January 12, 1979 Diagon Alley 2:35 PM @sarciendum
Minerva was a quiet woman, that was inherent of her nature, her footsteps soft and her voice only raised when necessary, and if she did shout, it was with a purpose, for the shock of those around her to pause a moment in time. She wasn’t present to make a scene or display a show, and the way she entered the world illustrated this quality: a brown tabby cat with grey hairs just beginning to grow along the fur of her head, markings of the eyes resembling the reading classes she was requiring more and more these days. Her presence was a quiet one, though always with a purpose. Minerva could be striking when need be, of course, her stature as a woman something that couldn’t be ignored even if she tried, however, the times have changed. The world, as it knew Minerva, had to be help in whispers, a question of whether she was truly real or a shadow. ( Besides, if she could travel as a cat to avoid anyone on the streets while she was a young girl in London, she would have, and this has never changed. )
It wouldn’t be a wonder, her purpose in Diagon Alley that day. All of her students knew, she could almost seem to smell trouble before it even began; and her friends would know, she would take hiding away to be an act of cowardice. She hide away in her school when mere paper could lead a trail back to them would be foolish, as well to pretend she didn’t know the dangers of being in public or leaving them alone when it could have been a trap all along. ( A natural thing, perhaps, the paranoia. Logical, maybe, but only in the moment, before she could think her way through her thoughts. )
Thus, there she was, the form of a cat she knew she girlhood, and quite a sight for those that glanced at her long enough, the animal using their paws to spread out one of the pamphlets that fell down onto the cobblestone road, appearing as if the cat was truly reading. The concern, however, would arrive not with the passing gazes, but the shadow above her that stayed still long enough for the presence to be noticed as something that didn’t belong.