Rosehips
Wednesday 15th September 1971
Lily leaned over the table, pouring coffee into Mary’s cup until it almost reached the brim.
“That’s good, thanks Lily,” Mary murmured. Her eyes were barely open, but Marlene couldn’t help but envy how she still looked nice even when she was still half asleep. Lily, on the other hand, Marlene envied for her relentless skill to get up at sunrise without any qualms and still look like she’d been awake for hours.
“No, thanks,” Mary said again, as Lily reached for a small jug of milk and was beginning to tip it into the remaining space of the cup.
“You don’t actually enjoy that,” Marlene said, rolling her eyes and propping her chin into her palm on the table ledge. Her plain piece of toast wasn’t looking quite so appealing.
“Do you know what,” Mary said, yawning, “that might be the first thing you’ve been right about in your life, Marlene McKinnon.”
Marlene watched Lily stifle a giggle and nudged Mary hard in the ribs. It was supposed to be a hard nudge, but she was too tired to care about how much force was required to sufficiently irritate Mary. “At least I’m capable of making my own coffee,” Marlene simpered.
“Please, it’s too early for this,” Mary said, rubbing her eyes.
“What, were you up late again last night?” Lily asked, lively as ever. Her hair was braided into two plaits which flowed over her shoulders which made Marlene think of Pippi Longstocking, a book that her mother always used to read to her as a child. But the more she looked, the more Lily looked like a fierce warrior of some kind.
“No,” Mary shrugged. “Were you?”
Then, a letter dropped onto Marlene’s plate.
“I hate owls,” Marlene heard Mary whisper to herself.
“I know, I’ll never get quite used to them,” Lily said agreeably. Although, it was difficult to relate to a girl who seemed to have a better magical ability than everyone else and could get up whenever she wanted without any problems.
Marlene,
We miss you so much! Tell us what house you got into, we’re proud of you no matter what.
Danny is back with the Cannons but I’ve sent him your letter and he’ll respond to you soon. Not much is happening here, apart from a faulty portkey which transported your father to the middle of a forest; he quickly realised it was the Black Forest in Germany! As for me, working in the Ghoul Task Force is about as interesting as it gets (not very). Hopefully you’re having a lot more fun where you are! Glad to hear you’ve made friends too.
Love from Mama.
“Who’s it from?” Mary said, peering over Marlene’s shoulder.
“My mum,” Marlene said, folding the letter back up and sliding it gently into her pocket.
Lily was about to open her mouth to speak, when her eyes turned wide and she shouted, “Severus!”
Marlene turned around at once, but what she was expecting to see was not this.
Slytherin boys up and down the tables were scratching—no, clawing—at their skin. Marlene couldn’t understand why; what was more was that their itching seemed to make them even more red. The girls were looking them up and down in horror, but they continued to scratch. Severus appeared to be particularly sore, and hung his head, trying to get his hair to hide his face, but Marlene could still clearly see the gargantuan rash which had spread itself over his body. One of them had even drawn blood on his arm. Amycus Carrow, an ugly, massive sixth year, had ripped off the entire top half of his uniform, tie and all, and was gashing at his vile hairy chest. Marlene realised her mouth was hanging open and turned around to see Lily was doing the same. In fact, everyone was staring. Some were laughing—it was difficult not to—but something about it felt sinister. Marlene felt her heart pound in her chest and pretended that she hadn’t witnessed the havoc, which was escalating each second just metres behind her. Nibbling on the corner of her toast, she watched Lily’s face as it turned progressively paler and paler, until even her charming freckles weren’t as bright as usual.
“Are you okay, Lily?” Mary said, even though it was quite clear that Lily was not okay.
Lily nodded, minutely, and continued to stare at the Slytherin table unblinking. Slightly further down the table, Marlene heard someone shout “Oi, Snivellus!” and the surrounding people dissipate into hysterics, and then another call out, “looking good!”
Despite the absolute euphoria this medical accident seemed to cause for the rest of the school, Marlene did not take her eyes off Lily, and saw as a small, almost invisible tear dropped from her right eye and ran down her face, sinking into her ivory skin as quickly as it had appeared.
“Let’s go,” Marlene said, trying to meet Lily’s eye.
But Lily did not respond.
“Oi! Lily Evans!” Mary leaned forward and clicked her fingers in front of Lily. “Do you want to get out of here?”
Inhaling sharply, Lily dragged her palm down the side of her face and whispered, “yes”.
***
“My God,” Mary exclaimed the moment they were out of the hall. Marlene’s elbow was resting in Mary’s left elbow, and Lily had her on the right. For a moment, she thought how lovely it would be, them as a three, together like this. “Right, are you alright now, Lily?”
“Yes,” Lily said again quietly, though she still avoided meeting the eye of anyone. The corridor, which would normally be packed full at this time on a Wednesday, was almost empty, save for the crowd which headed in the direction of the Great Hall; rumours were spreading fast, and the Slytherins were making a spectacle of themselves.
“Why do you think only the Slytherin boys got that?” Mary said. Marlene felt a strain in her chest as Mary tried to make light of the situation, to no avail; Lily didn’t seem any happier.
“It can’t’ve been something they ate,” Marlene suggested. “If it was it would be weird that only male Slytherins would react.”
“Ooh!” Mary trilled. “I didn’t know you were a doctor! Male Slytherins—”
“Shut up?” Marlene said, giggling. “Anyway, I’m willing to hedge my bets that the house elves put a spell on the food to target just them. I mean, who else does the entire school hate?”
“Severus didn’t deserve that,” Lily said in a small voice.
“No,” Mary said, “she didn’t mean Sev, Lily.”
“No, she’s right,” Lily said, firmly. “He was awful to Remus last week in potions.”
Marlene felt herself getting confused. “I thought you two were friends?”
“Me and Sev are. But he isn’t very… up to date with wizard views about blood status,” Lily explained.
“He’s friends with you. You’re muggle-born,” Mary said, encouragingly.
“I’m not sure you’d be standing up for him if I told you what he said to Remus.”
“Well?” Mary wheedled.
“He asked Remus if he could even read.” Lily blurted. Her face was emotionless and her stare was distant, like she wasn’t there at all.
Marlene heard Mary’s breath catch, and she stammered. “That’s—”
“He asked Remus if muggle schools even teach you to read.” Lily stated again, robotically.
Marlene’s stomach dropped. So that was what the fight was about. “Well…” For a moment she thought about what the right thing would be to say. “He didn’t mean you, did he? Remus started it.”
“No,” Lily said. “It was Severus.”
Down the other end of the corridor, an owl hooted, and the sound echoed heartlessly down to where they were standing. The three girls stood there in silence. An itchy seam inside Marlene’s skirt made itself present and her hair was touching her forehead in an unbecoming way. Three sets of lungs inhaled and exhaled for what felt like minutes, hours, days. A few people filed out of the Great Hall shrieking and laughing and a few more filed in, which was met with more screaming. Marlene grappled with herself to say something, but Mary beat her to it.
“You have us. You don’t need to worry about him. We won’t trick you into thinking you’re illiterate just because you went to a muggle primary school.” Mary flashed her ever-beguiling smile at Lily. She always knew what to say.
***
Later in the common room, when Marlene and Mary were waiting for Lily to return from the dungeons (she had insisted on spending the rest of the day with Severus in the hospital wing, despite Mary’s begging that she would just come with them, and was now speaking to Slughorn about his missed detention), they had started speaking with Frank, the prefect. This was ideal: they had somehow managed to get the best chairs in front of the fire, and the rain was becoming angrier over the course of the evening. And even though it was a comfortable arrangement, Marlene and Mary were constantly eyeing the portrait hole, awaiting Lily’s return. Mary had been twittering on about what exactly had caused the itching this morning, and unfortunately, as what happens when two easy-to-talk-to people get talking, they had moved through every possible conversation topic, including: countries they’d been to, tastiest potions (not many), favourite foods in the Great Hall, O.W.L.s advice (Marlene had rolled her eyes at this—surely they wouldn’t be needing this yet?!) and most interestingly, the Gryffindor first year boys.
“So there’s James Potter,” Frank said, counting on his fingers as if reeling off a list, “He’s the one with the glasses. Remus Lupin, Pettigrew, the short one—Peter, I think his first name is—and the infamous Sirius Black.” He paused thoughtfully. “Poor boy. I’m not sure his family took the news very well.”
“Bless,” Mary said quietly. And then, when the portrait door so much as cracked open, “Lily!”
“Ha!” Marlene said, pleased, when the person coming through the door was just a fifth-year boy.
“I’m worried about that girl,” Mary said to Marlene, pointedly. “No offence, but if she likes him, imagine how annoying we must be.”
“Only you would be vain enough to have those thoughts, Mary,” Marlene said. “Lily!”
“Yes, that trick is not going to work on me,” Mary sang, not taking her eyes off Marlene. They were very brown, Marlene realised. Warm and very charming. Gold, sort of. And her eyelashes, they were so long, so nice; when she blinked, they batted with the elegance of beating butterfly wings.
“Hello,” Lily said.
Mary jumped and turned back to look at Marlene. “The one time!”
“Told you!” Marlene said, winking at her mockingly.
“Is Severus alright?” Mary said gently.
“Mm,” Lily nodded anxiously, still not sitting down. “What happened to him, it’s really nasty. He’s got to stay in the hospital wing overnight.”
“Gosh,” Mary said, although Marlene could tell she was pretending for the sake of reconciling Lily. “Look at the time; let’s get an early night. It’s been a long day.”
Marlene stood up and Mary flung an arm over her shoulders as they headed up the staircase.
As Marlene closed the door behind Lily, she tried to look at her face to see how she was, but a menacing shadow from the hallway cast over her face.
“Sev got let off his detention,” she said, walking slowly over to her bed and cautiously sitting on the end.
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Marlene asked, striding over to her own bed and flinging her whole body into the middle of it.
“Yes—”
“Yeah, isn’t that a good thing?” Mary said, her words lagging as she dug through her things to get a clean night-shirt.
“I was with Remus, and—um—we overheard something between McGonagall and Slughorn.”
“What was it?” Marlene said quickly, turning and lying on her side so she could face the others.
“It was rosehips. You know, those horrible plants that make your skin all tingly—?” Lily explained. Her voice was still shaking slightly. “They think someone crept down into the dungeons and put it in the boys’ rooms.”
“That is genius!” Mary squealed.
Marlene shot her a look in the dying light from outside.
“I mean—” Mary adjusted her hair. “It’s not great for Severus, but that Carrow kid—”
“I wish Severus was in Gryffindor!” Lily cried.
“You shouldn’t worry about him, Lily. You can still be friends with people even if they’re not in the same house as you,” Mary said, as if this was some brand-new notion.
“Yeah, if you’re that good friends, it shouldn’t matter which part of the castle he’s sleeping in,” Marlene added, although her face grew warm, and she felt a bit stupid. Advice wasn’t something she was very good at.
“We’ve still got lessons with him and stuff—”
“It’s such a cruel thing to do to someone!” Lily sniffed.
“I mean,” Mary stammered, and Marlene closed her eyes tight. This was not an easy job. “He isn’t very nice to Muggle-borns, you included.”
“You’re right, he is a bit of a snob,” Lily said after a pause. Even though the pause was long, Marlene noticed that it wasn’t awkward. Through the dark, she heard Lily take a shaky breath. “Rosehips is quite genius actually.” She chuckled and sniffed again.
“Isn’t it?” Mary agreed. “It’s brutal but it’s good.”
Marlene laughed. They all laughed together.