Aunt Minnie
Minerva McGonagall was a strong woman, who didn’t bow down to anybody. She had her own opinions, and had a very strong sense of what was right and wrong. She was capable of almost anything, and she was overall just a very badass lesbian woman.
One thing that she did not know about herself was that she would do anything to keep this smiling, blubbering mess of Remus Lupin happy.
“What kind of biscuit would you like, Remus?” She asks kindly, glancing at the boy behind her, who was looking around her office in curiosity.
“All of them!” He exclaims, voice full of joy and energy, which she knew that would rarely be heard as he grew older.
She chuckled. “Alright then!”
She grabs the entire biscuit tin, two teacups, saucers and a teapot, placing them all on her desk.
Remus laughs at the moving cats on the teapot.
She takes her seat, wondering when the last time he had allowed himself to be this carefree and happy was.
“Remus, my name is Minerva, and I suspect I will be keeping an eye on you more than once, so we might as well get to know each other now.” She says, all traces of the stern voice she uses on most of her students gone.
“Min- Minev- Miner- Can I just call you Minnie?” Remus asks, trying to sound out her name.
She chuckles again. “Sure, Remus. Why don’t you tell me about yourself? Take a biscuit.”
“Okay!” he says, snatching a biscuit and stuffing it into his mouth. Chews a few times, swallowing and then jumping into rapidly talking. “My name is Remus John Lupin, and I am 6 and three-quarters years old. I like dinosaurs, Jamie, Healer Ellie, Grant, Mum, biscuits, you, and-” He scrunches up his nose, as if wondering what he should say next. “-playing! I don’t like Butch, Matron, reading, school, studying, and eating too much, because it makes my tummy hurt.”
Holy Merlin, he really does think he’s six years old.
“Nice to meet you, Remus. My name is Minerva, but you can call me Minnie or Aunt Minnie if you’d prefer. I work at Hogwarts, and I like magic, and cats. I dislike sherbert lemons and on some days Albus Dumbledore. I’m married to the school nurse, Poppy Pomfrey, and I have two brothers, both off and married with kids.” She says.
“You’re married?” Remus asks, curious. “To another woman?”
“Yes. Her name is Poppy.”
“But- how? What?”
Oh.
“Well, in the world that you live in, it’s not as accepted as it is here to marry another person of the same gender.”
“Oh! Cool! I think… I think I’m maybe the same way.” He says bashfully, taking Minerva by surprise.
“Really?” She questions, shocked.
He nods.
“I don’t like any girls. But some of the boys at St. Eddy’s are cute.”
“I’m proud of you for telling me, Remus.”
“Really?” He asks, surprised. “When I tried to tell Matron… She locked me up. Told me that monsters and queers like me don’t get to eat, and I went without food for almost two weeks until Healer Ellie convinced her to let me go. Ellie says that that’s when she thinks my disorder started.”
Professor McGonagall was absolutely shocked. There is no way that I am letting this child go back there.
Instead of showing her internal turmoil, she looked down at her tea and took a sip that was longer than necessary. When she looked up, she could feel the shift in Remus’s demeanor.
“P-Professor? What am I-” Remus asked, voice and eyes laced with panic. “Where’s Sirius? I- Where am I?”
Minerva immediately set her cup down, looking at Remus in concern.
“Remus, you’re in my office. Mr. Black is just a floo away, if you’d like me to get him?”
Remus nodded slowly, tears beginning to fill his eyes. “Y- yes. Would you? P-please?”
McGonagall’s eyes softened. “Of course dear.”
She stood, walked over to the floo, grabbed floo powder and threw it into the fire, before she ducked down and put her head into the green flames, shouting, “Horace Slughorn!”
“Minerva?” She heard Slughorn say on the other side of the floo connection.
“Yes, would you please send Mr. Black this way? Remus is asking for him.”
“Remus?!” She hears Sirius shout on the other side of the connection, only barely having enough time to jump out of the way before Sirius darts through the flames.