DISCLAIMER: Unfortunately, I am not the fabulous J.K. Rowling, nor am I the immensely talented Richard Rodgers or Oscar Hammerstein (explained below), so, unfortunately, the only thing I can claim as my own invention in this story is the plot.

Song: "Something Good". Words and music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Performed by Julie Andrew and Christopher Plummer in the 1965 Twentieth Century Fox film The Sound of Music

A/N: Sorry about how long this is, but I had to get all this in for the sake of keeping this story to only a few chapters. The next chapter shouldn't be as bad!

Minerva and Albus were taking a quiet midnight stroll through around the castle, a habit they had formed the previous year when they had had to patrol the corridors at night after Sirius Black's unprecedented escape from Azkaban. Much to the curiosity of the rest of their colleagues, Albus and Minerva always chose each other as their "patrolling partners" and would "patrol" the corridors even when it was not their designated night to do so. The two esteemed professors had been the best of friends since Minerva's years at Hogwarts, when Albus was the Transfiguration teacher and Head of Gryffindor House, two positions that Minerva herself currently held. They had grow accustomed to seeing each other every night and so enjoyed each other's company that they continued their nightly ritual into current year.

While taking their walks, Albus and Minerva would usually speak about the many goings-on of Hogwarts or the ongoing efforts to locate Lord Voldemort. They rarely ever ventured into the realms of their personal affairs, as their relationship had remained platonic these many years. Tonight, however, they both (secretly, of course) had more than friendship on their minds. Although unbeknownst to the other, Albus and Minerva had each picked this particular night to reveal the love that they had unknowingly shared for forty years.

Perhaps I had a wicked childhood Perhaps I had a miserable youth But somewhere in my wicked, miserablepast Theremust have been a moment of truth

Minerva and her best friend walked in companionable silence for a while before she finally spoke. "Albus," she began quietly.

"Yes, my dear?"

"I was wondering, would it be alright if I - I mean - well, you see -"

She was trying to ask him if she could confide something in him, that something being that she had feelings for a certain colleague that were not exactly professional and she was unsure as to whether or not the feelings were mutual. The prospect of finally revealing her feelings, the stress of the Triwizard Tournament, and some rather unpleasant events that had occurred that day made her uncharacteristically nervous and when she broke off suddenly, Albus turned his sparkling blue eyes to hers. He was startled to see that her shoulders were shaking uncontrollably and her face was streaked with glistening tears, making her cheeks shimmer in the scattered moonlight in the courtyard where they were currently walking. Minerva didn't know why she was crying. True, she was very nervous, under an immense load of stress, and suffering from a lack of sleep, but she didn't think that warranted her weakness and emotional breakdown. She was furious with herself for acting like such a fool, especially in front of Albus, and quickly tried to muffle her sobs. However, Minerva found, to her dismay that the more she tried to stifle her sobbing, the heavier it became.

Albus stepped out in front of her, grabbing her shoulders to make her stop walking. She couldn't bring herself to look up into those amazingly beautiful blue eyes. "Minerva, my dear, whatever is the matter?" he asked, his concerned blue eyes searching her face for the source of her anguish.

"Oh, Albus! I've been so worried lately - about Harry and Cedric, He-Who-Mu-(Dumbledore cocked a silver eyebrow at this) oh, okay, Voldemort, certain personal affairs, and I got an owl today from my sister -" she broke off again. She and Albus had been best friends for over half a century, but in their many conversations about various issues, she had always tried to avoid talking about her family. Albus, being as insightful, yet sensitive, as ever, had noticed her wariness about the subject and respected her privacy by never pressing the issue. But, as Albus was, indeed, only human, he had eventually given in to his curiosity and asked her outright about it.

"You want to know about my family." Minerva finished for him, without looking up from her the chessboard. "Queen to D8."

"Only if there's any information you're comfortable sharing with me," he added quickly. "I don't want you to feel pressured in any way. . .Bishop to D8."

Minerva gave a resigned sigh and tore her eyes away from Dumbledore's Bishop knocking her Queen off the board. For as much as a gentleman as Albus is, she hadthought to herself, his chessmen really are quite barbaric. "My family is not exactly, um, traditional. My parents would fight with each other all the time and I always got stuck in the middle. They would fight about all sorts of things: politics, money, me and my sister, and lots of other things. They never agreed on anything and spent more time fighting and arguing than actually getting along. One night, I couldn't sleep because I was so nervous about starting school the next day (she gave Albus a weak smile), so I went downstairs to get a glass of water. I was at the top of the stairs when I heard them arguing in the kitchen. I was about to turn back when I heard my name in their conversation. I listened for a few minutes, trying to figure out what they were arguing about. My mother said 'Charles, no! She's far too young!' and my father said, 'Catherine, she's only two years younger than you were when we were married!' And then it dawned on me what they were fighting about. My father had been going on for ages about how he hoped my younger sister and I would marry respectably and had recently comprised a list of the young men we knew who might be appropriate, and now it all made sense. I listened for a few more minutes and gathered that my father had already agreed for be to be betrothed to a boy who was three years my junior called Trevor MacArthur and my mother was absolutely appalled at the idea.

"I was so devastated that I couldn't bear to stand there and listen any more. I knew that no matter how much my mother argued my father would win in the end. His word was law in our house, and there was nothing anyone could do to change it. I started making my way back up the stairs, but turned around again when the mood of the argument took a completely different turn than I had expected. I heard my mother crying and my father was shouting at her. Despite myself, I crept down the stairs to peer around the corner into the kitchen.

"My mother was huddled in a ball on the floor in the corner, crying and begging my father, who was standing over her with his wand pointed at her, for mercy. 'Don't do this, Charles, please don't do this,' she wailed. My father took no heed of her, and what I saw him do, I have never, to this day, forgiven him for." Minerva had stopped her there, unsure of if she would be able to continue. She drew a ragged breath and shuddered. Albus stood up from the chair opposite her where he had been sitting and moved gracefully around the coffee table to sit next to her on the couch. He held her hands in his and rubbed the backs of them with his thumbs.

"If you do not wish to continue, please do not continue." He told her. Albus hadn't known what he had been expecting to hear about Minerva's family, but this was certainly not it. Yet, as bad as it had sounded already, he was sure that if Minerva chose to continue her tale, it would get much worse.

"No, no, I just need a moment to compose myself," she had replied. Albus watched her intently, never taking his eyes off of her. There was something about the look in her eyes, or how her bun was falling out and her black locks were starting to fall around her face, or how the light from the dancing flames of the fire reflected in her dark brown eyes that had made Albus realize how beautiful she was. He has always known that she was beautiful, but then she had looked even more so. Watching her stare into the fire that night, he had wanted more than anything to tell her how he felt about her, but knew that this was definitely not the appropriate time to do so.

Minerva drew another shuddering breath and continued her story, looking as though the memory of it had haunted her for a very long time. "As I sat there, staring around the corner into the kitchen, twelve years old and scared out of my life, I watched my father -" she hesitated, and Albus could tell that she was doing her best not to cry. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her towards him. "I watched my father put the Cruciatus Curse on my mother," she finished and her shoulders shook violently as the tears she had been holding back fell at last. All Albus could think to do was hold her and whisper nonsense words of comfort into her hair, which was fully out of its usual tight bun, while she cried to her troubled heart's content.

Over the years, from bits of various other conversations, Albus had found out that Minerva's betrothed had passed away from a muggle disease called pneumonia during a five-year experiment for his university study where he was to live like a muggle with absolutely no magic and no contact with anyone in the magical world. He had apparently loved being a muggle so much that he had refused the magical treatment the healers had offered him, preferring dying as a muggle over living as a wizard. Albus had also found out that although they had been very close as children, Minerva and her sister Artemis had rarely spoken in over fifty years. The occasions on which they had communicated were not generally pleasant. Artemis' owls only ever contained bad news, so when Minerva said that her sister had contacted her, Albus was sure that there was more bad news to come.

A/N: Again, sorry this was so long. If you didn't like it, please tell me! Reviews really make my day, and if I don't have input from my readers, I don't know what I'm doing wrong or how to fix it! Thanks for reading! I promise the next chapter won't be this long!