A Cat's Tail: Minerva McGonagall Fan Fiction

Chapter 35

The letter shook in her hand as Malcolm slipped into her room. 

"They're arguing again," He said, quietly, his fear betrayed in the quiver in his voice.

"You and Robbie can sleep in here, ok? I'll try and...pacify them," She bit her lip. Tears were glistening in Malcolm's eyes. He understood, and for a second, Minerva contemplated the sheer maturity of her little brother, not so little anymore.

"Minnie..." Minerva looked back at her brother's pale face. "I love you,"

"I love you too. Get under the covers, please, you don't need to hear this," She went into Robbie's room, lifted his sleeping figure and nestled him next to Malcolm. "Look after him, he looks up to you, and he has a tricky time coming," She stroked both of her brother's foreheads, though drastically different, she felt a maternal pang towards them both. She'd do anything to protect them.

"You lied to me for NINE YEARS Isobel. I've put up with all this magic stuff even after you lied to me back then. Don't you know how hard that was for me? I am a priest for crying out loud!"

"You think you had it bad? I had to hide my true self from you, I couldn't talk about Hogwarts, or my childhood, or do any spells near you AND my family disowned me just for me to end up like this!"

Minerva stood with her back to the door, shaking. He knew then. It was obvious, really, she thought. 

"I was always honest with you from the very beginning. I raised a son who I KNEW wasn't mine but I trusted you, and all I get in return is deceit and filthy lies!" Minerva breathed in deeply and pushed open the door.

"You kept me trapped in this house for FIFTEEN YEARS! I would have rather have been an unmarried single mother than stuck with you! If I could go back in time I would never have met you!" With that, Isobel flung the glass paperweight that she was holding. Time suddenly seemed to go in slow motion as both her parents acknowledged her presence and realised, instantaneously, where it was headed. It collided with her forehead with a CRACK and as glass rebounded around her, blood obscuring her vision, she mumbled: "You forgot it was Christmas day," and passed out. 

Malcolm heard the crack and knew something was wrong. He stroked his little brother's sandy curls and kissed his sleeping head before tiptoeing down the stairs. The ground sparkled with fragments of blue-white glass. His first thought was that a window had broken. Someone breaking in...those lads from the village who hated their family, maybe? But as the glass slowly turned red, and his socks became warm and sticky, he knew something was wrong, badly wrong. 

Minerva was lying on the floor, covered in glass, blood seeping from a massive, scarlet dent in her head. And though she lay there, skin waxen and drawn, his parents did nothing. They shouted and screamed as though their only daughter was not lying on the floor unconscious.

"GET AN AMBULANCE!" He screamed, tears pouring down his checks. With sudden resolved, he started to run, run as though the devil himself was on his heels. He wasn't wearing shoes and glass stuck to his socks but he didn't feel the pain as he sprinted down the hill towards the village. The cold wind slapped his face, his chest constricted and his heart was thrashing in his chest as he flung himself at the doctor's door. 

"Dr McConnell! Dr McConnell! Come quick!" The door came to the door, his eyes blurred with sleep, dressed in faded blue pyjamas.

"You're the McGonagall boy, aren't you," Malcolm nodded. 

"Listen, my sister's really injured! I-" 

"Calm down laddie, I'm coming," Malcolm proceeded to lead Dr McConnell back up the hill, his palms sweating. 

Minerva was now propped up on the sofa, a bandage around her head with her mother nowhere to be seen. Lines were etched deep into Robert's face as he held the cold hand of his pale daughter. The paperweight's blue glass was still strewn over the floor.

"Doctor your here!"

"Reverend," The doctor nodded. "Let's see the lassie then!" Robert peeled back the bandage back from Minerva's head, revealing the crimson massacre that masked her forehead. Malcolm slipped out of the room to check on Robbie, heeding Minerva's instructions.

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"A lot of blood...stitches...wide not too deep..." Fragments of conversation floated around Minerva's head as she drifted in and out of consciousness. "Can you hear me?" Minerva moaned. Her head was pounding, as though someone had a sledgehammer and they were chipping away at her forehead. She slowly opened her eyes, images swimming before her. "Minerva, it's Doctor McConnell, you're in hospital," Minerva blinked.

"Why?" She mumbled, as her vision cleared, revealing the silvery-haired old doctor.

"You tell me," He replied, evenly. Minerva glanced at her father and noticed that his hands were shaking and his eye was twitching. 

"Blue paperweight...my head?" She struggled to string a sentence together, not even altogether sure what had just taken place. "An argument?" The word sounded right on her tongue.

"Hm, well, the amnesia is slightly worrying, we might keep you in overnight," Minerva murmured something before drifting back of into the hazy world of unconsciousness.

It slithered, its body coiling in verdigris pools of dull green scales. The eys, great and luminescent, glinted red in the moonlight. Sludge-like liquid soaked through his shoes. The serpent rose its head level with his, crimson eyes staring into mahogany ones.

"Your time has come," His voice echoed through the stone chamber. The beast hissed, revealing barbed fangs, creamy yellow-white, splattered with blood. He opened his own mouth, and from it came a stream of sibilant noises, snake-like, chilling. Though it sounded foreign and jarring, uncomfortable to be lumbered with speech, he knew what he said.

"Now, let's kill the mudbloods,"