A/N: This story takes place during Marauder Era. It starts out in Marlene's first year, which I'm saying is the marauder's second year. The story revolves around Marlene and one other character who will later become apparent. The story is based off my Marlene McKinnon roleplay character and many of the characters are credited to how they are played by the people I roleplay with. Once I introduce the characters I will give proper credit. Constructive reviews are encouraged, but don't tell me I'm writing anything wrong. For the most part I will follow canon, but I may change things up a little. I will let you know what's different from canon at any point that I do. Also, for a visual picture of Marlene, I use Hayden Panettiere pictures for her.

Summary: The daughter of a wizard and a muggle begins her years at Hogwarts, being introduced to different sorts of people she never thought existed. She quickly meets an enemy who might very well become an unlikely friend and who knows, maybe even more could spark between the two. Could Marlene be the salvation one boy needs?

Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Harry Potter or the character Marlene McKinnon. Both are owned by J.K. Rowling and Scholastic. I am just a fan writing about the character of Marlene. Little is known about her, so I'm adding my own little touches to her personality.

Chapter One: Beginnings

"Marlene Lorraine McKinnon!" the eleven year old heard a yell up the stairs. She groaned and turned back over in her bed, her blonde hair falling over her face. What time was it anyway? Why on earth were they waking her up at this ungodly hour? The sun was barely even up yet. She pushed the covers down and hugged her pillow closer to her as she tried to fall back to sleep. Unfortunately the early September weather was still too hot.

Wait. Early September? That was it! That was why they were waking her up. It was September first, her first day at her new school. Just as she heard knocking on the door she hopped out of bed, pushing the same blonde curls out of her face. "Coming mum!" she called through the door as she ran to her dresser to find a new outfit.

She was very excited about starting her new school. It would be the first time she would be introduced to other people like her, outside of her family, of course. So what sort of person was she? She was a witch. She was going to be attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry just like her uncle and her father had. To top it all off, her cousin would be joining her at the school. She just knew they would both be sorted into Ravenclaw together. Both of their fathers had been in Ravenclaw, it was sure to become a family tradition. After all, Marlene was about as studious as her father. She was considered a geek by some people. She always had her schoolwork done on time and her spare time she could be found reading, often on a hill not far from the McKinnon property.

She loved that hill. The only person who knew about the hill beside herself, or how important the hill was to her anyway, was her brother. The hilltop couldn't be easily seen from her house, but on top of the hill she could see all of the surrounding area. She absolutely loved it! Granted a British neighborhood wasn't the most ideal view, but she felt like she was on top of the world looking down over the neighborhood. To sit by a tree on the hilltop and read was like paradise.

She ran down the stairs, taking them two at a time. At the bottom she saw her little brother, Brendon. That was the bad part of leaving. Brendon McKinnon wouldn't be joining her at Hogwarts until the next year. The two siblings were close, but Brendon wasn't nearly as social as Marlene was. Actually, he wasn't at all. The only people he was nice to was his family, mostly Marlene and their cousin Libby. He didn't feel like he fit in the family where their parents were concerned. He often felt like he failed their parents though Marlene didn't get why.

She gave her brother a hug as she heard the doorbell ring. "That's Libby!" she exclaimed as she ran to the door. Marla and Liam watched their excited daughter as she ran toward the door. Liam loved seeing the excitement in the girl's eyes. It mirrored the same excitement he had had when he started his first year at the same school. He placed his arm around his wife as Marlene returned with Libby; Marla's twin sister, Macey and Liam's best friend from school, Jonathan Colson.

"Elisabeth, Marlene, we need to talk to you before we go to the station," Liam told the girls. He took one glance at Marla. He hadn't prepared his wife for this talk. He had never actually let the bad parts of the wizarding world on to his wife. He was too scared she would leave him and try to take Marlene and Brendon away from him. One more look at Macey told her Jonathan shared his sentiments. "Not everyone in the wizarding world is so nice. You've had contact with a limited amount of people up to this point and you're about to meet many different kinds of people, including the sons and daughters of those who use their magic for bad."

He didn't want to have to warn their children about this, but he was afraid of what sort of crowds the two girls might fall into if they weren't forewarned. He wasn't going to see them for basically a whole term and he wanted to make sure they came back the sweet little girls they left as. It wouldn't bother him much, but he knew the Black family had kids attending the school. That was what bothered him. He wasn't particularly thrilled with the thought of his little girls running around with the likes of them.

He wasn't a judgmental man by far, but it stood to reason children raised in that sort of family would know nothing but the ideals they were taught. Not that it was their fault, it was their parents fault. It was possible, of course, that the kids could intermingle with people they're not familiar with and change just like his own daughter could. He only hoped that Marlene and Elisabeth wouldn't. That was why he wanted to warn them. "Other than that, there are some wonderful people in the wizarding world. You will both have the pleasure of studying under Albus Dumbledore. He's a wonderful wizard and I'm sure you will both grow to love him."

He paused for a moment and looked over both of the girls faces and even over to Brendon. He would more than likely be joining the girls the following year and if he only had to give this speech once, it was okay by him. Elisabeth took this opportunity to put her own two cents in. "Can we go now?" she asked him bluntly.

He wasn't sure how to respond to his niece's question. He glanced up at Jonathan then back at Elisabeth before nodding slightly. It probably wouldn't do any harm to get started now. They still had to pack up Marlene's things before taking the drive to the station. Since they had two underage witches plus an underage wizard and two muggles with them it stood to reason driving to King's Cross Station was better than some of the other wizarding forms of transportation.

After packing Marlene's things in the back of the van with Elisabeth's, the two families piled into the Colson family van and began their way toward the station. By the time they got there, one glance at the clock told them they got there in good time. The two men led the way toward the correct platform. Since their muggle wives and young children had never come here before, they were the ones not only in charge of getting the family to the platform, but teaching them how to get on it as well. It was rather tricky.

Once they reached the barrier between platforms nine and ten, Liam turned back to the family. "Here we are, platform nine and three-quarters." He was met by confused looks from Marla, Macey and Marlene; a glare from Brendon and a sarcastic look from Elisabeth. None of them quite seemed to understand what he was saying. He turned to Jonathan. "Would you like to show them?" he asked his brother-in-law.

Jonathan nodded and took the first of the school trunks and walked toward the barrier, walking straight through. None of the family members knew quite what to say to that. Marla and Macey had both seen some interesting things since marrying into wizarding families. Marlene, Elisabeth and Brendon had grown up in a wizarding family, but they hadn't quite seen anything like that.

"The girls next," Liam said as he ushered Marlene and Elisabeth toward the barrier. He explained how to walk through, then watched them as they did so. Once on the other side, Marlene watched in awe. This was an amazing sight. Seeing the steam engine before her, she looked around at the rest of the sight. So many kids from their age and up were walking toward the train. Some closer to their age were tearfully saying goodbyes to their parents and younger siblings while the older ones obviously couldn't wait to get away.

Marlene turned back to the barrier just in time to see Brendon and their other walk through, followed by her father and her Aunt Macey. She turned back toward Elisabeth with a wide grin on her face, but her grin faded when she noticed her cousin was missing. She looked back at the others. "Where did Libby go?" she asked them.

"She already went on the train," her uncle Jonathan told her. She bit her lip glancing back at the train. Among all the students that were there it was going to be hard to tell where Elisabeth went. She looked all around for another blonde head, but couldn't see one. She sighed and turned back to her parents.

"You better go ahead and get on the train, Mar," Liam told her. "That way you know you can find a seat." He was met with a nod as the girl walked over to him and gave him a hug. Next she gave her mother a hug, then walked over to Brendon.

"I'll save you a spot at the Ravenclaw table for next year," she told her brother as she hugged him. She hated leaving Brendon. She wished she could take him with her, but she knew she couldn't. Brendon had to stay with their parents this year. Next year, however, she knew she would have her brother right along with her. It was something she looked forward to.

She walked away from her family a few steps, then turned back to them and gave them all one final wave before turning back to the train and stepping into one of the cars. As she walked, keeping her eyes peeled for a certain blonde head, she felt herself bump into something. Knowing immediately it was a person from the way it moved, she turned to apologize, smiling sincerely at him, she noticed it was a boy her age. If not in her year maybe a year or so older. "I'm sor-" she started, but was cut off.

"Watch it, mudblood," came the reply as he stormed off in the other direction.

A/N: And here ends the first chapter. I have no clue how long it's going to be and if it's going to be a one parter or a multi-parter. I just randomly got the idea to write the fic. So who is the boy? I'm just curious to see if anyone gets it right. I don't really have anything for those who do, but if you already know - you know who you are - and you say anything, I'll have Karla send Sylar after you! Also, a fair warning, I'm not sure how often this will get updated for a while, but keep watching for updates because I will definitely try to keep updating it when I can.

Credits: Brendon McKinnon is credited to my friend Chris.