Disclaimer: All things Potter belong to JK Rowling.

Chapter Six

of revelations and purple sparks

Albus sighed uncomfortably and wiped the sweat from his brow. It was one of those ridiculously hot summer days, and he was stuck watching Ariana. Ariana was twelve, and Albus hated the fact that she needed a babysitter. He wanted her to be like other twelve-year-olds; he wanted her to be happy that it was summer break between her first two years at Hogwarts. Albus shook his head, trying to keep his emotions in control.

“Albus!” she called from the backyard. He closed his eyes and ignored her, wishing he was somewhere else.

“Albus!” she called again, he voice louder this time, “Albus, Albus!”

“What!” Albus shouted, “What is it? What to do want?”

Ariana’s eyes grew wide, and her lip began to tremble.

“Oh, don’t cry,” he said impatiently.

Tears began to fall down Ariana’s cheeks. She shook, and purple sparks began to emit from her hands.

“Ariana,” Albus said gently, knowing he had to calm her down, “I’m sorry. I’m really, very sorry.”

“What did you do?” Aberforth demanded as he entered the backyard and embraced Ariana.

“I -”

“Oh, just go away, Albus,” Aberforth snapped, “Go read a book or something. You’re no help here.”

Albus turned away and left the backyard before either of his siblings could see how upset he was. Disgusted and fed up with his time, he retrieved the time turner and went to see Minerva.

“You know, you really should quit apparating before you get caught,” Minerva greeted him.

After the incident in the backyard, he needed to be close to her. He needed to feel his lips on hers and forget about what had happened earlier. He kissed her before either of them could say anything else.

She reciprocated the kiss, seeming surprised but not upset.

“Brian.”

“I missed you. Merlin, you’ve no idea how much I missed you.”

She frowned, “Brian, are you alright?”

He nodded. She looked at him skeptically.

“I’m fine,” he reassured her. I’m fine now that I’m in your time, he thought to himself.

She nodded.

“How are you?” he asked.

“You know, it’s only been a day since you’ve seen me.”

“And?”

She shrugged, “You act like it’s been weeks. I’m in love with you, yes, but we’ve only been dating for one week and you just saw me yesterday, so calm down.”

He raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms defensively, “What brought that on?”

“You’re just being too,” she paused, thinking of the right word, “passionate.”

“Well,” he said harshly, “Excuse me if kissing the girl I happen to be in love with is considered too passionate. You want to know something, Minerva McGonagall?”

“What?” she stared at him forcefully, her tone cool.

“You are a prude.”

She jumped up, ready to leave, “I don’t need this. There’s too much going on in my life. I don’t need to deal with this.”

“Oh please,” he shot back derisively, “There’s too much going on in your life? Your life is a fairy tale. You live in your nice big house with your perfect little family and your father buys you anything you want with all of his money - what the bloody hell could possibly be wrong with your life?”

“Just drop it,” she said, holding back tears.

“No - I want to know what exactly is so horrible about your life,” he continued harshly, What, did you get an E instead of an O as one of your marks? Susie loose one of your books?”

“My mother is dying!” she spat, tears in her eyes, “Is that good enough for you?”

He gasped, “Minerva - I had no idea.”

“Clearly,” she said, crying.

He noticed that her arms were crossed across her chest, as if she were protecting herself for something. He hated that it was him whom she was protecting herself from.

“I shouldn’t have said that. It was very wrong, and careless, and - I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Minerva.”

“Maybe you should go,” she said, her voice shaking.

He nodded and turned to be on his way.

“Wait- Brian!” she called.

He looked at her.

“I have no way of contacting you - how…?”

“I’ll come back in two weeks, that is, if you want me to.”

She sighed, “Don’t go. What you did was spiteful and uncalled for and you shouldn’t have done it, but I don’t want to be alone right now.”

“Okay,” he sat down on the grass next to her. They were silent for awhile.

“How long,” he began tentatively, “How long does she have?”

Minerva exhaled sharply, “Three months. Wizarding cancer.”

“Minerva, I’m so,” he was unsure of how to continue. She probably heard the word ‘sorry’ from everyone who knew about her mum, “This situation is terribly unfair.”

She nodded tearfully, “I keep wondering what it’ll be like when she’s gone…I-I can’t even imagine…”

“Does Susie know?” he asked and then realized what a stupid question that was. Of course Susie would know that her mum was dying.

“Yes,” Minerva replied, “She’s so much…she deals with it all so much better than I do. I just bottle everything up, but Susie’s better about talking to Mum and Dad about how she feels, how this is all going to affect her.”

She moved closer and leaned against him. Instinctively, he put his arms around her.

“Albus, I -”

“Albus?” he asked, shocked.

“I mean, Brian. I don’t know why I called you Albus.”

He looked at her, looking so small and worried in his arms. She was already going through so much; she deserved the truth from him. He loved her and couldn’t lie to her anymore.

“That’s my name,” he said softly, “Minerva, my name is Albus, and I’m not from this time.”

Alright, I have something of a confession to make: I don't know when I'll be able to update this again. It could be two weeks from now; it could be two months from now. I'm taking seven classes in school, I'm applying to seven colleges and thus have seven applications to complete (trying to get a head start on those), and I'm editor of my school's newspaper and the administration decided that they want to increase the number of issues that we do per year. For those of you following The Ties That Don't Break, same goes for that story. I definitely won't forget about either, though. You guys rock, and I'm sorry to leave you slightly hanging like this. Feel free to PM me/AIM me (PM me for my sn)/talk to me on LJ (username: lindy_ann). Bye for now =).