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...
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"I'll have scars for the rest of me life. Ever seen an old Auror? They end up looking like jigsaw puzzles with a couple of pieces gone missing."
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14 November 1963
Minerva had to concentrate on keeping her pace merely brisk. It wouldn't do for the Deputy Headmistress to be seen breaking the school rule against running in the hallways. Once she was through the massive doors and down the stone steps, she glanced around and, seeing nobody, popped into her Animagus form and sprinted down the path to the Apparition point just beyond the gates.
When she arrived in London a moment later, she didn't even look around to make sure there were no Muggles about before walking through the window of the dilapidated department store and into the reception area of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.
Striding up to the Welcome Witch, who was using her wand to change the colour of her fingernails from aggressive red to lurid pink, Minerva asked, "Alastor Moody's room?"
The witch put down her wand with a barely concealed sigh and took her time looking down the roster of patients.
"Fourth floor, room fifteen."
"Thank you," Minerva threw over her shoulder.
The Welcome Witch called after her, "But it's a secure room! You'll need clearance!"
There was a young wizard wearing the dark-green robes of a junior-level Auror standing guard outside the room.
"Sorry, Professor," he said when she asked him to lower the wards for her. "You can't go in. Not without special clearance." The fellow looked embarrassed, and she recalled that he had been in her N.E.W.T. class about four years back.
"Mr Shacklebolt, you know perfectly well who I am. I am not here to harm Auror Moody; I simply would like to visit him."
"Sorry, Professor," he said again. "Ministry policy. After an Auror's wounded by a suspected Dark wizard, no one gets in to see him without permission from the office."
She drew herself up to her full height and let the weight of her glare fall on the hapless young man. "Mr Shacklebolt—" she began in her sternest tone, but she was interrupted by a loud voice from within.
