Author's note: Reply to the "Omnipairings" challenge by Omnicat.
Everything echoed underneath the school, if you stood in the right place. So Minerva never did.
She was afraid, down there. She had only had to go once, and that was to supervise the others magicking items in. But now, she was again, and this time of her own will.
It had been difficult to identify this emotion at first. Quiet, stern, she was never the type. And yet, her mind's distraction when grading esoteric seventh-year homework had progressed to a pleasant way to occupy it, to something that prodded for her attention even when busy, to a full-blown obsession. And now, she was here to surrender.
Unsure of how to proceed, she whispered into the darkness. "Hello? It's me."
You. Just an accusation-or hallucination?
"Yes."
You, who dare to claim to own me, when it is I who own you.
"I am sorry." She knelt on the cold tile. Then she bowed her head: not out of fear, but curiosity to see what color lay below her knees. She was straddling the boundary.
Rise up.
She tentatively did so, and stared into blank stone. After a long silence, she stepped forward.
Not yet. There will be interference.
The hardest part. McGonagall stared at her beauty, her own creation which she had imbued with as much intelligence as she herself possessed.
"Reducto!" It was only a self-imposed test to watch as the spell did its worst, causing crumbling, but she did all the same. Good to remind herself of the sacrifice she would make.
Admirably well.
"Th-thank you," she stammered.
Desperate for promotion?
A sense of humor had definitely not been intentionally designed. Unsure what to make of that, she simply deflected it. "The game of love has no rules."