Work Text:
When Charity misses a rendezvous, Arabella knows something is wrong. That’s all she knows for months, that something is wrong. After the dust of the war settles without any sign of Charity, Arabella realizes her lover is probably dead. There is no farewell, no body, no funeral, just a lingering sense of unease and a foolish sliver of hope.
Arabella notices, then, how few tangible traces Charity has left in her life. Some books, a scarf, an old violin: the few things a Squib and a witch can share, apart from memories.
Minerva is the first person Arabella has ever told about the secret romance. “I know Hogwarts has a Pensieve archive. You could preserve my memories of Charity and perhaps your own memories, or you could interview her students…”
“Arabella, the process of reliving memories for extraction can be painful and…sensitive.”
“Please. I want her to be remembered as more than a name on the list of the missing.”
Arabella weeps for hours after every session, but she knows she’s done the right thing when she cradles the memories in her arms, mortal love made eternal.
The scarf and violin she keeps for the rest of her life.