A/N: For my betas, who made this story so much better than what it originally was. Book canon of Minerva being born in 1935, disregards the events of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Therefore, it is unlikely she ever taught Newt and Leta.
Betas: CupCakeyyy, VanillaAshes, Fires of Eden Red Rose Aurora, shy-n-great
Title: Tokens
Summary: Minerva takes a moment to look at all the gifts she's received over the years.
WC: 2,052
Genre: Friendship(ish), Humour
Characters: Minerva M., James S. P., Fred W. II
Minerva McGonagall had first met Albus Dumbledore when she had been a student at Hogwarts. Back then, she had been surprised by the number of trinkets laying around his office. When he had moved into the Headmaster's Office, it had become even worse and she truly wondered how he could possibly work with that much clutter surrounding him.
But now, as she sat in the now turned Headmistress' Office, she understood him better than she ever had before. Though it wasn't nearly as disorganised as it had been in Albus' time, she still had various knick-knacks overflowing from her cupboards, drawers, and cabinets. She figured she probably had as many as Albus himself, just slightly more hidden to the curious eye.
Her personal favourites were the surprising number of gifts that she had received from her students over the fifty years or so that she had been teaching. They were all kept in a glass cabinet where they were proudly showcased for the world to see.
The only thing about these many gifts was that they were all unequivocally terrible. They said you had to give what you wanted to receive, and she could almost see her students' personalities in each of the gifts.
Minerva got up from her desk with some difficulty - old age was slowly creeping up on her - and made her way to her cabinet.
On the top right corner, there was a bag full of what had once been Zonko's Spiffing New Magical Fireworks: Guaranteed Two Months!, a gift from James Potter in his fourth year, if she remembered correctly. Though up to this day, she wondered if he was just hiding it from another professor.
"That's very kind, Mr Potter, but what would I do with them?"
"Well, look at it this way, Professor: If I give them to you, it means I won't be using them for other… reasons."
"And you expect me to believe you haven't bought two bags more?"
"Professor, let's focus on your gift for the moment, shall we?"
James had been such a scoundrel, but so good at Transfiguration! Once upon a time, she had wanted to rope him into teaching but that was no longer possible.
Her eyes skimmed down the cabinet; tea bags from Sybill Trelawney, all of Lee Jordan's late essays and, ah yes! Two rows down, there was the bright purple sweater a little, toothy-smiled Molly Weasley had given her, when the girl had come back after the summer for her second year. Unfortunately, it was two sizes too small, and had one sleeve about eight inches longer than the other. Needless to say, she had never worn it, but she wasn't sure the girl, or now woman, would mind all that much.
"Professor! This is for you!"
"Oh, umm, thank you, Miss Prewett."
"I knitted it all by myself, and with no magic! Mum didn't even help me."
"Then, I'm very touched, Miss Prewett."
Minerva smiled fondly at the memory, her gaze catching on an eerily similar hat Hermione Granger had once knitted for her on the bottom row. The textures were very much alike, lumpy and bumpy, but you could see the love that had gone into their construction clearly.
Next to it was a pair of peculiar-looking glasses. 'Spectrespecs', Luna Lovegood had called them. Minerva picked them up to take a glance through them. They certainly were… interesting, to say the least. And while she had appreciated the gesture and enjoyed looking at them from time to time, they were never something she had used.
She picked the 'spectrespecs' and slipped them onto her face. It was definitely strange but still brought a smile to her face at the thought of Luna Lovegood as she looked around for so-called wrackspurts these were supposed help with.
As she was feeling a little dizzy from the strange distortion of reality the glasses had created, Minerva put them back carefully in place. She would remember to not touch them again anytime soon.
She chuckled to herself as her eyes travelled over to a present a little higher up, smack dab in the middle: a particularly daring parting-gift from Sirius Black. Cat litter. Probably the worst gift she had ever received, but truthfully, she would have been disappointed by anything less from the Gryffindor. She still couldn't help but roll her eyes and giggle a little when she saw it. The memory of that day brought an equal amount of annoyance as it did amusement.
"Goodbye Minnie! We had a good run, didn't we?"
"Mr Black, just because I can't give you detention any more doesn't mean you should start calling me 'Minnie'. And I don't believe the expression 'had a good run' is appropriate."
"You're no fun, Minnie! Anyway, I have a little gift."
"What- CAT LITTER? You're very lucky I can't give you detention any more, Mr Black!"
"See you around, Minnie!"
His grin had been just a tad too wicked for her taste.
Her eyes roamed one row up, where she could spy some rather nice colour-changing candles. Unfortunately, they smelled less than delightful. The little Nymphadora Tonks had really tried to keep them intact for her, but given the girl's clumsiness, that hadn't gone exactly as planned.
"Professor McGonagall?"
"Yes? And who might you be?"
"Nymphadora Tonks, Ma'am. My parents told me to give you this."
"Oh! Candles, how lovely! But, what... what is the scent?"
"It's supposed to be 'Refreshing Summer Breeze', but I dropped them in the Black Lake while we were crossing. We had to stop everyone and Hagrid had to fish them out. I hope you don't mind."
"So, that's what was holding up the Sorting Ceremony…"
"What?"
"Nothing. Thank you very much, Miss Tonks. And please thank your parents."
And next to those candles was, of course, Ted Tonks' own gift: everlasting gobstoppers, and from Andromeda: a dictionary of Muggle and Wizarding healing plants.
But as there was no particular order on the shelf, the following object was an expired gift voucher for Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, but she was pretty sure if she were to use it now, George Weasley would let her get away with it. Though under what circumstances she would want to use it, she hadn't quite figured out yet.
And all of those gifts were only a few on the shelf. Truthfully, she could name almost all of them from memory.
There was also the baby pink crockery set from Neville Longbottom she truly wondered why he had given it to her, the hat that was 'all the rage in Paris right now' from Marlene McKinnon, all of Ronald Weasley's Chocolate Frog Card doubles, Arthur Weasley's half-working toaster, Me, Myself and I: An autobiography in progress by and from Gilderoy Lockhart, Astoria Greengrass' glass bead bracelet, extravagant earrings from Remus Lupin and so, so many other little presents.
Minerva tapped the voucher with her wand to rid it of the dust that was starting to accumulate.
Even if she had never used any of them, she always took care of them, placing long-lasting charms and mite-repellents. Not so long ago, she had noticed that there wasn't a lot of space left, actually. It was brimming with gifts from students who wanted to show her how much they appreciated her, and if there was better personal validation for a teacher, then she didn't know what it was. The thought had made her so happy she had grinned all week, which was most unlike her.
She smiled softly to herself as she began to make her way back to her desk.
There was a knock on the door just as she was sitting down. "Headmistress?"
"Come in," she called, blinking as she tried to pull her thoughts back to the present.
Fred Weasley II and James Sirius Potter trooped in holding something very large, well wrapped only slightly ripped in their arms.
"Might we have a word, Professor?"
"Well, since you're already here, I suppose I don't have any option but say yes," Minerva sighed.
"Smashing!" Fred exclaimed, his trademark grin pulling at his lips.
"But, aren't you supposed to be in detention with Mr Filch?" Minerva slowly raised one eyebrow as she looked at her two knew full well that she had scheduled them detention for a week for setting off exploding dung-bombs all around the castle.
"Aw, Headmistress, you're no fun!" James exclaimed, looking as innocent as a Potter could.
"Besides, Lucy is distracting him," Fred added.
"Who knew he loved restoring paintings so much, right?" James agreed.
She sighed, already feeling a headache coming her way. "Get on with it, Mr Potter, Mr Weasley." She really was getting too old for these shenanigans.
They both broke out in huge smiles and presented her with the huge package they were still holding onto. "We have a present for you!"
Minerva paused. "What's the occasion?"
"Just a sign of our gratefulness for such a wonderful headmistress," James said quickly.
"Surely not anything I would confiscate?"
"Professor! You wound me!" Fred exclaimed jokingly. "This is a perfectly lovely gift!"
"Thank you very much, then," she told them as she stood up and went around her desk to unwrap the present.
The wrapping paper was ripped but it looked like it had once been done up rather nicely, in bright red and gold colours, her favourite. She was only slightly worried about what they could've possibly gotten her that was this large: it was almost as tall as her and twice as wide.
"Well," Fred started, "it wasn't just us, Headmistress."
"Fred and I are only bringing it to you, but Victoire picked it out," Albus added
"Albus also went and he has a back up plan if you don't like it."
"Personally, I preferred Albus'," Fred admitted, "but Victoire won."
"Molly and Teddy paid for most of it, but we all chipped in."
Albus nodded and almost interrupted Fred as he added; "Rose wrapped it up."
"But Louis dropped it in the stairs on the way up here-"
"Because Roxanne tripped him. Oh, and she wanted to say sorry if it was slightly damaged."
"Lucy was on distraction duty, and then Lily sweet-talked the gargoyle into giving us the password."
"Wicked password too, Headmistress. 'Golden Snitch'! That's a nice one."
"And here we are, your obedient deliverers!" Fred finished.
Minerva was definitely touched, literally all of the Potter-Weasley family had contributed to her present. However, the present in itself wasn't quite as… delightful.
"So, do you like it?"
In front of her was a huge, pink, plush, velvet armchair as tall as her with little venomous tentacula motifs. Apart from the fact that it was rather nice needlework, the green and the pink definitely did not go together. It barely looked comfortable and would not fit in with the décor of her office.
"Uhh-" she started.
"Oh!" Fred exclaimed, eyes shining with excitement. "She's speechless! The others will be so happy!"
"We knew an armchair would be good for you, Headmistress! Now you can always take a break and relax!" James said in earnest, never taking his eyes off of Minerva.
"And the colour is so you, Headmistress!" Fred continued.
"I still prefer the emerald green Albus picked out," James complained.
"But it didn't have the venomous tentacula," Fred pointed out.
"True, cousin, very true. That's definitely the best part of the chair."
Minerva had trouble forming words. It probably was the worst present she had ever received. She couldn't stop staring at it in disbelief. She seriously wondered where their parents had gone wrong in giving them taste, but, after all, everyone liked different things.
"It's extremely kind of you," she told them finally.
"But do you love it?" Fred pushed.
"I-"
They both looked at her with huge, probing eyes.
"I do," she concluded. She did. She truly did. She just couldn't bring herself to like it.
"Mission accomplished!" James high-fived his cousin.
"Well, we must be off now! We've got detention, after all!" Fred added cheekily.
"Toodles!"
They both rushed out of her office.
Minerva was left in a suddenly very quiet room, with an atrocious chair and a mountain of wrapping paper. Once she was sure they were gone, she laughed a little. Oh, those students! She definitely needed a new cabinet.
For The Houses Competition / Round 1
House: Slytherin
Class: Potions
Prompts: Cat 1: 5) Minerva McGonagall, Cat 2: 7) [Situation] Receiving a terrible present.
WC: See top.
