Left With More Than a Memory

The Welcome Unexpected

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The Welcome Unexpected

Louise McGonagall had always been acutely aware of her last name. Her aunt was a prodigy and her father was one of the finest aurors the wizarding world had ever seen. Whenever she had come in contact with the ministry or its employees she was always congratulated on her remarkable father. And having a family member as a professor at Hogwarts meant she could not go through a single introduction without the questioning raise of an eyebrow and the query:

"McGonagall? As in PROFESSOR McGonagall!?"

Quite literally every magical being in Great Britain knew her aunt. It got a bit tiresome at times, but that was always only a minor inconvenience. The real trouble was when she actually started her education at Hogwarts. Since the moment she set foot on the grounds, there were whispers about the integrity of her academia. The problem was only exacerbated when she was sorted into Gryffindor. It had been the same for her brother nearly a decade before, there had always been somebody to raise the issue of whether or not it was fair and correct for a child to be overseen in their academic endeavours by their aunt. To further complicate matters, Louise had a particular gift for transfiguration and always scored immensely well on every exam and assignment. She could not lie and say it did not bother her at first. She worked so hard for every score she achieved and to hear the whispers of "rigged" or "favouritism" after every one seemed to disregard every minute of that work. Not to mention that this also bought some measure of doubt to her aunt's reputation as a professor. But as she got older, she learned that no one who actually cared about their own scores cared a jot about hers. Anyone making an issue about their suspicion that she was getting a free pass only did so because they did not want to work. And they couldn't stand the idea, however untrue, that someone else was able to do that. So now, she always had a sharp quip to nip any slander directly in the bud.

The fact that Louise was to have a new cousin at almost 17 years of age was an idea she found difficult to get around at first. She had not known her uncle, Elphistone, but the fact that he and her aunt never had children together had solidified in her mind that it was never meant to be. But here they were, just over 3 months out from the birth of her aunt's first child. But this event had not only caused personal turmoil. The whispers as to the child's paternity and the fact that Minerva was clearly not married to them had piqued the interest of many of Hogwarts' nastiest residents. Louise had thought that surely in this day and age, people would be past her not being married. As well as the primary fact that the wizarding world clearly had far bigger issues at hand. But that was quickly shown not to be the case. The things she had heard said about her aunt behind her back made her blood boil. Minerva was aware of them as well and chose to ignore them staunchly. She knew that a reaction was exactly what they wanted and she would not give them the satisfaction. However, it was getting harder and harder for Louise not to react. But for now, she held her tongue.

While normalcy was always attempted to be upheld at Hogwarts, no one could deny that things were changing. A strict curfew had now been instituted for 7 o'clock on the weekdays and 9 o'clock on the weekends for everyone to be back to their house common area with lights out at 10 o'clock sharp every day with no exceptions. And as of the traditional Halloween visit that year, the trips to Hogsmeade had also stopped completely. This hurt the students to no end, Hogsmeade had been their only freedom from the seemingly ever-shrinking grounds of the Hogwarts. But not all changes at Hogwarts that year were unwelcome ones.

One late November lunch Snape had risen from his customary centre chair at the professor's table, eliciting immediate silence from the students below. But their silence quickly turned to astonishment as he announced, never once adjusting his usual monotone voice, that there was to be a Christmas dance the weekend before the Christmas holidays, the Saturday after the final Christmas exams. The hall erupted in gasps of delight as the headmaster returned to his seat and was soon replaced by excited chatter about the event that echoed around the room. While the students simply saw it as an out-of-character kindness from the headmaster, it was in fact an order from on high to keep morale up among the students. But reason aside, all at once the next few weeks seemed far less dismal.

As the magical date drew ever closer, so unfortunately did Christmas exams. Students had now begun to spend even the precious few hours between curfew and lights out cramming in as much study as possible and every evening the four house common rooms were packed with various group revisal sessions. The Tuesday before exam week, Louise was in her aunt's quarters getting help with some of her transfiguration studies. Minerva happily took any students for extra help if they asked for it and three evenings a week for the two weeks immediately before the exams she ran a one-hour review for all who wished to attend. Three days meant it was relatively spread out and never usually got too crowded. Louise had been to the review the previous evening but was still looking for clarification on a few points and Minerva was happy to oblige. After an hour of perfecting some wand motions and pronunciations the two women had decided to take a break and Minerva was now boiling a kettle

"Have you heard anything from Thomas lately?" she asked quietly as she sat down.

Thomas was Louise's older brother and only sibling. Even though he was 8 years older than her the two were quite close and kept in regular contact. Well, up until recently anyway. He had graduated from Hogwarts and gone on to be an auror like his father and had also quickly, as he had to, become one of the Ministry's best. The last the'd had heard he'd been in London investigating a suspected death eater meeting spot. Since things had begun to heat up and aurors hunted communication had, understandably, become less and less frequent from him. Owl intercepting was rampant and family members of known aurors were on high watch. He'd managed a few updates, but it was getting harder by the day. He'd been Minerva's first nephew, followed shortly by the birth of her second eldest brother, Robert's, daughter Sophie. Robert didn't see past Sophie's second birthday, murdered during the climax of the first wizarding war. A shock his wife, Maureen, had never truly recovered from.

"Yes," Louise answered, leaning in a bit. It was written in hidden ink on the first page of a review parchment Mum sent. He's been stationed in Aberdeen, they believe there's a death eater safe house up there".

"Well then, we shall pray for his good luck," her aunt said pouring the tea.

"I got a letter from Da too," Louise added, sipping her tea. "He asked if you wanted to come back with me to the house for Christmas?".

Minerva put down the kettle and putting her hands around her cup said:

"Oh, I don't know Lou. I was planning to get a jump on the prep for my substitute for when I go on leave-".

"Please," her niece said sweetly, with a comical pout and bat of her eyelids, "Poppy's going to her sister's and you're hardly going to sit here with bloody Snape and the Carrows for two weeks".

She thought about it for a moment, tracing a ring around the rim of her teacup with her finger. Her niece continued her little performance and a smile slowly spread across Minerva's face.

"Alright, alright" she chuckled as she watched her niece's face light up.

Thank you all so much again for reading! See you soon!