Marlene Mckinnon
Marlene Mckinnon was my first friend. I had a few, as a kid, we’d play around at each other’s houses. But it was all just the other children in town, the children of my parent’s mates. Marlene was my first true friend.
She was the bravest person I’ve ever known, filled with this confidence that made you feel you could do anything with her by your side. Everything she thought, she’d say, loudly, and to anyone who would listen. She was wholeheartedly herself, much to the aggravation and disdain from many of those around us.
In first year, Marlene had this bleached blonde hair that went right down to her waist. But she always talked about wishing to cut it off. She loved the colour though, she was ginger, naturally, and thought it was a terrible colour on her. She didn’t seem to care about her appearance much, her uniform was always unironed and stained with whatever she had for breakfast. I envied her greatly, especially after finding out what her mum was like. I couldn't leave the dorms without makeup, even at eleven years old. And she knew people laughed at us together- me, trying to dress a few years older than I was, checking my hair and face in every reflective surface we walked pass, and her, hand in hand with me, with wild hair and her uniform an absolute mess. She never cared, she was loud and bold when everyone expected someone like her to be quiet and timid.
I loved her dearly after only a few weeks as her friend and roommate. She reminded me of my sister- rebellious and intrepid. And Marlene gladly took me under her wing, knowing the sort of culture of our school a lot more than I. She was from an upper middle class family, all legacies of our boarding school. Whereas I was completely new to this environment.
We’d spent every class and every second in between together, gossiping and messing around as eleven year olds do after a restless day of lessons with stuffy teachers.
Marlene had grown up for years next door to James Potter. As kids, they were inseparable, always in the Potter’s garden playing different games. Then school started, and James met Sirius Black, a mischievous, troubled boy. He was roommates with James and instantly connected, you’d never see one without the other. And Marlene felt a little abandoned, replaced by Sirius Black. So she grabbed me by the arm and never let go. She wanted us to be like them- inseparable soulmates. And we were, for a while, best friends, practically sister’s.
First year was hard for her, for both of us, really. Marlene was likely dyslexic and autistic, and our school didn’t really know how to handle that. She struggled in class, and started spending a lot of her free time trying to catch up with the class. I found it difficult as well, the school studied strange subjects that I hadn’t even heard of before I joined. But we could help each other; I’d help Marlene with the readings and her writing and she’d help me understand the subjects.
Our other roommates, Emmeline and Lily, kept to themselves and their other friends back then. Emmeline had befriended a bunch of other first years in the other houses, and spent a lot of her time with them. Lily had a childhood friend, Severus, who she preferred to spend time with. They were extremely close back then, private and always whispering between each other. I always thought they looked down on us when I was eleven, being two of the smartest students; they were always in the library, studying and reading. I realised, later on, that they were just very quiet people, especially Severus. He was a shy, nervous child, and Lily helped him, like his anchor.
So Marlene and I spent most of the year with only each other. We hung out with the other two girls every now and then, but it was mostly just us. We learned everything about each other, and it felt like we would stay, holding each other’s hands and gossiping forever.
We had completely different interests, Marlene loved sports and I loved fashion. We’d sit down together often, daydreaming about our futures, Marlene as this big sports star, home filled with first place trophies; and me, a fashion designer, drawing and making banging outfits that show up in every magazine. Marlene’s sports career ended once she finished school, and the closest I came to a fashion designer was eight years as a retail worker for Topshop. But, as kids, it was fun to have big dreams.
As Christmas approached, we packed up to go home for the holidays. Lily had left early, being Jewish, she had permission to leave earlier so she could get home for the start of Hanukkah. Emmeline’s family weren’t religious, but they still celebrated Christmas as a holiday, so she still planned to go home for the holidays. Most of the students and teachers got the train home, but Emmeline had to go to the airport instead, as her family lived in South Korea. So Marlene and I ended up in a train carriage alone. I was immensely excited to see my parents and sister again, but Marlene was a little tense. She loved Christmas, it was her favourite time, but had told me over our months together, that she never really fit with her family. The Mckinnon’s were traditional, they liked to fit in and for the most part they did. But Marlene didn’t in the slightest. And apparently her mum sought to turn her into a ‘normal’ daughter.
I held Marlene as the train started, and we talked of nothing. The noise, a distraction, I suppose, made her feel better. And by the time we arrived in Liverpool, she was rambling about Euphemia Potter’s Christmas dinners. James came to find her, and I hugged her tightly before they both got off the train. She waved to me from the station until she was but a tiny dot left behind. I waved back.
I spent the rest of the journey with Sirius and Peter, not wanting to spend hours alone. We were all from the south so had to spend the most time on the train. I got on with the two well, both of them being very funny and lively people. But whilst Peter seemed a little more energetic than usual, Sirius was much less. A grin still graced his face, but as we got closer and closer to London, he became quieter and sadder. I assumed, back then, that his home life was just similar to Marlene. It wasn’t, of course, but I had only had short conversations with Sirius previously, and at Eleven, I didn’t quite know how bad things were.
We soon got to London, and Peter practically ran off the train to find his mother. I was the same, searching over stranger’s heads for my family, until I was suddenly surrounded by someone’s arms.
I glanced up to see my sister, grinning down at me. I hugged her, tighter than I ever had, before turning to do the same to my mum and dad. And then we clambered into the car and set off for home, my dad constantly complaining that the school train didn’t just go to Cornwall.
As soon as we got home, I ran to my bedroom, and started writing a letter for Marlene. I had only known her for four months then, but she had already become such an important part of my life.