A Marauder's Guide to Falling Apart

PART THREE

Written by alliegrl


Chapter Fourteen

"Marlene!" Lily sounded surprised when she opened her front door to find Marlene standing outside of it.

Marlene couldn't blame her; she had just shown up to the Potters unannounced when she hadn't been by in a very long time. Despite the fact that Marlene had only seen Lily the previous evening, they hadn't had much time to talk. And selfishly, Marlene wasn't at the Potters to see Lily.

"Hi," Marlene smiled. "Is James home?"

"James?" Lily was obviously confused. "Yes. He's upstairs. I think he just got out of the shower."

She moved aside to let Marlene into the house and closed the door from where the cold air was blowing in. Lily disappeared upstairs and Marlene hung around in the entrance hall awkwardly. If their friendship had remained normal she supposed that she could have felt more comfortable taking off her coat and wandering into the living room without invitation. But she felt intrusive and out of place, so instead she waited patiently for Lily and James to return.

"What are you doing in your coat?" Lily gave her a funny look and Marlene flushed with slight embarrassment. Of course Lily was still her family; she shouldn't let a few months of strained contact disrupt what they had with one another.

"This is a nice surprise," James was still rubbing a towel through his damp, messy hair. "Lily said that you wanted to see me?"

"Yes," Marlene muttered. She was beginning to have serious second thoughts about what she intended to do. But she swallowed her doubt and took a deep breath, summoning courage she wasn't sure existed and said what she wanted to say.

"I need to ask you about Patrick."

Lily wandered into the kitchen claiming to make tea, but Marlene suspected that she meant for them to have some privacy. James looked shocked and said nothing for a minute, leaving Marlene to momentarily regret her decision.

"What about him?" he finally asked. He didn't have the same tone in his voice that Sirius did when the topic of Patrick came up, but it wasn't difficult for Marlene to detect his unhappiness about the conversation topic.

"I need to know why you hate him," Marlene said with more certainty than she felt. "I need to know why Sirius hates him."

"Maybe you should ask Sirius – "

"No," Marlene cut him off. "No. I think I'd like you to tell me. You and I both know how that conversation is going to go, and I think it will save us both a tremendous headache if we just have this conversation now and leave him out of it."

James scratched his head with the towel again and looked at Marlene with contemplation. Eventually he gave in and sighed. Moving towards the couch in the living room, he dropped into a seat and indicated for Marlene to do the same.

"Patrick was a Slytherin."

"So?" Marlene didn't get why that was reason alone to despise someone. True, every Slytherin she knew had turned out to be nothing but rotten, but Patrick didn't seem that way at all.

"You didn't let me finish," James sounded annoyed. "Patrick was a Slytherin. While in school he hung around a really bad crowd of friends. Bellatrix Black, for example."

"Oh," Marlene felt her heart sink a little. "But he doesn't anymore."

"You don't know that for certain. How well do you even know the guy?" James raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Anyways, if association to known death eaters isn't enough for you then I will tell you the exact moment when Sirius and I decided that Patrick Lennox was bad news."

Marlene had a difficult time processing the first part of his explanation. Patrick did not strike her as the type to come from Slytherin house, or associate with death eaters. He had always been so kind to her, and she had always assumed that he was more the Ravenclaw type. But she had never bothered to ask.

"In first year when Sirius got sorted into Gryffindor there was a huge uproar from the Black family over his disgrace to the family name. I know that you are aware of Sirius' upbringing. Bellatrix was in fifth year with Patrick when we started at Hogwarts, and he was part of the group that enjoyed tormenting Sirius. They were much older and skilled at magic than us so we tried to stay under the radar for the first two years. The summer before our third year we ran into him in the town square messing around with some muggle teenagers. He was performing the imperious curse on them and made one of them jump off one of those high walls in the town square. I can still hear the shattering of that kids bones as his leg smashed into the pavement."

"No," Marlene felt sick. "No, that can't be right."

"You wanted to hear this," James glared at her. "Do you want me to finish or not?"

"Sorry," Marlene mumbled. His words were ringing in her ear. This couldn't be the same Patrick she knew.

"Sirius was quick to start throwing hexes at him, but of course being under age it was traced and Sirius nearly got expelled since he did it in the presence of a muggle. I didn't see Sirius for the rest of the summer, but he told me all about the torture his mother inflicted upon him. She used the cruiciatus curses on him numerous times during his time locked away in his bedroom. He arrived on the Hogwarts Express about fifteen pounds lighter than when I had last seen him. Sirius still blames Patrick for that one; he got off without any punishment. The Ministry refused to believe that a seventh year student with perfect grades would use the unforgivable curse on another teenager."

"The summer before fourth year we caught him hitting his sister Rose. She sported quite the black eye around the village, claiming that she ran into a lamp post. She was going into her seventh year in Hufflepuff; really nice, quiet girl. You wouldn't know they were related unless you knew the family. There's plenty more encounters that paint the same picture, but I think these demonstrate a good summation of my point."

Marlene nodded slowly, biting her lip.

"But maybe he's matured a bit since Hogwarts," James said but he didn't sound like he believed it.

"I can understand from what you're saying why you have a negative image of him," Marlene finally said. "I just don't see that side of him personally. Thank you for enlightening me; it makes it a bit easier to understand Sirius's hostility towards him."

"He's not just a blindly jealous idiot," James' tone turned humorous and he offered Marlene a smirk. "But there's that too. I think he believes Patrick has taken an interest purely to spite him. I know that he's worried about you being around him, knowing about what he's done in the past. Can you really blame him for being worried about you?"

"No," Marlene admitted. Her feelings were conflicted; she trusted that James was telling her the truth, and that Patrick's actions in the past were heinous and unforgivable. But she also saw a kind, helpful person who was passionate about helping people. They were two complete polar personalities from one another and she was confused.

"I do think you should talk to Sirius about this," James raked a hand through his hair and looked up as Lily walked into the room with two cups of tea.

"He's very touchy when it comes to this topic," Marlene muttered against the rim of the teacup.

"Yes," James laughed.

"So is this the only reason why you stopped over this morning," Lily took a seat beside her husband. James's arm wrapped around her shoulder to give her an affectionate squeeze and Marlene's eyes floated down to the obvious bulge in Lily's midsection.

"No," Marlene replied, even though the answer was yes.

But being with Lily and James after their Order meeting sparked a separate conversation she knew was overdue.

"Were you planning to tell me about the Ministry?" Marlene turned her gaze to meet Lily's.

"I tried," Lily's lips formed into a pout. "Many times, Marlene. You've been quite absent lately. I didn't mean for you to get ambushed like that last night; as far as everyone knows you've been doing your part in getting Tom's allegiance."

"Tom's allegiance is to the Ministry," Marlene pointed out. "Just because he hasn't joined the Order – "

"It's not just about joining the Order though," James cut in. "It's about gaining access to the information in the department and protecting it from Voldemort. Hard to do that if we don't have someone on the inside."

"I see your point," Marlene nodded. Her mind drifted back to Dumbledore and their conversation the night before. "I promise I'll try again."

She spent the rest of the morning talking with them and when James left to meet Peter and Remus she stayed awhile longer to catch up with Lily. All the while her mind was still racing from the information she had obtained from James, and the impossible task that she had promised Dumbledore she would do.

When she left the Potters she had intended to apparate back to London since she had a shift in a few hours. But her eyes roamed the winding road to the direction that Tom's house was located, and her feet unconsciously took her there instead.

It was a Saturday so she knew that he was bound to be home. She hesitated on knocking, but decided against it and opened the door. He was in the living room but before the door had even closed behind her he had sprung forwards, wand outstretched with a threatening look upon his face.

"Merlin, Marlene!" he lowered his wand. "I nearly hexed you into yesterday!"

"Sorry," her eyes were wide. "I didn't think – I should have knocked – "

"Nonsense," he shook his head. "You shouldn't have to knock here. You don't come around enough and I wasn't expecting you, that's all."

"I was visiting Lily and I have a few hours before work," they moved into the living room. "I don't have a lot of time but I wanted to come and say hello."

"It's nice to see you. They've got you pretty busy at the hospital then?"

"Yes," she nodded her head. She couldn't help but notice the aging lines on his face that hadn't been there over Christmas. Her memories of Uncle Tom from when she was a child and teenager were of a man who was much more carefree and fun. But this version, the version since her parents passed away, was a man she did not know.

"And how are you enjoying it?"

"It's good," she lied. Tom wasn't as in tune with Marlene's inability to deceive, and he seemed to believe her answer. If he didn't, he did not attempt to pry further.

"I wish you'd stop by some more," he admitted. "I dare say I've been pretty busy with work myself though, and I need to make more effort to make it by to see you too."

He had laid out the pathway for the conversation she had set out to have. The nerves in her core were squirming with discomfort, and she had to take three deep breaths before opening her mouth to begin it.

Here goes.

"I wish that I could say that I only stopped by to say hello, and that I didn't have ulterior motives for my visit," she blurted out in a hurry. "The Order really needs your help right now Uncle Tom, and – "

"Not this nonsense again!" he was noticeably cross. "I thought you weren't getting caught up in this rubbish Marlene? You're going to go and get yourself killed."

"There are a lot of people that are going to die if we don't do something," she continued. "If you'd only just come to one meeting and hear them out – "

"No," he looked at her fiercely. "It's always nice to see you Marlene, but I'm afraid this is not a conversation that I am comfortable continuing. I will not be caught up in Dumbledore's ridiculousness, and I most certainly will not betray the Ministry by leaking classified information. It's already bad enough that people know that I work in the department, and I suspect it's reasons like this that I ought to keep my job title secretive."

"Nobody is asking for you to leak classified information," Marlene yelled. "The Ministry is already infiltrated by Voldemort's followers and it's only a matter of time before they make it to your department too. Albus only wants to protect us. Why won't you just be open to the idea?"

"I wouldn't want you to be late for work Marlene," Tom's voice was dangerously low as he subtly hinted that it was time to leave. She knew that the conversation wasn't going to turn around for her and she let out a cry of frustration. This was exactly what she knew would happen, and it's exactly why she had avoided it for so long.

"What happened to you?" she snapped. "You used to know how to live and have fun. Now you're a bloody old overprotective pessimist."

She turned on her heel and stormed for the door. He did not answer her as she opened it and slammed it behind her on her exit from his house. She let out a loud cry of frustration on the doorstep before apparating home.

Once again she had failed the Order, and once again she had failed herself.


A/N: Thanks for the reads! Remember, I'm also on Wattpad (username is alliegrl) and I've been slowly making updates to the versions there first. Eventually I will make my way back over here to update the earlier chapters to reflect the changes made there.

What do you guys think - has Patrick matured/changed since Hogwarts? Or is he still the same guy that James thinks he is? Leave me a review and let me know your thoughts!

If you liked the chapter, please consider leaving a review!

aslooneyastheyget: Haha I know! I couldn't believe it either! And thank you, I'm glad that you enjoyed my story way back when I first started it. I don't think you were the only one disappointed by my absence..I definitely had my share of messages telling me to get back to it. Lol. As for the updates you can hit the follow story button and it will send you an e-mail every time I upload a new chapter. That way you don't have to keep checking. My plan is to continue updating every Friday and possibly one in between then. I've been on quite the writing frenzy mostly due to the fact that I don't want to slip up and take another long hiatus. I am projecting to be finished part three within a month, and then part four will follow immediately after that. All in all I anticipate the entire story to wrap up before summer. It's been a long journey and I think I've been slow at it because I didn't want to end it...and then the story just kept going and going and going and honestly I never expected to stretch it to a four part series until I realized I couldn't get it all done in three. Anyways, that's my chapter of a response! I'm glad you found your way back to my story and I hope that you enjoy it the second time around.