Title: Learning to be Minerva

Author: smalltumbleweed

Pairing: McGonagall/Hooch (Well, it's heading there eventually.)

Rating: G

Summary: Snapshots of Minerva's girlhood, starting just before her first year. Part two of . . .?

A/N : This undoubtedly has elements of Minerva stories throughout the fandom because I swear I've read them all.

There were five McGonagall children. There had been seven, but the middle boys (between Eleanor and Minerva) had died in the wasting fever of 1929, leaving the three girls and the twins Will and Meg. Meg had returned from Hogwarts that summer with her sweetheart and married immediately, setting up housekeeping in a tidy little cottage in the village. It was just a hop skip and a jump from the McGonagall house to Meg's cottage.

"Race you, Mins!" Claire grinned wickedly. It was a gorgeous morning. It had rained the evening before and the ground was still springy and damp, the sky was wonderfully blue.

"Claire! Daddy said we musn't!"

"He said to go to Meg's with chocolate frogs and ask her to tidy us up."

"So we can't get mussier than we are!"

"Mussier isn't a word" Claire giggled.

"Is too!"

"Is not! Anyway you're just too chicken to race me."

"Am not!"

"Are so!"

"Am not! I'm the fastest child in the whole village."

"Not once you go to Hogwarts! Then it's me."

"So? I'm not there yet, am I?"

"So race me!"

"Daddy said not to!"

"You're just scared you'll loose. Chicken! Chicken!"

"I'm not either chicken!"

"Sissy then!" Claire grinned, triumphant. "Catch me if you can!" and she took off running, shiny loafers pounding the country lane. The taunt was too much for Minerva. Before she could think she was off running, plaits and ribbons out like streamers behind her. Not for nothing was she the fastest child in the village. She caught up to Claire easily, but ran harder, faster, for the sheer joy of going so fast. Flying was almost as good, and Minerva was a fair flyer, but flying didn't give her that heady light feeling or leave her so delightfully winded. She skidded to a halt in front of Meg's cottage, gasping for breath, waiting on the porch steps for Claire to catch her up.

"Mins, you've gotten faster!" Claire panted, arriving on the steps, her braids disheveled and collar wilted. Minna grinned. She had grown that summer, an inch at least, and fear of having to be a proper lady in secondary school kept her out of the house and racing as much of the summer as she could.

"Sweet Merlin! What on earth is going on? You scared me half to death!" Their big sister Meg flew out of the house, still drying dishes. "I thought you were going to London today?" Minerva bit her lip and explained.

"And how am I supposed to tidy you lot up when you've been running and screeching down the lane in your best shoes?" Meg scolded.

"I told you we shouldn't have run!" Minna hissed at Claire.

"You didn't have to!"

"It was your fault!"

"I didn't make you!"

"You called me a sissy!"

"Girls!" Meg put an end to their squabbling. "I can't hear myself think," she muttered, sounding like their mother. "Let's see," she surveyed them. "There's no real harm done, nothing dirty or torn. Take your cardigans and blouses off because we'll have to iron them again. Wash your faces, we can re-braid your hair, your shoes are fine, we can dust them off . . . and you've got a clean set of socks at home, haven't you?" Minna nodded. "Good. Well, get to! I'm sure your undershirts are decent enough for the porch and Dan's in London this week anyhow for the Ministry."

"Oh!" Minna said, suddenly remembering, "We brought you these!" she handed her sister the frogs. At the last minute she thought it better to give Meg all three of them. She and Claire were rather more of a nuisance than Dad had expected.

"Go on with you!" Meg laughed, taking the frogs and sending Minna through the door with a cuff. "Bribing an old pregnant lady!"

Meg set Claire up on a high stool with one of Will's old adventure books to read, "To keep you occupied and out of trouble!" she admonished, before taking Minna on her lap to braid her hair. "Soon I'll have too big a belly to put anyone on this lap!" she confided in Minna's ear, as she took out her brush. Minna smiled at her sister. "But, what's this? You're too tall for my lap already, lass!" Meg exclaimed, as she found she couldn't really settle Minna at a proper distance for brushing.

"I'm not!" Minna said, worry overcoming her for the moment.

"Aye, but you are! There, you sit, I'll stand," Meg said, getting up. Minna looked back over her shoulder at her big sister, troubled. "Turn around, love, or I'll never get this hair of yours up." Minna's hair was past her waist when it was unbraided, thick and satiny fine. "One braid or two?"

"Two!" Minna was adamant. She stole a look at Claire, who was totally immersed in the book. "Meg?" she whispered.

"Yes, pet?"

"Why am I too big for your lap suddenly?"

"I expect it's because you're growing, silly!"

"So it's me, then?" Minna cast her a worried look, upside down, as Meg began a fresh braid.

"You?"

"And not Baby?"

"Oh, no, Baby's not big enough yet. You can't even see that I've got him inside, right?"

"Oh." Minna was quiet.

"There! You're all done," Meg planted a kiss on the top of her little sister's head. Minna got up and impetuously wrapped her arms around Meg's waist. She burrowed her head against her sister, and held her tight. "Anything on your mind, little one?" Minna shook her head, comforted to be called "little one" again. "You'll love Hogwarts," Meg mumured. "You'll see." And suddenly, Minna found her eyes brimming with hot tears.

"Clairey?" Meg called over the top of Minna's head. "Be sweetheart and take that loaf of bread carefully up the road to Mum. You can borrow the adventure book, if you like, and tell mum I'll come up with Minerva in a minute."

" 'K," Claire replied, absorbed in her book, and scrambled off her stool, eager to comply and get back to the story.

"What is it, Min?" Meg asked, holding her at arm's length once Claire had gone. Minna shook her head and snuffled back her tears. Truly she did not know.

This summer was different somehow, like the one where she had first discovered her magic. Only, then she knew exactly what it was, what these powers were. Those feelings had been easy. A tingling that allowed her to revive a dead posy drooping by the porch, or coax a butterfly to sun itself on her hand. This time around, it was like some power controlling her, instead of the proper way round. She would be laughing one moment, and sobbing the next, and somehow, impossibly angry at herself for being so mixed up. She could run faster, but she fell oftener too, and she was forever knocking into things and aggravating everyone.

"Oh, love, I know" Meg said, softly, understanding. "Come sit." She beckoned Minna to her lap.

"I'm too big" Minna whispered and the tears started again.

"No, no" Meg soothed and drew Minna down onto her lap in the big comfy chair that had been a wedding gift from Gram.

"But you . . .said . . . " Minna could not finish.

"I didn't mean you were too big to sit always, love! You're just tall enough, and your hair's long enough, that you're at an impossible angle for brushing" Meg snuggled Minna to her.

"But . . . but one day, one day I will be" Minna refused to be comforted.

"Ages away, yes!" Meg chuckled.

"No, not ages! I'm getting so tall, and now I'm going away and I won't be here when Baby's born and what if one day I'm taller than you?"

"What if? By then you'll be a great girl and you won't want to sit on my lap anymore!"

"No! I won't be taller than you! I won't! I'll take a shrinking potion!" Minna said stubbornly.

"Then you'll fit in my pocket, little sister" Meg teased.

"Meggy! Be serious!" Minna giggled despite herself.

"Yes, love? Serious about what?"

"About . . . about I don't know what. Only that I'll always want to sit on your lap."

"Then you always can."

"Even if I'm taller than you?"

"Even if. You'll always be slimmer, no doubt about it!" Meg joked, ruefully. She took after their father, tall and sturdy, where Minerva was fairy-thin and angular like their mother.

"Will you still have room on your lap when I come home and it's summer and you have Baby?" Minna whispered, ashamed that she even cared.

Meg chuckled again. "Here's what we'll do: Baby will sit on your lap and you'll sit on mine."

Minna smiled. "And Claire?"

"Merlin knows Claire doesn't sit anywhere!" Meg rocked Minna against her for a few minutes. "All righty, love, you've got a big day ahead. You need a fresh hankerchief and then you need to be off." She handed Minna one of her old ones, the ones that still said MM on them from before Meg got married. "Keep it. Keep it at school and remember to write to your old pregnant sister!"

Minna took it. "I'll always remember" she said, her voice trembling a bit.

"None of that!" Meg said, cheerfully. "Come! I'll walk with you" and with that, they set off for the big house.