Summary: SSSHG, Minerva McGonagall steps away from Hogwarts and a life, while not perfect, was a life well-lived. RIP Maggie Smith 09272024.
Beta Love: Dragon and the Doze (Wait…) Dragon and the Nose (dangit), Dragon and the Rose, Dutchgirl01 the Rapidly Decompressed, Commander Shepard the Budgiedeere
A/N: My heart is broken. Utterly trash. She was a legend in the truest sense and the world is lesser with her passing.
The End of an Era
Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes
Maggie Smith
It was a stormy, windy sort of day.
A typical one in Scotland.
The sky was grey and perpetually gloomy, but Minerva was well used to such things. Scotland was her home, and her home had always been as swift and sharp, moody and biting—much as she herself could be.
She was a product of her home, as much as the animals that travelled across it or the weather that pounded down upon it.
Or the magic that flowed invisibly under the surface of the great Earth long before a witch or wizard called it forth using their wand and will.
She looked up at the sculpture of herself with a slight pucker. It was dreadful, she reasoned. She certainly hadn't asked for it. The students and families had. Those who had survived the war wanted a standing reminder of those who had kept them safe as best they could.
"Awful," a familiar voice rumbled, and Minerva turned to see Severus regarding the statue of himself with disdain. "Bloody awful."
"At least you aren't gazing adoringly up the robes of Harry," Hermione said, tilting her head as she shook her head. "Ronald never understood why I didn't like it."
"Ah well, not everyone can understand how bad these things are, bless him," Minerva said with a shake of her head. One could almost see her whiskers manifest just to twitch.
"At least they put Albus by himself," Severus said dryly. "I don't think I could stand to see myself looking—happy next to him."
Sanguini put a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe if you had a sword in your other hand?"
"Mm," Severus said. "Speaking to my primal Roman past?"
"It is how I got to know you," Sanguini mused with a shrug. "While maybe not our best times, it was assuredly the most poignant turning points in our un-lives."
"Hn," Severus muttered, shaking his head. "I think the most poignant turning point in our un-lives was the ensnaring of our mate and convincing her of our utter devotion."
"Flatterer," Hermione murmured, giving him a tender kiss upon the cheek.
"Hn," was Severus' only verbal remark as he hissed softly at his delectable mate.
Hermione smiled at him, suffering his kiss upon her throat.
"Must you neck like hormonal teenagers?" Minerva tutted. "Do I need to get out my Aguamenti?"
"Perhaps you would prefer the catmint?" Rada rumbled, dangling the pouch of fresh catnip with one hand.
Minerva perked visibly.
Rada's smile was broad and masculine. "I brought your potion, my love. Are you ready?"
"To leave this behind?" Minerva asked, wrinkles around eyes. "It's all I've known."
"Think of it as—walking into a great and expansive new life, where everything you've ever known is just the beginning of an even greater adventure." Rada held a crystal phial with a golden and silver liquid inside. A small crimson fish swam around in the liquid, magical and excited.
"Mm, and they call me the silver-tongued bastard," Sanguini mused, swinging Hermione onto her back and dipping before stealing a kiss.
"You are," Hermione said breathlessly. She smiled serenely. "But he's her silver-tongued bastard."
Sanguini purred, pulling her up. They turned just in time to see Minerva tip the potion back.
"Remember, my love," Rada said tenderly. "This will be the time that made you. This is the history that birthed you. What comes now builds upon the foundation of every memory, every joy, and every sadness in your lifetime. That is what we keep close to us when all else is but ash."
Rada pulled a crystal pendant from around his neck where particles of an ancient volcano settled against the crystal, held suspended in time from an age even more ancient. "With this ash, I thee wed, Minerva McGonagall. That our lives together plant seeds of new growth in fertile soil and a long life. Your pain shall be mine as mine yours, but together we shall face it and conquer it one day and one night at a time. It will be my honour. My pleasure. Until the end of all things."
Minerva's face lost much of its wrinkles as she gazed back at him. Her eyes remained bright and unchanging as her body seemed to lose the weight of her years. "Aye, laddie," she said warmly. "I wull mairie ye."
Severus, Hermione, and Sanguini all turned their backs politely as Rada let his fangs do the talking, giving them a private moment as Minerva breathed her last mortal breath on the grounds of the school she had protected and rebuilt with her life and soul—devoted to the children that may or may not have appreciated her worth.
The sun was setting, the sun peeking through the clouds enough to turn them all a swirl of reds, purples, and peaches, casting its radiant red glow upon the castle that had been Minerva's home for longer than some even lived their lives. While many believed Dumbledore to be the more longer-lived figure, many knew that Minerva McGonagall was by far the most influential of those who had borne the weight of being the Headmaster or Headmistress of Hogwarts. She was always known as being stern but fair. Fearless. Compassionate.
Now, with the ever-meddling fingers of Dumbledore long dead and gone, Minerva finally felt the chain that tied her in obligation to Hogwarts finally snap as Rada's fangs sank into her neck and his blood wet her lips to pave the way to her next life.
Rada wrapped Minerva in his conveniently ready Lethifold and cradled her in his arms. He took in a deep breath of the cool Scottish air and smiled.
The trio turned and smiled at him, and each bit their hand and let the blood drop onto the ground, and the earth gave way into a deep hole, a stone sarcophagus open at the bottom.
"We'll be here when you are ready," Hermione said with a warm smile. "Take all the time you need."
"I never thought it would be me," Rada confessed. "Sleeping within the Earth with my mate in my arms."
"It was bound to happen eventually," Sanguini commented.
"Tch," Rada muttered but his joyful smile was genuine. He stepped into the hole and disappeared, and the lid of the sarcophagus covered them as all the earth filled in on top, the disgruntled displaced tree now rightly planted back where it belonged.
"Poor thing," Hermione said, giving the tree some water to soothe its ego.
"You worry about the tree?" Severus muttered. "Have you been spending too much time with Longbottom?"
Hermione huffed. "The tree will protect them," she said with a huff. "It's only right I give it water and vitamins to make up for the rather unplanned unrooting."
Severus rolled his eyes. "Hn."
Sanguini chuckled as he stuck a babyfold onto his mate's forehead.
Severus plucked the squeegee-fold off his face. "Must you?"
"Yes," Sanguini said with a cheeky smile. "Besides, she really missed you."
Severus rolled his eyes again. "Impossible."
"Why?" Hermione asked. "I miss you all the time."
Severus eyed her. "You are biassed, beloved."
Hermione kissed his cheek. "Maybe."
The babyfold on Severus' shoulder reached out and smooched her cheek for him.
Hermione beamed and kissed the babyfold on the "head".
Severus sighed and chuckled. "Insufferable."
The trio leaned on each other as the beautiful sunset cast everything in a fading but vibrant glow.
"I've always loved the sunsets here," Hermione said, inhaling the cool night air appreciatively.
Severus let out a soft sigh. "Me too."
Sanguini smiled. "It's because of this place that we met our mate," he said. "I cannot seem to find any fault in it. Despite its rather sordid history of shadiness."
Severus chuckled. "I find it far less infuriating now that you and Rada moved Albus' statue and arranged it to hump that massive oak tree in the courtyard."
"How dare you," Sanguini said, lips puckered. "Who would ever do such a thing?"
Hermione stuck babyfolds to their faces. "I love you both. And thank you for moving Ron's statue to stare up Harry's robes instead of me."
Sanguini's mischievous grin was all fang. "Anything for my loves," he said warmly.
Hermione and Severus exchanged practised glances and then pounced Sanguini flat on his back, each affixing themselves to his neck from opposing sides as their mate flailed under the avid attention of his mates.
Sanguini let out a content wheeze as Hermione and Severus snuggled with him on the Hogwarts green.
"Who do you think will take up the reins at Hogwarts now that you and Minerva have left?" Hermione asked.
Severus shrugged and sighed, "No one as good as Minerva."
Hermione smiled, snuggling into his shoulder. "They'll survive," she said. "We're lucky. We get her forever."
Severus chuckled. "True. I did get Rada a new litter box for his mate."
Hermione sputtered. "You didn't!"
Sanguini snorted. "He did indeed."
Hermione thumped her head against Sanguini's chest. "Ancient. Modern. You're both boys."
Severus pulled her close to him. "Your boys."
Hermione mumbled into his robes. "Thank the gods for you."
The trio enjoyed the passing Hogwarts sunset as they kept a quiet vigil over their friend's first night in the ground.
It was the end of one life and the beginning of an even greater adventure, but they would have each other until the end of all things.
And they lived sunset-tastically ever after.
A/N: My heart is still broken with the passing of Dame Maggie Smith, but her imprint on my heart will be forever. Here's to you, Dame Smith. You will always be my Minerva, but you were the best Dowager Countess of Grantham and so many other roles. I'll always be biassed towards Minerva, though. Wands up.
My heart has joined the thousand, for my friend stopped running today. -Watership Down
