Marlene McKinnon

Mary let out a sigh, pushing her hair back as looked up from her book. Every so often she picked up a history text to read, despite not being in history of magic anymore. While she hated listening to Bins, she loved the actual information from the course. “It doesn’t matter how much we evolve as a species, there’s always going to be monstrous people. Sure, there’s always going to be people that stand up to them, that fight them, that stop them, but it’s depressing to think that there’s always going to be more. It’s exhaustive,” she admitted. Leaning back in her side of the couch, she propped her feet up and laid them across Marlene’s lap. “I know free will is important, but do we have to give it to everyone.”

“I know, but what else can we do?” If they stopped fighting for what was right, the monsters would win, and Merlin knew what would become of the world. It was a thought that didn’t bear thinking about. As horrible as the idea of being locked in an endless battle was, it was far better than the alternative. “Maybe one day, we’ll beat them back to the point that they just accept defeat.” It was an idealistic thought, and something she doubted would ever come to pass. If it did, then it certainly wouldn’t be anytime soon, and perhaps not even in their lifetime. “If not... well, then we just keep fighting.”

“Or maybe I was faking it because I simply didn’t want to scare you off with my incredible skill,” he replied with a grin as he pushed him self up from the ice.

"Oh really?” Marlene nodded, arching a brow in amusement. “Well, luckily I don’t scare easily. So go ahead, show me this ‘incredible skill’ you possess.” 

The instant pout on Lily’s face was almost comical. But the turn from pout to grin was definitely. A genuine gasp of excitement her lips. “You did get me hot chocolate!” she uttered happily. She clocked the flash. “Did you get me hot chocolate with a little something else in it?” she questioned with a playful quirk of her brow. Red hair bounced with her nod. “I’m pretty damn lucky,” she told her. Lily shuffled over, making room for Marlene beside her. She wiggled her fingers, hands held out as she waited for Marlene to pour them hot chocolate. “Thanks, Mar,” she said warmly as she took her mug, bringing it close to her face, letting the warm steam rise and dampen her face. “Mm,” she made a noise of contentment, her eyes closed.

One eye cracked open, a green gaze finding Marlene. “What d’you mean?” she asked.

“Of course I did,” Marlene laughed, shaking her head at her friend’s excitement. “No, nothing else in it. Although that could be arranged, if you wanted.” Whilst Marlene generally didn’t go out of her way to drink unless she was at a party, she was never opposed to having a little something with her friends when one of them was in need of it. 

She replaced the cap on the flask and set it to one side, pulling her blanket across her lap as she lifted her mug to take a sip. “I mean you... being out so late... in the greenhouses... Potter...” she grinned, a teasing glint in her eyes as she tried to prompt her friend to start spilling.

“Did you bring me hot chocolate?” Lily asked with a wide smile, lighting up her features. She felt like she couldn’t stop shivering from her night snowed in, in the greenhouses with James.

“If you wanted hot chocolate, you should have asked,” Marlene teased, before pulling the flask from behind her back. “Luckily, I know you pretty well.” Grabbing a fluffy blanket from the foot of her bed, she made her way over to join Lily, using accio to summon over a couple of mugs as she sat down. “So come on,” she grinned, starting to pour some of the hot chocolate out for each of them. “Are you gonna tell me what happened, or am I gonna have to guess?”

“Woah, woahhhh,” Sirius started as he felt himself slip on the frozen ground before quickly falling into a pose. “See? I totally meant to do that.”

“You know, I almost believe that,” Marlene laughed, arching a brow as she looked down at him. “But unfortunately for you, I was watching for too long to be fooled. You get points for styling it out, though!” 

“I stand corrected then,” she said with a smile. Hestia knew that that Marlene knew what she was doing. All she needed was that little extra push. Which she was more than happy to provide. Her friend never did give herself enough credit.

Marlene turned to look at Hestia, eyes narrowing slightly though a smile played at her lips. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” She shook her head, chuckling quietly. “Thanks. I guess I’m just having trouble getting my brain engaged in this stuff right now.”

"Unfortunately, that’s true,” Marlene sighed, glancing away from the fireplace and over at her friend. A grim smile took it’s place on her lips. “They might not be the same as the ones in the stories we heard when we were little, and they might be harder to spot, but they’re definitely real.”

“It really was brilliant,” he replied with a grin as he took a seat in one of the common room’s armchairs. He grimaced as he tried to do the math regarding detentions, “It’s only the start of the term so I’ve only had about three so far, I think. I’ve lost count if we’re counting since first year. I know that I’m still trying to catch up to James though.”

She shook her head, still laughing as she tucked her legs up underneath her on the couch. “Only three?” The term had barely even begun, how had he already racked up three? Well, she knew how, and in truth she found his antics amusing. “Well if you’ve lost count, how will you know when you’ve passed James?” she asked, half teasing and half genuinely curious. 

“We don’t use Valerian Root in this potion, doll,” she said with a soft laugh. Hestia pointed to the instructions in the book laying on the table between them. Her nail scraping the parchment just a little. “See? It’s Root of Asphodel that we have to use. But it’s powdered.”

“It has both...” Marlene countered, brow creased as she tried to come up with the answer for herself. “I remember him saying both, and my attention might not be so hot today but I know I’m not hearing things.” She leaned forwards, arms on the desk as she cast her eyes down the list of instructions. “There? See?” Her finger moved to point at a few lines on the page. “One hundred and fifty fluid ounces of Powdered Root of Asphodel, stir, leave to settle, then Valerian Root.” 

Hestia Jones was an enigma unto herself. Not much was known about her among her fellow students. She preferred to keep it that way. That way when she became famous everyone would know her name. They could say they knew her. But they wouldn’t be able to say they knew her. Hestia liked being a mystery. Which was why when someone came and sat next to her in Potions, requesting help but couldn’t remember her name, she smiled, not yet giving her name away.

“Sure,” she said with a smirk, “I’ll help you out.”

"Thanks,” Marlene smiled appreciatively. Potions wasn’t usually a difficult subject for her, but with her mind so fully focused on Quidditch lately she just couldn’t seem to get her head around what Slughorn was saying. It wasn’t exactly helped by the fact that the Draught of Living Death wasn’t the simplest of potions to brew anyway. “How long did he say we should leave it before adding the final piece of Valerian Root?” 

Ophelia looked at Marlene, looking disinterested. ❛❛There’s hundreds of rooms and corridors in this school. Surely they can find somewhere a little less obvious.❜❜

"They’re third years,” Marlene reminded the other girl. “They’ll figure out other places eventually, it just takes getting caught a few times for them to learn.”

Waving her off, Mary smiled warmly, “Ah yes, as the new Captain I’m sure you’re nothing but busy. Congratulations, by the way, you deserved it”. Mary knew how hard the other girl worked on the field, and she was glad that she was being rewarded for it. She was always happy to see her friends succeed, and knowing what it meant to Marlene made her all the more happy for her. While Mary wasn’t involved with any extracurriculars she was incredibly social and focused heavily on her academics. While Mary came off as not caring much for her studies, she took them quite seriously, and knew her Mum’s would be upset if she didn’t. 

“Brilliant,” she beamed. It wasn’t often that they got nice weather, and Mary wanted to take advantage of every sunny, relatively warm day they had available to them. Tucking her hands into her pale yellow sweatshirt, she shifted her bag higher up on her shoulder. Mary had her wand tucked into the front pocket of her overalls as she waited for Marlene to get her stuff packed up. A bright grin formed as she nodded, “Marls, you read my mind. A snack is absolutely what we need before we try to get work done”. 

“Thanks, Mary,” Marlene smiled gratefully. Even if her friend wasn’t on the team, it meant a lot to have her support. As the kind of person who had a tendency to throw herself into things, it helped to have people around who wouldn’t be upset with her if she was busy or distracted from time to time. They would always be more important to her than Quidditch. Or anything, really. 

She laughed as she started gathering her stuff, pushing the notepad and pens back into her bag which she hoisted onto her shoulder as she stood. Already she could feel some of her tiredness shifting. Perhaps she wouldn’t get her Quidditch stuff back out when they were outside... or at least not right away. A break really did sound like a good idea.  “Well, what can I say?” she grinned, flicking a rogue piece of her back over her shoulder as she started to walk. “Great minds think alike, don’t they?”

Ophelia rolled her eyes as the two embarrassed 3rd years darted away. ❛❛You know, you’d think they’d get a little more creative than broom closets by now❜❜ she said, shaking her head.

“Oh?” Marlene tilted her head, arching a brow as amusement played on her features. “And where would you suggest they go instead?”

As usual, Mary was attempting to finish all the homework she had managed to accumulate. Seven classes was truly at the edge of her limit, but she couldn’t regret picking up any of them and couldn’t bring herself to let one go. She enjoyed the lessons, and didn’t mind the work as a general rule. It just felt like she was constantly playing catch up. Knowing that she would probably have to go to the library at some point, Mary was hoping to take advantage of the nice day and go down to the courtyard instead for a little while. Eventually winter would come and they would be stuck inside a lot more, and Mary wanted to be outside as much as she could before that point. Spotting Marlene on her way down, she approached her and asked, “Hey, I’m going down to the courtyard to get some work done, do you want to come? I promise we’ll actually study and get stuff accomplished and not just goof off the whole time,” she grinned. 

However, her smile fell slightly as Marlene ignored her and she gave an amused sigh as she mused, “Hello? Earth to Marley.” When the other girl finally looked up at her, Mary grinned, “Lost in your own head again? I was asking if you wanted to come down to the courtyard and get some work done with me” she asked warmly.

“Sorry,” Marlene laughed, expression apologetic. “Yeah, just... Quidditch stuff.” As much as she was excited to have been given the position of Quidditch Captain, it felt like a lot of responsibility. Sure, she could play the game well, but could she really plan out everything and lead her team to a few victories? There was training to sort out, plays and strategies to come up with... it was a lot, and that was on top of her NEWT classes and papers. 

“The courtyard sounds like a good idea, though.” Even if she would probably just be doing what she was already doing, moving to the courtyard would mean she was at least getting some fresh air while she worked. “Do you think we could maybe stop by the kitchens on the way? See if we can grab a snack or something?” 

Andromeda had been walking the halls post-schoolwork session, looking for something to do. The academics hadn’t been getting too heavy yet, Quidditch had hardly begun practices, and the general air around the school was a bit upsetting ever since Addison Sage had gone missing. Everything felt a bit off at the moment, and all the Slytherin wanted to do was get back to busy, normal school life. In her wandering, she spotted Marlene McKinnon, freshly-minted Gryffindor Quidditch captain. Andromeda headed over, offering a fair amount of congratulations before she even noticed the girl hadn’t been listening. “Oh, right. I was just saying congratulations! For getting captain. You must be excited.”

“Thanks,” Marlene smiled, the expression genuine. For the most part, she tended to err on the side of caution when it came to Slytherins. She didn’t doubt that some of them were great people, but the sheer amount of arrogance and prejudice that seemed to radiate from that House had her preferring to keep her guard up. With Andromeda though, she didn’t feel as though that was necessary. Unlike her sisters, especially her older one, the Black girl seemed like one of the good ones. “It was pretty unexpected when the badge came with my letter. I’m definitely excited, though. Just hope I can lead the team to a few victories!” 

“So, that’s when I said, ‘You couldn’t handle my undivided attention’ and you know, surprisingly, Minnie was not of fan of that,” Sirius shrugged, reaching for the detention slip and shoving it back into his pocket.

“Oh, I would have loved to see her face!” Marlene laughed, shaking her head at the story. “I’m almost surprised she’s still giving you detentions, though. Would have thought she’d think it a waste of her energy. How many has it been, now?”