A/N: Slightly longer chapter. I apologise if the quality isn't that great. I'm still getting into the flow of this story, but I promise that there's lots of awesome stuff to come and I'm thinking of pursuing this with a sequel if it all goes to plan. Remember, reviews are like honeydukes chocolate!

Chapter 2: Quite A Fright

"And if it gets too unbearable you know you're welcome to come and stay with me…" Lily said, tearfully, hugging Marlene goodbye.
"Yes, yes, Lily. It's not like you've confirmed that fifty times or anything," laughed Marlene. "Now stop being silly, and go find your parents!" Marlene rolled her eyes, as Lily hugged her one last time.
"You ready, Moo?" James came over to the girls, lugging his suitcase behind him.
"Moo?" Lily raised an eyebrow, questioningly.
"When James was little he couldn't say Marlene or Marley, and somehow his four year old brain translated it to Moo and it kinda stuck, didn't it Jamie?" James flushed red.
"Now that nickname I can understand," Lily rolled her eyes. "See ya in September Marls!" Lily hurried off to find her parents.
"Is she not going to see you before?" asked James, his voice tinged with disappointment.
"There's no way in hell that Lily would ever come to see me if I was within a ten mile radius of you, let alone in your house!" Marlene told him, pitifully.
"Marlene! James!" Marlene turned to see Loretta Potter waving her and James over.
"Aunt Etta!" She ran towards her, as the lady with greying red hair enwrapped her in a warm hug. "Uncle Charlus!" Charlus Potter, who looked remarkably like James, smiled warmly at the young girl in front of him.
"Hello, Marley," His deep voice was enriched with authority, but his blue eyes were dancing. Mr. Potter was the sort of person who made most want to crawl into a hole and hide, but for Marlene he was a friendly figure.
"Mum! Dad!" James hugged his parents. "I hope you don't mind but Sirius is going to come and stay after the first week…"
"I'll give it a day!" Mrs. Potter's laugh was a silvery tinkle. "No, dear, of course that's fine. Sirius is like a second son to us- you know that!"
"Indeed," Mr. Potter agreed. "I would warn you not to cause any trouble, but I know my efforts would be wasted!" James grinned.
"Well, you know me and Padfoot dad…"
"So Marlene, dear, how have you been?" Mrs. Potter asked Marlene, who's face had turned stony at the mention of Sirius. She quickly replaced her glare with a sweet smile.
"Fantastic thank you, Auntie," she replied. "Have you spoken to my mother recently?"
"Unfortunately not any elaboration on what she told you I suppose," said Mrs. Potter, her face a little bit dismayed.
"The details on your mother and father's attack is very sparse, Marlene," Mr. Potter informed. "The aurors have no problem identifying why they would be targeted, but as a safety precaution, we must keep contact limited."
"That's a real shame," Marlene sighed.
"But hey, Marls, you'll have a great time with us!" James punched her arm playfully. Marlene smiled gratefully at him.
"Thanks Jamie," she said. "So what about my brothers and sister?"
"Well, as you know, Scarlett is living in Newcastle with her fiance and…I can't remember what her baby's name is," Mr. Potter scratched his head, a frown etched across his face.
"Audrey," Marlene offered. "So is she remaining there? Has it been deemed safe?"
"They have remained in Newcastle, yes, but their location has been altered. Jude is in Wales, with his wife and daughter, Perseus is in Northern Ireland with his wife and children, Tobias has been moved to Scotland with his family and Theodore and his wife have remained in England."
"I'm not going to see any of them then," Marlene sighed.
"I'm afraid not," Mr. Potter said grimly, placing a comforting hand on Marlene's back. "But I promise you Marlene, the aurors are doing everything in their power to put an end to this war, and bring your family back to safety." There was a solemn silence while everyone processed the information. To Marlene, it suddenly felt so more real. The prospect of losing her family, her mum and dad, her brothers and sister, all her nieces and nephews made her want to cry- something that Marlene McKinnon never did!
"Well, now, that's enough of this talk!" Mrs. Potter clapped her hands sharply. "I will not have our summer destroyed by this Lord Voldemort." Involuntarily, Marlene winced. She was not used to hearing his name spoken so outright. "I've head that Winkle has a marvellous spread on the go back home; not that I didn't insist I could cook myself of course!"
Winkle was the Potter family house elf, and insisted on doing everything despite Mrs. Potter's insistence that she was perfectly capable of doing the cooking and cleaning herself. After desperately trying to stop Winkle doing all the work, an attempt which failed, Mr and Mrs. Potter settled by paying her. After all, they did not want to keep the innocent house elf as a slave when she was so very loyal to them. And regardless of the war looming over their heads, the thought of one of Winkle's dinners was still mouth watering to Marlene.

After a fantastic dinner, Marlene had requested to be excused from the table, to which Mrs. Potter exclaimed that she was 'silly for even asking' and practically pushed her from the room. Which is why Marlene was now sitting on her bed, holding the photo of her family, which was taken last summer, shortly after the birth of Jude and his wife Rebecca's daughter Annie. A knock sounded at her bedroom door.
"Come in!" Marlene called.
"You okay?" James asked, as he entered the room, sitting down on her bed. Marlene nodded silently.
"I kinda guessed you'd be missing your family," he gestured to the photo. Marlene nodded again. They sat in silence for a moment before James spoke again.
"It's odd to look at this and see all the boys grown up and married. I can remember playing Quidditch with them when I was about seven in your back garden. I thought I was so cool hanging out with all the 'big boys'," James laughed.
"Oh yeah, I remember," Marlene said, mock bitterly. "You lot would never let me and Scarlett join in 'cause we were girls. I hated you all for that, but Scarlett didn't mind. She'd much rather be playing with dolls or doing her hair." Marlene rolled her eyes.
"You didn't like Scarlett much back then, did you?"
"Nope!" Marlene giggled. "She used to be so prissy and full of herself. She really was mother's daughter. But Hogwarts kind of changed her, and she's one of the coolest people I know now."
"I'm glad you two get along now," James nodded. "The arguments used to annoy the hell out of us. Even if you didn't get along though, you'd still love her and miss her. Trust me, Sirius annoys the hell out of me sometimes, but I'd never wish any bad on him."
"Black annoys the hell out of me all the time…and I've wished bad on him lots." Marlene grinned, and James laughed. Who knows? Marlene thought to herself, this summer mightn't be so bad after all.

Marlene awoke with a start. That was an…odd dream, she thought to herself. The dream consisted of Sirius Black turning up on the Potters' doorstep, badly beaten and bruised. Marlene tried to shake the thoughts, the images of Sirius' beaten body from her head, and go back to sleep, but she couldn't. It was so vivid.
For a while, Marlene lay on her back, eyes fixed to the ceiling, before deciding that her efforts were hopeless, and got up to fetch a glass of water. Quietly, she padded downstairs, wand firmly affixed in her dressing gown pocket. She stepped into the kitchen, and was almost immediately greeted by a loud crack. Marlene stifled a scream as she jumped a mile into the air.
"What can I get Miss. Marlene?" Winkle bowed down before her.
"Merlin Winks!" Marlene gasped. "You gave me a fright!"
"Winkle apologises for her behaviour, bad Winkle!" She slapped herself on the forehead.
"No, no, it's okay," Marlene insisted, grabbing her wrist to stop her. "Just a glass of water." Winkle poured out the glass of water and handed it to Marlene with a low bow.
"Thanks Winks," smiled Marlene gratefully. "I'll just be going up to bed now."
"Of course Miss. Marlene," Winkle nodded understandingly before apparating with a loud crack. Just as Marlene was about to leave for her bedroom, she heard a loud noise emerge from the living room.
She drew her wand from her dressing gown pocket.
"Lumos," she whispered, padding cautiously against the wall, through the kitchen, reaching the door of the lounge. She took a deep breath, before pushing the door open and yelling.
"Who's there?"
"M-M-McKinnon…" the voice spluttered. Marlene looked to her feet and saw none other than Sirius Black lying there, weak and badly battered.
"Merlin's Beard, Black! What the hell happened to you?!" But before Sirius had the chance to stutter a reply, he slipped out of consciousness.
"Black!" Marlene shook his hand. "Black…wake up…Sirius, come on, wake up. Stop fooling around…" Marlene's stomach lurched as she realised that Sirius wasn't waking up. "AUNT ETTA! UNCLE CHARLUS! JAMES!" Marlene screamed at the top of her voice, desperately trying to catch someone in the house's attention whilst checking Sirius' almost non-existent pulse.
"Come on Sirius, wake up. Please…"
"Marlene is everything all-Oh Merlin, Sirius!" Loretta Potter immediately rushed to her surrogate son's side, Mr. Potter in quick pursuit.
"Marley, what's going on…?" James asked Marlene.
"I don't know, James! I just was getting a glass of water and I heard a crash and I came here and Sirius was there, and I didn't know what to do, because he said my name then blacked out, and I'm scared he's not going to be okay and-"
"Shhh," James soothed, pulling her into a hug. "Sirius will be fine. I just know it." Marlene wished she could believe him, but it was hard to, when James didn't believe himself.