A Cat's Tail: Minerva McGonagall Fan Fiction

Chapter 17

A/N: I've got a bit a 5sos obsession at the moment, and I feel like this song really captures what secrets are like. It is also slightly completely ridiculous (somehow). 

"Hagrid!" Minerva pulled Hagrid into a tight hug, relieved she could finally talk to one of her friends. "How's your dad?" 

"Worse," Hagrid sighed. He stepped back from the hug to look at Minerva for a second. "You look really pale! Are you ok?" Minerva laughed weakly.

"I've always been pale. Are you forgetting what your girlfriend looks like?" Minerva suddenly realised what she'd just said. "I didn't mean...not like...I meant like a friend who's a girl, er..." Hagrid rubbed his nose awkwardly.

"Why do I always find you two blushing? I've literally never seen Minerva blush except when she's around you!" Ria promptly hugged Minerva. "You do look pale though," Flip Ria heard everything. Ria winked.

After lots of hugs and smiles, they all went to the Great Hall. The others were all chatting happily about their half terms, but Minerva didn't really have an appetite. She made eye contact with Tom Riddle, and his sneer made her feel worse. Hagrid squeezed her hand under the table.

"Are you sure your ok? You seem really...zoned out," Hagrid suspected that something happened over the half term that she didn't want to tell them. Minerva just shrugged and half-heartedly joined the conversation.

Minerva looked at herself in the mirror later that day after class (they'd only had a half day) and realised just how pale she looked. Her cheekbones seemed much sharper than usual. She hadn't really been eating much over the half term. But what could Tom Riddle do when everybody was here?

Little miss Gryffindor, don't think you can get away from me. I can still break you into tiny little pieces. You and your muggle father don't deserve to exist.

TMR 

What? Since when was he the judge of who deserved existence? Nobody had that right. She scrunched up the note and plunged it deep into the pocket of her robes. She was so glad they weren't in the same year or house. He couldn't touch her in class.

"Excuse me, Professor Slughorn, but Professor Dumbledore requested that I get Minerva McGonagall for him. Something about a meeting?" His voice sounded so falsely polite that Minerva's heart began to thrash in her chest. No. No, he couldn't. 

"Of course Tom," Minerva opened her mouth to protest, but what could she say? She closed her mouth lamely and walk out of the classroom.

"Tom what -" Minerva began the moment the door closed. He pushed her against the wall.

"You don't utter a word about any of this to your little friends, understand? Things will get a lot worse, trust me," The ice in his voice didn't make her doubt that at all. The pressure was beginning to get painful.

"Stop it!" Minerva started to writhe, trying to escape his clutches.

"What, is little miss Gryffindor too weak to stand some pain?" He pressed harder and leaned in closer, his breath icy on her face. "Because this is nothing on what I can do," Tom let her go, leaving her to crumble to the floor.

She walked back into the classroom, giving Professor Slughorn a weak smile. Hagrid looked at her, concerned.

"Minerva you seem really dazed, what was Dumbledore talking to you about?" Minerva bit her lip.

"Oh, you know, an essay. I gave in mine early and he did a few corrections and stuff," Tom's threat was replaying in her head.

"Hagrid! Stop talking!" Professor Slughorn had some unknown grudge against Hagrid. "Anyway! We have work to be doing, sleeping draughts don't make themselves!" 

As Minerva was walking to the library with Pomona to do some Herbology homework, Minerva tripped over someone's foot. A group of Slytherins starting laughing grimly. Minerva whipped around to see a smug looking Tom Riddle smirking over his shoulder.

"Come on Minerva," Pomona tugged Minerva, obviously oblivious to the connection between her and Tom. "Those boys are weird!" Minerva laughed, although not as deeply as she once would've. She couldn't let a stupid fourth year Slytherin get her down. 

"All boys are weird," 

"Even Hagrid?" Pomona elbowed Minerva playfully in the side. Minerva groaned.

"Not you too!" 

For while, Minerva didn't hear anything from Tom Riddle, which she was relieved about. Finally, she could just relax and be a thirteen-year-old with her friends. That was just the calm before the storm because Tom Riddle had a plan and Tom Riddle was an ambitious Slytherin who would stop at nothing to get what he wants. 

"Hey, little miss Gryffindor, you and your mudblood friends don't belong in this school!"

"Little Miss Gryffindor! Watch where you're going! It's not my fault you keep tripping over my feet!"

"Nerd!"

"What's wrong with that?" Minerva finally snapped and yelled back at Tom's abuse in the corridors.

"Temper, temper, most unladylike of you!" Minerva refused to let Tom through her walls. He couldn't break her if she refused to be broken.

"I don't know why they let half-breeds, mudbloods and girls in this school. What's wrong dirpy old Dippet," Minerva didn't understand how someone who hadn't grown up in an elitist home could be sexist and care about blood purity. 

"Leave Minerva alone!" Hagrid yelled at Tom one occasion he overheard Tom's bullying.

"Getting your boyfriend to fight your battles? I thought girls were powerful!" Minerva pulled Hagrid away before he got in trouble for attacking an innocent student.

"Hagrid! Leave him! He just wants attention," That didn't stop him though. 

"Oi! Little miss Gryffindor, leave my poor feet alone! You're scuffing my shoes!" Minerva gripped Hagrid's hand as she tried to regain her balance after Tom tripped her up again.

"Leave it Hagrid. Leave it, please," Hagrid frowned, but remained silent, Minerva still tightly gripping his hand.

You are falling down a long dark chamber. Snakes slip up and down the walls, somehow defying gravity. As you fall further, you see a pit of bubbling grey liquid with freakish, unblinking eyes staring up at you. "I will break you!" Echoes around the chamber. You are drowning, the snakes now turning into more of the vile liquid. You try to swim up but the surface is just out of your reach. Through the murky surface of the water which burns you like acid, you see a boy. 

"I will break you," He hisses.