A Cat's Tail: Minerva McGonagall Fan Fiction

Chapter 44

If she'd known that was the last time she'd ever see her father, she'd have made a bigger deal of it. Yes, she resented the way he'd neglected Robbie, and yes she resented the way he drowned himself in alcohol, but he was still her dad, and she still wished she could change her mother's treatment of him. 

"Bye Dad, love you," Minerva sighed, smoothing the blanket over the rising and falling of Robert McGonagall's chest. She picked up her case and took one last look at the sorry state of her home, still dark. Three kids' meagre salaries were nowhere near enough to pay for rent and running water, let alone electricity. Minerva glanced down at the crumpled paper in her hand, detailing instructions to Robbie's new foster parents. 

Dumbledore had enclosed a few wads of muggle money, and Minerva hailed a cab to take them to the nearest train station, which was still in the next big town, four miles away. She lifted Robbie's sleeping form into the cab, arranging their trunks beneath their feet. 

The train rattled on the tracks, clicking and clacking the way Isobel's high heels used to. The woman behind them was reading her mother's favourite cheesy love story. The man pushing the trolley was advertising Isobel's favourite sandwich. Minerva wanted to hate the woman she once called her mother, but she just longed for someone to hug her and tell her that everything would be fine. She blinked away the tears forming in her eyes, and stroked Robert's fluffy curls. She wouldn't see him for a year. 

"Goodbye Robbie, write to me every week, promise me. Make sure you eat breakfast, don't forget to brush your-"

"Ok Minnie," Robbie interrupted sleepily. "I'll miss you," Minerva and Malcolm both squeezed their brother tightly. The bright red door creaked open, revealing a plump witch with kind grey eyes, the smell of cookies wafting out her door. 

"I'll look after him, don't worry," She had a strong Essex accent, and as the sun peeped over the horizon, Minerva could see the sea glinting in the background. Robbie would be safe here, no doubt, but she squeezed him tightly all the same. 

"Thank you, Mrs Leadbeatter, you don't understand how much this means to us," Malcolm chimed in, ruffling Robbie's hair.

"Scottish are y'? Owe old Albus a favour y'see. Come on lad," 

Minerva and Malcolm hardly spoke throughout the train journey to Kings Cross. Neither of them had any words to fill the echoing chasm between them, widening with each click-clack of the train. Minerva slowly reached over and squeezed Malcolm's hand, and he smiled gratefully. 

"KINGS CROSS STATION," Minerva jumped at the announcement as the train jolted to a stop. She glanced down at her watch.

"Malcolm! We've got three minutes! We need to RUN," They both grabbed their cases and flung themselves off the train, barging the startled commuters. They didn't even have time to grab a trolley, so their cases bashed against their legs, and Ash hooted irksomely. The second hand on Minerva's watch ticked faster than their beating hearts. "3,2,1..." Minerva and Malcolm smashed, face first, into the barrier.

The muggles in the station stared at Minerva and Malcolm, crumpled in a heap on the floor. 

"Tripped," Mumbled Malcolm, head pounding. "Minnie! I think we missed the train!" He hissed avoiding the looks of the bemused muggles.

"I know! What do we do?" Minerva looked in the envelope at the last two pounds that Dumbledore had given them. "I'll owl Dumbledore and you'll go get some fish and chips, agreed?" Malcolm nodded mutely as Minerva sat down on a rickety station bench, scribbling frantically with a pen she found on the floor. She was so used to writing with quills that it threw her off balance to write with muggle stationery, making her writing hardly legible. "Ash, go to Professor Dumbledore, fast!" Ash flapped off, and a nearby woman in an extravagant purple hat shrieked as he flapped past. 

Several hours later, once the station was dark and the station manager had asked them to leave, a loud crack resounded through the station. With a jolt, Minerva realised that Dumbledore was walking up to them, dressed in floating blue robes and a pointed wizard's hat. He held out his arm.

"Come on, we'll miss the hat's song!" Malcolm and Minerva both stared at Dumbledore's outstretched arm. 

"Um..."

"Grab on, tight, and hold onto your glasses! I had a horrible incident when- oh never mind, now really isn't the time," Suddenly, the world was revolving around Minerva as though she had been dumped in a washing machine on its fastest setting. The ground vanished beneath her feet and her already aching head span even more. The floor suddenly reappeared, causing Minerva to lurch forward and vomit in a bin that had just materialised. "If I was headmaster, you wouldn't be able to apparate onto Hogwarts grounds," Dumbledore murmured as Minerva and Malcolm gaped at Dumbledore's office.

"How did we- we were just- but- we-" Dumbledore chuckled.

"I forget that you wouldn't have apparated before. Have a drink, Minerva dear, the first time is often the worst," Minerva gulped down the water gratefully, her vision still blurred and spinning. On second thought, the blurriness was due to her glasses being flung half-way across the room. "I do believe we've beaten everyone else to it!" In the distance, the ruby red train was just pulling up, silvery smoke lingering above. 

"Once we got to our la tante...what's ze word? Mother or Father's sister?"

"Aunt," Minerva corrected quietly, Affrodille being spa bang in the middle of what happened to her once she left Minerva's.

"Oui! I mean yes, pardon! I've been speaking French so much zis 'oliday. Anyway, at our Aunt's 'ouse, she said zat maybe there were survivors, but they wouldn't get out of France for a long time, nor could we contact them in case zay are in 'iding. You see! They may be alive!" Hope was painted across Affie's delicate face, though the same could not be said for Amelie, who had dark circles etched under her eyes, and was talking to Malcolm with a melancholy expression on her wan face. Minerva caught Tom's eye across the hall, and a searing pain ignited in her temples. "Minerva, are you ok?" Minerva nodded, painfully, and glared at Tom's smirking face.