HEARTBREAKER

i fought the war. i fought the war. i fought the war. AND THE WAR WON. marlene mckinnon.

[cphcmcral]

marlene had not been herself for weeks, everything that she had done, things that made her who she was had not gone well at all since coming back to hogwarts. first, she couldn’t even duel correctly, she got her ass handed to her o a silver platter from snape, and since then she had been jumpy as ever. but after the bonfire, her forte, had (for lack of a better word) gone up in flames, she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. marlene needed to feel like marlene again, to be comfortable and so she found herself in the room of requirement. she used to come here all the time to think and practice her spells, and had yet to make it up there this year. it felt like coming home, stepping into her favorite place. but the comfort was short lived, as she heard footsteps entering behind her. of all the times to be followed.. twenty minutes alone was apparently too much to ask.

[hermiome]

★

[cphcmcral]

andythesnake:

Andromeda let out a sigh of relief that she didn’t know she was holding, looking at Marlene’s shoes, very pretty and ink-free. In all honesty, she had prepared for the worst: with everything going on, nerves were high and everybody seemed to be on edge. At that point, Andromeda had gotten used to everyone trying to blame her and her sisters for the attack nearly a week ago. While she had nothing to do with it - and she told everyone that - her house was the easiest to blame, with most of the people that resided in it. 

The Slytherin made a face at the mention of Marlene not having a pen on her, then watched as the blonde repaired the jar for her. Andromeda couldn’t help but laugh at herself, so lost in her own thoughts and emotions that she forgot that she could have just waved her wand at the stupid thing. “Touche,” she said, taking the jar back and setting it into her bag. “What would I do without someone like you, McKinnon?” While she and the Gryffindor weren’t great friends - she had always been wary about being around people that her family wouldn’t accept, she never knew when her sisters would give her away - she still thought of her as at least someone that she could talk to every now and then. 

marlene had always been the kind of person to use magic for everything, she had a very hard time going out into the muggle world, she never understood how they survived without the convenience of magic. ever since she turned seventeen, her parents had been yelling at her to relax on the magic. she would apparate down the stairs in the morning, summon any of her books that were even just across the room. it was freeing to be able to use it so easily, and it was no different in school now. her first thought always jumped to magic, and it saved her from wasting many an ink pot. 

“i get that a lot, you know,” she joked, having always been friendly with andromeda. with her other sisters, that was a completely different story, but there was something about andromeda. she wasn’t like bellatrix and narcissa. hell, she wasn’t even like most slytherins. “most people don’t know how their lives would carry out without me. it’s got to be a hard way of living, if you ask me.” marlene continued, ever present smile bright as she tucked her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “working on an important paper, were you?”

[cphcmcral]

blackheartbella:

Bellatrix’s neck snapped in Marlene’s direction and she let out a very obvious, very intention groan. “So is this table, this table is also full, sit on the floor.” Her volume was ignored as Bellatrix tried her best to spread her legs out wider to deter Marlene from sitting with her. She was a brat at best sometimes. “Sit on someone’s lap, even, just not here. You are disrupting my peaceful studying session.”

marlene had never had a reason to like bellatrix, in fact most interactions they had went along these lines. she wasn’t hoping for much better when she approached, but desperate times call for desperate measures. “and the rest of the library is disrupting my studying. i’m not looking for a study buddy, bellatrix. i just need a place to sit for twenty minutes while i finish this essay.” marlene said, moving to pull one of the chairs out on the opposite side of bellatrix. she wasn’t about to ask her permission, just that she didn’t completely throw her work on the floor.

[gxbletxffire-blog]

Denial is a river in egypt and it’s also how I feel about the events that occured on October 31, 1981

[cphcmcral]

blackheartbella:

Finding Bellatrix on her own wasn’t an uncommon sight; she wasn’t particularly anyone’s favorite student. Bella had her own friends here and there but being alone from time to time suited her. She sat in the library, her apparitions textbook in her hand and her feet cocked up on the table. If you didn’t know her, you would’ve assumed she was a studious student. Then again, Bella was full of surprises. The page of the textbook flipped slowly on its own and Bellatrix’s eyes combed the page. You could have assumed she was unaware of the person near her if her voice hadn’t rung clear through the quiet space. “ I do not recall putting up a sign saying ‘Pester Bellatrix’ so your business with me better be important,” she uttered, finally glancing up from her book. 

the library wasn’t somewhere marlene went often, at least, not alone. she usually caught up with her friends when they went, or dragged them along so she wouldn’t have to sit alone. but today, after the bonfire and her duel with snape, she found herself far behind on school work. it was only a few weeks in and she was already several work loads behind. she needed quiet that she couldn’t usually find in the common room, and sought the sanctuary of the library, only to find it completely full. there was only one table with a chair left. and if she wasn’t so desperate, marlene would have marched right back out the door and done her work in an empty hallway if she had to. “every other table is full.” she said sharply, parchment and books already resting on the table. “trust me, this isn’t ideal for either of us.”

[cphcmcral]

rdlphs:

“ Oh, pardon me McKinnon– I didn’t mean to get your panties in a twist there. “ a huff escaped his lips as the young man tilted his head ever so slightly, green orbs now directed at the young blonde. “ Not like the entire school already believes we’re all murderers– might as well add alcoholics to the list. “ Truth be told, the irony that he hadn’t caused this incident and still people seemed to believe the slytherin student body was the cause– was rather entertaining to Rodolphus. It would have been ridiculous to be expelled for an act that hadn’t been his, surely they would begin with their witch hunt anytime soon. 

“it would just be such a shame if you got caught. we wouldn’t want slytherin losing any points, now would we?” marlene said as she rolled her eyes, not caring too much about the actual drink. she cared more that he didn’t seem to care how public he was. why add to the already poor reputation slytherin had at the moment? “no, not all of you. just a good sum. but it’s not without proper theories. we aren’t just picking out random students and labeling them murders. we’ve got reasons behind each pick.”

[cphcmcral]

hoursandwitheringflowers:

if the sight of her best friend bruised and battered, face full of tears and shaking hands was bad ; the feeling that washed over lily was almost worse in a sweet, hot kind of dangerous way. it blazed through her in one sharp flash : something she hadn’t truly, deeply felt in her whole life finally rearing its ugly head—- hatred. for once since she could remember being herself, lily felt hatred in its most primitive way ; the way that made her not only want to, but most certainly capable of killing a man with her bare hands if he so happened to stand in front of her. fingers curled, her jaw tightened impossibly, heart now beating so goddamned hard that it seemed to echo through her whole being like a clock that counted second after second—– through the anger there was pain,  numb  and  cold  under the heat of the rage, but that one was tucked away as fast as it came. no. there would be no victimising herself here, not when… god. when marlene was… she couldn’t think it. her body reacted for only one brief moment, but she knew that her friend, her person, had seen it. marlene always saw everything written on her face, her reactions, sometimes before she even did—- it was who they were. and not even severus snape and the horrible, terrible thing he’d done would keep lily from doing her most important job in her life : being marlene’s friend. swallowing the knot in her throat, the redhead simply nodded—- acknowledging that she’d understood—- before she stood, very carefully sitting on the arm of the chair and gently wrapping her arms around marlene, tugging the blonde head of hair slowly onto her chest. a hand stroked those same, so familiar locks of yellow silk, a kiss pressed to the top of the other girl’s head. 

there was little more she could do, not when her hands still shook and her eyes had gone cold and watery : for now, all that was left was holding, and comforting, and hoping that the damage had been but superficial.     (  didn’t she know marlene well enough to know it wouldn’t be ? didn’t she know that the shame of being bested like this, especially by him, would bruise her sister more than any spell or curse or punch ever could ?  )     still, she was here. it was all she had to offer, by the light of the fire and the dark red glimmer of their common room. being there, come what may.  “ i’m sorry, love. i’m so sorry. ”

she could see very clearly just how hard this was now hitting lily. she was sitting here, looking at her best friend beaten and bleeding from a fight between her and her former friend. and marlene wanted so badly to soothe whatever emotions flew through her sister. she wanted to tell her she would be okay, that these would heal the moment she could get the charm out of her mouth. everything would be as it was, and that would be that. but even marlene knew that was impossible. nothing would be that simple anymore. this was a turning point for them all, it drew the line in the sand between us and them. and there was no going back. she could see the hatred in lily’s body, the reaction going through her, before it was tucked away in the most perfect lily fashion. she knew that lily wouldn’t want to make a fuss about her, about what she was feeling. but marlene wanted to know, she had to know exactly what was going through her head.

she had to be sure that lily wouldn’t try to take on snape because of this. merlin, no. marlene couldn’t even imagine that. she would take a thousand beatings, be subject to hours of the cruciatus curse before she ever let lily put herself in the line of fire, before her sister was in any kind of danger. if only she could tell her all that was on her mind, all that she had to say. fuck this curse. fuck this whole night. she wanted to scream. the anger was still burning in her own chest, almost feeding off of what she felt from lily, but as she moved, as she tucked marlene into her arms, the blonde relaxed. she felt the weight of her anger lift instantly as she curled into her.

a sob was stuck in the back of her throat, unable to pass through her, tears stung her eyes and all marlene could do was sit. a shaking, bloodied hand reached up to clutch lily’s, squeezing it with any strength she had left. only lily was allowed to see her so vulnerable, to see her so broken. marlene mckinnon had a pride about her that she took very seriously. an image that she had created in the past seven years, that was now shattered before her very eyes. she was supposed to be strong, the best dueler, the strongest fighter. and now, she sat, curled into a weak ball as she shook with silent sobs in her sister’s arms. it had all been an image, a facade that was now shattered around her, leaving nothing more than a scared little girl. how could she be so weak? why did it hurt so much?

[cphcmcral]

hoursandwitheringflowers:

if lily’s eyes had rolled any further into the back of her head, she’d probably have gotten them stuck— but the gesture was accompanied by a nuzzle of her head against her sister’s body, the smile ever so soft on her lips.  " you say that now, you dipshit, but when we’re old and wrinkly you’ll be begging for the sweet release of death so you’ll stop having to see me. and i’ll laugh. “  the joking tone in her voice was obvious, but that was the plan : friendships like these came once in a lifetime, and lily sure as hell didn’t want to live one second without marlene to bitch to, to learn from, to snuggle up against. it was what having a sister should be, and she’d figured that bit out years ago— more than petunia could ever be, marlene was lily’s sister. and that soothed her, every time. knowing she had this beautiful, bright, fucking crazy girl by her side.  

” we’d be the queens of the street, traffic would stop as all the cars tried to get a piece of us. y'know what, fuck hogwarts. that’s the type of fame and recognition i’ve been born for. “  laughing freely, the redhead choked out a groan when marlene forced her out of her very comfortable position, head tilting and eyebrows rising at her best friends’ words. sure, because lily could very well bang her way through seventh year.  ” anywhere but school. no one here is worth even thinking about practicing with, and you know it. “

“oh please, evans, you think i’ll go before you? no way in hell. you’re stuck with me right until the grave. and then i’ll go right after you.” she grinned, having already planned it out. there was no way that she could see herself living without lily, but she wouldn’t be able to leave her first. they would have to go within moments of each other, it was the only way she would be okay with it. she wouldn’t leave her alone like that, and she sure as hell would not be left alone. marlene needed lily more than she liked to admit at times, they were more than best friends, and more than sisters. there was an understanding between them that she had never found in anyone else. they were kindred souls that were brought together by one amazing stroke of luck. nothing as mundane as death could tear them apart.

“i think we might become a traffic hazard, lil. they might have to ban us from the streets for causing so many accidents.” she laughed as she now pulled her along, tucking their arms together so they were interlocked, looking around the halls for any one that was worth looking at. but hogwarts was in fact lacking a bit in that department. that didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to take the opportunity to tease her sister. “come on, lily. we both know you don’t believe that. i see how you and potter look at each other! how he’s looked at you since first year!”

[cphcmcral]

rdlphs:

Rodolphus didn’t need to avert his glance upwards to come to the conclusion that someone was staring directly at him, he could feel his hairs sticking up at the very glare. Of course, after the recent happenings at the bonfire, eyes would be turned his way– his and his friends’. Shaking his head ever so slightly he took another swig of his drink before addressing them nonchalantly. “ You can continue to judge me all the way from over there, but I can assure you a drink is the proper remedy to ease the mind due to the most recent events. “

marlene didn’t have the best history with the lestrange brothers, her and rabastan had a rocky past and she tended to avoid speaking to his brother. she didn’t want to get involved any further than she had been. but things seemed even more difficult now, after the attack. all eyes, even if they weren’t meant to be, were pointed at the slytherin students. their familial ties made them prime targets in marlene’s eyes, and she didn’t feel bad about it. there had to be a reason they were all sorted into slytherin for generations. “i don’t doubt a drink is a good remedy, but you might want to be a bit more discreet about it while we’re all still in school.”

[cphcmcral]

andythesnake:

It had been a few days since the incident at the bonfire, but things were still incredibly tense at the castle. While Andromeda was no stranger to glances and whispers when she walked the halls of Hogwarts, all of the attention practically multiplied, and people’s conversations became even more audible. Do you think that she and her friends did it? I mean, you know how her family is… Andromeda wanted nothing more than to shut all of those people down, but she knew that that would do nothing more than fan the flames (literally). People say one thing, and it gets distorted to something completely different within the hour. 

So, she decided that she’d lay low and focus on her studies. However, she sat in the Great Hall, unable to make anything from the passage that she was reading. She was already stressed enough, feeling like one of those test subjects that she had seen in a movie. All that attention on her, and she felt like she was going to snap. On top of that, she thought that she was going to fail her exam - the things on the page looked like bloody gibberish, causing the girl to groan and hit the table with her fist. As soon as she did so, her ink bottle fell over the edge of the table and crashed onto the floor. “Damn it!” The girl yelled, immediately seeing a few people turn and look at her. That’s definitely not helping the situation. She sighed, running a hand through her brown hair before turning to the nearest person. “Do you have any ink I can borrow? Or one of those pens that have the ink already inside them?” She asked, trying to keep her voice as calm as she could. 

marlene had been on edge ever since the bonfire. she had been the one to throw it, she had brought everyone down there and then they were attacked. it was her fault that her friends, and those not so much, were in danger. she should have done a sweep, should have cast more protection charms. there was a war coming for merlin’s sake! what kind of order member would she be if this is the shit she failed at as a student? she was still kicking herself, even after a week. first it was snape besting her and throwing her pride in the lake, and now this? she just didn’t feel like herself. she wasn’t marlene, and so she tried to feel as normal as possible, going down to the great hall for some tea. a biscuit might help her feel a little more normal, at least for a short moment.

but before she could even make it to the gryffindor table, an ink pot came crashing down in front of her feet, causing her to jump back just to avoid the splatter. she looked over to see who had dropped it, or thrown it. it was the slytherin table after all. but she paused as she saw andromeda. “uh, i don’t think i have any on me..” marlene said, gathering her thoughts as she reached for her wand. “you know what might help..” she started, pointing her wand at the puddle of glass and ink, flicking it around. “reparo.” and instantly the shattered glass pieced itself together, the ink flowing back in. she reached down and handed it back. “magic usually helps.”

[cphcmcral]

ofvalcur:

rabastan pouted at marlene’s words, his arms finding their way to cross against his chest. getting a rise out of marlene was so easy, and seeing her annoyed was something rabastan found too amusing to stop. “that just means you’ve got a whole lot of thinking about me to do this school year to make up for all the lost thoughts, you better get started,” he said, mock urgency in his voice. “my summer was great, thank you so much for asking, i’m truly honored that you care about me enough to want to know how i am.”

had they not been standing in the middle of a sea of students, marlene would have gone off on him. she was never one for controlling her tongue, she didn’t see a point in it. if she had something to say, she was very well going to say it. but this early into school, surrounded by students and children, she wasn’t going to risk making a scene. “i think i’ll start with thinking about all the ways i’m going to blow your head off.” she replied sharply, eyes rolling as he continued on. “i’m so glad to hear you had a good summer, rabastan. great catching up, now if you’ll excuse me, i have better things to do, far away from here.” she stated, pushing herself off of the wall and shoving past him as she tried to put an end to a conversation that would only lead, one way or another, to something she wasn’t in the mood to deal with.

[cphcmcral]

siriusmistakes:

Sirius could have kept ranting on and on about Snape, about how he would jinx him till he was nothing but a pile of slime on the ground, or until he transfigured him into the most vile creature imaginable, or-  His thoughts were cut short by Marlene letting out a rather loud curse.

 “That’s exactly how I fee- Wait. Holy shit you can talk! Oh my God, Marlene, I thought you were gonna be mute forever, how tragic would that have been!” It had been instinct as he threw his arms around the girl in a relieved (though slighty bear-like) hug. He quickly let go, simultaneously embarrassed and afraid he’d hurt her. “I, uh-” He cleared his throat, “You’re welcome.”

marlene wanted to scream more now than ever, she hadn’t gotten the chance to when snape attacked her, the first thing he did was throw that tongue binding curse at her. she had suffered in silence since the moment he attacked, and now that she had her voice it was hard to keep it in. she tried to keep her shouting down, knowing it was late, and the last thing they needed was some first year running down and seeing her all bloodied up. 

but despite it all, marlene laughed as sirius hugged her. she smiled through the pain, feeling the sense of comfort that came from knowing her friends were finally close again. she wasn’t in this alone, and she smiled more than she thought possible tonight. “what would you all have done if you could never hear my beautiful voice again. it would have been worse than tragic, i think.” she replied as he let go, seeing his embarrassment on his face and quickly changed the subject, noticing she had bled on him in the hug. “oh, shit sirius, it got all over you.” she said, sitting up with a wince. “i’m a fucking mess.”

[cphcmcral]

ofalice:

“ — i don’t blame ’em, i wouldn’t eat a regular worm either, ” alice said thoughtfully. at marlene’s theory, she nodded emphatically, pointing her half-eaten gummy worm at marlene in excitement. “ that’s EXACTLY what i was thinking. some kind of transfiguration spell, probably, although it must have been before the statue of secrecy cause i don’t know what witch in her right mind would go around doing magic in front of muggles. ”

“you cover something in enough chocolate and i might just give it a go.” marlene laughed, eyebrows raising as a gummy worm was pointed around. there was no hope in getting work done now, she was too enthralled with this conversation. but then again, marlene would never complain about having an excuse not to do a paper. “there’s no other way to explain it, is there? those stories talk about her having a wand too. there’s a good chance she did some kind of spell and the muggles that heard about it couldn’t figure out exactly what was said, and so bibbity boppity boo was born. it’s got to be from ages ago, but that law has been around for ages too. perhaps she did get caught, that’s why we never hear about her in our stories.”

[cphcmcral]

daisytravers:

“You’re not wrong there.” Daisy’s mom always bragged at family dinners about her smart Daisy was with advanced classes when she was only taking Arithimancy a year longer than most students. Her mother thought it made her look like a better mom. “It’s kind of hard not to try to please them. Especially when they keep me under a microscope.”

“really? that’s got to be rough, being constantly watched like that.” marlene commented, never having had to worry about that kind of pressure from her parents. sure, they wanted to normal things that parents wanted from their children, like for them to be good people, to do well. but as marlene got older, they stepped back more, letting her come into her own and supported each step she made. “how do they keep an eye on you at hogwarts? i mean, it’s fairly easy to forge marks.”

[cphcmcral]

moodboards ; marlene mckinnon

i was not made to be subtle

[hoursandwitheringflowers-blog]

LILY /&. MOODBOARDS  ;: —–—–    (   @cphcmcral   )

                 she’s my person.                  if i murdered someone,                  she’s the person i’d call to help me drag                  the   corpse  across the living room   floor                  she’s my person.