Evermore

Chapter Fourteen: Wasting In My Lonely Tower

"He loved you?" Severus asked.

Minerva laughed aloud. "Well, I can't speak for him, but I certainly hope he liked me, based on his marriage proposal to me," she said. "But, I'd seen how my mother was—envious of myself and my brothers, about how we'd been given the freedom to use our magic. I didn't want that for myself, so, after one day of delirious happiness, I... I broke off the engagement."

Severus blinked. "You did?"

"I did," Minerva affirmed. "I never even told my mother and father about it. And, when I did go to break it off, because of the secrecy statute, I couldn't give Dougal a reason why I was breaking my promise to marry him. He must have thought me so cold," she said quietly. "I left for London three days later."

"I am sorry," Severus said. "I didn't know." He hesitated for a moment. "And what about Elphinstone?" he asked.

Minerva smiled at the mention of her dear husband, who had been gone fourteen years. "He proposed to me several times over the years, you know," she said softly. "We would meet in Hogsmeade and would frequent Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop."

"And?"

Minerva let out a small sigh then. "I couldn't say yes, not for a long time," she admitted. "I think a part of me believed it would be seen as disloyal to Dougal, even though I certainly had no intention of contacting him again. But, I..."

"You still loved him," Severus guessed.

Minerva raised her eyes to his. "I did, yes," she admitted. "But after I heard the news about his death... Things changed. Elphinstone and I went for a walk along the lake, here upon the grounds, and he asked me again." Minerva got a far away look in her eyes, almost as if she was revisiting that memory for the first time in a long while. "Perhaps it was the different setting, or perhaps it was Dougal's death, or... Well, I'd always cared for Elphinstone, and it certainly helped that he was a wizard as well. Perhaps that friendship turned into a semblance of love, which is why I accepted his proposal." She hesitated for a moment. "For three years, we were a happy pair, but then one false move with a Venomous Tentacula biting him and all was lost for me in matters of the heart."

Severus hesitated for a moment. "Why are you telling me all this, Minerva?"

Minerva smiled then, never taking her eyes from his. "I don't want you to make the same mistake that I did, Severus. Giving up Dougal was very painful, and not saying yes to Elphinstone due to my own pigheadedness... Well, suffice it to say, Elphinstone and I could have had many happy years together if I wasn't so afraid."

Severus shook his head. "You're a Gryffindor."

Minerva grinned. "Yes, but I could have been a Ravenclaw—Hatstall, you know," she said, and Severus looked shocked at this confession. "I'm telling you this, Severus, because I don't want you to make the same mistake I did."

Severus blinked. "Mistake?"

Minerva sighed, reaching forwards and gently covering her hand with his. "I'm not blind. I know a man filled with fear when I see it; it was the same look I gave myself in my looking glass in my bedroom, right before I went to see Dougal, to tell him that the engagement was off. I didn't want to hurt him, and that outweighed the pain in my heart, at the end of it all."

"Minerva..."

"No, Severus, please listen," she said, gently but firmly. "I need you to hear this. It is very rare to see such love between two people; I myself haven't seen such a love many times in my life. Lily and James, for one; Neville and Draco for another. But you and Harry? Well," she said, and squeezed his hand, smiling as she let it go, "it's easy to think that you're too different from one another, and that your pasts may not mesh well with your future..."