Sweet Memory

I love Drooble's Best Bubble Gum. The juicy, sugary goodness exploding in my mouth with each chew. The fun little bubbles I can make with them, stretching them around with my tongue. Best of all, the familiarity of the taste…

The first time I had Drooble's, I was getting ready for my first date with Frank. I was so incredibly nervous, I remember I couldn't even apply my make-up properly; my hand was shaking so badly. It was Lily who introduced me to this lovely candy.

Of course, I had heard of Drooble's before, seeing them every year on the Hogwarts Express' snack cart, along with Sugar Quills, Chocolate Frogs, and Pumpkin Pasties… But I'd never really tried them before.

I mean, why would anyone want to chew gum when they could be eating rich, lusciously milky chocolate in the shape of an amphibian? Or sucking on pure spun sugar, while looking nothing more than utterly focused on the lesson of their professor?

Anyway, Lily loved Drooble's Gum. She claimed chewing it was relaxing, helped you focus, and was sweet but not overly so. I was in an utter panic over my date with Frank, so I decided it couldn't hurt to try chewing some gum - Merlin knows I couldn't very well suck on a quill during the whole Hogsmeade trip.

I tried Drooble's, and I never looked back. It became my favorite candy, the only candy I wanted. Drooble's was utterly delicious! Of course, if Lily was here, she'd tell you I only love that gum so much because it reminds me of going to The Three Broomsticks with Frank, drinking Butterbeer with Frank, walking around in the snow with Frank, talking and getting to know and loving Frank…

I'm blushing now. I love Frank… No, I'm not so uncomfortable with that idea now that I need some Drooble's to calm me. It wasn't like that at first, though; I've had more than ten years to get used to how I feel for him, and how he feels for me.

Yes, more than ten years. I may have lost understanding of most things, but one thing I can still comprehend is love. Love for my husband, lying beside me. Love for my son, who visits whenever he can, who is so grown up now…

There's not much else I can remember, but love is one thing I know clearly. Love is one thing I can share, one thing I can spread, even as my tortured mind tries to remember how to spell the word love, and what a word is, and why everything around me is white?

So I share the love I've experienced, the love I've felt. I press an empty Drooble's wrapper into my Neville's hand, trying to tell him - Lily loves me, Frank loves me, I love you, Neville, my son, I love you- and his hand closes around the wrapper, empty and devoid of reality and memory, like my mind, my soul, but not my heart - never my heart - and his hand holds mine, and I know he loves me. I smile, touch his face, thank him.

Love is not something that can be comprehended by the mind. Once given, it is not something that can be forgotten by the heart. Love is like an imprint, recorded in the soul - once is enough, enough forever, more than enough to have known it and seen it to believe it.

Prompts: Snapple, concentration, nervousness

(Yes, Snapple. Snapple is kind of like my Drooble's.)