Disclaimer: JKR rocks Dobby's socks for being the genius behind the Harry Potter series!
A few weeks before...
The Clan McKinnon had been a fairly well known pureblood family during the Medieval Times and up through the early 1970s. One of the last branches of this large family was led by Eideard Moray McKinnon, born in 1928. He married Wilfreda Adalwolfa Grunewald, who was five years his junior, in 1959 when he was 31 and she 26. They had two children together; Marlene Catriona was born in 1960 and Mathias Clyde was born in 1962.
It was now 1981, and the First Wizarding War was in full swing. The dark and powerful Lord Voldemort was paranoid of his defeat, so he and his army of Death Eaters killed anyone and everyone who crossed their path. The McKinnons had joined The Order of the Phoenix to fight against the dark side, along with many other wizarding families.
Lord Voldemort had become aware of the McKinnons, and now sought to kill them, as he'd done to many other families already. On this particular night in mid October, the McKinnons had retired to bed after dinner, when the Dark Mark appeared in the sky over their farmhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland.
21-year-old Marlene walked over to her bedroom window, clad in nothing but a Pride of Portree t-shirt and indigo colored pajama pants. Seeing the unmistakable sign of Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters, she let out a blood chilling scream. "MERLIN's BEARD! MAM! FA! MAT!" she cried, running out of her room and down the hall.
Her 19-year-old brother Mathias ran out of his room as well. "Marley! Did y'see the Dark Mark?" he yelled, panicked.
"That's what I'm screaming for you ninny!" Marlene shrieked back. She began to pound furiously on their parents' bedroom door.
"Hide yerselves!" Their father shouted as the bedroom door swung open. He was quickly fastening his bathrobe, his wife standing behind him with a horrified expression across her face.
"Oh Merlin they've found us!" Wilfreda sobbed out of fear.
"We don't have much time, hide! Marley, Mat, hide yerselves! Go!" Eideard cried, shooing his two children away.
Marlene ran as fast as her own two feet would carry her down into the old cellar underneath their house. She hid inside of her grandmother's old wardrobe. Just then, she could hear loud, scurrying footsteps, upstairs. These footsteps were followed by loud screams, and then eventually three distinct thuds.
Finally, more footsteps descended the stairs into the cellar. Marlene took a sharp breath and held it, shaking in fear inside the old wardrobe. She heard hushed voices speaking to each other.
"...the girl...where's the girl?"
"...I don't know, my Lord..."
"...Travers you fool! I told you to find ALL of the McKinnons!"
"...she's nowhere in sight, my Lord."
"...Mulciber, what say you?"
"...me neither, Sir."
"...we'll come back for her."
Then the footsteps and voices retreated back up the stairs. Marlene slowly crept out of the wardrobe and ran silently to the only window in the cellar, just in time to see the Death Eaters flying away in a large cloud of black smoke. The Dark Mark remained in the sky, as a sign of their victory.
Marlene ran upstairs, ignoring the three bodies lying in the middle of the floor, already knowing that she was the last McKinnon. She collapsed on her bed with heaving sobs. She considered writing a letter to her boyfriend Sirius or her best friend Lily, but knew it would be too risky. Instead, she packed up all of her things and apparated into the depths of the nearby glens, with nowhere else to go.
Halloween Night, 1981
A few weeks later, Marlene had learned of the Dark Lord's latest mission while lying under the radar at The Leaky Cauldron. Voldemort had become aware of a prophecy stating that a boy born at the end of July would grow up to vanquish him. His targets were her good friends Lily and James Potter's infant son Harry and Neville Longbottom, son of the aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom, who were also good friends of hers from their Hogwarts days.
She'd been devastated to learn that the Longbottoms had been tortured to insanity via the Cruciatus Curse set upon them by a group of Death Eaters made up of some Lestranges and Barty Crouch Junior. The Death Eaters wanted information on the whereabouts of the Potters and also their son Neville, but Frank nor Alice gave in. Apparently the infant Neville had been sent to his grandmother.
Now, the Dark Lord was after Lily and James. He had somehow learned of their whereabouts. Marlene ran out of The Leaky Cauldron and apparated to Godric's Hollow as soon as she could, not caring about the possible risks. She knew she couldn't live with herself if she didn't try to warn her friends. Also, still broken and exhausted from losing her family and being on the run, she desperately wanted to find Sirius.
She knew there was a good chance of finding him in Godric's Hollow, considering he was the decoy secret keeper for the Potters and best friend of James. All she could think about was wringing Pettigrew's neck for allowing Voldemort to find out where James and Lily were.
It began to rain heavily, lightning flashed and thunder crashed, and the Dark Mark had already appeared in the sky. Fearing she was already too late, she ran as fast as she could down the deserted street towards the Potter home.
When she arrived, the front door was wide open and all the lights in the house were on. She ran inside to find the house completely trashed, and her heart sank. Her eyes filling with tears, she ran further into the house, yelling their names. "Lily! James! Please! Hello?" she cried out desperately.
Just then, she heard frantic footsteps rushing down the stairs, and spun around. Sirius ran into the kitchen, his eyes bloodshot and his face redder than a beet. He was literally shaking in anger. "They're dead, Marley. James and Lily are dead," he said in one giant shuddering breath, before collapsing to his knees on the floor.
Marlene ran over and fell down beside him. "Oh Sirius, please, it can't be true!" she sobbed, clinging to him desperately. Sirius was still shaking as he wrapped her in a warm bear hug.
"It's true, James is on the stairs, Lily's in Harry's room. I lent Hagrid my motorcycle to take baby Harry to Lily's sister Petunia in Surrey, they're muggles, Dumbledore said he'd be safer there than anywhere else," Sirius choked out.
"You mean...Harry survived?" Marlene asked in disbelief.
"Yes, no one knows how, but he did. He's got a weird lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead from where the curse rebounded, the Dark Lord was destroyed," Sirius explained.
"Well...at least the baby's alright, and You Know Who is finally gone," Marlene sniffled.
"Yeah...I know," Sirius nodded, gently lifting Marlene's face to his own.
Her bright blue eyes were red and filled with bitter tears, and her wavy blonde hair was sopping wet from the rain. Sirius tenderly brushed a loose strand of her soaking wet blonde hair away from her face, and planted a soft kiss on her forehead. "Forgive me Marls..." he mumbled, burying his face in her hair.
Marlene ran her fingers through his mane of wavy black hair, and stared into his grief-filled blue eyes with a puzzled look across her face. "What in Merlin's name are you talking about?" she asked.
"It's all my fault. I was chosen as their secret keeper, but I thought I'd be too obvious so I convinced them to switch to Peter Pettigrew, and he sold them out. Now they're dead and it's all because of me!" Sirius raged, getting up and throwing a glass vase across the room, where it shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces.
"Oh Sirius, you didn't know! You were only trying to protect them! It was that blasted prat Pettigrew who is to blame, not you Sirius, please don't blame yourself for this...I'd have done the same thing..." Marlene pleaded, grabbing his arm.
"DAMN IT MARLS, I'M GONNA KILL HIM! I'M GONNA KILL HIM FOR WHAT HE'S DONE!" Sirius shouted, kicking over chairs and knocking pictures off the walls.
"NO!" Marlene begged. "It will only end badly for you, you'll be sent to Azkaban, I need you! I have no one else, they killed my whole family, I'm the last McKinnon!" she sobbed, collapsing into him and causing them both to fall back onto the floor of the Potters' living room.
Sirius stopped his rant and looked at her. "Merlin...I read there was a raid on a farmhouse in Scotland, but I had no idea that was you...Marls..." he stuttered in disbelief, forgetting for just a second how much he wanted to kill Pettigrew. He hugged his girlfriend tightly, and Marlene broke down in shuddering sobs.
"How did you escape?" he asked after a few seconds.
"I...hid in the...cellar in...my grandmother's...old wardrobe...they never...looked," Marlene choked out.
"Shit...thank Merlin you're alright. I know we've had our fair share of on and off break-ups and make-ups, and our past of hating each other from first to fifth year, but I love you so much. I don't know what I would've done if they'd gotten you too," Sirius said, softly rubbing her back.
"I can't believe that bastard Pettigrew sold out Lily and James...how the bloody hell was he in Gryffindor?" Marlene whispered.
"I don't know...but I have to go after him...he's gonna pay for what he's done..." Sirius muttered through clenched teeth.
Suddenly, a figure appeared in the doorway. It was Mad Eye Moody, the auror. "Is it too late then?" he asked in his gruff voice. "How were they found? What information do you two have?" he demanded.
Marlene and Sirius stood up. "It was Peter Pettigrew...he's now a Death Eater," Sirius said. "Here, I'll write down his address, please...please make sure justice is served for our friends!" he pleaded, handing Moody a scrap piece of parchment.
Moody nodded. "I will son," he promised, turning to leave.
"Wait, I'd like to report another Death Eater," Marlene blurted out.
"By God, it's the last McKinnon, do you know who killed your family girl?" Moody asked, turning back around.
"It was Travers, Decimus Travers, I overheard the Dark Lord yelling at him when they were looking for me in my family's cellar the night he killed my parents and brother Mathias," Marlene told him.
"Thank you," Moody huffed, walking back out the way he came and apparating, leaving Sirius and Marlene in the Potters' living room.
Later that night...
Sirius and Marlene apparated to #4 Privet Drive in Surrey, England. Sirius rang the doorbell. Marlene had told him of how Lily's sister had absolutely despised her, and argued that they might try to keep Harry from learning of his magical heritage.
Petunia Evans-Dursley opened the door to the strangest sight she'd ever seen. A couple who looked to be in their early twenties were staring at her with their wands raised. The man wore a faded band t-shirt and ripped jeans, and the lady wore some sort of sports team t-shirt and indigo pajama bottoms. They were clearly more of her late sister's folk.
Wizards. Witches. How she hated those words.
"What do you want?" she demanded angrily. "Isn't it enough we've been landed with Lily's brat, now more of her kind come knocking on our door?" she snapped.
"I'm Marlene McKinnon. Lily was my best friend, we were roommates during our Hogwarts years in Gryffindor Tower," Marlene explained.
"And I'm Sirius Black. James, your brother in law, was my best friend," Sirius added.
"So? Why should I care?" Petunia asked in an irritable tone of voice.
"We're Harry's godparents," Sirius told her. "We know that you and Lily weren't exactly on good terms, yet Lily still thought Harry would be safest with you...in case that evil dark wizard should return..." he started.
"I know the whole story, save your breath," Petunia interrupted.
"So then you must know it's crucial the baby grows up knowing of his powers, you can't keep him in the dark. Please, if there was ever a time you loved your sister at all, please don't neglect this poor little infant," Marlene pleaded. "None of what's happened is Harry's fault, he's just a baby."
"Why don't you take the tiny wizard brat off our hands then?" Petunia demanded.
"You know we can't do that Mrs. Dursley, the bloodline..." Sirius reminded her.
"Fine, we're keeping him, don't worry about that," Petunia sighed.
"Listen and listen good, if we catch wind that Harry isn't being treated right, we'll come here straight away and hex you and your obnoxiously obese husband into oblivion," Sirius threatened.
"And we want to be the ones to teach Harry all about the wizarding world, meaning taking him to Quidditch games and buying his supplies when it's time for him to go to Hogwarts," he added.
"Fine, now get out!" Petunia snapped, slamming the door in their faces.
Sirius shrugged and looked at Marlene. "Well that went better than I thought it would," he said.
Marlene nodded. "We'll always be here for Harry if he needs us, we promised when we agreed to be his godparents," she mused, looking up towards the night sky.
As a star shot across the sky, the universe knew that Harry Potter would be alright.