A penny for her thoughts - 2
Albus closed the door behind him and approached her bed slowly. He took her hand… it was so cold… She was lying unconscious; her breathing could barely be noticed… He himself would swear she was death if Poppy hadn't confirmed she wasn't.
He took out his wand and charmed a chair behind him and sat down as he left a sweet kiss on her friend's hand while whispered "Legilimens…"
Suddenly, a bright light blinded his eyes… slowly, they got used to it and he could see a Scottish beach and a little black-haired girl wearing a white dress, with her feet on the water.
"Mummy, look!" she exclaimed running to a red-haired woman sitting on the sand with a tabby cat on her lap.
"What is it kitten?" the mother wondered.
"It's a starfish. Can I keep it?" the little girl asked with begging eyes, showing her treasure to her mother.
"Sweetheart, it's still alive... She must want to go back with her other starfish friends… Why don't you leave it back where you find it before she gets sad? … You don't want your little starfish to be sad, do you Minnie?" Minerva's mother answered with the sweetest smile on her face.
"No, I don't" and while the little girl ran back to the water, the sand under her feet became green, and her white dress became black. Dumbledore looked around to understand and realized they were now in the middle of a field, in a funeral. A not-much-older Minerva was running away from the crowd of people also dressed in black, when the voice of an old man called her name.
"Minerva, come back here, please" he said with the same severe tone Minerva used to talk to her students.
"Yes, sir" she replied coming back to the gentleman, putting her head down.
The girl disappeared behind the crowd and Dumbledore approached them to find her. He could feel her sadness even if he couldn't see her, he was in her mind, it was her remember… He knew he wasn't supposed to be there and that it would have never been possible to go that far in her mind if she wasn't unconscious in the hospital bed.
"Are you sure you'll be fine taking care of your granddaughter, William? She's just seven years old, she's still a child… and you're alone…" Dumbledore listened to a woman saying to the gentleman who'd called Minerva.
"I'm going to send her to a boarding school in Ireland until she's old enough to go to Hogwarts… I don't want her around, especially now that I'm the one in charge of my son-in-law's fortune" he replied.
"Isn't she supposed to have that money?" the witch wondered.
"Not until she's over age… But by then I'll have managed to transfer every galleon in her Griongott's security box to mine without anyone to notice I've stolen my own granddaughter" after that, the man left go a laugh and Dumbledore noticed little Minerva was hidden behind another witch's dress, listening every word his grandfather was saying "I can't believe I was going to forbid my daughter to marry that McGonagall, the coward was damn good at making money… It's just a pity he couldn't bear my dear Gene's death"
Albus couldn't believe that man was saying that at his granddaughter's father's funeral, he walked towards her willingly to embrace that poor little girl but, suddenly the scene became a blur and a luxurious living room appeared around Dumbledore.
The same gentleman of the funeral was sitting down, reading The Daily Prophet. Then, a ten-year-old Minerva came in. "Good afternoon" she said.
"Where were you?" the man asked not taking his look away from the papers.
"I was at Mrs. Longbottom's house, sir… I asked you this morning if I could go with Augusta and…" she replied, but her grandfather interrupted her.
"I told you to be here at six o'clock for your transfiguration class" he said standing up in front of his granddaughter "You're starting at Hogwarts this September and I won't let my own granddaughter to be the family's shame"
"It's just a quarter past six, I'm sorry I'm late but Augusta's mom…" she tried to explain herself but her granddad didn't seem willing to listen… he raised his arm, and slapped her. "Granddad, I'm sorry…" she muttered with tears on her eyes and caressing her burning cheek "I won't be late again, I promise…"
"Of course you won't… because you're not going to the Longbottom's house anymore… You're not leaving this house for the rest of the summer." he said "That Augusta is a bad influence for you… you should be going with wizards of our same social position, not those losers."
"You cannot keep me locked in here as if I was a prisoner"
"Try me" and that was the last thing Dumbledore could listen before finding himself into a beautiful bedroom, with a four posted bed with tartan curtains around it. There was a big bookshelf next to a very tidy desk and a big window showing the Scottish seaside Minerva always talked about.
He looked around the room twice but couldn't find Minerva anywhere. He couldn't understand how he could be somewhere where she wasn't, since that was supposed to be one of her remembers. Then he felt a weird feeling, like if something was tickling all his body and suddenly… a Tabby cat came out from under the bed to become Minerva. She walked towards the desk, took the quill, looked the clock on the wall and wrote something on a paper. Dumbledore walked closer to read it.
4 minutes, 35 seconds. Not understanding, he paid more attention to what was written on the paper before… It was a schedule of how long she'd been able to stay as a cat every time she'd transfigured herself. He wasn't sure what shocked him more, if her ability of becoming an animagus at the age of ten, or the fact of being that tidy and perfectionist that young.
Gazing the clock she'd been looking before made Dumbledore remember why he was doing that, why he was in her mind… He should be looking for Minerva's last remember, not travelling around her childhood, but he found it such an amusing opportunity to get to know much better who'd been his best friend for the last almost forty years, that he let go of that though and just let Minerva's mind to take him to her next remember.
To be continued…
A/N: Thank you everybody for your reviews. I think there'll be one (maybe two) more parts for this fic, but… writing about Minerva's childhood an interesting idea has come to my mind… and I'll maybe write a sequel for this about her years in Hogwarts… I'm not sure.