#hestia001

[sxnlights-blog]

“wife that never was, i had no idea you were here. are you enjoying our new abode?” // @heartheen

[mckinnonaf]

scream at the moon and scuff up our feet             (let’s be animals) / hestia.

It had been an indecently long time, Marlene decided, since she’d had an adventure.

There were many tumultuous things happening in her life, of course. Beyond the obvious that hammered into her heart every day—Matty Matty Matty—there were the various fights and reconnections and other things that had been smashing into her heart recently. There were also things that probably would count more as a classic adventure—traipsing around with Sirius in order to get drunk, meeting Sybill to introduce her to drinking after curfew, and even, arguably, visiting the kitchens with Frank that first night, or drunkenly smashing plates to pieces on the Quidditch field with James.

It was probably indicative of something about Marlene’s coping mechanisms and general skill in taking care of herself that the vast majority of those had involved alcohol, but—as always—Marlene pushed that thought away. She had always been remarkably talented at avoiding those concerns; perhaps it was a natural byproduct of her preferred coping mechanism being distraction, that she became skilled at distracting herself from anything, or perhaps it was simply that she just did not care—that her well-being had never featured highly on her priorities, and now less than ever.

What did feature highly on the priorities list of one Marlene Alexandria McKinnon, however, was exploring. Particularly when considered in conjunction with magical creatures—arguably her biggest passion, though flying, Sugar Quills and various aspects of history rivaled it—and the word forbidden. Marlene actually spent quite a bit of time in the Forest, considering its prohibited quality, but she at least tried to go with one of the others. The rest of her friends didn’t tend to cherish magical creatures to quite the same degree as she did, but were generally of the probably accurate opinion that Marlene—considering her general lack of interest in self-preservation, which was hitting an all time low of below zero this year—alone in the forest spelled risky business. Still, the vast majority of them all had dreams or at least some form of expectation of a future, and just because Marlene didn’t didn’t mean she wanted them to be running after her when they had Other Important Concerns.

She had gone by herself on occasion, though not too far recently—more in order to clear her mind, when she wanted to feel more grounded than flying would allow. Sometimes she would hang out with Hagrid afterwards, which was always enjoyable. Today, however, she had decided that her adventure could do with perhaps an extra presence. Whilst the teasing humour of Sirius or the dry humour of Remus might have been her usual foray, Marlene felt like perhaps this adventure would do with something different. Rod’s face swum into her mind, and she let herself muse on that for a while. Whilst she thought he would be excellent for a forest adventure, and very much wished to take one with him, if possible, she needed a bit of clarity right now, and as much as he anchored her, he did not always clear her mind. She was in the market for a distraction, and eyes that lit up as much as hers did at the idea of this adventure, which was how she had found herself pulling Hestia along by the hand with a wicked grin.

They were somewhere towards the start of the thick of the forest, and Marlene was grinning at something the other girl had just said. “Really? Gid did that?” she checked, before laughing quietly. Normally, she would laugh loosely and loudly, especially on an adventure of run and potential recklessness, but this was the Forest, and Marlene respected animals in the way she didn’t tend to respect authority figures. This was their domain, and she would not be that intruder. There were some truly astounding things to discover in the Forest, and Marlene was of the opinion that if you didn’t respect the Forest and its inhabitants, you probably didn’t deserve to find them.

@joneshestia