Closed Box of Memories

[Monty Pendleton]

Arvo hadn't asked much of Monty, but he had made him promise to take care of Kata. It was an unnecessary pledge - Monty would have taken care of her regardless - but it seemed to bring the arithmancer some comfort to know that his wife would have a friend after he passed. In truth, it brought Monty comfort, too; he was as grateful for Kata's friendship as she was for his. With whom else could he reminisce so fondly? With whom else could he recall the old man's antics, laugh at his jokes, and shed tears for his loss? On the stormy sea of grief, it was easier to navigate with two. Besides, Monty loved Kata dearly. She was one of the strongest, funniest, and most gracious women he had had the pleasure to know; and he liked to think that if they had met under any other circumstances, they would still have become friends.

Well, Monty had made one other promise. Something to do with a three-decade long prank war, and taking up the mantle for Arvo. Someone had to keep her on her toes, he'd said. Monty had laughed, and agreed, with the caveat that he gave her a year's break. "Just long enough to think she's won," he said. This, too, seemed to give Arvo some peace. Even in death, he'd continue to be the same utter nuisance everybody had loved.

It was four o'clock in the afternoon. Monty had been at Kata’s house since noon, helping her organise Arvo's belongings. There were boxes and boxes of things to sort; Arvo had lived a long and full life, and collected much evidence along the way. It seemed a slight invasion of privacy, but Monty had been careful to help with the more practical possessions - books, clothes, collectibles - while Kata handled the more personal. It was emotionally painful work, digging through old memories, and he was glad to keep her company. “Oh - it’s your wedding photo album,” he said, dusting off the cover. He climbed to his feet. “Here. One for you, I think.”

 

[Kata Tuuri]

100 days. She could do 100 days.

When Arvo had died, he'd asked her to keep going for 100 days, because if she could do 100 days, she could do another 100 days, and then she could do another 100 days, and then she would have done a year, and if she could do a year, she could do another year, and so on, until she was no longer counting the days, weeks, months and years.

That was just the way he was, a menace.

Kata had married him knowing he was a menace, and yet, even knowing, preparing to be lost without him, she was still... lost without him. It felt like such a strange sensation, unsure how her day would go now, despite knowing exactly how her day would go. She loved that man dearly, one of the great loves of her life despite being his third wife. The point was, she had been his last, they'd had a very long life together, she and Arvo and she would have never wanted to change even a single moment of it. She couldn't. Though, had she the ability, she might have rewritten their meeting just a little bit. She'd told him she liked a nice shandy... and had to forever drink a shandy on their anniversary.

Kata bloody hated shandy - but she'd been trying to be a lady.

She looked up at Monty, the godsend that boy was, and smiled as he handed her the photo album. He handled it almost irreverently, a testament to how much he loved her husband. There had been a fleeting moment, early on, when she'd genuinely wondered could something have happened between the pair, but it had been so fleeting it had never even really settled as a thought, because she could never have believed someone like Monty could ever have been silly enough to let themselves fall in love with the absolute menace that was her husband. He was a smarter man than she in that regard.

"Thank you, Monty, I think this one is... I think this one is for later," she said, holding it tightly to her chest before she placed it lightly on top of one of the boxes she had labeled as keepsakes. She turned back to the box she was working on, the one Kellen had put together of his Grandfather's office. She couldn't bring herself to go in there, too many memories. The letter that Monty had written to her in apology of the night of drunken rampaging, or what have you sat face up, staring at her, and so help her, she laughed. "Oh, oh Arvo you bastard." She said, shaking her head as she reached into the box to pick it up.

@Monty Pendleton ​

 

[Monty Pendleton]

Monty was about to resume sorting the box on the floor when he heard Kata laugh, and curiosity brought him back to her side. “What’s that?” he asked. It had his own cursive handwriting on the front, but that didn’t tell him much; he’d often written to Kata while he’d been employed at Hogwarts, thanking her for the various baked gifts she liked to send, and updating her on the latest castle gossip. But there was something different about this letter. He’d used his serious parchment - the one reserved for bad news, and apologies.

“Oh, no,” he said. “That’s not the letter, is it? Oh, Kata - don’t open that. Don’t remind me. I’m still mortified.” There were great holes in his memory that New Year’s night, and Monty wasn’t sure he wanted to fill them. All he knew was that he’d had far too much to drink with Arvo and done something terribly embarrassing. It must have been awful, because Kata had thrown the pair of them both out of the house at two o’clock in the morning. They’d staggered to a hotel and woken up the following morning with a potted yucca plant, half a bottle of rum, and splitting headaches. This in itself was concerning. Monty knew he lost all inhibition when he drank spirits. The fact neither Kata nor Arvo had ever been willing to tell him what he’d done only encouraged his imagination. “Are you ever going to tell me what I did? I’d quite like to know, if only so I can apologise properly.” He’d apologised profusely in his letter, of course, but it was difficult to sound sincere when he had no idea what he was apologising for.

 

[Kata Tuuri]

Kata took a moment to live in the memory of her late husband, the boundless energy he always seemed to have no matter the occassion, even towards the end. The funeral had been so beautiful, the family, cousins, more cousins, his sons and daughters, some other people Kata had long since lost contact with, yet they had somehow learned of the funeral. His life had touched so many and yet it still felt as though his presence both suffocated and drained her. He was everywhere here, and yet no where all at once. It started her to wondering where that goes, life, when it is over. It wasn't a comforting thought at all, but it was what she needed to help ground herself in this moment all the same.

She smiled down at the letter, grinning lightly at Monty. "No, I rather enjoy the idea that you've not a clue and this way, no matter what, I always win, it doesn't matter what you do in the end Monty, because I will always win this prank war, don't think I don't know what he asked of you, I know everything." she reminded him, hoping he would take it as part of the game they had all shared in so many ways. There was a lot she did not know, like some of the darker aspects of her husbands life, or how Monty and Arvo had become friends so quickly, but he'd always had a habit of sort of adopting strays. She often felt that herself if she was honest. She'd been in such a different place all those years ago, he'd come to her when she needed it, and now here she was all these years later because she'd fallen in love with the silly man.

Merlin, she missed him more than anything could ever express.

"Do you know he framed this and hung it in our bedroom, the menace."

@Monty Pendleton ​