I just wanted to pop in a little word to say thank you so much for the lovely reviews :) Now, on with the story!
10 October 1997
"Where is he?" Snape repeated, his voice cold, icy and sharp. "I know you know."
"I am afraid I will have to disappoint you again," Minerva said tiredly. She had still not recovered from the flu, though Poppy had given her something late yesterday evening, which seemed to have made quite a significant difference. "I do not know where Mr Lawson is, or where he has gone."
Snape put a steadying hand on his desk, which reminded Minerva that he too, had not yet recovered from the flu. Indeed, she doubted whether Poppy would have gone out of her way to help Snape and the Carrows, as she had done with Minerva.
"The boy can't have just vanished," Snape spat. "Do not lie to me, Minerva."
"I am not."
Snape pursed his lips and tilted his head downwards so that his gaze was levelled with Minerva's. His eyes bore into hers and suddenly, Minerva felt him looking inside her head. She saw Elphinstone in her mind's eye, then Isobel Ross lying frail and weak in her bed, and then Albus. The memories sped up and suddenly she could see herself walking down Hogwarts' corridors towards the sixth floor where...
Minerva gasped and forcefully pushed Snape out. She took a step back. They stood staring at each other like that for several seconds - Minerva in shock while Severus had a peculiar expression on his face.
"How did you learn to do that?" he eventually said, his voice no louder than a whisper.
"Learn?" Minerva said incredulously. She drew herself to her full height. "I think you forget, Severus, that I am many years your senior. And though you may believe yourself to be much more experienced than I, I will tell you now that I have known of occlumency since before you were born."
Snape opened his mouth but Minerva powered on. She could feel her magic trickle like electricity across her arms and run towards her fingertips that were itching to grab her wand and point it at the man standing before her.
Instead, she clenched her fists and tried to regain control over the flurry of emotions she could feel coursing through her. "I would advise you not to try that again."
Severus did not reply immediately. He looked away from her, his expression hard to read, and then cleared his throat. "Where is the boy?"
"I do not know where he is. But, as you very well know, he would have been caught if he had attempted to leave through Hogsmeade."
Snape's features hardened once more. "It is possible—"
"Hardly, Severus!"
He scowled and his lips turned as white as his cheeks as he pursed them together. He put another hand on his desk, and Minerva had the vague impression that he needed to sit down but did not want to do so in front of her, while she was still standing.
"Are you saying that a 13-year-old could best a dozen full-grown wizards?" she demanded.
"A student saw you near the Gryffindor Common Room last night," Snape said, ignoring her earlier remark. "Why were you there?"
"I'm sorry, is walking banned too?" Minerva snapped. She inhaled sharply and folded her arms. "I went to see Poppy and then I returned to my quarters. I did not see Mr Lawson."
She was lying, of course. Severus knew that, but he could not prove it.
"Minerva," he began, but he did not get any further than that. The silence in the corridor, associated with the lateness of the hour, was suddenly punctuated by a series of hurried footsteps, screams and loud bangs.
Minerva instantly moved to open the door to her office, Severus at her heels. They barely had the time to express their surprise and investigate the source of the commotion, when three students rounded the corner and collided straight into them.
"Oh!" Minerva, unable to support the weight of two students leaning heavily on her, stumbled backwards and landed painfully on the floor beside Snape, who had been knocked over by Ginny Weasley.
Instead of apologising, however, Ginny struggled to remove her wand from the tangle of her robes but to no avail. She looked behind her, where the sounds of even more hurried footsteps could be heard, then looked urgently at Minerva.
"Neville, come on!"
"I can't my wand—Luna quick!"
The sound of another set of hurried footsteps echoed across the hall. If three students skidding around a corner and running straight into two teachers had not put Minerva on guard, their subsequent urgent and panicked conversations showed her that something was terribly wrong.
Instinctively, Minerva pulled out her own wand, and, as if on cue, two purple spells shot straight towards herself and Severus. The three students ducked to cover their faces, but Minerva and Severus, despite the short warning, deflected the spells with ease. With an additional flick, the wands of the attackers landed straight into Minerva's hand.
Amycus and Alecto stopped in their tracks. Snape, meanwhile, pushed Ginny Weasley aside and stood up. He looked at Minerva and held out his hand. Minerva purposefully looked away and Snape's pulled his hand back.
"Come now, Longbottom," she said, chivvying the boy so that she could get up herself.
Longbottom stood, though he shot her a panicked look and indicated with his foot, a long object draped in a cloth that he had seemingly dropped after the collision. Minerva frowned but did not have time to question him - nor did she want to necessarily. She had a feeling that this object was the reason the three had been chased by Alecto and Amycus.
"What is the meaning of this, Alecto?" Snape said, as the two Carrows, panting heavily, joined them.
"We found these three leaving your office," Amycus said. "And we knew you were speaking to this one," he added, gesturing ungraciously at Minerva, "so we thought they were up to no good."
"And you thought it was then sensible to attack three underage students?" Minerva snapped.
Alecto glared at her. "This does not concern you, McGonagall," she spat, reaching over to yank her wand out of Minerva's hand. "Why don't you leave us alone, eh?"
Minerva did not move. "I think not, Alecto."
"Headmaster—"
"Why were you chasing these students?" Severus interrupted, his face inscrutable.
Minerva felt Longbottom tense beside her. Lovegood, meanwhile, tried to inch towards them to hide the package behind her feet.
Alecto, unfortunately, got there first. Roughly shoving Minerva and Luna aside, Alecto reached over to pick up the package and remove the cloth it was wrapped in.
For a moment all six of them stood staring at the package. Then, Snape spoke.
"Take this back to my office," he instructed Alecto. Alecto nodded, though hesitantly. Evidently, she had been expecting to be put in charge of disciplining the three students. "Amycus, I will need you to alert Professor Flitwick that one of his students needs speaking to."
"But—"
"That is all, Professor Carrow," Snape said, speaking over Amycus. "It is late, and we can deal with Longbottom, Weasley and Lovegood in the morning."
Amycus nodded, though unenthusiastically, and left without a word.
"Professor McGonagall, we can continue our conversation tomorrow," he told her. "In the meantime, ensure that your students return to their dormitory without causing any more trouble."
Minerva nodded and moved Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom in front of her and in the direction of the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Professor, before—"
"No, Miss Weasley, I do not want to hear excuses," Minerva interrupted as the portrait hold closed and she, Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley were standing in the otherwise empty Gryffindor Common Room. "What on earth possessed you to break into the Headmaster's office and steal the Sword of Gryffindor?"
"Snape isn't the Headmaster," Ginny Weasley muttered.
"You would do well to keep that opinion to yourself," Minerva warned Ginny. "I am not here to debate semantics, Miss Weasley" she added when Ginny looked on the brink of arguing. "Do you realise how dangerous your little adventure was this evening?"
"Of course," Weasley said, squaring her jaw in a very Weasley-like manner. "That's why we did it."
Minerva tutted, looked up briefly at the ceiling, and put one hand on her hip - unable to mask her emotions.
"You've put yourself in dangerous positions all year, Professor," Ginny Weasley continued. "To stand up for what you believe in. So, why can't we?"
"Because you are children, Miss Weasley, and you are underage," Minerva replied. "And I cannot protect every single one of you if you continue to engage in these escapades."
"You helped Bertie," Longbottom said. He paused. "I know what was in his letter. It was from his mother. She was warning him that—"
"Yes, I know what it said," Minerva said quickly. She looked around the room, reminded very suddenly of the saying that 'walls have ears'. She did not want information about Mr Lawson and her potential involvement in helping him disappear, parading about the school.
The letter had been frantically written by Bertie Lawson's mother, in magical ink that only revealed itself to family members, telling him that his brother was gone, and to deny whatever Snape, Amycus or Alecto would accuse him of the following morning. It had been cryptic, and Minerva had used Granger's coin to contact Remus and ask him for some news of the Lawson family - if possible. She had found out that Lawson's brother had been accused of spying at the Ministry - an accusation more or less correct seeing as Minerva knew that Roger Lawson was or had been helping the Order at some point.
Remus had added that Dementors had been ordered to bring the family to the Ministry so that they could stand trial for conspiracy against the government, but Roger, his mother and his father had all gone into hiding. Remus warned her that it seemed as though the Death Eaters would attempt to use Bertie to get his family out of hiding and so, without wasting a minute longer, Minerva had Bertie removed from the school using a secret passage leading to Aberforth's pub. Remus and Aberforth had collected the boy and returned him to his family before any Dementors or Death Eaters had the time to raid the Gryffindor Common Room.
Not for the first time, Minerva was glad that Grace had had the good sense to come to her for help or else the Lawson family might not have been so lucky.
"But Snape let us go."
"He did not, Miss Weasley," Minerva snapped. She felt a sudden urge to put her head in her hands. Instead, she pursed her lips and tried to think rationally. "I am under no illusion that the Headmaster will call you back to his office for Professors Carrow to punish you as they see fit," she eventually said. "That may be today, it may be tomorrow, I do not know," she added. "But I do not think Professor Flitwick and I will have much say in the matter."
"I can handle it," Longbottom said.
"We—," Ginny began.
"No. It was my idea. I can take the blame."
"Certainly not. That is out of the question," Minerva said, directing a stern frown at Longbottom to stop him from getting any ideas.
"Professor—"
Minerva shook her head resolutely. "I will speak with the Headmaster," she said firmly, though, in reality, she did not feel at all confident - she did not know what she could tell Snape that would manage to dissuade him from punishing her Gryffindors and Luna Lovegood. "In the meantime, you will remain in your dormitories. Seeing as you both have Transfiguration in the morning, I will collect you myself and walk you both to class."
Ginny Weasley folded her arms tightly across her chest and looked to the floor. Minerva suspected that the girl was not merely avoiding eye contact because she was cross - indeed, Ginny's hand quickly shot up to wipe her eyes when she thought no one was watching. Longbottom looked to his left where Minerva had just noticed Finnigan retreat back up the staircase to the boys' dormitory in her peripheral vision.
She suppressed a sigh, deciding that she was much too tired to interrogate Finnigan and see if he too had been in on this extraordinarily stupid plan. "To bed, both of you," she said, waving the two Gryffindors away. "And mind that I do not find you out of bed after hours again. Is that clear?"
Ginny Weasley scowled before turning her back on Minerva and striding purposefully towards the staircase to her own dormitory.
"Sorry, Professor," Longbottom said quietly before he too followed Weasley's example.
Minerva was unsure whether he was apologising for the events of that evening, or for the fact that they had been caught and now Minerva had to speak with Severus, or merely because of Weasley's rudeness. Either way, it seemed genuine even if it did not make Minerva feel any less irritated with their rash behaviour.
