Chapter 8
Ron threw up his hand in defense, “Oh, of course, they’re out of the experimental stage, we just haven’t put them on the shelves yet, need a few more promotional pieces, that’s all.”
She looked at him with suspicion, but let the matter fall and started towards the wall of the castle behind the greenhouse. Harry smiled at her suspicion, she wouldn’t want to take anything experimental. What if the cheeriness didn’t wear off in time, that could be quite awkward for her stern persona. And quite a laugh for he and Neville.
They followed the headmistress up to a blank section of the wall, and Harry was infinitely confused until she waved her wand at the wall, and it melted into a door. A secret passage he didn’t know of, how was that possible? He supposed that his father and the rest of the marauders had to have missed one.
The rest of the group shared a look between them as Minerva opened the door and passed through, they followed and were shocked to find themselves outside of the griffin that leads to her office, seven floors up.
They all gathered there in the hall and fell silent as they recognised where they had landed. They turned to Professor McGonagall with surprise and Ginny asked what they were all thinking. “How in the name of Merlin did you do that?”
Minerva smiled and shook her head. “Call it Christmas Magic... because it only works in December,” She shrugged and stepped up to the Griffin, “Yule Log” was the password she gave.
The rest of the group shared looks of disbelief and shock before following her onto the slowly spiraling staircase. Harry looked back at where the door had appeared, it had gone again. Hogwarts really never ceases to amaze.
They shed their cloaks and coats and settled in the Headmistress’s sitting area, beside the fireplace, conjuring up another two chairs and tea service. They were all talking over one another and settling in, Harry arranging his newly conjured chair next to Ginny’s and putting James up on his lap, Hermione settling in on the settee with Ron using him to warm her hands, Minerva moving her tartan armchair a bit closer to the grate and adding fuel to the fire, Hagrid pulling his chair up close to the grate as well and Neville starting to fix the tea.
“We could use some biscuits with this too,” Neville said, sitting in the last empty armchair and grinning at Professor McGonagall.
She returned the smile and summoned over a large biscuit tin which, like so many of her other things, was patterned in tartan. “Ginger newts and shortbread are all I have to offer I’m afraid.”
“Just fine by me, pass them along,” Ginny said with a note of impertinence that she knew she’d be allowed to get away with.
Minerva simply rolled her eyes and did so, waving it over to Ginny with a bit more force than usual. Ginny raised her eyebrows but then shot a joking glare to their elder professor and laughed.