21 August 1952
Minerva looked down at the silver ring wrapped around her finger; fiddling with it she walked down towards the McGregor's Cottage.
She couldn't lie to herself anymore. In three days, she would be off to London, to work at the Ministry amongst other witches and wizards. The thought had only dawned on her this morning, however, a voice in her head told her that she had been just too stubborn to have accepted it beforehand. It was now clear to Minerva that she could not lie to Dougal. She could not do what her mother had done to her father.
"Oh, Dougal…" murmured Minerva as she saw a dark figure emerge from over the hill.
As he got closer, Dougal waved beaming at the sight of Minerva. His smile, however, faded quickly at the sight of her expression.
"Are you all right, Minerva?" he said and Minerva felt her heartbreak at the concern and anxiety in his voice.
"I—I—Dougal—I can't do this," and to her horror, a tear rolled down her cheek. "I can't do this, not to you, I just can't." She removed the ring from her trembling finger.
Dougal stared, too stunned to speak, to even move, and Minerva felt a pang of guilt and desperate sadness as she watched him look dazedly at her and then back at the ring.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered as tears poured down her face.
"Minerva—I—why?" he stammered as she placed the ring in his hand and looked up into her tearful eyes. "I don't understand."
Minerva shook her head from side to side, unable to speak. Her throat felt as though it was burning up and biting the sides of her cheeks was the only thing she could do to stop herself from sobbing.
"Why Minerva?" he repeated and Minerva made the mistake of looking up into his blue eyes, his dazzling blue eyes she was so in love with.
"I can't Dougal. I can't explain why, but I just—I just can't do this to you," her words were coming out as a hoarse whisper and she started to move backwards, away from the field where she had spent so much time with him, away from the memories of the previous few weeks.
"Min-"
"I can't marry you, Dougal," Minerva interrupted, more firmly than she had deemed herself capable of. "Please don't come by the house again," she added before turning around and running away, Dougal calling her name behind her.
Minerva ran and ran until she could no longer breathe. Gasping she clutched her waist, hoping that the pain in her sides would remove the one of her grief. She could see her house in the distance however, she was not ready to go back just yet. The look of Dougal's heartbroken face plagued her mind and a new wave of tears poured down her face.
"Minerva is that you?" called Isobel who came hurrying into the hallway. "My goodness, lass, where have you been? Dougal should know better than to bring you back at this time!" she exclaimed rushing over to her daughter. Minerva did not answer and Isobel frowned. "Whatever is the matter?"
With a huge effort, Minerva looked up into her mother's eyes. "Everything is fine Mum," she said, trying to control the trembling in her voice. "I'm sorry if I worried you."
Then, Minerva tried to summon up a convincing smile, gave her mother's hand a squeeze, before turning to run up the stairs to her bedroom. She felt bad about lying to her mum. However, she was not ready to talk about Dougal just yet.
Poor Minerva. I hope this answered your question AnonymousFriend. Minerva got engaged with Dougal but the next day she said she couldn't marry him because she didn't want to do what her mother did before her.