The Goddess and the Star

Minerva sits in Albus Dumbledore's office, while the rest of the Wizarding world is out celebrating the defeat of Lord Voldemort by her one-year-old godson, Harry Potter. She had gone with Albus to drop him off at his aunt and uncle's house - Albus says that Sirius is the one that betrayed the Potters. He says that Sirius is a Death Eater.

Minerva knows that is not true - is it? How could her lover be so different than she thought he was? Albus is the only one who understands that people have layers- but this was a layer she never thought Sirius had. Oh, Sirius! Minerva thinks. What you've done to your family! How could you? Albus enters the room wearing very little - only an opened bathrobe. Minerva slips off her own clothes and joins Albus in bed.

She makes love to him- and she feels as though Sirius never existed. Yet when she comes, it is not Albus's name she screams, but his.

Years later, Minerva is standing next to Albus as they open the new school year. Her godson is now a third year, and she watches over him even more carefully than before. Sirius has escaped from Azkaban - they were told he talked in his sleep, saying, "He's at Hogwarts, he's at Hogwarts." Minerva hasn't seen Sirius since the day before the Potters' deaths- she never visited him in Azkaban, although Albus did. She and Albus have been together ever since that night when Sirius had betrayed the Potters.

She is walking down the hallway to her rooms after dinner when a hand reaches out and pulls her behind a tapestry. With his bony hand over her mouth to prevent her screams, she realises who this is - it is Sirius. Whispering in her ear that he'll take his hand away if she doesn't scream, Minerva nods her head and follows as he leads her down one of the numerous secret passageways in Hogwarts.

"Sirius, what are you doing here? How dare you show your face here after you betrayed Lily and James?" Minerva whispers. Her words seem like a shout- not because of the volume at which they were spoken, but because of the intensity behind them.

Sirius looks at her, asking, "Are you sleeping with him?"

Minerva gapes at the question, she didn't know her relationship with Dumbledore was public knowledge, but she responds with a nod of her head.

"How long?" Sirius asks bluntly.

"Since the night Harry defeated Voldemort," she answers, ashamed.

"Why did you do it, Minnie?"

"You betrayed the Potters - Albus made me realise that you weren't the man I thought you were."

"Peter Pettigrew," Sirius says, and Minerva is taken aback once again.

"Wormtail?" she asks.

Sirius nods.

"You weren't the Secret Keeper? Wormtail was?" she queries, franticly, hoping that this vague possibility is true.

Again he nods.

"Did Albus know the entire time?"

Another nod, and, "Albus was the one who suggested him."

Minerva dashes down the secret corridor and races up to Albus's rooms.

"Lemon drop," she gasps, her breaths coming quickly from running across the castle.

The gargoyle opens up for the Deputy Headmistress, and she does not wait for the moving stairs to bring her up- she runs up them herself.

Albus is sitting at his desk, vainly attempting to catch a Chocolate Frog.

"Ah, Minerva, my dear," he begins, but stops when she slaps him.

"You knew Sirius was innocent the entire time? Why did you lie about that? You ruined my chance to make a life with him!" Minerva cries. At that moment, Albus believes she is at her most beautiful - she truly is Minerva, goddess of war.

Albus continues to try and catch the elusive Frog.

"Answer me, damn it! Why did you do this to me?" she shouts, advancing towards him with her wand outstretched.

"Well, my dear, if you wanted honesty, you should have asked," he replies.

With that answer, she collapses in a sobbing heap on his floor, cursing the day she had met Albus Dumbledore.