Leap Before You Look
by: Minniequill
Each lover has a theory of his own
About the difference between the ache
Of being with his love, and being alone
To my dear reader,
If you happen to be reading this letter then it is a probable assumption that I am now dead. I do not feel particularly happy about this revelation, but I am now 120-years-old and I feel I should put to paper the 'untold story' of Voldemort's defeat. In the following pages you will find the entire story, a collection of journal entries (some of which have been added to), newspaper clippings as well as some general notes. Not all of these pages have been written by my own hand. There are entries from Harry Potter himself, as well as the great Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom. They tell a story of a woman who would sacrifice herself for the cause. A woman whose name you will never read about in any history textbook. A woman whose name will however remain engraved on the Quidditch cup that still resides in her former office.
This woman's name was Minerva McGonagall.
And she was the love of my life.
Oddly enough the true story begins in my seventh year at Hogwarts. After numerous arguments with myself and Hermione, Harry did return there for his 7th year of schooling. He was given extra tutelage from Minerva; which gave him the magical prowess to defeat Voldemort. I could tell you of the previous six years, but they are unimportant and I will not bore you with the details.
Now, on with the story. It began, oddly enough, with an inept student and a spilled potion…
September 14th 1997 – Hermione's diary
I don't know quite what to write. Today started out as an ordinary day and then…well it turned into complete chaos to be perfectly frank. Let's just say we now have a 17-year-old Transfiguration Professor and Headmistress.
I should explain: We had double potions with Slughorn (who is still trying to run that foul 'Slug club') and were brewing a fairly simple sleeping draught. It was about half-way into the lesson when Professor McGonagall marched inside without a word and headed directly toward the front. Slughorn heard her coming and by the look of his face, he was scared. Mind you, McGonagall is scary when she's angry.
Anyway, Slughorn stood up as McGonagall drew level with him and they began whispering. We could only hear hisses and everyone leaned forward to try and eavesdrop. Which is never a good idea when brewing a potion. To cut a long story short, Neville added porcupine quills instead of powered asphodel (don't ask me how he got them mixed up) and BANG! His cauldron exploded…and the entire potion spilled onto McGonagall. She went rigid and then this blue light burst from her fingertips. We were all backing away as fast as we could but I was at the front and could still see everything clearly. She began hyperventilating and took off her outer cloak to make it easier to breathe. That was when her body started changing. It was so weird! Her waist became slimmer (if that were possible) and her entire body firmer. And her face! All of her wrinkles vanished in one go and her hair fell from its bun as it grew longer and longer until it reached the small of her back.
Finally the blue light vanished and we all just stared at her. Somehow Neville had managed to make a de-aging potion and instead of a 71-year-old witch, there stood an extremely attractive woman who couldn't have been more than 17. Ha! Look, the numbers are inverted.
Needless to say McGonagall got the shock of her life when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror on the wall opposite. She went deathly pale and had to grip the desk to stop herself falling.
"Longbottom," she said hoarsely, "You just earned yourself a fortnight's worth of detention."
She stood to her full height then and looked down at everyone. I had never realised just how tall she was before then. But she was taller than everyone in the class, except Ron and Dean.
"Close your mouth, Weasley," she snapped irritably, taking her glasses off and putting them in her pocket, "Horace, get the antidote ready."
Ron went beetroot red as he stopped gaping at her and looked down at the floor. Slughorn then moved forward, also not looking her in the eye.
"There isn't one."
McGonagall looked to swell with rage, but when she spoke, her voice was calm.
"Excuse me?"
"There's no antidote," Slughorn said, now fingering his wand. Which was probably a sensible idea as McGonagall looked as if she was about to breathe fire.
"No antidote?"
Slughorn shook his head as he inched away from her.
"So I'm 17 again?"
Slughorn nodded as he looked furtively toward the door.
McGonagall shook her head roughly as if she could make the last five minutes disappear. "Oh Merlin, I'm 17 again."
She walked straight out of the room then, leaving us behind. Thankfully Slughorn dismissed us and we headed straight for dinner. Everyone looked shell-shocked, and when I looked up at the staff table, I saw why. McGonagall was sitting in her usual chair. She'd changed her robes and redone her hair into its usual bun, but that did not change the fact that she looked 17. Of course, Harry launched into the whole story and by the time he'd finished the entire school knew all the details.
So there you have it! We now have a 17-year-old Headmistress. Tomorrow is going to be a very interesting Transfiguration lesson. Poor Neville…
Added notes:- I was not gaping at her! I just had to clarify that.
Dear reader,
Hermione, as always, has embellished the details, but the above is a reasonably accurate account of what happened during that fateful potions lesson. We found out later that Minerva had been arguing with Slughorn about the fact he had not informed her that he had come into contact with Bellatrix Lestrange's husband (I never can remember his name).
It turns out that Slughorn received a letter from Lestrange requesting his allegiance to the Dark Side. Thankfully he didn't accept but Minerva was furious for not telling him! She'd taken over the role of Leader of the Order of the Phoenix after Dumbledore was murdered, as well as her job of Headmistress and Transfiguration Professor (she could find no one to fill the post). Slughorn didn't think that the note was important but there was some sort of listening device (very James Bond) in the parchment and the Death Eaters had been able to hear every conversation in Slughorn's office.
Luckily they hadn't heard anything too important and Minerva blew up the parchment with a well placed 'Vindicato!' Rumour has it that the resulting bang could be heard from Hogsmeade.
Anyway, back to the story…
Author's note:- So…what do you guys think? Now this is definitely not my usual fic and I will only continue if I get some feedback. Hope you guys liked it anyway. Cheers. Minniequill
Another note:- the story title is from W.H Auden's poem 'Leap Before You Look' and the chapter title is from IV of 'Twelve Songs' also by W.H Auden. Not that I'm a huge fan or anything…