25. Where to Go from Here

"I can't believe I once thought that this bed was the biggest bed I would ever sleep in." Augusta ran her hand over the curtains of her four-poster bed. "Now this room feels kind of small, doesn't it?"

Minerva knew what she meant. She had just closed her trunk after checking for the third time that she had packed everything. She knew there was nothing she could have forgotten. But it was just such a strange thought. As soon as she walked out of that door, the Hogwarts house-elves would take all of her belongings outside, scrub the dormitory clean and erase any evidence that she had ever been here, so that on the first of September new first-years could move in.

Heaving a deep sigh, she said, "Let's go down. We don't want to be late."

"Well, it's not as if they can take any more points from us," Augusta joked.

She was right. The school year was officially over. They had enjoyed their final end-of-term feast last night and all the other students had been sent home on the Hogwarts Express this morning. Slytherin had won the House Cup, but Minerva had got eight Outstanding N.E.W.T.s while Sevazlian had failed Potions, which meant that he couldn't start in the Auror Office, as she had heard through the grapevine he had been meaning to. She had never felt so defeated and victorious all at once.

Lost in thought, Minerva played with her Head Girl badge. She had pinned it to her black dress robes mostly out of habit and because these were the final hours for her to wear it, or at least the final hours for it to mean anything. Right now it reminded her that she should be the first to show up in the Entrance Hall.

She went down the grand staircase, letting her hand trail over the marble bannister, and then she watched as the rest of the seventh-years joined her and Augusta. One after the other the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws descended the stairs while the Slytherins climbed up from the dungeons and the Hufflepuffs emerged from the basement. Together they waited, almost exactly as they had done on their very first evening in the castle, nearly as nervous, but a little less terrified.

"I still think Minerva McGonagall is a funny name." Eric Elcoat had joined her and he, too, was clearly remembering the first time they had all been together like this. "And more importantly, I think you should have been in Ravenclaw."

Just as on their first day, Augusta jumped in before Minerva could say anything, even though she hadn't needed her protection in a long time. "But her Animagus is a cat, genius."

"So? A housecat is not a lion," Eric argued.

"It's still closer than an eagle," Augusta shot back. "No feathers and all. Though, now that I think about it, that would have been wicked. If you could fly…"

"I'm perfectly happy with being a cat, thank you very much," Minerva said.

"Yeah, probably for the best. Judging by your crash-landing in our last Quidditch game, flying without a broom isn't really your thing."

Augusta grinned at her and though the memory still stung, Minerva couldn't help but laugh.

"I always seem to miss the most marvellous jokes," Professor Dumbledore said behind them.

Minerva took a deep breath before she turned around. Whether on purpose or not, Dumbledore was wearing robes very similar to the midnight blue ones she remembered from seven years ago.

"Then it's a good thing that there's no such thing as too much laughter, right, Professor?" she said.

"Took the words right out of my mouth, Miss McGonagall," Dumbledore winked at her. "Now, we're ready for you. Whether you are ready is, of course, a different question entirely, but I must ask you to form a line in any case."

They did, only this time they weren't entering the Great Hall single file. As Head Girl and Boy Minerva and Eric led them inside in rows of two. Other than that, the moment felt very similar. The Great Hall was every bit as magnificent as on their first day, though it looked different today. Four gigantic house banners had been put up and the lion, eagle, badger and snake in their centre were not only moving but leaning out of their banners to welcome them all.

They were not the only ones to greet them. The four house tables had been removed and replaced with rows of chairs filled with friends and family members of the graduates. Instead of the High Table there was a stage where the teachers and the headmaster were waiting.

First, the choir got to sing its song and they invited everyone to join in for the final chorus. To the complete bewilderment of some family members, the entire class of seventh-years (and some of the teachers) bellowed the rather peculiar lines of the school song.

Only then did Professor Dippet step forward to say, "Dear friends and families, esteemed colleagues, it is with greatest pleasure that I give you this year's graduates of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

Applause erupted as one after the other they received their diplomas. The Slytherin snake hissed, the Hufflepuff badger clapped, the Ravenclaw eagle beat its wings and the Gryffindor Lion roared while silver and green, black and yellow, bronze and blue and red and golden sparks rose into the air.

After the official part had ended, everyone was free to mingle and Minerva hurried over to her family to hug her mother, her brothers (who complained about having gone home with the Hogwarts Express only yesterday and now being dragged back here today) and lastly her father.

"A little part of me always thought you were pulling my leg, but this… is truly impressive," he said, looking around the hall. It was the first time ever he had been able to set foot inside the castle and it showed in the wonder on his face.

"I know it's not like graduating from a university," Minerva said.

"No, but I highly doubt they have golden lions like that at Oxford," her father said, glancing at the Gryffindor banner.

The lion saluted them.

"I only ever wanted to live up to your expectations," Minerva told him.

Her father gave a little laugh. "I think we both know that I never expected any of this. How could I have known that while I was worrying whether it was okay to have a cat in the house next to my baby girl, that baby would one day turn into a cat herself? I won't ever understand how that works or what exactly makes it different from other magic. But I don't need anyone to come up to me and tell me that you're the best student in your year or the brightest young witch of your age, because I'm your father, and that means I will always see the best parts of you and forgive the worst."

He rested his hands on her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Your mother always says that she was the one who noticed your magic when you were just a baby, but that's not true. The first one to fall under your spell was me. And that's a magic that I understand."

Minerva's answering smile was bittersweet. She wished she could have given him a tour of the castle and shown him everything. But the guests, certainly the Muggle guests, were only allowed in the Entrance Hall and in the Great Hall and only for a short period of time because the anti-Muggle protection on the castle would have to be restored as soon as possible. Or so Minerva had been told. And really, she wasn't supposed to linger or wander off either. All graduates were supposed to say their goodbyes and, well, leave.

But most of them stayed for as long as they could. The teachers were the ones who left first.

"All the best to you, my dear girl," Horace Slughorn said as he shook Minerva's hand. "I suspect I will be seeing your name in the papers again before long, but you'll write to me, I hope?"

Minerva, who had no such intentions, hesitated. "Thank you, Professor. I'll, uh, try."

"Wonderful!" Slughorn exclaimed.

The other teachers said similar goodbyes (though no one asked her to write), and the more people left the Great Hall, the more Minerva realised that the time had come.

She took off her Head Girl badge and slipped out of the hall, heading straight towards the Transfiguration classroom. The door was closed, but Minerva didn't even feel guilty when she unlocked it with Alohomora. She was no longer a student after all. She proceeded towards her seat in the front row by the window and sat down, taking it all in.

One last time.

Augusta was right. It did feel smaller.

"I thought I might find you here," Professor Dumbledore said from the doorway.

"It's strange how a room with a bunch of desks and chairs can feel so much like home," Minerva said without turning around.

"Yes, but home is where we want it to be," Dumbledore replied.

"But whether I want to or not, I'm being told to leave," Minerva pointed out.

"Well, it's about bloody time."

Now Minerva did turn around to stare at Dumbledore, who slowly crossed the room and leaned against his desk. "You worked your way to the top of your class on your very first day at this school and you haven't relinquished your hold on that spot for seven years," he said.

"I've tried my best, but we both know that I haven't been able to present you with any serious challenges in this room for a while now, not for longer than a few hours at a time," he added. "But when you leave this castle, you will face challenges the nature of which is impossible for anyone to name just yet. And while that can be frightening, it can also be exhilarating. If I were you, I'd go with the latter."

Minerva sighed, not sure if Dumbledore being as wise as he had always been made this better or worse. "I guess you're right. I haven't felt like this in a long time. Like I have truly no idea what to expect and might fail."

Dumbledore leaned forward. "Then by all means, go and fail, Minerva."

"What?"

"It's not the end of the world, you know. You have your whole life ahead of you. That's a lot of time to fix things. So if you ever were to do something crazy, now's the time to do it," he said, both teasing and completely serious.

She understood what he meant, but she couldn't embrace it. Being told to fail wasn't really what she had expected. "You could have just said 'go forth and make me proud,'" she told him.

"Actually, I couldn't have. That would suggest that I'm not proud of you already," Dumbledore replied slowly. "And that would have been a lie of tremendous proportions."

Minerva looked up at him from where she was still sitting in the seat that had technically ceased to be hers, but from where she had looked up at him so many times. Only never with tears in her eyes, like she did now. And never quite this speechless.

Dumbledore stood up and bowed to her with a little flourish at the end. "I bid you farewell, Minerva McGonagall, and I wish you the best of luck, even though I know you won't need it."

Trying to suppress a tremor in her voice and in her heart, Minerva stood as well. "Thank you, Professor. For everything. For teaching me. All these years. Back in that first lesson in this room I had no idea, but it was a gift and an honour."

"No, Minerva, the honour was mine," Dumbledore said with a smile and that familiar twinkle in his blue eyes before he left the classroom.

And that was the last she saw of Albus Dumbledore until she left Hogwarts Castle that day.

A/N: Please don't be mad at me because nothing happened between them. I know the idea of an illicit teacher–student relationship is exciting in a way, but if you think about it, it's something Albus would never do. At least that's the way I see him. But fear not, this only marks the end of part one of this story. I have already mapped out part two and I'll get started on the next chapter right away. I hope you will stay with me, but either way thank you so much for your support up until this point.