Chapter 1
Marlene McKinnon woke up early on October 1st, 1975, to the smell of fried breakfast wafting up to her room. She pulled on her dressing gown over her soft satin nightdress and ran downstairs two stairs at a time, her feet making a soft thumping sound on the worn carpet. She landed at the bottom of the stairs with a thump and swung into the kitchen with a smile on her face and spotted two frying pans, one with bacon and tomatoes spitting burning oil over the aga top, and a separate pan for her breakfast, with halloumi and tomatoes gently sizzling in the pan magically frying without assistance.
Marlene’s father, seeing that she had come down, stopped the breakfast frying with a wave from his unicorn hair wand.
“Good morning!” She chirped, heaping the contents of the frying pan onto a piece of toast. She made her way over to the table and sat down in her chair between her younger brother and her father, “Where’s Mum?”
Marlene’s mother, Irene, was an Auror and was often away on secret missions for the ministry of magic, she was getting sent on an increasing number of missions at the moment, with the war going on and the dark lord and Death eaters still at large.
Her father looked up from The Daily Prophet, “She’s on a mission.” He replied, “I’m sorry but she won’t be coming to the station to see you off, it’ll just be me.” He never tried to show it, but it was obvious that he was always terrified every time his wife went on a mission, checking the newspapers everyday till she came back.
Marlene had guessed this was the reason that she wasn’t at home, she had just hoped that her mother wasn’t there because of any other reason, anything else other than putting her own life on the line. She knew she was being selfish, but then was it really that bad to want your mother to be safe at home than fighting in a bloody war, risking her own life for people she didn’t know.
She forced an anxious smile onto her face, making it seem like she wasn’t petrified with fear of the possibility of her and her brother, Scot, losing their mother, and at such a young age too.
“Oh, do you know when she’ll be back though?” she asked her dad nonchalantly.
“No darling, I’m afraid I don’t.” He replied, “But I’m sure she’ll be fine,” he said, not falling for Marlene’s act at all. “Don’t fret about it.”
Marlene took the last bite of her breakfast so she wouldn’t have to say anything in response to her dad.
She took her plate to the sink where there was a washing up brush scrubbing away violently, desperately trying to clean the grease off the frying pans that were left over from their breakfast. She placed her dirty plate at the bottom of the dry sink, adjoining the one washing up the dirty crockery, which was splashing soapy water all over the old wooden floor.
All of a sudden, the foamy water sprayed onto Marlene, drenching her nightgown in greasy soapy suds, Marlene looked down at her now dripping clothes with a shocked expression on her face as her younger brother laughed at her.
Marlene looked at her brother with a scowl of anger. “This isn’t funny!” she cried. “Stop that!”
Scot still continued to laugh, his breaths were now coming up short and his laughter turning into hiccups, “You should have seen the look on your face!” He got out between his laughter, “You looked so surprised!”
“Dad!” Marlene exclaimed as she turned to her father, only to see that he was trying to hide his amusement at her but failing miserably.
Her dad looked up at her still giggling, “You have to admit that was funny though.” He sniggered. “It was your expression; it was one of those pure comical faces.” He said while pulling a face with his eye’s wide oven and his mouth in a perfect O.
Marlene snorted through her nose, “Ok.” She admitted, “That does look rather funny. But it doesn’t give you a reason to laugh at me!” she teased, smiling at her brother. Marlene ruffled her brother’s hair playfully as she made her way upstairs up to her room, “I’m just going to finish my packing.” She called back to her father as she got to the door leading upstairs.
“Ok darling. But be quick as we need to leave soon.”
Marlene made her way upstairs to her bedroom on the second floor and collapsed on her four-poster bed with a groan. The first day of term were always exhausting, however she loved the first day as she got to see her best friends after a long summer holiday.
The floor was a patchwork of colourful clothes that were still strewn across her room from packing. She picked up a white and green blouse and climbed over her bed to look outside her window to see if it was still warm enough to wear her favourite pleated skort to match. Marlene decided to risk it. She stood in front of her floor length mirror appreciating her look.
The Gryffindor girls were always complimented on their style, and Marlene was no exception.
When all her possessions were finally stuffed into her trunk, she called her dad up to her room so he could levitate them into the car as Marlene couldn’t practice magic outside of school yet. Marlene followed him downstairs to the car grabbing her colourful jacket as she walked out the door.
“You got everything?” their dad asked them both, turning around to look at them.
“Yep.”
“I think so.”
“Ok good.” He murmured, almost to himself. “Right, off we go!”
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When they finally got to King Cross Station, the McKinnon family ran through the wall between the muggle platforms of nine and ten and arrived on the jostling platform of nine and three-quarters.
Marlene was immediately hit with a wall of noise from all the over excited students.
The Hogwarts express was shining next to the platform, smoke from the engine drifting over their heads. The train was packed with people hanging out the windows to talk with their family, with some bagsying compartments for their friends and fighting over the plush seats. Owls hooted to each other over the joyous shrieking of friends being reunited after a long summer holiday, and cats wove in between people, yowling for their owners who had been lost in the excitement of a new school year.
Marlene heard a familiar screech of excitement and turned towards her best friend, she saw Aasha Mehta running towards her, pushing Mary on her trolley.
Mary got off the trolley as Aasha flung herself at the blonde girl. Marlene was engulfed in Emmeline’s hair as she gave her a tight squeeze.
“I missed you!” Aasha exclaimed pulling away and looking Marlene in the face. “How was your summer?”
“It was great!”
“I can see that.” Aasha smiled, “You’ve even caught a tan!”
Marlene looked down at her bare arms. She hardly ever tanned, her pale skin burned easily and it often leaved her face red and peeling.
“I’m showing it off.” She whispered to Aasha , “It’ll disappear in a week.”
Mary attacked Marlene with a bear hug and grinned at her when she pulled away.
“Where’s Lily?” Marlene questioned.
Mary scoffed, “Probably with Snivellus.”
“Uugh, I don’t get their friendship.” Sighed Aasha. “She should just drop him already.”
“I agree,” Mary muttered, “He’s such a dick.”
The girls were all silent thinking about the horrific slurs he often used behind Lily’s back, directed at Mary and even Aasha, who was a half-blood just like Severus.
Marlene turned to her father, who was saying goodbye to Scot, to break the silence. She embraced him tightly, trying to stop her tears from falling down her cheeks.
“I’ll miss you.” She sniffed.
She could feel him smile against her cheek. “I’ll miss you too.”
“I will try to write every week.” Marlene promised, pulling back from their hug. “You better write too.”
“We will, I promise." Marlene knew ‘we’ meant both her parents. “Now get on that train, you don’t want to miss it.”
Marlene kissed his cheek and followed Mary and Aasha to the luggage compartment.
“Look after Scot for us.” He called after them, almost as an afterthought.
“We will,” Mary responded, “We’ll all keep an eye open for him.”
They got on the train just in time and was walking down the corridor looking for a free compartment when the train started to move out of the station.
They found an empty compartment at the end of the train and settled in, lounging across the plush seats.
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When they were a good way out of the station Lily rushed into the compartment.
“Lily!” Aasha exclaimed, jumping up from her seat by the window to give her a hug. Lily smiled and hugged her back.
“Where were you?” asked Mary when they had all said their hellos. “We couldn’t find you anywhere.”
“Oh, I was with Severus.” Lily replied. “He had a tough summer.”
If lily was expecting sympathy for Snape, she didn’t get it, as Mary, Marlene and Aasha exchanged glances as if to say, 'Why should we care, he’s a horrible person.'
If Lily saw this, she didn’t say anything, she knew of her friend’s hatred for Snape as they frequently made their opinions known when he upset her, which was often.
“Anyway, how were all your hols?”
“They were amazing! Gushed Mary, “you know we went to Greece, right? I met this gorgeous Greek guy. He showed me round all these islands on his boat. We spent every day together, oh my god, it was so magical!” Aasha giggled as it was well known that Mary went through guys like a mouse through cheese. However, Mary is the furthest possible thing from a mouse. She’s confident and always speaks her mind, like a true Gryffindor, a feature Marlene had always been jealous of.
Mary was opening her mouth, probably to gossip about this “gorgeous Greek.” When the door to their apartment slid open smoothly and James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew entered their compartment.
“Is it alright if we join you?” asked James, “Everywhere else is full.”
“Of course.” Aasha replied moving down the bench to give the boys some room, James sitting next to Lily, and Remus sitting next to Aasha. As Sirius came into full vies of the girls they gasped, as when they had last seen him Sirius had long glossy black hair which he always showed off, but now he had a buzzcut. All his beautiful hair had been cut off.
“Your hair!” lily gasped.
“Oh yeah, I’m trying something different.” Sirius replied nonchalantly.
Marlene saw through his act and immediately realized that he had not wanted to ‘try something different.’ His horrible mother had shaved it off as a punishment of some sort.
The Gryffindor girls didn’t speak about Sirius’ family, but they knew about Regulus, his brother. And that his family were blood supremacists due to a howler received in 1st form from Sirius’ mother shouting at him for being sorted into Gryffindor, a house of Mudbloods and blood traitors.
“Well, I think it suits you,” said Aisha loyally, ending the awkward silence that had settled over the full compartment.
“Thanks.”
After that the Gryffindor fifth year settled into comfortable chatter and games, until they arrived at the station, with Hogwarts looming in the distance welcoming them all in for another year of magic, mysteries, romance and danger.
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