Minerva's Promise

Chapter One: The Promise

Minerva lay before the fire reading through her transfiguration notes, idly watching her fellow Gryffindors out of the corner of her eyes. She had been about to mark a passage for further reading when someone fell to the floor beside her, knocking her arm. "Oops, sorry Minnie!" Apologized the boy beside her. "Lucky for you there's only a few blots on my notes otherwise you wouldn't be alive to tell the tale and for the last time Nicodemus, don't call me Minnie! I detest pet names of any sort." She responded, glaring at him before she began to put her things away. "I'm sorry, you don't have to go. Maybe we could study together?" Nicodemus said hastily, grabbing her hand as she made to stand. She stopped and looked at him for a moment, her lips twitching into a slight smile. "You wish to study with me? You've never studied a day in your life." Minerva responded. At this Nicodemus looked positively affronted. "You wound me, Minerva. I've studied a time or two. Not that you'd care to know." He said huffily and getting to his feet. "Look, I'm a little nervous about the N.E.W.T.s next week and I'm not in the mood for fun and games. If you want to study with me that's fine, just don't expect me to be good company." She said in a softer voice, thinking to herself that she'd never been very good with apologies. "Thanks. You won't be sorry. Let me get my things." Nicodemus said brightly, bounding away. "Let's hope not." Minerva couldn't help muttering to herself.

A little while later Minerva closed her book, a small yawn escaping her lips. "I think that's enough for one night. I must say this was actually very productive." She said, placing the rest of her things in her bag. "Told you that you'd not be sorry. I'm as good as my word." Nicodemus remarked, a smirk on his face. "Yes, yes, you don't need to rub it in. I'll try not to doubt you in the future all right? Goodnight." She said getting to her feet and walking up the stairs to the girl's dormitory. "Goodnight fair and sweet Minnie!" He called up after her. "Don't call me Minnie!" She called back down to him, sighing. She heard him laugh and decided to just ignore him, something she did well most of the time.

Once in the dormitory, she set her bag down by her bed and donned her nightgown. Before she lay down however, she paused by the open window, her long auburn hair flowing slightly in the breeze. Why was it that she could never quite fit in with her classmates? She remembered her mother once telling her that she was seventeen going on thirty. Was that the case here? Was it because she was far more mature than her fellow classmates? Why was it that the only time she felt truly happy in herself was when she spent time with Professor Dumbledore, her transfiguration teacher?

With that last thought she pictured him and his twinkling blue eyes, behind those half moon spectacles she'd grown so fond of, saving a wink or two just for her. She remembered the day of her O.W.L. exams and how he had come to watch her. He hadn't come for any of the other students in the other houses, but he had come for her. Not to be outdone, she'd learned how to knit by hand as well as by magic so that she could knit him many pairs of socks throughout the year since she knew him to have a fondness for them as well as a few Muggle sweets, namely Lemon Drops. She recalled giving him a bag of these sweets for Christmas the past year, much to his delight.

It was strange that he was older than her grandfather, yet she knew she was in love with him. She knew he loved her also. It was strange indeed and she often wondered about it. It was something that transcended anything physical or romantic. All she knew was that she simply wanted to be by his side forever. She loved him in ways that others knew naught of. It was a meeting of the minds and of the soul. It was something that would last forever.

She remembered also, a beautiful clear winters evening in the Great Hall. Long after the other professors and three other students who remained for the holidays had left he had come to sit beside her. Conjuring two goblets of pumpkin juice for the two of them, he toasted to the future, their future. He told her what she knew though. "I wish you to promise me something. Promise me that you'll come back and teach here. Promise me we'll be together again. Promise me that you'll be by my side once again." He asked of her. "Yes, of course Professor. You needn't have asked. I'd make that promise to you already." She had replied, her heart and soul gleaming in her eyes. "Such a wonderful spirit you have, Miss Minerva McGonagall." He'd smiled, his own heart and soul mirrored in his brilliant blue eyes, and then presented her with her Christmas gift, a lovely ring bearing their initials, "I wish you to have this and remember. I have one also." Minerva remembered taking it from him with tears in her eyes. "I'll wear it always and remember forever this night." She recalled saying as she took it and placed it on a necklace to wear about her neck.

He'd also had tears in his eyes, as they both walked away from the table hand in hand. They had paused on the way out right inside the entrance to the Great Hall, not knowing why. It was as if a force had stopped them. It was then that Minerva had looked up and seen the mistletoe hanging above them. Pausing, they had looked deep into each other's eyes and he had taken her hand in his, kissing it softly and looking intently in her eyes. This was infinitely more beautiful and promising than a real kiss, she'd felt. It was more a kiss of the soul. She remembered her whole life and her whole being were wrapped up in that moment, in that beautiful kiss.

Now as Minerva finally lay down to bed, she thought of that evening those many months ago. She could still feel his lips on her hand and could still feel her heart beating with life and love. She curled up onto her side and wondered what when she might be able to fulfill that promise.

Chapter Two: Promise Fulfilled

Thirty-four years later found Minerva once again on the steps of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, ready to fulfill the promise she'd made to Albus years ago. A promise she felt most acutely when Nicodemus proposed marriage to her at twenty-four. A promise that he had accepted, but maybe not understood. She remembered well the sadness she felt on his account, though she'd never given him any reason to hope for anything between them.

Now however, she stood looking at everything feeling like it had only been yesterday that she'd left Hogwarts at seventeen. Sighing with a happiness she'd not had in years, she hoisted her bag and made her way up to the doors and was surprised and pleased to find Albus waiting upon the steps. "It's wonderful to see you again Minerva! Do let me help you with that and I'll show you to your quarters and I daresay you remember where the office is." He greeted her warmly, taking her bag from her. "Thank you very much, I'm glad to be back." She said, though knowing she was more than glad.

She followed him up the familiar staircase and down the halls where everything was very much the same as it had been in her youth. He lead her up to Gryffindor Tower to a doorway she hadn't noticed was there when she'd been a student. Following behind Albus, she found herself in a beautifully proportioned bedroom. "Absolutely perfect in a every respect." Minerva declared, taking in the beautiful carved cherry wood bed and matching armoire and nightstand. The room smelled faintly of apples and apricots, and she was sure the aroma was carried out on the wind through the open windows. "I'm delighted that you love it. Even more delighted that you are here again ... with me." He said almost whispering the last two words.

Minerva glanced up sharply at Albus, a faint blush on her cheeks. "No more than I when you offered me the post of teaching Transfiguration here, enabling me to be here and with you again, something I had thought would never happen. It was a dream come true to fulfill that promise I'd made to you so many years ago." She told him softly, moving to the window. "You don't know what it means to hear you say that, to know our love is unchanged even though I'm now a barmy old codger." Albus smiled widely, his eyes twinkling. "Though I do wonder if I was wrong to have you make that promise. You could have been free to love someone else. To marry and have children, have a family." He said, suddenly turning serious.

Minerva turned around and looked him squarely in the face. "I told you once before I made that promise even before you asked. I am free to love and I chose you. I may not marry but I'll certainly have children. All those children that I teach, they'll be like my own. I will still know the joys of motherhood. In fact I'll have you know I prefer it this way. Barmy old codger or not, I love you and chose to be here." Minerva told him firmly, her eyes intense. Albus was pleasantly shocked. "Do you really mean that?" He asked, almost goggling at her. "Why yes, I usually don't say things I don't mean." She retorted, turning away from him. She felt rather than saw his eyes on her. "Amazing. You can still give quite a talking to. Even more amazing is someone my age can still learn a thing or two about life and love." Albus said, moving to her.

Turning slightly, Minerva found herself in his embrace. She seemed to melt a little in his arms. Glancing up at her she suddenly caught sight of a familiar ring around his neck. She moved back a little and fingered the ring. "If you need any further proof of my love and devotion to you Albus, I suggest you look at what you are wearing around your neck and realized I too still wear mine." She informed him, revealing the same ring around her own neck. He looked into her eyes and then looked at the ring. "In this light it seems we are already married." He laughed, his hand cupping the side of her neck and his other hand on her shoulder. "It seems so." Minerva laughed softly. As she gazed up at him he moved closer to her and their lips met, softly and gently, in Minerva's first kiss.

Later that evening after she'd presided over the sorting of the first years, she sat beside Albus in the Great Hall feeling content and more than happy with her life. She glanced sideways and to find him smiling a Cheshire cat smile at her. "I take it you found the Lemon Drops I left in your office?" Minerva asked slyly. "Yes, I did and might I have the privilege of thanking you for you generosity?" He responded. "It wasn't generosity, it was my own insanity. I decided to go by the Muggle sweetshop and get you some before I arrived here. If you ask me more trouble than it's worth." She countered, sipping from her goblet of pumpkin juice. "Ah, such devotion to me Minerva. I am indeed a lucky man. How many wizards can say that their loves venture into Muggle sweetshops for them?" Albus laughed genially. "No wizards that I know, though it may the opposite for Arthur Weasley. Goodness knows he's fascinated by Muggles." She remarked, a smirk on her face.

Beneath the table, Minerva felt Albus take her hand. She squeezed his hand and snuck a glance at him. He winked at her and she felt once again that glorious ease and happiness. She felt that life couldn't get any better than this and heartily thanked her lucky stars that enabled her to fulfill her promise. Somehow she knew without asking that Albus felt the same. She couldn't stop herself from smiling, and she found that she did not wish to. It was all she could do to stop herself from floating out of her seat joyfully lightheaded as she was at that moment.

A little while later when the houses were dismissed to bed and the other staff had left the room Minerva was alone for the second time in her life with Albus in the Great Hall. After a long lingering gaze they walked together to the doorway. Before she stepped over the threshold she felt Albus stop beside her. She turned to face him, remembering acutely the memory of years ago and looked up not expecting anything, but was immediately surprised to find mistletoe glistening above them. "Unless I am much mistaken Albus, it's not Christmas yet." Minerva gave him a questioning look. "My dear don't you remember it being said that Christmas should last all year?" Albus laughed, his eyes twinkling. "Yes, I do remember and it seems like providence as I have here a gift for you. I'd meant to give it to you sooner today but forgot to." She said, retrieving from her robes a pair of socks with Lemon Drops designs on them. "Consider this a very early Christmas gift." She told him and handed him the socks. "Thank you so much Minerva, they are lovely, and Lemon Drops on them too. My dear you know me weakness." He said before sweeping her into a second kiss, one more memorable than the first. It was the start of something beautiful.

The End