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 three of . . .?
Disclaimer: ain't mine
A/N : This undoubtedly has elements of Minerva stories throughout the fandom because I swear I've read them all.
Shyness had begun with Dumbledore. Never before had Minna felt remotely shy. "My twin terrors" her Dad called them. Of course Minna and Claire weren't really twins, being eleven months apart.
"Mum!" Minna had shrieked through the house, the morning the Hogwarts owl arrived. "Mum! I'm not eleven yet!" And indeed her letter said that since she was not quite eleven, she'd been accepted on probitionary status until the end of first term. If her marks did not average at least Acceptable, she'd be welcome back at Hogwarts for the Autumn term the next year. No one asked Minna when she would prefer to go to Hogwarts. That is, until Professor Dumbledore showed up to discuss Ellie's Head Girl duties, and, apparently, Minna.
What do you say? Dumbledore had asked Minna. Would you like to attend Hogwarts this Autumn?
Nobody ever asked Minna these things. It was never "Minna would you like to . . . " do any number of things. Life was orderly, in the McGonagall household. Directions were clear and so were expectations. One washed the dishes, didn't hide poor spelling tests, kept one's buttons sewn on, and didn't chew the ends of one's braids. One went to Hogwarts when one got the letter.
Minna had forced herself to stand tall and listen to Dumbledore. He praised her marks from the village school, somehow skirting the topic of spelling. And then he addressed her directly: "I understand you've studied no magic yet, but your marks are most excellent, and you've shown a considerable amount of control over the magic you do have, roughly accurate so far?"
What exactly was one to say to that? "Yes" would be immodest and "no," likely inaccurate. Minna started at the toes of her best shoes, opting for slight rudeness.
"Usually we ask ten year olds turning eleven during the Autumn term to wait for a year," he continued, ignoring her disrespect "However, owing to the fact that you have a sister who's eleven months younger and will be starting next year, it seems advisable to start you this year. What do you say?"
"I have a choice?" Minna asked stupidly.
"No, Minna" her mother settled the issue. "Not really." That was the familiar, if undesired, answer.
So now, here she was in the library, sitting on her knees to reach her desk properly, writing a letter home. "Good morning, Minerva! You're up early!" Minna nearly jumped out of her skin at the woman's voice.
She turned to see the kindly smiling face of Professor Merrythought. "Good morning, m'am!" she replied, hurridly.
"What are you doing in the library so early on a Saturday?"
"Writing home." Her Defense professor gave her a warm smile.
"Getting along all right this term?" she inquired.
"Yes m'am" Minna whispered.
Professor Merrythought eyed her with concerned skepticism and then, said, abruptly, "You've had exceptionally good marks so far this term." Minna smiled, bashful and when she did not say anything more, Professor Merrythought continued, "Well, Minerva, I'd best go track down that book on hags I came in for, but anything you need, don't hesitate to stop by."
Minna nodded. "Thank you, m'am."
At breakfast she sat with the other little girls in her dorm. Bossy Augusta Dearborn suggested that they form a secret society, so they all sat together. Augusta, round-faced, blonde-pigtailed and often fretful, was in charge in name only. The real star of the show was Adele Johnson, an aimiable, loquacious girl who was unafraid to approach even the 7th years. She lived with her family in a comfortable flat over their shop in Diagon Alley and knew everything that went on in Wizarding London, and indeed beyond there. Minna thought everything about Adele was beautiful, especially the glowing red and gold beads on the ends of her braids. Her mum had charmed the beads to sparkle and almost glow when Adele turned her head. Adele laughed frequently and musically, and the effect came together with the sparkling beads to make her look otherwordly.
"You're so lucky you got sparkle beads on your braids," Bessie Thomas was sighing enviously at Adele as Minna sat down. "I haven't even got braids right now" she added, enviously.
"Curls suit you," Adele said warmly. And Bessie's ponytail of perfect dark corkscrews did suit her soft features and kind eyes.
The shyest girl in Gryffindor that year other than Minna was Divya Singh.
That was how the pairs shook out: Divya and Minna, Bessie and Augusta and then Adele, who was friends with everyone always and didn't seem to need a best friend.
At school, Minna found she was terribly shy. Away from her little village school (a dozen and a half wizarding kids of assorted ages) and her little sister, she wasn't sure what to do with herself. That, of course, was why she was at Hogwarts this year and not next year, with Claire.
"I . . . I didn't think I had a choice!" Minna replied.
"Well, you don't, Minna, not really" her mum answered. "We just had a chat with Professor Dumbledore about it and thought you might as well be a part of it."
"But Meg and Will went together!" Minna had a brilliant idea suddenly.
"Yes, but, love, they were rather more separate than you and Clairey."
"Oh." Yes, that would be it, Minna thought. "Claire and I are, um, too mischievous aren't we?"
"I'll say!" her dad joked, and that had been that.
In the end, Minna wasn't sure exactly why she felt so quiet all the time. She missed Claire sometimes, certainly, but it was hard to miss daily life with Claire in a place that was so very different from home. At home, life without Claire would be unbearable. Here at school, there had never been life with Claire, so it was hard to miss it.
Maybe, Minna though, she had always secretly been quiet. She tried to picture what she did when she wasn't with Claire: read books, climb trees to daydream, run races with herself in the little lanes around their house. None of those involved talking or mischief.
She had always been a trouble-maker, or, more precisely, half a trouble-making pair. She thought with a grin of the very first time she met Professor Dumbledore, tumbled at his feet with her plaits topsy-turvy. He must have been dreading having me in his house! she thought.
When they first got to Hogwarts, everyone was quiet, awed by the splendor of the place. But Adele seemed at ease within a few days, Bessie and Augusta within the week, and even Divya now raised her hand in class. But Minna, or Minerva, now as she was called, didn't say a word. Not even to tell them that no one really called her Minerva.
She talked with the girls in her dormitory, a bit, anyway. And when they were very sure they were alone she and Divya could laugh and laugh. But for the most part, they just studied, and they were quite good at that too.