Harry couldn't remember when he had been this happy. He either couldn't or wouldn't remember if he had been this happy in his old time, he loved his teaching job, he could talk to his parents, Sirius, Remus and Albus, even though four of them didn't know who he really was. Of course, the biggest reason for his happy mood was that the most beautiful, loving, intelligent and bravest witch he knew was returning his feelings and dating him.

Barely three weeks had passed since they admitted their feelings for each other in the Three Broomsticks, and Harry couldn't imagine it any other way. Minerva just made everything better for him, and as long as she was by his side, it was okay that he had to pretend to be someone else for everybody, including his parents.

It was Thursday, October the 29th, and a cold but clear morning. When Harry stood up, he noticed he was a little early and decided to take a detour and walk to Minerva's chambers so he could accompany her to breakfast. Just when he walked around the corner of the corridor leading to her quarters, Minerva stepped out of them and turned to walk towards him. When she noticed Harry, she paused in surprise before walking closer with a bright and happy smile on her lips.

"What are you doing here?" she asked when she came to a halt before him, her smile not leaving her face, and Harry smiled back.

"Well, I'm here because I wanted to accompany a beautiful witch to breakfast. So we can have some moments to ourselves before we won't see each other for nearly the whole day," he said truthfully but still exaggerating a little as he stepped closer.

"You are a little sycophant, you know that?" Minerva asked, and Harry winked at her.

"Yes, I do, but I can't help myself," he said while the black-haired witch looked around before she stood on her toes to kiss him.

"Good morning, you," she murmured against his lips once they had parted.

"Good morning to you too. Did you sleep well?" Harry asked and gave her another peck on the lips and lay his arm around her middle before turning and making their way to the Great Hall.

"Good, even though I didn't correct the homework of my fourth class for tomorrow, so I'll have to do this tonight," Minerva said.

"What? I'm shocked to hear you left some work undone! Who are you, and what have you done to Minerva?" he asked, bemused while his thump started to stroke her side.

"Yeah, I guess you have a bad influence on me," she answered.

"Hey, you can't make me responsible for everything you do."

"Oh, I can," Minerva held him back and pulled him down for another kiss, but this time longer and a bit more passionate.

"And how was this my fault?" Harry asked quietly with a small smile on his lips when they had parted once more and pulled her against his body.

"You're too good looking, and I like you way too much," Minerva said before turning out of his embrace and walking on. Harry shook his head, chuckling, before catching up with her and laying his arm back around her waist where it belonged.

"You are wonderful, do you know that?" he mumbled and placed a small kiss on the top of her head, Minerva though, had no time to say anything as they heard laughter behind them. They quickly broke apart and walked less close to each other. Only moments later, a group of third-year Gryffindors walked around the corner behind them and then past the two, who pretended to be only colleagues.

"Harry, Minerva, I was just looking for you. Can I have a word with you?" Dumbledore said the moment the two of them entered the Great Hall. For a moment, Harry feared someone had told him about their relationship, as by an old rule set by the four Founders, Professors were not allowed to form relationships. But they had been so careful, nobody knew they were actually dating except Aurora, and at Hogwarts, that was saying something.

"Sure, Albus," Minerva said, and Harry nodded at the older wizard who leads them to the nearest empty classroom and put some charms around the room, so nobody could eavesdrop on them or anything.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"Well, I have a mission for the two of you. Alastor told me about a Death Eater meeting at the Avery Mansion on Saturday night; we need to know what they have planned. Aurors would simply arrest them and trying to get information afterwards, which will be useless. Besides that, Tom would only free them." Dumbledore said.

"We?" Minerva asked.

"Yes, both of you are Animagus, and because of that extremely helpful for us, you will be less likely to get caught by them." but when Minerva had heard that they both were Animagus, she looked at her boyfriend surprised.

"You're an Animagus?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, I never found the chance to tell you," Harry said honestly and in the next moment transfigured into his Animagus form, so only a second later, a beautiful, slightly larger than average black fox sat next to the two Professors. Minerva looked both surprised and fascinated at Harry, who slid his body against Minervas legs and bumped his nose against her hand, which caused her to stroke his thick but soft black fur. Then the fox turned away, and Harry stood next to them again.

"Well, will you do it?" Albus asked and looked at the two Professors.

"I will," Harry answered unsurprisingly and then looked at Minerva, "What about you?" she seemed to think about it for a moment.

"I'll do it too; when should we go?"

"Tomorrow night would be best. I think we do right in covering your disappearance from the students as much as we can, so we won't draw too much attention on you." Dumbledore said, and the couple nodded.

"Good, I will give you more details tomorrow evening." with that, the three left the classroom.

"You don't think I should come with you, don't you?" Minerva whispered into Harry's ear when they sat down on their seats at the head table, and he still hadn't said anything to her.

"No, I know you can handle yourself just fine, but that doesn't mean I like it. I like you, so I'm trying to find a solution in which I won't make you feel like you are weak and I can actually protect you." the dark-haired wizard answered honestly. "Six years as an Auror don't go by without leaving some issues."

Minerva took his hand under the table and gave it a light squeeze, "You have no idea how much I want to be alone with you right now, so I could kiss you." she said in an even quieter whisper, and Harry smiled at her.

"No problem, my dear, I will remind you later." Then the two of them ate their breakfast together, but of course, did not talk about the mission they had been given by Dumbledore.

"Have a great day," Harry said to Minerva, who smiled up at him.

"You too, I can't wait until it's lunch," Minerva said, and with a small wink, Harry turned around and made his way towards his classroom. When he arrived in the corridor of the DADA classroom, he saw that half of the class was standing together in a small crowd laughing and cheering. Having a bad feeling, Harry quickened his pace but was also careful he wasn't noticed by anyone until he saw what was going on. The bad feeling increased when he saw his father and Sirius standing in the middle of the crowd. And his feeling proved to be correct.

Kneeling at James' feet was Snape. He was bound, and James was washing his hair and with a spell and flowers were growing out of his ears and nose.

"Next time you try to hex me when I turn my back on you, Snivellus, look to it that your greasy hair doesn't cover your eyes," James said, looking down at the literally fuming Snape with a glare.

"Detention, Mr Potter." James whirled around and looked at him, shocked, as did everyone else, who also stopped laughing.

"But Ha- Professor! He was-"

"I don't care what he was doing!" Harry said sternly and lifted the hexes off of Snape. "Are you alright, Mr Snape?" he asked.

"Yes." Severus growled angrily and glared at Harry even though he did the exact opposite of what he thought he would be doing. With a final glare at James and Harry, he stormed into the classroom.

"Professor he start-"

"10 Points from Gryffindor, don't you question my decisions, Mr Potter. I don't care if he tried to hex you first. If he did, then you had the right to defend yourself, but that doesn't give you the right to attack him too. And certainly not to humiliate him." Harry said seriously, and when he looked around, everyone suddenly seemed to be very interested in their shoes. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his mother and Marlene arrive together with Remus and look around, confused about what had happened.

"I'm sorely disappointed that nobody said a word, that every single one of you stood by laughing. As a Gryffindor myself, I don't say this easily, but I've never been more ashamed to say I was in the same house as you. Every one of you will write me one foot of parchment on why bullying is not okay and why you should stand up for fellow students regardless of their house, and most importantly, why you have to write that extra essay." not one of them refused or seemed to be angry.

"Inside with you." Harry said and walked inside, followed by the students. When everyone had found their seats and became quiet, not that any of them had talked much, he started the lesson.

"As to expect, we will continue with the non-verbal spells. Take out your wands and try to open the locked box in front of you. If you manage to open it, you will find yourself a partner and try to stun him without using the incarnation. Remember, if you don't say the words, you have to concentrate more and do the exact wand movement."

The class did as told, and Harry spent most of the lesson wandering around the classroom and helping the students. He wasn't surprised when Remus and Lily were the first ones who managed to unlock their boxes and tried to stun each other. At the end of the lesson, Remus even managed to produce a Stupefy, but it was still too weak to cause his mother more than an uneasy feeling when hit. Also, Sirius, James, Snape, Marlene and Greg Oswald, who had improved a great deal, managed to open the boxes and were trying to stun each other, but with less success than Remus or Lily.

"Potter?" Harry called out, feeling a bit weird to do so with his own surname.

"Yes Professor?" James asked but didn't sound so fond of talking to him.

"Detention at my office this evening after dinner." James nodded and then left the classroom to catch up with Sirius and Remus.

"We really need to get him and McGonagall together quickly." he grumbled when he reached two of his best friends outside the classroom.

"Only because of one detention? You almost got detention every month for the past six years. Why do you care now?" asked Remus. "Because he is your cousin?"

"No, because he defended Snivellus and not me and because he needs to lose up a bit, the first years are terrified by him." James answered but didn't sound too convincing.

"And because he is your cousin and put you in detention," Sirius stated and grinned when his best friend glared at him because he knew he was right.

"Fine, and because he put me in detention," he said and pushed his glasses a little closer to his face. "But they still have to get together. They are good for each other."

"Alright, let's meet with your half imaginary girlfriend to get our plan ready." Sirius answered while scratching the back of his head and push his friend forward.

The rest of the day went by pretty unspectacular. Harry had to deal with some second year Hufflepuff who, in his clumsy and quiet behaviour, reminded him strongly of Neville when they had been this old and some lazy fifth years whom Harry had to scare quite a bit before they would leave their attitude behind.

Still, the situation with his father and Snape had taken a toll on the good mood Harry had this morning. Even more so as he had to skip lunch to have time for his father's detention without delaying his work because he doubted he had time to do on the weekend with Dumbledore's mission.

Harry had to admit that it was wishful thinking he could do much to change the relationship of his father and his former Potions Professor, Snape was also a git in this time, even when Harry was theoretically another person, but his father wasn't that much better. Seeing him humiliate Snape in the pensive had already been difficult, but witnessing it with his own eyes was even worse.

Harry had made a plan to talk to his father this evening. If he told him that he needed to change his behaviour or Lily would never go out with him, it should work. And if not, then he hoped that he would stop being an immature bully by himself like he did in Harry's old time.

"A knut for your thoughts?" the amused voice pulled Harry out of this thoughts, and he looked around to see Minerva standing next to his desk, a small smile playing around her lips. He returned the smile and stood up.

"I would give you even more."

"Oh really? What about a kiss?" she asked, and Harry pretended to think about it.

"Certainly." he then said and leaned in to kiss her. This really did boost his mood. When they parted, Harry slides his arms around Minerva's waist and pulled her against him while she laid her own hands on his shoulders.

"I missed you at lunch," Minerva said after a moment of comfortable silence.

"Thanks to the detention my fa-cousin earned himself today, I had no time for lunch, or else I'd have to delay my paperwork until Monday, and honestly, I doubt I'll want to do it after our mission." Harry said, glad he had been able to stop himself from saying 'my father' just in time.

"Still, it wasn't quite as entertaining as when you were there. I swear the first years almost talk normally without looking at the head table every two seconds when the scary Auror isn't there." Minerva said, grinning, and Harry sent her a playful glare.

"Not you too, I'm not scary, and I never did anything to justify being scared of me!" Harry grumbled, and his girlfriend chuckled lightly.

"Well, maybe it's the big scar across your face and the fact that you rarely smile in public, making a quite good impression of a grumpy Auror."

"Hey! I'm not grumpy, and I often smile!" Minerva arched one of her eyebrows, and Harry sighed, "Okay, I don't smile that often," the eyebrow only slide higher, "Fine, I rarely smile in public. But in defence of my scar, I was told that witches liked them, so no judgement here!"

"That's right we do, but I can assure you I'm not in love with you only because of your scar."

"What a relief," he answered, and Minerva grinned.

"I know, it's the beard that sealed the deal for you."

"You are evil," Harry grumbled in a mocked, offended tone and pulled her even closer. "I wanted to take you out tonight, but maybe I'll ask Aurora instead."

"Oh really? Then be my guest. I'd love it when the two of you would get along better." Minerva said, smiling sweetly, knowing very well that he had bluffed. It wasn't that he didn't like his former Astronomy Professor, it was quite the opposite, in fact, but as he had never been close to her, he hadn't known what to expect of her at first.

What Harry certainly hadn't expected was the sarcastic, slightly foul-mouthed and free-spirited witch he came to know. He still had no clue how Minerva and Aurora ended up as best friends, as they were quite the contrast to each other. Though he liked her, his and Aurora's communication mainly consisted of bantering and debating, usually ending in insulting each other. Of course, it was always the other one that started it and Minerva more than once dared to hex them both if they wouldn't stop.

Narrowing his eyes at her, Harry sighed, "Alright, you won, I only bluffed, I'd rather go out with Silvanus than that Astro fraud you call friend." the black-haired witch rolled her eyes as the answer.

"When will we go?" she asked instead changing the subject back to their planned date, and Harry looked at his watch.

"It's shortly after six. The detention of James will only take half an hour. Can you be ready at seven in front of the gate?" he asked, and Minerva smiled at him.

"Of course."

"Oh, and before I forget, dress in a Muggle way. I want to take you somewhere nice, not into the Leaky Cauldron." for a moment, she looked puzzled but then nodded.

"Alright, see you later." with a final sweet kiss, she walked out of his office as elegant as always and left a happy Harry behind.

Only five minutes later, James arrived. "Hello," he said shortly, and Harry looked up from the papers he was just grading.

"Good evening. I must say I didn't expect you to be early. Take a seat; I want you to write me two parchments of lines." Harry said, and James merely nodded before sitting down and taking out his quill and parchment.

"What lines should I write?"

"I will never hex and humiliate a fellow student again, especially not for fun." Harry looked at his father, but he had already begun to write without saying anything. He knew that James wouldn't take the whole half-hour, so they had time to talk without him getting late for his date.

Of course, Harry was right. It only took James a little over half an hour to complete the lines. Harry thought that was training out of years worth of detention. "Wait a minute, James," he stated when his father stood and turned to walk to the door.

"So we are one first name again? Professor Potter?"

"Sit down again. I want to talk to you," Harry said, and though he looked like he would object, James sat down once more. "First, I thought I would be talking to my nearly adult cousin who was in his last year in Hogwarts and a young man, not my prepubescent cousin who laughed about fart jokes. So don't Professor Potter me." quite pleased with himself, Harry saw that James seemed to calm down and think about what Harry said before speaking.

"What do you want, Harry?" James asked in a calmer voice as he sat down again.

"I want to know what your problem is with that Snape boy? You obviously can't stand each other even a Flobberworm could see that, but why don't you just ignore each other? You only share two classes."

"Because Snape is an evil little git! He and his friends support Voldemort." James growled.

"And you don't think that because he is also in love with Miss Evans and was one of her best friends has something to do with it?" James stared at him, surprised.

"H-how?"

"Well, first off, I am an Auror, I was paid to notice little details around others, and Professor McGonagall told me that you like her and that she, to this day, refuses to go out with you." now James blushed a little. "Do you know why that is? Because I know."

"And why would that be?"

"Your immaturity is a problem. You have to grow up a little James, it is not funny to hex people in corridors and bully students! If you had thought about your behaviour, you would have noticed that it was horrible. Do you think a woman likes it when a guy only handles difficult situations with his wand rather than his brain? Show her that you have grown up, that you are mature enough to stand over your hate for Snape and be the adult of you two." Harry said and watched his father closely to see any reaction from him, but he was very good at hiding it away until now.

"She likes you too, and Snape knows that too. He knows that once you grow up, he'll have lost the battle over Lily. That's why he is going to provoke you every chance he gets. So ignore him, and if you truly love Lily, then she is more important than your pride. If he attacks you verbally, walk away; if he attacks you physically, defend yourself if necessary and leave it. Just think, is humiliating Snape because you love the same girl more important than Lily herself?"

James was still not answering for a while, thinking about what Harry, unknowingly his own son, had just told him. "You...you really think she is in love with me?" he asked quietly. Without Sirius or Remus or anyone else for that matter, James thought he had to impress; he was able to talk about what he was really feeling.

"Yes, I do."

"Then I will do everything to have her by my side, if she wants, I'll even make amends with Snape if she would only go out with me once." James answered a bit more confidently, and Harry couldn't stop himself from asking.

"You really love her, do you?"

"I do, with all my heart I...I would give anything to her, even my life." and there was no doubt in his voice, James truly meant what he said, unknowingly doing exactly what he just said in four years.

"Then show her, who knows how much time you two have. Don't waste any more time, James," Harry said, and James nodded before getting up.

"I will," with that, he turned to leave but stopped at the door and turned around once more, "Harry?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you, and I really mean that." Harry smiled.

"Any time James, any time."

As the talk with his father had taken a little bit more time than Harry had planned, he had to run down towards the gate as he also had to change from his robes into a Muggle suit. So that nobody noticed him, he disillusioned himself again, not for the first time missing his invisibility cloak, and hurried to the agreed meeting point.

When he arrived and removed the charm from himself, he saw that he was the first to arrive despite already being a little late. When he turned towards the gate and checked the time, Harry somehow felt watched and turned around again. What he saw made his mouth fall open.

There, in a stunning dress and walking towards him, was Minerva. The dress was dark green with a high neck and long sleeves; the top hugged her figure nicely while the dress's bottom was flowing down to her feet. She wore some light makeup and had her hair pinned up but not in a bun. All in all, she looked breathtaking.

"I- wow, you look gorgeous, Minerva." Harry said as he walked closer.

"Thank you, you look quite handsome yourself...it turned out to be more difficult to find something than I had thought, I had to lend this from Ro, I'm glad you like it," she said, and when she passed Harry, showing her backside to him, he had to swallow as he saw the back neckline that exposed most of her back.

"It doesn't matter what you wear you'll always look beautiful to me." Harry said when he held out his arm, which she took smiling.

"Well thank you, but what if I'm old? You know, grey hair and wrinkles, will you still think I'm beautiful?"

"Of course I will," Harry said and then raised his wand to open the gate.

"Will you tell me where we'll be going?" she asked when they stepped outside the grounds.

"That, my dear, is a surprise," Harry told her before he leaned down to lay his lips on hers for a gentle kiss. Taking the chance, he apparated them to London, only in a dark alleyway one street away from the restaurant. It was one of his favourites back in his old time and the only good place he knew already existed in this time.

"Follow me, Mylady," he said and held out his arm for her, and Minerva took it, chuckling and shaking her head. When they arrived in the elegant restaurant, Minerva couldn't help but be slightly impressed, not only with Harry, who had chosen an excellent restaurant but with the Muggles who had built this lovely place without magic.

Only five minutes later, the two of them were seated at their table, while tasteful music was played by a live band not far away beside a dance floor, on which a few couples were dancing.

"Now, as I had no time for lunch today, I ask you now; how was your day?" Harry asked as they waited on their drinks.

"Quite okay actually, Mr Roberts from Hufflepuff is natural in transfiguration; I don't know how he can do so much being only a second-year when some third or even fourth years can't manage what he does," Minerva explained. They talked about Transfiguration, Defence Against Dark Arts, their time in school and were getting to know each other even better.

When the two of them had finished their dessert and Harry thought about paying, as it was already shortly before ten, the band started to play a song he liked, and following an inner impulse, he got up and held his hand out to Minerva.

"Would you like to dance with me?" the moment of confusion was quickly gone, and she took his hand.

"I'd love to." with that, they made their way over to the dance floor and started to dance, blending in perfectly with everyone else. As Harry held her in his arms, a question popped up in his head he had wanted to ask her since his fourth school year.

"Who taught you to dance?" he asked as they danced slowly to the song, their bodies close together. Minerva gave a short laugh.

"Why? Is it that bad?"

"No, not at all, I only wondered," he answered honestly.

"My grandmother on my father's side taught me, she loved dancing, but as she never had a daughter to teach dancing to, she taught me, and you Professor Potter?"

"Well, a great woman tried to teach me, but I was not one bit interested in it until I found music as my way of relaxing. When a friend of mine got married, I asked again if she could teach me, and she did." Harry told her, indeed, Minerva herself had taught him to dance when Ron and Hermione were getting married, with Hermione telling him two weeks before the wedding that she wished to dance with him.

"She did a good job," Minerva said, and Harry chuckled.

"Oh she did, even though she almost gave up on me, I was a tough case."

"I can imagine." she then stood on her toes to kiss him, though, after a moment, Harry leaned down so they could kiss properly. At that moment, he wanted time to stand still; in this small moment, everything was perfect, like it had rarely been in his life.

"I wish this night would never end." Minerva whispered to him when they parted a while later, still standing as close as possible while dancing.

"Me too," Harry answered, and maybe he wished for time to stand still because he knew, deep down, something terrible was going to happen. It always was when he was happy.

Hello, my lovely readers!

I hope you enjoyed the new chapter and the tiny cliffhanger! If you did, please leave a review and tell me what you think of the story or chapter.

Also, a big thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed and favourite the story. You are awesome!

Patti