A Cat's Tail: Minerva McGonagall Fan Fiction

Chapter 41

A/N: I cannot believe I'm on chapter 41! I've taken my sweet time getting here too! Probably won't update for a year...hehe

"Minerva, I'm sorry...I did everything I could!"  Minerva's face was stony. Her face was devoid of all colour, her green eyes empty as the chamber in which days ago Hagrid sat now was. Hagrid...expelled?

"That's...but...he...it wasn't him professor!" Minerva exclaimed. 

"I couldn't-" 

"WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP IT! YOU'RE CHEIF WARLOCK!" She screamed pushing her chair backwards.

"Minerva-"

"HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?" She roared. Dumbledore got up and hugged her, and she crumpled into his velvet robes, tears pouring down her cheeks. "How could this happen?" She breathed, her teeth chattering.

"Minerva, the world is not a fair place, as I'm sure you've learnt this past year.  Though I wasn't allowed to lead the hearing for the sake of being 'unbias', not everyone is so excepting of Rubeus's parentage. Believe me, if there was anything else I could do...I would do it," Dumbledore stroked her hair gently.

"Dad- I mean professor," Albus smiled despite himself. The feeling of being called 'dad' was an alien, though not unwelcome one. "What is he going to do?" Albus sighed.

"I've given him the option of returning to the Muggle orphanage he stayed at during the beginning of last summer or staying on here as the assistant groundskeeper," Minerva breathed in a ragged breath, and pulled away from the hug.

"It's not fair," She murmured.

"It really isn't,"

...

"Minerva, why didn't mum come...or dad? When we were in the hospital wing? Everyone else's parents came..." Minerva sat in the Gryffindor common room the fire blazing. It was 1 AM, or maybe 2, the night before the last day of school. She'd been unconscious during all her exams, which she was surprisingly annoyed about. 

"I..." She looked at her little brother's face. So young. So innocent. She remembered just how patronising it felt at that age when people hid things from you because 'you weren't ready'. She sighed. "Malcolm...neither of them have written since Christmas. We've heard nothing. I think...I think something might have happened," As she stared into Malcolm's green eyes, glistening with tears, she resolved to stay strong, if for nobody else but him. 

"But Robbie-"

"Robbie will be fine," She hoped that Malcolm wouldn't see the tremble in her lip, or the tear in the corner of her eye. And though he did, Malcolm said nothing, because he knew that Minerva was trying so hard for his sake, and he loved her, oh so deeply, for it. 

Once Minerva had ensured that Malcolm was safely asleep, she stared out the window, scared of the nightmares that would ensue if she followed suit. As she gazed out at the moonlit ground, she saw a figure trudging across the grounds, lugging a massive package behind him. With a heavy heart, she realised it was Hagrid.

"Minerva, Minnie, wake up," The soft French accent and the gentle shaking woke her. Minerva's neck was stiff, and her arm was asleep, and she groaned. "Minnie, everyone's leaving, you need to pack," Minerva staggered up the stairs, tactfully avoiding Ria's eye, and surveyed the mess of belongings sprawled across her bed. Normally, she was packed days in advance, but this wasn't normal. She rapidly stuffed all her clothes, books and parchment into her trunk and did the last thing she ever thought she'd have to. Sit on a case to close it. 

As she bolted down the stairs two at a time, shirt on backwards, tie hiding under a dusty corner of her bed, she crashed straight into a stooped figure. Her case burst open like a firework, displaying her bra and knickers to the world.

"I am so sor-" She stopped in her tracks soon as she the figure turned around.

"Let me help," Minerva roughly pulled Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them from his hands.

"It's fine, I can do it," She slammed the case shut.

"Minerva.." Over the years, Minerva would regret her actions that day with a fiery passion. She turned and studied Hagrid's sleep-deprived face. "I'm sorry," For a second, Minerva forgave him. Dreams of years friendship and solidarity flashed before her eyes. Then, all of a sudden, burning anger, at life, at Tom, at her mum smashed the illusion, and she barged past him, half-running towards the train. Hagrid would remember that moment for the rest of his life, the retreating figure someone he loved so dearly, but someone he had hurt so badly, walking out of his life for the next ten years. He jumped as he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"She'll come around, give her time. She has wounds too, she herself is a wound, the product of hate and resentment and regret, but she will heal, and so will you. And though they will leave scars, these wounds will heal," Albus Dumbledore spoke from the heart, flashbacks to when the fragments of his own heart were still one flitting before his eyes. "They will never leave, but they will mend,"