Chapter 47 – Green-eyed Monster
Please note several Original Characters included in this chapter.
Recurring OC:
Olivianne 'Via' Dench – Head Auror (and sister of Healer Hypatia Dench Allis)
Jinn Leroy – DMLE Head (Hermione's direct boss)
New OC:
Alicha, Brian, & Chris Taylor – Australian Visitors
May 7, 2006 (5th Episode)
Continuation
During the official opening of the fairground, Minerva had taken note that neither Hermione nor Harry was in the crowd, and her concern was promptly ignited before she rationalised that surely she'd have gotten a word if anything troubling had transpired. Besides, amongst the audience was the presence of the third member of Golden Trio— Ronald Weasley. And even with a bit of a distance, Minerva could see no grave features distressing him, or any of the Weasleys for that matter. Plus, the youngsters Rose Granger and James Potter who had been with Harry prior, were now with the Weasleys. And to Minerva, it was obvious that the little girl was deposited with the lot and it was Ronald's turn to keep watch of her.
Minerva tried to appear as attentive as she could with the ongoing ceremony, but she was either on the look out for Hermione or finding herself charmed by Rose… That at one point whilst the Minister was making his speech, a laugh almost escaped her at how Rose was surreptitiously goofing around with the younger Weasley kids. And how the smart but naughty little girl knew what she was doing, as she would promptly behave whenever Molly was a second away from reminding the children to pay attention to the ceremony and not cause disturbance.
Once the formality was over, she lost sight of Rose and of all of the Weasleys, but of one— Percy, as they dashed with the majority of people to the various wonderful offerings of the fair. She understood the general excitement including how predictable it was that out of the Weasley clan, Percy would end up as the 'family delegate' to basically hang around and pay proper greetings to others.
There began Minerva's tedious duty of accepting greetings from numerous attendees. But mentally she took careful note of people arriving, so as not to miss Hermione and Harry. And it was close to half an hour after the opening of the fair when finally she saw Hermione.
Minerva would never expect an early personal interaction with the younger woman during this type of celebration, wherein a significant portion of their population could be witness to whatever would transpire between them. Truth be told, Minerva had long ago convinced herself that letting Hermione call the shots as to how they communicated when in public was the latitude she owed Hermione. Although it invoked a certain vulnerability within her, of always, always being frightened that Hermione might choose to give her the cold shoulder, she accepted that if it was to be so, then she deserved it for her faults and failures.
Today was no different; Minerva was waiting to see whether Hermione would interact with her or not in the midst of the present crowd. But today was also different, in more ways than one…
Foremost, their initial contact involved Hermione giving her a curt nod… it could be argued that it didn't even qualify as real contact— for a curt nod wasn't a real interaction. Although the gesture was done not unkindly, as it was somewhat accompanied with a small smile, it was a smile that most bothered Minerva, for it reached nowhere near Hermione's beautiful brown eyes...
Secondly, as Minerva had noted earlier that Hermione wasn't with the Weasleys, she could now see that she was wrong to have assumed that Hermione would be with Harry, as the wizard was still nowhere in sight. And the uneasiness was only heightened by a circumstance Minerva had never imagined— seeing Hermione attending the commemoration with someone, with Olivianne 'Via' Dench.
The witch was known as Auror Via…currently serving as the head of the Auror Office andHarry's direct boss. Technically speaking, Hermione as the DMLE Deputy outranked Via, but Minerva had deduced that Hermione was aware of the off-the-record status of Via's highest influence in the DMLE. But just the same, the formal chain of command against the underlying impact didn't seem to matter; they all were successful in going about to serve their society well.
Via Dench was one of the handfuls of untainted Aurors that didn't perish during Voldemort's two reigns of terror despite the best efforts of several death-eaters, especially in that second war. Everyone knew the story of Via's lopsided odds encounter with the criminals that left her buried under a collapsed and magically veiled establishment somewhere in southwestern England the day prior to the battle at Hogwarts in 1998. It was presumed that whomever the death-eater was that cast the concealment charms had died at Hogwarts, consequently revealing the location of the Auror buried in rubble with barely a pulse, but still alive.
Via was in a coma for several months. No one thought she would survive or wake up, but one day, she did, and even recovered in the following week, stunning many, many people… They said that there must be some miracle in having a proficient healer for a younger sister, Hypatia Allis— the St. Mungos Head Administrator, who did not give up; who was said to have liberally pushed her healing power to save her only sister, Via.
Via's phenomenal recovery had been one of those things that people chatted and chatted about for a considerable time. And then the surviving veteran Auror became more epic when Jinn Leroy offered her the Headship of DMLE, but she notoriously said that she did not come back from the brink of death just to die of paperwork and politics. Then it was an easy vote that appointed her as Head Auror, and it was especially made known that her intention was to 'clean-up' after the war and train suitable new Aurors before completely hanging up her Auror badge...
But one more curious thing about Via Dench was that the witch had never joined Dumbledore's Order of Phoenix, in either war against Tom Riddle… According to Amelia Bones (whom initially was Via's senior officer Auror before Amelia became the ultimate MLE boss), Via had been regarded as someone maddeningly passionate in her job. Via was known as a straight shooting peace and order kind of Auror; someone uncompromising when it came to law enforcement, which obviously would be in conflict with some of the Order's activities notwithstanding its primary objective of fighting for the good side. And Minerva knew that had Via joined the order, it would have been tricky for her to have to answer to someone like Albus Dumbledore who bent views for a cause…
It was also Amelia who shared with Minerva the shocking story of Via Dench telling-off a wizard (who had been harassing her to go out for a date) saying that apart from him being a dreadful person, it was pointless for Via to date him as she couldn't stand penis. The direct brutality had essentially announced her gender preference in a partner, which was not so popular at that time, but the boldness was admired by her fellow Aurors and naturally had earned golden points in Amelia's books…
After that incident, for reasons unknown, Amelia was convinced that Via was actually infatuated with Minerva. However, Amelia had conveniently concluded that perhaps Via's bravery was not enough; for who could insanely be so bold as to ask out a former Professor— Minerva McGonagall, of all people— famously the sternest witch of all…? Of course that could just be Amelia's incurable mischievousness to exasperate Minerva. Nonetheless, Minerva was glad any approach from Via never happened, at least she didn't have to turn down Via Dench…not that she disliked Via, she actually admired Via in some sense… But as for dating, it would have been a simple 'no' for Minerva.
Then a lifetime fast-forward, to here and now, Minerva could not fend off actually disliking Via Dench; nearly loathing the Head Auror with the way she was marshaling Hermione... Minerva tried to reduce the scenario into a casual course between Ministry colleagues. But she was no imbecile; for she could see the wooing rudiments coming off Via with the interplay…and how Hermione was acting not disagreeably with Via's undeniable intent. She confusedly and heatedly doubted that Hermione had already outed herself, to be openly courted by Via and openly receiving it… Hermione didn't...or did she?
Minerva could feel the foul jealousy slithering into her blood, and she could almost taste it in her mouth. She had to imperceptibly clench and unclench her jaw… delicately tempering her jealousy… and not permit herself to do something un-Minerva, such as run after them and avariciously snatch Hermione away…
Eventually, Minerva could no longer see the two witches as their forms further advanced into the fairground. This had her treacherous mind conjuring images of Hermione having a marvellous time with Via; one developing into a strong romantic connection. The supposition only exasperated the green-eyed monster within Minerva…
And that was just the start.
Minerva tried and tried her hardest to focus on her duty, and ignore the bursting discontent. She exerted all effort in fixing her attention to whoever was chirpily speaking to her. But it didn't help that people seemed only to comment on Hogwarts' impressive set-up and on her revealed true appearance.
A bit of break though was given to Minerva when she was introduced to Kingsley's guests from Australia. She found that the visitors were not just the couple Kingsley had earlier mentioned; but Alicha and Brian Taylor came over with their son—Chris.
Minerva noticed that Chris Taylor appeared a tad older than Harry. Also hard to miss were his too many remarkable physical features that could rival those of mythical gods. While it was very rare for Minerva to pay heed to bodily attributes, she silently gave due acknowledgement to how striking this Aussie bloke was that certainly had several heads turning to look at him.
At any rate, when Minerva spoke with the Taylors, they expressed their gratitude for the Headmistress' affable reception, including the extended welcome to Chris…admitting that it was also a last minute decision on their part for Chris to join them… Kingsley, apparently, told them of his blunder of only notifying Minerva today of their attendance and Minerva waived it off; as far as she was concerned, she owed the Taylors a great deal for what they'd done for Hermione's parents. The least she could do was to warmly welcome them to Hogwarts.
The encounter with the Taylors generally went well. Minerva could even appreciate the manner in which these Aussies had spared her from another audacious ogling and heedless query about her unusual magical ageing, which had started stifling her as many other attendees had fallen into the nuisance. In contrast, the most that she got from the Taylors was Alicha's unobtrusive comment of, 'incredible magical genes', and had passed the remark only for Minerva's hearing and then nothing else thereafter…
Their conversation, although not as lengthy as Minerva would have wanted, proved to be a genuinely interesting one, as they swapped non-confidential information and experiences in governing structures between their nations. Both sides were gaining more knowledge and stirring a rather good camaraderie as they conversed.
Additionally, she learned that Chris was a Professor in Australia, previously teaching Charms courses but now Basic Magical Laws, which fascinated the Headmistress, for the latter was a separated curriculum they began practicing in their country sometime in the year 2000. The educator in Minerva was regretful when the academic talk with Chris had to be halted, as other guests had sought out the Headmistress' attention. It was then that the Taylors decided to go around and enjoy the fair with the Minister, quite leaving Minerva with another parade of people wanting to converse with the Headmistress.
The need for Minerva to partake in various conversations somehow distracted her from the throbbing resentment caused by knowing that Hermione was around enjoying the fair with Via. But the arduous social obligation far from vanquished the green-eyed monster that would erupt whenever Minerva would see in the crowd certain people— those who had at one time or another vied to date Hermione according to the tattletales supplied by Rolanda Hooch in the staff room… And others Minerva herself had long guessed— like the very popular professional Quidditch Professional player—Katie Bell.
The rational part of Minerva would push forth the truth that she had known Hermione was one hell of a brilliant, desirable, and unattached witch, and there was nothing she could do about other people's feelings or intentions, no matter how much it plagued her constantly.
The difference though— today was the first time that she had seen with her eyes someone 'going for it', someone really great such as Via Dench 'going for it'… And realised Hermione's openness to it…
Everything about it was taunting and poking the tumultuous green-eyed monster deposited in the depth of her guts. The idea that Hermione was done with their wretched dance was making Minerva utterly sick.
.
.
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End of Chapter 47
Year 2006 – Green-eyed Monster
Posted 2023.0506
This chapter was initially 10k words, but decided to cut this part for clarity. Will post the continuation shortly :) But just so you know, details here would play further on the next one that could possibly set loose our green eyed monster for real... And THEN we close this 5th episode of Seventh of May.
Thank you for reading!