"We're here." Kingsley said simply, gesturing to a small, run-down cabin about a hundred metres ahead of them. "This is where she's been staying, according to what we've found."
"Why here?" Frank wondered out loud.
"The O'Connell family owns this property, and that was her mother's maiden name." Mad-Eye responded. "It hasn't been used in years though."
"Are you sure she's here?" Frank asked Kingsley as they approached it.
He nodded. "As sure as I can be."
Mad-Eye was the first one to notice the distinct lack of a door, and that said door was laying on the grass in front of the house. He instantly whipped out his wand, and without hesitation the others followed his cue.
"What's – oh." Frank stopped himself as he noticed the door.
"There's someone in there." Mad-Eye said, and as they got closer he cursed under his breath. "It's Albus."
Sirius roared in anger, and before any of the others could stop him he dashed towards the cabin with his wand raised.
"Marlene!" He yelled as he crossed the threshold, instantly pointing his wand at Dumbledore.
"Sirius?!" She jumped up out of her seat, and she drew her wand out of instinct. "What in the bloody hell – how did you find me?!" She noticed Mad-Eye at the door behind him. "Nevermind." She scoffed with half a grin. "Hello, Mad-Eye."
"Good to see you, McKinnon. Wish I could say the same to you, Albus." Mad-Eye growled as he stepped in, with his wand aimed the same direction as Sirius'.
"Alastor, please. After all we've been through together, you're choosing the wrong side of things." Dumbledore hardly flinched at the noises and the wands pointed at him; rather, he kept his hands folded in his lap and didn't move.
"Wrong side? You're calling your attempt to kidnap my Godson and your decades of lies about his heritage and Gellert's actions a 'side', like we're some sort of dark force waging war against you?" Sirius countered.
"Gellert has corrupted your mind, Sirius. See what I mean, Maria?"
"Gellert has done nothing of the sort. He's told me the truth, something you've never done."
"I've never lied to you, Sirius."
"You haven't?" Sirius laughed coldly. "Tell me then. Why is it that I distinctly remember you telling me that my brother was murdered by Aurors?"
"Regulus was killed in the line of duty. He chose his side." Dumbledore responded dismissively.
"Liar!" Sirius screamed, and he took several steps forward to point his wand directly into Dumbledore's face. "Voldemort killed him himself! He tried to get out! You knew that, and you lied to me!"
"Where did you hear that?" Dumbledore looked surprised, but he still didn't get up or look away from Sirius' face, even as Kingsley and Frank entered the room with their wands pointed at him too.
"Barty Crouch Junior told me before he died. Bellatrix killed him in front of me for trying to desert them while they were attacking us at the Longbottoms'." Sirius' voice cracked. "They were children, Dumbledore. They didn't understand what was going on until it was too late. They tried to get out."
"And this is why I gave the order to not use lethal spells." Dumbledore shrugged, avoiding the rest of what Sirius said. "Everybody deserves a second chance."
Marlene and Mad-Eye both scoffed at that.
"That's a pile of dragon dung and you know it, Albus." Mad-Eye retorted.
"I didn't go through everything I went through in the basement of the Malfoys just for them to get off with a slap on the wrist." Marlene said darkly.
Everyone looked at her with wide eyes, but her gaze was fixed angrily on Dumbledore.
"I couldn't possibly care less whether or not Lucius Malfoy says he was under the Imperius curse. I don't believe him for a damned moment. And the rest of those Death Eater supporting assholes who thought they could get away with what they did to Muggleborns and their supporters, the ones I've killed and the ones I've yet to kill, can burn in hell. I don't believe in second chances for people like that."
Dumbledore was silent as he stared at Marlene. "I'm so sorry for whatever they did to you." He finally said in an irritatingly calm voice. "But killing people in revenge isn't the answer –"
"Bullshit!" She yelled, and the rest of them could see sparks on her fingers. "I don't expect some prat like you to understand what they did to me. I would never tell you even though I'm sure I'd love to traumatize the living hell out of you by going into detail. You've never had everything taken away from you like this –"
Suddenly Dumbledore rose to his feet with an enraged expression on his face. "Don't you ever dare assume you know what has and hasn't been taken away from me. You have no idea what has happened to me in my life. You have no idea what I've lost!"
"It's nothing compared to what you've taken away from everybody else." Sirius cut in, and Dumbledore looked at him murderously. "Gellert told me what you did to his son and daughter-in-law, and how you framed him for his own wife's murder, and there's so much more that you've done that you've blamed on other people. I'm surprised nobody has convicted you for that crap yet."
"I have power, Sirius. I have connections and people and there's nothing you or Gellert or anybody can do to stop me." Dumbledore responded angrily. "If you want to bring me down, I dare you to try."
"You don't want that."
Everyone turned to look at Kingsley, who looked just as angry as Dumbledore.
"Professor Dumbledore, I assure you, you don't want that. We haven't done much to you in these last few years because we believed that the children and staff of Hogwarts needed you. But you're a threat, Dumbledore. If we want to bring you down, I assure you, we will."
"You couldn't possibly." Dumbledore snarled, but there was fear in his bright blue eyes as he spoke.
"If I say one word of any of this conversation or anything else I know about you to Amelia Bones, we could take you down quite easily." Mad-Eye threatened.
Dumbledore reached for his wand, but the reflexes of three Aurors and two almost-Aurors were far faster than he anticipated, and he was instantly disarmed.
"And now you've attempted to attack a Senior Auror." Kingsley stated in a dark matter-of-fact tone, and he sent a powerful stunning charm at the Headmaster.
Dumbledore fell to his knees, but he was still conscious. He wordlessly cast a tripping jinx on Kingsley, who indeed tripped.
Sirius cast a Stunner at Dumbledore's chest, instinct causing him to try to protect his friends, but he was not expecting to see that he had been hit with two Stunners at once. He looked in surprise over at Marlene, who was also pointing her wand directly at Dumbledore's chest. She looked back at him briefly but looked back at Dumbledore's unconscious body with a flush across her face.
"I guess we have to bring him in now." Mad-Eye grunted. "I was not looking forward to the day we had to bring Albus down."
"I don't like it either, but I suppose that's what happens when you do what he did for so long, thinking that you're immune to consequences." Frank sighed. "I don't know what Hogwarts is going to do without him."
Sirius lowered his wand and stepped towards Marlene, looking at her fully for the first time. "Marlene…?"
She didn't respond, or even look at him. Her gaze was still fixated on Dumbledore and her eyes were filling with tears, but she had lowered her own wand as well.
"Marlene, sweetheart, look at me." He pleaded, reaching for her hand.
She flinched away from him. "Please don't touch me. Don't look at me. Stay away!"
Sirius was shocked. "What…?"
"You don't want me. You can't want me. I'm not who you think I am anymore."
"I do want you." He responded in a hurt voice. "I've always wanted you. I haven't stopped thinking about you since we were eleven. I love you."
"You don't!" She screamed, and she turned to face him entirely. She gestured to her face, and to the scars on her arms and neck. "Look at me! How could you love me? I can't be loved anymore! I'm not me! I can't be me!"
"Of course you're you, and of course I love you. How you look doesn't change that." His voice cracked for the second time in an hour, and he reached a hand out to her. "Please, Marlene, come home with me."
"I can't." She started to cry, and she sank to her knees with her face in her hands. "I can't."
He approached her and crouched in front of her. "You can… Marlene, I want you to come home with me." When she didn't respond, he sighed. "It doesn't feel like home without you. I haven't slept through the night since you've been gone. When I found out you were still alive, I couldn't stop crying out of relief. I need you, Marlene. You're everything to me."
"They broke me." She cried. "They broke me and I can't be fixed."
"I can't be fixed either." He responded sadly. He stood up, and she finally looked at him as he stuck his hand out for her to take. "But we can be broken together."
She hesitated for a moment before putting her hand in his. He pulled her up and into a hug, and she sobbed into his shoulder, feeling safe for the first time in two years.