Previously in the Darklyverse: Lily investigated making a run for Minister of Magic. Mary fell out with Marlene and felt disconnected from the other Gryffindors.

xx

March 9th, 1979: Mary Macdonald

"And we're shelling out for a page-long spread in the Daily Prophet next week—I have the mockup here for you to approve," Mary is saying as she rifles through the papers on her arm for the print.

"A whole page? Are we on budget for that?"

"Fundraising is up this week, so we should be good," she tells Lily. "Here."

Lily accepts the paper Mary hands her and surveys it with narrowed eyes. Finally, a nerve-wracking few moments later, Lily says, "Looks good. When you say fundraising is up—?"

"We're on track to exceed our goal for the month by thirty percent."

"I still don't understand what all these people see in me."

"Don't talk like that in the debates, and they should keep seeing it, I expect," says Mary ruefully. "I have a team of ten volunteers assembled today to knock on doors. Filly is just distributing the list of wizarding homes to them right now. And after you're done at St. Mungo's tonight, I've got you down for a town hall this evening at the Leaky Cauldron."

"Remind me again how I ever lived without you?" Lily laughs.

Mary just smiles and runs a hand through her short hair. "We Muggle-borns have to stick together," she says.

In all honesty, Mary still isn't sure why she accepted the job of Lily's campaign manager in her attempt to run for Minister of Magic. It's not like they had been getting along very well, what with Lily stealing Marlene right from under Mary's—

—But that's all over now, Mary reminds herself. Marlene's actions were Marlene's fault alone, and it's not fair to blame Lily for them. Besides, she wanted a way to get back into the lives of her old Gryffindor friends, didn't she? Accepting Lily's offer meant that Mary was a meaningful part of her life again, and with all the Gryffindors rallying around Lily's campaign, it gave Mary an in.

Lily declared her candidacy back in January, and the first thing she did after signing the paperwork was to track Mary down and offer her this position. Mary still isn't sure why Lily came to her first. Lily said at the time that anybody with Mary's ability to disseminate information was an obvious choice for running her campaign, and while Mary can see that logic, it's still hard to believe that she got a job offer just for her reputation as a gossip and a busybody.

Besides, she gave up her dream job just to support the career of the woman who stole Mary's best friend (the thought comes to her unbidden before she can stop it). Working for the Ministry Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures straight out of Hogwarts was like a dream come true, and she's given it all up for a position that will only last for a year, until the election, after which—if Lily loses—Mary will be back to square one. Will the Ministry even be willing to take her back? Or is she going to be unemployed? Worst case scenario, Reg can probably get her a job with him doing Magical Maintenance at the Ministry, but thinking about losing her magizoologist job forever just to work for Magical Maintenance makes Mary want to cry.

With nothing better to do until the town hall that evening, Mary spends the afternoon getting out there helping the canvassers knock on doors. "Hi!" she says brightly to the twelfth person on her list after Apparating onto their street and waiting for them to come to the door. Answering the door is a woman who looks to be in her thirties or forties, with curly brown hair and frown lines etched into her face. "I'm the campaign manager for Lily Evans, the people's choice for Minister of Magic. Can I ask whether you've heard of her or her campaign before?"

"What has she got going for her that should make me want to vote for her? What experience does she have that Malfoy and Bagnold don't?"

"In Lily's short life, she's already accomplished an internship with the British ambassador to France's magical government, making her uniquely in touch with young voters who care about the benefit international relations could have on the war effort. Her position as a trainee Healer has allowed her to treat, heal, and most importantly, get to know a number of witches, wizards, and Muggles who have been tortured by Death Eaters and their sympathizers, and she looks forward to representing them in the Ministry next year."

"Lucius Malfoy is in International Magical Cooperation, too, and has been doing it for much longer than Evans's one-year internship," says the woman.

Mary fixes her smile in place. "I don't know your political beliefs, miss, but I can tell you that Lucius Malfoy leaves very little room for Muggle-borns or even half-bloods in the future he envisions for Wizarding Britain. Lily Evans is a Muggle-born who wants to see everyone protected equally under the law, especially those members of our society who are most at risk. May I ask whether you or anyone you know is Muggle-born or a Muggle?"

"My husband," the woman says. Her frown deepens. "But what about the rumors that Evans is partaking in vigilante justice against Death Eaters? I heard in the Prophet that over fifty wizards charged by the Ministry because of vigilantes' activities were found to be acting under the Imperius Curse. Can we really trust someone with that kind of judgment?"

"Can I ask you—are you satisfied with the job the Ministry is doing to protect us all from the Death Eaters?"

"Well… no."

"Neither is Lily Evans," Mary presses. "I'd like to point out that those fifty-some wizards under the Imperius Curse would have continued to brutalize Muggles and Muggle-borns had they not been apprehended, and that the Ministry prosecuted them all on its own when the vigilantes' involvement stopped. Miss Evans wants to take vigilantes on board in an official capacity as—liaisons, if you will—to work together with existing Ministry officials to pool information and make captures. Different factions fighting for the same cause shouldn't be working at odds against each other."

"That's… well."

Mary says, "Is it all right if I take down your name to check back in with you at a later date about your vote?"

"I… I suppose that can't hurt," says the woman. "Is there someone I can contact if I have questions later?"

Mary fishes a leaflet out of her arms and passes it to her. "Directions to Floo our campaign headquarters are on the back. Our campaign staff accept calls from the hours of eight o'clock to eight o'clock seven days a week."

She gets the woman's name, nods farewell, and Disapparates for the next stop. All things considered, her reaction could have been worse. Most voters Mary speaks to are skeptical of Lily's lack of experience, and this one, at least, seemed receptive to learn more about Lily's campaign.

It's a long day before six o'clock rolls around and she meets Lily back at headquarters. Part of Mary resents Lily for keeping her job at St. Mungo's while Mary had to quit hers in order to campaign full-time for Lily, but she reminds herself, she didn't have to accept the job. If she didn't like the terms, she could have turned it down.

She was never going to turn it down, of course. She wanted to fit in too badly.

Lily, naturally, is running late. "Sorry, sorry, sorry," she pants after Apparating in with a crack. "We had a new patient arrive at the last minute, and I got tied up trying to find an antidote—"

"I don't care. Are you ready to go? We don't have a lot of time to prep," says Mary.

"Yeah. Sorry," Lily repeats. "I should warn you—Marlene is coming tonight."

"Marlene? Fine. Let her come," says Mary, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach.

"Mare—"

"It's fine," she says again. "Let's just go before we're late to our own event, yeah?"

At the Leaky Cauldron, it's easy to ignore Marlene, who's sitting way in the back with Alice and Emmeline. Mary stays up front by the podium, introducing Lily and then stepping back to her left so Lily can take the stage. Lily quickly recaps her campaign platforms, and then they open the floor to questions. It's going pretty well until a man interrupts, "Evans, I heard that you were implicated in the deaths of two of your fellow students when you were at Hogwarts. What's the real story, and why should we trust you after that?"

Mary opens her mouth, but Lily throws up a hand that silences her. "Thank you for asking," she says politely. "I did give myself away as having been present for the deaths of Elisabeth Clearwater and Mildred LeProut in my graduation speech—that's correct. The three of us were leaked false information by members of Slytherin House about a low-level Death Eater meetup, which we attempted to intercept. It turned out to be an ambush. I survived, but Liz and Millie were not so lucky."

"And you still won't tell us who else was involved?"

"I risked my own life to give you all the truth at graduation," says Lily calmly. "I refuse to risk the lives of anyone else for a headline."

"And we're supposed to believe that you're not still one of those vigilantes the Ministry keeps warning us about?"

She smiles. "I'm a Healer. I regularly get called in at night to tend to victims of Death Eater brutality. I don't need to be a vigilante to make a difference, and I'd like to make even more of a difference as Minister of Magic next year, if you all will have me."

All in all, like most parts of Lily's campaign trail, it could have gone worse. When the voters are Disapparating and Marlene comes up to the podium to give Lily a hug, Mary ducks away and goes to say hello to Alice and Emmeline. "Thanks for coming," she tells them. "Alice, thanks for your owl."

"Oh, it was nothing," says Alice. "How's the wedding planning going?"

"It's going," Mary says. "It's hard to get anything done after working round the clock on the campaign, but Reg has really stepped up and helped, and so has Ver."

Now that she's working so closely with Lily, Mary has found an in back into the Gryffindors' lives—suddenly, Lily is inviting her to all of her social functions, and that means lots of time with Alice, Em, and Marlene, as well as the boys. If you had asked Mary a year ago where she'd be now, she never would have guessed this. If you had asked Mary even three months ago, she never would have guessed this.

Lily and Marlene come over to where they're standing clustered together by the door. "Hey, Mare," says Marlene crisply.

"Hello, Marlene," she says back equally so.

"Well, that's my cue," says Alice. "Em, you coming?"

"See you all," says Emmeline, and she and Alice Disapparate.

Lily is looking back and forth between Mary and Marlene like she's expecting some kind of fight to break out, but Mary has no intention of sparring with Marlene. Is it hypocritical of her to say that she's sick of the drama? She already knows she's never going to get Marlene back from Lily, that Marlene is never going to love her the way Mary loves Marlene, that there's always going to be a gaping hole in their friendship where the Order used to be. None of that is going to change, so she may as well accept it and move on with her life. She just wishes that moving on with her life by managing Lily's campaign didn't have to mean seeing Marlene everywhere.

"Lily, I'll see you in the morning," says Mary curtly. "We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow."

When she Disapparates, Marlene's jaw is open like she's about to try and speak. Mary, though, has no interest in hearing whatever it is that she's got to say.