Before she was Professor McGonagall, she was Minerva Macnair. After an arranged marriage forces her into an impossible situation, Minerva does what she must to survive. When she makes a new life for herself, her secrets follow and threaten everythin...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment."
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
2 September 1994
Bloody leg.
Barty had known getting around with it would be difficult, but he hadn't realised how painful it would be until he tried walking the quarter mile from the front gates to the main entrance of Hogwarts. He was glad now that he'd grabbed the walking stick on his way out of Moody's flat. He'd observed Moody covertly for a week, and he'd only seen the old man use it once, when he went out for what had turned out to an extended round of shopping in Diagon Alley. Barty hoped no one would notice how much he leant on it.
The stairs at Hogwarts would be a problem. Barty hadn't thought about how many times a teacher had to climb them every day. The Floo took him from his quarters to his office and back, but there were chaperone duties on the grounds, security rounds at night, and meals in the Great Hall three times a day. By the time dinner of his second day came around, he could barely walk, and he was ready to Cruciate anyone who looked at him wrong.
As he made his painful way down the last flight of the main staircase, he spied Potter near the end of the queue to get into the Great Hall. He appeared to be arguing with someone. Barty had to suppress a grin as Potter turned and the little Malfoy poof fired a hex at his back. Finally, an excuse to dole out some punishment! A shame Barty couldn't use the Cruciatus, but he had another spell ready. He was very good at Transfiguring people into small animals; it was his speciality and had often amused his fellow Death Eaters. Including Lucius Malfoy, who hadn't spent so much as one hour in Azkaban but went on with his happy little life as if his Master had never existed.
Barty cast at Malfoy, adding a garbled "laddie" to the end of his shout to cover the fact that he'd forgotten to renew the charm on his voice before coming out of his quarters. He did it quickly and silently as he limped down the steps.
The room had gone quiet, people at the front of the queue standing on tiptoe to see what was going on. Barty's heart thumped with anticipation, as it always did when he had a victim in his sights, but he reminded himself that he was there to take Potter—alive—for his Master, so he went first to the boy to make sure he wasn't injured by Malfoy's hex.
