"Well, aren't you the prettiest little whore ever? Hey, you there! How much for a go with this 'un, mate?"

Minerva was quite unused to hearing such things about herself, but here she was hearing them constantly and amazingly enough, they were true. She'd never thought herself to be the prettiest woman within so much as twenty feet but right now she was the prettiest woman in about three blocks. She had all of her teeth, a straight nose, eyes that were neither bloodshot nor puffy . . . It was an odd feeling. She was getting used to it however.

Albus glanced over at Minerva, pretending to try and figure out how much she was worth. After a second, he quoted the man a price that, from speaking to a number of prostitutes on this block, he and Minerva had gathered was at least reasonable.

"All right then!"

Albus found a small number of pounds being stuffed into his hand. With an effort, her turned away from Minerva, whom he worried about constantly every time she got into one of those men's cars. He knew she had her wand, and worry was for the most part irrational, but he found he could not help himself. It was probably the teacher in him popping up. It had been his job to protect her as a student, after all, and he had always done so with the best of his abilities. Just letting her do something that seemed as though it were potentially dangerous did not seem right to him.

Another car drove up, and another man asked Albus about a different girl. With some guilt, Albus quoted the man a price and the girl got into his car. When they'd first gotten to the block, in an effort to better their cover, he and Minerva had instituted a number of memory charms to make him the pimp for another five girls. He had to admit, he did not like the situation. In his opinion these girls were being horribly taken advantage of through their "jobs." He and Minerva, being good people, had promised themselves that while they were here they would do their best to help these girls that they were using. They'd get them real places to live and actual jobs—as well as the majority of what they made by selling themselves. It was the best either of them could think to do for these girls. Albus still felt somewhat guilty about the situation, however.

Albus glanced constantly at the corner where the car with Minerva had turned until he saw her back safely on their corner.

He approached her quickly. "Everything went smoothly?"

"Quite," she answered him. "He thinks he had the time of his life, at a very reasonable price."

Imagery of what 'the time of his life' probably meant, filled Albus's head. He felt a familiar heat rise within him. It was an irrational feeling though, after all nothing had actually happened at all. It was all from a Memory Charm. He pushed the thoughts and images away. He could not continue like this through the entirety of their work here. They did have a job to get done.

/E/E/E/E/E/

"Shall you transfigure yourself a bed, or shall I?"

"I will. Any bed you'd transfigure would be rock-like."

Minerva fixed Albus with a hard stare.

Albus chuckled. "Go change, Minerva. We both know how much you want to get into some real clothes."

"Thank you," she said with a nod, and Albus could not tell whether or not she was mad about the 'rock-like' comment. "I'll be in the bathroom if you need me."

She grabbed a bag and walked toward the bathroom. Albus watched her as she went, thinking thoughts he quickly realized he definitely should not be thinking.

He turned away from the doorway he'd watched her disappear through, quite embarrassed with himself and more than a little guilty. It suddenly dawned on him exactly why it was that he'd been feeling and acting so oddly ever since he'd met with Minerva and Alastor at the Leaky Cauldron. He was attracted to Minerva.

He transfigured himself a bed with a feathery mattress from a broken lamp on a nearby nightstand and sat down on it. This wasn't right. Minerva was little less than 80 years younger than he. She'd been his prize student. He'd known her since she was 11 years old and under his care. How could he be attracted to her?

The bathroom door opened and Minerva walked out in a night dress and tartan robe. Her hair, worn down in a long black sheet down her back while she been 'working' her corner, was now tied securely in a braid running along the side of her long neck and down her front and her face had been washed completely clean of the garish make-up she'd been covered with. Albus sucked in a quiet breath and kept his face carefully composed, hoping Minerva would not see on his face the swirl of emotions he was feeling. While it had not been unpleasant to look at Minerva (or rather her very well-defined figure) while she'd been wearing the practically non-existent, figure-hugging clothes of a Muggle prostitute, he much preferred her this way. She did not look at all like Minerva without her square glasses (acquired in her fourth year and still remaining unchanged, even now) and with her face painted up like something akin to clown or jester. Now, however, she looked very much like herself, and he could have kissed her right then. It was something of an effort for him to remain seated where he was and not do so.

"I'm finished if you want to change. I'll warn you, though, don't touch anything. That bathroom is the most unsanitary place I've ever had the misfortune of being."

Albus nodded and Minerva began moving toward the main bed in the room, surveying it uncertainly. Albus grabbed the bag containing his own nightclothes and started to the bathroom. Midway there, he passed within an inch or two of Minerva and he felt the sudden urge to kiss her right there and then come over him yet again.

He quickened his pace slightly, wanting to get himself as far from Minerva as possible but not wanting to draw her attention to the fact that he was doing so. Reaching the bathroom, he closed the door as fast as he dared. Vaguely, he noted that Minerva had not been exaggerating about the lack of cleanliness in the bathroom and with a wave of his wand, he cleaned it. He sat down on the toilet and took a few deep breaths, clearing his mind of any thoughts he had of his companion, and former student, in the other room. He was a grown man after all. He was quite capable of controlling his thoughts and emotions. He'd had many infatuations before this one and he'd ignored many of them. Ignoring this one was certainly no different.

He changed into a long, white dressing gown and lavender robe with moving and twinkling stars embroidered onto it, then quickly exited the bathroom.

He easily spotted Minerva curled up on the room's main bed and noted with no small amount of amusement that the bed had been transfigured into a newer, and presumably far cleaner, one. Doubtlessly she'd felt compelled to do so after seeing the state of the bathroom. Minerva had a tendency to be a tad obsessive compulsive on her own, and he was certain that she never would have touched the original bed, knowing how filthy it probably had been.

He settled calmly into his own bed, and did his best to try and sleep but the realization of his attraction to Minerva, however undesired, seemed to have lit a fire under it. It seemed to be on something of an overdrive. He found the fact that she was drifting peacefully off to sleep not even ten feet away from his to be very distracting.

He heard Minerva sigh in her sleep and, surprised at hearing such a sound come from her, turned his head to look at her.

He hadn't realized that nightgown had such a generous neckline.

Pushing any and all thoughts of his companion resolutely from his mind, Albus managed to coax himself to sleep over the next hour and a half.

This was going to be a very long and interesting endeavor.