A Wish for Peace

Minerva screamed long and loud. It felt good to screech out her frustration in one, long syllable. Feeling minimally better, she threw herself from the chair, knocking it over, and stomped to the door, picking up her glasses and angrily flinging them on.

"What?" She asked, scowling down rather menacingly at the thoroughly nervous first year in front of her.

"T-there's a problem in the Great Hall, professor! We need you down there quickly!" Curiosity overrode her irritability. If, of course, it could even be called that. It was more like supreme irritation to the third degree.

"What sort of problem, Mr. Creevey?" Just saying the name "Creevey" again made her shudder involuntarily. If it wasn't enough to have Dennis and Colin in Gryffindor house, she had to have yet another Creevey boy -Mark- join as well.

Mark Creevey tittered nervously and said, "W-well professor, it's... Professor Trelawney. She's... er... been at the cooking Sherry again," he said, giggling a little bit. Minerva cringed slightly at Sibyll being called "professor" once again.

When Firenze had joined as the Divination professor, it had not quite worked out. Apparently the simulated forest was not enough, and Albus had to have him moved to another herd of Centaurs somewhere in North America. So, inevitably, Trelawney had reclaimed her post as Divination teacher, much to the dismay of many of the Hogwarts staff. She had been quite smug after this, claiming that she had Seen it all along, and it was her superior gift that had gotten her job back; in honesty, Albus just couldn't find another Seer willing to work at Hogwarts. Groaning at the thought of a tipsy Trelawney, she dutifully followed the student out of the cozy study once again and trapised down the stairs to the ground floor and through the large heavy doors of the Great Hall.

There was a crowd of students forming a sort of half circle and looking on in shock and mild horror as Sibyll Trelawney stumbled around, wailing with a bottle in her hand. She was trying to avoid the other Professors, who were ostensibly trying to control her, and minimize her embarrassment when she sobered up. Minerva noted that they didn't seem to be trying very hard. A frightened looking House Elf stood by holding another full bottle of cooking Sherry, and timidly tried to interrupt the scene in front of him, insisting that "Ms. Trelawney ordered for some more Sherry, sirs and madams! She called for more sherry! I is bringing it to her, please!"

"Now... Sibyll please! Stop this nonsense!" Pomona Sprout said desperately.

"Yes, please Sibyll," said Filius Flitwick earnestly. "You're causing a scene!"

Minerva, however, didn't plead for her colleague to behave normally. Instead, she barked, "Trelawney! That's quite enough!" She stepped forward purposefully, parting the crowd easily. She stood face to face with Sibyll, who had her oversized eyes narrowing quite ineffectively.

"It's... *hic*... you!" she growled. Her words were slurred heavily and she swayed on the spot, as if just having gotten off a particularly fast "Tilt-O-Whirl." Minerva reached out and firmly pulled the bottle from her bony hand.

"You've had enough from one night, Sibyll," she said calmly.

"Hey that was... *hic* mine! You don't believe in my Seeing Eye, Minerva *hic* McGonagall... agall... agall..." she said drunkenly, swaying even more dangerously on the spot.

Minerva was so taken aback at Trelawney's attitude that she didn't even speak.

"Yesh... you think I'm a fraud... *hic* don't you? Yeah... but I'm not!" Here eyes began to bulge and there was a hysterical edge to her voice as she stumbled around madly enought to make even Minerva step back a little.

"But you'll see," she screeched, going red in the face. "You'll all *hic* see!" She proceeded to laugh in a very unnerving manner. She was hysterical; wiping tears from her eyes, when all of a sudden she fell to the floor limply. Temporarily, Minerva was concerned that she had died of strain, but a long, ear shattering snore proved her wrong. The dim stars in the enchanted evening sky above seemed to tremble. Minerva rolled her eyes.

"Fine. I am going to make the best of this night -that is, what's left of it. Good evening." With that, she stormily marched from the room as the students began to crowd around Trelawney, poking her and giggling. Minerva couldn't care less.

Without an inkling as to where she was going, Minerva stepped out into the Entrance hall and stopped. She leaned against the solid stone wall, savoring the first bit of quiet that she'd had in a very long time, even though, of course, the sounds of the students and faculty in the other room were invading the sanctuary of her brain. As bad luck would have it, the infamous You-Know-Who had chosen that very moment to attempt an invasion of Hogwarts, knowing that their do-good almighty headmaster Albus Dumbledore was absent from the school at that time. There was a blast that seemed to shake the very ground and the front door of the Entrance hall (along with much of the wall) burst open, and Minerva found herself lying face down on the floor in a pile of rubble.

Lord Voldemort stood in the hall, looking diabolically evil with his black robes billowing around his scrawny body, and the dust settling around him, revealing an "army" of ten or so Death Eaters, who looked no more intelligent than the stone wall they had just broke open. Of course, they must have looked smarter than they actually were, to have invaded Hogwarts when it's Deputy Head was in the mood she happened to be in. Minerva jumped to her feet and pulled out her wand. Surprisingly, among the only thoughts going through her head at that time were "They just had to show up now. Perfect timing."

Voldemort proceeded to laugh evilly. "Muahahaha! I have you all where I want you! Defenseless against my horribly evil powers!" He began to laugh again. But, an evil laugh is a hard thing to pull off in the best conditions, and with Voldemort not exactly young and the large amounts of dust in the air, it was quite expected that he began to cough. He coughed and hacked hard and long, an almost red tinge coming to his pallid face. His waxy skin was stretched tightly over his face, giving him the look of a fairly harmless garter snake. He looked up at Minerva, who was staring at the scene before her with an eyebrow raised. This wasn't how she imagined the Dark Lord's final invasion of the castle to be.

"Excuse me... *cough* ...dust you know... *wheeze*..." Predictably, the noise of half the Entrance hall being blast open by The Dark Lord and his minions had caused some commotion.

The Hogwarts students, already having had their dinner interrupted by a drunk diviner and her bottle of cooking sherry, decided that there was no reason why they shouldn't investigate, because whatever was out there was bound to be more interesting than their Shepherd's Pie. There were many gasps and much frightened muttering coming from the crowd of students and teachers. Lord Voldemort himself was standing in their entrance hall! Granted, he was coughing up a lung, but still. One of his followers rushed forward and patted him hard on the back.

"There y'are my Lord."

"Yes... *cough* thank you Avery. Now, where were we?" Minerva rolled her eyes. For the evilest Dark Lord of the age he certainly lacked organizational skills. "Ah, right! I was laughing in a thoroughly frightening manner, and threatening to take over Hogwarts. Now..."

Suddenly, who should burst through the crowd but the Dream Team, wands out and ready for battle.

"Oh, whatever shall I do? It's the Almighty Boy-Who-Lived-To-Screw-Things-Up, and his little sidekicks, Hedgehog Gingivitis and Weasley offspring number 279." Minerva didn't know that the Dark Lord could be so bloody sarcastic. She imagined that's where Severus had picked it up.

However, his minions, who had seen their Lord fall one too many times by these three students, were more than a little apprehensive. Apparently seeing the most powerful Dark Lord of the century conquered by an infant could be detrimental to your confidence. Already many of their number were slinking out the door. The remaining two Death Eaters were looking about anxiously.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Voldemort asked impatiently. "Destroy the little fools, but meanwhile sacrifice your own life for the greater evil so I won't have to reward you. Kill two birds with one stone, I say." The Death Eaters looked distinctly uneasy about this new order, and inevitably decided to save their own skins; they were gone before Voldemort could say "deserting."

"No matter! They were pathetic vermin, bent on saving their own stinking hides. They will be punished."

Many of the students and members of the staff were beginning to lose interest, and many were looking downright bored. The Trio had lowered their wands and were looking on with confusion, eyebrows raised. Most of the crowd had gone back into the Great Hall to finish up their dinner, which was bound to be cold by now. They were wrong; their Shepherd's Pie was more interesting than the Dark Lord invading their Entrance Hall. By the time Lord Voldemort had stopped talking to himself the crowd had dispersed, leaving he and Minerva alone in the ruined Entrance Hall. Truthfully, Minerva wasn't at all frightened. She was simply annoyed at having a washed up Dark Lord blocking her exit.

"You will all see! I will return, more powerful than before, and I will seek my VENGEANCE!" Minerva was getting very frustrated about not being allowed access to her destination, the Hogwarts grounds.

"Oh give it a rest!" she shouted, pushing past him and out through the gaping hole in the wall. Voldemort just stood there, dumbstruck, then shook his head and portkeyed out of that nut house as soon as possible.