"Are you ready?" A voice called from the doorway.
Marlene sighed, running her fingers through her still-stunted hair and staring at her nude body in her full-length mirror. "I suppose I'll never really be ready."
"Well, you can't be too ready without me." Alice teased with a small smirk. She approached Marlene and put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "You'll be okay. I'll be there the whole time."
"I know. I'm just nervous."
"Hey, it really isn't that scary." Alice chuckled. "Sirius won't bite if you don't ask him to."
"It's not him I'm worried about." Marlene looked at her own reflection again. "It's me, and everyone else. I don't worry about him."
"Except when you do. Which is always." Alice reminded her.
"Which is why I need to do this." Marlene said in a shaky voice. "This is for the best."
"Really? That's the attitude you're taking about this?" Alice raised an eyebrow as she strode over to Marlene's wardrobe. "Most people actually… you know, have real emotions about it. Happiness. Joy. Excitement. Maybe some horniness."
"It's not that I don't." Marlene protested. "I just…"
"I know, dear." Alice said softly, pulling out the robes she was looking for and bringing them to her friend. "I'm just teasing you."
Marlene sighed again, taking the robes and letting Alice help her into them. "I'm so nervous," she admitted. "I don't know if I can –"
"Hey." Alice cut her off gently, looking her in the eyes. "You will be fine. I'll be there. Sirius will be there. Just look at him and everything will fall into place. You won't be worried about anything else."
"Really?"
"Trust me. That's what happened to me."
Marlene was silent for a moment as Alice fixed her hair. "I can do this."
"Of course." Alice agreed.
Just then, the door burst open. "Mama! Luna lost my gold thingies!" Harry exclaimed in a whiny voice.
Before either of the women could say anything, Luna ran in behind him. "No I nevered!" She protested loudly.
"You did! You took them off the pillow 'cause you wanted to put them on and you dropped them down the stairs!"
"No!" Luna stomped her food. "It was a ak'ident!"
"Luna, Harry, what is going on?" Alice put her hands on her hips. "What stairs? What gold thingies?"
"The thingies that Papa gave me!" Harry sniffed. "I was taking real good care of them! I promise! But they went down to the dark place!"
Marlene went pale, while Alice cursed under her breath.
"Harry…" Marlene started. "Did you lose Mama and Papa's rings?"
"No!"
Marlene breathed a sigh of relief.
"Luna lost Mama and Papa's rings!" Harry corrected her defiantly.
Marlene let out a string of curse words that Alice hoped to any Gods out there that neither of the toddlers ever repeated. She tore out of the room with her hair half-done, still swearing, and sprinted as fast as she could to the basement stairs.
She stopped with an almost cartoonish halt, and stared at the darkness in front of her.
Nope. She still couldn't do it.
"Kreacher!" She called out, and the House Elf appeared in front of her with a popping sound.
"Mistress wants Kreacher, Kreacher will answer, Kreacher likes Mistress…" Kreacher muttered to himself, attempting eye contact with Marlene, but miserably failing and instead looking like he couldn't decide whether to look at her or his own feet.
"Kreacher, could you be a dear and look at the bottom of the basement steps and see if the rings dropped down there please?" She pleaded. "I'm afraid I still can't handle the darkness down there."
"Of course, Mistress." Kreacher bowed humbly. "Mistress is so nice to Kreacher, Kreacher will do anything for Mistress."
She watched as he traipsed down the stairs, looking at the stairs carefully, his eyes wide as saucers.
After a few stairs, she couldn't see him anymore, and she felt herself start to panic.
"Kreacher, are you alright? Talk to me."
He appeared next to her suddenly with a pop. "Kreacher is fine, Mistress, Kreacher was looking for the rings like Mistress asked him to, Kreacher cannot look if Mistress calls for him again because Kreacher must answer Mistress, does Mistress want Kreacher to stop looking?"
She sighed. "No, Kreacher, I'm sorry, I just felt –"
Kreacher's eyes widened even more. "Mistress mustn't apologize to Kreacher! Kreacher is not deserving of apologies! Kreacher must apologize for not finding Mistress' rings!" Marlene's heart felt like it was ripping into pieces as she saw Kreacher flinch. "Please, Mistress, don't hit Kreacher, Kreacher is sorry!"
Marlene knelt down and took Kreacher into her arms. "No, Kreacher, I would never hit you."
Kreacher started trembling. "Mistress Walburga hit Kreacher many times."
She felt a fierce, burning anger for Sirius' late mother, as she had many times hearing about Sirius' own childhood. "Mistress Walburga isn't here anymore." She said gently. She had long ago learned to never insult Walburga in front of Kreacher, despite his fear of her. "You're part of our family, Kreacher, I'm not going to hurt you."
Kreacher said nothing in response, but she felt his trembling grow worse, and a bit of moisture on her shoulder as she realized he was crying.
She held him like that for several minutes before she heard someone shuffle into the room. Before she could look up, familiar arms surrounded her and Kreacher.
"I don't know what we're hugging about, but hugging is nice, so I'll join in."
Marlene chuckled under her breath, and she felt Kreacher sniffle.
They remained like that for who knows how long until Sirius loosened his grip. She let go of Kreacher and looked at him, but the man's focus was entirely on the House Elf.
"Kreacher, I had no idea my mother hit you like she hit me, and if I had known, I never would have treated you the way I did as a teenager… and even as a man. I'm sorry, Kreacher."
Kreacher started to wail, and threw himself at Sirius' feet. "Master does not apologize to Kreacher! Kreacher does not deserves it! Kreacher is not worthy to be serving Master!" He began to hit himself in the head. "Bad Kreacher is not worthy!"
Sirius picked up the still-flailing House Elf with ease, and looked him in the eyes. "Kreacher, you don't need to punish yourself. Don't ever punish yourself again. That's an order."
Kreacher sniffled again, but he nodded.
Sirius set him down on his feet. "Kreacher, will you forgive me for mistreating you all these years?"
Kreacher sobbed loudly again, and almost threw himself on the ground once more, but Sirius held him up.
"Kreacher, please, don't do that. I don't want you to be upset. I just want you to feel loved."
"Loved?" Kreacher asked with a depressing expression – Marlene saw a strange mixture of hope, confusion, and despair. "Kreacher never gets loved. Kreacher doesn't be loved."
"Of course Kreacher is loved." Sirius said sincerely. "Kreacher has always been loved. Harry loves you. Grandfather loves you. Marlene loves you. I love you." He took a breath. "Regulus loved you."
If Kreacher had been wailing before, it was nothing compared to the sounds that escaped the small House Elf now. He sounded like a child whose puppy had gone missing, or something of similar disparity.
"Kreacher, please, don't be upset –" Marlene started.
"Kreacher is not upset, Mistress!" Kreacher wept. "Kreacher is being happy! Kreacher is never feeling this before! Kreacher is only knowing how to cry!"
Sirius and Marlene both instinctively wrapped their arms around him at this exclamation, and they held him until he stopped crying.
As they let go for the second time, Kreacher wiped his eyes on his dirty old pillowcase that he wore. "Kreacher will find Mistress' rings now."
Sirius balked as Kreacher adventured back down the stairs. "Wait, you lost the rings?!"
Marlene smacked him in the arm playfully. "You're one to talk. You're not even supposed to see me before the wedding."
Both of them smirked at each other before their expressions turned horrified.
"The wedding!" They both exclaimed together, and Sirius looked at his watch.
"We're ten minutes late to our own wedding!"
Before they could even move, Kreacher appeared in front of them with a pop. "Kreacher is finding only one ring."
Marlene looked at the House Elf's outstretched hand. "That's not either of our rings."
As the couple stared intensively at the ring, confused, they failed to notice the oncoming storm of anger coming through the doorway.
Pandora Lovegood and Alice Longbottom were not amused.
A/N: So... hi. I'm not dead. I have been suffering from chronic depression, "I'm the only person in my workplace with my title"-itis, and "Life Happens" Disease, so that's my excuse I suppose. Please don't expect regular updates yet, but I will try to get one out before September is over.