It should be known that at this point things at Hogwarts had cooled down for the rest of the school. Months had passed since the last major incident that blatantly pointed out the Death Eaters at Hogwarts. James's trip to the Hospital wing was a subject vastly discussed but no one felt the need to take sides. While certain people were avoided, the houses now mingled freely as they did in the years before. The Great Hall's house tables were guidelines easily and enthusiastically ignored. Even the Professor's ignored their assigned seats as they talked over dinner, Dumbledore excluded; he remained in his high backed chair, deep in thought as his fingers leisurely tapped his chin, his meal long forgotten. His eyes snaked up and down the four tables and back again. The corners of his mouth twitch into a smile when he saw first-year Gilderoy Lockhart laugh so hard pumpkin juice squirted out of his nose. Not far down the way was Regulus Black, little Barty Crouch, and Lucas Nicnevin, watching in aw as a seventh year transfigured his own fingers into silverware. Even further along the way was a large clump of stubborn Gryffindor boys. They were perhaps the loudest and seemed to have the most fun. Dumbledore paused on this group, his forefinger tracing the curved of his bottom lip. Then came a smaller group; Persephone Machault, Mary MacDonald, and Bertha Jorkins having a rather intense discussion.
Bertha's mouth was moving at a mile a minute as the younger girls hung to every word she uttered. Mary and Persephone were closeted gossipers and usually only hung around Bertha where not too many people would see them but when Bertha Jorkins takes you by the hand and whispers "you will not believe what I just found out!" she was hard to resist. Mary quietly led Bertha and Persephone next to a loud group so they wouldn't be overheard and were less likely to be seen with everyone's attention being on Gabe Pevensie's baritone echoing out a crude version of a common Christmas carol.
"First, Johnie Waters is a total lesbian," Bertha started before she had even settled onto the bench. "Second, there's an entire club of them."
"You know being a lesbian doesn't make you a circus freak, right?" Persephone asked with narrowed eyes.
"Oh, I know that!" Bertha said, waving her off. "The point is, there's an entire club of them, like a big club, right under our noses and no one knows about it. Except for them."
Mary focused all her energy on remaining seated while she bit her tongue. She may have been a gossip but she was a gossip with boundaries and those boundaries were clear when it came to her friends. She longed for nothing more than to jump up and tell Marlene.
"So where do they meet?" Mary asked. If she couldn't run to Marlene she could at least gather more information.
"I don't. Johnie wouldn't tell me anything, she denied the whole thing," Bertha told her. She went into how rude Johnie was.
"But how do they join if no one knows about it?" Mary interrupted.
"Just like any other secret club, I guess, they come to you," Bertha said. "They probably watch to see who's checking out other girls or - hey, there's a thought." Bertha thrummed her fingers on the table wearing an expression that could only mean trouble.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Persephone asked Mary, her tone implying that she'd very much like to get out of there before Bertha dragged them into whatever insane plan she was hatching.
"Probably," Mary said, nodding in agreement. The younger girls quickly gathered their things and scampered off.
"Hey, wait! What were you thinking?" Bertha called after them.
Neither of them looked back. They zigzagged through the strewn rucksacks and went straight to Marlene. They sat down so suddenly that they startled poor Alice Prewett into spilling her stew into her lap.
"Sorry!" Persephone scrambled for napkins while Alice calmly used her wand to clean up the mess.
"No worries," Alice said, pushing the stew away from her to avoid further injury.
"Marls," Mary said, "I have something important to tell you."
"It's huge," Persephone added. "Life altering huge!"
"Alright. Out with it," Marlene said, giving them her full attention.
Mary hesitated. She knew Marlene and Alice were close, as close as sisters, but had Marlene told Alice yet?
"There's a club that you should talk to Johnie Waters about joining," Mary said.
"Johnie Waters?" Marlene asked in disbelief. "As in the Slytherin Quidditch Captain Johnie Waters?"
"The one and only," Persephone said. Mary, hearing the defensiveness in her voice, made a point to smile at her.
"Right, well no offense Seph - or you Mary, but why would I want to join a club with Johnie Waters?" Marlene questioned.
Mary hadn't thought about that and she didn't know how to argue her point without forcefully outing Marlene.
"Let's just say you two might have more in common than you think," Persephone said.
Mary nodded enthusiastically.
Marlene sighed. She didn't seem as excited about this as Mary hoped she would be.
"Marls, she's interested in what your interested in," Mary said, the implications so heavily there she was afraid the second years next to them would catch on. When her meaning finally dawned on Marlene she was taken aback, speechless even.
"So, it's some sort of Quidditch club, but for all the teams?" Alice asked, seeming interested herself.
"No, it's a different interest," Persephone answered, awkwardly.
Marlene simply stared at Mary with an unfathomable expression. For a moment Mary thought Marlene was upset with her: Maybe she thought Mary had told Johnie about their shared interest.
"Johnie Waters?" Marlene said again in disbelief.
"Yup," Mary said, relieved.
"I mean… what! Wasn't she with Cresswell? And that other bloke?" Marlene asked.
"Yeah, but you were with -"
"Yeah, but this is Johnie Waters!" Marlene exclaimed. People were beginning to look.
Alice seemed to catch onto what was going on, which was somewhat of a relief. They no longer had to speak in half-hidden sentences.
"Marly," Alice took Marlene's hand, "go talk to her."
Marlene didn't need telling twice. She walked speedily toward the Slytherin table for the first time in probably ever, got halfway there, and turned back.
"Come with me," Marlene said, offering her hand to Mary. She was somewhat surprised that she hadn't offered her hand to Alice but she took it gladly. How they were going to get Johnie Waters to listen to them, on Slytherin territory, and after she had been attacked by Bertha Jorkins, was beyond her.
This time Marlene didn't stop walking or dragging Mary until she stopped abruptly in front of Johnie.
Mary vaguely remembered Eilidh referring to Johnie as a badass, this was before they understood the depth of the Slytherin/Gryffindor rivalry, but she did look like someone Eilidh would consider badass. Johnie could only be described as a punk with her messily chopped and poorly bleached hair, dark makeup, loud, clashing patterned clothes, ripped up tights, and safety pinned boots. She watched Marlene and Mary approach through her peripheral vision, dropped her bread roll when Marlene screeched to a halt in front of her and flicked the crumbs off her fingers. She was surprised to see them, Mary could tell, but was making an effort to not convey this emotion. Marlene didn't seem to be able to speak and Mary didn't know what to say. The three of them stared at each other.
"Yeah?" Johnie demanded.
"Sorry," Marlene said, seeming to wake up from some sort of haze. "Sorry, this was a dare. Stupid kid thing, you know?" Marlene walked away faster than she did coming.
"Er…" Mary didn't know where the boundaries were with this one. Was this something she should push Marlene into? It was for her own good. But how could she push Marlene into something she wasn't ready for?
Johnie blinked at her expectantly. Mary said nothing as she walked away.
She found Marlene jumping in a far corner, shaking the nerves out of her hands.
"Marls?" Mary approached, slowly, ready to run for Lily or Alice or whoever Marlene needed.
"Yeah. No. I'm good. I'm good," she drawled out the last word like she was trying to convince herself of it. "Ooh, desserts starting!"
Not a word was spoken for the rest of the night about Johnie, about secret clubs, or none the likes. They stuck to safe topics like Quidditch or class assignments and study schedules. It dawned on Mary that she might have to do a risky and possibly brave thing, though she still didn't know if it was the right thing.
She decided to talk Johnie after dinner. Maybe Johnie would be willing to give Mary a name, someone who wouldn't be as intimidating to Marlene as Johnie was. Or at least give her some advice on how to be more supportive of Marlene during this time. Whatever this time was, it was obviously difficult for her. And she was sure the Johnie would understand and not say anything to anyone about Marlene. So it was decided.
Mary very casually fell behind her group of friends as they left with the main crowd. Johnie, as usual, still sat at the Slytherin table, waiting for the crowd to settle before making her way out. She didn't know which would be better, to approach Johnie again, or wait for her by the doors. She decided to wait. Mary took out her reading assignment for Charms while she did, so she wouldn't get bored and impatient. This turned out to be a mistake because Johnie probably realized that Mary was waiting for her, decided to scare her by sneaking up behind her, and uttered a gruff, "what?"
Mary gasped, jumped, and stuffed her book back into her bag.
"Erm, hi," Mary said, straightening her hair. "I'm Mary MacDonald. And my friend was Marlene McKinnon."
"Good for you and your friend. What do you want from me?" Johnie questioned.
"Er, nothing really. My friend… she's. Well, she's like you," Mary said. Johnie looked at her like she was the stupidest person in all of Hogwarts and indeed she felt like it. "I mean she likes girls."
"Okay?" Johnie said.
"I was just hoping you could befriend her or give some advice at least," Mary shrugged, feeling more foolish with every word she spoke.
"Best advice I can give you is don't tiptoe around her like she's got some fucking disease. You can be friends with the werewolf chick you can be friends with her, no problem," Johnie scoffed.
Mary didn't even know where to begin with that statement so she left it alone.
"Okay, what about the club?" Mary asked.
"You don't get to know about that," Johnie said, defensively.
"But does Marlene?" Mary pressed.
Johnie started to back away.
"When she's ready," she said, which sounded like a promise.
"Is there someone she can talk to, to help her get ready?" Mary had to almost yell after Johnie.
"Don't worry about it!" Johnie told her, right before she disappeared into the dungeons.
Great. So she outed her friend behind her back and the only thing she got out of it was don't treat her like a leaper. She was going to tell Eilidh about how much her proclaimed badass sucked at giving advice in the hopes that she would know what to do to make this right.
***Sorry guys, it's the holiday season and I work in retail, it's the busiest time for me.
As always, thank you for your patience and for reading.
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Until next time,
XO