Prompt: Join Me

Pairing: McStrange, implied McMalfoy.

Note: Marlene and Rabastan were best friends growing up, until he became a Death Eater and she went to the order.

It was the Malfoy's annual Christmas Ball, something the McKinnon's hadn't been invited too in a while, but for some reason this year they had been. It wasn't the same as the normal pureblood functions, James wasn't here with her this time and this occasion was far more important and formal than any normal cotillions they attended. Marlene knew she had to be careful, she couldn't put a toe out of line here because there would be consequences.

Marlene was looking around for both Meda and something to drink when she felt a presence beside her. Rabastan. Marlene sucked in a breath, she hadn't seen or spoken to Rabastan since their conversation in the courtyard where their friendship had all but ended.

Pressing her lips into a tight line, Marlene turned to look at him. Rabastan held out a hand, asking her to dance. "Indulge me, Miss McKinnon," he said and once upon a time his tone would have been playful. Now it was just stiff. Meda was nowhere to be seen, and there was nothing else to save Marlene so she had no choice but to accept his hand and allow him to lead her onto the dance floor. She would've had to dance with him at some point, it was obligatory at these balls to dance with everyone. She just would've rathered put it off longer.

"Marley," he began as they danced effortlessly like they and so many times before, mindlessly following the steps they'd been taught since birth. He was silent for a while, before finally looking her in the eye. Marlene resisted the urge to flinch at the nickname. She knew what was coming.

"Don't, Rab," she sighed, shaking her head. "Please don't start."

But he was nothing if not persistent. "Marley, please. You could join us, you're already with Lucius. If you joined us his family might consider shifting the engagement from Narcissa to you. Then you wouldn't have to live without him."

Anger flared in Marlene's eyes. "Do you really think me so shallow, Rabastan, that I would join a terrorist organisation just to be with Lucius? My answer is, and always will be, no."

Rabastan shook his head stubbornly. "Your place is with us, Marley. Can't you see that? You're a pureblood, and you're one of the last McKinnons left. You belong here, in this life."

Marlene laughed bitterly. "Right, so I belong to a society that will treat me like s trophy, passing me off to the highest bidder who is probably a wife beating, Muggle torturing Death Eater where I'll become just another empty headed socialite. Forgive me if I don't see the appeal."

"You don't understand," he hissed as they turned around each other, palsm facing each others but not touching. "If the McKinnon's weren't neutral, you'd be near royalty. Up there with the Blacks and the Malfoys. Despite your questionable loyalties, the McKinnons are a powerful family. With the right loyalties, you could flourish. Why can't you see? Why can't you see the power you would have? The prestige?"

"And what? Just abandon my friends for what, power? Do you not know me at, Rabastan?"

It was times like these that Marlene most keenly felt the distance between them. Where once upon a time they knew each other like the backs of their hands, now it was the opposite. Marlene didn't recognize the man that stood in front of her. The boy that she had once called her best friend, who hated the politics and used to wreak havoc with her when they were little was long gone. The familiar sadness welled up inside of her, but she forced it down, avoiding his eyes.

"Was I not your friend, Marlene?" He shot back, eyes blazing like hers. Both of them struggled to regain their tempers, things always got ugly when they fought. "Did you not abandon me when you chose Gryffindor over Slytherin? When you started spending more time with Potter and less with me?"

Marlene gaped for a minute, hurt and anger written all over her face. "You picked them over me first, Rabastan," she said quietly, voice bitter with heartbreak. "You broke all your promises to me and you picked HIM and your family over me. I will not join you, Rabastan and nothing you can say or do will make me. Just like nothing I can say or do will make you leave them and join us."

Not caring that the song hadn't actually ended yet, Marlene detangled herself from Rabastan and left the Manor to sit out on the grounds, ignoring the curious stares of everyone around her and not once looking back.