The Fallen

He was goading her. Marius was an idiot but he knew full well what he was doing. He knew that she worked at the apothecary. It was him that had financed the venture to begin with, a debt that she was desperate to be rid of. “You know full well what my work entails,” she replied, not meeting his gaze and remaining frozen in her spot. 

There was a part of her that wanted to quip back. Something about him being too busy with his Death Eater pals to care about her, but she wanted to tread lightly. Marius Mulciber held more influence in their community and could make her life even more of a hell than it already had been. “I’m not avoiding you. I just… I have my own life outside of the apothecary.”

Marius couldn’t help but snort, and proceeded to shake his head. “Here was me thinking we were friends.”  He said in a tone, which may have sounded soft, almost genuine if the listener were unfamiliar with him.  Going so far as to clutch at his chest, Marius tilted his head. “...If you treat your friends that way, it’s no wonder your out here all by your little self is it?” 

A chuckle fell from Marius’s lips, though there was absolutely no humour behind it. “Or hey, maybe your merry little band of friends are on their way...”  He trailed off, and the smile that had been on his features all but faded as he took one more step towards Mary, tilting his head as he spoke, “The mudblood, the half breed ... or maybe the black sheep everyone hoped had died instead of the other son.” Every word that left Marius’s mouth sounded more condescending than the last.  “I wonder if any of them would even try and stop me.” 

It hadn’t always been like this. There had been a time when Mary delighted in his presence rather than be terrified by it. She had been young and naive, thinking that maybe he was one of the exceptions of Slytherins that could handle her being a Muggle-born witch. She had even gone as far to share her dreams for the future with him. If she could go back, she would tell her younger self to stay as far away from Marius Mulciber as possible. Now, it was impossible to shake him. Mary didn’t bother running or apparating away as he approached even though every bone in her body was screaming at her to do so. She simply stared at him, trying to brace herself for whatever he had up his sleeve today. Only a grimace fell upon her face as he whistled that tune. It was ironic how innocent it seemed, but to her, there was something evil and taunting that lid beneath. “I’m just trying to go to work, Marius,” she said, trying not to allow her voice to quiver.

The thing with Marius was that he could never just let up, he always had to have the last word, always had to make himself known. He probably could have walked on right past Mary, probably could have made sure to never accidentally bump into her, but that would just be no fun at all. Truthfully, he didn’t really care about how she perceived him anymore. He just enjoyed playing with her. 

“Hmmm, and what is that these days?”   He asked in a sort of tone, which a causal onlooker may mistake for a friendly one, but it was steeped in something far more sinister. “Because I haven’t seen you around lately....”   He had been slowly walking closer and closer to Mary as spoke, and stopped only several feet away from her.  “Anyone would think you were avoiding me.”

Perhaps Emma should’ve taken a hint with the groaning and obscenities coming from the other side of the door— just about any other time would be better than this moment, at least that’s how it sounded with how dramatic the other sounded. If she was wearing a watch she would’ve double checked to see that it was well into the afternoon and not early morning like the other was acting, but alas that was more dramatics. Besides, it took a lot to scare Emma Vanity away. She was infuriatingly stubborn when it came to getting what she wanted at any given time. Even Marius’s shirtless, disgruntled greeting did little to nothing— she just raised an eyebrow at his current state. He didn’t earn himself a comment on that particular topic at that moment, though. 

“The rest of the street is already awake, I assure you.” Stepping inside, the woman understood how the other so easily seemed to ignore the daylight with how unlit the inside of his flat was. Emma’s own home was completely the opposite. Everything was obsessively organized in a way one would expect from her, but her flat adorned bright colors and was well lit to make it look much more….well, lived in than Marius’s own home. Her gaze lingered on the empty liquor bottles, though she knew that habit well enough from having partaken a few times back in school. Emma had never made a habit of overindulging in alcohol often, but she was guilty every now and then.

Dark eyes moved back to the man before her. “I’d take you out, if I was to pick anyone. Would fix my problem for several years— nobody would want a grieving wife.” The second part was muttered under her breath, though Emma made sure he could hear. “And it really doesn’t matter what you wear. You always look like you just rolled out of bed and started your day then, not just right now. Did I really wake you?”

Marius was only partially taking in what she was saying as he sauntered around his apartment, trying to remember where he put down his smokes. He wasn’t particularly thrilled that she had decided to grace him with her presence, but he also didn’t currently have the required state of mind to throw Emma out. ‘You had better act quickly, or else all the good ones will be spoken for.’  His father had remarked to him just before this mess had been laid infront of Marius. In hindsight, the man had most likely already made arrangements when he made that comment.  He probably knew that his son would never marry unless a marriage was forced upon him.  Marius was hardly the husband type, women didn’t spend with him thinking he would be a nice fit for the rest of their lives.  And he really didn’t care, he didn’t have time to be by someones side, looking after them, spending time with them, and pretending to be love. What a waste of time.

A low guttural laugh emitted from the depths of Marius’s lungs and he proceeded to shake his head. Loosely placing a smoke, which he had eventually found, between his lips.  “You can try, you wouldn’t be the first, and you sure as hell won’t be the last.”  He said, a smirk slowly growing across his face.  Marius barely had a week without someone, somewhere threatening his life, it had gotten to the point where he almost wished they would try.  He had an extremely bad habit of dipping his toes in shark invested waters just to see if they would bite, occasionally one would, like the guy from afew weeks previous, but they all folded soon after Marius reacted.   It was mind-numbingly tedious. 

Marius scoffed, the smirk slowly falling from his mouth, though the glint in his eyes remained. “Given that I only went to sleep about three hours ago, it’s not really much of a stretch is it.  We can’t all live nice little lives where our work ends at 7pm.”  

Mary had been looking through her pocket notebook, trying to go over all of the ingredients she still had to find to restock the store in time for the start of school. Her head didn’t raise until someone ran past her. She looked to the blur that moved past and then back to what or who he must have been running from. Her blood ran cold and she stood frozen to her spot. There was no where to hide here. Clearly, Marius wasn’t in a good mood and she hoped not to have to deal with him, having avoided him since their last encounter. Her eyes darted to her surroundings, realizing that there weren’t many people around to intervene if things were to go wrong. Those who were around were probably too scared of him to interfere. Either way, she knew that it was not going to be a good day. 

Marius had kept his eyes focussed on the guy from before as he ran off, it was pretty disappointing really. He had chosen that bloke because he looked like he could handle himself and wouldn’t submit so easily, but that was what Harold Minchum’s government had created, an entire wizarding community full of cry babies. Just as he was about to turn and look for someone else to attempt a fight with, something caught his attention in his periphery.  And there it was, a near instantaneous smirk started to grow on his lips. Throwing his bat over his shoulder, he started to whistle the tune of ‘Mary had a little lamb’ as he slowly began to wander in Mary’s direction.  His father had told him to never play with his food, but then again, it was just too good to resist. 

Avery grinned when he saw Marius. It didn’t phase him that his friend was currently beating someone up. He was just disappointed that he had turned up a little too late for the party. He was still a decent way away when the man turned and ran, straight towards Avery. There was a flicker of hope in his eyes, perhaps he thought he was going to get some support from Avery and all he got was a stinging hex to the leg and a wink. “Hey, Mulci!” Avery called, no longer caring enough to pay attention to what the other man chose to do. “How’s it going, man? What did that fuckhead do?”

I Think That Might Be [[MARIUS ‘MULCI’ MULCIBER]] Last Time I Saw [[HIM]] Was In The [[SLYTHERIN]] Common Room. I Heard [[HE]] Works [[AS A CURSEBREAKER]] Now. The [[22]] Year Old [[PUREBLOOD]] Apparently Looks Alot Like [[NATHANIEL BUZOLIC ]] Though I Have No Idea Who That Is. Some Say [[HE]] Can Be [[CHARMING]] And [[INTELLIGENT]] Although, I Have Heard [[HE]] Can Also Be [MALICIOUS]] And [[OBESSIVE]] I Have No Idea What Side [[HE’S]] ON, But If I Had To Guess, I Would Say [[THE DEATH EATERS]]  

Random head canon ;