Like Cat and Owl

"My god, Minerva," sighed Tammy Weasley.

"I mean, well, of course I liked him as well. Very much actually, but... do you really miss Professor Sermonem that much?" Minerva looked sternly at her friend.

"How much?" Tammy rolled her eyes.

"Darling, you are kind of overreacting. I mean, Dumbledore is famous, you know?" Minerva snorted. Famous? As if she cared!

Her friend smiled; Minerva did very much resemble her Scottish forefathers, though she did not realize it. That clear and ever-present honesty, and still, she was so bloody stubborn!

"Tabby... I know you liked Sermonem. I know, I really know, but Dumbledore can't be that bad. I mean, he was Headmaster Dippet's first choice and Dippet never chooses wrong!" Minerva snorted again, more heavily.

Yes, that man had been the Headmaster's first choice. He had even almost forced her Transfigurations teacher to retire! And Sermonem had done that, of course... Well, okay, he had been quite old... but yet! Silas, also the Head of Gryffindor -a position his "successor" would certainly take over as well- had been an absolute dear, and she'd always just adored him. The way he had been kind to her after her father had died four years earlier... Almost a new father he'd been to her; that was how she'd felt, as had he.

Silas had never had any children, but she knew she was very dear to him. He, the old Transfigurations Professor: a bit bored of his own subject, and she, the star pupil of her class: a bit bored of the often too easy lessons. Yes, she truly was. She did achieve bad marks, sometimes- well, seldom - but only in the unimportant subjects.

"I'll miss him, Tammy, and I don't think I am ever going to like this 'Dumbledore' man. I am sorry, but that's the way it is." Tammy smiled.

"My god, Minerva, you are such a- I mean, you can't say he doesn't look all right, can you?" Minerva looked up to the tall, auburn-bearded man that had taken Silas' place at the teacher's table, and snorted again.

"I don't care, Tams. I'll miss old Silly, and that chap is not going to replace him; never!"

~*~

Albus sighed and sat down, sipping from a large cup of hot cocoa. Before him stood a, well, one could easily call it a "database" about all students he would teach this year. His predecessor had done his job very well and very diligently, indeed. Maybe even too well and too diligently... Still, he began to read through the pieces of parchment.

Nothing interesting. Well- okay, there were some students that he recognized. That Weasley girl, for example. Unmistakable, the fiery red hair and those big, green eyes. Must be a daughter of Andrew's, he thought. The youngest, probably. Well, she was quite clever, according to Professor Sermonem. All Weasleys were quite clever, actually.

And here- another quite interesting couple. Twins; ah, he always liked twins. Two golden-haired, mischievous-looking boys. He didn't recognize there last name, though... The next couple of parchments contained the usual stuff, quite normal students, nothing exceptional, and then, suddenly, there was another bit of parchment that attracted his attention. The photograph was that of, not of a juvenile-looking giggling creature, but of a personality.

A girl with a pale, expressive face and delicate features. Clear, blue eyes and a mass of ebony-brown, wavy hair. But it was not the beauty she obviously possessed that interested him. It was the expression: as if she was so damn sure of herself, as if everything was so bloody simple, and yet, not a slight bit of arrogance; a personality. A personality with brains, obviously.

"Has achieved top marks for all Transfigurations exams. Real Transfigurations genius. Youngest Animagus of this century. Probably to be the greatest witch of her time." Albus almost whistled through his teeth; wow. This could become an interesting year. When he saw her name, he smiled.

"Minerva McGonagall. Well, well... Isn't that Henry's daughter. The oldest, if I am not mistaken." He sighed heavily.

Henry McGonagall, an old friend of his, had died four years earlier, leaving his wife -a young, Scottish beauty- behind with two children; this girl Minerva, who had been twelve years old at the time, and the youngest daughter. What had been her name again? Was it Maia? Strange liking for names of Roman goddesses, Henry had had... Maia had only been two when her father had passed away.

Yet the mother- Pricilla- had nicely taken care of the kids and now lived with her youngest daughter with her family in Scotland. Minerva McGonagall...well, well. It would surely become an interesting year.

~*~

Albus Dumbledore entered the room. The seventh-year Gryffindors were present already, all staring at him, with obvious expectation in their eyes. All except one... The tall, dark-haired girl, the McGonagall, was sitting next to the Weasley one at the back of the classroom, twisting a strand of her long hair in a very annoyed way. With not a single spark of attention, she kept on twisting it and twisting it. But Albus decided not to react, and laid his books with a hard bang on the desk as he began

"Hello, I am Albus Dumbledore, your new Transfigurations teacher." He smiled, and many of the pupils smiled back. He had made a good impression. Yet, Minerva did not smile. She frowned, as if his words had hurt her.

"Because I don't know anything about your Transfigurations qualities, I suggest that you, when I call your name, come before the class. I'll ask you to do something, and you will try to do it. Okay?" The Gryffindors grinned and nodded, and Albus started reading their names.

"Abeel, Harriet" did a nice Transfiguration spell of a pillow into a quill, as did "Jameson, Fabius", who turned a book into a clock. A few other students did quite good spells, and Albus congratulated them all. A pretty talented class, he thought. I wonder... Then it was her turn. Calmly, but with unwillingness in her eyes, she came to him.

"Miss McGonagall... Can you, well, change this parchment into a...a rock, for example?" She sighed and with a nonchalant move of her wand did as he'd asked. He smiled approvingly. A very, very nice spell indeed, and very quick.

"Can I go back to my place, now?" she asked boldly. He smiled again.

"Well, yes, you can, Miss McGonagall, unless you want to change my desk into a cow."

He had not meant it, but she muttered, "Okay."

Albus opened his mouth to... but it was too late. With the same, nonchalant, calm movement, she changed the desk into a cow and back again, as the class- and Albus himself- watched her with big surprise. She sighed.

"Well, can I go back now or shall I change into a cat and back? Maybe that'll convince you." She raised one eyebrow and stared at him, green eyes cold as ice.

As he did not react, she did as she had said. The tall, pale girl began to transform slowly, until a little, gray tabby cat sat in front of the class, jauntily staring at her very surprised fellow students. Albus Dumbledore was speechless. He too was impressed, of course, for he knew that Animagus training was very difficult, and this girl was only seventeen! Yet he could not possibly accept her behavior, and he spoke, very calm but with anger in his voice

"Miss McGonagall, could you please change back immediately? We've all seen you show off now, but..."

The cat changed back as quick as possible, and a clearly angry Minerva McGonagall stood before her teacher- almost as tall as he was- with her hands on her hips. At the back of the classroom, Tammy held her breath. Minerva was losing her temper, she knew. She didn't lose it often, but when she lost it...

"I," Minerva began, her voice hardly audible, but with a dangerous overtone, "was not showing off." Albus Dumbledore chuckled, despite his anger.

"I am sorry, Miss McGonagall, but I am afraid you were. If-"

"I was not showing off." Minerva's lips were very thin now, and everybody who knew her knew what that meant except for Albus. He just raised his eyebrows.

"Well, I don't know how you prefer to call it, Miss McGonagall, when a student starts to..."

Minerva interrupted him, as the whole class held its breath. They all wondered... who would win? They knew Minerva was almost unbeatable at discussions, but this person was a teacher...she was playing a dangerous game...

"I would not have 'shown off', as you tend to call it," she sneered, "if you had stopped staring at me and told me to go to my place."

With one last furious glance, she turned her back to him and sat down again, next to a very shocked-looking Tammy Weasley

Albus swallowed, but managed to say, "I will not give you detention for this, Miss McGonagall, but I'd like you to see this as a warning. A very serious warning." Minerva snorted softly, but the look in Tammy's eyes made her shut up.

"Minerva McGonagall," the other girl whispered, "you are insane!"

~*~

As the class had left the room, Albus Dumbledore fell down on his chair. An enormous sigh escaped from his lips as he realized that Minerva had surely inherited her father's temper. She disliked him, and she was not too shy to show it. That fact she had made perfectly clear. The only thing that remained a mystery was one very simple word. Why? Why, why, why did Minerva McGonagall, the daughter of Henry, whom he'd liked and appreciated, dislike him? Hate him?

He was not angry with her, which was strange, for he had seldom witnessed such a brutality. Yet, the fact that she was a living memory of Henry was enough for him to forgive her. It was wrong, he knew, but he could not help it.

"Never argue with a Scotsman", Henry had once told him.

He could as well have said, "Never argue with a Scotswoman", for it was just as true.

But why? Why could this girl, a Transfigurations wonder, dislike him like this? Though he'd known her father he had never known her and she had absolutely no reason at all to hate him. He shook his head. Never argue with a Scotswoman.

What was it again she had said?

"If you had stopped staring at me..."

He leaned his head on his hand as he realized that she had been right. He had been staring at her, though he did not know why. Or did he? Maybe he did know it all along. Minerva was, though she was not a conventional beauty, a beautiful girl. It was mainly the look in her eyes, the way she walked, those gracious, cat-like gestures she made, that intrigued him. She had Henry's eyes, he knew, and probably Henry's brains as well, but she had very much of the looks of her mother. The best of Henry and Pricilla melted into one fascinating creature. Fascinating... That she surely was.

Albus sighed and shook his head. But he could not...he could certainly not accept her brutality. Maybe she was fascinating, maybe she was intriguing, but still, she needed to show respect and be polite. He was her teacher, after all. He had been teaching for so many years in many different classes, but he had never before found it so hard to punish a student, to be angry with a student. Or, of course, to see a student as "a student". Minerva had stood before the class, not as a young girl, not unsure of herself, not hesitatingly, but as a grownup woman who very well what she was worth. But never the less, she was a student- he had to remember that- and he had to punish her if she went out of line again.

He should have known she certainly would...