Disclaimer: I am just a mere visitor in the sublime world constructed by the brilliant mind that is J.K Rowling. Anything that rings a bell is hers.

A/N: Some of the information from this chapter was gathered through Pottermore

Chapter 70

"Bane!" I heard Minnie's voice followed by her hurried footsteps, her hair swam in view and I could feel her fingers dig into my shoulder as she tried to pull me up, "Are you alright. Godric!" Her worried face faded in and out, I tried blinking to steady it but it still didn't clear.

I let her lift me up and pressed my hand into my eyes, "Did I do it?"

"What?"

"Did I transfigure the porcupine, is it a pincushion?" I pressed at my eyes, feeling the uncomfortable texture of my eyeballs through my eyelids, trying to make my vision clear. I removed my hands and quickly lowered my eyelids, the light of the room burning like the sun to my sensitive eyes.

"I think its best we get you to the hospital wing."

"No! No wing Minnie Zia, we knew this would happen; I can't afford to be in the wing right now. I have to keep practicing."

"Bane, you're at your wits end! You've been practicing relentlessly for weeks! You need a break!"

"Is it a pincushion?"

"No…"

"Then I don't need a break." I leaned forward, placing pressure on my knees; I slowly rose, wiping my nose, used to the scarlet droplets that showed up every now and again.

"Bane, please, just an hour break."

"Not until it's a pincushion." I stared the porcupine in the eye, ready to do the spell. My hand felt heavier than a sack of potatoes, I blinked and felt a tear roll down my cheek. Dammit! Why was this so hard?

"Did I ever tell you that you remind me of my mother?" I glanced at Minnie in confusion.

"Me?"

"No Bane, the porcupine." She rolled her green eyes and walked to her table, knowing she finally got my attention. She busied herself with making the hot chocolate and I sighed, looking at the little porcupine, it'll have to wait. I lowered myself into the chair and sighed again, how long had it been since I sat down!

I gulped down the hot chocolate, "How?"

She sipped her tea daintily and smiled at me, "I never did tell you about her, did I?"

I shook my head, the action itself so strenuous it added to the ache.

"She was in the same predicament you are in now. She didn't lose her magic, no, she gave it up. For love."

"Your father was a muggle?" That's the only time I would think someone would have to consider giving up their magic.

"That he was. Robert McGonagall. My mother only let him in on the secret after I was born, I mean, it's not exactly an easy secret to disclose. I think she only did it because it was impossible to hide as I was displaying magic at a very young age."

"What did he do?"

Minnie smiled, "He definitely stopped pushing her buttons." She shook her head, "He accepted it, it didn't really affect him much, considering they lived in the muggle world."

"How…why do you think I am like your mother."

"That look on your face, when you found out your magic was gone. She wore that look when she thought nobody was looking."

"Why did she have to give up her magic though?"

She sighed, taking me in deeply. "You can't have it both ways. To love a muggle, to marry a muggle, when you're a woman at that time, you become a muggle. You join the world your husband belongs to."

"That's unfair."

She smiled at me, "That my dear Bane, is life." She sipped her tea, "I had brothers too. Two of them. Robert was five years my junior, and Malcolm eight. We lost Malcolm when he was fifteen…" She looked down at her tea, her face held in a cage of vulnerability I never witnessed on Minnie before. "It was harder for the boys. Especially Malcolm. To me, I was always a witch; I merely existed in the muggle world during the holidays. The lines were wavy for the boys; I guess it was because there was more of my father in them. They weren't as interested in magic as I was; it showed in their marks and they enjoyed the holidays more than they did Hogwarts. I think it had more to do with the fact that they had girls back home always waiting for them." She sipped her tea, and looked out the window.

"There was this girl that lived next door to us, Bernadette, Malcolm and she were the same age and almost everyone knew that the two would end up together, inseparable they were. He…I think they realised their feelings when they were fifteen, and Malcolm…he told her what he was." She closed her eyes, the thought itself paining her, I wanted to tell her that she can stop but I seemed to have lost the ability to speak.

"The ministry were very, very stringent with the Secrecy laws at that time, it was a different time, the Minister of Magic at the time was Victor Hague and the statute of secrecy was a particular personal law with him considering his father was the Harold Hague, a mad wizard who tried to oust the Wizarding world to muggles on multiple occasions, he was caught and thrown in Azkhaban and Victor Hague spent most his life trying to stitch up the family name. When the Ministry found out what Malcolm had done, they immediately placed a memory charm on Bernadette. It would seem though, that whoever..."

An angry glint danced in her moist eyes, "was dispatched to perform the charm was incompetent, and wiped Bernadette's memory completely. The girl regressed to the mind of an infant; she couldn't even remember how to talk let alone who Malcolm McGonagall was. Malcolm was heartbroken but was determined to stay true to Bernadette, to help her…teach her how to go about living again. He turned his back on magic, dropped out of school and committed all his time to Bernadette. About a week after the incident they found Bernadette's body floating in the river just outside of town, nobody really knows how she had got to the river, but she had fallen in. She'd forgotten how to swim…"

I looked down and closed my eyes; we had stolen everything from the poor girl. "Malcolm took his own life not a day after finding her."

One lone tear dropped down her cheek, the frown so deep on her face I worried that it would never lift.

"Robert blamed the Ministry for both the deaths and turned his back on magic completely. He told me if I chose to stay in this world then I would be more dead to him than Malcolm was…I just couldn't…I was angry and hurt about Malcolm but I knew there was good in this world too, there was change needed and if abandoned none of it would happen. He took my choice as an insult to Malcolm's memory and the day I chose this world was the day I had lost both my brothers. I still cared for Robert and checked up on him from a distance. He married a muggle girl, Susan. A few years ago, long after my parents died, I received a letter from a woman who lived in our village, a friend of my mother's whose daughter was a muggleborn witch, and she said that Robert had . Pneumonia…a cure we've had for hundreds of years in our world…he knew that well enough…yet he never…he never…"

Minnie mopped her eyes and I stared on, horror struck, not knowing what to say. She took a deep breath, "I kept watch over my nieces and nephews from afar, Robert didn't want me to be a part of their lives, not even on his death bed but it didn't make me love these children I never got the chance to meet any less. My eldest niece Mary had a baby few months ago." She smiled through the tears in pride.

"You should-"

"I can't go against his wishes and introduce myself. If he wanted me in their lives he would have told them. Anyway, they have done well enough without me. Mary is a good girl. She looked after her younger brother and sister, after Susan passed, their all OK."

No, Minnie, they're not, how could they be? They have the most amazing woman as an aunt and they don't even know it, how could they be fine. I never voiced my opinion though, afraid of hurting her and making her cry more. She sipped her tea and wiped her eyes.

"I also…I also had the choice. The same one my mother had." I stared at Minnie, the subject changed and I was embarrassed to say I was slightly relieved at the change. I wasn't sure what to say to this Minnie. To this Minnie who seemed old and sad. I recalled her last statement. Was she saying what I think she is, is this the story of the wedding dress. Wait…she had a choice…she was here. She didn't choose love…she chose magic. "Let's just say, they are worse things in life than losing one's magic. I do understand though, when you're young and have all these notions and ambitions…the choice is much easier to make."

"What was his name?"

She smiled, her eyes misty, "Dougal. Dougal McGregor. He was the son of a local farmer. And a very good cook. And an absolute gentleman. And I loved him."

I looked away, not bearing to see that look in Minnie's eyes. My Minnie, who was strength epitomised. "It was long after Dougal passed that I decided to marry. An old work colleague from the ministry, Elphinstone Urquart, one can do worse than marry their best friend."

I didn't give much thought towards marriage, but I guess with maturity that sentence would make more sense to me. The only married couple I really knew was Linus and Agnes, and they were definitely the write books about kind of love. "Where did he propose?"

She rolled her eyes, "Madam Pudifoots. Ugh, he knew I hated the place but he said the Three Broomsticks is barely a proposal worthy venue. Elphin was great, I now think he was always perfect for me. Life was pleasant in his company; he wasn't overly possessive like most men at that time. He died too young, a venomous tentacular bite. There was no cure at the time, we were married for three years." She wiped her eyes and gave me a watery laugh, "I remember when he proposed for the hundredth time, I told him I'd say yes under one condition, I was not going to take his name. Can you see me as a Professor Urquart? Sounds almost as ridiculous as Umbridge."

I giggled, wiping my face, how did I not know that Minnie carried this heartache. The tears were falling faster down my face, I laughed harder out of embarrassment. Wiping at my eyes furiously, suddenly all the pain, all the hardships of the last few weeks tumbled onto my tear duct and my breath came out in rasps as the dam exploded.

"Oh Bane." I looked over at Minnie, her face tear stained and her arms wide opened; I dashed across the table and fell into her long, thin arms. A weird sensation passed through my body, a warmth I had never felt before. It encapsulated my body and radiated from within, I never felt such protection. Minnie kissed my forehead, "It doesn't matter if it goes Bane. As long as you're still here, it doesn't matter. I've lost parents, and brothers and husband and lover, but I could not ever bear to lose my child."

I looked up into her green eyes, those eyes that conveyed a thousand of emotions to me. Sometime annoyance, mostly chastisement, even amusement. But today only one emotion shone clear in her eyes, and I was sure that the very same emotion reflected in my own.

I walked out of Minnie's office an hour later, feeling both physically and emotionally drained, the pincushion sitting safely in my bag for further practice.

"Hey." I turned to the voice, Harry was leaning against the wall outside Minnie's office, I was so preoccupied I had walked straight passed him, "What's wrong?"

I shook my head and let my bag fall off my shoulder, tossing my hands around his waist and nestling my head into his neck. His hands gripped my waist, and his lips found my forehead. "What is it Ky?"

I sniffed, wiping my face against his shoulder, the conversation I just had with Minnie spinning around in my head. I shuddered as the tears poured steadily down my face, Harry pulled me away from him and stared down at me, his green eyes wide with shock,

"Ky, what is it? Please-"

"I'm worried about Linus and Len!" I wiped the tears angrily away from my cheeks, I was so grateful for Minnie confiding in me, but it reminded me how much I loved my brothers. Life was too short to hold grudges, to be angry, especially when they were out there risking their lives for me. They didn't have to join this fight, they were already set in the muggle world, they had responsibilities to their employees and their shareholders yet they put it all on the line to protect the world that mattered so much to me. What if something had happened to Linus and that's why he wasn't responding on the Parch, what if the last time I saw him was when I went for my assessment with Atticus. I ignored him completely; I even glared at him a bit.

"Ky, I…" Harry hesitated, he didn't want to make promises that he couldn't keep. He pulled me to his chest and stroked my hair, "Ky, nothing happened to them. Do you think Dumbledore would let them do something that was out of their depths? I'm sure Linus is just busy, we don't know what the Order is up to, and what Linus and Len are doing, maybe he's just unable to use the Parch at the moment."

"But it's been over a month since Mi last spoke to him! A month Harry, it will take just a moment to write to me. Why hasn't he?"

"I can't say Ky…how about I write to Snuffles-"

"He wouldn't know, Agnes sent a letter the other day and she hadn't heard from him either." I wiped my face, officially shutting down my lacrimal duct; I was too tired at this weakness. Harry held me in his arms and I could fall asleep in his comfort.

"I'm sorry you have to worry Ky, I wish I could take all your worries away."

I nodded my head into his strong shoulder; I knew he genuinely meant that. I let him carry my bag and lead me back to his dormitory, and he never left my side as we slept, his lips resting at my ear and his warmth enveloping me. The weak rays of morning startled me awake, but in truth it must have been the cold at the loss of my heater, as I turned and stared at the empty bed beside me. Harry was gone. And so was Ron.

A/N: please review

Kalina