Hello everyone! The new chapter of The Brightness of her Soul is finally up! I actually had some difficulty to write the first part of the chapter (and I still think it's kind of bad), so that's why I didn't post it before today. But I hope you will enjoy reading it anyway! :)

Also, I kind of messed up (I think) the order of the deaths of the First Order of the Phoenix.

This chapter's character is Marlene McKinnon.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine, it's J.K. Rowling's property. I don't make any money out of this story.

Word count (without A/N) - for the Fanfiction Writing Month (March) on HSWW : 1,679 words


.:. Marlene McKinnon .:.

i

Marlene was sitting at the Gryffindor table, as close as possible from the vacant seats reserved for the First Years, and waiting for the Sorting Ceremony to end. Of course, she was paying attention to the sorting of every new student, but the first one to really catch her attention was a young girl. A girl with dark red hair and green eyes that shone with anticipation and nervousness.

Marlene straightened her back and frowned, looking intently at the young, red-haired girl.

"Gryffindor!" the Sorting Hat decided, and she clapped with the others.

She smirked a little. She was sure that Gryffindor had just gained a motivated new student, because the way the young girl bounced a little when she started walking towards the table was clearly demonstrating her willingness to start a new year.

She heard her say her name (she was called Lily) and she laughed a little. Lily, just like her mother. She looked tender and kind, just like her. That's probably why, when the Sorting Ceremony ended, she leaned forward and looked intently at her.

Benjy put a hand on her shoulder, laughing. "Careful there, Marl! If you keep looking at her like this, you'll scare her away!"

She shrugged, removing his hand from her shoulder blades, and then she exclaimed, "I'm Marlene. Marlene McKinnon," in her exuberant voice. All the First Years presented themselves in return, and she waved at them all, but the only answer she was really waiting for was that of Lily.

"I'm Lily," she finally said, a bright smile on her lips. "Lily Evans. It's nice to meet you… Marl."

As soon as the nickname escaped her lips, she flushed and lowered her eyes. Marlene glared at Benjy behind her and then smiled sweetly at the little girl. "Don't worry, I don't mind the nickname," she said, as reassuringly as she could. "Besides, it's Benjy's fault, not yours. He knows he shouldn't say it in front of people."

Lily smiled at her, and there was like a fire in her eyes. And when she turned away to talk to someone else, Marlene felt… She didn't know how to describe it, other than she felt cold.

ii

Marlene didn't talk to Lily again until a long time after that, during a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix. She had been in the Order for a long time (long enough to have her heart broken by Gideon Prewett anyway), and she had seen so many things that had made her want to throw up.

But when she saw the red hair and the green eyes that she had almost forgotten, she frowned, because Lily shouldn't be here. She knew that there was a fire inside the younger woman, a fire that should always be allowed to burn free, but this wasn't the way.

"Lily?" she asked, and her voice was uncertain.

She turned towards her and let go of the young man she was holding hands with. She frowned, and then seemed to remember who Marlene was, and there it was again – this radiant smile she had admired so long ago.

"You're Marlene, right?" she asked, and she almost sounded excited, until she really looked at her and frowned. "You've changed."

"You have changed too," she shot back, and it was true, in a way. She seemed more confident and even more lively than she was the last time she'd seen her. But physically speaking, there wasn't a single change. Still the same dark red hair that resembled fire, and still those bright green eyes.

She finally focused on her companion – no, companions, because there were more of them at the other end of the corridor. "And you are…?" she asked, and she couldn't help but sound a little harsh.

"I'm James," he still answered with a little smile. "James Potter. I was in the same year as Lily. In Gryffindor too."

"Mmm… I remember your name," she just said, before pointing towards the others.

Lily laughed a little. "I'm sure they'll all be driving Moody mad before the end of the month," she sniggered, and then pointed towards a sandy hair boy (Remus Lupin), a black-haired young man (Sirius Black) and another one that she called Peter, the shorter of the three (and also the one who seemed to be the nicest).

"May I present you… the Marauders?" she introduced them all, and James laughed heartily. His laugh rang strangely in the silent corridors, and she made a face. She wasn't in the mood for a laugh.

Lily put a light hand on her arm and asked her, "Are you alright, Marlene?"

She nodded, and then turned on her heels and left, followed by the laughs of these… Marauders. It made her want to scream, that they could still laugh and play and love… and she couldn't.

iii

"Marl?" Lily asked her, and she turned her head abruptly. She wiped her tears away rapidly, and tried to act as though she wasn't crying. Lily sat down next to her, on the couch in the headquarters' central room, her movement slowed down by her visible pregnancy.

"You're allowed to cry, you know?" she asked, and Marlene knew it, but she had never been one to show her weaknesses.

"I just – I just can't believe he's actually gone," she whispered, and Lily nodded. Maybe that wasn't the right thing to do, because Marlene instantly glared at her and snapped, "You didn't even really know him."

"I didn't," she agreed, and there was a sadness in her green eyes. When Marlene looked at her now, after a few years fighting in the war, she could see more maturity in her eyes. And when she lowered hers, there was a glint on the silver ring Lily wore, and the older woman could see her prominent belly, and she felt tears well up in her eyes again.

Benjy didn't get to have what she had: love, and happiness, and –

"He had it," Lily stated, interrupting her thoughts, and Marlene was briefly worried that her expressions could be read so easily, but then she wondered what her friend (because Lily was her friend now, after all they had been through together) had meant by that.

"He didn't," she whispered. "He didn't get to propose to Dorcas – he wanted to, he told me so –, and he was so in love with her. And I haven't heard his laugh for so long, and it just kills me…"

"He loved her, and Dorie knows it. And he did love you as well, and you loved him too, and in the end, it's all that matters."

Marlene looked right into Lily's eyes and saw her fierceness and her pain, and she finally let her tears flow down her cheeks. She leaned into her friend, careful not to hurt her or the baby in her belly, and the red-haired woman cried with her, and when finally, she pulled away, she felt just a little better.

"Marls?" she suddenly heard, and she turned towards Sirius, who was leaning in the doorway. He looked worried, and she forced a little smile on her lips, standing up and brushing imaginary dust away from her clothes.

"I'm okay, Sirius. Don't worry about me," she said, and it was just the truth. She was better, anyway, than Benjy or Caradoc or so many other friends.

She wished she could just avoid him some more, but as soon as he grabbed her arm, she understood that she couldn't. She lowered her eyes but did turn towards him, and she felt Lily pass behind her to walk out of the room and leave them alone.

And when she left, there was like a coldness in her heart, because it was almost like her fire had went out with her.

iv

She was going to die. She knew it now, and she wasn't even afraid. She did regret a lot of things though. How she trusted Remus or Peter when she shouldn't have, how she hadn't said goodbye to Lily and James, how she hadn't kissed Sirius one last time…

But the bodies of her mother and her father lay in front of her, and she couldn't bring herself to be sorry for leaving her friends behind. She was going to join her parents soon, and everything would be all right again.

Still, she wished she could see Lily and James and Sirius again, just to warn them that the traitor was one of their best friends. And just to see a little more of the fire in their eyes, because she knew they would never give up.

When the green light hit her, there was a little smile on her lips, and the Death Eaters left behind a destroyed home and a dead family, and a twenty-five year-old blonde girl, lying on the floor, almost as if she was asleep.

v

Lily didn't seem to be able to stop crying. Marlene, who had been the first one to really show any interest in her at Hogwarts, Marlene, who had grown to be one of her best friends, and not just another member of the Order, Marlene, who had stood by her side in so many fights… Marlene was dead. Gone.

James and Sirius had found her, and her husband had had to stay with his best friend, who was just… broken now that Marlene was gone. But when James had come home to her and Harry with a grim look on his face, she had known that something had happened. She hadn't had any idea, however, of what it was, and when he had whispered the words "Marlene is dead," she had begun to cry.

She was hiding her face in James's shirt now, her tears staining the cloth, and he was holding her close. He wasn't saying anything, but when she finally pulled away, her eyes red from crying, there was a bright flame in her green eyes, behind all her pain.

"She won't be dead for nothing," she said, fiercely, and she would never know how right she was.


I hope you liked this! :)