had died not long after. "Parvati Patil came to me this evening supporting Ernie MacMillan who seemed very disoriented."
Minerva frowned but Poppy did not give her time to interject.
"And Cecily Moore was there too, with a singed hand." Poppy pursed her lips. "I do not generally ask many questions when students come to the Hospital Wing with a strange assortment of injuries," she said, "but I must say that things are different now, and this presentation of two very strange ailments was a little baffling. It seemed to me, that some sort of spell had gone wrong, and in order to cure Mr MacMillan I needed to know what spell had been cast."
"I gather that they did not say," Minerva said.
Poppy pursed her lips. "A spell gone awry, apparently. Where and how, they did not say," she added disapprovingly, "but when I left the three of them to collect some supplies from my office, I did hear talk of some sort of group, or lesson, that took place after class..."
Minerva closed her eyes and put her head in her hands. "This Dumbledore's Army group," she said tiredly.
"Yes, indeed," Poppy agreed. "Practising spells without proper supervision will naturally lead to accidents."
"How is MacMillan?"
"Oh, he is in fine fettle," Poppy said, waving her hand dismissively, "but, and I do not say this much, I was worried about him initially. He was very confused and was quite ill for some time after he had been brought to me. Miss Moore was quite distraught. I think she may have been the one to cast the spell."
Minerva was silent for a moment as she thought. Then, she cleared her throat. "Can I speak with MacMillan?"
Poppy hesitated. "In the morning," she finally acquiesced. "The boy is resting, and I do not want to disturb his sleep. Frankly, I do not think he will tell you anything, or heed your warnings. I tried, Minerva, and I could see everything going in through one ear and out the other. What you might want to do is keep an eye out this evening. I heard something or other about a little midnight stroll this evening, and I believe their plans to antagonise Amycus and Alecto are best prevented given what happened this morning..."
Minerva nodded. "I agree," she said with a sigh. "Thank you for alerting me, Poppy."
Poppy got up and walked Minerva to the door. "Before you go," she said quietly, "I wanted to add that I have two students who have come to me this week after a class with Amycus or Alecto. They mumbled something about mistakes made in class but—" Poppy broke off and her eyes darted to her lace curtains - behind which lay the rest of the Hospital Wing and student-occupied beds. "I think those siblings have been using magic to punish students in class. Or they are getting students to practice spells on each other."
Minerva had heard whispers of something like this taking place and it did not reassure her knowing that other staff members had heard similar things too. Though she could not say that she was surprised - she was angry, furious and outraged, of course, but not surprised.
"I will speak with Severus," she said but Poppy instantly shook her head.
"Not after today, Minerva," she said. "I can speak with him - I will, in fact, speak with him because I get enough students that need healing from accidental magic without the need for more who have been injured intentionally. It's horrible."
She opened the door to her office and ushered Minerva out, preventing Minerva from continuing their discussion for fear of waking a student sleeping in the Hospital bed.
"Goodnight, Minerva," Poppy whispered. "I shall see you tomorrow."
And with those last words, Poppy Pomfrey turned on her heel and entered her office again. Minerva stayed motionless for a moment in the darkness of the Hospital Wing. Her eyes strayed to the silver-blue fox still sitting in the same position by the window. They caught eyes again, and then Minerva sighed and left the Hospital Wing. Before returning to her classroom to see Pomona, Minerva made a detour to the Gryffindor Common Room to check if all of her students were present.