Meet The family
Dorcas is throwing up.
“Woah, steady there Princess.”
Naturally, the person she ends up swaying into afterwards is Marlene.
“I’m fine,” she groans, unconvincingly. The world blurred and colourful dots swam around her vision and so, annoyingly, she actually had to make use of Marlene’s hands holding her arms, steadying her.
“You’ll feel better soon,” James smiled, blissfully unaffected by the unnatural and sickening form of transport, “Welcome to Grimmauld Place.”
She furrowed her brows and stared ahead, finally seeing past the blurred lines, but seeing nothing special other than a couple houses that clearly have families occupying them, seen through the windows.
“Spectacular.”
James’ face twists into realisation and he turns to Remus nodding at him once. As if like magic, a larger but more tattered looking house reveals itself amongst the others. Its concealment must have something to do with Remus’ abilities which invokes multiple questions in Dorcas’ mind, though she decides to keep them to herself in favour of not giving too much away. She needs to seem perfectly neutral until she works out everything there is to know about these people, and a tad bit intimidating to top it off. Though, so far, she doesn’t seem to have much luck on that end.
Each antique wooden step groaned and whined underneath the weight of the small group as if it were alive as they made their way through the door into a long, narrow corridor. As Dorcas’ eyes darted around the area, taking everything in as analytically as possible, the eyes of the portraits seemed to latch onto her, observing her every move and making her stomach twist uncomfortably.
“State your business here.”
Startled, Dorcas turned around, coming face to face with a shorter woman with fiery red hair and round pink cheeks, littered with freckles. This did not make her any less threatening.
“I-”
“We solemnly swear we are up to no good,” James cut in with a wide grin, making his way to the front and dipping down to press a tender kiss to her forehead, softening her expression considerably.
“I was getting worried,” she says sternly, though only making his smile grow wider.
“Oh my darling Flower, I knew you cared about me!” he exclaimed, dramatically clutching his chest and earning fond eye rolls from both Remus and Marlene.
The redhead lightly swatted at his chest, “Of course I do you wanker. Now,” she pushed past him after a gentle kiss on the cheek and smiled warmly at Dorcas.
“Finally a new Valkyrie. I’m getting sick and tired of all these incompetent men.”
Dorcas raised an eyebrow, suppressing a small gasp from escaping. She’d secretly admired the Valkyries though she was told to fear and hate them, just like everyone else. Her surprise must have been obvious because the girl chuckled and held out her hand which Dorcas tentatively shook after a few moments.
“I'm Lily. Don’t worry- I’m not going to set you on fire or any of that sort. Though, maybe it's you who I should be worrying about?” she asked with raised eyebrows, though keeping a firm hold of Dorcas’ hand.
“I don’t have much control,” she admitted stiffly.
“That’s alright, we know how to help with that,” she smiled once again, finally letting go and letting them through a door into a kitchen with a long table that had three more people sitting there chatting amongst themselves.
“Honeys, we’re home!” Marlene grinned, swinging out a chair and sitting down gracefully in the most awkward position Dorcas had ever seen; one leg tucked up to her chin with the other stretched out on the table.
“Merlin, you have a shocking lack of table manners,” the girl next to her grumbled, flicking her curly brown hair to the side to glare at her, “feet off the table.”
“Yes mum,” Marlene stuck her tongue out.
“I’m not the mother here,” she pointed at James, “he is.”
Everyone laughed whilst James bemed proudly with his arms around Lily’s shoulders. Dorcas felt like she was interrupting some special, familial moment. Even from only walking in a few minutes ago she could tell all of these people were incredibly close. She didn’t belong here.
“Oi- we can discuss parental roles later. Anyone gonna introduce us to this gorgeous lady you seem to have brought with you?”
She glanced over at where the voice came from, raising her eyebrows at the guy practically hanging off of Remus, who’s neutral expression from earlier was replaced with a soft smile etched on his face, gazing at him.
“I can introduce myself, thank you. I’m Dorcas. And if none of you truly mind, I would love to be told exactly what I’m supposed to be doing here now that my life isn’t being threatened by a bunch of crazy cops?”
“We are kidnapping you and feeding you to Wormtail.”
“Oh thank God, I’m starving.”
What the actual fuck.
“I’m not playing any of your stupid games.”
Remus rolled his eyes, “Dumbledore requested we find you and train you so you can get a better hold of your powers. Especially after your… eventful night. We’re here to help,” he said earnestly and some part of Dorcas felt like she could trust his word.
Lily nodded in agreement, “We’ve all struggled in some way with our own abilities, so we can understand at least a little of what you’re going through, Dorcas. If you don’t want to stay, you don’t have to. We won’t hold you hostage, we just suggest you give us a chance,”
The same dark-haired boy who actually acknowledged her earlier finished the semi-sympathetic speech off.
“Plus, what other options do you really have?”
What other options did she have?
Her home was burned down and everyone knew what she was now. Her family… None of them would ever take her back after what she has done. The cops were after her and would inevitably find her if she didn’t get a handle on her fiery tendencies. This was truly her only option if she was going to survive this mess.
“Alright then… Thanks for clearing that up,” she nodded, scanning over all the faces in the room that were now watching her closely.
“I’ll see how it goes. Now can someone show me to a bed where I can rest alone? You see, I’ve had a pretty ‘eventful night’,” she quoted Remus and crossed her arms over her chest. He wasn’t wrong. She was close to just collapsing and breaking down on the spot right there. But she wouldn’t, obviously.
“Yes, your highness,” Marlene sprung up and bowed, “anything for you, your highness.”
Dorcas scoffed and briskly left the room, Marlene hurrying a bit to catch up with her.
“The place is much bigger than it seems but you’ll figure your way around. Plus, we probably won’t be staying here for much longer.”
She glanced over at her, narrowing her eyes, “And why is that?”
Marlene flashed her a giddy smile, “Well, to train you we need to go to Hogwarts. Duh.”
“I would ask what that is but I don’t think I can deal with your voice for much longer. I seem to have developed a headache,”
“It's a school,” Marlene continued anyway, “for us mutants. Ran by Albus Dumbledore himself. It’s where we all learn to control and utilise our powers as well as learning stuff like history and maths and all that which is the boring part. But there are mutant related classes too- much better than the Muggle ones.”
Dorcas sighed, pressing her lips together tightly.
“Go on, ask,” Marlene hummed, nudging her shoulder, “c’mon, are you afraid you’ll like me too much if you actually talk to me, Princess?”
“I can assure you I’ll have no trouble with not liking you, Marlene.”
She snorted and looked down, shaking her head, “just ask for Merlin’s sake and drop the whole mysterious act for a bloody second.”
“It’s not an act,” she scowled. Marlene simply tilted her head, eyes boring into her own. Dorcas suddenly felt quite hot.
“Fine. What’s a muggle?”
“Oh my- that was the question you were so insistent not to ask?” she laughed, “You are something Miss Meadowes. Muggles are the ‘normal’ people. The Mundanes. Non-mutants. It’s what we call them.”
“It’s weird.”
“You’re weird.”
“Shut up.”
“You shut up.”
“Do you honestly not have anything more creative to say?”
“Absolutely not.”
They stopped outside a dark green door, much to Dorcas’ relief, and Marlene opened it for her. How chivalrous, Dorcas thought to herself with distaste.
“There’s a small bathroom in there too as well as a change of clothes in the wardrobe. You should be okay in there and if you need anything ask anyone but me,” she nodded with a very fake, very wide, very disturbing smile, ushering Dorcas inside.
“Sweet dreams Princess.”
And then Dorcas was alone.