MAD MAGIC;

Lily knew the voice before she looked up at the person’s face. Marlene’s was always a voice that Lily could pick out of a crowd, no matter the size. Whether it was the Great Hall of Hogwarts or the busy street of Diagon Alley they were currently on, Lily could find her. Or, commonly enough, Marlene would find her. After her falling out with Severus, her friendship with Marlene helped her to remember that Slytherins and Gryffindors could be friends, no matter what anyone else’s pride said about that. 

“Bloody hell, Marlene,” Lily said with a laugh. “I’m so sorry about that.” Once she had grabbed her book, she reached out her hand to help Marlene up as well. “That was totally not your fault, I should’ve been watching where I was going.” When they were both back on their feet, Lily put the book away in her bag. 

“Now,” Lily said, turning her attention to the girl in front of her. “Where the bloody hell have you been? I haven’t seen you in ages.”

It wasn’t that she’d been avoiding Lily -- Marlene was entirely incapable of feeling enough shame to have the wherewithal to actively avoid anyone. But she also was horribly unequipped to deal with anything even relatively emotional; she’d spent the majority of her school years burying emotion beneath layer upon layer of facade, only to have it all muddled and torn to bits in the course of one night spent with Lily Evans. She had never been one for crushes, relationships, wooing; she was the living personification of detachment, and yet here she was. 

But this was her best friend -- any feelings were surely an anomaly best ignored and repressed. 

“Nah, no need to apologize,” she waved off Lily’s apology with a passing touch of Lily’s arm and a laugh, “Guess I put on two left feet this morning, huh? And that book -- that book’s got you off balance, surely. How many pages is that thing? You reading it all in one go?” 

She could feel herself beginning to flush at Lily’s question; with fingers running through her hair, she scuffed her boots on the stone, searching for a believable lie. But then she remembered the charred spot on the back of her blouse; dragon mishaps were always convenient. With a grin, she angled her back-- and the enormous burnt spot marring her flannel-- toward Lily, “Work’s been wild. Barely had any time to myself. But I’m, er, here now, yeah? Good to see you! What’ve you been up to?”

Marlene, undoubtedly, was not as enchanted. She loved her job more than anything, and she knew just how lucky she was, and how humbled she should be to be in the presence of such great beasts -- 

But a great beast affectionately known as “Puffins” had burned off half of her favorite Holyhead Harpies t-shirt, and for that Marlene was out for blood. She was quite a sight, stalking down the sidewalk in the direction of her flat, half-charred and covered in dirt, cross and grumbling. It would have been far less of a spectacle (she scratched angrily at the spot on the back of her neck) if she’d just been able to apparate, but no. She’d been forced to fly- and then walk all the way home. And it was too damn far to her flat, even now.

Barbecued McKinnon. 

She wouldn’t have even noticed anyone else on the same stretch of pavement, for she was entirely consumed with her own profanity-ridden inner monologue; with her head down, Marlene stalked along, the pure picture of unapproachable. Unapproachable... and undeniably comical.

DRESSED IN DARK CLOTHING and a hood shielding his face from the sun, (or anyone that could recognize him) Peter pushed through the crowds of people until he found seclusion in an alley. He never liked large groups of people, always appreciated his alone time with his books. But a loud noise to his left caused the boy to jump. Turning on his heel, Peters hand going to his wand but never lifting it,  blue eyes landed on the other. “Who—- Oh, it’s you.”

She had grown far too accustomed to the sight of people instinctively reaching for their wands; it was an equalizing twitch of the hand which everyone shared, and one that-- were she under any less public watch-- might have ended with a similar reaction on her own part. Marlene hadn’t even realized that it was Peter before she’d assumed a half-defensive stance, eyes narrowing as she stood over the package she’d just dropped, as if it might leap up at her as well. 

“You can put your bloody wand away,” she clipped, instinct wavering between the urge to hex and the urge to ignore, “The box won’t bite. Finding solace in dark alleyways now, are you?”

Lily was in her own little world the whole day. She couldn’t seem to focus on the tasks at hand. All she could do was think about her stories. She sat at several cafés, in stores, even on street corners just watching people. She wanted to know how this was affecting everyone, wanted to document every single moment of it. She knew, one day, this would all be over. There was no way that this could last forever. It couldn’t. So, for now, she would document it. Even if she was supposed to be running errands for herself. She had just stopped and picked up a few books for herself in an attempt to make herself feel better. As she left the store, she was so focused on reading the back of one book that she hadn’t noticed someone in front of her; someone that she completely ran into. 

“Oh! I’m so sorry,” she said, picking up her book from the ground before she saw the person’s face. “That was totally my fault, I apologize.”

Every stretch of time without Lily was a stretch too long; it was simply a reality that Marlene had known for years. Lily was a breath of fresh air, a voice of honesty amongst an unending barrage of bullshit from which none of them could seem to escape. The darkness lurking just beyond their view, creeping along behind them in the streets and from behind shadowed corners was nearly too much-- but then there was Evans. Marlene could only wonder why everyone wasn’t a little in love with Lily Evans. Her closest friend, the keeper of many of her secrets; one secret, in particular, which she’d have to face in person eventually.

Needless to say, seeing her exit the store across the street was enough to pull her from her perusal of the book display she’d been absorbed in for the better part of an hour. Tossing her almost-purchases back onto the shelf, she hurried across the street, raising her hand to wave and opening her mouth to call out-- before colliding embarrassingly, ungracefully, with her. Marlene scrambled, cursing, to catch Lily’s book, but failed, following it to the ground in a lame attempt to salvage the crash. 

“Ah, fuck. Totally my fault,” she said with obvious chagrin, “Must be a fascinating book; didn’t really mean to tackle you out of it.”

“God damn,” Alice muttered under her breath, shaking her head slightly at her own use of the Muggle invective. “Perkins really has it in for me tonight. ” She tugged lightly at the balloons in her hand, meant to be a decoy for their next target. “Balloons for only two Knuts a piece!” 

There was something oddly satisfying about the sight of Alice battling with a bouquet of balloons on the corner opposite her; the mighty Auror on some sort of undercover business, to be sure, no matter how silly it looked. Marlene abandoned her perusal of the broomstick in the window behind her and crossed to Alice, a faux-innocent smile upon her face. 

“What’ll a Sickle get me?” she waggled her eyebrows before lowering her voice conspiratorially, “Training looks like it’s going well. Gotta play along, yeah?”

“these muggles are really cramping my style. like what do they think they’re going to accomplish by tracking our every move?” narcissa was annoyed, it was evident by the look on her face.

“Cramping your style?” Marlene couldn’t help but snort at the lackadaisical comment; it seemed underwhelming in regards to what was really happening. To compare the microchips to a stained blouse or a bad hair day was baffling. “Don’t you think that’s a bit of an understatement?”