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When the proposal for the Panem Hunger Games Memorial Museum arrived it took all of Peeta’s strength and will to prevent Katniss from throwing it in the fire with only the cover letter read. While the Mellark family did not watch the yearly variety show televised to honor the deceased its existence was tolerated. Katniss hadn’t objected to any of the memorials erected across the Districts and had in fact paid for District 12’s but to be asked to assist in creating one institution that would house nothing but items related to the Hunger Games and the war that ended them was a nightmare felt like a step too far. It wasn’t until Peeta personally spoke with the planners that Katniss began to calm down. It was made very clear to both that no one wanted a museum that would honor the Games in any way. Instead it would be a massive, sprawling reminder of a part of Panem’s history that needed to be remembered so it wouldn’t be repeated. Effie was involved, as she always was, and she paid a personal visit to the Mellark home with an impassioned plea for any help they could give in contributing to the museum. In practiced, clipped tones she lectured Katniss on the need to put faces that couldn’t be forgotten to the names read off the scroll each Memorial Day.
Effie painted a stark picture of a young generation far enough removed from the Games that miniature versions of them were being seen on playgrounds and of children far too happy to act as Tributes during their lunch hours. Katniss found this hard to believe given her own children’s knowledge of the horrors of the Games and it was once again Peeta who had to open her eyes to the museum they had unintentionally built inside their house. Prim’s half finished knitting projects that Katniss kept on display like they were works of art, photos of Haymitch, Annie, Finnick and Johanna that lined their walls and the shelves of items that they had taken from Haymitch’s house after he passed the year before kept the spirits of those lost forever present. There was also their book which was read through frequently by their growing family but Katniss didn’t dare take it out while Effie was there knowing too well it was exactly the kind of thing Effie wanted from them. With a resolve to make sure that everyone in Panem remembered those who were never far from her mind Katniss followed Peeta through the house and together they filled up two boxes worth of items to donate. They looked so small when packed up and placed with Effie’s luggage but they contained memories so big and painful that even with the addition of the memories of her wedding day and the birth of her children their shadow loomed over her, never growing short enough to dispel the fear of them swallowing her whole.
During Effie’s stay with them other residents of District 12 came by to offer up their own contributions. Their house became a temporary home for boxes of handcrafted Mockingjay pins, letters and diaries chronicling not just the last Games but all of them back to the first and most heart breaking of all, smoke and fired damaged keepsakes salvaged from the remains of homes when District 12 burned. As they lay in bed the night after Effie left Peeta whispered to Katniss that he had seen Effie wipe tears off her face as she double wrapped the unopened bottle of Haymitch’s favorite spirit they included as a last minute donation.
It took almost three years for the museum to open to the public. There'd been an unstoppable debate among the Districts over location until District 13, still struggling to rebuild itself above ground and away from Coin’s vision, won with their argument that the museum would bring people from all over the country to them. There was a period where every few weeks plans for an exhibit would leak and insult one group of people or another. Katniss temporarily pulled her support when an anonymous donor made a sizable contribution marked strictly for a President Snow Memorial Rose Garden. It was no surprise to her that there were pockets of the Capitol and a few of the Districts that remained loyal to the Games era but she knew the Mockingjay name still meant something to more and a week after her protest the money was quietly returned to the donor. Finally the construction of the building and layout of the museum picked up speed and with nothing controversial or exciting to report news of it was relegated to brief, sporadic updates. Most days Katniss didn’t think of it at all though if she went too long a reminder would come in the form of something shocking and painful. A short, tense phone call from Gale alerted Katniss to the fact that there would be a wing devoted to all technology created and used during the War. While she gave him the permission he didn’t need to ask for to use sketches and notes on some of his projects she made a pact with Peeta that they would skip that section of the museum.
Skipping the museum entirely had been their original plan, or at least waiting until they were ready and their children were old enough to properly experience it, but as with all things connected to the Games other people had other plans for them. Their family was invited as the guests of honor to a special preview weekend that would only be open to a select group who had been closely associated with the Games or the war. The excuse Katniss and Peeta gave themselves and each other was that it would at least be an opportunity to see all those they never quite managed to stay in touch with. Though when even Octavia’s warm hugs left her stomach in knots Katniss remembered why she kept certain people stuck firmly in her past. By the time she caught Gale looking at her from across the front lobby she could manage nothing more than a wave and a quick nod at his wife whom she had seen numerous photos of but never met.
Johanna joined the Mellarks on the first half of their tour but as they ventured deeper into the physical manifestation of their history she drifted apart from them. The atmosphere grew hushed and even the exhibits on Games long before she was born left Katniss feeling clammy and short of breath. It was her son that broke that deafening silence that had fallen over the crowd when with a shout of "Uncle Haymitch" he went running for a large poster that hung on the wall of the room they entered. Katniss and Peeta ran after him in unison and it wasn’t until her family was linked arm in arm and everyone had stopped paying attention to them that Katniss allowed herself to look at the poster. Haymitch’s loss was still too keenly felt and the sadness at seeing his young, smiling face settled too far into Katniss for her to shake. It was a harbinger of what the rest of the museum would bring and they never made it past the first part of the exhibit dedicated to the 74th Games. On the rare occasions that Katniss allowed herself to think about her costumes from the Games she assumed they’d been deeply buried or destroyed. But there in a glass case her jeweled fire gown was proudly displayed and Flavius and Venia stood in front of it openly weeping. Whether they wept for Cinna or something else Katniss didn’t know but the tightness in her throat at the sight of the gown was all for its creator.
It was then that she realized this museum wasn’t for her. She still lived and breathed the Games and the war more than she wanted and she didn’t need the dresses or posters or whatever lay in front of her to remember. She hoped there was a display for Rue and that the children of District 11 were taught all about the beautiful girl who had lost her life too soon but she didn’t need to see it. She still thought of Rue every time she sang and knew she always would. When Peeta leaned in to whisper in her ear, “There’s a train leaving soon that will get us home in time for dinner” and she could feel her children staring up at them Katniss knew it was time to leave.
As they made their way out of the room she caught the eye of a young boy was staring back and forth at her and something on the wall behind her. When she turned around she saw a poster sized version of her sixteen year old self looking out at the crowd with a serious expression on her face. The boy looked shocked that the girl on the wall was also a woman standing in front of him. She gave him a shaky, three finger salute and silently hoped he ventured deeper into the parts of the museum she couldn’t. Even more so she hoped when the museum fed him propaganda of the Mockingjay he remembered that the woman had stood there one human among all the others with her family that she was going home with to be a mother to, a hunter for, a mournful friend who told her children bedtime stories of the brave Finnick Odair, a sister who kissed a photo of Prim before bed every night and a woman who held her husband as tightly as he held her on all those nights when sleep still let the enemies in.