Hello all!!! This story is something new.... and alters the Hogwarts time line slightly. This tells the story of two very important professors parents! Focuses on the friendship dynamics of Mrs. Dumbledore and Mrs. McGonagall before Albus and Minerva were ever thought of! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Anything JK wrote I am borrowing
minerva's-kitten
A Friendship No One Saw Lasting
Chapter 1: Births
October 31, 1897 a grand Victorian Manor on the Scottish Moor…
Six children ranging in age twenty to two were crowded in their night clothes in their sitting room either asleep or anxiously awake listening to the terrible screams of their mother from upstairs. These children were Harris' and were in fact some of the last purebloods of Salazar Slytherin and Rowena Ravenclaw. Their father; one Xavier Harris, was beyond nervous and anxious. He paced the length of the room back and forth; back and forth he went. Every time the screaming intensified he twitched and scratched his balding head.
Xavier loved all his children but he loved his wife more and he was praying to what ever deity would listen that she'd live. The healers had told him that at her age she shouldn't be having another child; especially with the miscarriage fiasco she'd had just fifteen months ago. He had been stubborn and insisted they have just one more. Seven was the luckiest of magical numbers after all and he being a man of money and influence wanted seven children to show off to the world.
Again there was a dreadful scream from above that silenced quickly and an eerie silence spread throughout the large manor. All the awake children looked toward the ceiling as did their father. They stared fixatedly at the ceiling till the old midwife entered the living room carrying a squirming bundle in white swaddling cloth.
"How is Veronica? How's my wife?" Xavier asked.
"I'm sorry sir but nothing could be done sir," the old woman sighed, "I was able to save the baby though sir. It's a girl…although I'm not sure how long she'll last being three months early."
Tears pulled in Xavier's eyes and he sat in his usual leather chair by the fire staring into it as he cried.
The eldest child; twenty year old Vanessa Gaines, stood and came to the nurse taking the baby in her arms. She was a young wife and her husband was away so she was staying with her parents. She looked at the baby and was enraptured.
"Oh papa you must see…never in this entire world has there been a baby so beautiful," Vanessa stated crossing the room to the chair.
"What?" Xavier asked hoarsely. Vanessa bent down and gently placed the bundle in her father's arms.
Xavier looked down into the bundle and saw a baby with pale skin, wet black curls, and large dark green eyes. She was absolutely perfect.
"She's perfect," he cried, "she looks just like her mother."
"I need a name sir," the old nurse stated.
"Katherine…Katherine Grace," Xavier whispered softly as he continued to stare at the baby, "She is Pure Grace."
The nurse nodded and left the room as the rest of the children came to see the baby.
February 4, 1898 a small town house in London…
Derrick Drake sat in his chair looking into the fire in his study thinking. He could hear is lovely young wife's screams as she worked to give birth to their first child. He hoped she'd live and would be fine because he didn't think he could live without her.
They'd agree to let nature take its course and he'd loved watching her stomach grow with their child. Now though he was regretting it as the screams intensified.
"God let this all stop," he cried out to no one. It seemed his wish was answered because the screaming died out.
It was quiet for a few minutes before an old doctor came into the study wiping his bloody hands on a towel. He was smiling.
"Well?" Derrick asked jumping up.
"It's a beautiful little girl. Mother and daughter are fine you can go up now," the doctor smiled.
"Wahoo!!" Derrick shouted jumping in the air and dashing out of the room.
The doctor chuckled; he loved this part of his job.
Derrick dashed up the stairs and entered the bedroom he shared with his wife. He ignored the blood and just climbed on close to his wife kissing her tired and sweaty head.
"Oh love I was so scared I'd lose you," Derrick whispered.
"Shush Derrick. Look at her she's so beautiful," Mary smiled.
He looked into his wife's arm and saw a chubby baby with wet blonde girls and sparkling blue eyes looking back at him. She was wrapped in swaddling cloths.
"She's beautiful love. What should we call our little angel?" Derrick asked kissing his wife again.
"Kendra I think…Kendra Abigale," Mary stated.
"I like it…Kendra," Derrick smiled down at the little baby.