A/N Thanks again M for making the time to look this over. Any remaining errors are last minute changes I made.

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Albus awoke to the most excruciating pain – in his head, his limbs, everywhere. The pain was reminiscent of the way he had felt post Crucio Curse the few times he had been hit.

The cool cloth that Minerva was pressing to his forehead did nothing to alleviate the pain – in fact, the pressing seemed to be exacerbating it - but he appreciated the gesture. Despite the agony of every movement, Albus reached up and pulled her hand down to his lips.

"That is so not going to happen. Don't get me wrong, I'm flattered, but no!"

The voice that had responded was not Minerva's. Opening his eyes, Albus was taken aback to find not Minerva's hand, but Kettleburn's, tending him.

"Sleeping Beauty awakes at last!"

But where was Minerva? If he was sick or injured surely she would be by his side.

Pieces of memories of the night before started to come back to him. He had a meeting scheduled with Millicent Bagnold. He went looking for Minerva to tell her, but he couldn't find her. He could remember waiting in her rooms for her to return. She had been out shopping of all things. He would have to remember to get to the things being delivered today before she did. He recalled quarreling with her. And then…and then…and then…he concentrated on trying to remember, but he couldn't.

Admittedly, he had said some fairly despicable things to her, but surely Minerva wouldn't have hexed him…at least not this badly?

He asked Kettleburn. "What happened?"

"You were attacked by Death Eaters. They got you on your way to the Ministry – at least, that's how I think it happened. Alastor Moody was here looking for you because you never made it to a meeting with the Minister there, but Poppy told him you were headed out to a very important meeting when you brought Minerva to the Hospital Wing. You must have managed to apparate back to Hogwarts just before losing consciousness because Filch and I found you at the edge of the Forest."

Kettleburn's words did nothing to bring back his memory. "I brought Minerva to the Hospital Wing?"

Kettleburn nodded. "Kudos, by the way, for the way you just dumped her and ran."

Albus's own considerable pain and discomfort were instantly forgotten. "Why did I bring her to the Hospital Wing? Is she all right?"

Kettleburn shrugged noncommittally. "I'm sure she's fine."

Albus could tell by the way the other man wouldn't meet his eyes that there was something he wasn't being told. "Is something wrong with the baby?"

If he knew, Kettleburn was evading answering. "I've been in here waiting to see if you would ever wake up and trying to keep anyone else from finding out that you were injured."

Albus tried to rise. Before Kettleburn could make much of an effort to stop him, the Care of Magical Creatures professor found himself sprawled out on the floor. Were the situation not what it were, Albus might have found some satisfaction in having finally done to Kettleburn what he had been fantasizing about doing for months now.

Albus rushed through the infirmary doors. He looked around, but Minerva was nowhere to be seen. Had she been sent to St. Mungo's? Seeing Poppy, he asked.

"Where is Minerva?"

Busy fluffing the pillow of an empty bed, Poppy took far too long to reply. "There wasn't much more that I could do for her. With the crowd I can expect from today's Quidditch game, I thought she would be more comfortable in the privacy of her own rooms so I discharged her last night. I'm monitoring her from here."

Poppy pointed to a clock-like device labeled with Minerva's name. It listed various symptoms ranging from 'faking' to 'mild cough' to 'mostly dead' to 'all dead'.

The Quidditch match wasn't until Sunday, but that wasn't the important part of what Poppy had just said. If Poppy had discharged Minerva the very night it had happened, that had to mean it wasn't too serious – didn't it? Or was it the opposite – was there nothing that could be done for the baby? The hand of Minerva's clock was currently teetering back and forth between 'heartbroken' and 'insomnia'. He noticed there was only the one clock.

"So she's all right? And the baby? She didn't…she didn't lose the baby?"

Poppy turned from her fluffing to glare at him. "Suddenly you care?"

He could keep the anguish from his voice no longer. "What happened with my –" he only just barely managed to restrain himself, "-Nerva's little girl?"

Poppy snorted. Merlin help him, she sounded amused. "No little girl for Minerva."

Utterly devastated, Albus couldn't even respond. He staggered out.

On the way to Minerva's rooms, he tried to think of what he could possibly say to her, but no words would come to him - his grief was too fresh. More than ever, he now regretted his words to her the day before. To think that the last words he had expressed about their daughter were a denial of wanting her. He had so much to make amends for. Right now, all he could think to do was to be with Minerva, to hold her, to grieve with her.

Reaching her rooms, he found that was not to be. She was in her animagus form, sunning herself in the light of a window bewitched into an interior wall of the castle. As he entered and approached, she transfigured back to her human form. With half the room still between them, she put up a hand to stop his approach.

Her eyes were swollen as if she had been crying, but they looked dull. They lacked the shine that would have made the tears recent. Her voice was flat, seemingly entirely devoid of emotion, as without preamble, she asked him. "What was the meeting about? What was so important that you had to leave?"

"It was…I…" Albus tried to remember. Kettleburn had said that Albus had 'dumped' Minerva at the Hospital Wing and left. He couldn't remember doing it – couldn't even conceive of doing it – but from Minerva's words and demeanor, it appeared to be true. He tried to remember what could possibly possess him to do such a thing. True, he had been angry with her and true they had exchanged heated words, but he knew – he knew – that no amount of anger could ever have caused him to abandon her in those circumstances. There had to have been some other reason for his leaving. He couldn't think of any cause great enough to have pulled him from her side, but there had to have been another reason for his leaving. It killed him inside, but perhaps as a result of his injuries or some memory charm that he had been hit with the day before, he couldn't remember. "…I don't remember."

"Alastor was by to see you yesterday. When you wouldn't see him, he came to me. I asked him what the meeting was about. He said it was a meeting to coordinate schedules to schedule more meetings."

She paused as if to give him time to offer an explanation or refute the allegation

Albus winced. He wished that he could offer some justification – that that hadn't been the real purpose of the meeting, merely a ruse, or that there had been another meeting – one that Alastor wasn't aware of or wasn't at liberty to discuss - but he had nothing to offer. That had been the purpose of the meeting that he had been planning to attend yesterday afternoon. He just couldn't remember, couldn't even begin to believe – as he had been told – that he had actually still left to try to attend once Minerva took ill. The very idea that he had left Minerva in the Hospital Wing to miscarry their child alone, it was fantastic, but that had been the purpose of the meeting.

When he hadn't a response, she continued. Her voice was monotone and her words seemed stilted - almost to the point of being rehearsed. It was as though she had been thinking about them a great long time. "I didn't talk to you about my plan beforehand not because I knew you would never consent – though I did know that – but because if I had you would have been aware of the possibility and precluded me from attempting it. I thought that your objection to having a child was based on fear for our safety. When you asked me to marry you with the condition that I agree to go into hiding, I thought that seemed clear. I thought that once you saw that there was a way that we could have a child without my going into hiding and with no one even suspecting that you were the father, I thought that your objections would fade. I knew you would be angry at first –and rightfully so- but I thought you would come round to the idea soon enough.

"I realize now that I misunderstood. You truly didn't want a child."

It cut him to hear her say the words. To think that she really believed that he hadn't wanted the baby that they had just lost. Albus tried to interrupt, but she wouldn't have it. "Minerva, no! I did want this baby. I –"

As he made her stray from her clearly prepared speech, gone was the evenness from her tone. "-Don't speak! You have nothing to say that I want to hear! Your actions have made your feelings perfectly clear! Three days! Three days without a visit, or a letter, not even an inquiry through the elves about our condition! Three days of you locked away in your rooms."

"Three days?" Albus didn't understand. Perhaps it was the lingering pain clouding his mind, making his thought processes too slow, but he didn't follow. What did she mean three days?

He had never before heard such venom in her voice. "I release you from any claim that I, or my son, ever had on you. You need not worry about us burdening you with our presence any longer. As soon as Poppy clears me to travel, I will be leaving."

Minerva's repetition of 'three days' still wasn't clear to him, but he now understood how Poppy could laugh while claiming 'no little girl for Minerva.'

Minerva's anger – however righteous – momentarily ceased registering with him. He had to be certain. "The baby is all right? You didn't miscarry?"

"Don't pretend to care! If you really cared, it wouldn't have taken you three days to find out. You would have been there with me. Alastor said you didn't even show to the meeting. Well you needn't worry anymore about me 'trapping' you into marriage or anything else."

"Three days?" Albus repeated. Minerva's insistence on three days intruded upon his euphoria at finding out that there still was to be a baby.

It hadn't been three days. It couldn't have been. He hadn't been unconscious three days. Had he?

Minerva's agitation had attracted the attention of Poppy all the way from the Hospital Wing. She came bursting into the room. "What is going on here?"

Seeing her, Minerva repeated her earlier threat. "I'll be leaving – tonight if Poppy clears me!"

"Minerva, no! You can't leave. Please-"

"-Albus, you have already made your feelings perfectly clear. Get out. I don't ever wish to set eyes on you again!"

He had to explain it to her. He needed to make her understand. He just wasn't sure what it was that he had to explain. "Minerva, you have to listen-"

"I said get out!"

"Minerva-" It didn't matter. He was not to get the chance.

Poppy herded him out into the hall. "What do you think you are doing?! You cannot be upsetting her like that. Not in her condition!"

This was all wrong. Just when he thought the situation could get no worse - Albus had just thought their baby lost. Now to discover the baby was fine, but he wouldn't be for long if Minerva were to be so rash as to leave. Voldemort was out there waiting for her to take as much as a step out of Hogwarts. Visions of another night like the one last summer flashed through his mind. Only this time, lost were two people he loved, not one. Alice had had it all wrong. Having a child didn't give you someone else to cling to in mourning – it gave you another someone to mourn.

Albus was near panic. "Poppy, you cannot allow her to leave. It isn't safe for her out there!"

Poppy nodded. "I know, that kneazle could still be out there!"

"Kneaz - Poppy, you have to make her stay!"

Thankfully, Poppy agreed. "I have every intention of personally delivering that baby right here at Hogwarts."