Love Letters to You

Marlene knows what she signed up for as she wrote her name among the Order of the Phoenix. 

Possible death, one that would not come to her quickly and easily, but it is a fitting price for what is the freedom of their world. 

But, though she has prepared herself for such end, written a will and all, there's still a small part of her - however silent - that flinches away from the Death Eater's wand as its tip starts to glow emerald. 

She knows Death will come for her eventually. 

But now that it has come, she so wishes she could chase it away. 

"Avada Ke-"

There's a crash, loud, yet the figures that appear are anything but. Instead, they are silent, deadly as they wave their wands and purple light strikes the death eaters holding her parents hostage. 

"What the fuck-" Mulciber - she will recognize that wretched face anywhere, including the crooked nose he now bears as a courtesy of Lily now Potter, then Evans - shouts. 

The smallest figure flicks her wand, and the Death Eater crumbles on the floor, like a puppet whose strings were abruptly cut.

"Don't you know not to swear in front of a lady?" she huffs, her voice melodic even as she drawls out a sneer. Pureblood is Marlene's first thought. And as prejudiced as it sounds, it is now important to know. Who knows how many Pureblood sympathizers You-know-who has. "It's rather rude." 

"Now, love," the tallest answers, pressing a quick kiss to her hood, as he heals Marlene's injuries, the skin almost neatly patching itself back together as the pool of blood she kneels into slowly disappears. "We can't expect people like him to know manners. That would require him to read." 

Marlene barks out a laugh at that, though she straightens, calling her wand to her now that Death has strayed a bit further away from her. Because though they have saved her and the Mckinnon family, war makes it hard to trust strangers, especially those who shield their faces beneath dark hoods. 

She points her wand to the couple. They grow silent, shifting the slightest bit as the boy tries to push the other behind. 

deadly. 

There is blood on the hem of the girl's cloak. 

"Who are you?" Marlene asks. 

"What, no thank you?" the girl sneers. 

Marlene sneers right back. It is almost familiar, she has been on the receiving end of such contempt multiple times throughout her years at school, first for the red she wore, then for the company she kept. 

"Show me your left arms," she demands instead. 

The girl seems ready to curse Marlene out, but the boy stops her, interlacing their hands together. "It's ok," he says softly. He only has eyes for the girl, it is obvious, and the girl, in return, mellows down, her harshness melting into disdain, her tense, slender form melting into the boy's touch. 

Fuck, if that doesn't make Marlene feel single as shit. 

A flash of ivory and tanned skin, they show her their left forearms, and Marlene breathes a tad easier at the absence of ink carved into their flesh. 

The Order had noticed how the Dark Mark could not be hidden, a branding that would not fade, and as such, it makes it a tad easier for them to recognize those who pledged allegiance to He-Who-Must-Not-be-Named. 

Sure, it is not as if a simple pureblood or Merlin forbids a Muggle-born can ask one of the Sacred Twenty Eight to simply bare their arms for all to see. 

But while inducting fellow wizarding folks into the resistance, well, it does help. 

"Do forgive my friend," the man says from under his hood. He is standing quite close to that said friend, almost protectively shielding her if Marlene were to whip out a wand and start cursing her helpers. "She holds etiquette a lot to heart, and well," he then tilts his head, and smirks. That smirk feels familiar, awfully so. "We did save your life."

"And you have House Mckinnon's greatest thanks," Mom jumps in, her voice wry from screaming from under the Cruciatus. She coughs, a hand pressed to her bloodied side. 

The smaller cloaked figure waves her wand and Mom sighs, thanking her softly under her breath as the clawed flesh knits itself back together. 

"Of course." it's the boy who says it, clearly the diplomate of their pair. And the most clearheaded and calm one, Marlene notices. "Do you have a safe house to go to?" 

Marlene squints, hackles raised at the question. They are at war and already, her friend Lily had to go into hiding. Marlene won't make things easier for Death Eaters to find the muggle-born, and that, she swears on Merlin's grave. 

"We do," she says cautiously. 

The girl clicks her tongue, gesturing to the Floo. "Well, go on then, do take the whole night." 

"Take the whole night while you're at it, Prongs!" barks Sirius Black with a laugh. "Go on."

Marlene blinks at Sirius's laugh fades in the small roar of the fireplace. "What do you want in exchange?" 

Because nothing comes for free, especially not in these Dark times, and the stranger is pureblood, she probably knows all the intricacies of life debts and whatnot. 

"A future favor, if you will," the witch says. Her voice is light as if they are discussing the weather. 

The blonde scoffs. She might not have worn Slytherin's colors, but she is not simple. "Yeah right, and do you want my vault key while you're at it?"

"Why," the stranger drawls. She takes a step forward, and Marlene readies herself for a spell. Yet it does not come, only the mocking, "If you insist, who am I to refuse you?"

"God Lara, the woman almost got murdered ten minutes ago," the male chuckles as he points quite rudely at Marlene's battered form. "Now's not the time to play your mind games with her." 

The girl - Lara, Marlene remembers, which is an odd name for a pureblood, almost too mundane for those pricks who see themselves as mighty as Merlin - waves her friend's concern away with a dainty, gloved hand. "Details," she laughs. 

Marlene takes a step back. "Just to be sure," she says cautiously, nodding to her parents as they activate their emergency Portkey, the odd couple having long since broken through the wards that the Death Eaters had raised, another detail that makes Marlene all the more wary of such powerful individuals she knows nothing of, if only that they are disgustingly in love. "You won't follow me." 

"We have better things to do," Lara scoffs. 

Her man nods. "We won't." 

Marlene squints. "And if I ask a vow?"

"We can do that," he acquiesces. 

The girl hisses, tugging at his cloak. She very obviously disapproves, too used to the fickleness of human nature and wary of possible nefarious intentions. Which, Marlene understands, she'd be wary too, but cmon, she isn't that much of an asshole.

"Darling," Lara says. "That-"

The man lowers himself closer to Lara. Brings her gloved and blood stained hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to them. Marlene thinks she gagged a bit. Just a tad. "I do love when you call me darling," he says. 

Yeah, no. 

Marlene leaves. 

She does not want to see any of this. 

"And how did you survive?" Alastor asks once more. 

Marlene sighs loudly from her seat, wincing when Lily applies more ointment on her wounds though most of them have already healed or in the process to. "I've told you everything at least five times, Moody," she protests. "That's an overkill."

The Auror shakes his head. "It's not everyday that you have strangers rescuing you from Death Eaters," he mutters, spinning on his wooden leg, his magical eye darting back and forth as if seeing things that Lily cannot see. "You must exercice-"

"Constant vigilance!!" Two voices yell in synchronised laughter. Only the newest member of the Order falters at the sound, the rest all too used to it from waking up in the middle of the night in Gryffindor tower. 

Lily stiffles a laugh, even as a soft kiss is pressed to her cheek. "Lily-flower," James greets with a beam, hair ruffled and eyes glinting. 

"Morning," she greets with a soft smile. 

Sirius whistles as he sits down next to James, ever the more dramatic. "Woah, Marlene," he simpers. "You look like you made out with Death!" 

Marlene rolls her eyes. "More like kicked Death's ass." 

"You were saved by strangers," Moody stresses out. "Strangers. How did they even know to save you?"

Marlene rubs a tired hand to her face. Lily notes to draw some tea or coffee for her friend after Alastor's interrogation. After such an ordeal, she must be almost dead on her feet. 

No puns intended. 

Merlin, James really has rubbed off her, hasn't he? 

Of course, it is not as if she can do such a thing to her husband lest he starts prancing around, chest puffed in a mockery of his previous Hogwarts days, and Lily will be compelled to hex him for old time's sake. 

Poor little Harry would be much distraught not to have his Father cuddle him to sleep. 

"I don't know, Moody!" she exclaims. "When someone saves you, you usually say thank you. Not start interrogating them like they're criminals."

"Wow, Mckinnon, who would have thought you know good manners?"

"Fuck off, Black."

"Marlene!" Lily hisses. 

"Harry isn't even here, Lils!" her friend protests with a whine, though she easily stops when Lily throws her a glare. She then turns to Sirius who is quite busy laughing under his breath. "Oh, go to hell," she tells the Pureblood. 

"Why," Sirius starts with a smirk, his voice a careful drawl "If you insist, who am I to refuse?"

Marlene freezes. 

"Mar?" Lily asks, slowly shifting closer to her dear friend, careful to show her wandless hands as she gently shakes the witch. "What's wrong?"

Yet, Marlene has no eyes for Lily, no small smile or crinkle of the eyes. 

Instead, she looks as Sirius as if he is a ghost, as if he is the damnation of her soul. 

"Sirius," she starts, eyes wide and blown, fingers clenched. "Sirius, do you have a sister?!" 

And the rest is history. 

"So let me get this right," James starts, an arm around their grown son and the other, wrapped around Lily. "You two are dating." 

"Engaged," Elara corrects. 

The girl Lily's boy so clearly adores is seated on the velvet couch, close enough to her Father yet there is steel in her spine and she does not try to melt into Sirius's embrace the way that Harry did. 

As for Sirius, well, Jame's best mate looks torn between murdering Harry and taking a hold of his daughter and never let go. To be quite frank, Lily wouldn't be surprised to see the older man making grabby hands at his daughter. 

Yet, there is something unsaid, unsolved that lingers between the two Blacks, as if there is an ocean and an universe seperating them. 

"We're basically married," Harry chimes in. He sounds happy, in love and it is everything that Lily has ever wished for her boy. 

From their tales, she knows life has not been as kind as she had hoped, the war has not ended and had carried on to be fought by their children, but still, it is heart-warming to see how the two have fallen for each other. 

If James is thrilled for their son for the sole fact that it is Sirius's daughter who Harry is dating, the same cannot be said for Lily. 

Sure, she is fond of her future daughter-in-law and knowing that she is Sirius's is all the more comforting. But she knows that her son loves his Elara not for her father, but for the girl. 

It is so very clear for her to see. 

The pure love that bond the two of them, how effortlessly they navigate together, as if they have been joined by the hips, as if they have always known they were made for each other. 

Love can be seen in the simplest things. 

A casual brush of the hand, interlocking pickies with a secret smile only for the two of them. 

Filling in their sentences, bashful in admitting certain acts yet so very proud of each other's success. 

"And you're alive?" Sirius asks. His arms are crossed, his eyes glaring daggers at Harry who does not seem fazed at all at his godfather's evident displeasure, as if all too used to it, and having long since learned to ignore it if only to date Elara Black. 

Lily imagines that weekly dinners between the Blacks and Potters must be quite tense. 

"Well," Harry starts. His grin has thinned into a small smile, and her son rubs the back of his neck like his father. "We worked on that." 

"Besides," Elara says from her own place next to her father. She smiles at Harry, as if she only sees him. "I quite like him alive."

"And you haven't even been cursed?" Sirius insists, sounding almost disappointed. 

Lily clears her throat, shooting him a pointed glance. "I am sure we are all thrilled that Harry has not been cursed for such thing." 

No one answers. 

Her husband is too busy staring at Harry with awed hazel eyes, strangely misty and full of love, drinking in the sight of their son. Lily is sure to look similar to it yet she nudges him with her elbow. 

"Course," James drawls with a startled laugh. 

Harry chuckles awkwardly. "I mean, Sirius didn't curse me-"

"An obvious mistake of future me," Sirius mutters, pouting like a petulant child. 

James gasps at that, putting a hand to his chest in mock offense as he leers at his friend. "Padfoot!" he exclaims. "And against my very own son? For nought had I expected such betrayal of my dearest brother of heart-"

"Well," Sirius counters. He too has put a dramatic hand to his chest, has kneeled before Lily's husband and Lily rolls her eyes with a laugh. "If thous son were no thieving scoundrel to steal mine own star and treasure, such betrayal need not to happ-"

"Father," Elara intervenes. A delicate blush dusts her cheek and she bites at her bottom lip, not noticing - or ignoring - how Harry's eyes greedily roam her every features, as if falling in love once more every time he sees her. "You're embarrassing me."

"Yeah, Dad," Harry adds. "No one wants to see your forbidden love story with Padfoot." 

James laughs at that. "Well said, son!" 

It is only at night that James whispers in the crook of her ear "I am glad he has found his love."

Lily shifts in her husband's arms, emerald meeting hazel as she nuzzles closer to him. She smiles softly as she feels warm lips press a kiss on her forehead. "Do you think she is his love?" she asks. 

After marrying James, having fallen in love with the man he has grown to be, she learned through the Potter archives that Potters love fervently and with all of their hearts. They fall once, and hard, the kind of love at first sight that anyone would dream of though not every Potter has had the chance to be so blessed. 

Lily is thrilled for her son, to have found his one and only, especially with Elara, a girl who - though she seems cold, though she has reminded Lily quite often of the same Slytherins that had lived through her own time in Hogwarts - smiles like the sun and looks at Harry as if he is everything good and precious in this life. 

"Without a doubt," James says. "Did you see how he looks at her?" 

"Like a man in love?" Lily asks. 

His chest rumbles tenderly in laughter. "Like he has his everything in front of him."