Summer of 1974
Mid-July 1974
The weather was sultry and dry; ashy grey clouds loitering close above the horizon. There was barely any wind at all, and it seemed as if the clouds were unmoving, hanging stationary above the dark rooftops. Orange tinted sunrays hit the bottom of the clouds, giving them an almost metallic glint. The atmosphere felt ominous and pressing, as if a thunderstorm could rear its head at any given moment; either rain or sand coming to pour down.
Lily passed rows of identical brick townhouses, the repeating shades of bleak brown with dried out ochre hedges squaring in the tiny front yards. Groups of women sat chatting on doorsteps, hair up in curlers; hoarse laughter rattling from their throats, testament to decades of chain smoking. In the background the chimneys of the mines were visible, starkly standing out against the sky, gritty plumes of smoke rising up from their bowels.
A couple of skinheads that were sat on a low brick wall whistled after her, Lily pulled her dress further down over her knees, keeping her head averted and ignoring them. The boys blew plumes of smoke into the air, their shaved heads bent back, precariously leaning on their elbows.
In the distance she could already hear the thundering noise of the train tracks and smell the unmistakable stench of the station; fried food and rusty metal, mingled with rancid acidity. A couple of kids were kicking against a football in front of the squat little building, hollering loudly and pushing eachother down on the kerb.
Lily checked her watch, the train from London would be arriving any second. Gingerly she leaned against a wall and peered in the direction where the train would be coming in from. The tracks were littered with broken glass bottles and other rubbish; Lily stared as a small bird started to pick at some discarded food.
A row rumble started and not much later the train came into view, rolling in over the rusty tracks. Lily straightened up and tried to peer in through the train windows, but they were too smudged to get a good view of the interior. The doors slid open and people came rushing out; men clutching their caps, teenage boys in clucky boots pushing eachother around, mothers with tiny children trying to usher them out in front of them or towing them behind.
Just at the last moment two figures came tumbling out, lugging heavy bags along with them and both looking utterly exhausted.
`Lily!` Mary cried and dropped her bag, advancing towards Lily.
Marlene picked up the bag and hoisted it over her shoulder, grinning as she walked after her friend.
Lily pulled Marlene into a hug as well. They hadn`t seen eachother for barely two weeks, but it turned out that two weeks was long enough to start missing someone. The two of them would be staying with Lily for a couple of days.
`You better love us very much,` Mary let go of Lily. `Because that train ride was absolute dank.`
`Someone pissed in our compartment.` Marlene clarified.
`Oh, poor love.` Lily pouted and put an arm around Mary. `Here, let me get your bag. We`re walking to mine.`
`How chivalrous.` Mary wiggled her eyebrows. `Darren might yet become redundant at this rate.`
`Yes, you better apricate it.` Lily smirked. `Gosh, Mary what did you bring!` she yelped as she hoisted the heavy bag over her shoulder.
`Just the essentials.`
`Aye, essentials my arse.` Marlene retorted.
They trotted back through town towards Lily`s house. The skinheads were still smoking in the same spot they`d been before and hollered after them, wolf-whistling; Mary rolling her eyes and making a rude sign with her hands.
Lily`s house was no different than the others. Plain and brown, with plants in the front yard on the cusp of dying, no matter how hard her mother tried to keep them alive. Unlocking the front door Lily ushered her friends inside, music coming from Petunia`s room at the top of the stairs.
`You`ve got a telly-vision!` Marlene cried excitedly, pointing at the television in the living room.
`You want to have a go?` Lily asked, amused.
`Can I?` Marlene asked breathlessly, her grey eyes big.
`Sure,` Lily turned it on. `Eat your heart out.`
Marlene stared entranced at the screen, her mouth slightly ajar as she settled herself down in front of it, her face only a couple of inches away from the moving pictures.
`But, we`ve been to the pictures together?` Mary chuckled befuddled. `What`s new about this?`
Marlene didn`t answer and kept gawking at the tiny moving figures on the blinking screen.
With the help of Lily`s mother they set up two extra matrasses in Lily`s small bedroom. It was a bit of a faff to get them all too fit. Mary suggested just to share the bed, but Marlene was heavily against this; saying she was a very light sleeper.
Lily had been extremely excited for her friends to meet Petunia, this turned out to be rather anticlimactic. Her sister only came out of her room once and stood staring in the doorway for a while, barely saying a word. It was rather obvious that she had her own opinions about Lily having her Hogwarts friends over for the summer. Later that evening, Lily heard a car pull up in their street; Petunia`s new boyfriend picking her up for a date. The boyfriend that her sister had kept during Christmas had already exited the stage.
During the two weeks that she`d been back at home for the summer, Lily had seen awfully little of her older sister. She`d either been hauled up in her room, or out with friends. Their parents didn`t seem to have any opinions about this. It was rare to even have an actual conversation with Petunia; she seemed to be avoiding Lily and her parents as the plague.
The next morning they rose late and made an improvised breakfast to eat in Lily`s bed; something she never allowed herself to do, seeing as it would get crumbs all over her duvet. They listened to the full Waterloo album on her record player, sluggishly moving along to the music, still in their morning daze.
A little after noon, the doorbell rang and Lily rushed to open the door. She hadn`t been expecting someone. Both her parents were at work and Petunia was out for the day.
`Sev.` Lily said surprised, stepping out and pulling the door half shut the door behind her.
`Who is it, Lil?` Mary hollered after her, her voice audible through the door.
`Just Severus, I`ll be back in a jiffy.` she called back.
`What are you doing here?` Lily asked confused. `Did I forget something? Did we agree to mee` She rubbed her bare arms. It was an annoying habit Severus had; showing up unannounced.
`You’ve got company.` Severus stated, ignoring her question.
`Yeah, Mary and Marls. Think I told you.`
Severus sucked his teeth. `Yes, you did, Lily.`
`…alright?` Lily frowned and peered at Severus. He looked scruffy, his hair unwashed and his nose peeling; summer didn`t become Severus.
`I don`t think you should be hanging about with that sort, Lily.` Severus lowered his voice, hissing almost.
Lily scowled, `And what sort is that Severus? Might I remind you that I too am muggle born.`
Severus scuffed his toes on the pavement and looked down, his hair falling limp over his face. `I`m only trying to look out for you, Lily.`
`Honestly, Sev. Sort yourself out.`
Lily stepped inside the house again, shutting the door in Severus` face.
`Something wrong?` Mary asked, looking up from the game of snap she was playing against Marlene. `What did he want?`
Lily shook her head, settling down on the couch, she didn`t feel like getting into this now. As the years went on, Severus seemed to be getting more and more roped into the blood purity nonsense. Lily wondered how long it would go on for. And, most of all, when it would reach the height that it would mean the end of their friendship. Up until now, he`d never actually been mean to her. He would sneer about her friends, but he had never called her a bad word or turned on her personally.
Though, at a certain point, Severus would need to change, or Lily would need to cut ties.
***
Late July 1974
Sitting at the edge of the wooden dock, Marlene peered out over the Loch, her toes dangling in the dark water below. All around her, the tops of the mountains loomed through the wispy strands of fog. This view would soon merely be a memory etched into the crevices of her mind. In a couple of weeks - just before she`d return to Hogwarts for fourth year - their family would move away from their lovely house.
Her parents had found a new place. It was located a couple of miles outside of a small village in Sussex, just far enough from the muggle world not to attract any attention. Marlene hadn`t seen the house yet; she`d only heard her mum and stepdad talk about it in passing. The two of them and Danny had already started packing their belongings, getting ready to leave. Marlene hadn`t yet been able to bring herself to start on her own room. It felt as if she`d only just unpacked, she didn`t feel like having to stuff her entire life into boxes again.
To be frank, Marlene had expected to feel sad, or angry. Instead she just felt empty.
She`d spent so many years here. Her entire memory was filled with pictures of this place. It was unimaginable to live somewhere else; to have a different place to return to from school. Of course she`d lived somewhere else when she`d been wee, but those memories were a blur of childhood; nothing concrete.
It felt as if with leaving this place she`d be leaving the innocence of her youth behind. Slowly washed and gritted away, like the smooth pebbles in the bay. The wind howled, singing its sad song in the tops of the evergreen trees.
It felt cruel and incomprehensible that her parents wanted them to move. If there would be danger on the lookout, they wouldn`t be safe anywhere; not here and not in fecking Sussex. There were whisperings that this supposed Dark Lord was gathering followers at an alarming rate. Marlene though this was odd, seeing as there weren`t that much truly pureblood wizarding families left in Britain, and the ideology did explicitly state on witches and wizards needing to come from a long line of magic.
Marlene stood up, wiped her hands on her shorts and headed out of the bay of the Loch. The climb up the hill towards their house made her slightly out of breath and she felt her forehead start to perspire in the pressing humidity. She would miss this bleeding climb. She`d miss it all.
When she entered the kitchen, she hadn`t expected someone else to be in there. But, to her surprise, she found her mother sitting at the kitchen table, her back turned towards Marlene as she read the paper. Her back was hunched over and her shoulders were sloped and narrow; it struck Marlene how old her mother suddenly looked. Her hair was up in a tight chignon, but a soft greying whisp of hair had come lose and hung against the protruding vertebrae that shone through her skin.
Her mother didn`t seem to respond to Marlene entering though the glass doors, her eyes fixed on the paper.
`Mammy?`
She didn`t respond.
`Mammy?` Marlene repeated, an uncertainty in her voice.
Gingerly Marlene went to sit down in the chair opposite her mother and stared at her face, her forehead was distorted into a frown as her eyes stared vacantly at the newspaper. Finally, her mother seemed to register Marlene and looked up.
`Och, Marlene,` she blinked. `I didnea hear ye come in.`
`It`s alright.` Marlene shook her head confused. It wasn`t often that her mother exhibited such a forlorn state. Her mother was probably the most stately person Marlene knew; never showing any emotion. Hardness and perseverance drilled into her from years of having to make it on her own with two little kids.
`What`s wrong?`
`Did ye see Danny on yer way in?` her mother asked, trying to deflect Marlene`s question.
`Mammy, what`s wrong?` Marlene asked again, staring at the limp newspaper in her mother`s hands.
Her mother blinked, tears glistening in her narrow grey eyes.
`Mammy? Please answer me.` Marlene pressed anxiously.
`They`ve started attacks.` her mother chocked out.
The wind howled in the chimney and a cold breeze blew through the kitchen, raising the hairs on Marlene`s arms.
`They`ve started attacking families; muggleborns mostly, some mix-blood too.` A single tear dripped down her mother`s nose. `Weans too. They`re attacking weans.` She clasped a hand in front of her mouth.
`Och, mammy...` Marlene said, feeling the urge to put a hand on her mother`s arm, however the gesture seeming so unfamiliar that she refrained from doing so.
`They say he is gathering support from dark creatures,` Her mother wiped the tear from her nose. `Vampires, giants, werewolves…`
Marlene could feel her own throat start to close up and she started biting her nails; for once her mother didn`t say anything about it.
`Do ye understand now, why we need to leave?` her mother pressed, her voice thick. `Do ye understand, Marlene? I cannea…I cannea have that yerself and-` She clasped her hand in front her mouth again and lowered her eyes. `All I want to do is keep the ye safe. That is my duty as yer ma.`
`Aye.` Marlene nodded, feeling a splitting ache radiating from the centre of her chest all the way to her extremities. `I understand.`
Her stepdad came into the kitchen, his gait unsteady as he opened a cabinet. Her mother quickly folded the newspaper shut and discreetly wiped her eyes dry, looking at Marlene as if she wanted to embrace her, but not doing so. Maybe her mother wasn`t all that different from herself; Marlene thought as she exited the kitchen.
Stepping over the doorstep, her bedroom room felt eerily quiet, the moving quidditch posters on the walls suddenly appearing absurd. Slowly she opened up a window and leaned out of it, gazing out over the landscape. She climbed up on the windowsill and let her legs dangle over the edge, the ground feeling very far below and she felt her stomach churn before she was able to settle down comfortably.
In the distance she could see the house Camille had stayed at last summer. Love quarrels now suddenly felt juvenile and unimportant.
She wondered if Mary and Lily had gotten the news. Lily was subscribed to the Daily Prophet, so she must have heard something. However, she knew for a fact that Mary didn`t have any ties to the magical community during the summer and hence was probably unaware of the attacks. Maybe Lily would sent her newspaper clippings by muggle postage. Secretly, Marlene hoped Lily wouldn`t do so. Mary deserved a couple more weeks of ignorance; that was the least they could grant her. Of the three of them, Mary seemed to be the one most effected by the bigotry. Not that Mary complained; Mary would never complain. No matter how hard things got, or how much people aggravated her, no matter how angry she got, she never complained. Marlene had only seen Mary properly cry once; that first night at Hogwarts. The night she`d done her first McGonagall expression; the first of many.
Though Mary never directly mentioned it, Marlene knew how much she missed her family and the muggle world during term. It wouldn`t surprise Marlene if Mary would someday choose to abandon magic altogether. Marlene and Lily needed magic, it was an extension of them, an integral part of their identity. And above all an integral part of Marlene`s upbringing. However, Mary didn`t need magic. Mary had enough warmth and vibrancy of her own to light up an entire room without using any magic at all.
***
August 1974
The playground that was frequented by parents and their little kids - pushing them round and round on the carousel, back and forth on the swings, patiently waiting until they were at the bottom of the slide - was the perfect spot for the teenagers of those same families to set up camp in the evenings. It was nestled in between a couple of council flats; the grey and brown buildings obstructing the patch of dirt from the rest of the neighbourhood. A couple of sparce trees casting their shadows over the sand. The equipment was run down and the metal rusty, creaking violently with every movement.
Mary spent most of her evenings trailing about the playground with Darren and a couple of other kids from their block. Most of them were children from Caribbean immigrant parents, others were of Indian heritage. Even though Mary barely knew half of them, their little group felt safe and comfortable. It was convenient to have some people at her side to square up against the groups of white skinheads that loitered around their neighbourhood.
In the years before she`d had her eldest brother to chase them away, his broad and tall body a lighthouse in a storm. She was seeing less and less of Jayden. Last year he`d moved in with a couple of his mates in Chinatown and was mostly spending his time there. He still had his job at the warehouse and had confided in Mary that he and his mates had been working on saving up so they could start recording music. Mary hadn`t had a single clue that her brother had any musical inclination whatsoever, and she wondered whether he had told her parents. For she was rather sure they would not approve. He still attended Mass with them on Sundays, sitting in their pew all cleaned up as if nothing had changed.
Dusk was already staring to set in and Mary leaned back against Darren`s chest, listening to the others talk. Mary found that opposing to Hogwarts, she tended to get shy and quiet around people her age. Mostly because she was unable to relate to them. As they talked about school or the jobs they`d picked up, Mary fell silent. Hogwarts isolated her from the typical teenage experience that these other kids were having. She could hardly start telling them about the things she`d been up to over the last couple of months. For as far as Darren and his friends were concerned, she attended some posh boarding school; which in a way wasn`t a complete lie. Hogwarts was rather posh. Mary would be horrified if the others found out about the four-poster bed she slept in, or the fact that it was a literal castle. That there even was some sort of chaste war going on; that she was being harassed by people who basically considered themselves magical royalty.
Every time Darren came into her room - which wasn`t often seeing as she wanted to prevent the gawking eyes of her siblings - she made sure that all her school stuff was safely hidden and stashed away. The textbooks that Dumbledore had send ahead for her fourth year were concealed underneath her bed, together with her uniform and absurdly large battered suitcase.
One time she`d almost accidently let something slip and had to wring herself in impossible knots to make her way out of the perilous situation. In the end she`d resolved it by just snogging him. They did a lot of that anyway.
Not even with her family did she really talk about Hogwarts. They knew the basics - she`d made sure of that - and if they posed questions she also didn`t evade them. Gabi was the one who asked the most questions, hence the one who knew the most.
The thing Mary was most reluctant to talk about, mostly to her parents, was the bigotry towards non-pureblood witches and wizards. She would like to keep up the appearance that Hogwarts was the safest place in the world she could be. Her parents had it hard enough with her other siblings as it was.
`What`re you gonna to do after school?` a girl, named Neena, asked.
`Who, me?` Mary was torn out of her own thoughts. She blinked at Neena who was sitting on another boy`s lap, his hand up the back of her shirt.
`Yeah, you.`
`Oh,` Mary faltered, frowning. `I dunno yet. Long time away still.`
`How old are you?` Neena asked.
`Fifteen.`
`You doing your A-levels then?`
`Yeah, s`pose so.` Mary lied, jutting her chin out boldly. It was the easiest explanation as to why she`d be finishing school the summer she`d turn eighteen.
`My Mary`s a clever one.` Darren chuckled and kissed her neck.
Mary squealed and felt herself flush, `Oh, piss off will you.`
One of boys who the other`s just called Ly, cupped his hands around a cigarette and lit it, the tip glowing orange in the twilight. The cigarette was passed around, Mary took it reluctantly and inhaled a little too deep, coughing violently before handing it to Darren, deciding smoking wasn`t really her thing.
Ly and a short plump girl had started snogging and slowly the group started to split off into couples, some heading home, waving a half-arsed goodbye.
Darren started kissing Mary`s neck again and Mary turned around to face him, gazing up into his dark pond-like eyes.
`You alright?` Darren inquired. `You were a bit quiet there.`
`Hm-hm.` Mary hummed in agreement. `I`m fine.`
She slung her arms lazily around his neck and started snogging him, he tasted of cigarette smoke and the salty chips they`d had earlier. The roaring of car engines was audible in the distance, intersected by tinny music over the speakers of those same cars that reverberated between the concrete buildings.
Gingerly she tried to turn around more, otherwise she would be straining her neck. In the process she accidently knocked her knee into Darren.
`Ow.`
`Oh fuck, I`m sorry.` she giggled embarrassed.
They`d shared a couple of beers earlier that evening and she felt a bit unsteady. Darren sniggered too and started running his hands up her back. He grazed the band of her bra, and as if stuck by lighting he pulled his hand away; that made Mary giggle again.
On her birthday earlier that week they`d actually gone a bit further than just snogging. It had been the most bizarre experience of her life – if she didn`t count the magic thing. She didn`t even know if she`d actually liked it; it was in no way like when she just did it on her own. Darren had thoroughly washed his hands before hand and he`d even clipped his nails, something that Mary had thought was actually quite endearing. Still, they had to stop a couple of times because Mary had completely tensed up at the sensation of his fingernails. Once she been able to relax a bit, it had been alright. At moments the act had become so absurd that she had to stifle a laugh; Darren had looked so concentrated that she felt bad about finding it funny. In the end it hadn`t really been all that exciting or how she`d imagined it to be. But she`d felt too self-conscious to actually tell Darren that he wasn`t really doing anything down there.
She hoped it would get better as they`d do it more. Although, Mary didn`t feel all that inclined to repeat it on short notice. She actually felt a bit relieved for once that she would go back to Hogwarts in a couple of weeks. In that way there at least wasn`t any uncertainty about what they`d do as their next step.
It certainly would give her some status among the other students once she was back at Hogwarts. She knew for a fact that none of the other girls in their year had done something like that. And she knew even more certain that the boys hadn`t. From her experience, girls matured much faster than boys. The boys in their year still very much acted like children; the Gryffindor boys anyway.
Darren walked her back to her flat not much later, Mary wearing his jumping over her flimsy summer dress. He`d given it to her to keep and take with her to Hogwarts. That way she could take a little of him with her.
In front of the building he kissed her goodbye and told her he`d see her the next day. On her way up the stairs she tested her breath to make sure she wouldn`t smell of fags or booze. She ran towards the window and peered out of it just in time to make out the shape of Darren enter into his own flat.
Quietly she entered her bedroom, both her sisters were already asleep. A book lay splayed open on Gabi`s chest and the nightlight was still on. Mary clipped the light off and settled herself down in the darkness of the small room.
///