Halloween gift for Rosabelle
Gift for: rosabelle
From: kellychambliss
Title: Bittersweet
Pairing: Minerva McGonagall/Rolanda Hooch
Rating: PG
Summary: To Minerva McGonagall, the first Hallowe'en after the war is bittersweet.
Notes: A pitcher of (spiked) pumpkin juice to my beta-readers, therealsnape and tetleythesecond; you're the best, my dears. And thank you, mods, for a fun fest!
Headmistress McGonagall walks slowly through the silent Great Hall, checking to see that the floating jack-o-lanterns are in place and that a Hallowe'en party favour is set at each plate. She's never liked the Hallowe'en Feast--too American by half--but she's not about to cancel it now, not when Albus had loved it so and not when they need every celebration they can manage, in this difficult first year after the war.
Whatever her personal sorrows, she'll do her best to cheer the students. She'll open the party with a brief speech honouring those they have lost--dear Albus and brave Severus and young Colin and all the rest--and then she'll sit smiling at the head table, closing her ears to the din. For once, the children may have all the noise and sugar they want.
And she will not feel guilty when, after the Feast ends, she leaves the school in Filius's capable hands and takes herself to a private celebration of her own. She will gather her cloak and her jug of warm, spiced wine; then by wandlight she will make her way to the snug cottage near the Quidditch pitch and to her Rolanda's arms.