A loud crack echoed throughout the Room of Requirement, causing several people to wake with a start, and Rolanda Hooch to fall off the barstool with an even louder bang.
A chorus of groans reverberated in the room, until a mass of hair appeared from underneath a sheet on a bed in the middle of the room.
"Wassat?" the hair slurred, immediately clamping a hand to the side of her head in protest at the noise of her own voice.
"Sybil snoring," came a tentative reply from somewhere behind the bed. The mass of hair slowly became recognisable as Hermione Granger as she gingerly lifted a sheet of frizzy hair from her face.
"Ugh." Hermione moaned as she turned slowly to meet the slightly grey face of Molly Weasley. "Snoring? That should be illegal."
"You did enough of it," came Ginny's groggy voice as she lifted herself up onto her elbows. "Between you snoring and Minerva purring, I don't think we'd have been able to sleep without the alcohol." Her gaze fell on her mother, who had managed to extricate herself from underneath Pomona Sprout and now sat on the floor, head resting against the Herbology Professor's legs. "Mum? You look awful!"
"Thanks, Ginevra. Marvellous boost to my confidence I'm sure."
"Ssgoin on?" Rolanda Hooch wobbled tentatively over to the bed, and flopped down upon it, not bothering to keep her eyes open.
"Sybil snoring." Molly repeated, and then squinted violently. "Rolanda...Hermione...Ginny! You're all naked!"
"Mum, we spent most of yesterday naked."
"But then we got dressed! How..."
"Hot Chocolate." Hermione almost wailed and buried her head underneath the sheet once more.
"Well, give me a minute, dear," Molly said, confused.
"No," came Rolanda's voice, and even though no one could see her face, the grin was evident in the tone of her voice. "It was the name of a Muggle song, or group or something. Hermione there made us all strip to it!"
Another wail rose from the depths of Hermione's pillow.
"Keep it down, whoever's making all the fuss," Pomona woke up and shuffled in her seat, dislodging Molly's head, causing the woman to grimace at the unexpected movement. She tentatively opened one eye and surveyed the scene in front of her.
"Where's Minerva?" she asked, her blurry vision not spotting any sign of the witch.
Hermione's hand shot out from underneath her sheet and waved in the direction of the floor next to the bed.
Pomona and Molly squinted hard at what appeared to be a giant pile of unravelled wool, and jumped back in surprise as the pile began to move.
"M...Minerva?" Molly asked tentatively, crawling forward slightly to gingerly lift up a pile of wool.
"Molly." Minerva's voice came a second before the woman's head appeared through an opening in the wool. Despite the tenderness of her head, Molly chuckled, but before she could speak, Minerva had rolled her eyes and pinned Molly with a strict stare, the edge only somewhat taken off it by the bleariness of her eyes. She continued untangling herself from the ball of wool, until Molly gasped.
"You're naked, too!"
A louder groan escaped from Hermione, who still had her head buried underneath her pillow. Ginny and Rolanda's eyes met, and they both snorted. Minerva quickly summoned a robe for herself, and stepped gracefully up and out of the bed.
"Yes. Well. It's beneficial to let the skin breathe every now and again. Anyone for breakfast?" she walked over to the bar area to find herself a non-alcoholic drink, leaving Molly and Pomona gaping after her, and Ginny and Rolanda smirking at the groaning form of Hermione.
"How can she be so...awake and alert?" Molly moaned, vigorously rubbing her eyes.
"Because she's Scottish." "Because she's a..." Pomona and Rolanda uttered together, until Poppy appeared and sat heavily on the bed, interrupting the last comment.
"No swearing before sunrise." She stated, before groaning and gently laying herself down next to Rolanda, causing Hermione to huff and shift conspicuously.
"Sunrise?" Rolanda exclaimed. "Well, I'm-"
"Doing no such thing." Minerva cut her off as she came and sat on the bed, summoning mugs of coffee to hover in front of everyone (except Sybil, who still snored from under a mass of cushions). Minerva knew of Rolanda's propensity to drink all night and sleep all day. She waved her wand and the curtains of the room opened to bathe them all in the harsh sunlight. It felt warming to the skin, though it wasn't real. "Mr. Grant left a note; he shall be back by 9 with the shots from yesterday for us to approve. And Miss Weasley, I do not purr."
"You've never had Miss Granger stroking you to sleep before." Rolanda muttered, causing Ginny to laugh openly and Hermione to kick her legs out violently.
Poppy groaned, Hermione having missed her target entirely, and gave up on trying to get comfortable. She sat up, dragging Rolanda with her and shoving the coffee in her hand. Molly, ever the parent, got unsteadily to her feet and gathered some robes, flinging them in the general direction of the bed.
"You'll all catch your deaths, and we haven't got January yet."
"Oh yes we have!" came a cheery voice from the doorway. Everyone except Minerva jumped, and Sybil started to wake at the unusual sound of a male voice.
Ginny Hermione and Rolanda all quickly struggled into the robes as Mr. Grant fully entered the room and began unpacking his things onto a table.
"What do you mean, 'oh yes we have'?" Minerva asked, and his face suddenly lost a little of the cheerfulness he had entered with.
"Well, um, as you know, I, um, stuck around for a bit last night and, well..."
"Remind me to speak with the Headmaster about introducing elocution lessons next year." Minerva said drily. Rolanda rolled her eyes.
"Yes, Minerva. As I seem to recall, you had some trouble formulating the letters to a dance last night. What were they again? Ah, yes. Y.M.C.A. Perhaps the staff would benefit also."
Stifling a laugh as he thought sure that it would not be at all beneficial to his future health, he spread out the shots from the previous day.
"I took quite a few, and I think I've managed to amalgamate them all to show the very best from each scene. Please come and peruse, and give feedback." He said in his most professional voice.
He looked at Minerva, his eyes twinkling. The corners of her mouth twitched.
The women all stood and gathered themselves as best they could. With a wave of her wand, Minerva transfigured their clothing, remnants from last night's impromptu fancy dress, back to their original state. Sybil in particular seemed relieved at being released from the constraints of the giant feathers, but still struggled to arrange her scarves, leaving her with a slightly wilder look than usual. They finished their coffee, and with a rising sense of anticipation and dread, ventured over to the table. The room shifted as soon as they moved away from the bed, transforming back into its original state. Rolanda looked longingly at the space where the bed had been. Minerva squared her shoulders and Hermione set her jaw.
"Let's get this over with, then." Minerva said. Molly smiled almost maniacally, the first to approach the table.
"Ooooh!" she squealed. Poppy winced at the noise, and at almost the exact moment she thought it, a cabinet identical to that in the Hospital Wing appeared and she aimed straight for the middle shelf, pulling out a few bottles of revitalising potion. Even Minerva gratefully accepted one. As prepared as they could be, they followed Molly's lead.
The room was silent for a while; even breathing seemed to be kept to a minimum, until Pomona startled them all with a bellowing laugh.
"I love it!" she exclaimed as she thumped Hermione on the back. Hermione grinned, her cheeks flaming.
"I think it's amazing," she breathed.
"Wow." Rolanda muttered.
"What I thought we could do, is charm the photos so that they don't appear until it is that month; keeps it a bit more exciting?" Mr. Grant ventured.
Everyone agreed, except Minerva who was busy studying the shot of her and Hermione. It ended just as Minerva transformed back. There was no kiss, but the atmosphere between them was almost palpable.
"Well?" he asked, genuinely anxious. It seemed to be something that one carried all through life, this need to be good in Minerva McGonagall's eyes.
"I think you've done your profession justice, Mr. Grant."
He audibly released his breath, and Hermione shot him a long of extreme affection.
"Not just his profession," Poppy said, pointing to the photo of her, and then Molly. "Look at those buns!"
"Where's January, then?" Sybil finally asked.
With a shaking hand, Mr. Grant retrieved one last image and placed it in the centre of the table.
He had taken it just after Rolanda had fallen asleep on the bar, and Minerva was turning back to her human self with a little toss of her head, eyes still firmly shut.
Pomona was snuggled comfortably against Molly, whose arm hadn't moved from around her waist. All that was visible of Sybil was a pair of glasses almost buried beneath a mass of feathers, and Poppy looked contentedly snuggled in her own chair. Ginny was wrapped in a sheet, one hand lying on top of Hermione's. Hermione's sheet had tangled somewhat around her body, leaving most of her legs exposed, but everyone's attention was drawn to her other hand, where it rested on the small of Minerva's back, perilously close to her rear, which was covered by a mass of red wool.
"I know it's not really nude, per se, but I though it captured the effect you described rather well, Madam Hooch, and also reflects somewhat of the closeness you've all shown since I arrived..." he trailed off and took in the expressions around him. Mostly everyone was beaming.
"It's perfect." Ginny said. Everyone nodded.
"Now wait just a minute!" Minerva, her voice more high pitched than even Poppy had heard before. "It's...no, definitely not."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop considerably.
"Ok...dare I ask why?" Mr. Grant seemed the only one to be able to formulate a response to the blazing heat in Minerva's rigid stance.
"Why? I am a Deputy Headmistress, Mr. Grant, and I am lying in a cat bed, wrapped up in wool with another woman's hand on my bottom. I hardly think it fitting, do you?"
Hermione blushed hard.
"But Minerva...it's just a bit of fun...people will see the funny side, that's why we did it." Molly ventured.
"Yes, and besides, like people aren't gonna bat an eyelid at you duelling naked with a student. You're worrying over nothing."
As Minerva became more rigid, Poppy stamped hard on Rolanda's foot.
"Not helpful!" she hissed.
"Former student." Poppy interjected, trying valiantly to diffuse even a little of the tension. "And it's a charity thing, Minerva. People do all sorts of things for charity that they wouldn't normally ever consider! And it is funny, because they've seen you as a cat first...it's a LOL moment."
Despite the situation, Hermione snorted. The school nurse really was surprising her more and more. However, Minerva shook her head sharply, not rising to Poppy's blatant attempt to distract her with questions about the strange Muggle term. She was nervous of the whole idea again, Hermione knew, and this was the only way she knew how to stop the feeling. She needed control, but Hermione and her still slightly sluggish mind had no idea how to calm her.
"Change it." Minerva said, and folded her arms.
Ginny exploded.
"For God's sake Professor! You know, initially I only got on board with this because it made Hermione happy; then it made my mum happy; she actually stopped worrying about us all for the first time since The Battle. She laughed; you all laughed! And we are going to make the Wizarding World laugh, because this calendar isn't for us, it's inspired by, because of and for all the people that lost their lives, and all the people left behind; and if it meant that we could spend just one more minute with them, I'd parade around Hogsmeade drunk and naked, spitting up fur balls with...with Nargles flying around my head, so no matter what you think of the idea, Minerva McGonagall, you are looking at bloody January!" Ginny Weasley, her face almost matching her hair, stood ramrod straight, facing the Transfiguration Professor, her blazing eyes never leaving Minerva's, every inch of her face daring Minerva to challenge her. Only Hermione stood close enough to her to see the slight tremors running through her body, whether from anger or shock she couldn't tell. It seemed to everyone that hours passed before Minerva's body language changed.
"Damn you, Molly, you've created a mini-you." Minerva stated softly, her eyes not leaving Ginny's though she knew everyone's attention was on them. Her face softened, and she half smiled at Ginny.
"Very well, Ginny. That is 'bloody January'. Making it a wrap, I think."
Ginny let out a whoosh of air, and flung herself at Minerva, who caught the girl in her arms, not sure if she was returning an embrace or keeping Ginny on her feet.
"Thank you," Ginny breathed into Minerva's robe, squeezing her lightly before pulling back.
Minerva tenderly reached out to wipe a tear from Ginny's face.
"You are quite the exceptional woman, Miss Weasley. Not to mention formidable." She pulled Ginny close again and whispered in her ear so that only she could hear.
"Fred would be proud and honoured to have you as a sister, as he always was, and as the rest of your raucous brothers are."
Ginny laughed a little.
"You think?" she asked, knowing it to be true, but needing...a connection.
"I know." Minerva planted a soft kiss above Ginny's ear before pushing her gently away from her.
"But please," she continued louder, "stop taking lessons from your mother; I believe you have perfected her mannerisms to the point where it is quite terrifying."
Molly laughed as she pulled Ginny close.
"Oh, there's no escaping the Prewett blood, Minerva. You should just be as thankful as Arthur is that she is the only girl!"
The rest of the room laughed, and as Hermione moved closer to the table where the photographer was arranging the photos in a rather frantic manner, she caught Minerva's eye and smiled softly at her.
"Thank you." She mouthed.
Minerva moved to stand beside her at the table.
"So...this is it." she sighed, looking over the photos and chuckling softly.
"Yes. Yes it is. We should have the first lot of prints in two days time. I know it was nerve-wracking, but you know, I think I shall miss all the excitement."
"Well, Miss Granger, who says the excitement has to end?"
Hermione quirked her brow at Minerva, who looked ready to respond when a gentle cough came from behind them. Startled, both women jumped, and at the same time looked at their hands in confusion. Whilst standing there, they had linked their fingers. They both blushed simultaneously as a knowing smile graced Molly Weasley's features.
"Celebratory drinks at The Burrow. By midday, if you can tear yourselves away."
Hermione and Minerva stepped forward and spoke at the same time.
"Mrs. Weasley I-"
"Molly I-"
Molly laughed easily.
"Oh please! It's been obvious between you two since you duelled naked. Now there's a story to tell your grandkids!"
"But..."
"Drinks. Burrow. Get ready. Now!"
Hermione caught Minerva's eye and shrugged, then shyly took Minerva's hand again.
As they all trouped out of the Room of Requirement, Sybil grabbed Ginny by the arm and asked in an exaggerated whisper,
"Nargles...you see them too?"
The halls of Hogwarts still echoed their laughter after they'd all left.
Hope it's still ok...couldn't write for a while as it demands a happy, slightly crazy mood, and Muggles mean I have been neither...until now *maniacal laugh*
Another update soon, and for those that are wondering, it will be revealed who is in what month, and some reactions to it...blimey, this story has just run away with me!