A Marauder's Guide to Falling Forever
PART FOUR
Written by alliegrl
Chapter Nine
Cassandra's house stood just as ruined it had on the night she had visited last. The sun was only just beginning to set as she stood at the edge of the cobbled pathway. It looked even more terrible in the light as it had in the dark.
As it had previously, there were no telltale signs that anyone resided within. No lights appeared to emit from the cracks in the boarded up windows, and Marlene entertained the notion that Cassandra might not be home. Her feet moved up the pathway with purpose, uncaring that all signs told her that visitors were unwelcome.
The wind whistled, blowing past her ear and whipping her hair into a spiral that temporarily displaced her vision. Brushing the strands to the side she narrowly avoided tripping on a displaced stone before reaching the porch. The splintered wooden boards groaned from her added weight just as they had two nights prior; the only sound apart from the wind filling the quiet street behind her.
It felt eerie, and goosebumps prickled her skin at the sudden feeling of being watched. But a quick surveillance around her showed no signs that anyone else was present. Still, her grip tightened on her wand while the other knocked on the weathering door.
The echo of her fist bounced around somewhere within, but no one answered her call. After a half dozen attempts she was resigned to believe that Cassandra wasn't home. There was something about that deduction that didn't sit well with her though, almost as if she knew it were a lie resting on her tongue.
The sound of a dog barking caused her to turn. A middle aged woman, bundled in a thick green peacoat and ear muffs was walking by. She didn't spare Marlene a glance but her dog did. He was small, yet his bark was aggressive enough to suggest a dog three times the size.
Marlene hurried down the pathway, slightly out of breath by the time she caught up to the woman.
"Excuse me," she called out to her. The woman didn't appear to notice immediately, and only when Marlene jogged up in front of her and waved did she stop to take off the earmuffs.
"Yes?" she sounded bored. The dark continued barking hysterically but Marlene ignored it.
"The lady that lives here, do you happen to know when she'll be home?"
The woman stared at her blankly before shifting her gaze to the manor that Marlene was pointing at. Her lip twitched and she let out an unimpressed huff. Then with a thick accent, "Nobody's lived in that house for over a decade. Can't you tell by the way it looks? I've been complaining to the city for years about the state of it. 'Might as well tear the stupid thing down' I told em, but nobody seems to want to bother."
"Is that right?" Marlene wanted to argue with her, to tell her that someone had lived in there only a few days ago, but the woman replaced her earmuffs and moved on.
"Thanks," Marlene called after her but she was no longer listening.
Back at the front door she tried again. Still no answer.
"I'm really sorry Cassandra," she said to nobody, then lifted her wand to the key hole and whispered, "Alohomora."
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Marlene yanked on the door handle then pushed her body weight against the door, but still it would not budge. She tried the charm three more times, confused as to why her charm was failing. Finally she sank to her knees on the porch mat and looked out onto the street.
The sun had finally set and the muggle lampposts were illuminating shadows on the streets. A shiver ran through her either from the night chill or that same feeling of being watched. Possibly both. Marlene looked around again, but there was no one there.
The wind blew past her and Cassandra's voice floated through her ears. Good luck my dear. I'm afraid we won't be seeing each other again.
It had been the last sentiment she had offered Marlene before shutting her out. Marlene hadn't listened at the time, too focused on the rest of the pieces she had been given. But if Cassandra didn't want to be found, Marlene was inclined to believe that she wouldn't be.
Like she had so many times before, Marlene felt completely and hopelessly lost. She just didn't know where else to go from there.
Tom was evasive over the following weeks. For someone who had been so rattled by her disappearance, he was sure doing a good job keeping his distance from her now. Marlene didn't bother stopping back at the Ministry again, but she did routinely drop by the house every few days to see if he was home and willing to talk. But of course he never was.
A month after her arrival home, Marlene decided that it was time to give up on Cassandra. It was clear that she wouldn't be answering her door, if she was even still residing at the house. This was something that Marlene began to doubt with each passing day she paid visit to the old house on the hill.
It took her longer than she expected to resettle into her old life. Everything now felt just as fake as the plastic fern Emmeline had shoved into the corner of their living quarters. Marlene eyed the plant wearily; it was an offsetting shade of lavender, and looked remotely nothing like a real plant would. Why Emmeline fancied it, Marlene could only guess.
She had grown accustomed to solitude during her six month sabbatical, so it felt unnerving to constantly be under the watch of so many pairs of eyes. Of course nobody would admit that they were keeping tabs on her, but Marlene was clever enough to deduce that Remus and Peter hadn't spent much time hanging out with Emmeline during her absence, and that their sudden appearance at varying times throughout the day was likely a request on Sirius' part.
Sirius had been very respectful keeping his distance after the first two days, and Marlene wasn't entirely sure how she felt about it. She had grown so used to being without him that she imagined that it should be easy. But of course with Sirius, nothing was ever easy. In the short amount of time that they had spent with one another, she felt the ache of his absence strong like it had when they first broke up.
"Incoming owl!" Emmeline's cheerful voice broke her train of thought.
Marlene looked up just in time to see the large brown messenger swoop in from the open window to drop a large manila envelope in her lap. Her body twitched with surprise at the sudden intrusion. "Oh!" she exclaimed, startled.
"Looks pretty formal," Emmeline said as she examined the envelope over Marlene's shoulder. "It's from St. Mungos."
"How do you know that?" Marlene was still staring at the center of the envelope where fancy scripture spelled out her name in emerald colored ink.
"Look at the crest in the corner," she said, her finger reaching over to point at the far left edge. "And then the stamp on the back."
Marlene opened it up with reservation. She wasn't expecting anything from the hospital.
"Dear Miss McKinnon." She began to read aloud and then stopped as her eyes continued to skim the page. It didn't matter that she had stopped talking, Emmeline was reading over her shoulder anyways. A sharp intake of her friend's breath bounced into her left ear, causing her to shiver.
"You didn't tell me that you were coming back to the program!" Emmeline accused, sounding awfully resentful. While their relationship had suffered very few strains in comparison to her other relationships, Emmeline would still find ways to display her antipathy for being shut out.
"I'm not," Marlene huffed. "I don't know why Mathalda thinks that I – " her voice trailed off and the gears in her head began to shift. "Patrick."
"What about Patrick?" Emmeline asked, her tone still dismissive.
Somehow Mathalda was under the impression that Marlene had wanted to come back to the Healer program. She had written explaining to Marlene that it wasn't a usual circumstance to consider such request, but considering the actions of her prior preceptor that they were willing to discuss conditions of her re-admittance.
The only person she had a conversation within the last few months about St. Mungo's was Patrick. Who, as she began to recall, had offered to talk to the hospital about her returning to the program. And she distinctly remembered that she had clearly told him she wasn't interested. Apparently that didn't stop him from prying his way into her business.
Marlene crumpled the paper into a ball and scowled. She tossed the letter onto the floor with a grunt of indignation, and directed her angry glare to Emmeline. "Patrick offered to talk to them. I told him that I wasn't interested."
"He's not very good at taking hints, is he?" Emmeline said, raising her brows.
Marlene sighed, "No. He's not."
"I'm heading into work now," Emmeline informed her. "I could stop by his unit first and give him a piece of my mind for you?"
As much as she would like to see Emmeline's wrath brought out at the subject of her irritation, she needed to handle it on her own. "No," Marlene said. She picked herself up from the couch and moved towards the doorway to grab her coat. "I'm going to do it myself."
But Patrick wasn't working when she arrived at his unit, nor was he scheduled to work at any point for the next few days.
Her old co-worker, Martha, was working when she arrived. Despite the unfavorable circumstances surrounding her departure from the program, Martha was kind and receptive of her arrival at the unit. "He's going to be at the Leaky Cauldron tonight though," Martha told her. "A bunch of people from work are going."
Marlene sighed, defeated. She really would have preferred to do it now while her blood was still pumping ferociously through her heart. Waiting until the evening would likely tune the emotions down, and perhaps she wouldn't confront him at all.
No. Marlene needed to confront him. She was the new Marlene, and the new Marlene dealt with her issues without running away and sweeping her feelings under the rug. She would go to the Leaky Cauldron later.
"Well then I guess I'll see you tonight!" Marlene forced a smile and then departed.
Even if Marlene did chicken out, she knew that Emmeline wouldn't. One way or another, Patrick was going to hear about this.
