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May I Call You Minnie?


Sirius knocked on Professor McGonagall’s office door and waited - but no answer came. He knocked again. “Minnnnnnnieeeee,” he called, leaning his ear against the door and jiggling the handle. “Minnie, darling, there’s a draft in the corridor. Please let me in.” He paused then, and he looked at his feet, remembering how he’d wasted his time with her before - how he wouldn’t be having classes with her anymore because he hadn’t gotten a good enough grade to move on in Minnie’s class - and how this meeting was probably to talk about how much he’d let her down. He cleared his throat, and said, in a much more serious tone. “I’m sorry. Professor McGonagall.” He knocked again… a bit less playfully this time… and stared down at his toes. “I really did study as hard as I could, Professor,” he told the door, hoping she could hear him through the wood. “I did, it’s just that a lot happened over the summer - what with the Prongs house being burnt up and Mr. Prongs being in the hospital with the Pox and… yeah, I probably could’ve skipped driving the flying motorbike and all but Gideon wasn’t too sore about it, and --”

“Mr. Black, what are yeh doing to my door?” Minerva McGonagall’s voice came from behind him and Sirius turned about, letting his palm drop from the door knob he’d been jangling while talking.

“Sorry Professor,” Sirius said as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a ring of keys.

Her eyes swept across the wood, appraising it, and glanced at him, “So long as you aren’t scraping your initials in it like every other wooden surface you can get your wand on…” she pushed the door open. “In you go.”

Sirius stepped inside and McGonagall followed, waving her wand to light the lanterns about the office, illuminating it with a soft glow. Sirius spotted the tea cups gleaming on the shelves - and he was pleased to see his was still there among them.

She doesn’t completely hate me, he thrilled.

He looked at her as she sat down and pulled an ivory, knitted shawl over her shoulders and adjusted her glasses so she was looking over the top of the lenses at him as he lowered himself into the chair opposite her. “I suppose, Mr. Black, that you’ve guessed why it is I wanted you to come to see me today?”

Sirius sat down, “Because of my O.W.L.,” he said, his voice low.

“Yes,” she said, nodding curtly, “Precisely.” She drew a breath, intending to go on but he cut her off.

“Professor, wait. Before you lace into me --”

“Lace into you? Mr. Black, I --”

Sirius held up his palm, stopping her, and he continued, “I want you to know that I really did try my very best. I studied the textbook really hard and I - I tried very hard at the test. And it’s not an excuse but that old toad Umbridge leaned over me the whole bloody time, so I’m honestly amazed I didn’t get more wrong - and I dunno who graded the test but I know she didn’t like me. But that’s not really here or there of course, I mean, I’m me and I pulled off an Exceed Expectations, that’s not too bad for me. Highest grade I got. I didn’t get a single Outstanding. I mean I’m not Outstanding so of course I didn’t. But I want you to know I really wanted one for you. I really did. I owed it to you. And I let you down and I’m sorry, but I really did try. I didn’t shirk it off like I do. I wasn’t a slacker. I read the book. I did. Everyday.” He cleared his throat, “And… look… I’ve put my tie on today. For you.” He gestured to the tie about his neck, which was strung on crooked, but there, and that was more than could’ve been said for most of his school career prior.

McGonagall waited until several moments of silence had passed following this long winded spiel and when he didn’t seem to have anything else to say, she cleared her throat and asked, “Are you finished? May I speak now?”

“Yes Professor,” Sirius replied.

She said, “Very well.” There was a pause and then, “First of all, to calm your worries, it was I who graded your test, not Miss. Umbridge. I would never allow anyone else to grade the O.W.L.s for my class.”

Sirius looked down at his hands as she spoke.

“Second of all, Dorcus Meadowes told me about what that Umbridge woman did to you, hovering over a boy while he takes an exam -- and she calls herself an educational professional!” She muttered something under her breath that sounded rather like I’d rather like to educate her on some things… but Sirius thought that couldn’t possibly be, he had to of misheard… McGonagall continued, “And third, I feel that the test was administered in an extremely unfair environment and is therefore not a true representation of your knowledge of the subject of Transfiguration. Your multiple choice answers were all correct. Every last one of them, Mr. Black. Your grade dropped significantly on your final essay portion - the portion during which I’m told you were badgered relentlessly by a minute-counting…..” she paused. “By Mis. Umbridge. Is that correct?”

Sirius nodded.

McGonagall waved a palm to the desk in the corner, where she usually set Sirius and James during detentions. He looked over at it. Upon it, there lay a parchment, two quills, a bottle of ink, and a purple and gold O.W.L. test booklet.

He looked back at her.

“As a result… in the name of being fair, Mr. Black… you will rewrite the exam essay,” McGonagall said.

Sirius asked, “Now?”

“No. Next Tuesday. Yes, Mr. Black, now.”

A grin quivered over his mouth and he said, “You mean it?”

McGonagall stared at him.

“Okay, yes, you do. I’ll stop asking stupid questions. I just - I can’t -- I mean --” he paused, realizing that no matter how many times he stopped and started the sentence, he wasn’t going to get it out right, so instead, he jumped up and ran about the desk to McGonagall and wrapped his arms around her, “Thank you,” he said thickly. “Thank you Minnie. May I call you Minnie?”

“If you must, Mr. Black,” she replied stiffly and he hugged her again. She sighed and patted his arm, then, “I am going to time you on that essay, Mr. Black, and every moment you spend hugging me is a moment more you could’ve been writing.”

“Yes Minnie.” He let go and ran over to the desk, bending over the parchment and flipping open the exam booklet to the back to get the essay question.

Consider the operative theory behind any and all Transfiguration spells; what does this theory mean when applied on a larger scale? Explain your answer.

His eyes moved over the question and his heart swelled up. This had been hand picked for him. He knew it. He could still hear Minerva McGonagall’s voice the day she’d given him detention for not paying attention in her class the term before. It means that as much as I believe that a mouse can become a teacup, I believe that you can become something great, Minnie’s voice echoed about in the memory of this very room. He looked over at her, but she was very carefully staring down at her desk, though he could’ve sworn a smile tweaked the corners of her lips.




James was sitting on the floor outside the Charms classroom when Lily arrived. Remus had taken the first years to Herbology, so she was by herself and Peter had forgotten to bring his textbook to lunch and Sirius was still off at his meeting with Minnie, so James was by himself, and now there they were, alone together, in the corridor outside of Professor Flitwick’s classroom.

She hovered there before him for a moment, hugging her textbook, unsure what to do with herself, and finally leaned against the wall across from him and bit her thumbnail, studying the pattern of the wall paper.

James stared up at her.

She tried very hard not to feel his eyes on her.

But she couldn’t ignore it when he spoke. “They think I’ve gone mad, you know.”

Lily didn’t speak.

“When I say we’ve snogged, they say I’m having hallucinations.”

Lily cleared her throat, “Well, why are you telling them we’ve snogged?” she asked, “A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell.”

James said, “Haven’t you told Alice?”

“I haven’t,” Lily replied. “Us snogging as friends is strictly between you and I.”

James ran his hands over his knees. “Oh,” he said.

Lily hugged her books tighter.

James took a deep breath. “Are you ashamed of me, Evans?”

She flushed. “Ashamed of you?”

“Well it’s just you had no problem telling everyone about Jasper Odair and you snogged him all over the place for everyone to see.”

Lily flushed all the harder. “That was… it was different.”

James said, “Yeah, ‘cos Jasper’s not me.”

Lily sighed, “Can’t we just… just not brag about it for a bit, James? Can’t we just keep a good thing and worry about it another time? I’m just not ready for people to know we’re snogging as friends.”

James crossed his legs like he was a little kid and picked at a loose thread in the carpet beneath him, his eyes fixed on it.

She lowered herself onto the carpet before him and reached out and took his hands up in hers. “James.”

He looked up at her.

“Just for now. Just between us. Please.”

He nodded slowly. “Alright, Evans.”

“Thank you.” And for good measure, she leaned forward and kissed his nose.

He brought one hand up to touch the spot she’d kissed him on, thinking that she had no idea how many things he felt.




Sirius finished off the essay and stared down at the parchment. McGonagall was quietly sipping tea as he blew the ink dry and got up and walked over to her desk and cleared his throat. “I’ve finished,” she told her.

She looked up and held out her hand for the essay. “Very good. Now off to your Charms class you go.” Sirius was surprised by the abruptness. He nodded as she put the essay down on the desk, atop a pile of other stuff at her left hand. He hovered a moment. She looked up at him. “Yes, Mr. Black?”

He paused, unsure how to word what he was wondering, unsure if he even knew.

She reached up and took her glasses off entirely and put them down on top of the paperwork she was doing and she cleared her throat, “Whatever that parchment says - whatever you might think of your grade, Sirius, I am verra proud of you.”

It was exactly the answer he’d wanted.