...
"My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations."
John Green
...


Harry looked her in the eye. He had a certain feeling about what happened to them. "Hermione, this is a memory," he explained in a whisper, "I think we just created a pensieve."

Hermione stared at him, eyebrows raised. "We what? Don't be ridiculous, Harry! A pensieve is one of the most complex magical objects known to the wizarding world! There is absolutely no way – "

"I am not being ridiculous, Hermione," Harry interrupted her calmly. He looked around once more and took a few steps towards an empty tea mug that was standing abandoned on a nearby shelf. He reached out to grab it, but his hand went right through it.
He turned back to Hermione , a knowing smile on his face. He also noticed that Batty was sitting on the floor next to his friend, with a little amount of blood still visible on his broken wing, but apart from that the little bat seemed to be fine.
So he drew his attention back to the bushy haired girl. "I have been in Dumbledore's pensieve for so many times… believe me, we fell right into someone's memory."

The young witch opened her mouth, but Harry held up his hand to stop her. "And we better keep up with these two. " He gestured towards the memory-Professors. "I'm quite sure we will get out once the memory is over. Then you can analyze all of this."

Hermione was about to reply, but Harry quickly grabbed her hand and dragged her with him to follow the Professors and watch the scene.

Professor McGonagall dumped her pile of book on the desk – with a little more force than necessary – and glared at Professor Dumbledore.

"Albus. I have been trying to send Harry his Hogwarts-letter for days. Now I finally managed to contact Hagrid so he could deliver the bloody thing, take him shopping to Diagon Alley, then to Plattform 9 ³/4 and all of this last minute I might add, because these awful muggles- " here she stopped and took a deep breath, trying to keep her Scottish temper under control. She closed her eyes for a moment, then slowly opened them again and continued. "The students will arrive in a couple of hours and right now I am certainly not in the mood for one of your bloody jokes!"

Harry glanced over to Hermione and he could see that she was also smirking.

"She was probably the only one who dared to use that kind of language with the headmaster and got away with it," Hermione whispered impressed.

Harry chuckled. "Well, if she really sent all those letters, she had a damn good reason to be angry. Funny though, Hagrid never mentioned that she told him to get me."

"I know there is a lot more to her than she lets on," Hermione said smiling, "I still can't believe we are in a memory, but maybe this is the chance to see behind the mask of the stern Professor."

Harry smiled, he knew exactly what the brown eyed girl wanted to say. His emerald eyes sparkled knowingly. "You mean we might get a chance to see more of the concerned and caring grandmotherly witch, who is surfacing every now and then?"

"Yes," she replied, beaming brightly.

"Well, then we better pay attention."

Professor McGonagall shot one last glare towards the Headmaster, then sat down and started organizing the papers on her uncharacteristically messy and overloaded desk. For everyone else her previous sentence would have been the end of the discussion and a gentle hint to leave the angry Professor alone with her work. Professor Dumbledore, however, had apparently no intention to leave; one the contrary, he walked around the desk, right behind Professor McGonagall's chair, probably so she couldn't see his madly twinkling blue eyes.

With a quick flick of his wand the papers and books, which had been lying around all over the desk, started to levitate and sort themselves into several different bookshelves and folders.

"Albus-", But the black haired witch was unable to finish her sentence since the elderly wizard put his hands on her shoulders and spoke again.

"You have more than enough time to finish all this, my dear. I think it's time for you to take a break. I cannot recall that I have ever seen your desk looking this messy."

The Transfiguration Mistress groaned. "Oh, really? Did it ever occur to you that the current overload of my desk might have something to do with the fact that I want to get my work done as quickly as possible?"

Harry couldn't help but burst into laughter at that more than sarcastic remark. He glanced at Hermione and saw that she was also chuckling.

Dumbledore seemed to enjoy this immensely, too. "But my dear, didn't you see? Everything is taken care of." He smiled brightly as he gestured towards all the books and papers flying criss-cross through the office.

In a somewhat desperate gesture Professor McGonagall put both her elbows on the now almost empty desk, then laid her head onto her hands, closed her eyes and mumbled something like: "all messed up… more work than before…"

Dumbledore apparently didn't hear her ranting, because he continued, still smiling.

"Besides, I wasn't joking earlier."

This immediately got the black haired witch's attention. She jerked up and turned around to face the headmaster; an outrageous look on her face.

"What?!"

"You said you were not in the mood for my bloody jo-"

"I know what I said!" she snapped and the usually calm headmaster winced and took a small step backwards at her tone.

A very wise decision as Harry observed, seeing that a furious deputy headmistress was no one to be crossed with. And from what it looked like she was beyond furious.

"Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore! You cannot possibly be serious!"

"Minerva-"

"Don't you dare 'Minerva' me, Albus!" She got up and walked around her desk, then started pacing in front of the little fire place. "This is madness! There is no way I could tolerate you endangering the student's lives by bringing that bloody stone to Hogwarts! Especially with Harry and Hermione starting school!"

The use of their first names caused Harry and Hermione to look at each other surprised, but before either of them could say anything, the Scottish witch continued, eyebrows raised and a challenging look on her face.

"Besides, do you really think Nicholas would agree to let you hide the Philosopher's stone here at Hogwarts?"

The headmaster wasn't intimidated by the way she looked at him; on the contrary, he seemed to have something up his sleeves that made him smile even more.

"Well, my dear, why don't you just ask him yourself?" he grinned and the office door flew open at exactly the right moment to reveal an elderly man, with big round glasses, white hair and beard paired with an old fashioned wizards hat standing in the doorway. He looked to be the same age as Professor Dumbledore, but Harry knew had to be much older than the headmaster considering-

"Harry! That's Nicholas Flamel! THE Nicholas Flamel!"

Harry elbowed Hermione softly to get her to be quiet in order to follow the scene. Both were now extremely thrilled to be given such an opportunity to see the famous alchemist with their own eyes and witness all the missing details to the adventure in
their first year. He knew for once that the transfiguration Mistress did help to protect the stone in the end with the gigantic chess set, but obviously she was nowhere close to happy about the fact that it was brought to Hogwarts in the first
place.

"Minerva. Albus." The alchemy master greeted smiling as he fully stepped in front of the room.

Harry knew that Nicholas Flamel had been a good friend of Professor Dumbledore, so he wasn't surprised to see both men shaking hands, happy to see each other again. What he didn't expect was that Flamel walked over to Professor McGonagall, hugged her
tightly and even gave her a soft kiss on the cheek. So his Head of House was also friends with the alchemy master. Very interesting indeed.

And thinking about the fact that the Deputy Headmistress was considered to be barely middle aged for a witch – and Harry totally agreed with that; after all he had seen her movements and power on the battlefield, not to forget that no one could deny that
she was indeed a beautiful woman – he found it impressive that she was already on a first name basis with the creator of the Philosopher's stone.

The great alchemist however looked now nervously back and forth from one Professor to the other – apparently very well aware of the tension between them.

"Soo, I take it Albus has already talked with you about the plan?" he finally directed his question at the Deputy Headmistress.

The black haired witch rolled her eyes, then sent both men very disapproving glares and laughed dryly. "Indeed he did. Though I would rather call it complete and utter madness! Please tell me that you don't support this nonsense, Nic!"

This time Harry got elbowed by Hermione, to put an end to the immense giggling which he was unable to stop on his own.

The reason for all the giggling was that the great Nicholas Flamel blushed a deep crimson under the stern glare of the Deputy.

"Well… to be honest Min, this whole scheme was actually my idea to begin with. And it was I who convinced Albus here to take it in consideration."

To say Professor McGonagall looked stunned was a huge understatement. Her emerald eyes wandered from one wizard to the other, disbelieve written all over her face and her mouth was hanging open. Since she moved her lips, but no words seemed to come out, both wizards shared a glance, shrugged and Professor Dumbledore signaled his friend to take a seat on one of the chairs in the office.

"You cannot be serious!" the transfiguration Mistress' temper finally surfaced. A vase behind them exploded, causing everyone in the room to twitch – including Harry and Hermione, even though both of them knew they couldn't really get hurt.

"Merlin, Albus! I forgot how dangerous a furious Scottish witch could be…" Flamel mumbled under his breath, causing the blue eyed Headmaster to chuckle.

Fortunately for both men the witch in question was too angry to hear any of this.

"What in the name of Merlin would cause you to do something as reckless as this?! I would have suspected Albus to pull of such a childish nonsense, but most certainly not you, Nicholas!"

Flamel held up his hand to stop her ranting. "Minerva. I know you are upset and concerned for your student's safety – and I wouldn't expect anything else from you. But please, hear us out first."

The emerald eyed witch, her hands still balled into fists, took a deep breath and sat down on one of the empty chairs next to the two wizards.

"Alright. I'm listening. But you better have a damn good explanation for trying to hide your stone at Hogwarts."

Both men nodded and Dumbledore started, "Voldemort disappeared all those years ago, but contrary to almost everyone else, you and I both know that he is not dead. And so does Nicholas."

"Of course I know that, Albus. But what does that have to do wi-"

"So far, sources may have found a lead that he was in Romania, but traveling towards England. Furthermore everyone who can do the math knows Harry will start Hogwarts this year. Therefore we have to make sure that whoever tries to harm him in any way will be stopped. And there are still too many people out there who are loyal to the Dark Lord and they will do everything to support him." Dumbledore said.

"For example stealing the Philosopher's stone to create the Elixir of Life to make their master immortal." Flamel continued.

Confusion took over the exasperated expression on Professor McGonagall's face, then her eyes widened.

"Wait, wait, wait. Let me get this straight. You want to catch people who might still support Voldemort? And in order to do that you want to bait them with the Philosopher's stone, which in addition will distract them from going after Harry?"

Both Professor Dumbledore and Flamel smiled brightly. "Exactly."

The black haired witch nodded slowly, then looked at the Headmaster, emerald eyes meeting his bright blue ones.

"Very well, this actually does sound less preposterous than before. But Albus, what I still don't understand is if you want to protect Harry what good does it do to hide the stone here at Hogwarts."

Harry was stunned. He never thought that there was more to the story than he had figured out with Hermione and Ron. But thinking about it, Dumbledore's and Flamel's plan to use the stone as bait was genius. Looking at Hermione he could see in her eyes
that she was thinking exactly the same. However, he had to admit that he had the same question Professor McGonagall had; why hiding it in a castle full of students?

Dumbledore held her glance and nodded at her. Apparently he had expected this question. But it was the Alchemist who answered instead.

"We suspect Voldemort to be not quiet alive yet. In a sort of ghostly state between life and death, it's hard to explain. He might uses unicorn blood at first, but after some time it will lose its effects. So he will send someone close to him to get him the stone. And I daresay you and Albus have the best shot at catching this person here."

"But Nic-"

"And apart from maybe the ministry, Hogwarts is probably the safest place there is." The blue eyed wizard continued. "We will know immediately when someone from the outside tries to break through the wards."

"Of course, but there will hardly be anyone from the inside – " she stopped dead in track and stared at both men in front of her, emerald eyes wide and shock, "Wait. You suspect someone from the staff to be a supporter of Voldemort?!"

Dumbledore's eyes lost their twinkle when he looked at her and he sighed. "I do. But I'm not quite sure who it is yet. This is our best chance. If there was another way, I would take it, Minerva."

The witch sighed but nodded. "I do hope you're right, Albus."

Dumbledore reached out for her hand and squeezed it a little. "So do I, my dear, so do I."

They all stood up and headed towards the door, Headmaster and Deputy walking as usual with their arms linked.

"So, when do you plan on going to Gringott's?"

Flamel chuckled softly.

"Actually," Dumbledore said and stuck his other hand in a pocket of his robe to retrieve a small package, "I already have the stone here."

Professor McGonagall gripped his arm hard and stared at him. "You what?!"

"Hagrid got it for me. He went to Gringott's with Harry earlier that day, so I asked Nicholas to give him the key and he took the stone out of the vault."

"He was with Harry?" she asked wearily as they headed towards the stairs.

"Yes, you should know that, my dear. You sent him to help Harry get all his school supplies after all. I merely added one of his chores."

The witch sighed frustrated. "Albus. Harry is a perfect mix of Lily and James! I can already tell that he will get himself involved with this stone."

"Then we just have to make sure the stone is well protected and Harry stays away from the it." Dumbledore answered innocently. He smiled when he saw her slightly pained face, so he laid an arm around her and followed the alchemy master, who apparently had wandered off to talk to Nearly Headless Nick.

"Lovely." Professor McGonagall mumbled sarcastically. "Something like that in Harry and Hermione's first year. Arina's gonna kill me once she's found out."

.

Before he could even chuckle about that last statement or think any further about what sort of relationship Arina had with Professor McGonagall, that would cause the formidable witch to mumble something like that, everything started to blur all of a sudden.

Harry could hardly hear what was being said anymore, let alone see the people in the scene properly. Dark red, cloudy like strands and swirls appeared from every side, until everything turned completely bloody and all that was left to see was Hermione
standing next to him, who quickly grabbed his hand; a sort of panicked look on her face.

Apart from the color, it was exactly the same procedure that Harry had experienced whenever he went down the memory line in Dumbledore's pensieve, though he still couldn't make up his mind whether the substance, which they currently found themselves in,
looked like red light made liquid or wind made solid. But before he could think any further about it, he could feel that their surroundings started swirling, and recognizing the already similar sensation, he knew what was about to happen.

So he quickly picked up Batty from the ground, grabbed Hermione's hand harder and looked her in the eye, silently telling her that whatever was about to happen, he wouldn't let go of her hand. Not a second later they got knocked off their feet by a gigantic
red wave, lifted from the floor and pulled up in the air. They were spinning around within the blood colored substance until they flew back through the liquid mirror surface.

Harry's body hit the infirmary floor first and a second later Hermione fell right on top of him.

"Sorry…" Hermione mumbled. Harry waved her apology off and they both tried to get back on their feet.

"So," Harry began smiling. He put Batty in the pocket of his cloak and carefully picked up the mirror. He noticed that the surface was still the swirling liquid substance, but its colour was not a dark blood red anymore, but rather a very light red, almost
white. He turned back to his almost-sister. "Do you believe me now?"

The young witch sighed reluctantly. "Well, I think I have to."

"But it still doesn't make any sense?"

"I don't know. But I'm quite sure what ever magic mirror this is, it has something to do with the spilled potions. So I suggest we start looking for answers there."

They both turned around to take a look at Aidan's desk and their eyes widened in mixture of surprise and disappointment.

"Apparently someone cleaned up our mess." Harry said in a matter of factly voice, and heard Hermione sigh; the only chance to figure out how the mirror worked was gone.

"Well, considering that's my desk, this someone would be me."

.

They spun around and saw Aidan standing in the doorframe, wearing a new and clean white lab coat, a slightly angered and disappointed expression on his face.

"Dan, we are so sorry! We can expain-" Hermione started and Harry continued. "We wanted to heal Batty's wing and suddenly somehow-"

The healer held up his hand to stop both children's ranting. He took the little bat out of Harry's pocket, waved his wand and whispered "Sanabit pars subito". The wing glowed shortly before a bandage from the shelf wrapped itself around it.

"This should do it." he answered professionally - unaware of the two pairs of eyes that stared at him in amazement - and put the bat back in Harry's pocket. "Now, though I really want to know what happened to my desk, we'll postpone this conversation
for another time."

The two friends couldn't bear to look the blond haired man in the eyes, so they dropped their glances to the floor instead. Aidan sighed and took a few steps towards them, laid one of his arms around his niece, the other one around his wife's godson.

"Now listen to me, you two," he said in a calm voice and started to walk them both out of his office. "I don't know how many times Abbie had claimed my desk as her own personal playground, therefore I can assure you cleaning it up is not that big of a
deal for me."

Harry inwardly wanted to smile but he knew the time wasn't right.

"The reason I was disappointed is, that I came in here looking for you earlier and you weren't there. Arina just came out of surgery and I thought you cared enough about her that you wanted to be informed immediately."

They stopped walking at once and fired one question after another at the young surgeon. "What?", "Since when?", "How is she?", "Will Arina be alright?", "Can we see her?", "What about-"

Before they could come up with more questions, Aidan held up his hand again and interrupted. "Hermione, Harry, please, I don't understand a thing when you talk at the same time."

"Is Arina alive?" Hermione asked immediately and she looked at her uncle with big brown eyes.

Dan nodded and was about to say something else when Harry fired the next questions at him, "How is she? Can we see her? Please?"

"Yes, you can see her. Come with me," Dan said and smiled at the two gently, then laid his arms protectively around both of them once more and they continued walking back to the great hall. "It was a close call, but we were able to remove the knife. Arina is stable and alive, at least for now. And before you ask, no, she's not alone, Minerva is with her."

Harry nodded relieved, more than grateful that Professor McGonagall was watching over his godmother.

"Wait. What do you mean 'for now'?" Hermione asked sharply. Contrary to Harry, she had picked up the two worrisome words immediately and when they turned to face Dan, they saw a somewhat forlorn look in the surgeon's eyes.

Dan sighed, and when he spoke Harry could hear the frustration in his voice. "She's alive, but unresponsive. In a sort of coma. We assume that the blade was somehow charmed, so all we can wait and see when she wakes up."

Taking in consideration the precariousness that was audibly in his voice, Harry had a certain feeling that what Aidan really wanted to say was: 'if she wakes up'. He could feel the tears starting to form in his eyes. Arina has to wake up.
He had already lost his parents; Sirius was gone, as well as Professor Dumbledore, Remus and Tonks.

Professor McGonagall, the one witch he had considered a grandmother figure, almost died protecting the school from Umbridge. Why does it always happen to me? Harry thought, Why is it that all the people I care about get hurt or die?

He didn't want anyone to see his tears, so he quickly and unnoticed wiped them away, then shook his head in frustration to get rid of the thoughts as fast as possible.

They walked through the great hall in silence, though all three of them were thinking about the same person.

Arina.

Dan about his wife, Hermione about her aunt, and Harry about his godmother.

.

From her positon on the table, Minerva glanced down at the hospital bed. Her head rested on a fluffy pillow, a blanked was softly wrapped around the lower part of her body and her arms were folded on her stomach; after saving her life - Merlin knows how he did that - Aidan
had also made sure Arina was as comfortable as possible, given the current situation.

Her beautiful blue eyes however were still closed and her face was pale. Deathly pale, Minerva thought bitter. Since Aidan had finished the surgery and brought Arina's bed to her side, her eyes had never left the girl lying in it.

Minerva shook her head and sighed. Woman, she corrected herself, smiling slightly. The kind and adorable little girl she remembered had transformed into a caring, selfless and courageous young woman, who would do anything for the people she loves.

Her heart ached painfully and more tears fell from her emerald eyes. She desperately wanted to reach out to hold the younger witch's hand, but the distance between table and bed was longer than her own arms.

She sighed, then took a deep breath and looked carefully around. Aidan wouldn't like it at all, but he had vanished through the doors of the hospital wing some time ago to look for Harry and Hermione again; and Xemerius was on his way to the kitchen.

Despite her best efforts she smiled inwardly, his appetite is worse than Ronald Weasley's. The other Order members were still working outside the great hall, so apart from injured witches and wizards in hospitals beds all around her, no one
else was able to scold her for what she was about to do next.

She reached underneath the blanket that Aidan had also wrapped around her earlier, searching her pockets for her wand. She sighed in frustration when she realized that Xemerius had in wise foresight taken her wand with him. He knows me too well.

Reluctantly she grabbed her walking stick and slowly pushed herself over the edge of the table, until her toes touched the ground. With one deep breath she gathered all her strength and pulled herself up to fully stand on her feet. However, she hadn't
anticipated the pain that immediately shot through her leg, and she leaned heavily on her stick.

She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again and focused on the table she had been sitting on. Transfiguring a table in a chair was something she usually didn't even have to think about, but she remembered Aidan's warning words. "You are in absolutely no condition to use wandless magic, Minerva. Now more than ever."

Minerva was very well aware of the fact that she hadn't listened to him when she fought against Dolores earlier, and she knew she should pay attention to his words now even more… but Arina needed her. In addition, she wasn't able to get back on that table on her own, and standing next to the bed for the rest of the time, was surely not something Dan would want her to do.

We never expected that I would make it through the bloody battle in the first place, and changing a table into a chair with a little bit of wandless magic can't possibly do too much harm now, can it?

With one supporting hand still on the walking stick, she raised the other one, concentrated and waved it. She immediately felt the magic rush through her veins, but before she could smile at the sight of the comfortable looking, Gryffindor red armchair, another wave of pain shot through her entire body, through all her muscles and right into her heart.

She tried to breath, get control of her body again, but it felt like being tortured with the Crutiatus Curse all over again. Slowly - and in Minerva's opinion too slowly – the pain began to fade away and she managed to manoeuvre herself into the chair.

She sat there for a moment, beyond exhausted, thinking, not daring to move a single muscle. Of course, Minerva would never admit it, but she was tired, and scared. Scared of how much longer she could take it that her own magic was turning against her, and tired of fighting it for so long.

Especially considering that one of the few reasons she had to live for was lying in a hospitalbed in front of her. She reached out and stoked Arina's black hair, softly pulling a loose strand back behind her ear. Then she finally did what she had been longing to do all day, taking Arina's hands in her own.

"You have to fight, Arina," she whispered, tears threatening to fall again. "As small as it might be; there is still a chance for you to wake up. But you have to fight."

No matter how hard she tried, tears were flowing down her cheeks now. "I know you can hear me, dear, and your husband suggested that talking to you would help you to come back to us. And just so you know, I won't leave until I have you back."

Minerva let her tear filled, emerald eyes wander over the woman's body and stopped at the sight of the small bandage that was wrapped around the young witch's chest.

"They need you. I need you. Harry and Hermione are dying to get to know you. Merlin, don't ask me how, but he has already found out you're his godmother, before I even said anything. And what about Aidan and little Arielle? She can't lose her mother at this young age."

She sighed and was about to say something more when she heard footsteps nearby. She turned her head and the sight that greeted her made her smile: Aidan in the middle , with Harry and Hermione on each side, and both his arms around them, was walking towards her.

Surprisingly enough, once they saw her, both children started sprinting to towards her, leaving the Young surgeon to walk the rest of the way on his own. She could see he was shaking his head, smiling slighty.

"Professor… McGonagall…" Harry and Hermione shouted, both clearly out of breath due to their little run.

"Easy there, children," Minerva said, smiling gently. "Come here, you two."

They both came closer and Minerva looked them in the eyes and could see a lot of different expressions; ranging from relieve to concern and also fear.

"Can we… talk to her?" Hermione asked carefully.

Minerva nodded, trying to give a comforting smile. "Of course. Aidan even said it would help her wake up. And I'm sure Arina would appreciate hearing both your voices for a change."

"Can we sit down on the bed?" Harry asked, his big green eyes looked at Aidan, who had also arrived recently.

Aidan nodded encouragingly. "Sure."

Both of them gave him a quick thank-you hug, then set down on each side of Arina. Minerva let go of her hand, and leaned back in her chair; watching the scene. Each of them took one of Arina's hands and started talking to her quietly.

Dan, however, turned towards Minerva, eyebrows raised. "You could have done that, too, you know. Didn't I tell you not to use any magic?"

Minerva winced at the use of his tone. "I didn't even occur to me…"

"Obviously. Are you in pain?" he asked, more concerned than angry now.

Minerva sighed. "I'll be alright."

She knew he was nowhere near satisfied with this answer, but to her relieve he dropped the topic for now. She would probably have to talk to him another time though…

She decided to worry about Aidan's fury when they were about to cross that bridge, and Hermione's soft voice luckily distracted her from thinking about that at the moment.

"Hi there, Arina," Hermione begun softly. "It's Harry and me. We hope you can hear us."

"And I want you to know right away, that I am not angry at all for not telling me that you're my godmother," Harry continued. "The only thing you should be concerned about is that you won't get rid of me anytime soon. There are so many things I want to
ask you, so have to get better soon."

Minerva watched both of them, their words touched even her greatly and she had tears in her emerald eyes once again.

While Hermione was talking to her aunt, Harry, who was sitting on the side next to Minerva, turned a little to face her.

"Could you please hold onto this for me, Professor? Only for a little while?" He asked and handed her a little mirror.

"Take all the time you need, Harry." She used his first name on purpose, trying to make him more comfortable around her.

Lily Potter had been like daughter to her, and she had adored Harry since the first time his mother had placed him into her arms as a newborn. For years she had to keep her professional distance – though I did slip every once and a while - but
now since the war was finally over, Minerva wanted to properly show the boy how much she really cared for him. And she figured that once Arina woke up, she would tell him, and probably Hermione, the whole story anyway.

She took the mirror from his hands and he turned back to his godmother immediately.

She never liked looking into mirrors. It was a habit she had developed early in her childhood, though back then she just wasn't able to look into one at all. But since Xem had only cast some quick cleaning charms on her before he left, she had no idea
if she still looked as exhausted as she felt right now. Reluctantly she decided to take a look, but surprisingly enough she wasn't able to see herself. A mirror with a light red liquid surface?

"Harry, what exactly is this?" She asked curiously and gestured towards the mirror in her hand.

Harry smiled sheepishly at the transfiguration mistress. "Well, that's what we wanted to ask you, Professor."

Minerva raised an eyebrow.

Hermione rolled her eyes at her almost-brother and continued to explain. "We did as you said and tried to heal Batty's wing, but the little thing tried to fly and knocked over several bottles on Dan's shelf. Everything spilled over the mirror and now it looks like this."

"So that's what happened to my desk!" Dan laughed.

Harry grinned. "Yes. But Hermione forgot to mention that when I accidently touched the surface, I got sucked right into it."

"I grabbed Harry's hand just in time. We swirled around in the red substance and when we finally touched the ground we saw…" Hermione looked at Harry, indicating that he should take it from here.

Harry nodded. "We saw you and Professor Dumbledore."

Minerva stared at the boy-who-lived with wide emerald eyes. Her brain was working, but nothing it came up with made any sense to her. Albus was dead. Like every time, her heart ached with pain when she thought of him. Not able to think clearly, all she
was able to say was a confused, "What?"

"We think that it was a memory. We couldn't touch anything, and after we finished watching the scene it threw us out. Is it possible that the mirror is some sort of pensieve, Professor?" Harry asked curiously. Obviously the boy had given this whole think quite some thoughts already.

Minerva continued to stare at the two young adults in front of her. Then her eyes wandered to the mirror.

The surface was indeed familiar to the pensieve Albus had possessed. She had entered the pensieve with Albus many times, therefore she knew that how Harry had described what had happened to them, was also very accurate.

She inspected the little mirror more closely, though careful not to touch the dark red liquid. Wait. Dark red? Minerva remembered well enough that, when she had first taken a look at the mirror, the swirling substance was a light red, not as dark as it was now.

Minerva turned back to Harry, Hermione and Aidan. "What colour had the liquid when you first dropped out of the mirror, Harry?"

"A very light red, almost white. Why?" Hermione answered for her friend and eyed the elderly witch suspiciously.

"Well, then it's colour is changing," she said and showed them the different mirror surface.

"How?" Harry, Hermione and Aidan asked at the same time.

Minerva smiled. "I am not really familiar with the creation of a pensieve, but from what I know, I am quite sure it is one indeed," here she smiled brightly at Harry. "One of the questions, however, isn't how the colour is changing, but rather why?"

Minerva didn't expect Harry to throw his arms around her and hug her tightly. She smirked and hugged him bag. I'm losing my touch faster than I thought.

"I told you it's a pensieve, Hermione!" Harry said triumphantly.

Hermione's curiosity got the better of her. "What do you know about the pensieve creation, Professor?" She pulled her legs up on the hospital bed to be in a more comfortable positon, though still careful not to hurt Arina.

Minerva smiled when she saw that even though they were clearly excited, neither of the two had let go of Arina's hand.

"Sadly I know not quite as much as I would like to."

Aidan laughed again. "You mean you didn't find enough books about it?"

She nudged him playfully in the stomach.

"Hey, I'm not Xem."

"Oh I know that, I would have given him a harder nudge."

Dan shook his head, still laughing. Minerva, glad that she was able to make him laugh, chose to continue.

"Considering the lack of references, creating a pensieve is indeed very difficult. But not impossible." she added quickly. "Do you happen to remember the potions that spilled over the surface?"

She could see Harry shaking his head and that the boy was about to give a negative answer, when Hermione spoke. "Yes, I was able to take a quick look at the broken bottles before we got sucked in."

Harry looked at her with wide eyes, but the girl just shrugged her shoulders and continued. "I remember Veritaserum, Felix Felicis, Oculus and Memory potion."

"The little bat had to break the bottles with the most difficult potions to brew?" Aidan asked, chuckling, and the children joined him.

Minerva thought for a moment before she spoke. "It makes perfect sense."

"What?" all three asked at the same time.

"The potions. They are perfect ingredients for the creation of a pensieve." Minerva explained. When she saw the questions written in their eyes she continued. "The Memory potion usually enhances a drinker's memory. Combined with the Oculus, you are able
to see and actually relive someone's memory in every detail. The Felix Felicis increases a drinker's luck. In this case it probably shows the memories in different order. It also explains the new surface of the mirror, considering that is often referred to as Liquid Luck."

Harry and Aidan stared at her, completely inspired by her quick thinking and intelligence.

Hermione beamed also beamed at her. "What about the Veritaserum?"

"Well, I'm not quite sure about that one." Minerva admitted. "Considering it forces a drinker to speak the truth, I assume the two of you be pulled back in the mirror again, until you watched everything there is to know. To get to know the whole truth."

Harry looked at the mirror, its colour even darker than before. He had an idea. "Professor, could it be possible that the colour indicates the time until we are pulled back in the memory? The darker it gets, the less time we have left?"

Minerva smiled brightly at the younger man and patted him softly on the shoulder. "That is exactly what I had in mind, Harry."

"Oh my goodness, Harry, you are brilliant!" Hermione squealed delighted. Then she looked at Minerva, blushed and quickly added. "And so are you, Professor."

"Thank you, Miss Granger, but I think we haven't figured it all out yet."

Hermione looked at her with big brown eyes. "Professor, you called Harry by his first name. Would you consider doing the same with me?"

The transfiguration Mistress hadn't expected that question, but nodded happily. "If you wish, Hermione, I am more than willing to do so."

Aidan watched them, a bright smile on his face. Arina will be more than happy to see that Minerva tries to let the children in.

"I understood everything so far. What I don't understand is why you can actually see the memory..." He asked confused. "The potions explain the creation of the pensieve. But I didn't bottle up any thoughts."

Minerva shrugged. "I have no idea."

She saw Hermione's eyes widening. "Blood," was all she said.

"What about it?" Dan asked.

"A pensieve works with drawn memories and tears. Is it possible that it also works with someone's blood?" Hermione asked excited.

Minerva thought for a moment. "Well, it is possible. It's no common knowledge therefore only a handful of People even know about ist existence, but it was an ancient secrecy method. Back in the days witches and wizards did indeed pour a drop of blood into the pensieve instead of the usual way. It was a safety measure, to ensure only direct family members, who shared the same bloodline, were able to view them; in order to prevent outsiders from gaining access to family secrets."

Harry was still amazed how much knowledge Professor McGonagall possessed.

"That would explain it," he said, "among the broken bottles that spilled over the mirror were also some viols filled with blood. Though I don't remember the names written on it."

Hermione shook her head. "Neither do I. I could only see some sort of initials. "

Minerva took a deep breath and looked at the children. She had a certain feeling she knew very well whose blood it was. She didn't like the idea at all. Luckily enough only Harry and Hermione could see the memories, the two young adults she cared for and trusted most.

Nevertheless, everyone had secrets, and some of them were just too horrible for anyone else to see and should never be revealed. She glanced at Aidan and instantly saw in his brown eyes that her fears were justified.

"You don't remember whose blood it was, but I do. After all it was my research and I marked the viols myself, so I wouldn't get confused. MM, AD, AVG and AG, " the young surgeon said slowly and looked Minerva directly in the eyes.

Considering Arina's relationship with the children, she had planned on being honest, on revealing parts of her own past to them anyways. But now they would be forced to see every single memory there was, the entire truth, no matter if they wanted to or not.

Reluctantly, Minerva nodded, giving Dan her permission to continue. After all she knew what he was going to say next.

"The initials stand fo Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore, Arina Victoria Gold and mine, Aidan Gold."


A.N.: Hi everyone! Yes, I am still writing on this Story, I have not given up on it, even though it took me some time to write this next chapter.

It took me some time to figure out where exactly I want to go with this in the future, I have quite a few ideas, but to get them in the right order can be a Little challenging sometimes, so I worked on it longer than expected.

And considering that the pensieve will be a Major part in this Story, I am also open to suggestions from all of you, my faithful Readers! If you have some ideas, what you would like to see in a Memory, let me know. I cannot promise I will use it right away, but I will try my best.

I am so very gratefull to everyone who reviewed/fav/followed my Story, you are a great help, so Keep them coming :) As always, I hope you like the next chapter! It is the longest I have written so far!

To foreverglfan88,notsosecretgeek and Helena: Thank you so much for the Review! I am very happy to hear that you liked it so far :)

Yours, Lexi