Chapter 10 – Heated Discussions

Harry's fingers just missed her arm, but he stepped up behind her and trapped her waist in his arm before she could get any closer to Sirius. He could feel her emotions going haywire under the surface and he wasn't sure if she could feel the calm notions he was projecting towards her or not.

After a moment of initial resistance she relaxed under his arm and he let her go. Her eyes were still trained on Sirius. "What do you mean it was Dumbledore? What did Albus do?"

Sirius had taken a few steps backward from the ferocious witch as her magic had become almost tangible in the air. "He told us that we should tell Harry as little as possible. That we should provide him with the least amount of information that we could. He claimed that it was for his own safety."

"His safety?" She couldn't help but let out a short laugh. "Really? And now what do you think Sirius?"

"I think that there is more too it than that, but before we get into all of that I want to know what is actually going on between the two of you." She opened her mouth to speak but he cut her off sharply. "And don't you dare tell me to drop it again McGonagall!"

"Enough." Harry's voice cut through and he put a hand on Minerva's arm, helping to steady her once more. "Sirius, how much do you think you know?"

"Not much. The only resource I've found is that bloody book and it's not even in English." He pointed at the missive that he had left on the table.

Harry picked it up and flipped through it. "Dìon Mionn," he looked at Minerva and tried to find the words. "I don't know that one."

"Protection Oath…"

He nodded with a small smile, "Is this the same book that Poppy had?"

"No." She shook her head and took it from him, "It's not, but I think that we may be able to learn just as much from this one as we did from hers."

"Not much then…" he sighed. "There has to be something we can do."

"Right now all we can do is learn, and you need to calm down." She gave him a pointed look and tried to relax her own emotions so that they could find a stable balance.

His eyes shot up to meet hers when he realized what she had done. "You can feel me too?"

She smiled, "It would seem so, and right now I'm asking you to calm down. We are going to have to keep our heads about us and right now I'm not so sure that our emotions are up to that. We are going to have to work harder."

He touched her arm gently and held her gaze, "I'll try."

"That's all I can ask."

Sirius stood to the side, watching the entire exchange occur between the pair, and he couldn't quite believe what was happening. His normally over-emotional godson was leveling out, and settling down, and the typically controlled and collected Transfiguration mistress was edgy and heated. They were bleeding into one another, but at the same time they were stabilizing each other.

"Impossible…" They both turned to look at him. "You don't see it?"

"See what?" Harry looked puzzled.

"What happened between the two of you?"

"Old Magic. A Rite of Protection." Minerva took a deep breath before continuing. "I jumped between Harry and the dementor, and in the process he ended up saving my life. We are bound together," she moved to pull her hand away from Harry and he stopped her."

"Are you sure mo bhanrígh?"

"Tha mo loach, he needs to know." They held each other's gaze for a moment before Harry slowly released her hand. She shook her sleeve back to reveal the ring that rested on her fourth finger. "He saved my life, and now his protection is with me always."

Sirius took her hand in his and looked at the ring. "This connects you?"

"We're not sure. It is a physical representation of a patronus, it in itself is not real, it only looks and feels real." She shook her head. "I'm not making much sense, but the fact of the matter is that we don't know what's happening. We know that we can't be separated for long amounts of time, and we know now that we can feel and project emotions on one another. Other than that…"

"Do you have a plan? Do you know what you are going to do? Does Dumbledore know?"

"No!" They both answered him as one, and he looked shocked. Harry continued on, "We haven't told anyone except you, and Poppy. I don't want Dumbledore, or anyone else for that matter, to find out what's going on just yet. There are too many things we don't understand." He turned to look at the woman standing just beside him and she nodded.

"Please Sirius, we are asking you to keep our secret." Two sets of green eyes were pleading with him and he sighed and nodded.

"Okay, but you need to know that Hermione is doing everything in her power to figure out what is going on. The only reason she hasn't already figured it out is because I got to that book first."

A slightly panicked expression graced Minerva's features for just a moment, but Harry reassured her. "It's okay. Even if she does figure it out, she won't tell anyone else without talking to us first."

"Even Albus?"

Her question gave Harry pause, but after a moment he nodded. "Even Dumbledore. She'll question me first. We will have to decide then whether or not we are going to entrust her with our secret."

"Right now I say as few people that know as possible."

"I agree." Sirius cut in. "This is too powerful, too unprecedented not to draw attention, and it being the two of you only makes it that much more of an ordeal. You are two of the most talked about people in wizarding Britain anyway, you don't need any more people trying to get at you."

At Sirius's words Harry's faced paled. "Get at you…" He repeated quietly and his eyes met Minerva's emerald ones.

"Harry don't. Don't think like that," he raised an eyebrow at her, but she shook her head, "I can't read your mind, but I don't have to to know what you're thinking. You have not put me in anymore danger than I was already in. If nobody knows then nothing is going to happen to me."

"But what if something happens to me, and you end up hurt too? I can't hurt you, I'm supposed to be protecting you!"

"Harry," she cupped his cheek in her hand, "I'm safe, nothing is going to hurt either one of us while we are here. The bond is blocking him out right? You said you weren't having anymore dreams with him in your head?"

"Yeah."

"You were dreaming about Voldemort?" Sirius looked worried.

"More like he was sending me dreams, he was controlling them." Harry shook his head. "I haven't had one since this happened."

"And you think…"

"Yeah. I think I'm not the only one doing the protecting." He looked over at her and she smiled. "You are protecting me just as much as I'm protecting you mo bhanrígh."

"You've said that twice now." Sirius was looking back and forth between them, "What does it mean?"

A slight flush colored Minerva's pale cheeks, "It's Gaelic. It's a term of endearment." Sirius quirked an eyebrow at her, but she shook her head, she wasn't telling him anymore than that. "If you want to know what it means you are going to have to find out for yourself Black, I'm not telling you."

He laughed. "Is the great Minerva McGonagall embarrassed?" He looked from her to Harry, "She called you something too Pup, what was it?"

"Mo loach. It's a complement to what I called her, but she's right I'm not telling you. It's not really any of your business."

At that Sirius stiffened. "It damn well is my business, you're my godson!"

Harry shook his head, "Soul Bond trumps godson. She gets the secrets on this one Sirius."

"Fine…" He shook his head and headed for the grate. "Watch out for Dumbledore, there is something going on there, and don't send anymore letters unless they are done by house elf. Birds can be intercepted." His eyes peered into Minerva's for a moment, and then he switched to Harry. "Take care of yourself, and be safe Pup. Things are changing around here."

He disappeared in a furry of green flames and he missed Harry's response of, "Are they ever."

Minerva made her way up the corridor towards the griffin that was guarding Albus's staircase. "Fawkes." The griffin immediately stepped to the side and she stepped onto the spiraling staircase.

Just as she raised her hand to knock on the door there was a call from the other side. "Come in Minerva."

Her eyes fell shut and she took a deep breath. She and Harry had discussed in detail what all they wanted to find out from Albus, and she knew that more than likely this was her last shot before the school year started, two weeks tend to fly by really fast come late August.

"Good evening Albus." She smiled at him as she pushed the door open. "How are you?"

"Fine, fine." He returned her smile and gestured to one of the chairs in front of his desk. "May I offer you something to drink?"

"No, thank you, I'm fine."

"What is it that you would like to discuss my dear, there is something on your mind?" His blue eyes were sparkling over his half moon spectacles and in that moment she was annoyed by it.

"Get out of my head." She thought with a small smile. She had left Harry in her rooms reading and she wasn't sure if she was annoyed with Albus's eyes or if Harry was annoyed at his book. Either way she knew that they both needed to stay calm. She spoke out loud to the man sitting across from her. "I spoke to Sirius today."

"Oh?" He was collected, his features giving nothing away, but thanks to her Animagus traits she could smell the nervousness creeping into his system with her every word.

"Yes. Harry mentioned something about being relatively out of contact with everyone for most of the summer and I inquired to Sirius as to why that might have been, and he informed me that I needed to speak with you." She raised an eyebrow at him over her own pair of spectacles. "What are you not telling me Albus?"

"I assure you nothing much my dear."

"Then why was I not informed that you cut off all correspondence with Harry that had any mention of the Order, or what was being done to try and find out any information on Voldemort?" Her voice was rising as she spoke and she took a deep breath to steady herself. "You have got to stop making unilateral decisions when it comes to Harry Albus you have no right to dictate his life."

"I never claimed I did. I am merely trying to do what I think is best for him."

"By completely shutting him out? Albus the boy went through the trauma of watching Voldemort return, he carried a dead student away from the scene in his arms, you thought it best to leave him alone with those muggles that I still can't believe are Lily's family?"

"Yes I did. I was only doing what was best for Harry." He was calm, even faced with her rising temper.

"Then why Albus, did I end up having to save him from two dementors in the middle of that muggle neighborhood? How is getting attacked walking home from a park what was best for him?"

"But he is fine, you were there to save him."

She closed her eyes briefly for a moment, and then refocused on him. Harry wasn't the only one that had been saved, but Albus didn't get to know that. "What if I wouldn't have been?" She snapped. "What if it wasn't me? What if it was somebody with less experience, somebody with slower reflexes? What then Albus?"

She stood from her chair and proceeded to head back the way she had come. When she reached the door she looked back over her shoulder. "Shutting Harry out was the wrong decision Albus, and so was letting Umbridge in."

-HIATUS-