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Title: Just Between Girls
Author: [info]iulia_linnea
Pairing: Lily Luna/Minerva, implied other pairings
Rating: R
Warning (highlight to view): For Time-Turner fic and implied character death not involving a great deal of angst.
Word Count: 2000
Summary: Lily Luna cocks things up but good, only to learn about secrets that are just between girls.
Author's Note: reynardo prompted me with Lily Luna/Minerva: blackboard, tram, oily.

"Oh, bugger," says Lily Luna, as she rubs her head and looks around at the mess. "Trust me to slip in something oily when I was meant to be careful."

Professor McGonagall's belongings are strewn all over the classroom, and there's no sign of her Aunt Hermione, to whom she was meant to deliver them. As Lily Luna pushes herself up, she yelps; there's something under her hand.

Is this a Time-Turner? she wonders, examining the object.

She shifts, and her foot kicks a small toy tram across the floor. Rising to go after it, she cracks her head on the edge of the blackboard.


"Nice language."

Lily Luna turns to see a gorgeous, dark-haired girl with snapping black eyes staring down at her from the threshold of the room. "Mind the slick," she says, looking down. It's gone.

"What slick?" the girl asks, her gaze following Lily Luna's.

"Er, never mind. Could I get a hand?"

The girl strides across the room and lifts Lily Luna up, and for a moment, their breasts press together. Lily Luna shivers.

The girl blushes. "Are you usually so clumsy?"

Lily Luna blushes, too. "Are you always so rude?"

"This is my place. I study here." The girl takes a desk and proceeds to open the book she's carrying.

"Bully for you, swot."

The girl looks at Lily Luna, who immediately feels awful to see the pain in her gaze. "Go away, new girl."

"I'm not new," protests Lily Luna. "I'm a Sixth Year! And anyway, I've never seen you before. Why are you studying in Aunt Hermione's classroom?"

"Who's 'Aunt Hermione'? This is the Transfiguration classroom. Professor Anderson teaches here."

Lily Luna's eyes widen. "You're barking. This is Professor Snape's classroom, and—"

"You must have really hit that pretty little head of yours hard."

"You think I'm pret—wait, what did you say?"

The girl huffs. "I don't want to say anything to you, new girl. You're rude . . . and mean. Go away and play tricks on someone else."

Lily Luna moves to sit at the desk next to the girl's, tightly clutching the Time-Turner in her hand. "Look, I'm sorry. I was surprised is all, and maybe I did hit my head hard because . . . ." She stops speaking. If it's not my head, then it's the Time-Turner, but I can't tell her that.

Lily Luna's never made such a cock up of things before, and she has no idea what to do about it.

"Because?" asks the girl.

Nothing for it, thinks Lily Luna, opening her hand and holding it up.

"That's a Time-Turner! Where did you get it?" the girl says, snatching it away from Lily Luna. "Why, you little thief! This is my Time-Turner!"

Snatching it back, Lily Luna retorts, "No, it isn't." Her eyes burn. "It can't be!"

"Give that back to me!"

"No! I need it! I . . . I messed up and I'm not supposed to be here!"

The girl closes her book. "Calm down. You're not a Firstie, are you?"

The insult does its work well. "No, but . . . this is bad, Pro—Min—bad."

"You were going to call me 'Minerva'. How did you know my name?"

"Because that is your Time-Turner, only I didn't steal it. I—"

"Stop! If you're not lying—"

"I'm not!"

"Then you really aren't supposed to be here, and you can't tell me anything about the when in which you should be."

Lily Luna wipes her eyes. "I suppose not, but how do I get back?" Tears spill down her face.

Minerva's expression softens, and she reaches out to brush Lily Luna's tears away. "Don't worry, we'll sort all this out. What's your name?"

"You said—"

"It can't hurt anything for me to know your name."

Minerva sounds so certain, just like always, that Lily Luna tells her.

"And you're a Sixth Year . . . at Hogwarts," Minerva says, although not with certainty.

"Yes, and you're," Lily Luna says, pausing to think before she can speak, Professor McGonagall, "you're going to help me?"

Minerva sighs and withdraws her hand. "You know me, don't you?"

"You said—"

"Do I have friends?" asks Minerva, almost too low for Lily Luna to hear.

On impulse, Lily Luna leans forward and kisses her, lightly, on the mouth. She leans back just as quickly, not quite able to believe what she's just done, and thinks about how many people are expected at Professor McGonagall's memorial.

But you can't tell her that. You can't tell her anything, she thinks, saying, "You really think I'm pretty?"

"How can you fish for compliments at a time like this?"

"Because I . . . I don't get them."

"Oh, now I know you're lying," Minerva says.

"Really," says Lily Luna, "I don't. Do you?"

"Given my question, I'm surprised you asked. How hard did you hit your head?"

Lily Luna swallows. "Hard enough to kiss a relative stranger, I suppose." She bites her lip.

Minerva stares at her mouth; Lily Luna goes rigid under her gaze.

Fuck. Why did I do— "Where are you going?"

Minerva is standing and pointing her wand at the door. It clicks locked, and she turns to Lily Luna, regarding her in a manner that makes Lily Luna want to squirm.

"So, have you ever kissed a girl before, Lily?"

"Lily Luna."

"Sorry. Have you?"

"Once or twice," Lily Luna replies.

"Liar. Me, either. But I liked it, and," says Minerva, pausing to smooth down her robes, "since we have some time . . . ."

"You're not serious."

"Why not? If you know exactly when you're from, then I can get you home . . . eventually." Minerva smiles.

Lily Luna squirms. "That's awfully Slytherin of you."

"Fortune favours the bold. I'm a Gryffindor."

Lily Luna again bites her lip and glances down at the crest on her robes.

"Yes, I see what house you're in. Why do you think I asked?"

You can't. You can't kiss her again. She was like a— "Oh!" Lily Luna exclaims, as Minerva jerks her up to her feet and slides her tongue into her mouth.

Grandmums don't kiss like that, and Lily Luna forgets all about who Minerva's going to be to her as they sink to the floor, their hands moving over each other's bodies.

It's only when she feels Minerva's clever fingers begin to stroke the gusset of her knickers that she stops, grabs her wrist, and gasps, "No. I'm sorry. I'm not a Gryffindor."

Panting, Minerva pulls away. "It's too bad, really. No one would ever know."

"I would, and . . . and if you did, you'd—"

"It's all right. I understand." Minerva stands up and shakily begins smoothing down her robes.

Tears rise in her eyes as Lily Luna remembers the last time, the last when, she saw her do that. "You did," she says.


"Have friends. You do have friends, Minerva, lots of them, too many to c—count."

Minerva stiffens, and her eyes look to where the Time-Turner has fallen. "Oh, I see."

"I shouldn't have said that."

"No, that's . . . quite all right, Lily Luna. You've had an . . . interesting afternoon."

Lily Luna rises from the floor and takes Minerva's hand. "Not for a long time, a very long time, I promise."

Minerva's eyes are shiny as she nods. "Thank you for that. . . . Thank you for everything."

"You're welcome. I'm, er, sorry I invaded your classroom. I'm not much for studying, but I know how much people who do like it mind being bothered."

"Swots you mean," Minerva says, one corner of her mouth curving up.

Lily Luna laughs. "Yeah."

"Well, it's time for you to go home. Watch where you walk in future."

"In future, yes," says Lily Luna, laughing harder.

Minerva laughs, as well, as she Summons the Time-Turner to her. "One revolution for every year, and then . . . ."

Lily Luna hears her, but suddenly, she's too frightened to understand.

As if Minerva can tell, she says, "Whisper the date in my ear, and I'll do it." She places the chain around Lily Luna's neck.

Lily Luna tells her what she needs to know, and then, feeling stupid, says, "I'm glad you think I'm pretty."

"You have to make the final turn. I can't be touching you when you do."

"I understand." Lily Luna steps back, feeling rather mortified.

"And Lily Luna?"

"Yes, Minerva?"

"I've never seen a prettier girl, and I'm glad that it was you who . . . who taught me to kiss. I won't forget you."

Lily Luna turns the dial on the Time-Turner, she's so startled . . . and then she's standing in Aunt Hermione's classroom. That's why, she thinks, turning as if expecting to see Minerva. That's why she was never affectionate with me.

Abruptly, she sits down on the cold floor and bursts into tears. She's always thought that Professor McGonagall didn't approve of her, but now she knows. Now, she understands.

She didn't have any friends. She didn't have any girlfriends, and I . . . .

"Lily Luna, what is it? Are you hurt?" Aunt Hermione's arms are comforting. "Shh, shh, it's all right, dear. Oh, sweetheart," she says, as she looks at Minerva's things scattered on the floor and takes Lily Luna's face in her hands, "I miss her, too."

"I'm s—sorry. I shouldn't cry like a F—Firstie, but—"

"Nonsense," declares Aunt Hermione in that way she has. "It's perfectly acceptable to cry when you're grieving."

Lily Luna wipes her tears away and begins scrambling to pick up Minerva's things, and Aunt Hermione helps her by holding out the box.

"Don't forget that toy tram," she tells Lily Luna.

"Oh." Lily Luna picks it up, but before she can put it into the box, asks, "Would it be all right if I kept this? To remember her by?"

Aunt Hermione smiles. "Of course, sweetheart. I think it would have pleased Professor McGonagall very much to know that you wanted to."

"Thanks, and I apologise. I didn't mean to drop the box."

"That's quite all right, but this," Aunt Hermione replies, lifting the Time-Turner from around Lily Luna's neck and placing it in the box, "is not a toy. I'll have to keep that."

Lily Luna nods and places the tram in her pocket. "See you tonight at dinner, Aunt Hermione. Please don't tell the boys that—"

"Of course I won't. It'll be our secret."

"Y—yes, a secret, just between girls."


It isn't until Professor McGonagall's memorial service that Lily Luna can bring herself to look at the tram. In the past three days, she's tried not to think of her as Minerva at all because she never really knew her, did she? But it's hard for her, having known her even so briefly, to remember the professor as anything but the insecure yet strangely bold girl that she met in Professor Anderson's classroom.

I wonder if she ever kissed anyone else? Lily Luna thinks, turning the tram over. "Oh." There, between the wheels, is an inscription: To Merva, for daring me to take the tram. —Pom Pom

Lily Luna flushes at the private joke and scans the crowd of mourners. She's got a pretty good idea who "Pom Pom" is, and seeing Professor Sprout sitting with uncharacteristic stiffness, and alone, in the first row, she knows she's right.

I can't believe any two people could be so discreet, she thinks, as she approaches her. "Hello, Professor," she says gently. "Do you mind if I sit down?"

"Not at all, dear."

Lily Luna sits down and places the toy tram in Professor Sprout's lap.

"Where did you—"

"It was in a box of her things. I thought . . . I thought you should have it back." Lily Luna stares straight ahead, not wanting to trespass upon Professor Sprout's grief any more than she already has done.

When the professor takes her hand and gives it a squeeze, she's surprised.

"Thank you, dear. Merva always said you were a sharp one."

"She di—I mean, you're welcome, professor."

"You won't tell anyone?" Professor Sprout whispers. "Merva did like her privacy."

Lily Luna looks at her and smiles. "Of course not. It's a secret . . . just between girls."


( 5 comments — Leave a comment )
Apr. 15th, 2012 03:56 am (UTC)
You make it easy to imagine McGonagall as an awkward young woman who will someday soon come into her own as the vibrant, strong professor I love so much. Thanks for sharing!
Apr. 16th, 2012 08:54 pm (UTC)
You're welcome! Thank you for letting me know you enjoyed this. *hugs*
Apr. 16th, 2012 03:08 am (UTC)
I am remiss - I read this yesterday and didn't comment.

The tram - I wondered how you'd fit that it. And yay for Lily working things out - and yay for Minerva realising after all that time...
Apr. 16th, 2012 11:30 pm (UTC)
I'm really quite pleased with this fic, so I'm glad you approve; thank you for the prompt!
Apr. 21st, 2012 03:39 am (UTC)
Serious Fangirl Squeeeeeee-ing
User reynardo referenced to your post from Serious Fangirl Squeeeeeee-ing saying: [...] anonymity, sleigh Just Between Girls (R; Lily Luna/Minerva, implied other pairings; 2000 words) [...]
( 5 comments — Leave a comment )