Another Story

Chapter Two

In which Albus tells Minerva a story

Minerva McGonagall was just warming the kettle for a late night cup of herbal tea when there was a soft, but distinct rapping at her door. She had just sent Miss Granger back to the dormitories with a mild warning about staying out after hours. She never liked to fuss at the young witch on nights when Severus was out on business. It seemed quite uncharitable to deprive her colleague of his only comfort.

Minerva smiled and glanced at the table for two by the window. Everything seemed to be working out so well. She smoothed her green robes and walked to the door.

"Good evening, Albus," she said warmly as she opened the door.

"Someday you're going to do that and it won't be me. Then our little secret will be out. I can only imagine what the students would say," said Dumbledore in amusement as he walked into her parlor. He took a deep breath and savored the smell of the tea mingled with the scent of a warmly crackling fire and Minerva's favorite perfume.

"I can imagine a few of them having apoplectic fits," she chuckled before pouring their drinks and sitting down with him at the table.

The sky was clear that night and full of stars that seemed to twinkle. Or else some of those muggle aeroplane contraptions were flying over head. Minerva had not been a romantic since she was quite young. But perhaps Albus was rekindling a spark of that in her.

"This is very good," he commented, sipping the tea.

"Thank you. I bought a tin of it in Hogsmeade a few weekends ago," she told him.

"I have something important that I wish to discuss with you," Albus informed her after a moment.

"Yes, you mentioned that earlier. Should I be worried?"

Albus took a deep breath and said, "Now how to answer that question?"

"Honestly?" she chuckled, fascinated by the mildly uncomfortable look in his eyes.

"Naturally," he said with a soft, but perhaps nervous smile. "You don't know very much about my life before I came here to teach, do you?"

"You worked as an alchemist, am I right?"

"Yes, for a time," he nodded, "but there is something else."

"What?" she asked curiously.

Albus set down his tea cup and looked her straight in the eye before speaking again. He did not relish telling Minerva this because he could not say for sure how she would react. She was a woman, after all, and therefore somewhat unpredictable. But nevertheless, it was something that she simply had to know about him and his past.

"Would you be surprised to learn that I was once married?" he questioned.

"Well, I suppose it would only make sense. A wizard of your age and stature ..." stammered Minerva, not so much shocked, but a bit confused. Why was he mentioning this now?

"If you are curious, she was a muggle."

"I see ..." said Minerva, nodding slowly that she understood.

"I wanted you to know. If we are going to ... that is, if you and I decide to become more than just friends ... I thought it necessary to inform you of ... my past history in this particular area," he said, stumbling over the words.

"Very thoughtful of you," she said, reaching across the table and squeezing his hand. Then she froze. "You mean, if we become romantically involved?" she asked, her eyes widening.

"Have I over-stepped my bounds?" he asked quickly.

"Not at all," she replied even more quickly.

"Good," he said, smiling and relaxing.

"Tell me about her," said Minerva after a quiet moment.

"My wife?"

"Yes, unless, of course, you would rather not ..."

Albus smiled and said, "Not at all, but I haven't spoken of her in many years."

Dumbledore sat back in his chair and looked out the window. It had been almost a lifetime ago. More than that in muggle terms.

"Her name was Anya Tarasov. I met her while I was on holiday in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1862, during the time when I was researching dragon's blood. I had been out on the Siberian dragon ranges for months. The head of the range sent me away for two weeks, claiming that I was becoming obsessed and that I needed to take some time off. I was just four years out of school and had spent three and a half of them there with the dragons and the other researchers, so perhaps he was right.

"I met Anya a few blocks away from the entrance to wizarding St. Petersburg. She was holding a street map, squinting at it with all of her might, and not watching where she was going. She stepped into the street, and I was obliged to shove her out of the way of an oncoming carriage, narrowly escaping being run down by it. She looked at me with these big brown eyes and thanked me. I said something in broken Russian that was probably the equivalent of 'bad horsies no trample pretty girl', and she laughed and gave me a peck on the cheek."

"That's rather sweet," commented Minerva.

"That was Anya," Albus shrugged. "We exchanged letters for a year before I told her that I was a wizard. She was ... not surprised. She knew that there was something different about me."

"I imagine that it would be very difficult for you to hide your abilities," nodded Minerva, pouring them both more tea.

"And I was much younger then. Less experienced in the ways of the world, especially the muggle one," he admitted.

"And you married her?"

"Actually, I think they would call it eloping. Or maybe kidnapping," he said with a look of faint amusement and nostalgia.

Minerva raised her eyebrows and asked, "Really?"

"Her father wanted her to marry a local grocer in her village. She didn't love him, but the man had a steady job and was rather normal. I was ... well, I was me. So I took her away with me on my broom late one night. We were married in France about a week later. She was very firm about that. We had to get married," chuckled Albus, fondly recalling his headstrong young bride. "Anya was one of the most determined women I ever knew, present company excluded, of course," he added with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Thank you," Minerva murmured quietly into her teacup.

"Anya adapted rather well to life in our world. She was only a little afraid of dragons, which was quite fortunate since we lived on various dragon ranges for almost fifteen years while I completed my research. Then we returned to England and my ancestral home. I did some work in alchemy, coming home every night like a dutiful husband to sit by the fire while she did her knitting. Those were good years," he said with a sigh.

"Were there children, Albus?" Minerva questioned.

"Anya wanted them, but we couldn't, so she taught local children their letters and things like that to make up for it. She would have been an excellent mother. I am certain of that," he replied.

Albus looked at Minerva for a few moments. She was staring out the window with a very contemplative look upon her face. He smiled softly at her.

"You want to know what became of her," he said.

"Yes," she said with a barely perceptible nod.

"She died almost eighty years ago, just a few years after I began teaching transfigurations. It was ... very sudden. On minute we were laughing in the garden. The next she simply collapsed. Heart failure or some such nonsense. I applied myself toward many things, Minerva, but for some reason never the healing arts. I don't believe I could have saved her, but it would have been nice to be able to try more adequately."

"Surely you can't blame yourself."

"No, truthfully I don't. I always knew that as a wizard I would outlive her by many years. We were very close in age, you see. I just didn't expect it to be so sudden or to be so powerless when the time came. My friend Nicolas Flamel offered ... many times in fact ... to give Anya the Elixir of Life so that she could stave off old age and we could grow old together in the end. But she refused. Anya believed that magic had a place in the world as did magical people, but she did not believe in using wizardry to such an end. And I did not try to coerce her. She was much too stubborn for that.

"After Anya was gone I took a sabbatical from teaching and lived in the muggle world for about a year. I surrounded myself with things that reminded me of her. Then I returned to our home and tried to make sense of it all. I decided that Anya would have wanted me to continue teaching. She had been so happy when I was offered the position at Hogwarts even though it kept me away from her so much of the time. So I returned and the rest, as they say, is history. But I would be lying if I said that I don't miss her from time to time."

"Of course. It's only natural," said Minerva sympathetically.

"I didn't realize I would be recounting my life story tonight," Albus chuckled, surreptitiously wiping his eyes under the guise of adjusting his spectacles. "But those were very happy years, Minerva, very much like the years I have known you," he added.

Reaching across the table again, she squeezed his hand. Albus smiled and caught her hand in his own.

"I'm glad you told me this," she said.

"Sometimes it does feel good to talk about the past," he admitted.

"Do you have a picture of her?"

"No, photography was such a new thing back then, wizarding photography especially. I had a painting commissioned of her before I came here, but I put it in storage ages ago. It does not do to dwell on dreams, or on memories, and forget to live," he explained.

"So you have often said."

"Minerva?"

"Yes?"

"You aren't jealous, are you?" he asked hesitantly.

"Did she make you happy?"

"She was my every joy for many, many years," said Albus honestly, glancing out the window. His eyes gleamed for a moment with unshed tears. They did not do unnoticed.

"Then, no, I am glad that you had that, Albus. I always thought that your life seemed rather lonely. I'm very glad that it wasn't," she replied.

Albus smiled and said, "Rarely have I been lonely, Minerva. I have always had dear friends like you to keep me company."

"Albus, where do we go from here?" she questioned after a few moments.

"If you still would allow it, I would like to - what do they say nowadays? - see you, Minerva? It sounds rather absurd. I have been seeing you very nearly every day since you came to this castle, as indecent as that might sound. I suppose that I want to see more of you, although that has a rather lecherous ring to it as well. Do you take my point, Minerva?" he asked, looking into her eyes.

Minerva chuckled and said, "Of course I do, Albus, and I would be delighted."

Albus smiled and told her, "I've been wanting to do this for nearly fifty years, you know. I had almost given up hope."

"It is all a matter of timing, I suppose," said Minerva.

"And even now, that is not the best. In midst of another war ..."

"It always seems to happen that way," Minerva conceded, remembering the wizarding war more than fifty years earlier that had been caused by Grindelwald and his followers.

That was when she had first fallen in love with Albus, her transfigurations' professor, and unbeknownst to her at time, when he had begun to love her as well. But circumstances, the horrors of the war and all that she had learned, forced her to request a memory charm to combat the horrific memories of the battle with the Dark Wizard, taking from her the memory of both the horrors and of her first kiss. Many long years those memories had slept until the recent incident involving two students, two professors, and the mirror realm wherein the Founders had imprisoned a hoard of monsters.

"We will weather this," Albus told her firmly.

"You sound so confident."

"I must," said Dumbledore, leaving his seat. "The tea was excellent, very relaxing. We both have much work to do tomorrow. You have your classes, and I have other business to attend to. I think I should bid you good-night."

Rising from her chair, Minerva asked him, "When did we stop doing this?"

"Tea and quiet talks by the fire, you mean?"

"Yes, exactly."

Albus frowned and said, "I believe it was during the crisis involving that Welsh witch. During the sixties, wasn't it?"

"Funny. I didn't think it was that long ago," said Minerva, shaking her head.

"Before the rise of Voldemort."

Minerva shivered and nodded, "Yes, I suppose it was."

She still couldn't understand the ease with which he said that name. Maybe it was because he had seen other Dark Wizards. Maybe it was because this was not his first battle with evil. Minerva shook her head as she realized that Voldemort was not her first brush with the darkness either. She had been there at the defeat of Grindelwald too. She had played her part. She would do so again.

"Minerva, don't worry too much. Whatever comes will come," said Dumbledore gently. "We will be prepared," he added, drawing her into his arms.

"Of course," she agreed, hiding her misgivings as she rested her head against his shoulder.

"And from what I have learned recently, it may all be over by the end of the term," he told her.

"Meaning that there will be a second battle before the gates of the school in as many years."

"True, but everyone will be ready this time. If everything goes according to plan, we certainly won't be caught unawares again," said Albus as he released her.

Minerva could see a fierce determination burning in his bright blue eyes. It was almost infectious. She nodded and felt her resolve strengthen.

"Then I suppose we both need our rest," she said, realizing that she was keeping him up later than intended.

Walking to the door together, Albus said, "We will do this more often."

"Nothing would make me happier," she said with a nod.

He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.

"Good-night, my dear."

"Good-night, Albus," she said, closing the door behind him.

He had given her a lot to think about. At first Minerva had wondered why he wanted to tell her about his previous marriage, but she realized that it was because Albus was quite serious, that he believed that they could having something more meaningful, something more than just a close friendship, together. And he wanted to be honest with her. Minerva appreciated that.

She chuckled as she put away the tea things, pushing thoughts any of the war and impending battle to the back of her mind. It was not something to dwell upon before bedtime. Minerva was happy to think on more pleasant things instead, such as Albus Dumbledore wanting to see more of her. That was priceless.

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