Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters. Everything belongs to JK Rowling, and I'm merely allowed to play around with them. No copyright infringement is intended.
Thanks to Sampdoria and chibi-Clar for reviewing the last chapter! A little bit of background on Marlene's character today. ;) And a long chapter to make up for the fact that last week's was a little late... As always, please review!
Chapter 14
-o-O-o-
Contrary to popular belief, Marlene McKinnon was anything but stupid. In fact, the Sorting Hat considered placing her in Ravenclaw and Slytherin, before finally deciding on Gryffindor. "Hmm… Particularly bright, I see… Smart and quick witted, you'd do well in Ravenclaw… But I can tell you desperately want to prove your worth. Yes, I see it… The hidden ambition… You have a strong thirst for power, which would help in Slytherin… No? Still not? I do see an underlying bravery… You have no fear of ridicule… Yes, you'd definitely do well in GRYFFINDOR!" it had said.
For her whole first year, it was hard for Marlene to fit in. Being very bright contrasted with the stereotype of the little witch who sported the brightest blond curls in Hogwarts, and so many students made fun of her and pretended that she was just stupid. Strangely, Lily Evans was in the same situation. The redhead was dying to prove the other students that so called "blood purity" had nothing to do with intellectual capacity, which caused the girls to soon become great friends.
For the better part of three years, Marlene and Lily were shunned from the rest of the group of students their age; some of them were nice, like Remus and Mary, but they weren't really friends, so to speak. But at least Lily had her best friend, Severus. Marlene didn't have a best friend. All she had were her golden locks. At least those never left and she could always consider them something to be proud of.
Well, that was until Sirius Black came along.
Sometime in fourth year, when Sirius hadn't yet taken his famous interest in girls, he cut off one of Marlene McKinnon's beautiful ringlets. In the middle of Herbology, too. He just grabbed a pair of secateurs, grabbed a strand of her hair from the side of her head and snipped it right off at the roots as a dare. She had screamed and cried, Lily had defended her and had taken her to the Hospital Wing to have it grown back.
Her curl was replaced, still as shiny and bright blond as ever, but something had left Marlene. When she and Lily had left the Hospital Wing, Sirius was there with Filtch, forced to apologise to the teenage girl. "I'm sorry." he had told her with fake sincerity that convinced even the caretaker. But Marlene wasn't buying it. When he turned to leave, he caught her gaze, he shot her a sideways smile and pulled his hand out of his pocket a little, pulling with him a thick golden loop.
As she watched him leave, shoving his hand back in his pocket so that no one else noticed that he had kept her stolen lock, she realised that Sirius Black had also taken with him a piece of her heart. And that was when Marlene McKinnon fell in love with Sirius Orion Black the Third.
When he heard about the incident, Severus immediately offered to avenge her, even though they weren't that close. He was just looking for a chance to hex Sirius and Marlene knew it, so she wouldn't let him. "You know you want him to pay for that, Marlene." he tempted her one day. They were just sitting at the library calmly, doing their Potions homework, for they were in the same class and so they had to hand in the exact same essays.
She didn't want to risk denying it, in fear that he would discover her secret, so she was grateful when Lily hissed at him: "Don't encourage her to get into trouble, Sev!" She sounded angry at him. "Just because you feel the need to hex people who upset you doesn't mean that you need to pass it on to her!"
Severus shot her a dark look. "Black has it coming. He definitely deserves it." he maintained.
Lily snorted. "You're just saying that because you have a grudge against him." she countered, leaning back into her chair and crossing her arms sternly. "You're not doing this for Marlene's wellbeing, you're doing it to satisfy your own urge to hurt him. If it were Macnair who had done it, you would've shrugged it off."
Severus scowled at her. "You Gryffindors have no sense of class. Or tact for that matter." he spat at her. She looked surprised, but, after a couple seconds, she just started to pack her stuff, not saying anything. "What're you doing?" Severus asked, his voice suddenly panicky.
"The tactless Gryffindor is leaving without class." she answered, her voice dripping with sarcasm, before she spun around on her heels, shooting Marlene an apologetic look as she exited the Library.
"Shoot." Severus swore before he hurriedly shoved his stuff in his bag and ran after her, not daring to shout in case Madam Pince was anywhere close.
Marlene shook her head and looked back down at her essay. Something caught her eye as she started reviewing the properties of Dreamless Sleep Potion. She looked up and grabbed it; it was a notebook, leather bound and small, but fairly thick. A good third of the pages were yellowed, but the rest were crisp white, obviously not having been written in yet. There was nothing written on the cover, so she flipped it open to see whose it was.
This Notebook is the Property of Severus Tobias Snape, it read. Intruders beware.
Marlene looked around; she was alone. Severus was gone. He had obviously forgotten to pack this in his rush to run after Lily. Maybe she could just read a little bit, just to see what he kept in there. Curiosity gnawed at her inside, but at the same time, her moral conscience prevented her from doing anything with it he wouldn't have wanted her to do.
In the end, her curiosity won and she flipped to the next page, desperate to see what the little snake had to hide. Imagine her disappointment when all that the booklet contained were potion tips and tricks and a few spells. It was interesting, of course, but it wasn't a portal to the deep and dark insides of his heart like she had somehow hoped. She read the first couple of pages, then started flipping through them quickly, only stopping on a page where she saw something that interested her.
Black.
As soon as she read the word, she stopped and looked closer to this particular page. On there, there was a list of all the people Severus despised, including his own father, James Potter and Sirius Black.
Next to each name, he had written a spell so that, in the end, the line Marlene found the most interesting read: 'Sirius Black: Maheri'. Suddenly, an urge took over Marlene. She wanted to try the spell out. Forgetting all about her Potions' essay, she shoved her stuff into her bag and, the notebook in hand, trotted out the Library. She figured she would probably need to be in an empty classroom to do so, free of any witnesses.
She hadn't gone far when she encountered what she was looking for; she entered a disused classroom and dumped her bag on the floor carelessly, flipping the booklet open to the page she was interested in. Underneath each line, the wand movements were described in explicative drawings, so she pulled her wand out and practised the isosceles triangle a few times. When she thought she had mastered it, she put the booklet down, waved her wand and uttered: "Maheri."
She felt her magic form at the tip of her wand and was surprised at how powerful the spell felt. It detached itself from her wand's tip and flew to the other side of the classroom. Her eyes were wide as she watched the raw, aggressive power of her burgundy spell crackle around the room before it smashed into the tapestry-covered wall opposite her. It was old and dusty, so at first she couldn't see the damage from the cloud that rose up from the point of impact.
When it cleared, she gasped. Her spell had cut a gash at least three feet long in the wall, slashing the tapestry and carving the wall underneath it at least an inch deep, maybe two. Her first reaction was one of shock. She hadn't known what the spell would do, but she was sure it wouldn't have been too bad; after all, Severus was just a fourteen year-old boy, how blood-thirsty could he be? Apparently more than she had thought.
Her second reaction was one of horror. Severus had planned on using that curse on Sirius? That would surely kill him, didn't he know? She thought about it for a while. Of course he knew. He had attributed a specific spell for every person. He knew darn well the effects of that curse and he wanted Sirius to be hit by it, probably by his own hand. She had to prevent him from doing so. He couldn't hurt Sirius.
Her third reaction was one of fascination. She looked at the deep gash in the wall and realised how much power she could have. It was almost thrilling, to know that she was capable of causing such destruction. It wasn't a dark thought, no, it was just that this kind of influence on the world was new to her. She hadn't known that there could be beauty in destruction beforehand.
Coming to her senses, she decided that it would not be smart to be caught here when she had just torn a huge part of the tapestry off. She grabbed her bag, shoved her wand down her cloak pocket, grabbed Severus' notebook and stepped out of the room. She started heading down the corridor that lead back to the library when she, quite literally, bumped into Severus.
Taken off guard, she stumbled a few steps back before the weight of her bag destabilised her and she fell down to the floor. "I'm sorry." Severus apologised, reaching for her hand to pick her back up. He seemed distracted. "You haven't seen a notebook, by any chance?" he asked her.
Marlene gulped. The notebook was still in her hand. "Uh…" she tried, before simply deciding on handing it back to him. He frowned when he saw that she had it and snatched it right out of her hand. "You left it on the table in the library." she explained, getting up on her own.
Her glowered down at her. "What did you see?" he hissed at her. He looked angry, but she could see that, in the depth of his dark eyes, fear lurked, though he desperately tried to submerge it.
She glared back at him, deciding to play the card of the strong one, even though she was unsure she actually held this position right now. "I saw your fancy little list, Severus." she told him, her voice acid. His face paled, but he ignored it and continued to look angry at her. "That's not a nice way to treat people."
He breathed heavily in anger and they stared at each other for a while, before he looked down. He groaned in frustration and ran a hand through his oily hair. "Are you going to run to Dumbledore now to tell him what an evil little student I am?" he asked her, trying to lace his voice with anger, but Marlene could tell there was terror beneath it all. He was afraid; and she could understand why. For him to want to torture his father and end up killing him, he had to have parental issues. Hogwarts was his home, a place where he could escape the paternal tyranny of the familial house. Being expelled from Hogwarts would only throw him in the arms of a cruel patriarch.
"No." she told him, and surprised herself with her words. He looked back up, his black almost empty but for a small sparkle of hope. Then, an idea formed in her mind. "If you just do two small things for me." she added with a smile on her face.
He frowned at her, suspicious. "What do you mean?" he asked, defensive.
Her face became hard. "I need your word," she told him in a low, threatening voice. "That you will never ever use those spells on Sirius Black."
He seemed confused. "Why would you want that? He ruined your day and stole your hair in a childish attempt to impress his friends."
She thought about it for a while, and then decided on a lie. "He's mine to torture." she said, and his eyes glinted in understanding. "If Sirius Black is ever to suffer, it will be from my hand and my hand only." This was true, to an extent. Since she didn't ever intend to hurt him, he would be forever safe.
"Alright." he conceded. "What is the second condition?"
Her plump pink lips twisted in a half-smile, so harsh it contrasted with her soft features. "I want you to show me the books you took those spells from." she said, and another contrast emerged: the one between the softness in her voice and the darkness her words implied.
He didn't look like her was ready to do that. "What are you going to do them?" he asked her.
She smiled at him sweetly and lied. "I just want to make sure I can pay back Sirius when the time comes" she told him. "Him and anyone who dares to cross me again." she added, hoping to scare him enough.
He didn't look put off by her at all. "These books come from the Restricted Section." he admitted. "I'm Slughorn's favourite student, he gave me an unlimited access there."
She tilted her head tried to look innocent. "It appears I will always need your help to get them." she said. If she convinced him they were interdependent, which, to an extent, they were, he might agree to help her and, who knew, maybe one day teach her.
He didn't seem to be giving in just yet. "I still don't understand why you want to know about this… this type of magic." he argued.
"I told you-" she started, but he cut her.
"If it was really just to get back at Black, you would probably just slip a Hair Loss Potion in his pumpkin juice." he retorted and she gulped. "Why Dark Magic?"
She heaved an annoyed sighed, dropping her façade. She looked away from him and thought about it for a while, before she decided on being honest. When she turned back to him, her face was serious. "I like it." she admitted. "I like the power it provides. Everything is so easy with it… I'm tired of just being the bullied brain-head. I want respect." She hissed the last word. "I'm so sick of everyone making fun of me for something I can't help. Yes, I'm blond, yes, I love reading, yes, I'm a good student but that does not mean I have to suck dicks to get good grades. I'm not an intellectual troll. And if I could just show them… Show them all what I can do, maybe then they'll finally abolish their stupid stereotypes and then I could finally be-"
"Be free." he finished for her. Her face was angry, but his was calm. "It seems we have more in common than I first thought." Marlene breathed heavily, trying to get her temper back in check. Severus stared at her for a bit, before he opened his bag, slipped his notebook back in and pulled out a thick black volume. He looked at her again, as if considering whether or not to give it to her one last time, before he held his arm out. "This is the one I found Black's curse in." he told her.
She took the book from his hands and stroked its cover. It was thick and made of the skin of some scaly animal, and the pages looked like very thick parchment, which showed how old it was. Her fingers skimmed over the title: 'Essay on the Nature of Dark Magic' it read 'By Polonius Greene'. She looked back up at him. "Thank you." she told him, her voice slightly clipped as she hadn't calmed down completely yet.
He nodded stiffly as her. "I need it back in week." he told her. "We'll see what we'll do then." After those words, he just turned around and stalked off, his black cloak billowing behind him, leaving her puzzled about one small thing he had said. We have more in common than I first thought.
-o-O-o-
It took Marlene three days to read the book. It was fascinating. It didn't only explain some spells that were made up in the Middle Ages and that were considered Dark; it also explained the thesis as to how the term of 'Dark Magic' was wrong.
There is nothing Dark to any portion of magic. Magic is naught more that an object, a way of achieving something, much like the wand is. Are some wands Darker than others? I think not. Just like no wand cores are Darker than others, contrary to what Marcellus Ollivander has said. According to Mr Ollivander, the 'purest' cores are that of Metamorphmagus hair, Phoenix feather, Unicorn hair and Dragon heartstring. He believes that the three other known possible wand cores, those of Vampire intestines, Veela hair and Dementor bronchus, are made to convey only 'Dark' magic. That is untrue.
'Dark' magic is in every one of us. For magic is not separated into Light and Dark, just like the world isn't separated into good and bad. What society defines as Dark Magic, which this book only skims through, is nothing but the natural way of things. If the wolf attacks the deer, it is not Dark. It is Natural. The wolf needs to feed, otherwise it will die. The wolf is an animal, which, by definition, can only feed on organic matter, killing something in the process. What's more, it is a carnivorous animal, which means it had to eat meat to survive. If it kills a deer, it's because it has no choice. They wolf does not take any perverse pleasure in killing its prey. It is not cruel. What's more, if there were no wolves, there would be an overpopulation of deer. Too many deer would eat all the vegetation and an entire ecosystem would be lost.
'Dark' Magic isn't dark; it is Natural magic. It is the Original Magic. It is a beautiful sea, always changing, forever moving, eternally tormented. It can be dangerous, I am in no way denying that, but what society is doing by restricting it is killing the whole of Magic. If they kill the wolves, the entire ecosystem will decay. They cannot throw the world of balance and contain the sea in a safe but small and insignificant puddle; they will kill Magic and they will kill the Wizarding World.
They do not understand the beauty there is in destruction, nor its necessity. Destruction causes activity and reconstruction; the Natural magic is ever breaking and ever fixing. They forget that all the most powerful spells come from it, even their Healing and Warding spells. But, under the cover of nobility, which is just a disguised way of saying cowardice, they declared that this beautiful way of Magic was morally condemnable, containing the use of our extraordinary power to petty market-place tricks. Mr Ollivander frowns upon the use of Vampire intestine cores in wands; yet the core which best forms Blood Magic is this very one, and it is rumoured that he used one to save his sister from a disease, using an ancient Greek ritual.
The hypocrisy of such wizards, as well as their blindness to understand the situation, exasperates me. I hope that I can at least enlighten the reader and convince him to help the Natural Magic to reform, for only by being used in its entirety can it be fixed again. Otherwise, the beautiful tumultuous sea with one day collapse and we will have lost our identity, condemning out race to extinction.
Marlene would only agree. There was beauty and use in destruction. No one understood how much simpler the whole world would be if they just accepted the part of Natural Magic that lived in them, instead of amputating it to a small percentage of what it actually was capable of.
For months, she would read and study the books Severus lent her, copying down passages that she thought interesting or spells she wanted to remember in a pink feather-covered notebook, so that her roommates would think it was a secret diary. Fourth year turned into fifth and Marlene learned forever more about the Natural state of magic. She would practise in the same empty classroom as she had cast her first spell, although she always tried to repair all the damage she had done, if such was possible. Then only thing she had left was the first scar she had given the stone wall after she had tried the Maheri curse out for the first time. Since then, she had of course perfected it and created gashes twice as long and three times as deep, probably able to cut a man in half around the middle, but nothing was more special than the first sign of real power she had shown.
She and Lily grew apart, as the latter became more and more friendly with the group of friends who called themselves the Marauders when Severus called her a Mudblood. Marlene was outraged at the insult, but she knew he hadn't meant it and Lily was definitely over-reacting. She told Severus off for a bit but then she let it go, partly because she needed his books and partly because she felt sorry for him. She and Lily stopped doing their homework together, and since Severus wouldn't be seen within ten feet of a Gryffindor anymore, she was often left alone in the library, going through pages and pages of the wonderful knowledge of magic. More and more spells accumulated in her notebook and she learnt to feel her magic.
Sometimes, she would go to her classroom, sit down and feel her magic. She analysed it, probed at it and tried to understand the way it worked. Her wand had a dragon heartstring core, which she learnt was the right one for her, as her magic had a 'blue' or fifth resonance. She learnt a little about wandlore, too; she learnt that magic had seven different resonances and that there were seven different wand cores to conduct each of these different types of magic, but the uses of some of those were contraversial because more powerful 'evil' spells could be cast with them, which is why Ollivander only used three different one. It was all fascinating.
Sometime during fifth year, Sirius started getting a little too acquainted with girls for Marlene's taste. She didn't understand; what did this Hufflepuff have more than she did? Sure, she was beautiful, but Marlene was beautiful too. And she was definitely smarter than her. Maybe that was it; Sirius only liked dumb bimbos. It hurt her to do it, but she did it, for Sirius, so that he would notice her and fall in love with her. She pretended to be stupid. After all, she was desperate to be with the man she loved. She was so sure he found her special in some way; why would he have cut her hair off if not? She'd have done anything to be with him. She'd have sold her soul to dream him wide awake.
She still worked hard and had good grades, but around people, she would pretend to be a giggly idiot with bouncy blond curls. Still, when heard from Mary that Sirius had had sex with his Hufflepuff girlfriend, it hurt. It hurt a lot. Especially since he boasted about it after that. It also hurt when he dumped the Hufflepuff for a Ravenclaw redhead and had sex with her. Every time he changed girlfriend and offered himself to her, it was painful. But, one day, Marlene got what she wanted: Sirius Black asked her out.
She would forever remember this day, March 2nd of 1977, when they officially became an item. She could see that, at first, he only wanted her for her body, which she gave him willingly, but as the weeks went by and he stayed with her, she began to hope. Maybe she really was special to him. He told her he loved her, she admitted that she loved him, and everything was just as she wanted it to be. It was really what she had hoped it would be, like paradise, she was dreaming wide awake.
But still, no matter how much she loved Sirius, she still loved her books and freeing her magic was probably what gave her most pleasure; sometimes she wondered whether it was even more intense than her love for Sirius. Perhaps it was; after all, her magic would never leave her. It was always in her, a reassuring presence which pulsed through her body in smooth waves. She was so much more aware of her magic now that she had trained it better. She felt in with every breath she took, every time her heart beat, every time she moved... It always accompanied her every move, as well as her every thought. When she was with him, her magic hummed in her, making her feel warm and cosy, and sometimes she just wanted to be with her magic alone. But nevertheless, her priority was still Sirius.
Then, after their sixth year ended, they parted ways for the holidays, but they kept in touch, at least for the first week. Then, at the dawn of the eighth month, she stopped getting letters from him. It scared her, of course, but she just figured he was busy. Then, on September 1st, he didn't come to her train compartment. She calmed herself down by thinking he just hadn't found her. The next day, he didn't talk to her in class; it was as if he hadn't seen that she was there, as if he had forgotten she existed. An uncomfortable feeling settled in her stomach, so, to push it away, at dinner, she decided to take matters in her own hands.
She stood up from her place once she was done eating and walked over to where he sat. "Sirius!" she tried to shriek happily, as was her habit nowadays. Nobody stared at her funny, so she must have done a good job of pretending she didn't feel queasy.
Sirius looked up at her blinked rapidly, as if he had been asleep. He turned to her. "Marlene." he said, merely acknowledging her presence.
She ignored the fact that he was not acting normal and gave him a small, playful pout. "You didn't come to see me in the train yesterday." she whined softly. "And you didn't search for me today either. Have you forgotten about me?" Underneath all those joked words, there was a true fear lurking, poking at her guts.
Sirius sighed. "No, I haven't. I've just been slightly… Busy." He looked at her. "Are you done eating?" he asked her.
Her eyebrows raised. Why was he asking her that? "Well… Yes, yes, I am." she told him, puzzled.
"Can I talk to you?" he asked her. "Like, now?" He looked around and caught the curious gazes of the other Gryffindors, who quickly looked back down when he noticed them. "Alone." he added as if as an afterthought. It was highly suspicious that he wanted to keep something secret, but, nevertheless, she pretended she understood it as a sexual invitation.
She formed a smile on her soft features. "Why, of course." she purred at him.
"Let's go." he told the blond, and stalked out the Great Hall, dragging Marlene with him. She was worried. He wasn't his usual passionate self. Then she remembered: it was their six months anniversary today! Maybe he had just been planning a surprise for her this whole time. Reassured, she didn't notice where he was taking her until they landed in an old, disused corridor, but it didn't bother her anymore, even though she knew they were close to a busier corridor.
When they were a couple metres into this corridor, Sirius stopped. He let go of Marlene's hand and turned around, but just as he did so, she threw herself at him and he lost his balance, slamming into the wall. She threaded her fingers through his hair and pulled his face to hers, planting a passionate kiss on his lips, before pulling away. "So close to where people could see... You're so naughty Sirius." she told his softly, before licking his lip playfully. "I like it. It's… exciting."
Just then, Sirius did something he had never done before: he pushed her away. "I'm not here to have sex with you." he told her bluntly.
"What…" she said, and then she realised she was wrong: he had forgotten that it was their six months today; he wasn't here to make her feel wonderful: he was here to do what he had done with every other girl he had ever dated. "You're… you're not going to break up with me, are you?" she asked with a small voice. Sirius ran a hand through his hair and stared at the ground, but, when he looked back up, the guilty look on his face confirmed her suspicion. Marlene gasped and raised her hand to her mouth in shock. This couldn't be happening! Not to her! Not her Sirius! She couldn't lose him, not now and not ever!
Sirius sighed and shot her an apologetic look. "Marlene, I…" he started, but she burst into tears, cutting him off. The thing she had been fighting against had won: Sirius Black had gotten bored with her. But how? She had done everything to keep him, had given him all he ever wanted from her… She vaguely felt him as he laid a hand down on her shoulder. "I'm sorry." he told her sounding truthful. But she couldn't stop crying. She was alone again; she had wasted years for him and he just dumped her.
After a while, she caught her breath long enough to speak. "I don't understand." she blubbered, her voice tearful, her face in her. "I gave you everything." She had trusted him with her love and her life, and he was just throwing it all away.
"It's all my fault." he told her, sounding honest. She had done everything she could. She had done nothing wrong. It was all his fault. But, she thought as anger started to build up in her, she was not alone. She still had her magic, so whole and Natural… At least that would never just throw her away. As rage built up inside of her, she felt the soft reassuring waves of her magic build up in a torrent and start to thrash against her body, begging to be released and to hurt the traitor.
She pulled her hands away from her face and looked at him, hatred burning in her eyes. He lifted his hand away from the shoulder at this sudden change of mood, shock written all over his features, but she didn't care. "You're right." she told him and her magic threw itself at him. "It's all your fault." Suddenly, before he could reply anything, she pulled her wand out and moved it in a familiar cross pattern in his direction, hissing: "Kopsimo."
Sirius barely took a step back and raised his left arm as her lime green curse left her wand and hit him. She felt slightly satisfied as her magic hummed, almost purred at her. But it wanted more than just the deep cut on his forearm. He ignored it and stared at her in shock. "Marlene…" he tried.
"Shut up!" she snapped at him. "I hate you, you took everything from me!" Her magic started growling in her, already building up, begging her to throw a more powerful curse this time. It was not a sad magic. It was angry. There was no sadness left in her. She had cried it all away.
"I'm sorry!" he shouted, panicky. She almost scoffed at his display of helplessness. Pathetic. But, despite his attempt at calming her down, he pulled his wand out too. The hypocrite.
"I don't care!" she screamed at him, tears starting to stream down her face again. They were tears of wrath. She brandished her wand at him again, drawing the familiar very thin isosceles triangle, before pointing it directly at him and incanting: "Maheri."
Her magic complied, happy to finally release something powerful, and a deep burgundy curse detached itself from the tip of her wand. Her satisfaction didn't last long as he moved his wand in an intricate pattern which she knew and muttered: "Oplismos."
A very thin mist left his wand and formed into a translucent rectangular shield in front of him. The curse impacted with the shield and she felt his shield resist, but she knew she would be able to take it down eventually, just not with this simple curse. Where the two spells met, his shield had grown opaque and white. She knew her curse was strong, but soon, it flickered and died, all of its power dissipated by the shield. Its colour now homogenised, so that instead of being translucent in some places and completely opaque in others, it was now the colour of milk cut with water.
Sirius let his wand arm fall to his side, a bead of sweat running down his forehead. "Please calm down." he tried to reason with her. She felt giddy as her power got to her head. It was so exhilarating to have someone cower at her feet like an insignificant insect.
She gave a high pitch laugh. "Why would I?" she asked rhetorically. "You used me. You told me you had feelings for me, that I was different…" Her magic budged angrily. "That you wanted to keep me forever…" she continued, then her voice hardened. "You lied. You made me blind with all your sweet words and kisses. Now I will render you blind." She raised her wand menacingly again. "Tiflos!"
She hurled a silver curse at him and it impacted with his shield hard. Sirius raised his wand to counter it, but it was not enough. It went from slightly see-through to completely white all over, before it shattered and the silver curse hit Sirius in the chest, hurling him backwards. He landed on the floor a few feet away, his wand shooting out of his hand and clattering to the floor on his right. After a few seconds, Sirius stood up, leaning on a wall on the left hand side of the corridor, and blinked. A small smile curled on her lip as he realised what she had done to him. In this world, there is no good and bad. There is only power, and those who are too weak to seek it. she thought. And I have found it.
So lame, so weak. "I can't believe that I fell for all your lies. I bet you had fun laughing at me behind my back, haven't you?" Marlene hissed at him.
"No," he croaked, fear seeping into his voice. She wanted to giggle; she enjoyed his fear so much. She could almost smell it. It rendered her magic crazy, starting to mount up her head and mess with her thoughts.
"You hurt me Sirius." she said very calmly. Her magic raged inside her and made her say those next few words, almost taking over her conscience. "You hurt me very much. I think it's only fair that I hurt you back."
"Don't do this." he implored, trying to look in her general direction, but he was off and that made her want to laugh.
She ignored him and waved her wand in a pattern she had only tried once before, in that disused classroom next to the library. She waved it as if she was drawing an arrow going from the ceiling to the floor and said: "Ponos." Her magic swirled inside her happily as the cyan curse left her wand, crackling loudly as its coloured light shone at the walls.
Just as it was about to hit its target, though, Marlene heard a voice shout behind her: "Prostacia!" A thick golden shield formed between Sirius and her spell, cutting off the beam of light's trajectory. As it smashed into the shield, it was absorbed by small veins that lit up as they absorbed the power of the curse and, when it was entirely absorbed, about half the veins across the shield had lit up. It was incredibly powerful.
Marlene turned around, annoyed at whoever had interrupted her revenge. When she saw who it was, her eyes narrowed and she growled in a low voice: "You!"
-o-O-o-
Please review! And sorry for the second cliffhanger in a row...