Post by Alesia on Jan 2, 2006 12:11:19 GMT -5
Title: She had had enough
Summary: Challenge response to: What does Albus do to get Minerva to relax?
Rating: 13 +, I guess…there are tangy undertones at the end.
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She had had it! She was going to kill him!
The first appearance was of books on ancient types of magic, then they transitioned to muggle classics, and when the previous attempts looked to have failed, the arriving books took the form of romance novels.
As no success was gained with books of any sort, a new attempt came in the form of knitting needles and fine yarn, then paints and canvas, and finally with sheets of music and a transfigured piano.
After this failure, came the bath salts and lotions, followed quickly by fluffy slippers and a special blend of relaxation tea.
Undaunted by the defeat of this latest attempt her anonymous gift giver employed more drastic methods – fine chocolate, a well-aged bottle of Scotch and soothing Celtic ballads on the Victrola.
When the escalation failed to produce results, the methods morphed from drastic to down right devious. After returning from dinner Minerva found four, no, five! Five catnip covered cat toys hidden in her rooms!
That had done it. She reached her wits end. She had had enough! She was going to make him pay! She would not allow him to torment her like this.
A professor for nine years, Minerva McGonagall, marched confidently to Albus Dumbledore’s office. Not in the mood to observe the normal pleasantries, she burst through his office door. Fortunately, for her, Dumbledore didn’t have a student serving a detention, the shock of seeing the figure in the doorway would have too much for most students. At this moment, Minerva McGonagall appeared nothing like the normal collected image of the strict but fair Ancient Runes professor she projected to the students of Hogwarts.
The vision framed by his doorway was one Albus Dumbledore had never seen in his long life. Oh, he had seen angry women before but he had never seen any woman appear so spectacularly beautiful while angry. Seeing Minerva McGonagall angry wasn’t new for him either but he didn’t think he’d ever seen her quite this angry before, both her power and beauty pulsed from her skin. Slowly, he registered the tightness in his chest caused by the presence of the unearthly valkyrie felt as if she’d just shot a stunner straight at his heart.
Standing on his threshold with murder in her eyes, Minerva McGonagall was best described as breathtaking. Several wisps of hair had come lose from her bun, lightly framing her face, and creating a halo of raven silks surrounding the porcelain cream of her skin. Her cheeks flushed a deep red and her eyes were alive with a fire only rivaled by the rarest of emeralds. Minerva exuded power and fury. Albus found it intoxicating and highly arousing. He vaguely wondered if he would ever be able to breathe normally again. Nor could Albus help but wonder what other emotions might kindle the enticing flush now present on the cheeks of the beauty before him.
“Albus! You have to stop this!” She slammed the door shut to emphasize her point.
“Good evening, Professor McGonagall, it is nice to see you at such a late hour.” The Deputy Headmaster was trying not to provoke her further but his deep need to see he could make her face flush further caused him to act rashly. “I would normally have expected you to find you in the staff room well into marking a pile of essays this late at night.” He got the reaction he was looking for, her face got even redder and her green eyes flashed like lightening. She stepped further into his office with three quick strides and peered over him from the opposite side of the desk.
Her voice was short and firm. “That is…exactly why I am here, Albus Dumbledore. You have to…have to stop.”
“Stop what, Professor?” Albus had an idea what she was angry about but he wanted to hear what she had to say before tipping his hand.
“ALBUS!” Her anger exploded. “You have repeatedly sent me items which are…are inappropriate.”
“Inappropriate, Minerva?” Albus’ tone changed to the one he used when lecturing arrant students. “Are you sure about that?” He eyed her critically. He had acted with good intentions. Albus refused to believe actions had been rude or crass. “I was merely sending one of my closet friends some gifts I thought would help her relax. I wanted to bring her some small measure of pleasure during a highly stressful time of her life.”
He stood to meet her glare as he pushed his point. “Minerva, you can’t deny you aren’t sleeping. The dark circles under your eyes prove that. You aren’t eating and your weight loss is on the verge of being a medical concern.” She started to protest. He waved his hand to silence her.
“Minerva, you are wound up tighter then any watch spring and it couldn’t be more obvious. Every Head of House has been in my office to complain about your disposition towards the students and the staff! Do you realize just how many points you have taken from students this term alone? Two hundred, for Merlin’s sake and the term started two weeks ago.” Moving to pull a small object out of the top drawer of his desk, he flashed a mirror at her. “Minerva, look at yourself!”
He paused; registering both panic and shame on her face but there was no stopping his boiling anger. Minerva’s accusation had unlatched the pressure valve. Albus’ hand gripped the mirror tightly. “How many times, this month alone, have you woken up in the staffroom in the pitch of the night only to find you have fallen asleep while working late? You are coming apart at the seams, Minerva. Everyone is concerned about you, including me.” Albus’ voice had continued growing harder and more bitter as he confronted her with the indisputable signs of her emotional distress.
Taken back by the edge in his voice, she paused and started again. “Albus, please,” her voice no more then a whisper. “I am not able to accept your gifts. I…I am not yet free.”
Albus shook his head and moved around the desk to her side. He tried to keep his own raging emotions out of his voice. However he refused to hide his need to comfort her, to be there for her - as a result his words were deep and husky. “Minerva, damn it!”
He stopped speaking hoping to calm them both as he gripped her shoulders with his hands. “Your husband has fled the country with his mistress who is pregnant with their second illegitimate child and is the wife of his boss. He embarrassed you and everything he ever touched. No one would blame you for seeking solace in a friend, especially one so old as I.”
His eyes met hers; searching for the myrrh, he hoped his barb at his own age would cause. “Besides, you are free in all but procedure and the hearing is this Friday.”
“Albus, we are colleagues…we can’t,” His finger on her lips silenced her.
“You need someone to stand by you and help you to lessen the load you are baring. Please, I only want to help you.” He watched as she blinked back tears.
Albus paused, hoping to calm himself more. His anger was building again and his control slipping. The mention of her ‘husband’ lit the smoldering fire of his constantly burning frustration over the situation Minerva presently found herself. Searching her eyes, again, Albus hoped to discover an emotion he had seen long ago hidden. Finding what he thought was the love of a companion in her eyes; Albus gripped her arms tighter but couldn’t trust himself enough to bring her closer. He wanted nothing more then to crush her to him and kiss her angst away but he knew she would not let him.
“Minerva, as I told you when this mess first began, I want to be there for you.” Holding up his hand to stop her protests, he continued. “Minerva, you made your feelings very clear to me. You don’t not wish to be seen in the presence of a single man too often before your divorce is final,” steadying his voice he paused. The silence, he hoped, would hide the hurt her rejection of his support had caused him from penetrating into his voice. “Even though we have been close friends throughout your marriage, I respect your wishes. I will not pressure you.”
Once more, he paused, unsure whether he should continue. Unable to stop himself from making his deepest motivations clear, he began again, “I will admit I have tried to help you the best way I knew how. Yes, I have sent you items I believed would help you calm your soul and mitigate the tension I see in your eyes.”
She signed and shook her head. She knew his heart was in the right place. Minerva also knew she needed him - needed him desperately. She dreamed of him holding her while she cried until she was unable to cry no more. Yet, she couldn’t let herself have him. It wasn’t right. She wasn’t free.
Albus sensed the line of her thoughts and took a chance. “Noble as my gifts and intentions may be, however, I will not lie to you, Minerva. I admit the thought of you being a single woman once again brings joy to my heart but I would not allow myself to put undo pressure on you now. I am willing to be patient, Minerva. I will wait until you are free.”
Unable to hold in the last statement on his tongue, he spoke in a sigh, “but not one moment longer.”
Minerva loved the man standing before her. Of that, she had no doubt; it had endured too long not to be love.
She’d fallen in love with him in the late 1939, during the early days of the war when they’d worked together in France. The timing had been all wrong for them. Minerva was engaged and Albus’ muggle wife had died just a few years before after forty years of marriage. Beyond one dark night in late May of 1940 filled with confessions, kisses, and regret spoken while on the beaches of Dunkirk as shells rained down around them as they waited for evacuation, neither of them had ever given voice to their feelings again. Their friendship continued to grow during the time between the end of the ware and before Minerva returned to Hogwarts as a professor. Their strong platonic bond replaced the need for a physical display of their mutual love with a constant warmth and security of unwavering companionship and devotion.
Minerva’s marriage had been an arranged one between two old pureblood families. Henri de Navet and his family came to England in the early 1930s. The McGonagall Clan and the Navet family had been friends since the time of William the Orange and Queen Mary. Minerva and Henri’s fathers agreed to the marriage contract while Minerva was still at Hogwarts.
The only thing that kept Minerva from being married right out of school was the death of her older brother, Mars, in the spring of 1938. Mars, who was gathering information in Europe at the behest of the Ministry, perished at the hands of Grindelwald’s men. She joined the Ministry’s war effort the day she graduated from Hogwarts without the permission of her father. While France fell to Grindelwald’s muggle ally Hitler, Henri had remained safety in England and Minerva fought for his country’s freedom.
After returning from the war, Minerva and Henri honored their family obligations but theirs had never been a love match. They lived largely separate lives and everything had been fine until Henri fell in love with his boss’ wife and acted on that love.
The scandal caused by the discovery of Henri’s secret life with Esmeralda Cavendish, which not only included her being pregnant but the existence of the couple’s two year old illegitimate daughter, shocked the Wizarding World on both continents. Minerva had withstood the worst of the social ridicule. Even in their world, the prevailing belief of the day held the wife responsible for the happiness and success of the union, including the production of heirs. Henri professed to never wanting children and had forgone ‘the privileges due a husband’ starting sometime in 1958. The revelation of his secret life with Esmeralda only proved to Minerva that Henri had indeed wanted children and a normal life; he just hadn’t wanted it with her.
The blow to Minerva’s self-esteem had been monumental. To cope, she threw herself into her work, sleeping less and working harder. Minerva published two academic papers in the last six months, which was highly unheard of. Normally papers of this caliber took several years to research and write. Her students received more homework, essays, and projects then any one professor could ever hope to mark in a timely manner. To shield herself from snide comments and quiet whispers, she cut herself off socially from all but the few people who came to seek her out.
It took a year to get divorced in the Wizarding World. The potion employed to dissolve a magical bond between a couple required eleven months to brew. Even though Minerva and Henri had forgone a magical bonding when they married, the law still forced them to wait the full year. The time lapse from the initial smattering of the scandal across the front page of every wizarding newspaper in England and France to the date of the official divorce proceeding only allowed time for the ever-insatiable muckrakers to dig deeper into the private lives of all involved. Every time the gossip would subside, some new revelation would come to light. Minerva’s wall of personal dignity fell into ruin more with each article. The sensationalized words caused her to tense a little tighter and disappear deeper into herself.
It was true what Albus had said about the other Heads of House coming to him about Minerva. Their request for the Deputy Headmaster’s help was driven out of their concern for a dear friend. They all wanted to do what they could to help her through a difficult period. Unfortunately, Minerva’s current state brought out the harder side of her personality. The staff collectively decided Albus was the only one who would be able to succeed in getting Minerva to relax, calm down, and stop trying to work herself to death.
The problem was, Albus, knowing Minerva as he did, knew she wouldn’t accept anyone’s help directly. Knowing his presence in her rooms, at this time in her life, caused her more stress then it alleviated. Her request for distance eliminated playing chess or grading papers together.
With Albus’ normal avenue for getting Minerva to relax blocked, he was forced to find alternative methods. Over the course of the last few months, Albus started having the House-Elves bring her items he thought would help her to relax - if she used them. Unfortunately, Minerva, incorrectly, believed the gifts were Albus’ way of advancing his pursuit of her. Hence, Albus found himself face to face with a confused, angry, and emotionally distraught Minerva McGonagall.
Minerva lost herself in the eyes of the man she loved. His last words ‘But not one second longer’ rang throughout her mind and touched a hidden dream. A dream of a life with a man who cared and loved, doing so deeply and with his whole heart. A man who believed in what was right and was willing to fight of it, who would his risk life and all that he had for those he loved and for what he believed in.
Suddenly the world Minerva had grown up in, the world of social graces, propriety, arranged marriages, and the forced sense of family obligation, seemed to fade away leaving only what was right and what wasn’t. What was right was the fact Minerva was indeed married, not to the man who name was on the Ministry record of her so-called union, but to the man who was standing before her now. The man who wanted nothing more then to hold her, make her feel better, and shield her from the harshness of the world. Yes, she had had enough.
Gripping his upper arms with her hands, she swallowed, mentally saying goodbye to her old life, she took a step forward into his arms. Her proximately and the scent of her perfume aroused him. His arousal was rivaled only by his confusion at her actions. His eyes grew dark with desire while his face showed his bewilderment. Minerva smiled at his reaction. She would have had it no other way.
“Albus,” she whispered molding her body ever so slowly against his. “I know,” her voice quivering as her nails blazed a path up his thigh. “I know of one way…one way you could possibly help me…help me to…to relieve some…well, some stress.”
Not trusting his mouth to actually form words, Albus responded with a raise eyebrow and a “Humm?”
Pushing herself up on her toes, her lips were mere millimeters from his. “Take me Albus, make love to me…please.” With that, her lips touched his and her hands found their way into his hair.
Mere seconds passed before Albus crushed her to him deepening the kiss. His hands found their way down her hips, around to cup her bum, and pushed her further into him. As he lifted her up into his arms, Minerva wrapped her legs around his hips. Albus carried her into the passageway leading from his office to his rooms.
~finis~
AN: Yes, yes, I know this is begs for a lemon, but the challenge ends today and the Christmas decorations must be put away today or my husband will skin me alive.
If I get that done, I will work on the lemon and post it here. If not, I will work on the lemon and post it in the Lemon section later. Either way I am promising a new lemon. ;D
Summary: Challenge response to: What does Albus do to get Minerva to relax?
Rating: 13 +, I guess…there are tangy undertones at the end.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
She had had it! She was going to kill him!
The first appearance was of books on ancient types of magic, then they transitioned to muggle classics, and when the previous attempts looked to have failed, the arriving books took the form of romance novels.
As no success was gained with books of any sort, a new attempt came in the form of knitting needles and fine yarn, then paints and canvas, and finally with sheets of music and a transfigured piano.
After this failure, came the bath salts and lotions, followed quickly by fluffy slippers and a special blend of relaxation tea.
Undaunted by the defeat of this latest attempt her anonymous gift giver employed more drastic methods – fine chocolate, a well-aged bottle of Scotch and soothing Celtic ballads on the Victrola.
When the escalation failed to produce results, the methods morphed from drastic to down right devious. After returning from dinner Minerva found four, no, five! Five catnip covered cat toys hidden in her rooms!
That had done it. She reached her wits end. She had had enough! She was going to make him pay! She would not allow him to torment her like this.
A professor for nine years, Minerva McGonagall, marched confidently to Albus Dumbledore’s office. Not in the mood to observe the normal pleasantries, she burst through his office door. Fortunately, for her, Dumbledore didn’t have a student serving a detention, the shock of seeing the figure in the doorway would have too much for most students. At this moment, Minerva McGonagall appeared nothing like the normal collected image of the strict but fair Ancient Runes professor she projected to the students of Hogwarts.
The vision framed by his doorway was one Albus Dumbledore had never seen in his long life. Oh, he had seen angry women before but he had never seen any woman appear so spectacularly beautiful while angry. Seeing Minerva McGonagall angry wasn’t new for him either but he didn’t think he’d ever seen her quite this angry before, both her power and beauty pulsed from her skin. Slowly, he registered the tightness in his chest caused by the presence of the unearthly valkyrie felt as if she’d just shot a stunner straight at his heart.
Standing on his threshold with murder in her eyes, Minerva McGonagall was best described as breathtaking. Several wisps of hair had come lose from her bun, lightly framing her face, and creating a halo of raven silks surrounding the porcelain cream of her skin. Her cheeks flushed a deep red and her eyes were alive with a fire only rivaled by the rarest of emeralds. Minerva exuded power and fury. Albus found it intoxicating and highly arousing. He vaguely wondered if he would ever be able to breathe normally again. Nor could Albus help but wonder what other emotions might kindle the enticing flush now present on the cheeks of the beauty before him.
“Albus! You have to stop this!” She slammed the door shut to emphasize her point.
“Good evening, Professor McGonagall, it is nice to see you at such a late hour.” The Deputy Headmaster was trying not to provoke her further but his deep need to see he could make her face flush further caused him to act rashly. “I would normally have expected you to find you in the staff room well into marking a pile of essays this late at night.” He got the reaction he was looking for, her face got even redder and her green eyes flashed like lightening. She stepped further into his office with three quick strides and peered over him from the opposite side of the desk.
Her voice was short and firm. “That is…exactly why I am here, Albus Dumbledore. You have to…have to stop.”
“Stop what, Professor?” Albus had an idea what she was angry about but he wanted to hear what she had to say before tipping his hand.
“ALBUS!” Her anger exploded. “You have repeatedly sent me items which are…are inappropriate.”
“Inappropriate, Minerva?” Albus’ tone changed to the one he used when lecturing arrant students. “Are you sure about that?” He eyed her critically. He had acted with good intentions. Albus refused to believe actions had been rude or crass. “I was merely sending one of my closet friends some gifts I thought would help her relax. I wanted to bring her some small measure of pleasure during a highly stressful time of her life.”
He stood to meet her glare as he pushed his point. “Minerva, you can’t deny you aren’t sleeping. The dark circles under your eyes prove that. You aren’t eating and your weight loss is on the verge of being a medical concern.” She started to protest. He waved his hand to silence her.
“Minerva, you are wound up tighter then any watch spring and it couldn’t be more obvious. Every Head of House has been in my office to complain about your disposition towards the students and the staff! Do you realize just how many points you have taken from students this term alone? Two hundred, for Merlin’s sake and the term started two weeks ago.” Moving to pull a small object out of the top drawer of his desk, he flashed a mirror at her. “Minerva, look at yourself!”
He paused; registering both panic and shame on her face but there was no stopping his boiling anger. Minerva’s accusation had unlatched the pressure valve. Albus’ hand gripped the mirror tightly. “How many times, this month alone, have you woken up in the staffroom in the pitch of the night only to find you have fallen asleep while working late? You are coming apart at the seams, Minerva. Everyone is concerned about you, including me.” Albus’ voice had continued growing harder and more bitter as he confronted her with the indisputable signs of her emotional distress.
Taken back by the edge in his voice, she paused and started again. “Albus, please,” her voice no more then a whisper. “I am not able to accept your gifts. I…I am not yet free.”
Albus shook his head and moved around the desk to her side. He tried to keep his own raging emotions out of his voice. However he refused to hide his need to comfort her, to be there for her - as a result his words were deep and husky. “Minerva, damn it!”
He stopped speaking hoping to calm them both as he gripped her shoulders with his hands. “Your husband has fled the country with his mistress who is pregnant with their second illegitimate child and is the wife of his boss. He embarrassed you and everything he ever touched. No one would blame you for seeking solace in a friend, especially one so old as I.”
His eyes met hers; searching for the myrrh, he hoped his barb at his own age would cause. “Besides, you are free in all but procedure and the hearing is this Friday.”
“Albus, we are colleagues…we can’t,” His finger on her lips silenced her.
“You need someone to stand by you and help you to lessen the load you are baring. Please, I only want to help you.” He watched as she blinked back tears.
Albus paused, hoping to calm himself more. His anger was building again and his control slipping. The mention of her ‘husband’ lit the smoldering fire of his constantly burning frustration over the situation Minerva presently found herself. Searching her eyes, again, Albus hoped to discover an emotion he had seen long ago hidden. Finding what he thought was the love of a companion in her eyes; Albus gripped her arms tighter but couldn’t trust himself enough to bring her closer. He wanted nothing more then to crush her to him and kiss her angst away but he knew she would not let him.
“Minerva, as I told you when this mess first began, I want to be there for you.” Holding up his hand to stop her protests, he continued. “Minerva, you made your feelings very clear to me. You don’t not wish to be seen in the presence of a single man too often before your divorce is final,” steadying his voice he paused. The silence, he hoped, would hide the hurt her rejection of his support had caused him from penetrating into his voice. “Even though we have been close friends throughout your marriage, I respect your wishes. I will not pressure you.”
Once more, he paused, unsure whether he should continue. Unable to stop himself from making his deepest motivations clear, he began again, “I will admit I have tried to help you the best way I knew how. Yes, I have sent you items I believed would help you calm your soul and mitigate the tension I see in your eyes.”
She signed and shook her head. She knew his heart was in the right place. Minerva also knew she needed him - needed him desperately. She dreamed of him holding her while she cried until she was unable to cry no more. Yet, she couldn’t let herself have him. It wasn’t right. She wasn’t free.
Albus sensed the line of her thoughts and took a chance. “Noble as my gifts and intentions may be, however, I will not lie to you, Minerva. I admit the thought of you being a single woman once again brings joy to my heart but I would not allow myself to put undo pressure on you now. I am willing to be patient, Minerva. I will wait until you are free.”
Unable to hold in the last statement on his tongue, he spoke in a sigh, “but not one moment longer.”
Minerva loved the man standing before her. Of that, she had no doubt; it had endured too long not to be love.
She’d fallen in love with him in the late 1939, during the early days of the war when they’d worked together in France. The timing had been all wrong for them. Minerva was engaged and Albus’ muggle wife had died just a few years before after forty years of marriage. Beyond one dark night in late May of 1940 filled with confessions, kisses, and regret spoken while on the beaches of Dunkirk as shells rained down around them as they waited for evacuation, neither of them had ever given voice to their feelings again. Their friendship continued to grow during the time between the end of the ware and before Minerva returned to Hogwarts as a professor. Their strong platonic bond replaced the need for a physical display of their mutual love with a constant warmth and security of unwavering companionship and devotion.
Minerva’s marriage had been an arranged one between two old pureblood families. Henri de Navet and his family came to England in the early 1930s. The McGonagall Clan and the Navet family had been friends since the time of William the Orange and Queen Mary. Minerva and Henri’s fathers agreed to the marriage contract while Minerva was still at Hogwarts.
The only thing that kept Minerva from being married right out of school was the death of her older brother, Mars, in the spring of 1938. Mars, who was gathering information in Europe at the behest of the Ministry, perished at the hands of Grindelwald’s men. She joined the Ministry’s war effort the day she graduated from Hogwarts without the permission of her father. While France fell to Grindelwald’s muggle ally Hitler, Henri had remained safety in England and Minerva fought for his country’s freedom.
After returning from the war, Minerva and Henri honored their family obligations but theirs had never been a love match. They lived largely separate lives and everything had been fine until Henri fell in love with his boss’ wife and acted on that love.
The scandal caused by the discovery of Henri’s secret life with Esmeralda Cavendish, which not only included her being pregnant but the existence of the couple’s two year old illegitimate daughter, shocked the Wizarding World on both continents. Minerva had withstood the worst of the social ridicule. Even in their world, the prevailing belief of the day held the wife responsible for the happiness and success of the union, including the production of heirs. Henri professed to never wanting children and had forgone ‘the privileges due a husband’ starting sometime in 1958. The revelation of his secret life with Esmeralda only proved to Minerva that Henri had indeed wanted children and a normal life; he just hadn’t wanted it with her.
The blow to Minerva’s self-esteem had been monumental. To cope, she threw herself into her work, sleeping less and working harder. Minerva published two academic papers in the last six months, which was highly unheard of. Normally papers of this caliber took several years to research and write. Her students received more homework, essays, and projects then any one professor could ever hope to mark in a timely manner. To shield herself from snide comments and quiet whispers, she cut herself off socially from all but the few people who came to seek her out.
It took a year to get divorced in the Wizarding World. The potion employed to dissolve a magical bond between a couple required eleven months to brew. Even though Minerva and Henri had forgone a magical bonding when they married, the law still forced them to wait the full year. The time lapse from the initial smattering of the scandal across the front page of every wizarding newspaper in England and France to the date of the official divorce proceeding only allowed time for the ever-insatiable muckrakers to dig deeper into the private lives of all involved. Every time the gossip would subside, some new revelation would come to light. Minerva’s wall of personal dignity fell into ruin more with each article. The sensationalized words caused her to tense a little tighter and disappear deeper into herself.
It was true what Albus had said about the other Heads of House coming to him about Minerva. Their request for the Deputy Headmaster’s help was driven out of their concern for a dear friend. They all wanted to do what they could to help her through a difficult period. Unfortunately, Minerva’s current state brought out the harder side of her personality. The staff collectively decided Albus was the only one who would be able to succeed in getting Minerva to relax, calm down, and stop trying to work herself to death.
The problem was, Albus, knowing Minerva as he did, knew she wouldn’t accept anyone’s help directly. Knowing his presence in her rooms, at this time in her life, caused her more stress then it alleviated. Her request for distance eliminated playing chess or grading papers together.
With Albus’ normal avenue for getting Minerva to relax blocked, he was forced to find alternative methods. Over the course of the last few months, Albus started having the House-Elves bring her items he thought would help her to relax - if she used them. Unfortunately, Minerva, incorrectly, believed the gifts were Albus’ way of advancing his pursuit of her. Hence, Albus found himself face to face with a confused, angry, and emotionally distraught Minerva McGonagall.
Minerva lost herself in the eyes of the man she loved. His last words ‘But not one second longer’ rang throughout her mind and touched a hidden dream. A dream of a life with a man who cared and loved, doing so deeply and with his whole heart. A man who believed in what was right and was willing to fight of it, who would his risk life and all that he had for those he loved and for what he believed in.
Suddenly the world Minerva had grown up in, the world of social graces, propriety, arranged marriages, and the forced sense of family obligation, seemed to fade away leaving only what was right and what wasn’t. What was right was the fact Minerva was indeed married, not to the man who name was on the Ministry record of her so-called union, but to the man who was standing before her now. The man who wanted nothing more then to hold her, make her feel better, and shield her from the harshness of the world. Yes, she had had enough.
Gripping his upper arms with her hands, she swallowed, mentally saying goodbye to her old life, she took a step forward into his arms. Her proximately and the scent of her perfume aroused him. His arousal was rivaled only by his confusion at her actions. His eyes grew dark with desire while his face showed his bewilderment. Minerva smiled at his reaction. She would have had it no other way.
“Albus,” she whispered molding her body ever so slowly against his. “I know,” her voice quivering as her nails blazed a path up his thigh. “I know of one way…one way you could possibly help me…help me to…to relieve some…well, some stress.”
Not trusting his mouth to actually form words, Albus responded with a raise eyebrow and a “Humm?”
Pushing herself up on her toes, her lips were mere millimeters from his. “Take me Albus, make love to me…please.” With that, her lips touched his and her hands found their way into his hair.
Mere seconds passed before Albus crushed her to him deepening the kiss. His hands found their way down her hips, around to cup her bum, and pushed her further into him. As he lifted her up into his arms, Minerva wrapped her legs around his hips. Albus carried her into the passageway leading from his office to his rooms.
~finis~
AN: Yes, yes, I know this is begs for a lemon, but the challenge ends today and the Christmas decorations must be put away today or my husband will skin me alive.
If I get that done, I will work on the lemon and post it here. If not, I will work on the lemon and post it in the Lemon section later. Either way I am promising a new lemon. ;D
! And yes the demand for lemons is here 
