Thanks to all my reviewers! And I do agree with you, Asterix - MM is the classic stern-teacher-with-a-heart-of-gold, but maternal she certainly isn't!

This part is Minervacentric, incidentally. It's a bit different for me, so I wonder what you'll think of it.

Keep the feedback coming...: )

It was Friday afternoon of the first week of term and Professor McGonagall was supervising prep for the junior Gryffindors in her Transfiguration classroom. Every now and then she glanced at them over the top of her square spectacles, looking out for any malingerers.

Meleta, she was pleased to see, was working hard, albeit not without the odd whisper to Lily Evans, who was sitting across the table from her. All in all, Minerva thought as she returned to her own marking, Meleta's first week as a Gryffindor could be said to be a success. Minerva had worried lest the girl expect more from Minerva herself than she could give, but Meta had apparently grasped the idea that, during school hours at least, her sister could only be her Head of House and no more.

Oh. there'd been an awkward moment in their first Transfiguration lesson when two boys sitting at the back row (Sirius Black and James Potter, to be precise) had sniggered when Minerva had said, "Five points to Gryffindor, Miss McGonagall" after the latter had successfully transformed her matchstick into a needle. However, since the mistress had gone on to be similarly generous to Edgar Bones (Hufflepuff) and Severus Snape (Slytherin), no-one could complain. Indeed, Professor McGonagall had awarded points to both Messrs. Potter and Black as well, but since the behaviour of those young gentlemen had left something to be desired, she'd promptly deducted them again, to their palpable disgust.

So Minerva felt she could finally breathe a sigh of relief and relax into her myriad duties as teacher, housemistress, and Deputy Head without adding extra worries to an already over-full plate. Not to mention the fact that events beyond Hogwarts were creating their own difficulties. Gryffindor first year Alice Diggle's elder brother, himself a recent alumni of Hogwarts, had mysteriously disappeared, and the atmosphere beyond the school was becoming increasingly tense. Only yesterday Hagrid had stomped into the staffroom armed with a bottle of his favourite liquor rather than go to his usual haunts in Hogsmeade. When questioned, the big man had given an almost comical shudder and muttered something about 'Ogwarts being the safest place to be these days.

A muffled sound and then furious whispers caused Minerva to look up from Gideon Prewett's latest attempt at brilliance. Remus Lupin was looking flushed, whilst both Meta McGonagall and Lily Evans were glaring daggers at the Black boy.

Minerva sighed and rose from her seat. It was evidently time to circulate. She moved with practiced ease around the classroom, quietly killing the fluttering paper airplanes and causing Sirius Black's seat to twist around in the opposite direction to Meta, Remus and Lily with a twirl of her wand. The look of astonishment on his face as he moved would have been funny, if a muffled oath had not escaped his mouth when his new position allowed him to see out of the window.

"Mister Black!" Professor McGonagall expostulated, "we do not use such language - "

"Professor, there's a fight down there!" Sirius interrupted, apparently not heeding the dark frown on his housemistress's face. She did not appreciate being interrupted. "Paul Crabbe is picking on some kid, and Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black are just standing there, watching!"

Minerva spared a second wonder at the contempt in Sirius's voice as he spoke of his cousin before glancing out of the window in her own turn. By now the oafish Crabbe could be seen hurling hexes at the Prewett twins, whilst a younger boy pressed himself against the cloister wall, plainly terrified. Minerva could not hear what was being said, but the looks of hatred on both sides made in plain that it was only a matter of time before someone cast an Unforgivable. She turned back to her junior Gryffindors, some of whom had been brave enough to run to other windows.

"Sit down!" she snapped, following the words with her sternest glare. "Yes, Miss Diggle, that means you, too. Now!" she added as Alice Diggle opened her mouth to protest.

"It's her brother down there," James Potter murmured, almost inaudibly.

Minerva, who had already ascertained this, said nothing beyond, "Get back to work, all of you. Miss MacDonald, you're in charge until I get back – and any misbehaviour will result in mass docking of points."

With a final fierce glare at her charges, Minerva nodded at Mary MacDonald, who was one of the more sensible third years, and hurried out of the classroom. She transformed into her Animagus form for greater speed, and it was only a matter of moments before she was in the courtyard, hurrying towards the combatants.

"- blood traitors like him shouldn't be in Hogwarts at all, let alone in Slytherin," Crabbe was saying in his leaden voice, words that Minerva was certain were inspired by the Malfoy boy behind him. "But it's not as if scum like you Prewetts would care, is it, since your own sister has married into one of the biggest traitor families there is!"

"Better a traitor or Muggleborn than a brainless eejit like you Crabbe!" Gideon Prewett shouted back, his bright blue eyes glittering dangerously. "As for your puppetmaster, he's been pureblood for so many generations it's a miracle you're not a Squib-"

Lucius, pale with fury at the insult, glared, whilst Crabbe, his own face flushed with hatred and excitement, pointed his wand at the twins.

Minerva moved to do something, to stop them, but she was too slow.

"Crucio," Crabbe said, and Minerva was surprised at the amount of venom the notoriously slow boy was able to inject into his voice.

"No!" yelled Fabian, throwing himself on his brother and dragging him out of harm's way. The frightened boy huddling into the wall was not so fortunate and his high screams pierced the air as the curse took cruel hold of every muscle, nerve and sinew.

"Stop it! At once! At once, I say!" Professor McGonagall yelled as soon as she'd recovered from the shock of seeing one student hurl the torture curse at another.

Narcissa Black raised one elegant eyebrow. "Look who it is," she said gently, "the moggy has come to defend a Slytherin. Wonders will never cease, will they?"

Minerva ignored the Black girl and focused her attention on Paul Crabbe. "Mr Crabbe," she said, her voice shaking, "you have just performed an Unforgivable Curse on a fellow student. This is unacceptable." Her wand came up, and she waved. "Incarcerus!"

"Impedimenta!" Minerva heard Fabian Prewett yell beside her, and gratitude filled her as Narcissa's movements slowed to unsteady ineffectiveness. Malfoy, on the other hand, stood passively as the ropes twisted around his friend, binding him.

Satisfied that the miscreants were disabled, Minerva took a deep breath and turned to Gideon Prewett. "Mr Prewett, please find Professor Dumbledore and Professor Slughorn and summon them here."

Gideon nodded and left. Minerva cast a measuring look at her prisoners and then crossed to their victim, who was lying in a limp and trembling heap.

"Mr Diggle," she said gently, knowing not to touch him. "Can you hear me?"

A soft groan came in assent.

"Just hold on," Professor McGonagall told him, her accent thicker than usual. "We'll get you to Madam Pomfrey as soon as we can. Mr Prewett!"

"Yes, Professor."

"Run and get Madam Pomfrey. Tell her to bring some sleeping potion. There's no need to put Mr Diggle through more pain if it can be avoided."

"Yes, Professor." She heard the sound of Fabian running towards the hospital wing.

"Minerva?" A panting voice.

She looked up into the concerned and horrified face of Horace Slughorn, who gallantly assisted her to rise before demanding the story. Minerva, her voice trembling with outrage and her hands gesticulating, told him. She was glad to see that Horace looked ashamed.

So he should, she thought fiercely. He has obviously not been doing his job properly, if his students could believe such things…

"Lucius Malfoy is behind this somehow," she said suddenly, interrupting Horace's blustered exclamations. Malfoy and Miss Black had prudently melted out of sight, she noted.

Slughorn frowned. "My dear Minerva – "

"Don't patronise me, Horace!" she flared. "The Imperius isn't the only way of making someone do your will, as you very well know. The Crabbes have been a client family of the Malfoys for generations, and we both know Crabbe is too leaden and indoldent a personality to carry out such an attack without some sort of incentive, and so I shall tell Albus!"

"Minerva! What's happened?" It was Poppy Pomfrey, flushed and out of breath from her run down from the hospital wing. "Oh Merlin! What's happened to the boy, Minerva?" She crouched down by the fallen student, her diagnostic wand scanning his body.

"Didn't Mr Prewett tell you? Never mind … The Cruciatus Cruse, Poppy. That's why I asked you to bring the sleeping potion. The pain …". Minerva's voice trailed off as her gaze flicked back to young Mr Diggle.

Poppy paled. "Oh, the poor boy. The sleeping potion was the right thing, in that case." With a deftness born of long practice, the matron poured some potion down the throat of the nearly unconscious student before rising to her feet. "Now let's get this poor child up to bed. Fabian, you'll give me a hand, won't you? Minerva, Horace – for heaven's sake make sure the culprit here is punished, and heaven help him – or her – if he or she turns up in the hospital wing in the next couple of days." She pointed her wand at Diggle, murmured Mobilicorpus, and began to guide the levitating form of the now slumbering boy back to the hospital wing.

Minerva watched her go before looking at her colleague. "I intend to do just that," she told him sharply. "Now come along, Horace, do. I see Albus waiting for us. This cannot be allowed to pass unpunished!"