#charcus

Marcus took deep, even breaths as he walked out of his house and towards the edge of the property.  Technically it wasn’t his house.  Not yet, anyway.  His family owned the house next to the lake, so in a way it was his.  It was in his parent’s name, but Marcus was working on trying to get that fixed.  He couldn’t stand being at home anymore.  With the war still ongoing and his parents and brothers being firm supporters of the Death Eater side that was habitually killing people that Marcus knew, well, he got his ass out of there as fast as he could.  He came up with some bullshit story about how he wanted some space and thought it would do him some good to be out in nature.  Thankfully they bought it.

  The other added perk was that it allowed him a private space where he could grieve for all the loss he’d experienced in the past few months.  Most of the names were only known because of being in school together.  He was rather indifferent to those ones, only having a bit of reflection time out of respect.  But then there were the names that hit closer to home.  The first was Marlene.  Marcus didn’t know all the details about how she died; only that she was gone.  And apparently a few Death Eaters had to arrive in order to do it.  Her death was the first one to really hit home.  He and Marlene were close, him providing solace for her whenever she needed a reprieve from the marriage she’d been forced into.  He knew that the Parkinsons could be rough.  After all, he was Chase’s best friend.  He’d experienced the family and knew that they were a handful.  He was more than happy to allow Marlene to spend a few hours at his house.  When he heard that she was dead, more than a few things in his house were broken in a rage.  Followed quickly by a period of mourning that got superseded by even worse news.

  There was a part of him that knew the odds were not in Chase’s favor to live through the war.  The amount of battles and fighting going on meant that people that were directly involved in it stood little chance of making it through till the end.  But there was hope that Chase would be the exception.  He’d come out of it alive.  Or he’d come to his senses and leave.  There were rumors that people didn’t leave that easily and were either brought back or brought down.  But Marcus had it figured out.  His best friend could come live with him at the lake house.  The protection spells around the place had kept him safe and without unwanted visitors for a very long time.  They’d be okay.  But then Marcus found out about Chase’s death.  And for some reason, he wasn’t sad.  He was angry.  Angry at the war.  Angry at the fact that people had to keep dying.  Angry that his best friend had been taken away from him with just a flick of a wand.  But most of all, he was furious at Chase’s father.

  As soon as Marcus was free of the protective barriers he’d put in place, he turned quickly on his heel.  The familiar sensation that came from Apparating washed over his body.  The destination was clear in his mind.  Much clearer than anything had been in the past few weeks.  When his feet hit solid ground again, Marcus looked up at the Parkinson home.  What was once a place that he frequented during the summer to spend time with his friend had now lost all meaning with it.  He quickly walked up the drive, his mission set in his mind.  After a quick bound up the front steps, he pounded his fist against the front door.

  It came as no surprise that Giac opened the door.  “Marcus?  What are you doing here?  The funeral is family only.”

  “Where is he?”  Marcus pushed his way past Giac and into the foyer of the house, not even caring to be invited inside.

  “Who are you talking about?”  Giac followed after Marcus, leaving the door open.

  “Patrick.”  Marcus moved further into the house.  “I know he’s here.”

  “Why do you care where he is?”

  Marcus stopped and turned to face Giac.  “I’m taking him away from here.  For good.”

  “Excuse me?  You can’t just fucking storm in here and demand to take my grandson away from me.”

  “I’m not letting you corrupt someone else.”

  Giac took a step forward, and Marcus could see the anger growing behind the man’s eyes.  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “You know damn well what it means.”  Marcus stood his ground, not feeling threatened in any way.  “If you’re going to stand there and try to convince me that you didn’t push Chase into this, you have another thing coming for you.  You pushed him into it.  Everyone knows it.  I’m not going to let you do something similar to Patrick.”

  Giac’s hands curled into fists, something that Marcus knew should be a bad sign, but he didn’t care.  “I will not allow you to speak in that tone of voice to me and spread such lies in my own house.”

  “Fine.  Then I’ll just take Patrick and go.”  Marcus started up the nearby staircase to the upstairs portion of the house.  The baby had to be up there.  If he was near where the two of them were, Marcus would have been able to hear him.  Therefore he had to be upstairs.

  “If you take another step upstairs, I won’t be responsible for what happens.”

  Marcus glanced back and saw that Giac had his wand out and to his side.  Marcus stopped and laughed.  “You think that’s going to scare me?  I’m twice the wizard you’ll ever be.  You know what?  Fuck the wands.  I’ll fight you barehanded.  Still whoop your ass.”  He noticed Giac’s hands tightening around his wand.  “Here’s the difference between you and me, Giac.  I have nothing to lose.  Everyone I love is already dead.  My body added to that pile isn’t going to make a difference.”

  The boy paused a moment before he turned and walked up the stairs.  He kept waiting to hear some curse being shouted or to feel it hit the back of his head.  But nothing came.  Once on the landing, it wasn’t difficult to locate the baby’s room.  Marcus walked inside and saw the baby sitting in the crib, looking up at the man who just entered the room.  A small smile appeared on his face when he recognized the person coming inside.  Marcus bent over the side and scooped up Patrick, taking the blanket inside with him, as well as the small stuffed toy.  It would have to do until Marcus figured something out.

  He walked back down the stairs to find Giac standing near the door, his arms crossed and a sour expression on his face.  Marcus stopped in front of him.  “If you want, you can send his stuff to my parents’ place.  I’ll get it all from there.”  He pushed his way past the older man and strode down the walkway.  Once he was outside the gates of the house, he clutched Patrick tightly to his body.  He’d never Apparated with a baby before, but figured it wouldn’t be harder than Side-Along.

“Just so you know, I’m not changing my last name.”

  Chase laughed.  He had been helping Marcus carry all the boxes into his new bedroom.  Now that it was done, he had nothing to do but sit and watch as Marcus unpacked his belongings and put them in their new location as he sat on the desk in the room.  “Yeah?  Why’s that?”

  Marcus dropped some books down onto his bed.  “Seriously?  Marcus Parkinson.  That’s asking for it.”  He picked up one of the books and dropped it down on the nightstand next to his bed.

  “Well, have fun telling our dad that.  I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to know.”

  Marcus didn’t respond, instead just continued his task of unpacking.  He was glad that his mother found someone after her divorce from his father.  She had been somewhat miserable since it happened.  But did she have to fall for Giac?  Marcus tried to explain to her that there were definitely better people in the world than him, but of course she was hearing none of it.  In what seemed like no time at all, the two of them were married and she and Marcus were moving into the Parkinson home.    The only good thing to come out of it was that now Marcus and Chase were actually related.  The two acted like brothers already.  Now it was just made official.

  Chase slipped off the desk and jumped down onto Marcus’ bed, causing the books to lift slightly into the air.  “Look.  Things aren’t as bad as they seem.”

  Marcus laughed.  “Yeah?  Because before all you would do is bitch about how much you hate your dad and how awful of a person he is to you.”

  “True.  But that was when I was stuck here by myself.  Now that you’re here, things might not be so bad.”

  Marcus looked over at Chase.  Despite the bravado and show that he put on around the castle and in front of their friends, sometimes Marcus forgot that deep down, he was just a seventeen year old boy.  He would talk big around the others about his father and how he acted, but most would assume it was an exaggeration.  Only Marcus knew that the things being said were actually truthful.  Frankly, Marcus didn’t know how Chase was able to deal with all of it alone.  Marcus tried to supply as big of a support system as he could at school.  But there was only so much he could do.  Now that they were living together, things would be better.  Marcus clapped Chase on the shoulder, letting his hand stay there for a moment.  “Definitely.  The two of us can deal with anything.  Even your dad’s random bouts of crazy.  Besides, in a few months we’ll be graduated and we can move out of here.”  Marcus opened another box and started to pull out some clothes.  “But I think it would be best if we kept what happened at the music festival to ourselves.  I somehow doubt that Giac would be too happy to find out what happened between his son and his stepson when they were high and horny.”