'Good Lord, she is beautiful' Harry thought once he opened his eyes and came to realise that he wasn't alone in bed. There next to him laid Minerva, still fully clothed as himself, but she had freed her hair from her bun and her outer robes laid on his couch, and both their shoes and socks were also somewhere in his living room. Her hair now framed her beautiful face, and the late autumn sun shone into his bedroom and enlightened their features. Reluctantly turning away from her, he laid on his back and looked at his left where his clock stood. It was already eleven.

But it didn't surprise him it was already this late. They had spent most of the night talking about his life, who he was and had become, as well as almost everything he had done in his original time. Having somebody who knew everything about him was strangely satisfying; it was like Harry himself was reminded who he was.

They had also talked a lot about Minerva as it hadn't been Harry on the Quidditch team with her, and Harry also wanted to get to know Minerva even better. Around four, they both had been so tired that it hadn't taken much to convince Minerva to stay.

"Good Morning." a sleepy voice pulled him out of his thoughts, and Harry turned his head again to look at the witch he loved.

"Good Morning, my dear," Harry answered, his own voice still heavy with sleep. He rolled over, so they were facing each other and laid his arm around her. Minerva moved even closer to him and laid her lips on his.

Instantly Harry responded and kissed her back, while his arm pressed her against him, and his other also sneaked under Minerva's body so he could pull her on top of him, Minerva's right laid on the side of his neck, her fingers buried in his hair while her left laid on his chest. The kiss grew more fierce with each second. His tongue had already stolen its way inside her mouth, where she had welcomed him with a battle for the upper hand.

After a couple of moments, they both pulled back reluctantly to breathe properly again. Harry slid one hand that had laid on her hip back up her back to stroke her hair back behind her ear.

"Merlin, I could do this every second for the rest of my life," he said and smiled at her. Minerva smiled back and pecked his lips once more.

"Me too, but I think our students, particularly the younger ones, would be quite disturbed seeing their Professors snogging their brains out," she replied, and he laughed shortly.

"Oh, they should be happy their Professors are only snogging. There are quite a few things we could disturb them with even more."

"Are you only thinking about sex?" she asked but wasn't able to keep her own smile off her lips.

"When I wake up beside a beautiful witch who is also right on top of me? Of course, I think about sex. After all, sex is a wonderful thing."

"Quite true."

"How did you sleep?" Harry asked, changing the subject. He didn't want to imply he wanted to have sex with her just now. They had, after all, just found back together. He wanted them both to be ready, and until then, he could just continue to get relief by himself.

"Very good, thank you, and you?" Minerva said and laid back down beside Harry, but still very close.

"Wonderful, there is nothing better than waking up next to someone you're head over heels in love with."

"Good for you then that this witch feels the same way about you, or it wouldn't happen so often," Minerva replied, grinning, and Harry kissed her once more.

"Oh, I'm the luckiest lad in the world right now," Harry murmured against her lips and placed one last kiss on her delicate lips before he pulled back. "Do you have anything to do today? Or somewhere you need to be?" he asked and watched as she thought about his words.

"Not really. Why are you asking?"

"Well, then let's spend the weekend together, just the two of us here. Like we planned to do before I fucked up. And well, I began training James, Lily, Sirius, Remus and Marlene; today is the next training, I could use a little help in training them. If you need more convincing, then I can tell you it's pretty funny to chase them around the training room." Harry said and wiggled his eyebrows at her. Minerva laughed and laid her hands on his chest before placing her head on her hands, looking at him.

"I'd love to spend the weekend with you, and a little help training them probably won't harm them," Minerva said and smiled.

"Great, then I will go and take a shower now, and then I'll make us some breakfast," Harry said and kissed her.

"We can also just ask the house elves to make us some-" Minerva replied, but Harry threw her an almost offended look, "or you make us something."

"You never tried my breakfast, sure the house elves can cook very good, and I enjoy it, but there is nothing better than something you cooked yourself."

"Talking about keeping the expectations low." she teased, and Harry sent her a mocked glare.

"You will apologies later that you ever doubted me." with that, he disappeared into the bathroom and took a quick shower. It was a wonder Minerva had slept next to him as he hadn't taken a shower after his training and smelled awful. It was only when he had finished his shower he realised, a little too late, that he hadn't taken any clothes with him or his wand. Hopefully walking back inside only with a towel around his hips wouldn't create an awkward situation.

When he stepped inside, she was standing by the bookshelf looking over the books he owned, her hair up in a messy bun. When she turned around, her eyes widened, surprised, and Harry couldn't help but notice how her eyes wandered over his naked torso, he knew he was well-built, but her glance was quite the boost for his ego.

"I forgot my fresh clothes," he admitted.

"Oh, I'm-I'm waiting in the kitchen for you," Minerva said, a faint blush covering her cheeks as she walked out of the room. He wasn't the first man she saw naked or half-naked, but he was the most handsome one. Once he had put on some Shirt and pants, he walked into the kitchen and saw Minerva rummaging through his cupboards.

"What are you doing? I said I would make us some breakfast." Harry had been so quiet that he startled her a little when he talked.

"Yes, I know. I'm just searching for some tea because while you know something about cooking, I know something about making tea." Minerva said, and Harry smiled before reaching over her to the highest shelf in his cupboard and handed her the slightly dusty box of tea. She blinked at him and gave him a look of pure disbelieve.

"Really?"

"Well, though I like tea, I'm kinda a coffee drinker," he confessed, and she shook his head at him. He really had only drunk some tea at meals if she had offered it to him.

"Then, my dear, you never had good tea. You will apologise later that you ever doubted me," she said using his words, and Harry leaned down to peck her lips.

"I can't wait for it." he then began to make them breakfast containing their favourite things, making a few different things but small portions. Harry had, of course, as they had been eating together for months now, memorised what she liked best. Soon they sat at his little table, which they had moved towards one of the windows in the living room, so there was a more comfortable atmosphere while enjoying their breakfast.

"And?" Harry couldn't keep himself from asking after Minerva had finished half of her porridge, sipping his tea which was, he had to admit, delicious. He had never learned to make proper tea and had therefore switched to coffee.

"You can definitely cook. It's delicious, we better don't tell the house-elves, or they'll be devastated," she said smiling and then nodded towards his mug, "how's your tea?"

"I never had better tea in my life. I think it still might be possible for me to switch to tea."

"Glad to hear that." with that, they continued their breakfast talking about everything that came to their minds, until there was a swoosh sound behind Harry, and in the next moment, a soot-covered Astronomy Professor stood in front of his fireplace.

"Didn't your mother teach you to not simply floo into other peoples houses, Astro fraud?" Harry asked.

"I fucking hate floo powder." Aurora simply replied, coughing, ignoring his words, and then looking at him, noticing her best friend sitting opposite Harry. "Not that I didn't suspect it, but at least now I can save us the question if you have seen Minerva," she said and stepped closer to the two. "Thanks for leaving a note where you are. I was worried, young Lady." Minerva arched an eyebrow at her best friend and shook her head.

"Aurora." the 'save that attitude for someone else's tone of Minerva made her best friend sigh.

"Alright, alright, well, seems like you two sorted out whatever it was that made you break up?" the Astronomy Professor said and waved a hand between the two.

"Good Morning Harry may I come in? Good Morning Aurora, of course, please sit down and feel free to ask about any sensible themes that might come to your mind." Harry said with an unmoving face, but Aurora only shook her head at him.

"Really, Minerva? Him?"

"Oh, shut up."

"With pleasure, but jokes aside. Are you two okay again? Because it really was a shitty time, not only for you. You are my best friend Minerva, and as much as I hate to admit it, and I'll never say it again, I like you, Harry and seeing you two unhappy wasn't great, so please, can this be the last time you two break up?" Harry wasn't sure who was more surprised at the honest and kind words of the typically kinda gruff Aurora, Minerva or Harry himself.

"Yes, we talked about it and worked it out, didn't we?" Harry asked and looked at Minerva, who smiled and took his hand.

"Yes, we did," she answered and smiled back.

"By the way, I like you too, Aurora. Even though you can be a pain in the arse and drive me mad, you're a good friend." Harry said, and both of them smiled at each other.

"This will be the only time you two admit that you actually like each other, am I right?" Minerva asked, already knowing the answer when both nodded at her.

"Maybe we'll do it once a year, on your birthday or Christmas," Aurora then stood up. "Alright, that was all I wanted to hear. Well, I'll leave you and shitty glasses back to where you were, Minerva. We'll see each other tomorrow?" Aurora asked, and Minerva nodded before the two of them shared a hug. With a pat on Harry's shoulder, she walked back to the fireplace. Out of the corner of his eyes, Harry saw how Aurora dragged her cloak alongside the back of his couch, leaving a long soot trail behind before stepping inside the fireplace again.

"Oh, by the way, you just made me fifty Galleons richer as I won against Albus, so thanks for that! Bye-bye!" before either of the two could say or do anything, she was already gone.

"I knew it. They were all betting on our private life, can you believe that?" Minerva said with a mix between annoyance and amusement.

"Well, you gotta see it the other way. We are the only people in this castle interesting enough to bet on. But I agree with you, we really have to find them some other hobby." they continued their breakfast, talking about nothing particular. Still, once they had cleared away the dishes and sat on his couch, his arms loosely wrapped around her and quiet music coming from the wireless, Minerva got more serious.

"How are you feeling? Telling me everything couldn't have been easy," she said, and Harry thought about her words. It hadn't been easy to remember all the good things that had happened, and all the great people he had met, especially talking about Ron and Hermione, had left him choked up a couple of times. But apart from that, it had felt so good, and to share the memories of his dearest friends was like bringing them to this time, making them more real again. Now that Minerva knew of them, they weren't just living in his memory.

"It wasn't easy, I admit that, but it was good telling you, not just so you know who I really am. It's nice to know that somebody now knows about what happened and about my friends, so they do not only exist in my memories." Harry told her calmly as his hands slowly stroked up and down her forearms.

"That's good. They do sound like amazing people...I can't wait to meet them."

"Oh, if they are anything like we were in my time, then they will give you nearly a heart attack at least once a school year...and beyond," he said with a smile on his lips.

"Thanks for the heads up."

"Your welcome," Harry murmured before he placed a kiss on her hairline.

"Did you really mean what you said about your parents yesterday? Please be honest." this was unexpected, and Harry had slightly hoped she wouldn't bring it up because he had spoken without thinking first. He hadn't lied to her like he had promised, but he had thought he was okay with it until he had said it out loud.

"Harry?" Minerva asked carefully and turned her head to look at him. Harry sighed.

"No," he answered quietly, "but I didn't lie to you, I swear. I-I really thought I could do it, but when I said it, I realised that I have been lying to myself. Merlin, I want to save them, if only to spare my self seven years of living in a cupboard. But in doing so, I might put the lives of thousands of people in danger. I don't know what the fuck I can do. Those bastards didn't tell me how this works, what is okay for me to change and what not? It's so frustrating." Harry said, not able to keep the negative emotions out of his voice.

"Harry, look at me. We will figure it out together. We will find a way to save them. I will help you with all I have. You- well, the future you, deserves to be happy." Minerva said, and Harry, who had followed her plea to look her in the eyes, could see that she really meant what she said.

"I love you, Minerva...you- don't know what it means to me that you will help me."

"I love you too, Harry, all of you." she craned her neck to place a kiss on his lips and Harry all too willingly let her. How did he deserve this amazing woman?

They spend the rest of the day simply enjoying each others company again, they went for a long walk around the lake and the land surrounding the school, carefully watching out that no students could see them. Upon their return to his quarters around dinner time, they ate something and decided to play some Chess. Each round ended with Harry losing big time.

"Damn it." Harry cursed as Minerva checkmated him for the third time in a row, causing his opponent to chuckle. She was even better than Ron, and that was saying something.

"No wonder you choose that bloody chessboard in my first year at Hogwarts," he grumbled as he shooed his still partly demolished pieces back into their box.

"What?" Minerva asked, still smiling as she also guided her celebrating pieces back inside the box.

"Well, in my first year, Albus hid the philosopher's stone in Hogwarts, and you teachers protected it with traps and tasks. You choose a giant chess game one had to win to pass. However, the pieces, especially that Queen of yours was quite violent, she nearly smashed Ron's skull." he told her, and Minerva blinked at him.

"What? But- in your first year? What were you even doing there?" as he hadn't told every detail to every adventure yesterday, and to be honest, Harry had many adventures, Minerva was understandably surprised. He then told her the whole story of how they had found out about the stone and set out to defend it. By the end she was shaking her head in disbelieve.

"Please, if this should happen in the future, remind me to believe you. Do you know how many times you three could have died?!" she asked him. Harry scratched the back of his head.

"Well, there was the Cerberus, the Devils Snare, we could've technically fallen off our brooms and be beaten to death by aggressive keys. Then we have your Chess game that nearly succeeded in murdering Ron, the Mountain Troll, which was already dead when we got there and then Voldemort acting through Quirrell." Harry listed and counted each possible death scenario with his fingers.

"Merlin," she buried her face in her hands for a moment ", how come you are still alive?"

"I used to asked this myself once a month. I guess having no idea how deathly the stuff was that we were doing and no normal sense for dangerous situations helped. And plenty of dumb luck." he joked, and Minerva threw a pillow at his head.

"Don't joke about that!"

"Hey, I'm here, aren't I?"

"Forced to travel back in the past and nearly getting killed once again," she said, and Harry couldn't help but agree with her.

"Good point." he then stood up, walked around the table and pulled her into his arms and kissed her. "I'm still here, though, and I think that it probably won't be the last time we both put our lives at risk," he said once they parted.

"I know, doesn't mean I like it," Minerva said before giving him another kiss. Harry then looked at his watch and saw that it was almost time for the training.

"Hey, it's time for the training. Ready to chase some students around?" he asked, grinning.

"Oh, with pleasure. I can't wait to see the Room of Requirement," she replied smiling, and together they walked to the Room of Requirement. Once arriving in the corridor, he thought about their training room, and when the door appeared out of the stone, and they stepped inside, Minerva was really impressed.

"I love this castle," she murmured when she looked around the room.

"You haven't seen the best yet," Harry told her before he leads her over to the door leading to the small forest. When he opened the door, a small gasp escaped Minerva.

"Oh my...this room is really amazing."

"Yes indeed. We will train in here today, they've been here a couple of times to complete a small parkour, so they should know their way around. We'll simulate an attack on them, and they have to defend themselves." Harry explained his plan to her, and Minerva nodded.

"Alright, do you mind if I get a little familiar with this room as well?" she asked, and Harry shook his head.

"No, of course not, I will begin in the other room, and then we'll just meet you in here as little surprise," Harry said, and Minerva nodded.

"Alright, see you in a few minutes then," with that, Minerva turned around, but Harry quickly wrapped her in a firm hug. "Harry what- ?" but he already turned her in his arms and kissed her.

"I cannot do this for the next two hours or so. I just had to kiss you." Harry whispered against her lips before Minerva kiss him again.

"I love you," she said, and Harry smiled, his heart beating faster in his chest upon hearing her say these three simple words.

"I love you too," just then they heard a door open and voices in the other room. "that's my cue, see you in a bit."

"I can hardly wait." with that, she disappeared between the trees while Harry walked back inside the other room where James, Sirius, Lily, Marlene and Remus were waiting for him.

"Good evening, everyone," he said with a smile and the five students greeted him back. "you know how it works by now, warm-up and practise your spells." Together they warmed up and practice their spells with Harry. They changed partners every few minutes until Harry thought they were ready.

"So, today we are going to take things a bit further, we will simulate a fight, and you have to defend yourselves until you either defeat both of us or until you are all unconscious. Obviously, we won't use spells that can be lethal directly on each other, so for example, casting a Confringo directly at us will cause you to be knocked out and earning yourself fifteen rounds around the room for breaking the rules. But therefore, it is alright to cast Confringo on a tree, for example, to draw your opponent's attention away from you. Understood?" Harry explained to them, and all of them nodded, then Remus lifted his hand. "Yes?"

"The way you said 'we' tells me you won't be alone. Who is our other opponent?" he asked, and Harry grinned. Turning around, he walked towards the door of the forest and gestured the five to follow him.

"I'm sure you will be pleased with my choice of partner for this." with that, he opened the door, and they saw Minerva, first standing with her back towards them, but when the door opened, she turned around with a smile and waved at them.

"Hello." all five of them were surprised to see her there. They had expected some former Auror colleague of Harry's.

"Professor McGonagall?" Sirius asked as the first to find his voice again, there was an honest surprise in his voice, though Harry thought he might have picked up a little bit of worry too and he couldn't blame Sirius, he had seen Minerva fight after all, and she wasn't called the most powerful witch of her time for nothing. It seemed like he wasn't the only one who picked up on that.

"Why so surprised, Mr Black? Surely you are not scared of a little training fight with your Professor? To make things easier, you can call me Minerva, of course only here."

"Actually-"

"Shut up, Sirius, we can do this!" James said confidently, but his friends weren't so sure about that.

"They will kick our arses," mumbled Marlene, and Lily nodded.

"Alright, Minerva and I will go now and meet you at the clearing. Once you arrive, you have one minute to prepare before the fight starts. Good Luck." With that, he and Minerva pulled their wands and disappeared between the trees.

"Alright, so obviously no lethal curses, but I guess I don't have to tell you," Harry said as they arrived at the clearing after a quick jog there.

"Of course not. I'll take the right side, have fun." Minerva said, and with a peck to his cheek, she left for the opposite side of the clearing. Harry disillusioned himself and knelt in a particularly dark spot between some trees and bushes. They didn't have to wait long until the friends arrived and stood with their backs to each other, wands raised, silently counting down. Harry watched as they developed a strategy. Marlene and Lily, who were the best at protecting spells, stood back to back while Remus, Sirius and James surrounded them. It was the job of the two witches to shield the others as best as possible.

With his first curse on his lips, Harry counted the last ten seconds, and just when the time was up, something surprising happened.

"Harry's in the bushes on the left, and Minerva is to my right over there!" Remus bellowed, and he and Marlene send spells in Minerva's direction, while James, Sirius and Lily send curses at him. Kinda surprised, Harry had to dodge two of them before he jumped behind the nearby tree and fired back.

If it weren't for Lily, one of his stunners would have hit Sirius square in the chest as he and James nearly collied while evading his spells. They only managed not to collide because James jumped and rolled himself over Sirius back, who had dodged a spell.

Harry then walked onto the clearing, lifting the charm of him and tried to show them how to fight and defend themselves at the same time. In a situation like this, the key was to always keep moving around. Though he wasn't hidden anymore, none of them managed to get a good hit; only a Diffindo cast by Lily graze his left side and left him with a cut there.

Surprisingly the first one to get knocked out was Remus. As he relied too much on his enhanced sense of smell, he turned his attention to a bush Minerva had transfigured to a cloaked person with her scent on it, and before Remus realised what happened, he was knocked back by a powerful stunner.

Marlene took his place without hesitation, leaving Lily alone in the middle, who threw shield charm over shield charm saving her friends quite often, as the others stood in a circle around her. Only when Remus was knocked out, Minerva also appeared on the clearing, and despite the situation, Harry couldn't help but watch her and be amazed by the way she moved.

It almost looked like she was dancing, throwing curses and hexes at their students. Her hair had come loose from her loose bun and was whirling around her, but it didn't seem to affect her at all. If she had her wand with her on that fateful night she nearly died, then Harry was sure she also would have been able to stand her ground against the Death Eaters.

James, the next one to go, got hit with an Impedimenta, which was quickly followed by an Incarcerous spell leaving him tied up on the ground. He had tried to impress Lily with a spectacular jump, jumping directly into the first spell, which would have missed him otherwise. Once the Impedimenta wore off, he began to shout warnings at the others, but then Minerva put a Silencio on him, leaving him wiggling on the grass without a sound.

Lily followed not long after James, unable to doge a stunner from Minerva as she spun around to put up a shield between Marlene and Harry's Silencio.

"Ossox!" Harry's bone-breaking curse hit Sirius in his right leg, causing him to fall to the floor with a scream of pain. To end this, Harry quickly sent a stunner after him, leaving him unconscious.

"Oh Fuck!" Marlene cursed, realising she was the only one left, but not for long. While she managed to dodge and shield their curses for a moment, she was hit by a Silencio, and though she was able to bring up a shield, it wasn't strong enough to withstand Minerva's Stunner and Harry's Incarcerous.

As both Harry and Minerva walked to the middle of the clearing on which their unconscious students laid, Harry proceeded to heal his cut and look at his students. The fight had lasted over fifteen minutes, longer than Harry had expected, and he was very proud of them.

"They fought pretty well. You were a good teacher," Minerva said and then looked at her left hand, Harry noticed that it was all red and swollen. "Remus actually got me with a Stinging hex," she said, rolling up her sleeve before pointing her wand at her hand. A transparent paste spread over the skin on her hand, and then she conjured a bandage, which wrapped around her hand and each of her fingers.

"Yeah, I'm pretty proud of them. Let's wake them up." Harry banished the ropes around James away and ended his silencing charm. His father sat up and rubbed his arms, glaring at his teacher.

"We'll talk once everyone is up again." Harry quickly told him before James could say something.

"Alright." Harry then went over to Sirius, whose bone was healed with a quickly cast Episkey before lifting the stunner off him.

"Merlin's old saggy balls that hurt!" his father's best friend said once he regained consciousness and rubbed his right leg before taking the hand Harry offered, who then pulled Sirius on his feet.

They walked over to the others where Minerva had already conjured some chairs for them, and Harry summoned some water bottles handing one to each of them.

"Who won?" Sirius then asked once they sat down and had some water.

"Marlene did. Congrats, you won yourself a bottle of Fire Whisky. I will give it to you when we are finished." he said, and Marlene grinned.

"Yes! Sweet!" she said and shared a high five with Lily.

"So, do you all know why we could defeat you?"

"Because you two are highly experienced Professors who are ten times stronger than we are? I mean seriously-"

"Seriously, Sirius?" James interrupted his best friend, and it took Harry a great deal not to crack a grin.

"Oh shut the hell up, I lasted longer than you, you son of a Murtlap. I wanted to say that you two are probably the most powerful witch and wizard apart from Dumbledore and Snakeface. We didn't stand a chance."

"Thanks for the compliment, Sirius, and you are right but don't belittle what you have done. You lasted longer against us than we expected. Remus and Lily both managed to hit us with curses," here Minerva held up her bandaged hand, "you came up with a good strategy, using Remus' abilities to locate us, which gave you an advantage. You had each other's back's, and with Lily and Marlene in the middle to cast shields, you lasted even longer." Minerva explained to them, and the five smiled at her.

"So back to my question," Harry said, and the five thought about it.

"I relied too much on my sense of smell, though I do not understand how you managed to make that transfigured bush actually smell like you, Professor." Remus began.

"Yes, that's right you did, but I was only able to do so because I know of your condition. If I didn't know why you knew where we were, I wouldn't have bothered with that detail, which is really complicated. I came up with it when I mastered my Animagus form and could sometimes use my feline senses even as a human. Maybe I can teach you." Minerva answered, and Remus nodded, smiling.

"Well, I simply panicked, I didn't expect to be the last survivor and got nervous, so I wasn't concentrating enough," Marlene said, and Harry nodded.

"That's right, but we can work on that. Apart from that, you did great. Both you and Lily saved the others a dozen times with your shield charms." Harry told her and then looked at James, who rubbed the back of his neck quite embarrassed. At that moment, James reminded Minerva a lot of Harry, who also did this in the same manner as James, 'like father like son,' she thought with a small smile on her lips.

"I- well, I was trying to show off and fucked up because I didn't concentrate enough on what I was actually doing," he admitted, and Harry also nodded.

"Quite right, but that is luckily also something we can work on rather easily. If you hadn't tried to show off, I'm pretty sure you would have lasted a great deal longer." Harry told him, and James nodded, feeling a little bit better at the praise he got from his presumed cousin.

"Sirius, what about you?" Minerva asked, turning to look at the young man she addressed.

"Well, because I got hit by that damn bone breaker curse."

"Right, but you only got hit because you weren't moving anymore. You relied too much on Lily and Marlene. If you work on that, you will be an excellent duellist." she told him, and Sirius grinned pleased.

"I got hit by that stunner because I focused more on protecting Marlene. I should have used that Protego on the stunner from Minerva."

"Exactly, you did great, as I already told Marlene, but you focused more on the others than on yourself. You have to find the right balance, Marlene can cast spells non-verbal and could have continued without speaking. All in all, I'm really proud of you. I think if we did this at the beginning of our training, even with only myself to fight against, you wouldn't have lasted that long."

After the five friends had recovered a little more, they began to train again. Minerva started to teach Remus and James, being the most gifted in Transfiguration, how to add scent to transfigured objects. Harry, on the other hand, helped the other three to improve their duelling even more. Sirius ended up with a special task, as he had to dodge the Leek Jinx that the other three, who surrounded him, cast at him without having his wand to put up a shield charm.

When Harry ended the training an hour later, all five of them were pretty tired, and there was still a tiny leek sprouting from Sirius right ear, which seemed to grow back every time he pulled it out.

"Alright, that's it, we're finished for tonight, don't forget your homework which is due on Monday. The next training will be on Wednesday." with that, the five friends left, Marlene hiding a small bottle of Fire Whisky under her cloak, while Sirius complained that his ears would smell like a leek for the whole week.

"That went better than I thought," Harry said as they slowly walked out of the forest room as well.

"It did, and it was quite fun. Do you mind if I help you more often?" Minerva asked as they came to a halt before the door leading outside the Room of Requirement.

"Of course not, you've been amazing, Mina, really I knew you could fight, but that was incredible," Harry said as he slid his arms around her waist and leaned down to kiss her.

"Thank you, you weren't bad yourself," she whispered against his lips before kissing him once more, her own arms folding behind his neck, pulling him close to her.

"Let's go by to my quarters again, or yours," Harry said once they pulled back to breathe properly again. "I don't care, just as long as we're alone."

"Do you fancy another game of Chess?" Minerva couldn't help but ask with a mischievous smile on her lips, and Harry put on a mocked a hurt expression and flinched.

"Ouch, was that really necessary?" he asked, and the witch in arms chuckled.

"Yes, it was."

"That screams for redemption, I think," Harry said innocently, and Minerva pulled him in for another kiss. This kiss quickly grew into a proper snogging session that left both of them quite aroused.

"Are we even now?" Minerva asked, panting slightly, her lips swollen from their kiss.

"For now," Harry said, brushing his lips against the tip of her nose in a brief kiss.

"I love you," Minerva said, and it was still music to his ears to hear her say it.

"I love you too," Harry said, and together they left the room hand in hand. It was late enough so that only a few students were on the corridors, and it was no problem for them to show this much affection.

Just when they arrived back in his quarters and Harry opened his mouth to ask her if she wanted something to drink, two bright blue Phoenix Patronuses landed in front of them. Each of them had the same message for him and Minerva, and what Albus' voice told them as it echoed around his quarters left them both shocked.

'There is an emergency! Death Eaters are attacking the Bones Family. We need your help!'

Hello there!

Another very late Christmas present, hope you all had a wonderful time and also very late happy New Year!

I hope you really enjoyed the new chapter, I really thought it would take longer but the muse was hitting hard again! Please let me know what you think of it :)

I never trained anyone for fighting, certainly no wizards so I hope this turned out not so bad.

Thank you for all the reviews, favourites and follows, it never fails to amaze me when I look at all the people who read my stories, thank you so much!

Patti