A/N: Hi. How are you all? Staying healthy I hope! I've had a terrible day and I've been trying to post this for hours so I'm posting now before anything else can go wrong. FYI Blurring Lines is STILL being worked on and will be updated soon. Thanks for your continued support. Take care.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

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She threw her quill down in disgust finding another refusal letter on her desk. Another prospective Professor sending their apologies and their hopes for her future success. After the day she'd had, she wasn't interested in being in the castle any longer.

The staff that remained in the castle were her friends. Those she fought alongside. Filius, Pomona, Rolanda. Poppy. She knew she could count on them to stay. Others had not remained so loyal but she couldn't fault them for the need to escape. Aurora Sinistra had gone to her parents' house for a few weeks with a promise to return before the beginning of the term. Minerva had only just considered that she perhaps wouldn't return at all. Septima Vector hadn't been seen in days, though Minerva had sent an owl to the last address she had on file. It was anybody's guess as to when she'd be back, if ever, and it didn't improve Minerva's mood to think of it.

And then, Hagrid, dearest Hagrid, had come to her today and informed her that he was leaving. He planned to take his brother back to his people and then spend some time travelling, in Europe and perhaps beyond. She had, of course, agreed wholeheartedly. It just hadn't helped her mood.

Pulling her hat off the stand, she swirled her cloak onto her shoulders and stalked from her rooms. Her boots made a pleasant sort of echo on the flagstones as she stalked through the castle.

"Min?" She ignored Poppy, not even pausing. "Hey!" she called. "You okay?"

"Fine," she muttered, pressing open the doors with both hands. "I will be back on the morrow."

She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned, remembering Poppy was her friend.

"I'm okay. I just need to get out of here for a while."

"Be careful," Poppy called.

Minerva nodded and marched out of the gates and as soon as she was all the way over the threshold, she apparated away.

Her parents' home had always been a place that she avoided at all costs. The memories were often so painful, the thought of them could bring her to tears. Today, however, she appeared at the boundary of the abandoned property and stepped forward. She stood on the doorstep and stared. Her family had ended here. Her entire line, murdered.

Her mother, father, two little brothers. There was no hope for the McGonagalls now. She was old, Poppy insisted it was rot, something about magic and slow-ageing, but she felt old. She knew it was all over. There would be no continuance, no legacy. Her mother's line, a powerful, ancient, line in itself, would die with her too.

She wished so many things weren't so.

She sobbed and covered her face with the hand not gripping her wand. With the other, she screamed out a curse, wincing as one of the beams exploded in her face. She abused the remnants of the house until her hair was falling down around her face. She could scarcely see through the tears as she destroyed what was left of her history.

Panting, she wiped the blood away, healed her cheek with a whisper and dropped to her knees. She felt like the weight of the whole world was atop her. And she wasn't ready for that. She had given her life and her entire family's existence to this world.

And she resented it wholeheartedly.

She apparated away, splitting the air and appearing in a part of London where nobody knew her name. Just in case they knew her face, Minerva glamoured herself. Changing everything about her appearance as if it was that easy to just cease to exist. It was late enough in the evening for her to get plastered.

Her plan was to simply forget about everything until tomorrow.