A Marauder's Guide to Falling Forever
PART FOUR
Written by alliegrl
Chapter Fifteen
Romance would need to wait.
"You pick the door this time," he whispered into her lips.
On the third door they entered into a long, rectangular room that was illuminated by bright, sparkling white lights casting rainbows on the walls and ceilings like diamonds reflecting off the light. It was a stark contrast compared to the dim, bluish lighting they had grown accustomed to. Marlene involuntarily squinted as her eyes adjusted to the change and beside her Sirius drew in a sharp breath.
"I think these are time turners." He was looking at a large cabinet filled with small globe shaped pendants hanging from gold chains. There were at least a hundred of them, and Marlene moved closer to take a look. Three gold rings encaged a small hourglass shape; gold grains of sand filled one half of the glass figure eight. Yearning to touch one, her fingers reached out. "Probably shouldn't touch them," Sirius warned while watching her, and she withdrew immediately.
"You're right," she sighed.
The rest of the room was equally as mesmerizing. It was obvious that the room was devoted to the study of time, and she decided that time itself could easy get lost by spending too long within its walls. The most captivating artefact was a large bell shaped jar at the far end of the room. A bird, glowing amidst the sparkling light inside plucked at its feathers. Its beady glowing eyes surveyed Marlene as she stood admiring it. It was unexplainably intriguing.
"There's a door at the back here," Sirius called at her from the opposite length of the room where he had been analyzing varying sizes of golden colored clocks.
"Let's see what's in there then," she said as she hurried towards him.
Sirius pushed on it and it wouldn't budge. "That's strange," he muttered, "I think it's locked." He continued to throw his weight against it as Marlene pulled up next to him. "Maybe we should try one of the other doors back in the other room."
"I'd really like to see what's in this one." She bit down on the corner of her lip, concentrating. Sirius tried one more shove with no success.
"Alright then." He directed his wand at the door, "Alohomora."
Nothing. Like Cassandra's house so many times before, the door was immune to magical enchantment.
"It's locked Mar," he sounded frustrated. "Let's go back."
"Let me try." She stepped forward and he moved aside to give her room. She placed her small hand against the black door, identical to all the others they'd already encountered, and gave a small push. It opened effortlessly.
"I thought you said it was locked," she teased him, looking up at him from behind her dark lashes and smiled coyly. He let out a small growl and she observed that he was only focused on her lips. "Not now, Sirius. We have work to do."
"Don't flirt with me then," he grumbled. Marlene stood on her toes to press a gentle kiss to his cheek. Then she turned her focus back to the door and led the way inside.
And at last they found it. Like the rest of the Department, the Hall of Prophecies was strikingly cold and illuminated by the same ominous blue lighting. The ceiling was high enough to cover at least three or four Ministry levels and rows upon rows of old, dusty shelves encompassed thousands of spun-glass spheres. The candles within the room reflected off the glass making them appear as though each one were glittering.
"The Hall of Prophecies," Marlene informed Sirius. "This is the place."
"So is this the part where you finally tell me why we've just broken into the Ministry of Magic and are staring a thousands of old, strangely glowing crystal balls?" His expression was full of scrutiny and Marlene couldn't really blame him. She had dragged him through quite an odd adventure without so much as a trace of explanation. She supposed that a room full of glass balls seemed hardly worth the secrecy.
"Look I'm not really sure how much of this I'm supposed to be telling you," she said. Marlene didn't only mean Dumbledore, she was also thinking about Cassandra's warning about how meddling in the business of the future can have dire consequences. She didn't want to risk Sirius's life like that.
"Okay well let's start with something you think you can tell me," he pressed.
Marlene thought about it. "These are prophecies," she began to explain.
"I mean, I sort of gathered that when you called this the Hall of Prophecies," he said, rolling his eyes teasingly.
She ignored him, "Well when prophecies are made - any prophecy - they become stored within these glass orbs. I guess this place is sort of like a library of sorts; it stores all of the information."
"So if we're at the library then are we looking to check out a book?" he played along.
"I'm actually not sure," she answered truthfully.
In fact, as much as Cassandra's promise that she would know what to do, it did not extend to the particular reason she needed to find the Hall of Prophecy. She already knew that the one Voldemort sought was safely stored somewhere within the hall...
"I think it's this way," she said suddenly. Her feet started moving without her consciously willing them, autonomic in response to some instinct she wasn't yet aware of. Rows upon rows of the same towering shelves passed by as they made their way to row 81.
They stood in front of the shelf where the small spherical object sat; a dazzling hue of blue. Marlene anchored her attention on the way the colors swirled around in the glass like an intricate dance. But more interesting was what was inscribed: C.V.V. to M.E.M. Marlene McKinnon, James Potter, Lily Potter, Sirius Black.
"Why are our names on this?" Sirius reached out to grab it.
"NO!" she shouted, and his hand drew back immediately in alarm.
"What's the problem?"
"You can't touch it," she told him.
"Why not?"
"I don't know," she said. "Just – don't."
"Do you know why my name is on it then?"
"I don't know," she said quietly. Without listening to it she had no certain way of confirming whether or not it was the one from Cassandra. But given the inscribed initials C.V.V. to M.E.M., Marlene would wager a guess that it was the same. Cassandra Vlbatsky to Marlene Elisabeth McKinnon.
Cassandra's warning flashed through her mind once more. She didn't wish to burden that sort of information on Sirius. She watched his critical analyzation of the mysterious crystal, the wheels evidently turning in his head. She decided that she couldn't risk his future. Sirius would have to live his life not knowing anything more about what that particular prophecy pertained.
There was another one that interested her more. And like a disembodied voice calling out to her from somewhere in the stacks, she was drawn away from row 81 and back out into the main aisle.
"Marlene?" Sirius yelled after her. "Wait! Where are you going? What about this bloody thing? I want to know what it is!"
"I need to see something," she called over her shoulder without bothering to wait for him. His shuffling feet caught up to her and they made their way swiftly to where a neat little plaque informed them that they were now at row 97.
It didn't take long to find it. It appeared to be filled with a thick fog; wisps of the greyish white smoke swirled around gently. The inscription made it quite simple to distinguish from all the rest.
S.P.T to A.P.W.B.D
Dark Lord and (?)
Sirius looked to where her attention had settled read the most notable thing about it, "The Dark Lord?" He shifted his focus to Marlene, attempting to capture her interest. "Marlene?" Impatient, Sirius reached out to grab for the second time and she quickly threw her arm at him to stop his fingertips from touching it.
"Don't touch it," she said with irritation.
"You keep saying that," he huffed, annoyed. "Why can't I touch it?"
"I don't know, I just know that you can't. I have to be the one to take it."
Her fingertips instinctively reached to grab for it...
"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" an additional voice screamed at her, an echo of her own words. But it was too late. She had already reached out and grasped the spun-glass sphere and the swirls of silver silk within spun elegantly beneath her fingertips.
Immediately, the raspy, transfixed voice of a woman cut into the room, drowning out the sounds of the pounding footsteps that raced towards them. Marlene held the unusually warm glass sphere in her hands, staring fixedly at it.
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."
Marlene looked upwards from the orb to see Tom standing two feet behind Sirius, pale as a sheet and visibly shaking. She watched the multiple emotions compete for expression on his face; fear, anger, disbelief. He said nothing.
Sirius was staring at the glass, not bothering to acknowledge that they had been joined by another person. His face constricted into something comparable to disgust. "What the hell was that?"
Her lips quivered as the words tumbled out quietly, "What Voldemort wants."
Both Tom and Sirius looked at her with disbelief. Marlene could only concentrate on the words she had just bore witness to. This was surely what Dumbledore had been keeping from her, and she fully understood why it had been so important that she discover how to keep it from the hands of Voldemort.
"You need to put that back," Tom's instructed, his voice on edge.
Marlene complied willingly, not really certain that she wanted to be touching such an ill-omened artefact. It hardly seemed real that the whole situation had even occurred, yet it had. And she didn't know how to feel about it.
"How the hell did you two get in here?" he continued angrily. "And more importantly, how did you do that?" His finger was pointed to where the orb in question sat lifeless back on the shelf from where Marlene had borrowed it.
"The first question isn't important," Marlene balked at him. "And as for the second one I have no idea what you mean?"
"Well you most certainly didn't just waltz in through the main doors." Tom shot a disapproving sideways glance at Sirius, likely internally blaming his influence for their reckless behavior. He chose not to vocalize this, however. "The door to this room was locked. Not even magic can get you in here. Not to mention the most important thing I'm baffled by; that thing should have cursed you into madness. Absolute madness."
"The door was locked." Sirius frowned. "Marlene was the one to open it."
"And you touched it!" Tom ignored him and frantically pulled at what remaining hair he had left on his head. "Anyone that attempts to touch them shall instantly be inflicted with madness. It happened to Augustus last year, he accidentally bumped the shelf and grabbed one to prevent it from falling. I saw it happen. I saw it."
Marlene's jaw tightened and her brows pulled downwards, "Augustus?" That name sounded familiar to her and she tried to remember why.
"Yes, Augustus Rookwood. He had to be hospitalized for months after the incident."
"But she's not mad," Sirius pointed out. "So maybe she's supposed to be able to touch it?"
Marlene glanced back at the now lifeless orb. It was not the prophecy that she had witnessed Cassandra make, but it didn't have her name inscribed on it either. "I don't think so," she chimed in. "I don't see how this pertains to me."
"There's only one other possible explanation then." Tom's face, already ashen, seemed to drain of all remaining color. His skin under the blue lighting made him look quite sickly. "Let me see your wrist, Marlene."
"I'm sorry, my wrist?" she asked, confused.
Tom pushed past Sirius, shoving him physically out of the way as he advanced on his goddaughter. Her body stiffened as he reached down to grab her arm and watched incredulously as he pushed her sweater sleeve up to her elbow.
But what was even more astounding was the small marking that hadn't existed earlier in the day, now prominently etched into the lines of her skin. Right below the palm of her left hand black ink intricately detailed the image of a key which resembled the shape of the letter 'K'.
She had seen that image once before. It was the same image from the parchment left behind by the intruder at Tom's house. The same one that had disappeared when she touched it...
"What is that?" she asked, a nervous edge to her voice.
"The key," Tom's voice rattled shakily. His brow furrowed as his mouth turned grim and he looked at her with a mixture of pity and remorse. She didn't understand why. He continued, "You have the key."
"The key to what exactly?" Sirius was peering over Tom's shoulder and fixated on the small tattoo. His eyebrows were pulled together in concentration and his lips parted slightly as though there was something else he wanted to either ask or say.
"The key to the Hall." Tom's eyes were filled with unrelenting sadness. "You asked me once who the Keeper of the Hall was, do you remember that Marlene?"
Marlene nodded her head, "Yes."
"Well," he said slowly. He let go of her arm and her wrist fell limply to her side. "Apparently it's you."
