wisdom and war.

@partsplayed || some meme

     Minerva snorts a laugh at that – she can’t help but be of the mind that pointing out how adult you sound immediately makes you sound less adult. Surely proper adults don’t go around marveling at how adult they are; they just get on to business. 

     Then again – then again, this is one aspect of adulthood she’ll gladly take over the others. A large part of her still can’t believe that she of all people got married in the middle of a war, when there are so many other things to be focusing on. Except. Except that it’s brought a bright spot to what would otherwise be a whole lot of darkness (just like Dumbledore’s always saying, and of course he’s right). She feels entirely too adult entirely too much of the time, these days, in all the grimmest ways: exam stress feels so easy and so far away, now, when she, both of them, are carrying the responsibilities of war, of keeping their loved ones safe, of holding forth a resistance.

     Yes, with that in mind she’ll take the adultness of the word wife over the rest of it any day, a little bit silly or not.

     “A little too adult, if you ask me,” she responds primly, and only the sparkle in her eye betrays her fondness and her amusement. “People keep calling me Mrs., and I really don’t know that I like it, it makes me sound about forty.” She’s already itching to get out of her Ministry job, as soon as this war is over and they’ll let her loose – just you watch, she’s going to go and work at Hogwarts just so everyone has to call her Professor instead. Much nicer ring to it, that. 

been cheated on  |  been bullied | told a horrible lie  | stolen something of value | overdosed on drugs | been drunk | cheated | bullied | punched someone in the face | been beaten up | broken a bone | been admitted to a hospital  | had a near-death experience  | been drugged |  done drugs |  smoked  |  kissed someone you weren’t attracted to | bled severely | killed someone | had an attempt on your life |  made an attempt on your own life | lost someone | loved someone | gone without food for over three days | gone without sleep for over three days |  been tortured  | been slapped by a parent or higher up | been abused by someone who should have loved appreciated/valued you | had a panic attack | been in a car accident | had sex | had sex with a stranger | passed out from pain | cried yourself to sleep | spent a whole day in bed  | hurt yourself | taken your anger out on yourself | taken your anger out on someone you love | been used | felt used | used | been terrified | played a cruel game on someone | been dominant | been submissive | been forced to smile | felt too many things at once | laughed when you felt like crying

SURELY he has died. He’s certain of it. Why else would he be seeing Minerva, HERE, in the garden, well before her usual time home ? And yet the longer he looks at her ( he can only just turn his head to look her way ) the LESS certain he is that his WIFE is just a specter summoned in the the THROWS of his death. She kneels next to him, panic in her voice, and he KNOWS her to be real.

He has HOPE.

It continues to HURT but doesn’t as he lifts his uninjured hand all of a CENTIMETER to point to the plant he had inadvertently crushed upon the onset of the paralysis. Given his current state, he’s not all too BOTHERED by losing it. Then he looks DOWN towards his right side and forces out words as best as he can.

❝ Bot…tle… pock…et… ❞ It’s all the more he can MANAGE as the poison creeps STEADILY towards his vital organs. Elphinstone can feel his heart constricting already, and he knows he doesn’t have much time left. He HOPES she understands. Just in case…  ❝ Love… you… Min… erva. ❞

     Minerva’s eyes lock with Elphinstone’s, begging their swimming, unfocused pupils to see her, to prove to her that he’s still here. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t see his wound at first, doesn’t take in the source of the bleeding until he moves his hand, just enough to gesture at the plant lying strangled and crushed. And she may not be the gardener and herbologist that Elphinstone is, but she recognizes the Venomous Tentacula when she sees it.

     “Oh, Elph,” she gasps, horror and reproach and fear. She’d said it was hardly a safe thing to plant in a garden, she’d known it was dangerous, but Elphinstone had said he enjoyed the challenge, and now--

     “Don’t you dare,” she snaps shakily in response to his weak, rattling declaration of love. Fear and urgency pushes her to movement, and she’s scrambling to do as he says, to reach inside his pocket and pull out the vial inside. “Don’t you dare act like that, don’t you dare die on me after everything else, I won’t allow it,” and it’s a forced bravado that keeps the words coming out, but hasn’t she always tried to hold back fate with the power of her will? 

     Her hands close around the bottle and she yanks it out, fumbling for the cap only to realize she has no idea -- is this ingested or topical? Should she be pouring it on the wound or into his mouth? God damn it, she isn’t Pomona or Horace or Poppy or Elphinstone himself, but if she loses him because she didn’t know what to do with the antidote -- no, her brain tells her, dredging up the information, Venomous Tentacula venom spreads throughout the body in a manner of minutes, surely that amount of poison can’t be drawn out from the wound after it’s started to spread, it must be ingested--

@all-my-potter-babies || questions for muns of canon muses || accepting!

13 is answered here!

11. For book muses, what is a scene with your muse that you hate? Why? Can you provide a short excerpt?

oh, wow, this is a difficult question. i’m not sure there are any scenes from the books that i can say i hate. for me, if i “hate” a scene, i think it’s because it’s done badly, that the characterization was wrong in some way. i don’t “hate” scenes even if bad things happen to my character, as long as it’s done well -- because i’m still just happy to see them in action and in conflict. so, like, i could say i hate the scene where minerva takes all those stunners, for example, but i don’t; it’s a great character moment, even though she doesn’t really get to do much.

i can’t really think of any scenes with minerva from the main books that i’d say i hate; i like them all because she’s in them lmao. but uh, can i count cursed child? because boy does that give me a better pool to draw from. it’s probably obvious, but i hate the scene where harry tells minerva she can’t understand because she doesn’t have children! because it’s incredibly insulting to her!

here’s the excerpt:

PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: Harry, you've been put under enormous pressure, the loss of Albus, the search for him, the fears as to what your scar might mean. But trust me when I tell you, you are making a mistake.  HARRY: Albus didn't like me before. He might not like me again. But he will be safe. With the greatest respect, Minerva -- you don't have children --  GINNY: Harry!  HARRY: -- you don't understand.  PROFESSOR McGONAGALL (deeply hurt): I'd hope that a lifetime spent in the teaching profession would mean . . .  HARRY: This map will reveal to you where my son is at all times -- I expect you to use it. And if I hear you don't -- then I will come down on this school as hard as I can -- using the full force of the Ministry -- is that understood?  PROFESSOR McGONAGALL (bewildered by this vitriol): Perfectly.

i don’t even think i have to explain why the idea that harry would speak to minerva this way is just. deeply distasteful and insulting to her character. like, obviously there’s the point we all know about and rightfully disdain, the “you don’t have children,” as if she hasn’t spent her life raising children, but also? she’s hogwarts headmistress? and you’re threatening her? not only are you asking her to dedicate her time to chasing down a couple of children as if she doesn’t have actual responsibilities (earlier he tells albus that minerva will “watch your every movement” and “come flying” if she sees them together, as if she has nothing better to do!), but you’re explicitly threatening to bring the might of the ministry down on her if she doesn’t fall into your beck and call?

questions for muns of canon muses || accepting!

oh, umbridge, for sure.

@exposensei​ || questions for muns of canon muses || accepting!

oh, plenty.

for one thing, i developed her whole family; we knew about her parents and brothers and the fact that nieces and nephews existed, but i gave them birthdays and hogwarts houses and occupations and, in the case of the nieces and nephews, names, all in a timeline here

we got to see some of her history in pottermore, but i fleshed a lot of it out, most notably what she did during the first war, which we never really got to see at all!! i also turned the little info we get about her and elphinstone’s relationship into a great big two-part meta. i also decided what department she worked for at the ministry and, of course, how she fared after 1998.

send a canon scene for me to write from minerva’s perspective || accepting? i guess?

     Minerva’s mind is reeling.

     Her body is moving with calm purpose. This is a skill she has developed over many, many years as a professor and, dare she say it, occasional fighter – the ability to let a veneer of businesslike practicality run the show even when her brain is scrambling to catch up. She’s marching swiftly down the corridors, and to anyone else’s eye she would look like a solitary figure roused from her bed, still in her dressing gown. But she is keenly aware of the invisible footsteps pattering along behind her as she descends Ravenclaw tower and hurries through the castle.

     She had not been sleeping, before Amycus’s yelling had drawn her from her quarters to investigate. How could she? After Terry Boot’s outburst about Potter and dragons at dinner, after the terse orders Snape and his pet Death Eaters had given to the rest of the staff, their manner somewhere between frightened and excited, warning them not to speak with the students…They were expecting something, clearly. Whether it had to do with Potter or not, whether those rumors about the dragon had any truth or not, Minerva didn’t know – but she could not rest on a night when Death Eaters were feeling anticipatory.

     And yet the last thing she had expected was to have two fugitive teenagers trotting invisible at her heels, planning to make a stand against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named himself. The last thing she expected was to be planning siege tactics in her head, composing a list of the best defensive spells they can muster as her Patronuses streak away to tell Pomona, Filius, and Horace to prepare to fight.

     To prepare to fight.

     Even as alarm and fear hastens her footsteps, even as her body aches from the abuse it has taken over the past year, the thought puts a steel strength in her step, a fresh elation of defiance. She did not expect this. She did not dare hope or fear for it on this night. But she is ready for it. If this is truly the day when all things come to a head, if Potter says that his mission here is important enough to risk the wrath of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in person, then she is ready to put herself between them.

     She is ready to take her home back.