Her nerves were on edge as she watched Professor Sprout work her magic on her stove. After a few moments, she presented Professor McGonagall with a strong cup of tea.

“This should do.” McGonagall almost dropped the cup with her trembling fingers. “I brewed it using some special herbs I’ve been experimenting with.”

“Thank you,” McGonagall said as she sipped the soothing drink. She immediately felt the calming effects of the hot liquid circulating her body.

“You gave me such a scare,” Professor Sprout stated as she took the teacup from McGonagall. “You look like you’d been in a windstorm.”

“Well not exactly.” McGonagall felt her nerves acting up again. Professor Sprout poured more tea.

“Merlin! What happened?”

Once she finished sipping her drink, McGonagall took a deep breath to begin. “I went to see him.”

“Who?”

“Harry Potter.” A smile crept across her face as she mentioned his name. Professor Sprout beamed with her as she listened to McGonagall talk about the boy.

“He looks just like his father, but he definitely has Lily’s eyes.”

“Well, I’m glad to know he’s growing up OK. But it still doesn’t explain your jitters!” said Professor Sprout.

“Well, I was watching him play in cat form when all of a sudden, it went dark.” Professor Sprout gave a fearful expression as McGonagall recalled the incident.

“I could tell they were Muggle children who took me. So I stayed in form, waiting to escape.”

“Then what?”

The teacup rattled in McGonagall’s hands. “I heard one of the children, Harry’s cousin I think, say something stupid. It was about cats landing and toast or something.”

“You mean: ‘If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happens if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?’” said Professor Sprout.

“Yes!” McGonagall exclaimed. “ It's just plain idiotic nonsense. I mean a cat would always land on its feet if it had buttered bread or pudding on it. It’s praticle Muggle science. Magical theory needn’t apply.”

“So what happened?”

“I couldn’t transform because of the children. So I just played along with them since I didn’t see any real danger involved.” Then McGonagall hands shook violently. Professor Sprout decided to pour a little more into her remedy, adding Fire Whiskey in McGonagall’s tea.

“They tapped the buttered bread on my back and took me to the top landing of this abandon windmill.”

“Good, Godric! You can’t be serious!”

“Yes! They threw me out!” McGonagall sipped some more as she tried to finish her story. “But I wasn’t worried, not at first. I’ve jumped out of things before and have always landed on my feet. So this didn’t seem like anything different.”

“But?”

“But, I wasn’t in control! By Salazar, it felt like some unknown force had seized me when I was falling!”

McGonagall’s hand shook so badly that Professor Sprout just handed her the bottle of Fire Whiskey.

McGonagall took a swig of the liquor…strait from the bottle.