Red

She woke up on a cushioned bench in a large white room. A muscle in her back felt tight, aching as she tried to sit herself up. Marlene tried to blink her eyes open again just to find the mysterious girl from before sitting in an office chair at the other side of the room. There was a piece of folded-up black fabric sitting on her lap when she turned to face Marlene again. Rectangular gold glasses were perched against her nose now as she tinkered with the thing in her lap.

Marlene’s mouth went dry, speechless. She was always awkward when she didn’t know the people around her. When she did speak, her voice would come out like a raspy, sick little girl’s which only made it more awkward. That was why she usually tried to shut up around strangers.

“You’re awake,” said the girl.

Her voice came out weakly. “And you’re…”

“Dorcas Meadowes.” She smiled and walked toward Marlene. “I’m from the Slytherin campus.”

“Right.” Marlene cleared her throat. “Thanks, but I’m gonna go…”

As she stood up, the pain in her back worsened, shooting up her spine and nearly bringing tears to her eyes. She inhaled sharply as she steadied herself against the wall next to her.

“You pulled a muscle,” said Dorcas.

Marlene paused. “What?”

“Emmeline said you pulled a muscle. She checked you out while you were unconscious.”

Dorcas walked toward her with a frustrated expression. She pulled two velcro straps apart from each other on the black fabric and reached toward Marlene. Marlene stepped back and the girl simply shrugged, kneeling to the ground.

Dorcas pulled a sticker off of the fabric. “When you fell, you probably twisted around the wrong way.”

Dorcas reached out to grab Marlene’s waist. A chill ran up her spine as Dorcas began to wrap the cloth around her lower back. She kneeled down, pressing a button on a keypad in the front just for the fabric to compress around Marlene, squeezing her waist tightly. It felt oddly… cold.

“You’ve got a concussion too,” muttered Dorcas, standing up to meet Marlene’s confused gaze. “Very mild though.”

“I’d assume so.” Marlene scoffed.

“Hit your head rough.” Dorcas reached up to touch Marlene’s forehead, then turned around to walk back to the chair she’d been sitting in. “What’s your name, kid?”

“You don’t…” A nervous laugh escaped Marlene. “They didn’t tell you… when they made you watch–”

Dorcas chuckled. “–I know your name. I just wanna know if you know your name.”

“Marlene,” she muttered.

Dorcas raised a brow, expectantly waiting for more.

“Mckinnon,” she added frantically, biting at her nail. “I’m Marlene McKinnon.”

“Okay, good. Good.”

Dorcas and Marlene watched one another for a few moments. Marlene leaned against the wall with her leg propped up on the bench she’d laid on with Dorcas in the office chair across the room, picking at loose strands of the red cushions.

Dorcas reached in her pocket for a piece of gum. “Are you gonna go home, or…?”

“Do I have to?” she asked.

The girl across from her shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I just volunteered for this so I wouldn’t have to sit through a long lecture.”

Marlene nodded, trying not to smile at that. She instead looked down at the strange thing Dorcas had wrapped around her. It was undoubtedly some sort of brace or compression pack, but it was unlike anything that Marlene had seen before. A large keypad full of buttons sat at its front with a glowing green light in its top right corner. A tiny blue screen displayed the number “1” as a small buzzing sound escaped it.

“It’s Phoenix tech, of course.” Dorcas explained. She was practically a mind-reader. “It’s a compression brace for your back. It’s supposed to automatically move along the processes of healing it. Emmeline said it’d take about seven or eight hours to get you back to normal.”

“Jesus,” muttered Marlene, failing to stifle a giggle of amazement.

“If you stay…,” Dorcas began, trailing her fingers along the arm of her chair. “I think you get to see more of this stuff. That’d be nice, right?”

“Yeah,” she said.

Marlene paused for a moment, glancing at the door beside them.

“Where do we head to?”

With a smile, Dorcas shot up from her seat and led Marlene from the room. The hallway she was met with was all she’d ever dreamed Phoenix would be like. Windows of glass stretched over them with iron and steel frames. The light came mainly from the rays of sun that shone through the glass and the small light bulbs hanging from wires connected to the ceiling. The hallways were full of doors locked by keypads and labeled with fancy latin words that Marlene barely understood. Phoenix Enterprises was full of people too. She ran into almost everybody as she tried to stay with Dorcas, pushing through the crowd of employees and visitors. Everywhere she looked, there was some sort of technology being used in an innovative way that she didn’t even know was possible.

It was a ten-story building full of office rooms and labs. She could hardly breathe at the sight of the floor she stood on. When she saw the rest of the building, well, Marlene simply indulged in her habit of raving about architecture.

Dorcas guided her to the gold-plated doors that held a large lift packed of workers and machines alike. She clicked the tenth button and with a moment, Marlene found herself rising through the building. She caught a glimpse of the large glass pane behind her, revealing the streets of bustling London beneath them.

She wanted to squeal with excitement like a little girl.

“Marlene.” Dorcas shoved her shoulder, sending a sharp pain down her back.

She looked toward the lift door which Dorcas was holding open with her hand. The sightseeing had distracted her. She nodded to Dorcas thankfully and walked through.

“That hurt,” she muttered, walking through the glowing hallway.

Dorcas let out a dry laugh. “Trust me, I could do much worse.”

She pushed past Marlene and hoisted open a silver door, slipping inside.

“You shouldn’t be proud about that!” Marlene yelled, trudging toward the door.

When it opened, she found herself face-to-face with a lab more complex than anything she’d ever seen before. No school could have prepared her for it. There were machines building things on their own. Blue screens that seemed to hover on their own projected codes and other programs as they built things and ran tests. She was awestruck.

“She’s awake,” shouted Mary, sitting at a table with Lily and Remus. “Marlene, darling, join us!”

Marlene rolled her eyes, adjusting the tight brace squeezing her abdomen as she walked across the room. She reached for the hair tie around her wrist and sloppily pulled her hair up into a low bun after her former one had fallen out with the fall. She did it mainly to keep her composure while being eyed by the Slytherin students who’d undoubtedly been losing their shit at the way she’d toppled over.

“What’s that?” James asked from the table beside Mary’s, pointing to the new addition to Marlene’s outfit.

“She’s a new Phoenix test subject.” smiled Dorcas. She winked at Marlene as she took a seat beside another Slytherin student with long, braided blonde hair. “She’s the first one to try out a recent medical advancement.”

Marlene let out a forced, nervous chuckle. “Great, so they don’t even know if this works.”

“It works,” chimed Emmeline from across the room. “Nothing I make doesn’t work.”

“Alright, cocky,” she muttered, slumping into a seat next to Mary.

The room was rendered silent by the next woman who entered. She was older than Marlene had thought she’d be. Marlene had convinced herself that every doctor or scientist at Phoenix was some relaxed young woman like Emmeline, but she was different. She commanded the room just with her footsteps. Her ivory white complexion wrinkled by her eyes and at the curves of her tight, apathetic smile. Her eyes were a soft blue-green like the depths of the ocean. Her thin blonde hair was pulled into a neat low bun with strands of gray hairs hanging by the sides of her face. She wore a dark blue pantsuit, pinstriped with gray. A white necklace of pearls hung against her chest, and the glasses resting against her nose were decorated by gems at the sides.

This was Minerva McGonagall.

“Well,” she said simply. “Continue your conversations.”

Nobody did. They all just watched as McGonagall pulled file after file from the pack at her side. She stood behind one of those moving standing desks. She sighed as she tugged her laptop from the bag as well, placing it in front of her and then glancing around the room once more.

She frowned. “Does this mean we can start?”

“I suppose.” smiled Emmeline.

“Well then.” She cleared her throat and then pressed a few buttons on her computer. Suddenly, a bright blue screen was projected to all of us, displaying each of our faces and academic information. “If you’ve done your research, then this isn’t a simple internship.”

She walked out of the way of the desk and stepped into the middle of the room.

“You all are extraordinary at what you do already,” McGonagall explained. “This next year, you will take that talent and put it towards making the world extraordinary.

“Phoenix Enterprises is here to protect people. We aren’t just intelligent people. We are the intelligence that works toward the safety of the world. If you truly want to be a part of this team, then you better be prepared to do the exact same thing.”

She reached up and clicked one of the profiles. It expanded, revealing all the information of Regulus Black’s blonde friend from earlier before. Evan Rosier; 20 years old; studying mechanical engineering with the Slytherin campus. When Marlene glanced toward him, he was slumped into his chair with his cheeks flushed red and embarrassed.

She could have sworn she’d heard of him before. “Rosier” wasn’t just some common name…, was it?

“Evan Rosier.” McGonagall’s glare shifted to the boy. “What’ll that degree be for? Fixing lifts?”

A mumble escaped his lips that no one could really understand.

Emmeline smirked from across the room. “Didn’t catch that one!”

“Engines, turbines…,” he said, unhappily raising his voice. “I want to do something in Energy solutions.”

The blonde sitting next to Dorcas quickly chimed in. “For his father, of course.”

A chuckle spread throughout the few Slytherin tables. That must have been why Marlene was so quick to recognize him. Much like the others, Evan was probably another descendant of some wealthy scientist or inventor. It was starting to make her feel left out a bit.

“That’s enough, Ms. Lestrange.” The woman snapped, lulling the room back into silence. “You come from a long line of great minds yourself, care to share?”

The blonde girl just smiled and relaxed into her seat.

“Now.” She swiped away from Evan’s profile, moving towards the other side. Clicking right on Marlene’s picture next. “Marlene McKinnon,” said Mcgonagall, letting a smile creep to her face. “You’re the one who took the spill this morning.”

If her time at Phoenix Enterprises was only going to consist of being continually embarrassed by staff members and her friends, then Marlene was fairly sure she would have to change her career plan.

An old school picture was broadcasted to the screen along with her age: 21; her studies: biophysics; along with the ten awards she’d won from lacrosse championships and research conferences alike. She tried not to let the shame be too visible across her face.

It wasn’t like Marlene was a genius, and that was fairly clear to anyone who met her. She worked hard, because… well, she knew she had to get out. It wasn’t like she had grown up with limited opportunities. She grew up in a good home with a loving mother and a truckload of younger and older siblings. Her home was a little townhouse in a well-off neighborhood where the biggest problems were the mean lady next door who complained about dogs barking on walks outside. Croydon was far from perfect, but it was still home. Marlene would have been fine staying there with her family. She could have found some simple job in business or finance where she would have had herself a very comfortable life,

But Marlene didn’t want Croydon. She wanted more than that.

Marlene wanted to be able to travel and live all over the world. She wanted a change of scenery. Whether it was a bustling, smelly city or a fancy beach with tourists and scammers on the street, Marlene wanted it. She wanted to be able to say she lived, so she’d found something that could get her there.

She enjoyed what she learned and what she did. She found herself falling in love with the idea that she might be able to save lives one day…, working as a researcher, fighting diseases with her knowledge…; it was the thing that would bring to life more than just her. It would bring life to everyone.

McGonagall folded her arms across her chest. “Can you guess what I want to ask you?”

“Yes, prof–” Marlene hesitated. She didn’t really know what to call her– “No, I’m sorry is it… Doctor? Professor? … M’lady?”

That got herself a few more chuckles.

“Professor works. I do have a teaching degree, so I am not just improvising here.” She leaned against an empty table behind her and gestured to Marlene once more. “What were you saying Marlene?”

“You were gonna ask me what I want to do… if I remember correctly.” Marlene stumbled over her words as she tried to bullshit her way to an answer. “Um, I want to work in something medical… maybe? I– I want to do research on disease and viruses and bacteria and… boring stuff.”

“Boring?” The professor skeptically raised her brow.

“Not boring, no,” insisted Marlene, leaning forward. “I enjoy it, I really do. It’s just others…” She quickly glanced at her staring peers. “...May not.”

“Well, you can start out testing blood, and then maybe you’ll move up to fighting disease.”

Marlene fell into silence afterward. She could feel her cheeks turning red as a flush of warmth spread toward her face. She curled in on herself, trying to make herself look smaller to hide.

The silence was broken by an awkward cough.

“That was the best answer I’ve gotten in the past four years,” replied McGonagall, smiling. “Good job.”

Marlene wasn’t too sure that she should have been proud of that.

“For the next year,” began the professor. Her voice bounced off the walls as it echoed through the room. “You will be assigned the task of advancing the military or medical technology at Phoenix Enterprises.

“You will work with experts in both the medicine field and our military field, and from there, each group of interns will go through the process of advancing the technology we already use.

“We expect you to improve as students and as workers in the field over the next year. Your progress will be overseen by Emmeline and me as we work to assess your work with others employed here. If you really want to be recognized, then you will make an impact here.”

Marlene eyed the tables of Slytherin students sitting together. They leaned in towards one another, already whispering and discussing McGonagall’s words with one another. When she turned back to her friends, it seemed that she wasn’t the only one who’d been intimidated by McGonagall’s remarks. James and Sirius looked plain confused and Mary and Lily were looking at Emmeline who was smiling mischievously at the groups.

McGonagall walked back to her computer, shutting off the screen. As the silent tension built throughout the room, she put her files and supplies back into her bags. She slung them over her shoulder and walked across the room to leave.

Her hand reached for the door and then– She paused.

“The next two weeks, you will visit each department and learn about the work done there. For today, you’ll write me a report on why you deserve to be here.” Her head whipped back to deliver us another chilling stare. “Get to work.”

The door slammed behind her.

None of them spoke for a moment. Marlene especially. She was still taking it in. She was really here. Marlene was going to change things in a way the world had never seen before.

She watched as the Slytherins’ eyes flicked towards her table while her friends’ stare shifted back to theirs. Peter’s hand started to slowly move towards the bag at his side. She caught sight of the blonde Lestrange edging towards a bag next to her as well.

So a competition was already starting.

“PETER,” shouted Sirius. “Start goddamn typing.”

With that, things started to move. Everyone pulled their computers into their laps and began pulling out files, googling things, creating new documents to type their ideas onto. Marlene had hardly understood what McGonagall had said to them. She knew why she deserved to be here. She’d worked hard to get into school and had been accepted because she was talented.

Of course, that sounded a bit too cocky. She knew she had to be humble about these sorts of things, and a self report just made her want to praise herself. She really was proud of herself too, but it was just her luck that that always came across as self-absorbed to people. A self-report was hard too because…, well, she didn’t know how to write about herself. Facts were easy. Analysis was easy. Parts of the world that weren’t her own were easy. Trying to report on her world was like trying to write a report about a war mid-battle. She had no clue where to start.

So she shifted herself towards Peter.

“Sorry,” she said, clearing her throat. “I’m still a bit stuck on how exactly we’re starting this.”

Peter glanced at her for a moment before turning back to his screen. “I’m waiting till we get back to write. I have no clue why I’m here.”

“Right,” she muttered, picking at the tight brace wrapped around her waist.

He turned to her with concern. “Shit, man, I’m sorry.”

“What?” she asked.

Then she looked down at the brace wrapped around her, remembering who’d put her there in the first place. With all the excitement, she’d forgotten who’d been the one to nearly split her spine in half.

“Oh, this?” She patted the brace playfully. “This is nothing.”

“What does that even do?” asked Mary, lifting herself up from her seat and walking towards Marlene. She leaned down in front of her, poking around the brace and running her hand along the buttons.

“It’s a fancy compression brace.” Marlene shrugged, pulling Mary up from the ground. “You probably needed this after that one rollercoaster we went on.”

“Yeah.” Mary scoffed. “No shit.”

Marlene snickered, wrapping her arm around Mary’s shoulder as the two of them leaned over to read Peter’s ideas. So far, he’d had words about his many awards and certificates sprawled across his screen. That, and his entire resume. Marlene figured that he was right and the smarter idea was waiting till she got back to her dorm room.

When she glanced over to the Slytherin tables, they were already deep into writing their reports. Some were at least. Rosier and Barty were shoving each other back and forth as they lifted themselves up from their seats. They inched towards the door laughing at each other as they did so.

It made Marlene feel weird.

“Have you met any of those kids yet?” She leaned towards Lily, who bit at her nails as she scrolled through the screen in front of her.

Lily glanced up slightly, only to shrug and look back down.

Marlene narrowed her eyes as Barty shoved Evan into the wall. She was surprised neither of their heads left a dent. “They’re apparently supposed to be smarter than us.”

Lily immediately shut her laptop, whipping her head around to face Marlene. “Who told you that?”

“It’s a rumor…,” muttered Marlene, crossing her arms over her chest. “They’re stricter at Slytherin or something. It makes everyone insanely smart because they practically don’t sleep just trying to get smart.”

Lily’s eyes locked with Marlene’s for a moment. She smiled skeptically. “Do smart people randomly walk out of class on the first day?”

Marlene hesitated before Lily’s finger shifted toward Evan and Barty who had both disappeared from their seats. Their open computers were still flipped open on the table with their open bags scattered across the floor. It hadn’t phased any of the other Slytherin students. No– Sirius’ brother and the girl who had helped Marlene earlier were both leaned over one another, pointing at one another’s screens as they discussed the self-report.

Barty and Evan’s empty chairs hadn’t even phased Emmeline yet. She was leaning over her computer, deep in emails, or writings, or whatever she had to do. No one else but Lily seemed to have seen the two boys leave, which made Marlene wonder how Lily had both written two pages of the self-report already and had seen everything going on in the room.

“I’m gonna go get some water,” said Marlene, standing up from her seat suddenly.

“Right.” Lily nodded. “Bring me some too.”

“Yeah, well that, or I break my neck again.”

Somehow able to walk out of the room without anyone batting an eye, Marlene walked zig-zags through Phoenix Enterprises’ halls. She was in awe of everything that had built the reputation the business had grown for itself: the machines, the medicines, the most intelligent people in every room they walked into. When she looked through the glass windows into the rooms where the best things were created by the best people to ever do it, she imagined a future where there was a girl watching her through that glass,

And every day that seemed more and more real.

What else was real was the sight of Evan and Barty suspiciously looking back and forth across the hallway before slipping behind two very large metal doors. She quickly snapped herself out of her daydreaming, racing to grab the door before it locked shut. She glanced at the wall where a black, seemingly functional keypad had somehow let the two boys into a small white hallway.

That definitely made sense.

Through the door’s window, she watched Evan and Barty make a left into another room behind the door. Considering she didn’t have the code for the keypad, she figured that being back there was probably very illegal, or very internship-threatening at the least. If she turned back, she would be one of those best intelligent people. She was almost set on that thought until the sound of Barty shouting at Evan and calling him a “bitchass” brought her back to reality.

If she didn’t do anything internship-threatening with her life, she wasn’t really living.

Marlene slipped into the hallway and quickly hustled to the door where she saw Barty and Evan glancing at things on the other side of the room.It was large, built in a circular shape with blue screens hanging on the walls and being displayed below large tank-looking devices. Doors led to different small rooms holding all types of animals. She saw a dog, a deer, and for a second, she could have sworn there was a ferret. Slowly and carefully, she opened the door and pulled herself into the room. Barty whipped around and in a panic, Marlene threw herself into the nearest small room beside her. She pressed herself up against the wall, peeking at Barty as he pressed buttons on the screens he passed by. Evan was walking up behind him, tinkering with some sort of tablet-looking device.

“What is this?” asked Barty.

“Animagus Project,” replied Evan. He rubbed at his eyes and brought the screen closer to his face. “It’s not telling me anything else. It’s just the name.”

Barty sucked in a sharp breath, frowning with irritation at the blue screen below him. “Well, it’s got something to do with animals. That’s for sure.”

For being from the smartest campus, they hadn’t shown a lot of intelligence since their arrival.

“Should we take pictures?” Evan pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of the tablet.

So, he sort of answered his own question.

“He wanted information on Phoenix’s advancements.” Barty took out his own phone and started to take pictures of the room around him. “I’m sure he’d appreciate pictures.”

The mention of someone else and the pictures being taken made Marlene jump to the conclusion that whatever she had just seen was definitely illegal. She cursed herself as Barty’s camera whipped her way. Immediately, Marlene dropped to the ground. The door slammed shut, causing muffled yelps and urges to leave from the boys outside. For Marlene, it put her in complete darkness.

“Fuck,” she muttered.

She tried to push herself up from the ground before immediately knocking into something above her. Before she knew it, a glass tank fell to the ground and shattered across the floor. She yelped in surprise, feeling shards of glass slice a gash through her leg. Muttering all sorts of curses beneath her breath, Marlene limped through the darkness until her hands found the doorknob. She fumbled the handle around without much success. Foolishly, Marlene had managed to get herself locked in one of these stupid rooms.

She stepped back, crushing glass beneath her foot and feeling a sharp pain on the back of her neck. She slapped her hand against her neck, wincing in pain as she leaned over. Marlene pressed her fingers against her eyes, reaching for the phone in her pocket. She turned the flashlight on, stumbling for the door again. She glanced around the room. There had to be something in there. There was no way they would make a room that–

Spiders:

Eight-legged, brown and white, large, and speeding across the floor in numbers that could have been anywhere in between a thousand and a million. She slapped her hand over her mouth, shivering at the sight of each one that had been freed from the glass. They crawled the walls, they crawled toward her, they crawled on top of one another.

Marlene threw herself against the door. She repeatedly threw her shoulder into the door, slamming herself against it as she tried to jam it open. Suddenly it whipped open to the blue-lit circular room she’d been subject to before. At a speed she didn’t even realize she was possible of, Marlene shoved past Peter and slammed the door shut. The spiders that had escaped scampered across the floor. Which was away from her, and that seemed like the best option. If Peter hadn’t found her– She paused.

“How did you know I was here?” She huffed.

Peter shrugged. “I have your location, and I was bored.”

Marlene furrowed her brow, glancing at the door curiously. “How did you get in?”

“How did you get in?”

Marlene watched Peter cautiously before whipping around and shoving the door open. Peter let the door close quietly behind them as Marlene pressed herself up against the white wall. She placed her hand against her chest, trying to steady her breathing as she raced through every event that had happened in the past five minutes.

Barty and Evan were suspicious.

She locked herself in a room full of spiders.

She cut herself on glass, leaving her DNA in the room.

She let a bunch of spiders for some “Animagus Project” break free from their cage.

She was fired.

She was so fired.

Oh god, she was fired.

“I’m screwed.” Marlene gasped, holding her head in her hands as she let herself fall toward the floor. “I can’t believe I was stupid enough to do that.”

“Marlene.” Peter knelt down in front of her. “What happened?”

“I broke all that,” she cried. “I followed those two stupid Slytherin kids, and now my leg…”

Peter looked down and nearly threw up at the sight of the gaping red wound that was now forming across Marlene’s calf. It made her feel great.

So great.

“Maybe you followed them out of concern for what they were doing,” Peter began.

She furrowed her brow. “What?”

A smile crossed his face. “Maybe they got pissed and pushed you in there?”

Marlene started to laugh. Not because she agreed with the plan, but because she was still in shock from managing to screw up her life so badly.

“I have no proof they were there.” She smiled. “Only they took pictures. Not me.”

He smiled back, poking her nose. “Well, if their phones get searched...”

Part of Marlene knew the plan probably wouldn’t work, but the better part of her was curious. Maybe Peter was right? Maybe she would be able to blame all of her screw-ups on the two suspicious dudes who had led her to screw up in the first place?

Peter helped her up from the floor. The two of them walked to the door, leaning against the walls casually as if nothing had changed. They were coming back from the bathroom, and Marlene had been trying to find a water fountain and miserably failed. The cut had happened when she’d fallen down the escalator earlier that morning and they must have missed it.

Somehow, everyone believed the story when she got back.

The only lingering eyes were from behind golden glasses. It made Marlene smile. After all, a tiny lie never harmed anybody. It wasn’t like that room was a big deal. She could just forget about it.

They were just spiders.