A/N: As promised, here's the next little instalment.

17. Rite of Passage

"You failed Transfiguration?" Minerva gasped when she got her first chance to catch up with Augusta at breakfast on the first day of school. During the train ride yesterday Minerva had been too busy patrolling the corridors of the Hogwarts Express and during the feast she had sat with Junior because they had wanted to welcome Malcolm in Gryffindor together.

"No, I got an 'E' in Transfiguration – thanks to you. I failed Charms," Augusta confessed.

Minerva gaped at her. "Charms? But..."

"I know. I know. You thought it was impossible to fail Charms. So did my parents. But I had a feeling. I made my examiner shoot upwards and crash right into the ceiling."

"But that was a very powerful Hovering Charm then."

"Yeah, except I was supposed to do a Summoning."

"Oh."

Augusta heaved a sigh. "It was our first practical exam. I was just too nervous." She shrugged. "Anyway, I will really enjoy all the free periods this year."

"Those are really more like study periods, though," Minerva cautioned her.

"For people like you perhaps who have a gazillion subjects and happen to be prefect and… are you Quidditch captain, too, now?" For the first time this morning Augusta seemed to inspect Minerva's robes properly, looking for – and finding – an additional badge next to her familiar prefect badge.

"I am, actually," Minerva replied, trying not to grin too broadly.

She had been completely focused on her O.W.L. results and had almost missed the captain's badge that had come with her regular school letter. But once she had seen it, it had been the icing on the cake. She already had a lot of new strategies in mind that she wanted to try with the team this year. She would have to share them with Augusta later because Professor Dumbledore had now begun to hand out timetables.

"Hello, Professor," she said when he reached her. "Thanks for your letter this summer. I'll try to listen next time."

"Glad to hear it," Dumbledore replied cheerfully. "Unfortunately, I have not received any letter from you in return, detailing which subjects you would like to continue this year."

"I know. I was still thinking about it and I have decided to drop Transfiguration," Minerva said.

Professor Dumbledore froze, his wand hovering over the as of yet empty timetable in his hand, until Minerva giggled.

"Sorry, just kidding, Professor."

Dumbledore eyed her over his glasses. "You seem to be in a fine mood this morning."

"I am, Professor." She knew she shouldn't let her O.W.L. results go to her head, but it was hard not to.

"While I'm glad to find you in such high spirits, your N.E.W.T. education is no laughing matter," Dumbledore reminded her. "As I've told you previously, you cannot continue with all of your O.W.L. subjects."

"Is that because you don't think I could manage it or because you can't fit it all in that timetable?" Minerva asked cheekily.

The corner of Professor Dumbledore's mouth twitched. "Let's say we would both be faced with certain challenges."

"That's all right, Professor. I've decided not to continue with Astronomy."

Dumbledore nodded. "And?"

Minerva sighed. "And Muggle Studies." She had agonised over that decision quite a bit, but there was not a single job in the entire wizarding community that asked for a N.E.W.T. in Muggle Studies. They barely expected you to have scraped an O.W.L.

"And?" Dumbledore asked once more without commenting on her choice.

"That's it," Minerva replied.

His blue eyes met her green ones in silent contemplation. Minerva knew he wanted her to whittle it down to seven N.E.W.T.s. She had thought about dropping History of Magic, but she couldn't do it. If there was still more to learn about her own history, then it seemed ignorant, perhaps even arrogant, to turn her back on it.

In the end Professor Dumbledore sighed, tapped her timetable with his wand and handed it to her.

Minerva took it, feeling victorious.

On the morning of October 4th Minerva was woken up by a bear hug from Augusta. Or perhaps, being Rugby tackled would have been a more accurate description.

"Happy Birthday! Blimey, you're already of age! I'm so jealous!"

"Thank you. Still need to breathe, though," Minerva managed to respond.

Augusta, who had pushed her deep into her pillows and scattered most of the presents on her bed, jumped backwards with a sheepish grin. "Sorry. I'm just excited for you. And me."

"Why are you excited for you?" Minerva asked, finally sitting up in bed.

"Because now you can buy Firewhisky for us next time we're at the Three Broomsticks."

Minerva snorted. But she decided not to destroy Augusta's hope that she would be benefiting from her turning seventeen. She accepted Drew's and Allison's congratulations and then collected her presents.

There were a lot more than usual, but nothing from her parents as Minerva would meet with them later in Hogsmeade. Today was a Saturday, and while it wasn't an official Hogsmeade weekend, Minerva had got special permission from Professor Dumbledore to go and see them.

Just when she was done unwrapping all her gifts and Augusta, Drew and Allison had left the dormitory to go to the bathroom, there was a sudden flash of flame above her bed that almost made Minerva fall off it in shock. But the flame disappeared as quickly as it had appeared and it left behind a single golden feather that landed silently on her pillow.

Her mouth hanging open, Minerva picked up the phoenix feather and gently ran her fingers over it. It was soft and still warm to the touch. There was a tiny scroll of parchment attached to it that read "Many happy returns" in a familiar, narrow handwriting.

With a grin Minerva placed the feather on her bedside table, but then thought better of it and safely stored it away in her trunk. Even if she hadn't been aware of the magical value of a phoenix feather, she would have felt that it was worth more than all of her other gifts combined.

Feeling elated and perhaps a little distracted, Minerva left Gryffindor Tower a few hours later and walked straight into Professor Slughorn.

"Ah, there she is, the Birthday Girl! I've been meaning to talk to you!" he exclaimed. "Let us drink to your health!"

"Thank you, Professor, but I'm meeting my…"

Slughorn didn't listen. He grabbed her by the arm and pushed her into his study without any concern for her other appointments or for her free will, for that matter.

And so Minerva sat in a puffy chair and accepted a goblet with mead.

"We were all very impressed by your O.W.L.s, though I wasn't surprised, of course. Not in the least. I told Albus... I told him the kind of exam you're likely to fail hasn't even been invented yet." Slughorn laughed. This was the only downside to Minerva's O.W.L. success. She'd been afraid that he would be even more interested in her now than he had been previously.

"Ten Outstanding O.W.L.s, that's… well, outstanding!" He continued, chortling. "You're going places, my dear girl, oh yes! I would even say, alas, you might be going all the way."

Minerva was still wondering what "all the way" meant exactly and whether she really wanted to know when Slughorn suddenly leaned in closer.

"It's all about who you know, you see. Talking to the right people. I can help you there. I know you'll have talked to Albus about your career choices, but who knows what he told you. He can be a little… peculiar. Anyway, I'd be more than willing to give you my advice, even though I wasn't lucky enough to become your Head of House."

"Professor Dumbledore gave me great advice," Minerva said stiffly.

"Oh, but of course he did. Only when it comes to connections… well, he's burning bridges left and right, isn't he? I suspect you have your sights set on the Ministry?"

"Um…" The fact that Slughorn had guessed this quite correctly made Minerva even more reluctant to admit it than she had been during her career advice meeting with Dumbledore. "Well, I thought the Department of Magical Law Enforcement…"

"Of course!" Slughorn cut her off. "Brilliant. A perfect fit. I'm good friends with Bob Ogden. I'm sure he'd love to meet you. I'll ask him to come to a Slug party and you two can talk!"

Minerva knew that Professor Slughorn had a point. The right connections could be very valuable, and there was no harm in talking to someone who had worked at the Ministry. She would actually like to ask them some more specific questions about the work there. But as far as getting a job was concerned, she really wanted to get in on her own merits.

She didn't want to argue about that with her Potions master, especially not on her birthday, so Minerva stood and said, "I'm sorry, Professor, but I really have to go. I'm late for meeting my parents in Hogsmeade."

"You're in high demand already, I see," Slughorn nodded as though she hadn't already told him that earlier. "We'll pick this up some other time then."

Minerva hoped that "other time" wouldn't come for a while and hurried down the path into Hogsmeade. When she spotted her parents, she ran straight into their waiting arms. After talking to Professor Slughorn about her future career and listening to Augusta listing all the things she was allowed to do now, it was slowly beginning to dawn on her. What this day truly meant. So Minerva figured she should hug her parents while she still felt like she could.

As she stepped back again, she noticed that her father looked a little green. "Are you all right, Papa?"

"He didn't enjoy travelling via the Floo Network for the first time," her mother explained, looking more amused than sympathetic.

"Right," said Minerva. "Sorry, Papa."

"It's fine. It's well worth seeing you on your big day," he replied. That he seemed to have accepted her coming of age now rather than in a year when she'd be eighteen made her even happier.

"I keep telling him that travelling by Floo powder actually feels a lot less like suffocating than portkeys or Apparating," her mother added.

Her father shook his head. "Honestly, it's no wonder our neighbours don't know that magic actually exists because no one in their right mind would think to crawl into a fireplace as a way of travelling."

"You mean, other than Santa Claus?" Minerva countered.

They looked at each other and laughed all the way to the Three Broomsticks. Once they were seated, both of her parents set a present on the table and slid it towards her – a big one and a smaller one.

"I've been told this is a wizarding tradition. I took the liberty of exchanging it with something that once belonged to your grandmother," Robert McGonagall explained, pointing at the small package. "Not the one you were named after, but my mother."

Minerva unwrapped it and found a slim, golden wristwatch. Different from the watches one could buy in Diagon Alley that usually offered a variety of magical features. This was a perfectly ordinary Muggle watch, except it was clearly an antique and when Minerva turned it over, she found that the name 'McGonagall' had been engraved in the back.

"It's beautiful." Minerva put it on and smiled broadly.

So did her father. "I hoped you'd prefer a family heirloom to one that was magical."

"I love it. Only…" Minerva pulled out her wand and gently tapped the watch with it, muttering, "Impervius! Delerio! Protego!" When she saw the look on her father's face, she quickly switched to nonverbal spells and then put her wand away again.

"So much for it not being magical, I suppose," Robert said.

"Oh no, those were just protection spells, so it won't crack, get wet or stolen."

"I see."

There was a bit of a pause that her mother Isobel filled by pushing the bigger present towards her. "And now the one you really wanted."

Curious, Minerva ripped open this second package and her eyes lit up when she found a recently published book series that dealt exclusively with particularly advanced aspects of Transfiguration magic.

"Told you we should have given her those later. Now she'll want us to leave so she can start reading," her father teased.

"Of course not!" Minerva protested. But it was at least partially true.

"Well, one way or another we'll have to get used to her not needing us anymore," Isobel said.

"At least that means that we can redecorate her room."

"Yes, you always wanted your own study…"

Minerva knew that her parents were only joking, but she could feel a little sadness mixing in with the overall sweetness of the day. She tried to keep it to herself, though, as they talked about how her classes were going and how her brothers, especially Malcolm, were doing. Isobel also asked for a detailed report on the Quidditch tryouts Minerva had held a week ago and the two new players she had chosen for the Gryffindor team.

Eventually, they got ready to leave and Minerva and her mother waited at their table while her father went to the bathroom.

"Are you all right? You've been a little quiet," Isobel noticed.

"It's funny," Minerva said after pondering her answer for a moment. "These past few years I've felt like I had two homes. One with you and Papa and Robert and Malcolm, and one here at Hogwarts. And now it feels like I'll lose both soon."

Isobel smiled softly. "Darling, your father and I were only kidding earlier. You'll always have a home with us. But I don't think you'll want to. Once you're settled at the Ministry or wherever you'll choose to work, you'll forget all about your poor old parents."

"No, I won't," Minerva said, shaking her head. "Especially… well… how are you and Papa doing with Robert, Malcolm and me all out of the house?"

"Minerva, you don't have to worry about your father and me. You have more than enough to worry about with everything you've got going on at school."

"It's a little late for that," Minerva muttered.

"What do you mean?"

"I've always worried about you and about what was going on at home without me. Even in my very first week at Hogwarts…" It seemed like a lifetime ago, but she still remembered it like it was yesterday. "I had a bit of a meltdown right in front of Professor Dumbledore."

Isobel's brow furrowed. "What? I thought your first week went great. That's what you told us."

"Because it was great. Except that I was scared to death that you might resent me for it." Minerva had no idea what made her admit it. That thought had been with her for so long, perhaps she felt that if she didn't say it now, on the day she started her life as an adult, she would never do it.

Her mother stared at her as though she had been hit with a Stunning Spell. "That's not true. Tell me that's not true."

Unnerved by the look in her mother's eyes, Minerva said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything."

Isobel stood so abruptly that her chair almost toppled over. Then she swiftly rounded the table, clasped Minerva's hands and pulled her up from her chair as well. "Minerva, I love your brothers with all my heart, but you, you are my pride and joy. You have been since the minute you were born. I knew you were special. All mothers say that, of course. But you were only a couple of hours old when you made your toys fly across the room into your cot. Yes, that made things complicated between your father and me for a bit, but never between you and me. Those were my choices, not yours. If I was a little envious of you going off to Hogwarts, then that was only because I knew that you'd have such a great time there. I can only hope that you'll have a daughter one day because only then will you be fully able to understand that what I want for you, what I've always wanted for you, is for you to have everything."

Now it was Minerva who could only stare at her mother for a moment. Then they both moved at the same time to step into each other's arms for a hug that was a lot more tearful than Minerva was prepared to admit.

When her father returned from the bathroom, the mood change caught him completely by surprise. But he seemed to deduce quickly that this was something his wife and daughter had worked out between the two of them.

They all brightened up significantly when they stopped at Honeydukes next and Minerva and Isobel introduced Robert to the wonderfully weird world of wizarding sweets. Isobel bought some Sugar Quills for her husband to suck on while he was writing his sermons and Robert took a couple of Fizzing Whizzbees because he thought they sounded funny. Minerva suspected that he wasn't aware that eating them would actually make him float a few inches off the ground. In the meantime she bought some toffee eclairs.

"But you don't even like toffee," her mother pointed out suspiciously.

"Perhaps I like it now that I'm of age," she replied and pocketed them quickly.

After they had also visited the Post Office and Zonko's Joke Shop (Robert looked more than a little troubled at the idea that his sons might go shopping there), it was time for Minerva to get back.

"We would walk up to the castle with you, but with the Anti-Muggle Protection Spells…" Her mother didn't finish that sentence, but they all understood.

Her father wouldn't be able to approach the castle. Most likely, he wouldn't even see it in the first place. He might forget why he was here or get confused in other ways. Now that Minerva saw the look on her father's face and thought about the indignity of it all, anger and embarrassment boiled in the pit of her stomach. Hogwarts was her second home and yet one of the most important people in her life wasn't welcome anywhere near it.

She hesitated to leave until Robert reached out to straighten Minerva's glasses – something he had used to do when she was a little girl and her glasses would slip too far down her nose. "Time to go and be brilliant," he said, letting her know that it was okay.

And Minerva knew it would be.