Minerva's Warning

November 1994

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

"Dumbledore, I need to speak with you?" said Minerva in very heavy tone.

Without waiting for Dumbledore to respond, she turned towards Snape, "Professor Snape, will you please leave us alone?"

Snape was taken aback by the venom in her tone and looked towards Dumbledore for a moment then back towards Minerva, "I don't think my presence here is causing any kind of hindrance…."

Snape was not even finished when Minerva whipped her wand and two spells left her wand. In moments a wooden showpiece on Dumbledore's table was transformed into a small metallic knife and then was levitated, pointing very close to Snape's eye.

"I am in no mood for this nonsense," boomed Minerva. "Don't test my patience."

Dumbledore glanced towards Snape and gave a subtle nod. The bat grimaced his face in frustration and walked out with quick strides from the headmaster's office.

Dumbledore sighed, "What made you so angry, Minerva?"

"Take a seat first," he added further.

Minerva ignored what Dumbledore spoke and she asked, "What are you trying to achieve?"

The old coot frowned, "I don't understand…"

"You very well do, Dumbledore," Minerva cut across.

"I am among those people who have known you for the longest time, headmaster. All the manipulations you do, the games you play, I am very well aware of it."

Her eyes were intense and tone venomous, "For years, I did not say anything because I believed that whatever you were doing was for the greater good. I allowed all that to happen because I did not want to get involved myself in any other thing other than teaching. I believed in you."

"You ran Hogwarts as if you were running the backyard of your house. You let the quality of education fall below to such a poor level. You allowed Snape's incompetency and discrimination run rampant. That disgusting man full of hatred was never qualified to be a professor. Many students especially from my house filed complaints against him and you just placed those in dustbins. I was too blind to see what you were doing."

She continued her voice cutting the air like a knife, "In name of promoting harmony you fostered hatred between the Gryffindors and Slytherins to such an extent that even after leaving Hogwarts then cannot let the hatred go away from their heart. In name of forgiveness, you allowed bullying. You normalised the words and deeds students like Malfoy did to muggle born like Hermione. What could have happened to Luna Lovegood was not the first instance when something like that happened in Hogwarts. But you did nothing. You allowed that disgusting man to continue as head of Slytherin who hate every other student from his core."

Dumbledore wanted to reply something at this point of time but Minerva continued, "Not only this, you kept all the muggle born ignorant. To think that even muggle born study muggle studies but nothing like wizard study. What is happening to Penelope Clearwater is not an exception but the normalisation. And what you do?"

Her voice boomed even scaring the hell out of previous headmasters hearing from their portraits, "You sit in your luxurious office. You go to meetings as the leader of light, talk big about kindness and all that stuff and then continue sitting. You knew very well what was going to happen to Penelope but you did nothing. With all the influence you hold you just blabber."

Dumbledore was still keeping his face neutral, "Minerva, I do not get what all you are talking. I may be a flawed man but what all you are saying is baseless."

Minerva sighed in defeated tone, "But you are not only one to be blamed. I also had my duties, my responsibilities and failed it."

Her voice chilled, "But not now, Dumbledore."

"I know very well what are you trying to do with Harry Potter. Just because he became independent, you are writing all these plots to bring him under control. I won't say much about all what have you done to him in the past and I will also not run away from the fact that I also failed in my duties for him."

Her eyes narrowed and voice extremely cold, "But what you did by using the name of James of Lily just for your political plots is a disgusting thing. I let it happen in front of my eyes but this was the last. Try that one more time and you will see what I can do."

She got up, her magic flaring wildly in the room, "This is my warning to you headmaster. Don't play these games anymore."

She started walking out of the room but stopped midway, "Also, control your pet dog. I hear a single word from his mouth insulting Harry or his father or I learn of a single instance of him targeting students of my house or for the matter of fact any other house then he would do well to remember that I can reduce him into dust in moments."

"Don't test me this time," she announced and left the headmaster's office.

As soon as the gate of his office was closed, Dumbledore screamed at the top of his lungs and with his wands fired few spells in and around the room in anger almost destroying everything.

"He is finally gone senile," commented one of the previous headmasters before running away.

It took some minutes for Dumbledore to calm down and with another wave of his every destroyed thing was restored to its previous condition.

He started to feel, Minerva turning distant from him since the start of the year but he had never expected her to go against him in such a manner.

Minerva going against him was a very big loss for him. She was one of the most respected women in the wizarding world. Even families and witches or wizards who had no respect for him, held Minerva in high regard because. Be it her no nonsense attitude, her strict character or her impartial nature were widely acknowledged and applauded.

Other than this she was a powerful witch. Dumbledore could think of only two names, Voldemort and himself, Albus Dumbledore who could go against her in a duel.

She was a loss which was hard to recover.

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