Left With More Than a Memory

Worlds Apart

Hi again, thanks for coming back! I hope you enjoy the update!

Worlds Apart

Christmas Eve had rolled around and the McGonagall cottage was aglow with the distraction of the holiday. The baking endeavours had cooled down and Minerva and Louise had managed biscuits and mince pies for the festivities. The perhaps over kill quantity of food was due to the fact that the McGonagalls were expecting guests for the next two nights. Robert's widow Jane and their daughter Alice.

Jane Axley, as they had first known her, was a quiet, timid, but wickedly bright young witch. She had met Robert at Hogwarts and they had been married very quickly after graduating. As the family got to know her better they had found her to be unbelievably kind and wildly funny, she had been a favourite to have around at any gathering. She and Robert were a perfect balance and a formidable team. Alice was born two years before her father's death, a year before Louise. She had been so desperately wanted, the couple had been trying for children unsuccessfully since their marriage. Minerva could not remember ever seeing Robert so completely happy as he had been at the birth of his daughter.

After Robert's death Jane had retreated back into her shell. She stopped coming to gatherings, attending social events. She had moved with Alice to Wales following the end of the first war. She couldn't bear Scotland anymore. Robert was everywhere there. The families kept in touch of course, but it was never the same after that. As a result, even though they were just a year apart in age, Alice and Louise had never been particularly close growing up. They had been friendly at school but nothing exceptional. Minerva had tried her best to forge some sort of bond with the girl during her time at Hogwarts, but starting almost from scratch at that age proved difficult. So the exceptionality of the upcoming visit was not lost on the cottage. And they wanted to make it special.

"What time did she say again?" Orla asked, laying placemats on the table

"Around 7," Malcolm replied from the sink where he was rinsing some cutlery to set with them.

"Relax love," he said as he brought them to her "the table looks beautiful, the food will be phenomenal, and we might be shaky at the start but we'll get there eventually" and kissed her on the cheek as he handed over the clean utensils.

"I just want them to feel at home, Malcolm. Like they used to."

Upstairs, Minerva and Louise were changing and readying for the evening. Louise had given up her room for the two guests and was bunking in with her aunt.

"Would you grab my shoes from under the bed Louise?" Minerva asked as she did the clasp of a bracelet. A gift from her husband on her first birthday after they had been married

"Do you need me to put them on you too?" Louise smirked as she handed them to her

"Oh very funny," Minerva rolled her eyes. However, when she slipped her feet into them she did the buckles up with her wand. Louise giggled as she followed her downstairs.

"Do you need help with anything?" Minerva asked as she entered the room

"I think we have it," Orla replied. "So now, I suppose, we wait"

7 o'clock rolled around and visitors were bang on time. The welcomes were warm, but undercut with an unshakeable awkwardness. Minerva first hugged he niece before waiting her turn to greet Jane.

"Jane, Merlin it's been far to long" Minerva asked as she embraced her.

"Every bit as much my fault" her sister in law replied. "You look wonderful Minerva, how have you been keeping?"

The two briefly caught up as they walked into the kitchen. Orla, ever the perfect hostess, had everyone sat quickly down and eating. The conversation was slow at first, but with some gentle coaxing, and the loosening affect of a few glasses of wine on those partaking, the room was soon filled with the warmth of reminiscent laughter. As the nominees for the washup left the table following the meal, Minerva sipped steadily on a glass of lemonade and caught up for a few minutes with Alice. However, she found her mind on other things for a moment as the girl spoke. The face she looked at could almost have been her brother's. She was stunned at how her features had grown to almost mirror his. It was the strangest sensation she had ever experienced. 18 years from now would she be looking into a face that could almost be Albus Dumbledore's? She was snapped out of her wondering by Malcolm suggesting they migrate to the sitting room to play charades, a historically firm favourite among the family.

The following two hours were spent in fits of laughter. Jane was a version of herself they had not seen in years, stood front and centre fighting laughter at the increasingly comedic guesses at the title of her book. Louise and Alice were squished together on an armchair yelling their guesses and whispering to one another as though they had never spent a day apart. Orla and Malcom sat hand in hand on the settee. As Minerva looked around, the room seemed to slowly morph into the one it had been all those years ago. The two girls were then but a whisper of the near future. She could see Robert sat in the armchair they now sat in. Almost feel Elphistone's hand in hers. My God they were so young then. How little they knew. How far from any possible notion it had been that any of those faces would never again grace the firelight of this room. Her heart sank at the thought that a similar fate may befall the faces in the room now. It seemed that what was happening beyond this room could not possibly be true. She could not fathom how, when such warmth and light existed, such coldness and darkness also existed? How could so much love exist amongst so much depravity? Just as she couldn't fathom it more than 17 years ago.

Thank you for reading, see you soon!