Disclaimer: I'm not J.K Rowling. I'm a fourteen year old, fairly normal girl. Pity, isn't it?
Author's Note: Beeba, by the way is what my second cousin calls her grandfather, my great uncle. He wanted to read this so, yeah, I hope he can remember that that's him.
Marlene
Marlene McKinnon died uncomfortably and without ceremony. She was twenty-one. Of the four Muggles she saved, only one remembered her.
It'd been a really difficult day for Tuney. Lily hadn't even turned up to Nana Charlotte's funeral, she'd not even bothered to reply to the invite. Beeba (Grandfather, she reminded herself, Vernon disapproved of Beeba as a name) had asked after her and she'd had to lie again, say her sister's… child (freak) was ill. She'd not spoken to Lily, her baby sister, in three-no four years now and, at times, she missed her horribly.
Vernon hadn't met her at the church gates, like he'd promised, so she had to walk to the main road, absolutely furious. She had important news for him after all. It was damp, grey and drizzling. Ugh. Petunia wrapped her arms closer around herself, shuddered, and marched swiftly on.
The bus stop was nearly deserted, only an old man and two students, giggling on the bench, were sharing the shelter of the cracked plastic that made up the streets only bus shelter. She ignored them and stood up against the slowly dripping wall.
As the bus eventually appeared around a corner, a young woman pulling two small children by the hands. Petunia thought for a second that she recognised her, shook her head and climbed on board the bus. After paying for her ticket (prices were going up, Vernon was right) she wandered towards the back of the bus.
The young woman looked worried. She was pulling the two little girls, who looked like her, closer to Petunia. Pushing them into the seat, she sat down, looking around her as though she were worried about something. Tuney shook her head and told herself off for worrying so much about a perfect stranger.
Bang.
Petunia jumped about a foot in the air as first she heard the bang and then a small dent appeared in the metal next to her seat. Next thing, the bus was shaking as those tiny dents appeared all over it, on the ceiling, the floor, and the walls. The two students shrieked loudly and the old man stood up from his seat and started to call for his wife. Normally, Petunia would have labelled him as mad but right now, she was more confused about the woman with two girls.
The woman was running to the front of the bus and pulling out… a stick? OH, oh, oh. She was one of Lily's "kind". That was why she recognised her. Lily knew her, she had a photo of her, on the wall, at home. Her name began with a "m"? Mary? Meredith? Marlene. That was it.
Marlene was opening the door, was she mad? There was something out there! Lights were flashing now, Latin sounding words were being shouted, the something out there was human and harmful. Two bright red lights and two thuds, then three green lights and… peace. Where was Marlene? Where were the two little girls?
Petunia crept down to the front of the bus and burst into tears. Marlene was lying on the floor, her arms wrapped around the two girls (her sisters?) and none of them were moving, none of them were breathing.
On a gravestone in a little grave yard of a little village church read
"Marlene McKinnon
14th June 1960 – 7th July 1981
Died saving the lives of four muggles and trying to protect her sisters.
She will be remembered"