Entry for the „Unusual Ships Challenge" - Minerva McGonagall/Albus Dumbledore

In his long, eventful life, Albus Dumbledore had seen a lot of things.

Unbelievable destructions, wars, death.

Agony, cruelty, misery, poverty, sorrow. People hurting others mercylessly out of greed or the hunger for power.

But also loyalty, strong friendships, families holding together even when they had to steer through raging storms that tore others apart within a short amount of time. And love, of course.

However, if someone asked him what was the most remarkable thing he remembered about his life, he would answer that the memories about all the beauties he had seen in this world and its past were those who had stayed the most vivid in his old mind.

Thousands and thousands of sunsets and sunrises in their colours that never seemed to be the same, flowers blossoming in springtime, the ocean forming spectacular cliffs with its persistence, the night sky full of glittering stars and galaxies leaving mysteries about the planets hidden inside their depths...

Nobody would assume that the greatest beauty to him was his wife, Minerva McGonagall.

Albus could still remember how she looked like way back when they were young, being students themselves at Hogwarts.

Her long hair had been curlier back then, a black, silky frame around a softly formed face with smooth skin, twinkling eyes and rosy lips.

But if he thought about it, she had not changed that much since then, even though her face was more lined nowadays and it was a bit more stern-looking – when she smiled, it still looked as soft as it had more than half a century ago, also with her thinner lips that had been pressed together so often.

Her hair had become a dark grey with the time, but he still loved the way she looked when she opened her tight bun and wore it open, just for him, because he was one of the few people left who were allowed to see the private Minerva.

And of course, there were her eyes.

Her beautiful, emerald green eyes that could always tell him how she felt.

They had not changed a bit and when he looked into their depths, it was as if the construct of time became blurred all around him because it was unimportant. Their twinkle when she smiled at him made him feel like a young man again.
Sometimes he caught her standing in front of the mirror, examining herself and the signs of age her body was showing, and he could sense how she somehow longed for her younger body, but to him, she still was the most beautiful woman in the world, even in her high age.

And every time he saw her stand there, staring at her reflection with her lips tightly pressed together, he would embrace her gently, pressing his chest against her back, and whisper into her ear how wonderful she looked like, even after all this time, and that nothing, even age, could change how much he loved her.