#moaningmaddy

[empoweredevans]

Date: March 13th, 1982 Location: The McKinnon Farm @moaningmaddy

She wasn’t nervous. Since James’ death, her emotions had been all over the place - grief was hard and so was love - but it had almost eradicated her nerves. She hadn’t really felt worried about things since then. There was fierceness, sadness, anger. But no worry. 

And, standing at the gate to Marlene’s family farm, right now was no different. While Lily had never been a mentor before - well, at least, not officially, though there might have been a few people who looked up to her unofficially - she’d been practicing her whole life for a moment like this.

Standing up for what she believed in, showing someone else how to do the same. Leaving Severus had been hard as a sixteen year old, but she’d done it and it was a testament of strength. Maddy, despite only being a few years after Lily, still seemed so young. This war hadn’t caught up to her yet, but Lily was also proud, though they had never met. Maddy, too, was a Muggleborn. It meant she knew things Lily did that others didn’t - understood things, experienced things. No one who wasn’t a Muggleborn could ever get what that meant.

Lily stood up straighter as she noticed Maddy approach. No one could Apparate into the farm directly with the wards, so most had to walk from the outskirts of the grounds. She smiled warmly, lips closed, but there was also something numb in her expression. She hoped Maddy would lose less in this war than she had. “Hello,” she said, sticking out her hand for the younger witch to shake. “I’m Lily. I believe we’re planning for a tour today, yes?”

[horseheartedmarlene]

Into the Last Good Fight

LOCATION: House of Bones / Ministry of Magic DATE: May 2, 1982 @moaningmaddy​

Marlene had come to the House of Bones to look for Remus Lupin -- not that she was expecting to find him there (but maybe he would be, with the wolves now in the woods; was he staying with them now? It was odd to not know) but she was sure she would be able to find someone who could direct her on to wherever it was he was...and, admittedly, she was hoping that the someone she was going to find from whom to beg further direction would be Edgar. It would help, she thought, to talk to Edgar first. He could bolster her spirits for the trial ahead -- and she was sure it would be a trial, clawing her way through her own still-bruised feelings to find Remus’s pain on the other side, and try (hope) that there were enough tattered threads of friendship left to reweave their bond...

She hadn’t expected a different sort of trial to rear its head instead.

Marlene was just preparing herself a cup on the go (of all the many things she’d learned from Edgar, that was one of her favorites) when a patronus burst onto the scene. She thought it was Lily’s at first, that familiar silvery doe who’d so often brought news of a family in trouble or a chance to smuggle someone to safety -- but the voice that came out was not Lily’s. It was Severus, and he was in trouble -- they were all in trouble.

But he was the first one lost today.

Marlene stumbled back against the nearest table, trying to catch her breath as her head spun and everyone around her began to babble. They had to make plans -- there was no time to make plans! Voldemort was already at the Ministry -- the battle had begun.

She forced herself to push the loss of her friend for later -- later, if they lived, they could mourn the lost -- and focus. “Apparition Wars are down on the Atrium -- hurry!” Severus had said, and while she didn’t think that exactly qualified as a last wishes statement, Marlene was inclined to honor the command nonetheless. Which meant she had to pull herself together enough to focus, enough to Apparate -- and to help those who couldn’t. Always, always, to help those who needed it; Marlene had been a big sister for too long to ever think to do anything else.

She looked for Edgar, knowing that Apparition wasn’t his strong suit to begin with (knowing that she’d never not feel a pang in her heart when she thought of what Spinching had cost him already) but there were too many people rushing hither and yon; she couldn’t spot him. She wasn’t sure if he’d even been there, or if the House of Bones was empty today of those whose bones called it home. She did see Maddy, though -- Madaléina Warren, new and young and beautifully bright-eyed, now looking shaken.

Marlene put down her teacup (maybe she was the one shaking; the china clattered in her hand, the light sound oddly sharp and loud against her ears despite the tumult that filled the Order’s headquarters as they hustled to war) and drew her wand. With her other hand, she reached towards the young witch. “You want to Side-Along?” she offered. Then, not wanting it to sound like she was trying to baby Maddy, she added, “It’s safer to go in pairs when we don’t know what will be waiting on the other end -- or, I suppose, in this case when we do know, and know it won’t be good. Come on -- if you’re coming?”

It wasn’t untrue. They would be safer going in ready to watch one another’s backs, or as much “safer” as it was possible to be when one was getting ready to trade hexes with Death Eaters and their vile leader. Maybe if Severus had had someone with him, someone else there hidden in among the silver masks on whom he could rely, he would be...

But that was for later. Now there was the fight. And Maddy’s hand, tight against her own, and the tighter press of the air around them as they spun away with a CRACK and stepped forward against the tide of death.

[benjyfenwiick]

Date: March 21, 1982 Location: The McKinnon Farm, Infirmary @moaningmaddy

Benjy was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall opposite of Emmeline’s bed, waiting for the other shoe to drop. He was covered in blood - maybe he should’ve tried cleaning himself off, but his mind was too far scattered to think that, his hands shaking slightly with his wand clutched tightly in one set of fingers. He knew of the battles - yes, battles. Multiple. Diagon Alley, the Potter Estate. One a distraction for the other, most likely. And, with battles, would come wounded. Without Emmeline in commission and Branwen not yet back, that responsibility to save people would fall on him.

But he didn’t know if he could handle it. He’d barely kept Emmeline alive and he hadn’t been able to stop the Death Eater at all! He’d had to call for help. It was his first real healing experience and, while everyone was alive (so far), he couldn’t imagine doing this over and over and over again.

Benjy’s head popped up when the door opened, his stomach sinking. The first injured? It was Maddy, looking worse for wear. Had she been in Diagon Alley or the Potter Estate? Benjy jumped to his feet, but the suddenly movement made his leg buckle. He hissed, stumbling slightly, before straightening up. “I’m okay!” he said quickly, eyeing Maddy up and down, not realizing what seeing him covered in blood might make her think. “Are you hurt?” 

[untamedmeadowes]

A Badgering Reunion

LOCATION: Bones Estate DATE: March 11, 1982 @moaningmaddy

Dorcas was not here on a mission -- or so she told herself. It was a lie, of course; she had absolutely come to the Bones Estate with a purpose in mind, a purpose that had been brewing in the back of her skull ever since Benjy’s first halting words about Madaléina Warren of all people ostensibly joining the Order of the Phoenix.

(It wasn’t that Dorcas doubted Benjy -- she never did, never would. He was her friend which meant she trusted him implicitly forever. But Maddy? Perfect prefect Maddy with her nose in the air and her brows in a scowl? No way. There was just no way she’d want to have anything to do with the Order -- and since Benjy also couldn’t possibly be lying, that meant that Maddy must have some other cause in mind. Dorcas was going to find out what.)

So she stalked through the heavy air of the Bones house like a manticore on the prowl, all hunched shoulders and narrowed eyes and heavy footsteps. It wasn’t so much that she disliked Maddy as...well, she just didn’t believe in her. Not on subjects like the Order of the Phoenix; not when it came to breaking the rules even to do what was right. Maddy wasn’t a bad person, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be a threat. And if everyone else was going to look at her history of following the rules and doing as she was told and tattling on people as a good thing, rather than the warning sign it was, then it was up to Dorcas to figure out what was really going on with her old dormmate.

Maybe shouting, “Oi, Maddy! What’re you doing here?” from across a muddy green courtyard full of mushrooms and stomping towards her like a human Bludger wasn’t the best way to go about that...but Dorcas wasn’t exactly known for being tactful. “You know this isn’t legal, right?” she added condescendingly, as though Maddy might have mistaken the vigilante nature of the Order of the Phoenix for just another after-school club.