Unforgettable

Arrival

Minerva McGonagall was a young, beautiful and very bright witch. Fearless, reckless, yet compassionate. She had achieved everything she could ever want, at the tender age of almost 24. She was a celebrated researcher for transfiguration and one of the most successful aurors with several awards and honours. A prodigy who had not just fulfilled her destiny, but who had outdone herself.
Yet, she wasn't entirely happy. In the beginning she didn't even know why, she couldn't put a finger on what was missing, but after a while it crystallized. She was in love. To be exact, she had fallen in love with Albus Dumbledore, and that was a problem. A serious problem.
However, she wanted him and she was set to win him over. She didn't quite know how it had happened, usually she was the last person to be so unprofessional and let her heart rule over her head. She started retracing her acquaintance with Albus Dumbledore, from the very beginning. He had been her teacher at Hogwarts of course. More than that. He had been her mentor, he'd encouraged her to pursue transfiguration, he had supported her dreams to become an auror and he had taught her the animagus. Thinking back, she might have had a little crush on him. But nothing serious, he had been her teacher, young, smart, attractive, but her teacher. Just a silly school girl crush. And she had gone out with other men, so she certainly hadn't been obsessed with him back then. So she kept on thinking, past her graduation four years ago. It must've happened then. At some point in the past four years, somewhere between collaborating on transfiguration research and occasionally running into him at the Ministry of Magic, her feelings of strictly platonic admiration had changed. Great.

So when the opportunity of a job at Hogwarts arose, she took it, no further questions asked. After all, Mina knew Dumbledore from school and their later cooperations, he just appreciatedher as an academic and colleague, there was nothing suspicious about him offering her a position at school. Looking back now, Minerva realised that there had always been that certain kind of tension between them, ever since her graduation in fact. These days, she felt it even more, it almost physically hurt her. Being in close proximity to him seemed like heaven and hell at the same time for her.
So she started packing up her laboratory, quit at the Auror's office and was off to Hogwarts in mid-August, so she still had some time to settle in (and maybe, just maybe, she was hoping that it would give her some time alone with Albus Dumbledore).

Mina's return to the castle felt wonderful. Of course it was far from the triumphant scenes she'd imagined when she was still at school, no landing on the lawn by the lake on a dragon or flying into the Great Hall on a racing broom. But being back felt so right. It was as if she'd never left, everything was still so familiar, it felt like home to her. The now quiet hallways, the glistening lake and the dark forest helped her feel a sense of calm she hadn't experienced in a long time. No matter how her little love-dilemma would turn out, returning here had been the right thing to do. Mina had liked the thrill of being an auror, she had always been the first to fight for what's right, but it had become stressful and didn't leave her as much time for transfiguration research.
And it didn't have the added bonus of a certain wizard being around.

However, to Minerva's great dismay, Dumbledore seemed to be blissfully unaware of what was going on in her heart and it drove her mad. She had tried to flirt with him on numerous occasions ever since she sey foot into the castle but he had always been kind, yet non-committal. No matter if it was lunch (which he had politely declined for that day but offered another day, where they had spoken about nothing but teaching), or the offer to assist her as she worked towards her next breakthrough. Nothing Minerva had to offer seemed to enthrall him. She had no idea how he felt, but she noticed that he seemed to avoid her after a while. Probably because she'd come on to strong and with that she had achieved the exact opposite of what she had wanted. Life wasn't fair sometimes.

Little did she know that the great Albus Dumbledore was indeed much more affected by the young witch than he'd ever admit. He spent countless hours fantasizing about her, what she wore (everything was fashionable, yet classy and suitedher perfectly), how she spoke (with a melodious voice and everything she said was so incredibly insightful) and how her beautiful lips might taste (Albus suspected honey and a hint of ginger). He wanted her and it required all his strength to not become inappropriate in her presence. She was always so friendly and seemed comfortable around him and he wouldn't risk that. He wouldn't want to make her feel awkward or unsafe and risk losing not only their friendship but also a great colleague. She hadn't really started working at Hogwarts and yet Albus had a very hard time imagining how the place would be without her.
But whenever they worked together he felt these sparks between them, he felt the urge to kiss her and maybe even more, he wanted to undo her intricate hairstyles and watch her long, ebony locks cascade down her back, he wanted to explore every bit of her and... stop. This wasn't right. He couldn't think like that about her and he most certainly could never act like that towards her.
To make matters worse, Minerva had even started showing up in his dreams, which usually left him equally confused and uncomfortable. In those dreams she appeared like a siren, drawing him in, irresistible, until he couldn't stay away from her any longer, until his body and mind gave in and completely submitted to her.
Albus could barely look at Minerva anymore when their paths crossed in the hallway or when he saw her at one of the numerous staff meetings because he'd start to stutter, he'd suddenly feel hot and also a little dizzy. Whenever she said something exceptionally smart, he quietly awarded her points for the house cup, that wasn't allowed but nobody would know. Albus was a hopeless case, he hadn't felt that way in a very long time.
He tried to leave the castle more often, but when he was away those strange, yet exhilarating dreams about her plagued him even more. He tried flirting with other women, more his age, more appropriate but nothing happened to get him over whatever he felt for Minerva, none of them could compare to what he imagined she was like. It was as if she had bewitched him.