Marlene woke up, startled at first by her unfamiliar surroundings. She was in a small room with blue walls and lots of Quidditch posters hanging off the walls. Danny's bedroom to be exact, which she was staying in while he was at school and she was recovering from her injuries. While she was strong enough to leave St. Mungo's after the week she'd spent under Healers' care, she still spent most of her time bedridden. Her mother was permanently by her bedside, as though Marlene were a dying patient. Three days she'd been home and already she was overwhelmed with attention.
It was raining outside. Marlene could hear the water droplets pounding against her brother's window and the slow rumble of thunder in the distance, promising a storm. She reached out a weak arm, stealing herself a sip of water before settling back into the pillow which would be her permanent home for the next few weeks.
The house, previously silent, was suddenly filled with the sound of a commotion downstairs. Marlene could hear the echo of a knock on the front door and the sound of voices vibrating up. She sat in bed, not moving an inch as to help her catch any loose words.
"It's rather late…" She heard her father saying.
"I'll see if she's up to it." Marlene waited, listening to the sound of footsteps up the main staircase. A knock came at the bedroom door just seconds after.
"Come in."
Her mother poked her head round the door, smiling. "How're you feeling?"
"Like absolute shit," Marlene responded honestly. "Who is at the front door?" She was ready to turn away whoever had decided this was an appropriate hour to visit a sick person.
"Sirius Black," her mother responded, eyebrows raised. Marlene tried hard to stop herself from showing any sign of interest.
"Oh," she responded flatly. "Okay."
"Should I send him home?"
"No!" she answered a little too quickly. "I'll see him."
Her mother didn't look convinced but Marlene nodded her head, urging her back downstairs to bring up their guest. In her mother's absence Marlene expended her low energy on getting into an upright position, running her fingers through her greasy, tangled blonde curls.
"Ready for some company?" Sirius asked. He creaked open her door, which her mother had left ajar, stepping inside sheepishly. He was soaked from head to toe, as though he'd spent hours in the rain.
"You're dripping," she informed him. "I'd suggest shaking it off." Sirius picked up on her joke quickly, grinning.
"You look better."
"That's kind of you. I can barely move and I'm on sleeping potions half the time. Mary comes by often, though and makes sure I'm doing okay and my mum never leaves my side. I suppose I'm in good hands."
Sirius stood there, six feet tall and brooding. He was staring at Marlene like a bomb about to go off, as though she might go into shock at any moment, leaving behind a mess for him to clean up. Marlene realised, lying there in her teenage brother's bed, it was the first time she'd seen him – really seen him – in four months. His hair was shorter. He had a new scar on the corner of his right eye. He looked tired.
"You probably don't remember me visiting…"
"My memory of the past week is foggy, to say the least," she informed him. "I didn't say anything I should regret, did I?"
"No," he assured her. "No, you're fine."
"I um…I was going to write you…"
"Oh, that's not important right now," Sirius assured her. "I just came by to see that you were okay. I didn't get a chance to see you in the hospital again, after that first night—"
"It all just happened so fast. Deciding to stay…"
"You don't have to explain your choices to me, Marlene." Sirius had his head bowed, the way he always did when he felt uncomfortable discussing something. She didn't know why she'd chosen this moment. One where she lay vulnerable and he stood there like a deer in headlights, unsure where to stand or what to do. Once the words started flowing out of her mouth she just couldn't stop them.
"I don't want you to think—"
"I don't think anything," he spit out, his grey eyes finally meeting her glance. "Really, I've moved on. Yeah, it was tough at first but I've got a life. I'm happy."
Marlene thought she might throw up what little dinner she'd ingested a few hours earlier. "I'm trying to tell you I'm sorry."
"It doesn't matter," Sirius shrugged, moving back towards the door. "There's nothing to apologise for."
She could see his eyes travelling towards the bedroom door, searching for his exit. She cleared her throat, trying to find some way to disperse some of the tension in the room.
"I should let you rest," he finally said, making his first step.
"Aren't you going to tell me what happened when you visited?" Marlene stopped him. Sirius had his head turned so that it was impossible for Marlene to read his expression.
"Nothing important," he assured her, turning with an unconvincing half-smile. "Really, you weren't lucid for the most part."
"I didn't embarrass myself?" Marlene asked nervously.
"Don't worry about it, McKinnon." The way he used her surname sent a jolt up her spine. No one had called her that in months, not in the way he did, at the very least.
"Thanks for coming by."
"Welcome home." Sirius nodded, slipping out of her bedroom as swiftly as he'd come in. Marlene listened to the sound of his footsteps travelling down the stairs and the short moment of small talk Sirius shared with her family, the front door shutting behind him.
As time passed - ten minutes, twenty minutes - Marlene remained in bed, still as ever, her mind wide awake.
Lily had arrived at the McKinnons' house with a tin full of cookies and a binder stock full of wedding plans. They were two months out from the big day and Lily was finding herself loaded more and more with wedding ideas each passing moment.
On her mother's good days she sat in the chair beside her bed and consulted her on every different decision. She hadn't had one of those days in quite a while, though. For the most part, Lily had enlisted the help of Caroline, who was more than happy to play the main role in booking locations and putting down payments on caterers.
"Lily," Maureen greeted her kindly as she swung open the door.
"I hope it's okay that I dropped by," Lily began anxiously. "I brought sweets." She held up the tin of cookies she'd stayed up all night baking. Her mother hadn't been having a good day and she'd desperately needed something to distract herself.
"Of course, Marlene's been rather antsy this morning, she'll be happy for the company."
Lily stepped inside, Maureen guiding her into the kitchen where she put on the kettle and began laying the cookies onto a plate.
"How've you been, darling? Alfred and I received the invite a few weeks ago; we'll be attending, of course."
"Great," Lily smiled. She knew she should have been more excited for her upcoming nuptials, it was supposed to be a huge moment, one of the biggest milestones in her life, and yet she could barely focus on it with everything else going on.
"Have you bought your dress yet?"
"Oh…well…not quite. Caroline and I have been out a few times but nothing has felt right."
"Make sure you get it soon," Maureen warned her, distracted by the cups of tea she was arranging. "Wait too long and you won't be able to make any alterations if you need them."
Lily couldn't be bothered worrying about some stupid wedding dress she'd only wear once. Not when everything else was demanding her attention. Who cared what she looked like for one day of her life when her mother, the woman who'd brought her into the world, was slowly drifting away?
"Here," Maureen had laid everything out on a nice tray, gesturing for Lily to take it. "She's not eaten much, see if you can get anything into her."
"I'll try my best," Lily assured her, heading for the stairs. Her arms ached from the weight of the tray, as she struggled to keep her wedding binder wedged between her arm and hip. She paused before the door to Marlene's room, taking a deep breath.
"Special delivery," she announced, stepping inside. Marlene, who'd been sitting up in bed reading a book, beamed with joy.
"Thank Merlin, I thought you might be my mother again."
"No such luck. I do come bearing cookies, though, and…" Lily took a pause as she delicately placed the tray on the end of Marlene's bed, flipping open her binder, "...an invitation." She yanked out an envelope with Ms Marlene McKinnon scrawled across it.
"Oh!" Marlene cried out happily, reaching her hands out to grab it.
"We didn't have your address."
Marlene paused, halfway through ripping off the envelope's seal, to look at Lily. "I know…"
"Look, no hard feelings," Lily explained, putting her hands up in a sign of truce. "You needed to stay. I understand."
"I'm sorry about the letter," Marlene began. Her eyes dropped guiltily. "It wasn't fair, I know. I knew it when I sent it. I just couldn't face it. After two months of getting to be away, I could finally breathe."
"Completely understandable," Lily nodded, sitting upon the edge of Marlene's bed.
She'd had time to think while Marlene had been under care in St. Mungo's, mostly during those frightening hours when they hadn't known her condition. What was the point in being angry? Marlene had been forced to endure something terrible and she hadn't known what to do but run. Lily could understand the feeling, she felt near doing it herself every morning.
"I knew if I came back…" Marlene's voice cut off as she began to choke on her words. Lily looked over in shock. It was a rare sight to have Marlene McKinnon tearing up about something. "I'd go running right back to him without a second thought." Lily frowned, watching Marlene struggling to get the words out. It was a feeling she'd often experienced throughout her summer caring for her mother.
"I needed to be on my own," Marlene announced finally. "I needed to say goodbye."
"And did you?"
"I'll always love him," Marlene assured her friend. "But he's never coming back. I can't spend my life feeling guilty."
"So, does that mean…?"
"I'm staying," Marlene promised Lily. "No more running."
Lily smiled with relief. "No more running," she agreed. She reached out, pulling Marlene into a cautious embrace; careful not to disrupt any injuries her friend still needed time healing. She passed over the cup of tea Maureen had prepared for her daughter, the two girls sharing the plate of cookies Lily had brought over.
It was as though four months had never passed between the two of them. They spoke just the way they had all those months back in the dorms at Hogwarts, cosied up side by side. Lily told Marlene about the work the Order had been doing during her absence and the wedding planning she'd been struggling through.
Marlene told her about her job in France. All the things she'd encountered moving as a spy underground. The number of times she'd come near death. She told her about the young man she'd befriended in her office, who she'd spent time with, growing familiar with the language and the city and then his murder.
"It stopped feeling like a safe haven pretty soon after that," Marlene announced somberly. Hours had passed since Lily's arrival but neither had moved much as they blurted out everything that needed sharing between them.
"I'm so sorry, Mar," Lily told her friend, holding her hand tight.
"I missed you," Marlene smiled. "All of you."
"Even my often clueless fiance?" Lily asked hopefully. She knew how tough it had been for James since Marlene's return, never knowing how much he should visit if he should at all. He'd slipped in a few times, mostly when she was asleep. He spent most of his time worrying, more than the rest of them did. It was torture for him not to be able to be with her when she was hurt.
"Him more than anyone," Marlene told her, Lily sighed a breath of relief.
"Really?"
"You'll tell him to come visit, won't you?"
"Are you kidding? He's been itching to come see you."
"I missed you, Lily," Marlene told her friend, eating her whole with her gaze. "God, I forgot how much I missed this," she motioned between them. "Having people around I can be myself with."
"Probably rather challenging working undercover with Death Eaters," Lily commented with a note of humour.
Alice and Dorcas sat on the ledge of the fountain in the Ministry's main foyer. They had a thirty-minute lunch break and were spending it eating ham and swiss sandwiches with a side of gossip. Alice was exhausted from the events of the past two weeks. Marlene's arrival home. The pile of Auror missions she'd been sent on.
"Remus said he went to see her a few days ago. She's doing better now, isn't she?"
"She's home. It's still a bit of a journey to her being fully healed but Mary says she's going to make a full recovery."
"And Sirius?"
"He's…dealing," Alice noted with a raise of her eyebrows. "You know him."
"More realistically, he's avoiding."
"It's just nice to have her home," Alice admitted. "To know where she is, that she's safe." She knew better than anyone else the hell Marlene had endured; she'd been a first-hand witness to it.
"He wouldn't want to see her torture herself," Dorcas stated surely. "I know she thinks she's got to make herself suffer to make up for everything he went through but he'd hate this."
It was easy for Alice to forget that Henry had been a good friend of Dorcas'. The pair had worked together in the Order and been close in age. She wondered how many drinks they'd shared, how many late nights they'd spent joking around together. Probably more than Dorcas cared to recall.
"Maybe sometimes it's easier to forgive than to be forgiven," Alice shrugged. The notion was more than true in her own life. There was a sudden commotion up ahead, pulling both her and Dorcas from the conversation at hand.
A woman's terrified scream enveloped the room, Alice and Dorcas jumping to their feet so fast their sandwiches went flying to the floor in a sad heap. Three people in Death Eater robes stepped forward, each with a different victim in their grasp, wands pointed threateningly to their necks.
"NO MORE MUDBLOODS!" the first one screamed, the usually bustling main floor gone hush.
"PURIFY THE BLOOD!"
Alice drew her wand from her back pocket, stepping towards the three with little concern for her own safety.
"DROP YOUR WANDS NOW!" she demanded, her booming voice catching even her by surprise. Dorcas was right at her side.
"JOIN THE DARK LORD AND SEE THE WIZARDING WORLD RETURNED TO GLORY!"
With the aim of a skilled witch, Alice hit one of the Death Eaters with a strong stunning spell, sending them flying backwards. The wizard who'd been held in their arms came scrambling forward, hiding behind Alice and Dorcas.
"GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM!" a Death Eater hollered. Alice pointed her wand at their forehead, ready to administer another curse, but before she had the chance they'd flicked their wand, slicing open the throat of the woman in their arms. The third Death Eater shot a curse into the air.
Dorcas hit them hard with one of her best stunning spells but the second Death Eater had already apparated away. The third victim fell to his knees, screaming in horror as he kneeled down by the woman beside him. Alice felt the hairs on her arms stand on end as she listened to the man's cries of grief.
"JENNY!" he sobbed. He held her in his arms, her robes soaked in blood. Alice ran forward, tears prickling at her eyes. The woman's eyes looked up in fear, her mouth slightly agape, a stream of blood leaking from the corner.
She wanted to say something, to offer some kind of condolence or hope, but she doubted anything could fix what had happened. From the elevators, a stream of Aurors came running towards the scene, led by Moody. He pushed Alice out of the way, approaching the dying woman as she took her final breaths.
"Alice!" Frank slung his arms around his wife before she had a chance to speak. She held him tight, her breathing rapid.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she assured him, staring over his shoulder at the crying man, who'd never have the same luxury of safety again.
It was early evening, just after six. The sun was set on the horizon and a trail of orange glistened across the sky. Remus might have found the view beautiful if he wasn't freezing his butt off. Despite the mitts and scarf he wore, the late October wind nipped harshly at his bare skin, promising a restless night.
He and Sirius were shoulder to shoulder, hidden behind a line of shrubbery just outside the gate of what appeared to be an abandoned church in the Surrey countryside. There had been complaints from Muggles in the area of lights at night and sounds echoing from the abandoned building that didn't belong there. Dumbledore had thought it best to send the two men to scope the place out.
"It has been three hours," Sirius grumbled, his breath coming out a line of white smoke.
"I'm aware."
"I can't feel my bloody feet. Let's just go in. If we find anything—"
"Don't be an idiot. If we go in now we have no idea what we're walking into, they'll have us cornered. We wait until we see any sign of life and then we act."
"There will be no life in this bush at that point," Sirius complained, wrapping his arms around himself.
Remus sighed heavily, his knees aching from hours of kneeling. He desperately craved a comfortable bed and a warm cup of tea. His mind drifted towards Dorcas; her soft feather comforter, the smell of cream tea which constantly wafted from the kitchen. He couldn't wait to head back to her place afterwards.
"So, Marlene's out of the hospital then?" Remus asked casually. Since Marlene's abrupt return his friend had mentioned her less than two times.
"So?"
"That's good, isn't it? She's in the clear then?"
"Do I look like a Healer to you?" Sirius snapped. It was as though a shield had shot up at just the mention of her name. Remus struggled to hide his smirk, bowing his head and rubbing his hands together.
"Alice mentioned that she's planning to stay—"
"Moony," Sirius interjected tensely. "I will punch you in the face if you bring up Marlene bloody McKinnon one more time."
"Whoa," Remus teased him, in dangerous territory now. "Someone's a little defensive."
"I'm not defensive," Sirius spat. "I just don't care all that much about Marlene, not anymore." Remus arched an eyebrow. That was a lie if he'd ever heard one. He knew from one look Sirius was still hung up on Marlene, even if he struggled to admit it himself.
"Okay," Remus shrugged. He shut up after that, settling into his position behind the bush. He could see Sirius staring at him from the corner of his eye as if there were something he desperately wanted to ask. Remus waited, patiently, for his friend to get over himself and work up the nerve. Besides, he had all night.
"Do you remember when they had us captive? In that house?" Sirius asked.
Remus turned to face him, the smile went from his face. He nodded, his expression gone dark. "Yeah, of course."
"Do you know who rescued me?" Remus thought it was a funny question to ask. What on Earth did it matter? Sirius was alive and well and the whole horror show was in the past. Yet, the question seemed of great importance to his friend. Sirius looked into Remus' eyes as if his answer was the difference between life and death.
"I don't know," Remus replied honestly. "I always figured it was the Aurors, with some assistance from the girls."
Sirius nodded, his expression gone blank. He turned back to face forward, eyes planted firmly on the building in front of them.
"Look there," Sirius urged, pointing towards a window in the far right corner. A green light flickered, like the flash from a wand, and then died down as though it'd never been there.
"Let's go," Remus urged, leading the way forward.
X
By the time Remus was tiptoeing into Dorcas' bedroom and sliding beneath her covers it was two in the morning. He knew he needed to shower, to wash off the blood and dirt which clung to his skin, but he decided that was a task better fit for the morning.
"Hi," Dorcas whispered, kissing Remus' hand as his arm wrapped around her.
"I missed you." Remus pressed his lips to Dorcas' temple. She sighed happily beneath him, rolling around to face Remus.
"You okay?" she asked, running her fingers through his hair. He figured it helped that there was no lighting to help illuminate some of the injuries he'd obtained during the night.
"I'm fine. We ran into a nasty group of Death Eaters. They were using the church to torture Muggles and Muggle-borns. Just for the fun of it. As if it were a sport." Dorcas winced beside him. "There were four of them and two of us but we knocked them all out. Moody came in with two Aurors and took them off."
"Look at you," Dorcas said with a smile. "You're like a real live superhero."
Remus laughed, letting his girlfriend roll over, resting her head on his bare chest. "I wouldn't go that far but I have gotten a few people confusing me with Clark Kent…"
"Oh, right," Dorcas scoffed.
Remus closed his eyes and let himself blissfully drift right towards the edge of sleep before he was yanked back by the memory of something Sirius had said.
"Hey, Doe," Remus spoke softly, using his nickname for Dorcas. "Babe." He gave her a soft shake.
"I don't like this," Dorcas complained, pressing her face into his chest, her breath tickling Remus' skin.
"Do you remember the big rescue mission? When James and Sirius were still being held for ransom?" Remus asked.
"Mm."
"Do you know who got Sirius out?" Remus had his hand running through Dorcas' long black hair as he asked the question. There was a slight pause and then she jumped up, propping herself up on her elbow so she could look at Remus eye to eye.
"Why?"
"Is it some sort of secret?"
Dorcas eyed him suspiciously; as though Remus were hiding something he really had no idea about. Finally, her gaze dropped, the wall crumbling down.
"It was Marlene," she answered him honestly. "That whole bloody rescue mission was Marlene."
Remus shook his head, scrambling to understand what his girlfriend could mean by that.
"It was Lily? I thought they were doing it together, for James, I thought…"
"Well, I'm clearly not with you for your brains," Dorcas quipped, Remus glaring at her. "You think Marlene put her entire relationship with Henry on the line for James?"
"They're like family—"
"Sure, she might have tried to get information out of him and tag along on the mission but she put Henry's entire reputation on the line. He was in shit with Dumbledore and Moody for weeks, mostly because while the rest of us knew he was dating Marlene no one high up had a clue."
"Maureen—"
"Oh, Maureen's out of it half the time, Marlene could do anything under her mother's nose. Besides, the point is, she tagged along on that mission when Henry explicitly told her not to and while James was a piece of the puzzle, he's not the one she nearly died saving."
"I thought that you guys showed up before they got either of them out? I thought—" Remus felt like his whole memory of the events was crumbling to pieces.
"We got held up dealing with the swarm of Death Eaters who attacked us while the girls were able to slip downstairs unnoticed. I only know what Amy and Alex told us about Marlene."
Remus was in too deep now. He stared at Dorcas expectantly, eyebrows raised with intrigue.
"Well?" he demanded.
"She got him out of the cell they had him locked in, knocked out a Death Eater on her own and apparated home. She dragged him to her backdoor and quite literally collapsed."
"And that's why Henry broke up with her?" Remus clarified, his eyes rounded in awe.
"He was bloody fuming. You should have seen him in those weeks afterwards…" Dorcas grinned nostalgically. "He was a right mess, but anytime we tried to help him out he claimed he was perfectly fine. He didn't want to admit how much he'd fallen for her."
Remus' heart ached. He could see it now. The pain Marlene had been in during those months after Henry's passing. She hadn't just missed her boyfriend – she'd blamed herself for his death. If not for the actual act than for the decreased quality of life he'd experienced prior.
"She loved him, didn't she?"
"Henry?" Dorcas asked, clueless as to what her boyfriend had caught on to.
Marlene felt utterly useless, confined to her bed for the majority of the day, left to do nothing but sleep and eat. Therefore, she was thrilled when Amy popped her head in Sunday morning and suggested sitting downstairs in the garden, now that the sun had emerged in full force.
Marlene twisted her blonde curls into a bun on top of her head – desperate to at least partially hide the fact she hadn't bathed in over a week – and slipped into one of her brother's Led Zeppelin sweaters and a pair of faded blue bell bottoms.
Amy helped her out of bed and down the stairs, levitating her so she need not walk any of the steps. The two sisters lay out across lawn chairs in the backyard, facing the meadow that seemed to stretch on for miles. Amy lay a quilt over Marlene like the overbearing mother she'd become. She had Franny out with them, rocking her back and forth in the pram between their chairs.
Marlene was terrified at how big her niece had grown in her absence. The last time she'd seen Franny she'd been no bigger than the length of Marlene's forearm. She now had a full head of blonde hair and her features had grown far more defined. With her big blue eyes which sparkled in the sun and a smile – which remained toothless.
"She's missed you," Amy told her. Marlene had her finger in the pram, letting Franny toy with it, placing it in her mouth and biting down with her squishy gums. "You should have never left."
"You left," Marlene shot back at her sister. She was tired of hearing about what a terrible choice she'd made leaving her home behind. Her aching ribs offered enough reminder of that.
"I didn't nearly get myself killed," Amy noted. A wind bristled against them, Marlene pulling her quilt up farther over her shoulders. She was happy now that her sister had brought it out. Fall had arrived in due fashion and it would not be ignored.
"Did you meet anyone over there?" Amy asked with an air of scandal.
"It wasn't about that."
"But you have to have had someone? Some guy you fancied? Someone you were shagging?"
Marlene shook her head. She hadn't bothered with any of that. She'd spent her months alone, focused solely on work and herself. It had been the most refreshing experience.
"Is it Henry then?" Amy asked her. "Is he the reason why you can't?"
Marlene didn't dignify the question with an answer. Instead, she crossed her arms, staring off straight ahead of her. Amy sighed heavily, leaning back in her own seat.
"You don't let anyone in," her sister scolded her. "You're too guarded for your own good."
The sound of someone clearing their throat from behind them distracted Amy long enough to stop her from pestering Marlene.
"James!" she cried out cheerfully. "Come by to see the patient then?"
Marlene looked over her shoulder, James standing behind her, a smile on his face. He pushed up his square frames as he moved past Amy, taking the seat she'd risen from.
"I hope it's okay if I stay?"
"Yeah," Marlene nodded, tugging at her quilt awkwardly. The ease that had once lain between them as old friends had been replaced with a sea of distance and tension.
Amy disappeared back into the house, pulling Franny along with her, a grin on her face. Marlene had wondered when James would finally pluck up the courage to pop by. Four days into being home, she was beginning to get worried he wouldn't show.
"It's nice to see you looking alive again," James remarked with a smirk. Marlene smiled, leaning back in her chair. She wasn't quite sure how to handle the conversation, her fingers shaking the slightest.
"James, I…" Marlene bit down hard on her lip to stop herself from crying. "I'm so sorry."
"What?"
"I acted like a total ass at the end of the year…"
"You called me out on my bullshit, which I totally deserved."
"I was horrible," Marlene told him, shaking her head.
During her solitary months in France, she'd had more than enough time to think about her old friend. It seemed so pointless, the farther Marlene got from it, to freeze out someone who meant so much to her. James, who was more like family than just another friend, who would do anything in the world she needed.
It was James' face more than any other that Marlene had craved to see when she opened her eyes in St. Mungo's. Filled with fear and in terrible pain, she wanted to hear his voice promise nothing would ever come to hurt her.
"The truth is, I blamed you for something that wasn't your fault for a very long time. I thought that getting you out of my life would solve the problems that were caused by me."
"I miss you, Mar," James admitted. His hazel eyes were filled with guilt and remorse as he stared over at her. The separation the pair had endured hadn't been fun for either of them. It felt to Marlene like for the past few months a part of her had been missing. A piece of her family. "I love you."
Marlene smiled, the sides of her eyes crinkling, "I love you too. You're a pain in my ass, but a well missed one."
James lunged from his seat to pull Marlene into an embrace, a delicate one at that. She pressed her face into his chest, inhaling the familiar scent he carried, one she'd missed so much. She felt like she'd truly come home.
"Don't you ever scare me like that again, McKinnon," James instructed her with a stern finger.
Sirius had enjoyed a quiet day after his mission with Remus. He'd done nothing but sleep, eat, read the Prophet, and tinker with his bike a bit, taking it out for a late night ride. By eleven he'd tucked himself into bed, ready for an early evening before he was due in for an Order meeting too early in the morning.
That was, he'd planned to have a quiet evening in until there was a rather demanding knock at his door. Sirius was drawn from the warm covers he had cosied himself beneath, trudging towards the entrance of the apartment.
"There better be a bloody good reason for this interruption," Sirius groaned, widening his door to find Remus waiting. The wizard grinned mischievously, hands tucked into his jean pockets.
"Sorry," he apologised, not sounding the slightest bit sincere. "Dorcas is working tonight. I tend to lose track of time when she's not around."
"Cut to the chase, Moony," Sirius urged his friend. He was always grumpy when woken up.
"Ask her," Remus told him. Sirius cocked his head to the side with confusion.
"Sorry?"
"Ask her about that night, okay?"
"What're you on about—"
"Oh shut it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Just do it, okay? Don't fuck it up." Remus smirked. "I'll let you return to your beauty sleep." He turned for the stairs. "See ya."
Sirius doubted he'd catch a wink after that.
He tried rolling back into bed but it didn't matter how long he lay there, there was no comfortable position. He read. Drank a cup of tea. After a while, there was little that could help distract him in the apartment and he took hold of his helmet, heading for the front door.
Sirius drove for what felt like hours, soaring above the quiet homes, all the Muggles asleep for the night. He knew that no matter how hard he tried, no matter how long he spent steering himself in the opposite direction, he'd end up landing at the bottom of the road that twisted and curved up to the McKinnon's front door.
He stood before their front door for longer than he was sure could be considered acceptable. The lights in the house were all off, promising him that Maureen would not be pleased with another abrupt arrival. He should just leave. Turn around and get back on his motorcycle.
That was what he should do. Sirius had never been very good at doing what he was supposed to. Instead, he dug his hands into his pockets and moved along the side of the house, slipping out back.
He knew which window belonged to Marlene but it was a little disorienting figuring out where Danny's bedroom lay. Travelling to the other side of the house, Sirius stared up at the darkened window, scooping up a handful of garden stones.
He flicked them towards her window, one after another, until he saw the dull yellow glow of light and the curtains were drawn to the side, Marlene illuminated against the glass. She looked at him for a while, as though soaking him in, before pulling the window open.
"What are you doing?"
"Come talk to me."
"I am a recovering patient!"
Sirius sighed impatiently. "Fine," he shrugged. "I'll come to you then." He charged towards the drainpipe, Marlene calling out for him to stop before he could leap for it.
"Just…wait," she instructed him, sighing with relief as Sirius held back. She disappeared back into her bedroom, leaving him outside with nothing to do but wait. He paced back and forth, running his fingers through his hair.
Sirius recited the speech he'd prepared, during his ride over, in his head. Sirius Black did not get nervous, he knew how to keep his head screwed on straight, and yet he couldn't escape the terribly unsettling feeling he experienced from the pit of his stomach.
The back door slid open, Marlene stepping outside. She was in pyjama pants, a large woolly sweater hanging below her butt. She had her arms wrapped protectively around herself; the sleeves so long her hands were lost in them.
"What is it?" she asked. "What's happened?"
Sirius wondered, standing there, eye to eye with her, whether he had the guts to ask. With her blue eyes looking at him so expectantly and her blonde hair dangling before her eyes the way that always got his heart pounding.
"You lied to me," he stated bluntly, Marlene's eyes widening in shock.
"Sorry?"
"The rescue mission," he clarified, standing tall. "Who got me out of that room?"
There was no turning back now.
...
