Summer of 1973 (part 1)
Sunday July 8th 1973
June was lost, July had made its flamboyant entrance, bursting down the front door; summer had truly begun. The tenderness of spring had made way for the rambunctious dark greens of oak and hazel trees; the bark of the birches white and peeling like sheets of parchment, just as white and unblemished as the daisies that still overflowed the rolling hills.
It had been raining on and off for the sole week that Marlene had been back home, yet today it promised to remain dry. Although the sky was littered with plumes of fleecy clouds, the sun had broken through and shone down on the road; the damp pavement steaming in the heat, emitting that characteristic smell of wet concrete on rainy summer days. Marlene`s trainers slapped against the dark concrete of the road down towards the Loch, the loose strings of her cut-off shorts tickling against her bare thighs. Momentarily she stopped, standing still at the pasture that held a couple of sheep, grazing lazily in the hazy atmosphere.
Large bellflowers were growing in the grass on the roadside, violently purple, contrasting heavily against the yellow of the tutsans. Ever since she was little, her mother had made sure that Marlene and her brother were able to identify the plants around them, from the littlest flower to the biggest tree.
A sheep came up to the fence, pressing its soft nose through a gap between the pickets. Carefully, Marlene caressed the nose, feeling the texture of the short bristles against her fingertips and the warm damp breath coming out of its nostrils against her wrist. Eventually the sheep got bored and traipsed away, tail swaying as it turned the other way.
Marlene continued down towards the Loch, going off the main road onto a rocky pathway. As the ground started to get damper, the foliage started to change; alder trees appearing, covered in mosses and liverworts. On the steep terrain, between the rocks that stood out from the soil, wood forget-me-nots and avens emerged, as well as broad-leaved helleborines. The latter, being an orchid species, always reminded Marlene of tiny dragons, jumping up playfully from the earth.
With a little bit of effort, Marlene had to manoeuvre herself through some low hanging branches to get to the spot where she had secured her boot to the bank. A tree branch scratched her face; it stung momentarily, but she didn`t really think much of it, ploughing through, already seeing her boat.
Today, she would finally try to use her Gillyweed; she felt the secure weight of it in the pocket of her jean shorts. Before, she had been too scared to use it. This morning however, she had decided to get over it. In hindsight, if she was going to use it, she supposed she wouldn`t really need her boat today. Still, the spot was nice and secluded from the rest of the Loch, nobody would find her here.
Glancing around, as to make sure nobody was watching, she stripped down to her bathing suit and dipped her fingers into the water; it wasn`t as cold as she would have thought. The Gillyweed sat sticky and damp in the palm of her hand. Marlene hadn`t told anybody about her plan, scared someone might want to prevent it. Her breath was heavy; the air being warm and damp down at the Loch, pressing almost.
Her heart hammered violently against her ribs, like a caged bird, she didn`t know what she would find in the depths of the water; she realised she should probably have thought this through more.
Without thinking about it any further, she shoved the Gillyweed in her mouth and started chewing; it tasted salty and the slimy texture almost made her gag. Not without effort, she was finally able to get it down. Quickly she started wading out further into the water; still wearing her shoes to prevent her from cutting the soles of her feet on the sharp edges of rock.
The sensation that started to occur next, made her clasp at her neck in horror. It was a sordid pressing pain that radiate from her chest all the way to the sides of her neck, just below her ears. With a jump she leapt into the dark water.
At first she wasn`t able to see anything, only murky green, but after blinking her eyes, things started to come into view and she stared at her webbed hands. Gingerly, she groped the sides of her neck, she seemed to have sprouted gills. In amazement she swam a little, able to propel herself forward at an astonishing speed.
Marlene swam further out into the lake, looking in absolute awe at the little fish that skittered her by and the long sweeping strands of weed. She never would have thought to see the Loch at such close proximity; it felt freeing.
Diving deeper, the water started to press down on her eardrums and it was harder to move forward, still Marlene didn`t feel in the least bit scared. She didn`t know what she was looking for exactly; she knew there were Mer-folk living in Loch Lomond. Yet, she was sure they would keep themselves hidden. Marlene was aware that there were Selkies living in the lake at Hogwarts, she wondered if they would hear more about them in Care of Magical Creatures.
Suddenly, she startled as she saw something move in her periphery. She turned around with a jolt and was just in time to see a green creature, she knew to be a Grindylow, skitter away between the weeds. Marlene could feel her stomach do a flip and she supposed it would be for the best if she returned back to shore, her Gillyweed must be coming to the end of its magical abilities and she wouldn`t like to encounter another Grindylow; not without her wand at hand.
Taking bit strides with her arms, she began to swam back to where she had come from. Just at that moment, she felt something tug at her foot and she turned her head to see another Grindylow hanging on her foot. She let out an inaudible scream, bubbles rising to the surface. Another one swam her way and she slapped it away, feeling its scaly skin against the back of her palm. Kicking violently, she was able to get rid of the other Grindylow. However, it did take her trainer with it.
Just in time, as her gills started to disappear, she heaved herself onto the back, coughing up water forcefully. It was only when she parted her soaking wet hair from her face, that she saw the girl standing on the shore, next to Marlene’s boat, a foot propped up on it.
`Do you know you`re only wearing one shoe?` the girl asked, her grin baring a gap between her front teeth.
Marlene blinked the murky water from her eyes. For a second she thought she might have drowned in the lake and was now hallucinating.
`Camille?` Marlene spluttered, sitting up embarrassed, hoisting at her bathingsuit. `Ah- Ah thought you moved back to France?` she asked, already feeling silly.
`I did.` Camille grinned impishly. `But, you know Mars, there is something called travel.` she wriggled her hands like a performer.
`So…yer back?` Marlene asked confused, standing up and hopping on one foot as she poured the water from her leftover shoe.
`Just for the summer.` Camille shrugged.
`Oh.`
Camille Noyer had been Marlene`s neighbour until a couple of years back. The two of them had been practically inseparable; it had broken Marlene`s heart when the family had moved back to France.
`Still an adrenaline junky then, non?` Camille asked, gesturing at Marlene`s drowned appearance.
Marlene shrugged her shoulders and grinned shyly, feeling rather exposed in only her bathing suit. `Ah had some Gillyweed. Thought ah might try to, erm, weel, ye ken-` Being surprised or nervous made her accent bleed through.
Camille raised her eyebrows, looking impressed; it pleased Marlene that she was impressed. Only now Marlene realised how tall Camille had gotten, she was lanky and her dark hazelnut coloured hair was chopped to her shoulders.
`Did you cut yourself?` Camille asked.
`Hmm?`
Camille advanced towards Marlene and extended a hand. `Here,` she touched Marlene`s cheek. `There`s blood here.`
`Och.` Marlene touched her own hand to her skin and felt the warm trickly of blood, it must have been from the tree branch earlier.
`Let me get that for you.` Camille pulled a handkerchief out of her back pocket and gently dabbed the cut. `Ah, bon.`
`Cheers.`
Marlene stared at her old friend, whose sparkling eyes were still fastened on her cheek. Camille`s eyes flicked up momentarily and caught Marlene`s, she wanted to look away, but couldn`t, it was as if she had been glued to the spot.
***
Sunday 15th July 1973
It was cool in the church, a lot cooler than outside, and for once Mary didn`t mind helping her sister clean up after Mass. It was eerily quiet in the church hall, the sweeping of the broom loudly audible as the rough bristles brushed over the flagstones. Cleaning up was their way of helping their mother and giving back to the community.
Gabrielle was wiping down the church pews with a damp cloth, her hair up in a scarf; she started to resemble their mother more and more, Mary thought. It was nice to work together in this comfortable silence, she had barely spent any time with her sister since being back home from Hogwarts. Opposed to her older brother, Jayden, who had been part of the Easter leavers following his sixteenth birthday, her sister had taken her CSEs and was planning to continue her GCE A-Levels after the summer holidays. Gabi had been cloistered away most days, studying, saying she needed to get a head start on her school work if she wanted to keep up. Mary thought this was silly, Gabi was by far the cleverest of them all.
After putting the broom away she started to gather up the discarded pamphlets in the pews, putting them in the bin.
`Did mada tell you they`re pulling Tarone out of school?` her sister suddenly spoke, breaking the silence.
`What?` Mary`s head snapped up. `What do you mean?`
`Mum and dad are thinking of putting him in the supplementary schooling programme offered by the church.` Gabi replied, getting deep into a corner of the pew with her cloth.
`But, why?` Mary put down the bin, it clattered against the stone floor.
`The school threatened to sent him to one of those special boarding schools, an ESN school there`re called. The teachers were saying he`s disruptive and too thick to be in normal education.`
`But why`d they say that? Jayden is not disruptive.` Mary furrowed her brow. `That`s rubbish.` Mary`s younger brother was a gentle boy, sure he was rambunctious sometimes, but what nine year old boy wasn`t?
`I know.` Gabi raised her eyebrows meaningful.
Mary clenched her jaw and picked up the bin again. She`d heard of this happening before; younger children, mostly boys, of Caribbean or South-Asian heritage were being pulled out of school and sent off to those `educational subnormal` boarding schools, mostly miles away from their families. Black children were underestimated and oversurveillance, deemed as violent or too dim-witted to continue school the normal route.
Swallowing hard, Mary put the last bits of rubble into the bin, `I had no idea.` she mumbled.
`Well,` Gabi answered. `You weren`t here.`
`Yea.` Mary scratched her eyebrow.
With every break that she returned home from Hogwarts, she realised how much she had missed in her time away. Her little siblings were growing up out of her sight, having shot up like lanky saplings every time she saw them again. Abi was almost eleven already, nearly the same age Mary was when she got her letter to Hogwarts. Secretly, she hoped that Abi would get a letter of her own. It would be nice to have someone from her family with her. Her family meant the world to her and it broke her heart to be at such a distant from them for the majority of the year.
How could she play witch in the North of Scotland when there`re were such pressing matters at hand back home? A rage started to bubble up inside her, more at herself than at anyone else, at her pure selfishness.
`It`s not fair.` she huffed.
`I know it`s not fair.` her sister answered. `But there`s nothing we can do about it.`
Mary threw up her hands. `But they`re being racist, they`re going against the law. Surely we`re in the right here.`
`The law isn`t going to help us here. They`ve got too much of an upper hand.` Gabi replied. `Besides, it could be good for Tarone, being away from that school.`
`How can you say that?` Mary spat back.
`Say what?`
`How can you be so calm about this? Doesn`t this infuriate you?`
`You know it does.`
`Then why don`t you show it?` Mary felt her eyes burning, but she pushed back her tears, not crying, never crying.
`Because anger is only going to be our enemy in this case.` Gabi sighed. `Rage or tears would only prove their point.`
Mary bit her lip, sinking her teeth into her flesh. It was the mantra her dad had told them ever since she was old enough to remember. Never show your weaknesses, never show your tears. Do not let them know you`re hurting. Mary had a vague memory of falling over on the playground at school once, her dad had been watching her. She`d scraped her knee, her skin raw and full of rubble. She`d remembered crying, loud, wailing with big sloppy inhales; people had started staring at her. Her dad had pulled her up by her arms and said, `Why are you crying? Stop crying, there`s nothing to be crying about.` Her ever gentle and caring dad had said that, a fury, or in hindside, maybe a fear in his eyes.
When her sister was done with the last pew and had thrown her cloth in the bucket she put an arm around her, they were almost the same height; Mary hadn`t realised she`d gotten that much taller.
`Hey, what`d you say about getting ice-cream?`
`Sure.` Mary shrugged her shoulders. She didn`t really feel like ice-cream, despite the heat, her insides had turned cold.
It was a short walk towards the ice-cream stand on their block, the truck was parked underneath a large birch tree, the shadows of the rustling leaves dappling on the pavement. It was sweltering hot, exhaust gasses adding to the pressing ambience.
They both ordered and Gabi started to grapple about in her pockets, looking for change. The man selling them the ice-cream looked impatient, tapping his fingers against the top of the register. Gabi`s eyes met Mary`s, they looked anxious.
`Look,` the man sighed irritated. `If you don`t have money for it, you can piss off.`
`No, I do, I do.` Gabi replied, nervously.
`Here.` A hand extended between the two girl and handed the man some coins. `And make that three.`
Mary turned around to stare into the face of a tall dark-skinned boy about her age, `Thanks.` she stuttered.
`Ah, well.` the boy shrugged his shoulders, grinning.
``Lo, Darren.` Gabi said, handing Mary her ice-cream cone.
Mary shot her sister a look; do you know him?
`Darren lives across the street from us.` Gabi spoke. `The grey building.`
`Jup.` the boy nodded. `That`s the one.`
Mary stared at Darren, he did look familiar now she thought about it. He had lively eyes, a broad friendly face and cheeks that dimpled as he smiled. His thin jacket hung nonchalantly off his shoulders and the left leg of his jeans had a rip in them above the knee.
`Please, walk with us and I`ll pay you back.` Gabi said, still searching her pockets for her change.
`Nah.` Darren shrugged. `Consider it my treat.`
`Cheers.`
`See you, Gabi,` he said. `Mary.` he gave her a wink. Mary felt her cheeks turn hot and she wondered how he knew her name. She didn`t know what to say, for once she was at a loss of words.
Darren already started sauntering away, a wide legged gait as he threw up one hand as a way of saying goodbye.
***
Thursday July 19th 1973
Lily was sitting on a stool in their bathroom, towel around her shoulders and eyes firmly shut. It was the second time she found herself in a position like this. First with Mary piercing her ears and now this. It was strange that for a person who really enjoyed to exercise complete control, she was once again just handing it off to someone else.
`Can you move a little to the left.` Petunia tugged at Lily.
`Oh careful, careful, ` Lily yelped. `Not so close with the scissors to my eyes. Are those even hair cutting scissors?`
`I don`t know.` Petunia shrugged her shoulders. `Found them in the kitchen.`
`So…they`re kitchen scissors.`
`Hey,` Petunia held up her hands. `You`re the one who wanted to get a haircut.`
`No,` Lily replied, pointedly. `You were the one who wanted to cut my hair.`
Her sister sighed, `Whatever.`
A magazine was splayed open on the bathroom floor, showing a photograph of Jane Asher, her hair cut into a fringe. Petunia had convinced Lily that if she`d cut a fringe, she would look a lot like her.
`You do know what you`re doing right?` Lily asked nervously as her sister started snipping away at her hair, red curls falling on the tiles.
`Calm down.` Petunia replied. `I do this all the time with my own hair.`
Lily stared through the half-cut bangs at her sister`s stringy blonde hair that had been pulled back into a tight ponytail, pulling back the skin of her high forehead, raising her thin manicured eyebrows, giving her almost an eternally surprised look.
Steadily, Petunia sniped away at Lily`s hair, the hair falling down tickled Lily`s face and neck; some getting into her dress and she shimmied, trying to get them out.
`Sit still.`
`Sorry.`
They grew quiet for a while, Petunia`s face furrowed in concentration, biting her lip, sometimes stepping back to get a better look at her younger sister. It seemed like Petunia kept cutting the fringe shorter and shorter, but Lily felt too scared to say something about it; biting the insides of her cheeks.
`Hmm,` Petunia squinted at Lily through her lashes. `Yup, all done.`
`Yeah?` Lily shook off the last stray hairs and donned the towel from her shoulders, prior to looking at herself in the mirror. `Oh.` Lily let out a surprised gasp.
Petunia took a stand behind Lily, their eyes connecting in the mirror. `Well?` Petunia lifted her eyebrows even higher, looking inquiring at Lily.
`Oh Tunie, it looks lovely!` Lily`s face split into a smile. She turned her head from left to right, admiring her new haircut. It was almost hard to recognise herself. When thinking about her appearance, she always supposed herself a homely girl, the way Jo March in Little Women describes herself. An Anne Shirley type, never a Jane Bennett kind of pretty; rather sly of Jane Austen to name her prettiest protagonist after herself.
`Yeah?` Petunia pulled her ponytail even tighter, looking insecure.
`Truly.` Lily turned around and hugged her sister, rubbing the hard vertebrae`s of Petunia`s backbone. `Thank you.`
Petunia pulled away and racked her finger`s through Lily`s fringe, `There you go, that`s better.`
As they started to clean the bathroom, sweeping the discarded red curls into a heap, Petunia suddenly sighed and held up her hands, examining them, `Oh gosh, my nails look horrid. Look-` She put her hand out to Lily; Petunia`s nails had got some chipped nail polish on them and looked brittle, with ragged edges. `They keep breaking, it`s so annoying.`
`You want me to paint them?` Lily asked. `Got a colour you might like.`
Petunia nodded and after they finished up cleaning, they retire to her room. The golden late afternoon light streaming in through the window, the chimneys of the coalmines visible in the distance. With a practiced movement, Petunia flipped a vinyl onto the turntable and carefully balanced the needle.
Lily had already positioned herself on her sister`s bed, splaying out a towel, as not to get any polish on the covers; she took off her rings, that way she had more movement in her hands.
With a soft thud, Petunia sat cross legged across Lily and extended a hand; Lily took it in hers and started to remove the chipped nail polish, the cleaning agent stinking up the whole room. Petunia`s skin felt rough and her cuticles were pushed far back and curling. The sorrowful voice of a woman reverberated against the walls, creaking out of the loudspeaker.
`Who`s this?` Lily asked as she unscrewed the top of the nail polish bottle.
`Dusty Springfield.` Petunia answered. `Been really getting into her lately.`
`Hmm.` Lily tried to concentrate on getting the polish on Petunia`s nails and not on her fingers, tip of her tongue poking out of her mouth. She`d been thinking of asking her parents for a turntable of her own to take with her to Hogwarts next year. Marlene`s radio was nice, but it was a bit annoying not to be able to choose the songs themselves.
`Alright, blow.`
Lily screwed the top back on the bottle as Petunia started fanning her hands, willing the nail polish to dry faster. It really smelled horrid in the small room and Lily stood up to creak open a window, letting some of the fresh summer air in, although you couldn`t really call it all that fresh with all the dust in the air from the mines.
The phone rang in the hallway and Lily stepped out, taking it off the hook.
`Evans` residence.` she answered cordially, the way their parents had thought her and Petunia.
`Hello, Lily.` a nasally voice sounded on the other side of the line.
`Who is it?` Petunia mouthed at her, still flapping her hands.
`Hiya, Sev!` Lily replied cheerily.
Instantly Petunia`s face turned sour and she made a fake gagging sound, Lily rolled her eyes at her; Dusty blaring on in the background.
Eventually, Lily decided to meet up with Severus at their local playground. All the way up until she had left the house, Petunia had glared at her and sighed, long inhales and short exhales. Secretly she`d also rather spent the late afternoon with her sister. However, Severus` parents had been fighting again and he told her he would really like to see her; telling her that she always made him feel better.
While Lily swung on the swings, Severus sat in the grass to the side, hair falling over his face as he read the paper; The Daily Prophet. Severus refused to read normal newspapers, even when back home for the holidays. Lily also had a subscripting to the Prophet, but she read the paper her parents read as well.
Dust swivelled up as the toes of her shoes grazed the ground, the sun already lower in the sky, glowering against the skyline of the chimneys. Severus` father worked at the coalmines, something Severus felt ashamed of. Most of his parents fights were about his father`s work; about him participating in the strikes and then there was the obvious issue of his mother being magical and his dad not, which he had a lot of trouble with. Severus had told her that his dad had hit his mother once, Lily had asked him if he also hit Severus, which her friend hadn`t responded to.
`Did you hear about the things they`re doing at The Ministry, Lily?` Severus asked, looking up from the paper.
Lily slowed her swing down and jumped off, `No, didn`t read this issue of the paper yet.` If she was being completely honest she had been neglecting keeping up with the news ever since being back home.
`They`re doing reformations. It`s nothing really.` he waved a hand.
`Let me see.` Lily grabbed the paper and started scanning the article, her eyes widening. `Gosh. This is grim.` She felt a knot form in her stomach. She looked at Severus; he just shrugged. How was he not affected by this.
`Sev, this also concerns you. They`re trying to push stricter rules for muggleborn wizards and witches. That means half-bloods too. This could have an effect on both of us.`
Severus` face remained unmoving, `Not if you play your cards right.`
`What`s that supposed to mean?`
Severus just shrugged and looked at his feet; Lily whished she could decipher what was going on in his mind.
///