Previously in the Darklyverse: Marlene and the McKinnons were killed by Death Eaters immediately after Marlene and Sirius attempted to make up as friends. Sirius suspected Remus as the Death Eater spy.

xx

August 9th, 1981: Sirius Black

"There was nothing any of us could have done," Alice is saying to a shell-shocked Sirius who collapses down the wall to come to rest in a puddle on the ground. Marlene is dead. Marlene is dead.

"How did we not know about this? How did the orb not go off?"

"The neighbors across the street reported seeing cloaked figures cast the Mark, go into the house, and then set off red lights. Then Marlene Apparated there and went inside, and that's when there was a series of green lights going off one by one—seven in all, enough for Marlene and her siblings and parents. We think that the Death Eaters Stupefied or Petrificus Totalused the rest of her family, tortured them while they waited for her to get there, and then killed them all at once so that the orb wouldn't be triggered."

Sirius shakes his head. "But—how do they even know how the orb works? It's not like we've told anyone that we even made it, let alone…"

Alice purses her lips, and Sirius is sure that she's thinking what he's thinking: there's a spy in the Order, and they've finally spilled the beans to the Death Eaters about the Unforgivable Curse orb. "We think they targeted her because they knew she was involved with the Order. This wasn't your random, typical killing—her whole family are purebloods. Someone must have also known that she was getting together with her family tonight because they went to the McKinnons' place instead of Marlene and Doc's—which also means they probably don't know that Doc is in the Order."

"So whoever is leaking information hasn't leaked everything," says Sirius. "First Rosalie, now Marlene. That's two of us gone in two months."

"Who would protect Doc but not Rosalie or Marlene?" Alice asks.

"We—oh, lord, someone has to tell Mary. Lily, too, but I'm guessing somebody's already told her?"

"Frank is at the Potters' house right now, yeah."

"I'll talk to Mary," says Sirius, and he abruptly stands up. "I'll go tell her right now. Thanks for coming by."

"Are you sure you're okay to have that conversation?" says Alice. "Mary's going to be emotional about it, and you and Marlene… you had a history. I can go instead. No one would blame you if you left it to someone else to tell her."

"No, I can do it. I'll do it. I'm fine." He's not fine, but Mary, along with Lily, might be one of the only people who understand anything close to what Sirius is feeling for Marlene right now.

She told him she loved him. She said she still loved him, and he didn't say it back, and now he's never going to get the chance to make that right.

Was Sirius still in love with Marlene? Not really, no. But it had been so nice lately, seeing each other around without having to make a huge deal of avoiding each other, even spending time together occasionally without it blowing up into a fight. Two hours ago, Marlene and Sirius agreed that they maybe could be proper close friends for the first time, and now they'll never have that chance. Two hours ago, Marlene was by his side, laughing and talking and kissing his cheek, and now she's dead.

Marlene is dead.

When he Apparates to the Cattermoles' flat, Mary and Cattermole are in bed. Sirius bangs on the door to the flat for a few minutes, but when nobody comes to greet him, he breaks his good manners and Apparates inside so that he can go and knock on the bedroom door. "Mare, it's me, Sirius," he says. "We really need to talk."

He hears rustling and low voices from inside the bedroom, and then Mary comes out wearing mismatched pajamas with her hair all rumpled. "Sirius? It's really late. What are you—?"

"It's Marlene," he says. "Come and sit down."

"Why? What's happened to her?"

"She's dead," says Sirius.

He'd been planning on easing Mary into the news, but he seems to have lost all tact. Mary's knees buckle just like Sirius's did minutes ago when Alice gave him the news. "You're kidding."

"I'm not."

"You're lying."

"I'm not. I'm really sorry, Mare. I know she was your best friend."

"I loved her. I loved her."

"I know."

"No, you don't understand!" cries Mary. She looks totally wrecked. "I loved her like she loved you. I have for a long time."

"You—wait," says Sirius. "Back up. You're gay?" he says, lowering his voice to a whisper.

"Reg doesn't know," she says through tears. It doesn't look like Mary's getting up off the floor anytime soon, so Sirius crouches down next to her and puts a hand on her shoulder. "No one knows except Marlene and Remus. Well, Marlene probably told Lily, knowing her, but… oh god. How am I supposed to be mad at her for what she did to me when she's dead?"

"I get that," says Sirius quietly. "I mean, I wouldn't really say that I've been mad lately, but I have a lot of not-so-happy memories of her that I don't know what to do with now, either."

"At least she loved you the same way you loved her, if only for a while," says Mary. "I never had that. She didn't tease me for it or spread it around to everyone, but—I thought living without her loving me was hard. But I take it back. I take back every bitter thought I ever had about Marlene not loving me if it'll just bring her back."

Sirius lays his head on Mary's shoulder. "She's not coming back, Mare."

"No. This isn't real. I don't want to exist in a world where this is real."

"I'll stay as long as you need me to," he says, "or you can come with me back to my place, if you don't mind Lockhart being there. I can stay up as late as you want."

"Why are you doing this? Why were you the one to come and tell me?"

"Because—I want to be with people who understand what it's like to love her," says Sirius.

She appraises him for a few moments, and he lifts his head back up and looks at her with all of his grief and his anguish plain on his face. "All right," she says finally. "We'll go to your place. I don't—I want to keep this private from Reg. Let me just go and tell him not to wait up for me."

She's only in the bedroom for a minute, and when she comes back out again, her eyes are drier. "I told him what happened," she says in a soft voice, "but not—the rest of it. I don't want him to worry or—or know what she meant to me."

"Lockhart doesn't know, either, does he?"

"No. If I had to tell another person, I'd probably pick Gilderoy, but he might tell Ver, and then it would be all over the country in no time."

But Lockhart is in bed by the time Mary and Sirius Apparate back to their flat. "Make yourself at home," Sirius tells her as he fetches some Firewhiskey out of the kitchen. When Mary raises her eyebrow at him, he says, "What? If any time would be appropriate, I'd think it would be now."

They don't drink too much, as they've both got work in the morning. Even though for Sirius that just means manning the till at Scrivenshaft's, he still doesn't want to dump more than half the work of running the shop onto Emmeline. Mary, meanwhile, has been working as a wizarding naturalism columnist for the Daily Prophet ever since Lily's Minister campaign ended, and she's looking forward to a much more active workday of visiting a nest of Augureys in preparation to write an article on them.

But the alcohol they do consume does basically nothing to quell the pain of Marlene's passing. He says it to himself again: Marlene McKinnon is dead. The woman he loved so fiercely for so many years is dead…

They run out of things to say after a couple of hours, but Mary doesn't want to go home, and honestly, Sirius doesn't want her to. It hurts maybe a little less here while he's sitting with Mary, knowing that there's another person in the world who knows exactly what it's like to fall in love with Marlene McKinnon only to watch that relationship slowly disintegrate no matter what they do to try and hold onto it.

Tomorrow, he's going to wake up for the first time to a world without Marlene in it. If he'd known how little time they'd have together, he would have pushed harder to make peace with her after the business with Remus went down. He would have told her he loved her sooner instead of just sleeping with her for years. He would have held onto her…

Finally, at four in the morning, Mary declares that she's got to go back and get some sleep. She wraps Sirius in a long hug, and he can feel her shaking in his arms. "Come over tomorrow after work," he tells her, and she agrees.

At work in the morning, Emmeline doesn't seem to mind that Sirius is groggy and hungover and sticks her with most of the duty of tending to the customers. She already knows the news about Marlene, and Sirius doesn't ask how.

When he gets home at the end of the day, he's startled to find Remus sitting inside the living room chatting with Lockhart. "Look who dropped by!" declares Lockhart, beaming, obviously thinking that Sirius is in for a treat: in all fairness, it's not like Sirius has ever confided otherwise in Lockhart.

"We don't have to talk long if you don't want to," says Remus, looking ashen. "I just… I wanted to say I'm sorry, that's all."

How dare you, Sirius wants to tell him. Marlene died because there's a spy in the Order who gave away her identity, and Sirius would bet anything that that spy is Remus. He's been avoiding Sirius all this time because he knows Sirius is onto him, and that Remus would try to cover his arse now by apologizing just makes Sirius sick. He's sick with rage and guilt and all of it, and Remus needs to leave this flat now if he doesn't want Sirius to make a scene.

Instead, Sirius just says, "Thanks." He thinks his voice betrays how he feels, but he doesn't care.

They stare at each other for a long moment, and then Remus says, "Well, I'd better get home. Benjy will get worried if I'm not home when he gets there."

It's not until Remus is gone that the full weight of Sirius's suspicions start to crumple in on him. It feels like yesterday that he and Remus were together, together and happy, and now—Sirius flashes back to visiting Remus in the Hospital Wing after his poisoning, getting back with him after having said he needed space, all because he thought he'd almost lost Remus and didn't want to regret losing any time he could have with him. Was it all a setup? Did Remus know right there in the Hospital Wing that he was about to succumb to the Death Eaters' manipulations? Did he know then that someday he'd sell Marlene out?

"I was very sorry to hear about Marlene," Lockhart is saying, and Sirius snaps back to reality. "I loved her for a time, too, if only briefly! I know how charming and how—"

"No," says Sirius.

"Pardon me?"

"No. We're not doing this. You didn't know her, and you sure as hell don't know what it's like to love her."

"But—"

"I'll be in my room," says Sirius, and he gets the hell out of that room before he says something he regrets.