A/N: This is part of an arch I am currently doing about Minerva and Severus' relationship, the other stories are:

1 To Fall in Love

2 Painful Confessions

3 Complete Love

4 Love Conquers All

and a few more once I get around to it (school is just a touch busy

by the way Voldemort was first defeated in 1981

Disclaimer: These characters belong to J.K. Rowling I just take them out to play and hand them back only a little damaged

To Fall in Love

Minerva McGonagall was the Transfiguration Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She had been teaching at the school for twenty-four years to the day on the night, in the year of 1981, and she was in the staff room.

Minerva was reclining in a plain red armchair in the empty staff room that cold winter's night contemplating her life so far. She had been a student at Hogwarts at the same time Hagrid and Tom Riddle were. She had then come back a few years later to teach the Transfiguration classes. She taught the Marauders, Lily Evan and Severus Snape; all of who had participated greatly in the defeat of the Dark Lord, Voldemort. She had been a member of the Order of the Phoenix, started by Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts. The most important thing that had happened though was Minerva McGonagall fell in love.

She had never been in love before but as all girls do she had had crushes. This was not a crush though, it was intense, unfulfilled, unreturned and love. It saddened and repulsed Minerva though that it was not a man of her age but a man who she had taught as a student and was forty years younger.

He was also a Death Eater who had repented and turned spy for the Order at risk of death. He had been in this position for over a year before the Dark Lord was defeated by the son of Lily and James Potter, Harry Potter. He had been teaching before the defeat and had given false information to the Dark Lord. He had continued to teach at Hogwarts as he had nowhere else to go and many people would not accept an ex-Death Eater.

Despite his past Minerva loved him. She knew he could be kind and caring when he wanted to. She also knew he was brave; the proof was in him turning to the light. She believed he hid that so he would not be hurt. He had been hurt so much in his life, first by his father who would beat him, then by the Marauders who did not understand him or the life he had led. Minerva wanted to be able to help him overcome the pain he had suffered and to bring that side of him out, even if it was only a little bit.

For now though she would have to teach the current students of Hogwarts. She would have to pretend nothing was different. She would have to pretend she wasn't in love. She would have to treat this man as only a colleague. She could not tell the man she loved of her feelings, he must never know.

Because the man she loved was Severus Snape, youngest Potions Master in the World.

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Severus Snape was the Potions Master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizarding. He had held the position for just over a year making it his second year of teaching. He was currently in his study having finished correcting some third-years essays.

Severus was sitting at his desk, relaxing while he thought about how his violent childhood had affected his whole life to this point. He had been hurt by his father and so he had learnt through the pain to follow the Dark path. It had been easier when he began Hogwarts but that only lasted until his fifth year when the Dark Lord gained power and spread fear through the whole wizarding community. His father had been a Death Eater for many years and he, Severus, in his naivety had wanted to join his father. For one, to gain his father's respect and two, he believed at the time it was the right thing to do and three, he did not fully understand the consequences of his joining the Dark Lord.

He had joined the Voldemort's followers that faithful night in his seventh year and learnt soon enough that it was not what he wanted for his life, his family. He did not know what to do for many months after; it was only when he turned to Albus Dumbledore for help that he was given an answer. The Headmaster of Hogwarts suggested he turn spy for the light. This would help with defeating Lord Voldemort and it would save Severus from being put in Azkaban when Lord Voldemort was killed.

Soon after he had joined the Order of the Phoenix and officially betrayed the Dark Lord as well becoming free Severus was once more captured. This time it was by a woman, he was in love. She was in the Order and high-ranking. She had also taught him while he was at Hogwarts. She was forty years older then him but it did not matter for he loved her and she did not look her age. He knew he loved her because he had had a crush on Lily Evans but it passed quickly and he soon found out he had only loved her for he intelligence.

He loved her because she was brave, truthful, and hard and yet he had seen her one night when an injured member of the Order had come to her. She had been careful, kind and so gentle. She obviously hid her real self from her pupils so that she appeared stern but Severus could not understand why she hid it from her friends, maybe it was to avoid being hurt.

Much as Severus loved her he knew that she would never love him. He did not believe she even trusted him at this moment in time. No one could ever love a Death Eater except for another Death Eater. She was too old to love him as well she was more likely to go for someone her own age, someone she liked, someone who wasn't a Slytherin, probably a Gryffindor.

She would never love him; his past was too much a reflection of what people believed him to be. She would always see him as either the boy who was perpetually bullied by the Marauders who grew to be a Death Eater: pure evil even if he had repented in the end.

Severus knew he could never love another woman. He would continue to teach and hopefully she would as well. He would have to pretend he didn't love her. He would have to treat her as his colleague and Gryffindor Head. She must never know of his feelings for her, even though he wanted her to know.

The woman he loved was Minerva McGonagall, the strict, cold Transfiguration Professor.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it

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tell me what you think!!