Title:  Dumbledore does Dallas

By:  tayryn

Rating:  FRAO

Disclaimer:  JK Rowling owns the HP world.  I’m just messing around in it… having some fun with Albus and Minerva.

Notes:  Answer to Challenge #36 on the AD/MM board.

Summary:  Minerva’s having nightmares.

 

WARNING!!!!:  this story contains spoilers for the sixth Harry Potter book!  If you’ve not read it yet (and by now you should have) don’t read any further!!

 

Thanks, as usual, to my beta, Jaya!

 

~o~

 

Avada Kedavra!”

 

A jet of green light shot out through the darkness and hit Dumbledore squarely in the chest.  He flew back in the air, and hung suspended beneath the sickening, green, glowing skull in the night sky, then fell slowly backwards.

 

“NOOOO!!  ALBUS!!!”

 

 

Minerva bolted up in her bed, her heart racing out of control, and gulped for breath as she blindly reached out for her husband.  When her fingers encountered his beard, her hand burrowed through the thick hair to lay flat against his warm chest.  A relieved sigh escaped her lips when she felt his heart beating rhythmically beneath her palm; his chest rising and falling with each deep breath he took.

 

Minerva drew in a shaky breath, as she wiped absently at the tears that were coursing down her pale cheeks.

 

“It was just a dream,” she whispered.  “Just a dream…”

 

But even those words couldn’t stop the frantic beating of her heart.  Minerva turned and looked down at her sleeping husband, the icy cold fear from her nightmare once again wrapping itself around her heart.

 

‘Oh, Albus… I don’t know what I would do if I lost you…’ Minerva thought to herself and was suddenly filled with an urge to be with Albus.  She shifted closer, and slid her body on top of his then began to ply his weathered face with kisses.

 

“Albus…” Minerva called his name in between presses of her lips.  “Albus, my love…”

 

Albus groaned his wife’s name as a wave of pleasure pulled him from his peaceful slumber.  “Tabby…?”

 

“I want you,” Minerva purred as she covered his mouth with hers, and pushed her tongue passed his lips into his mouth.

 

Albus moaned as he responded helplessly to Minerva’s ministrations; his member growing hard beneath the constant rocking of her hips against his.  He wrapped his arms around her, sliding his hands into her thick black hair, and broke off the kiss.  “Not that I am complaining,” Albus said, his blue eyes twinkling brightly with obvious arousal.  “But what brought this on?”

 

“You did…” Minerva responded as she slipped her hand between the close press of their bodies and, with a slight raising and thrusting of her hips, she took his swollen shaft into her body.

 

“I… oh, Merlin…” Albus groaned when Minerva pulled out of his arms and rose up to straddle him.  He lifted his hands to her breasts, cupping the full mounds and twisting the tight, dusky nipple with his fingers as Minerva began to ride him.

 

Albus quickly forgot his question as the two lovers lost themselves in each other.

 

~o~

 

“Be safe, Albus…” Minerva said softly, the worry evident in her voice, as she helped her husband into his robe.  “Promise me you will not take any chances.”

 

“I promise.”  Albus told her then turned to face her.  “You have nothing to worry about, my dear.”  He said, seeing the anxious look on Minerva’s face.

 

Minerva gave him a disbelieving look as she reached out for his right hand.  She lifted the blackened appendage and held it tenderly against her chest.  She met his eyes with a wry smile on her lips.

 

“Yes… well…” Albus began.  “It was necessary at the time…”

 

“I know you have to do this Albus… I accept that,” Minerva said.  “I always have.  And I believe you’re doing the right thing in helping Harry in his fight against Vol…” she swallowed.  “…Voldemort.  But not at the cost of your own life,” Minerva finished with a whisper as images from the recurring nightmare flashed through her mind.

 

They had started the night before Albus had left the first time in search of information on the dark lord several months ago, and hadn’t stopped.  Each night she would awaken, crying out her husband’s name, and shaking violently in fear.  On nights when Albus was home, Minerva would turn to him and lose herself in his embrace… in his body… using their lovemaking as a way to wipe the frightful images of her husband’s death from her mind.

 

“Tabby…”

 

Minerva shook her head as Albus’ voice pulled her from her thoughts.  “I’m sorry, Albus… I just got lost in my thoughts.”

 

“So I noticed,” Albus smiled down at her as he lifted his good hand up to cup her cheek.  “Anything you’d care to share?”

 

“No… just some random thoughts,” Minerva said and forced a smile.  “Nothing to concern yourself with.  You have more important things to worry about… like keeping yourself and Harry safe.  Are you sure it’s a wise idea to bring him along with you tonight, Albus?”

 

“Yes.  I promised Harry that I would take him with me, and you’re not going to get away with it.”  Albus told her.

 

“Get away with what?”

 

“Trying to change the subject.”

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Minerva said as she turned away from him and walked across their bedroom to stand before the window.  She heard Albus sigh then listened to the sound of his quiet footsteps as he crossed the room to join her.

 

“I know about the nightmares, my dear.”  Albus whispered in her ear as he wrapped his arms around her from behind and pulled her back against his chest.  “Tell me… maybe I can help.”

 

“They’re nothing, Albus.  Just some silly dreams.  Nothing to worry about, really.”

 

“Minerva…”

 

“How did you find out?”  Minerva asked in a quiet voice, her eyes focused on the window.

 

“I overheard you talking with Rolanda…”

 

~o~

 

“Tell me,” Rolanda Hooch suddenly appeared at Minerva’s side, startling McGonagall as she walked down the long corridor towards the Great Hall for breakfast.  “Why is that our Deputy Headmistress looks so tired… yet again?  Can it be the same reason our esteemed Headmaster does?  Although he is walking around with an extra bounce in his step, and a brighter twinkle in his eye.”

 

Minerva shook her head. 

 

“Oh come on, Min… you can tell me.”  Hooch grinned.  “Although I don’t know if I want to know all the raunchy details about my boss’ sex life.”  She shuddered.  “But it must have been some night… then again, come to think of it… you both have been looking a little more worse for the wear than usual…” a grin suddenly formed on the Quidditch professor’s face.  “Must be all that making up for lost time!  If the castle’s a’rockin…”

 

“Not now, Ro…”

 

Hooch’s voice trailed off, and her grin fell away at the clipped tone from her friend.  She looked carefully at Minerva and was shocked to see the deep dark circles under her eyes.  “Merlin, Min… you look like hell!”

 

“Thank you,” Minerva replied dryly.

 

“Sorry.  But you do.  You look like you haven’t slept in months.”

 

“I haven’t…” Minerva whispered.

 

“What!?  Why not?  What’s wrong?  You and Albus haven’t been fighting have you?  I know you’ve not been happy with his taking off for days at a time…”

 

“No,” Minerva shook her head.  “That’s not it.  I understand why he’s been going and I support him wholeheartedly in that… and we’ve not been fighting.  You yourself just noted that Albus is walking around with an extra bounce in his step and a twinkle in his eyes… fighting is the last thing we’ve been doing.”

 

Hooch couldn’t help but grin at that.  “Then what is it?  Come on, Min… you can tell me.”  Rolanda urged her friend when she sensed her reluctance.

 

Minerva waged an inner battle as she struggled with the decision to confide in her friend or not.  Finally she sighed and spoke in a quiet voice.  “I’ve been having horrible nightmares.”

 

“What about?”

 

Minerva shuddered as the image of Albus flying over the battlements, and falling lifeless to the ground below filled her mind.  She shook her head as tears came unbidden to her eyes.  “I can’t…”

 

Hooch reached out to pull her friend into her arms but Minerva stepped away.  “Min…”

 

“It’s horrible… just horrible, and it scares the life out of me.”  Minerva told her.  “I wake up shaking, and unable to breathe.  And the only thing that helps chase the images away is Albus… making love to him… losing myself in his embrace.”

 

“Must be some nightmare…” Hooch said quietly.  “Have you told Albus about it?”  She asked, already knowing the answer, as she knew how stubborn her friend was.

 

“No.”

 

“And why not?”

 

“Because he has too much to worry about already.  The fight against Vol… the dark lord, keeping the protections around Hogwarts up, and I didn’t want to burden him with worrying about…”

 

“His wife!”  Hooch cut in.  “You’re his wife, for Merlin’s sake!  Dumbledore would not consider you a burden.”

 

“I know… but I just…” Minerva shook her head.  “I can’t.”

 

“Minerva…”

 

“No!  Please, Rolanda…”

 

“Is Albus even aware as to why he’s been getting so lucky lately or have you been keeping that from him too?”

 

“Ro…”

 

“Min, you’ve got to tell him… you know what they say… talking about nightmares helps.”

 

“I know, and I will… just not yet.  Albus needs to concentrate on his work, not on worrying about whether or not I’m having a nightmare.  Besides, I’m a big girl.  I can handle this myself.”

 

Hooch shook her head.

 

“Promise me you won’t say anything to him,” Minerva asked her friend.

 

“Min…”

 

“Ro… please…”

 

Hooch sighed then nodded.  “Fine… all right, I promise.”

 

Minerva gave her friend a small smile.  “Thank you, Rolanda.  Now… we’d better hurry or we will be late for breakfast.”

 

With that McGonagall resumed her journey down the corridor, Hooch a couple of paces behind her.  Neither one noticing the tall, silver-haired man stepping out of the shadows with a sad look on his face; his eyes void of their usual twinkle.

 

He sighed.

 

~o~

 

“Why didn’t you come to me?”

 

Minerva sighed.

 

“I’ve known for the last few weeks that something was off… that you were keeping something from me…” Albus told her.  “Why didn’t you tell me… let me help you?”

 

Minerva turned her head sharply.  “But you did help me!”

 

“I didn’t mean with sex, my dear.  Why didn’t you tell me you were having nightmares… it was… is obviously scaring you terribly for you to seek solace with your body.”

 

“I… it wasn’t just sex…” Minerva whispered as she once again looked out the window.  “It was… an affirmation,” she told him. 

 

“An affirmation?”  Albus repeated then tightened his arms around her.  “Tell me, Tabby… tell me what the nightmare was about.”

 

Minerva opened her mouth to tell him, but again the image of the green bolt striking her husband’s chest… killing him and sending him flying entered her mind, and she clamped her lips shut and turned in his arms; burying her face in his chest as she began to cry.

 

Albus held her tightly, his own eyes filling with tears as he felt Minerva’s soak through his robe.  It was killing him knowing that his wife… his best friend… his lover… his Tabby… was hurting, and had been hurting for months, but he hadn’t been astute enough to see it before it had gone too far.

 

“That’s it… let it out...” Albus murmured into Minerva’s hair as he rubbed her back in soothing circles.  “I’m here, my love… I’m here… I’m not going anywhere…”

 

~o~

 

Avada Kedavra!”

 

A jet of green light shot out through the darkness and hit Dumbledore squarely in the chest.  He flew back in the air, and hung suspended beneath the sickening, green, glowing skull in the night sky, then fell slowly backwards.

 

“NOOOO!!!  ALBUS!!!”

 

The scream rent the air as Minerva ran to the parapet, and her eyes followed her husband’s now lifeless body as it plummeted down several stories to the ground.  Another tortured scream escaped her when she saw his body hit the grass below.

 

“Out of here… quickly…” Minerva heard a voice say.

 

She looked around, and was stunned when she recognized Severus.  “No…” she shook her head, not wanting to believe it… not after all the years Albus had been convinced of Snape’s change of affiliation to the light, despite what everyone else around him had thought.  Her eyes widened when suddenly, Harry Potter appeared from nowhere and stunned the one remaining Death Eater before he took off down the stairs.

 

Minerva took off moments later, following young Potter down the winding steps and through the castle but once her feet encountered the cool ground, Minerva detoured around the stone wall in search of her husband’s body.  Knowing that he was dead… knowing that there was no way even for the Greatest Wizard of our time, to survive both the killing curse and such a long fall… but nevertheless still praying that somehow he had survived… that he hadn’t been taken from her, Minerva continued to search.

 

“Oh… god… Albus…” Minerva gasped when she finally found him.  She dropped to her knees beside him and gathered his bent body in her arms.  “Oh, Albus…” she swiped angrily at the tears blurring her vision as she straightened his slightly skewed half-moon spectacles on his crooked nose.  “Please… don’t leave me… don’t…” Minerva began then suddenly screamed into the night.  “AAALLLBBBUUUSSSS!”

 

The next few days were a blur for Minerva.  Somehow she was able to pull herself together, and burying her despair behind the strict mask of professionalism she’d crafted over the years to help her get through the days that followed. 

 

It wasn’t until after Albus’ funeral, when she was alone in his… no… her office, and looked at the new portrait that hung on the wall… the portrait of her husband, that she finally let the mask fall away, and once more gave into her grief.

 

“Oh… god… Albus…” Minerva collapsed in a heap on the floor, her body wracked with heaving sobs.  “… oh, my love…”

 

“Minerva!”

 

Minerva ignored his voice.  She didn’t want to see him in that painting, knowing he would never hold her… never whisper in her ear… never make love to her again…

 

“Minerva!!”

 

 

Minerva bolted up in her bed, her heart racing out of control, and gulped for breath as she blindly reached out for her husband.  When her fingers encountered cool sheets, she felt a large lump form in her throat and her eyes begin to fill with tears.

 

“Minerva!!”

 

Minerva’s eyes widened.  She jumped out of the large bed and hurried across the bedroom to the adjoining bathroom, as the sound of running water now penetrated her sleepy haze.

 

She rushed into the large room and stopped.

 

“Good morning, my dear.  I was wondering if you were going to answer me or not.”

 

Standing in the shower, his white hair and beard wet and soapy, stood Albus smiling happily at his wife.

 

“Al… Al… Albus?”  Minerva stuttered, her eyes still wide with disbelief.  “Is it really… really you?”

 

“Of course it is.  Who did you expect?  Severus?”  Albus asked her then held out the bar of soap clenched in his hand.  “Would you do my back?”

 

“Albus?”  Minerva repeated his name as she reached out and touched his hand.  “Oh, Merlin… oh… you’re real!”  She grabbed his hand and held it tightly while she reached out with the other and laid it on his chest.  At the reassuring beat of his heart, tears began to stream down her cheeks.  “You’re really real!”

 

“Of course I am.  Why wouldn’t I… oh!”  Albus quickly shut off the shower as realization dawned.  He reached out to pull a towel off the rack and wrapped it around his waist then stepped out of the shower, and pulled Minerva into his arms.  “Oh, Tabby… why didn’t you tell me that’s what your nightmare was about?”

 

Minerva shook her head against his bare chest as her tears continued.

 

“I will never leave you.  You know that,” Albus soothed her.  “I cannot.  We’re bound together… and our bond is too strong.”

 

“I know,” Minerva murmured against his chest.  “It was just so… real…”

 

“Tell me…” Albus urged her quietly.  “Please… let me help you, my love.”

 

Minerva pulled in a ragged breath as she snuggled deeper into his embrace then in a soft voice; she finally began to tell her husband about the nightmare that had been haunting her for the last several months.  “I hear a loud voice utter the killing curse and watch a green light hit you in the chest… killing you,” she whispered the last two words which were quickly followed by a loud sniffle.  “You were thrown off the tower… and that’s usually when I wake up.  I can never see who throws the curse, and I don’t recognize the voice.”

 

“Oh, my heart…” Albus buried his face in her hair and tightened his arms around her.  “But tonight’s dream was different?”

 

Minerva nodded.

 

“Tell me…”

 

“The dream started out the way it usually does… I’m up in the Astronomy Tower… I hear the killing curse… see the green light hit you in the chest…” she took a breath.  “I run to the parapet, and watch your body plummet to the ground.”  Minerva shook violently.  “I turn when I hear Severus’ voice… and realize that he’s the one who killed you…” she swallowed.  “Then Harry appeared and quickly took after him… I ran down the stairs behind him… and found you… oh god, Albus… you were lying there… your arms and legs all mangled… it was horrible… I…” fresh tears began to pour down Minerva’s cheeks, soaking Albus’ still damp chest.  “Oh, Albus…”

 

“Ssh… it’s all right… it was just a dream… none of that happened…”

 

“I know it didn’t… but it was just so real.  It felt so real when I pulled your body into my arms… your lifeless body,” Minerva sobbed.  “And then the next few days became a blur… I had to be strong for everyone… I wasn’t allowed to grieve for you… and then… I was in your office… and your portrait was there… and… I heard your voice…”

 

“And you woke up to find me in the shower,” Albus kissed the top of her head.  “Oh, Tabby, I wish you had told me this months ago.  I would have done all I could to allay your fears, and you would not be having them still.  Especially now with the threat of Tom gone.”

 

“I know you would have, but I did not want to burden you… not when what you were doing was so important.”

 

“YOU are important!”  Albus pulled back slightly and slipped a hand beneath her chin, lifting her face so that he could look into her eyes.  “Don’t you know that?  Don’t you realize that you are more important to me than anything else in this world?!  YOU!  My wife!  My best friend!  My lover!”  Albus’ hand moved to cup Minerva’s cheek as his thumb stroked over her lower lip.  “You are my life, Minerva…”

 

“…Albus…” Minerva breathed his name as he lowered his lips to hers in a gentle loving kiss that was intended to be more healing than arousing.  As his tongue pressed its way into her mouth, Minerva moaned softly and felt the last vestiges of the nightmare fall away.  “Thank you…” she murmured against his lips when the kiss ended.

 

“You’re welcome, my dear.”  Albus replied as he moved his lips to her forehead.  “So… are you feeling better?”

 

Minerva nodded.  She was feeling better. 

 

The nightmare was just that, she realized.  A nightmare.

 

Events had unfolded eerily similar to the dream, but the end results had been much different.

 

Albus and Harry had been confronted by Draco up in the Astronomy Tower and then by Severus… and even though Severus had indeed thrown the killing curse at Albus… somehow Albus had managed to deflect it, despite his weakened condition.  Minerva and the other teachers, as well as the Order members guarding the castle and all the members of Dumbledore’s Army were there to beat back the Death Eaters that had dared to enter Hogwarts.

 

Some time later, after he and Albus had found and destroyed the four remaining Horcruxes, Harry finally confronted Voldemort.  With his friends surrounding him, keeping the Death Eaters at bay, the youth… the chosen one… defeated the now mortal dark lord.

 

Minerva reached down and clasped Albus’ right hand.  The appendage was no longer burnt and knarled.  It was now healthy and restored to its former state, thanks to Harry who had, in the last moments of Voldemort’s life, managed through occlumency to retrieve the counter curse to the spell left on Marvolo’s ring.  With that, they had been able to treat and restore Albus’ hand.

 

“Yes, my love…” Minerva nodded again, this time with a genuine smile on her face.  “I am feeling much better.”

 

“I am pleased to hear it,” Albus smiled at his wife.

 

“Thank you,” Minerva rose up on her tiptoes and pressed a quick kiss to his lips.  “So… would you still like me to wash your back for you?”

 

Albus nodded.  “That would be wonderful… and as a treat, if you’ll permit me… I will wash your hair for you.”

 

Minerva’s eyes sparkled at her husband.  “Mmm… that sounds delicious.  And we could… if you’re up to it…” she trailed her hand down Albus’ stomach to where the towel was wrapped around his waist and tugged it free.  “Fool around a little in the shower.”

 

“My dear…” Albus said as he slowly backed them up towards the shower, turning the water on with a wave of his hand.  “Haven’t you learned after all these years… that I am always up to it with you?!”

 

Minerva laughed as she stepped beneath the spray of the water.  “Oh good…”

 

~finis

 

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