Taking A Sneak Peek

Set after Prisoner of Azkaban.

The wind that howled round the castle's walls was like ice, the lake was a solid sheet of frozen steel, and icicles hung from tree branches like crystals on a chandelier. The dark sky was cloudless, and speckled with stars on this winter's eve, just a few days after Christmas.

Arthur and Molly Weasley were spending a merry evening with their friends, Albus and Minerva. The crimson and gold tapestries on the walls of Albus' private sitting room glowed richly, in the flickering flames from the warm fire, as the four lounged contentedly in mismatched floral armchairs, with large soft cushions and seats so comfortable that you were tempted to stay there forever. They were sipping large mugs of Albus' latest hot chocolate experiment - the old wizard had a long held ambition to write a book of hot chocolate recipes, frequently testing his creations on his long suffering friends. His present concoction was an eye melting mix of cocoa and Ogden's Old Firewhiskey, topped with giant swirls of whipped cream, gaily coloured marshmallows, and sugar sprinkles in a vibrant array of rainbow hues. Thinking that people needed to relax after recent events, Albus had been rather liberal with the fire whiskey, and Minerva, who had at first turned her nose up at the garish concoction, was now on her third giant mug, and pronouncing it, "Quite delicious," as her cheeks grew ever more flushed.

The four friends had played several highly competitive games of wizard chess, argued vehemently over Quidditch tactics, reminisced over old times, and outright rejected Albus' suggestion of a snowball fight with sherbert lemons instead of snow. Only the crackling of coals in the hearth, and Albus humming to himself as he gazed into the fire with bright faraway eyes, could be heard. Arthur's eyes had fluttered half shut, as his ginger head rested lightly on his chest. Minerva's glasses had slipped down her nose, as she too seemed to be dozing.

Molly took several more gulps of hot chocolate, from a mug which seemed to have an espeicially large amount of firewhiskey added to it, making her eyes water, and her already scarlet cheeks shine even brighter. Slamming the cup down on the table, she stared around her in exasperation, "Look at us dozing by the fire as though we are already old !" she complained, "We should have some fun like we used to."

"Some of us are old, my dear Molly," Albus murmured, momentarily roused from his contemplations.

"Speak for yourself Albus !" Molly snorted, "You've always been old !"

Albus chuckled lightly, his bright blue eyes sparkling benignly beneath bushy silver eyebrows.

Molly's next target was her half awake husband, who got a firm prod in his ribs from his wife's elbow. His only response was to murmur, "Yes dear, I'm just going to ..." before drifting off again.

"Minerva !" Molly entreated, "I know you used to pull some pranks in your day, you used to be worse than my twins. Remember that time when you enchanted Professor Binn's blackboard so that it blew raspberries and made faces at him every time he tried to write on it ? And what about the time you transfigured Albus' favourite socks into cornish pixies, and they stole all his candy ..."

"I knew that was you !" Albus said, as he attempted a disapproving glare at Minerva.

Desperate to hide the giggles that longed to emerge at remembering such things, Minerva took a long slow gulp of alcohol laced hot chocolate, set her face into what she hoped was a serious expression and answered firmly. "That was a long time ago Molly."

Molly swayed slightly as she got unsteadily to her feet, arms on hips she glared fiercily at Minerva, "You, Minerva McGonagall, have got old and boring !"

"I have not !" Minerva snarled, as she too rose to her feet, wobbled slightly as though about to tumble backwards into her chair, and just managed to support herself at the last moment with her hands. Minerva glared at Molly, their noses so close they were almost touching, "You tell me what you want to do and I'll do it !"

"I don't know. What do you wanna do ?" Molly slurred, then descended into a helpless fit of giggles, forehead resting shaking against Minerva's, who was also starting to giggle.

"I wonder if I was a little too heavy handed with the firewhiskey ?" Albus muttered to himself, as he watched the two women sink slowly to the floor in a giggling heap. Still they did seem happy as they sat legs intwined giggling like schoolgirls, and making wild plans, so Albus returned to his contemplations - unable to completely rid himself of worries about the future, about Harry and the others.

A few minutes later, Albus was roused from his thoughts by Minerva stating that she wanted to know what, "That muggle woman who's writing about us has got planned for us next, so let's go and ask her. After all we have a right to know."

The sparkle in Albus' blue eyes intensified, his attention suddenly completely on his wife and Molly, "I doubt she would tell us, she is determined to keep it a secret you know."

"But we have a right to know, it does affect our lives after all ..." Minerva protested.

"I know ... I know ..." Albus murmured, "All we can do is wait ...unless ...we could sneak in and look at her notes for the remaining books ... of course that might be considered dishonest ..."

"Pft !" Minerva snorted, "How can looking at notes about what happens to us possibly be dishonest ? Let's go ! Come on Molly !" Minerva reached out a long arm, and hauled Molly unceremoniously to her feet.

"I think we should make some plans first." Albus stated. As Minerva opened her mouth to protest, he added persuasively, "And I can whip up another batch of my special hot chocolate, which you seem to like so much."

A few minutes later there were fresh mugs of steaming hot chocolate on the table - this time with a little less firewhiskey in. A fuzzy headed Arthur had been roused from his slumbers by a flurry of purple sparks from Albus' wand, which hovered briefly over his nodding ginger hair, before popping loudly. Once Arthur had ceased rubbing his eyes, and grumbling, Albus explained that the notes describing what would happen in the final two books of the series were actually stored in a tightly locked bank vault - not in the author's home, as Minerva had thought.

When he heard that they would need to break into a bank, Arthur let out a whoop of joy, "I've always wanted to do a proper muggle bank robbery !"

While Arthur spent the next few minutes explaining in excited tones, how you did a muggle bank robbery - something he only knew about from watching old muggle films, where everyone wore masks or stockings on their heads, and black clothing - Albus gazed pensively out of the window, at the midnight blue skies and gleaming full moon. Severus was doubtless alone in his chambers, deep in the castle's dungeons - the potions master spent far too many nights in lonely solitude. He had been invited to tonight's gathering, but had steadfastly refused, no matter what Albus said.

"We need Severus' help with this," Albus stated firmly, "He's the most experienced at things like this." Albus thought it best not to add that he could do with at least one sober person if their venture was not to end with them all getting caught.

"Then lesh go get Sevy then !" Molly got unsteadily to her feet, "Coming Minnie ?"

"Don't call me Minnie !" Minerva snapped, as she followed the rest of them out of the room.

Author's Notes

This is not going to turn into yet another characters read the books story, I have entirely different plans for this. The whole stealing the notes thing is really just an excuse for what I hope will be lots of fun and humour. Though there will be a point when Albus, Minerva and the others do discover some things about their intended fates, and have to deal with that.

Please do review and let me know if you enjoyed this first chapter. Reviews are great inspiration when writing multi chapter stories, it's nice to know if people have found things I write as amusing as I hope. :) This story hopes to show a far lighter side of Minerva than we normally see, I needed the help of Albus' fire whiskey laced hot chocolate to achieve this. ;)