Chapter Nine: October 1953

Chapter Nine: October 1953

Albus appeared in Alastor Moody’s bedroom in a flash of flame. Before Moody could respond to the intrusion, Albus had disarmed Alastor and Conjured up ropes, binding him to the bed. Albus’s wand pointed at his throat.

“Why did you do this to me? To Minerva? To our daughter?” he hissed, his entire body trembling with fury. His robes whipped as a wind appeared in the room, a result of his magic beginning to lose control. Alastor quailed under Albus’s furious gaze.

“Wha-what?” he stammered, trying to play dumb.

“Why did you do this to us?” he asked him again, more impatiently.

“Your mother told me to,” he said, quaking under his glare.

“Continue,” Albus growled.

“She offered me the position as Head of the Auror Department if I’d make sure that you wouldn’t take up with Minerva. And when you did, I was to make sure that she wouldn’t survive the battle. When she did survive, your mother told me to cast the Imperius Curse on you to make sure that you’d be happy with Colleen, and I did.”

“My mother?” Albus shouted. “My mother did this?”

“Yes, she did,” Alastor said.

“My God,” Albus said, turning away from him for a moment. He walked over to the Floo, bent down, and tossed the sparkling powder into the fireplace, calling out “Kendra Dumbledore”, and sticking his head into the flames.

“Hello, darling,” his mother said, pulling a chair up to her fireplace. “How are you?”

“I know what you did, Mother,” he said. “How could you?”

Kendra tried to laugh off her son’s accusations. “What in Merlin’s name are you going on about, Albus?” she asked him, laughing nervously.

“Why did you have Alastor try to have Minerva killed? And why did you have him cast the Imperius Curse on me so that I’d be 'happy' with Colleen? How could you, Mother?”

As Albus shouted at her, his mother’s countenance changed from an indulgent mother to a stern, flinty matriarch.

“The real question is how could you, Albus? Taking up with that McGonagall girl would ruin our family’s reputation! How could you, Albus?”

“Congratulations, Mother,” he snapped. “You have ruined the lives of three people: myself, Minerva, and our daughter. And Merlin help me if I ever find out that you have tried to manipulate my life again. Don’t ever come near us again.” He pulled his head out of the flames, his mother’s shocked, angry expression burned on his brain.

He turned back into the room, facing Alastor again. “Don’t ever come near me – or Minerva and our daughter – again,” he hissed, throwing his wand on Alastor’s nightstand. “Fawkes!” Albus called, and the phoenix appeared. Albus grabbed his tail, and he and the phoenix disappeared in a burst of flame, leaving Alastor tied on the bed.

Once more, a fireball appeared in Minerva’s bedroom, and Minerva looked up from her bed, her face tearstained. She was cradling their sleeping daughter in her arms, stroking her hair. Albus came over to the bed, kneeling at Minerva’s side.

“My mother had Alastor put the Imperius Curse on me,” he whispered, his voice full of anger.

“Your mother?” she asked, shocked, forgetting to whisper. Their daughter stirred in her arms.

He nodded. “My mother did not want us to be together; she had Alastor leave you at the battlefield in hopes that you would die; she had him do everything it took to keep us apart.”

“But why?” Minerva whispered, distraught.

“Because she thought that if we were together, it would ruin the Dumbledore reputation,” he spat out. “I told her – and Alastor too – to never come near us again. I will never forgive them for the pain they caused us.”

Albus reached out tentatively and took her hand; she allowed him to entwine his fingers with hers.

“Everything will be different from now on, Minerva,” he whispered. “I promise.”

“I hope so, Albus,” she said. “I hope so.”

She moved over on the bed and patted the now-empty space. He looked at her with questioning eyes, and she nodded. He smiled at her tentatively, and she returned his smile, leaning her head against his shoulder. He placed a light kiss on the top of her head.

“I love you, Minerva,” he whispered.

“And I love you,” she replied.

The next morning, Marlene woke up to a sight she had never seen before – both of her parents together. Her mother had her head resting on Albus’s shoulder, and he had his arm around her. Quietly, carefully, she got out of bed and left the room, writing a note to her parents and placing it on the kitchen table before getting dressed and going down to the shore, allowing her parents some much-needed alone time.

A few hours later, Albus stirred, waking up from the most peaceful night’s rest he’d had in years. He tightened his embrace, and she sighed contentedly before waking up herself.

“Is this a dream?” she murmured, burying her face in his beard.

“No, it’s not,” he said, tilting her face up so that he could kiss her lips lightly. Still not fully awake, she returned his kiss without any reservations, turning in his arms to embrace him fully. She moaned as his tongue sought entrance into her mouth, and she granted him access. He rolled her over, bringing one hand to the back of her neck to undo the clasp of her nightgown; she brought her hands to the front of his robes, trying to unfasten them.

Suddenly, their clothes were gone, Vanished by Albus as a result of wandless magic, and he kissed her again, drawing her tongue into his mouth as he entered her. She arched her back, her moans muffled as they continued to kiss, and she began to come as he brought one hand to her clitoris, rubbing it as he thrust within her.

They broke out of the kiss to breathe, and she cried out to him. “Albus!”

“Oh, Minerva,” he moaned as he pushed into her one final time before he climaxed.

He collapsed on top of her, and she held him tightly in her arms. Waving his hand, the sheets came up from the foot of the bed and covered them. He rolled over, bringing her with him, and she snuggled into his warmth. She smiled against his chest.

“I love you, Minerva,” he said. “I am so sorry for everything; so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?”

“I’ll forgive you,” she whispered. “As long as you come back to me.”

“I’ll never leave you again, my love,” he told her. “As long as it is in my power, I’ll never leave you again.”

“Good,” she said. “Good.”