A Marauder's Guide to Falling Forever
PART FOUR
Written by alliegrl
Chapter Six
"I suppose I don't have a choice," she let out a nervous laugh. "Yes, of course."
"I don't blame you for Mum's death," he said bluntly. His eyes searched Marlene's, and she could hear the sincerity in his tone. "I know that it wasn't your fault. I reacted poorly and I'm sorry for my part in driving you away."
"You didn't drive me –"
"Marlene," he interrupted, pleading. "I'm not naïve to see that you felt you were alone, and I know now that I unconsciously withdrew from our friendship out of grief. I didn't see that at first, but I do now. I am sorry."
She had never really thought about having an individual friendship with James, having that he had always been Sirius's best friend, or Lily's nemesis turned boyfriend turned husband. But he was also equally Marlene's friend and she appreciated hearing him think of her the same way.
"Thanks James," she smiled and he reached out to hug her, but she gagged even before his arms closed around her. "Baby vomit, remember?"
"Right," he chuckled. "I'll go change."
It was after dinner time when Marlene and Sirius finally said goodbye to the Potters and departed the small house, out into the yard where the sun sat low on the horizon. The weather was cold and dreary, and a light sprinkling of snow had begun to fall. She pulled her coat tightly around her to stay warm.
"I think I'm going to go visit Tom while I'm here," Marlene informed Sirius after James had closed the door behind them.
"That's probably a good idea," he agreed. "I'll walk with you."
Marlene let out an annoyed sigh, "You can't follow me everywhere I go, Sirius." She craned her neck to look up at him and studied his confusion.
"I'm not following you," he replied with a hint of defiance. Marlene raised her eyebrows to display her skepticism and watched as he ran a hand through his hair, scowling. "Okay, maybe I want to spend time with you. But only because I care and I'm scared of losing you."
"Nothing's going to happen to me at Toms," she laughed, rolling her eyes. "We talked about this last night, Sirius. We need time apart."
"We've had nothing but time apart," he grumbled with obvious bitterness.
"I love you, I do," she said softly, "but I won't be smothered by your overprotective behavior. Don't treat me like a china doll. We have to trust one another if we're going to make this work."
"I do trust you, Mar," he replied quickly and firmly, the scowl still prominently on display.
"Then trust that I can take care of myself. Okay?"
He sighed, "You can take care of yourself. I just want to take care of you too."
She didn't really know what to say to that so instead she pushed herself up onto her toes and planted a soft kiss against his cheek. It wasn't exactly where she wanted to kiss him, and she got the same impression from him when she pulled away and examined the flames of desire rapidly burning in his darkening eyes. She moved away from him quickly, afraid that if she lingered longer she'd never make it to Toms.
"I'll make time to see you again soon, Sirius," she said with finality. "Now go home and stop worrying so much about me."
"Bye Mar," he said, defeated. She waved and turned away from him.
She moved quickly down the path and out onto the familiar street that line the way to her godfathers home. She didn't dare to turn and look back at whether or not Sirius was still lingering in the Potters yard as she made her way out of view of the small cottage.
The walk was quiet apart from the whistling of the wind, and Marlene only had her thoughts to keep company with. It wasn't as if she minded Sirius's company, and that was exactly the problem. She had been back for just under twenty four hours and had already spent the majority of her time with him.
Tom's house was dark when she approached the walkway. She didn't pause to knock on the large wooden door, desiring to get the confrontation out of the way as soon as possible. But after a minute passed and he did not answer the door she contemplated where he might be. At first she wondered whether he might already be asleep. But it wasn't as if she were arriving late in the evening, and she thought it strange he wouldn't already be home from work.
The Ministry had long ago closed, surely. Marlene wasn't entirely certain what sort of hours his occupation kept but as she thought back on her time spent under his roof, she recalled how little he had actually been around. She hesitated on entering but eventually conceded that the house she once called home was still hers to call just that, and so she allowed herself entry to await his return.
The inside was just as it was the last time she had been there. She wandered around the living room, taking in the pictures and knickknacks that filled the shelves lining against the great wall. An old photograph of Tom with her father drew an unwelcome pang of sadness as she admired their youthful faces smiling back at her.
A load snapping sound from somewhere up above interrupted her thoughts. At first she thought it must be the house settling, until a second ominous sound followed. Her body quickly became rigid and alert.
"Tom?" she called out, a nervous edge to her tone. She received no response in return. Her hand reached into her coat and grasped onto the handle of her wand, drawing it out in front of her.
She quietly made her way up to the second floor. Another sound, louder this time, met her ears and she quickly realized that it was omitting from the bedroom she had once resided in. The door was open wide and she cautiously moved towards it, wand outstretched and ready. A cold gust of air blew past her at the threshold and she watched as the window shutter snapped against the frame from the force of the wind outside, making the same sound she had heard from down below. The tension immediately released as she realized it was the open window causing the noise.
Marlene moved inside the room. It remained in the exact state that she had left it; nothing appeared to be out of place. She didn't quite know what sort of emotion she was expecting to feel upon entering it, but the feeling of familiar comfort was not it. It felt cold and uninviting; a reminder of scars she would never rid herself of. Another chilly gust of air blew past her and she shivered. Her eyes drifted to the open window across the room and she frowned with sudden realization; given the time of year, why would Tom have left a window, especially this particular window, open?
She crossed the room to close it and as her fingers curled around the wooden ledge a loud startling sound from somewhere on the main level broke the silence. This time there was no mistake that it was something much more threatening. Marlene's heart once again caught in her chest and her hand tightened around her wand.
"Tom?" she called out steadily. She shoved the window down and secured the lock before swiftly moving across the room and back out into the hallway. There was a faint, scurrying movement coming from the living room and she called out once more, "Tom? It's Marlene. I'm coming downstairs now."
The lights from downstairs were no longer lit and she knew without a doubt that it wasn't Tom that awaited her. Her foot touched the first step on the staircase and the groaning of the floorboard was accompanied by a loud thundering of footsteps down the hallway below her.
"STUPEFY!" she screamed at the dark figure that moved like a shadow from the kitchen and towards the front door. Her jet of right light bounced off in the darkness and she couldn't be certain whether or not it had hit its intended target. The wind howled as the front door burst open and the unrecognizable figure staggered out into the darkness.
Marlene bolted down the stairs two at a time chasing after it. But before she had reached the door the distinguishing popping noise of someone disapparating met her ears. She quickly surveyed the front lawn; a single set of large footprints in the freshly fallen snow was the only evidence to confirm that whoever had been in the house had magically departed.
Her heart continued racing and only after she had closed the door and turned on the main floor lighting once again did she realize that her body was shaking uncontrollably. It was then that she noticed the small rectangular paper that lay carelessly scattered on the floor at her feet.
Whoever had been inside Tom's house must have dropped it. She reached down with trembling fingertips to snatch the paper in her hands and quickly unfolded it.
Scribbled with messy, unrecognizable handwriting were the words:
Keep this safe
And below, a simple drawing of a key with the projections of the blade resembling that of the letter 'K'. It wasn't a remarkable piece of artwork, just a simple sketch done in the same black ink that had been used to urge the recipient to protect the paper.
Her fingers unconsciously traced over the peculiar image. A light tingling sensation pricked the tip of her finger just where it hovered over the ink, and she wondered what it was about it that required protection. Just as she had finished tracing the design the image on the page began to twitch and the ink started running down the page like melting wax on a candlestick. Marlene dropped the parchment out of surprise and it gracefully floated to the floorboards at her feet. Her eyes widened as she watched the distorted ink stains swirl and disappear into oblivion.
Her eyes remained focused on the note; a blank piece of parchment was now all that remained. Whatever it was that was supposed to be kept safe, she would never know.
