#viprompt

[cherrybomb-witch]

Prompt: When I Was Younger - Marlene McKinnon

[the-wolf-within-blog]

Prompt: When I Was Younger - Remus Lupin.

[cherrybomb-witch]

Moo! || Self-Para || Summer, 1969|| When I Was Younger.

“Are you sure it will work?”

“Positive. I asked Catie about the draught. And I looked at her old school notes just in case”.

“Catie kept her school notes!? But she graduated like three years ago!”

“Catie keeps everything. Now shut up and keep pushing”.

It is a warm summer midnight, and the McKinnon Manor was in blissful slumber, except for the two blonde girls in their white nightgowns. That same evening, the McKinnon siblings had all extended mattresses and sleeping bags on the floor across the living room for a family slumber party with stories, and music and marshmallows roasted by the fireplace. It seemed like forever before everyone was asleep, but finally, the living room was silent save for the quiet sleeping breaths and occasional snores, and then Marlene had quietly slipped out of her bag and motioned to her sister Eva, her partner in tonight’s crime, to stand up and follow her.

They were small and slender-limbed, but after much struggle, they had managed to drag the inflatable mattress outside the living room, down the hallway and finally across the kitchen and through the back door. On the mattress, under the effects of a simple sleeping draught, their older brother Duncan slept like a baby, oblivious to the movement, or the girls’ whispering, or the numerous bumps they accidentally caused while dragging him all around the house.

“How did you even manage to prepare a sleeping draught?” Eva was at the feet end of the mattress, pushing it carefully down the small set of stairs that went from the kitchen door to the garden.

Marlene took her time answering, for she was struggling with the head end to hold it back and prevent the mattress from toppling down the stairs and risking to wake up her fifteen year old brother despite the potion she’d given him.

“I already told you, stupid. I looked at Catie’s old notes. It wasn’t hard to find the ingredients. Most of them grow in the woods. And the ones I couldn’t find, I stole from Mrs. Salsburgy’s garden in town” the older blonde replied once they had safely lowered their brother on the grass. Her cheeks were flushed with effort and her breath was labored.

“You broke into Mrs. Salsburgy’s garden!? Marlene!” Eva’s eyes were wide with impression at her sister’s audacity. The alluded simply shrugged her skinny white shoulders and pushed her long golden curls out of her face. She liked the old florist well enough, it was nothing personal. It just had to be done.

The two girls took a moment to catch their breaths while looking around. There was a big, round full moon on a cloudless sky, which favored their mission since the world around them was illuminated well enough by its silver haze. The garden was covered in moonlight and it looked enchanted. Marlene and Eva almost expected to see night fairies coming out and start dancing. But only some of their dogs showed up to glare at them curiously, but eventually decided that it was not worth staying awake for. 

“Well, c’mon then” Marlene spoke after some time, bending once more to grip the corners of her side of the mattress “We’ve got to get him all the way to the cows’ drinking trough”.

“Why are we doing this again?” Eva grumbled, rubbing her eyes. It was way past both of their bedtimes, but unlike Marlene, she was not as invaded by excitement and she really wanted to go back to sleep.

“Because” replied her sister, straining the word with exasperation “Duncan pushed me onto a puddle of cow dung the other day. I’m getting back at him and you have to help me”.

“But…”  Eva stifled a yawn and groaned “He’s too heavy! How are we even going to drag him all the way there? My arms hurt already. Also, the mattress will break with all the bumps and pebbles in the road”.

Marlene frowned thoughtfully. Her sister did have a point. She searched around for inspiration, trying to find a solution to their inconvenience. She refused to let a single obstacle prevent her from making Duncan pay for what he’d done. They had gotten so far already, especially after it took her days and several little accidents to eventually brew the sleeping draught despite her young age. She was a very capable little witch, after all. This could hardly frustrate her plans.

Her viridian eyes passed over a red cart that her younger siblings used to wheel each other around the house, and just like that, she was struck with a complex, yet surely effective thought.

“I have an idea. Come on!” she motioned to her sister and then darted towards the depot, careful not to make too much noise with her steps. Eva groaned, but eventually followed her older sister, wondering what on earth she had come up with now.

Later, the younger girl concluded that Marlene was either incredibly brilliant, or incredibly crazy. They took out the small pony cart and some harnesses and dragged it all the way to the garden. Eva slowly began to understand what was on her sister’s mind. They were going to get caught for sure, and then they would be in deep, deep trouble. But Marlene would have none of it. She run up to the stables, and returned with one of the Shetland ponies, Toffee, the most calm and easy to manage they had. Mar had seen her father harness the pony many times, and through some trials and errors, the two girls eventually managed to set up Toffee to the cart. Marlene took a step back with her hands on her hips, looking very smug and pleased with herself.

“Now all we have to do is get the mattress with Dun on it on the cart” she stated.

“But he’s still too heavy! We could barely drag him! How are we going to lift him!? Oh Mar, I am really tired. Can’t you just let it go!?” Eva begged, pouting miserably.

The other blonde shook her head, stubborn to the bone. She knew they could pull this off. They could not give up “No. Stop being such a crybaby, Eva” she hesitated, considering her options and then sighed with resignation “We need some help, we have no choice. Let’s go get Rowan and Christopher. I bet between the four of us, we can get this fatty on the cart once and for all”.

Ten minutes and a lot of insisting later, the two girls had managed to drag the twins outside with them. Ro and Chris were still groggy from sleep, but when they saw Duncan sprawled out on the garden, sleeping like a rock, and the cart with the pony peacefully grazing beside him, their eyes opened with disbelief and they glared at the girls.

“What are you doing!?” Rowan gasped, going from sleeping Dun to Marlene. It was quite clear she was the mastermind behind all of these.

Marlene raised her chin, her expression proud and solemn. In order to convince her siblings to help her, she would have to lift up their spirits and get them to stop thinking about going back to bed. She knelt to dip her finger in the wet earth and dramatically gave herself a line on each of her cheeks, like war paint.

“We are on a mission. Duncan thinks he can do whatever he pleases with us just because he is older. Well, we are going to teach him a lesson” she then proceeded to catch them up on her plan, speaking passionately, like a general delivering a speech before a really dangerous military action. At first, the three other children rolled their eyes and their sister’s quirkiness, but eventually they too became inflamed with the thrill of “danger” and “victory”, and soon enough, even Eva had painted stripes on her cheeks.

Infused with excitement, each of the siblings grabbed a corner of the mattress and synchronized, after much puffing and groaning and struggling and nearly dropping Duncan a couple of times, they’d pushed him on top of the cart and stood staring at their deed, quite impressed that they had actually succeeded. She would never admit it, of course, but even Marlene herself was surprised that it had actually worked. However, she was quick to step back into her leader role.

“Come on then, my valiant warriors! The night is young and our work is yet to be finished! To the fields I command thee!” she grabbed Toffee’s reins and began leading the pony out to the road that ran across the vast McKinnon estate, her siblings trailing at either side of her, occasionally glaring over their shoulders in fear that their mother might suddenly come out of the house, chasing after them and screaming like a banshee.

“What does ‘thee’ mean?” Rowan whispered to his twin quietly so the older girl would not hear.

Christopher shrugged and made a screwing gesture against his temple to symbolize their sister’s possible state of mind.

It took them twenty minutes to reach the field were the cows were grazing, and another fifteen to get to the trough, drag Duncan down from the cart and push him to the edge of the water. The cows raised their heads and stared at the children with large black eyes, but to them four children dragging their drugged brother on a cart while in their pijamas was of little concern for them.

“All right, now comes the last part of the plan” Marlene announced, hardly able to conceal her excitement. Her eyes were shiny and a mischievous grin was spread all over her face, showing her little white teeth “We need to push him into the water. The mattress will float. And when he wakes up in the morning, he’s gonna be in the middle of the trough, surrounded by water and cows. And that will teach him not to mess with me! Or any of us!” she hurried to add.

The look on Eva, Rowan and Christopher’s face was one of absolute shock.

“But…but Mar!” gasped Chris “Cows drink from there. And bath and…” the boy lowered his voice “And do their poo-poo!”

Marlene’s smile did nothing but grow “Exactly. See there, that heap of cow poop?” she pointed at a dark, flat mound on the grass near them. Half of it was squashed and there were marks of two hands on them “That’s the heap he pushed me on the other day. Well now, he’s going for a swim in his own medicine. C’mon, help me push him into the water”.

The children were all anxious about the scolding they would eventually have to face once this prank blew up. However, inside every McKinnon there was a little instinct that craved trouble, and in the end, none of them could deny that the whole situation was going to be extremely funny. They all teamed up to push Duncan into the drinking trough between muffled giggles and mocking whispers. After that, the four of them laced their arms around each other and contemplated the figure of the floating mattress in the middle of the water, with their older brother on it, cut against the moonlight. Marlene was right, this would definitely teach him just how dangerous a little girl’s mind could be if scorned.

Marlene could not remember the last time she had seen her parents so furious. She was grounded for months, not only for her prank on Duncan, but also for involving her younger siblings. 

But in the end, the only thing the ten year old girl truly regretted, was not having been present when Duncan fell head first into the water, and then slipped on the mud and collapsed on top of the very heap of dung he had pushed her to before. According to her father’s workers, he had screamed like a little girl.

[cherrybomb-witch]

Taken By A Shadow || Marlene & Evan || No Good Deed Goes Unpunished ||.

Date & Time: December 2nd, 11:30.

Location: Ministry Atrium. 

Surprisingly, it turned out that Dumbledore’s act of punishment for those who had taken part in the bombing of Knockturn Alley wasn’t as bad for Marlene as she’d expected. Sure, while her voice had been silenced in the Order meetings, and her participation on missions reduced, she found that fact not to be so an inconvenience, at least not in that particular situation.

Because Marlene preferred to be on the outsides of the crowd gathered to hear Millicent Bagnold’s speech than clustered in the middle with no space to move so much as a finger. So things hadn’t turned so bad for her in the end.

Her back resting against a wall, the blonde crossed her arms over her chest and began to get bored quickly. Political acts bored the Hell out of here, basically because she hardly believed in the Wizarding government these days. Somewhere along the third line of the speech, Marlene had dozed off.

She woke up with a jolt of her instinct just before the Atrium exploded into chaos and terror. The witch blinked, surprised, though it took her but a moment to realize that the Death Eaters had arrived. No surprises there. A public act like these was unlikely to pass without trouble.

Immediately, Marlene forgot about the crowd and the lack of space (everyone had started running in different directions anyways). She launched into motion, pushing and dodging her way to the center of the battle that had broken lose almost immediately between the Order members and security teams against Voldemort’s masked followed. The Atrium had turned into absolute anarchy as everyone tried to get to safety, not caring if someone else’s had to be compromised in the process. 

“Make way! Make way! MAKE FUCKIN’ WAY!” the witch shouted, finally losing her patience with the panicked mob. Finally having enough space to move, she spun around her heels in search for trouble, her eyes landing almost immediately on a Death Eater a few steps away. Marlene didn’t wait to see if he was attacking anyone at all, she launched forward immediately, and idea already forming inside her head. If she could capture that Death Eater and arrest them, she would surely win back Dumbledore’s trust, or at least the support of her fellow Order members. It was the perfect opportunity.

Taking advantage of the force of her own race, she jumped on the Death Eater, which naturally caused her to topple to the ground when she pushed him, hitting her knee painfully against the floor.

“Fuck! Mental note: No tackling for next time”.

She rolled back on her feet, wand ready in her hand to face her enemy.

[the-wolf-within-blog]

Oh No, You Don’t  || Remus & Atticus ||December 2nd, 1979 || No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.

Remus was not sure whether if the position he’d been assigned for the ceremony was the best, at least not for him. Truly, it was an honor to be within the Minister’s closest circle of protection, but the young wizard just didn’t trust himself to be on full capacity to be charged with such an important task. But he didn’t have much of a choice. The healthier members of the Order of the Phoenix after the events of Knocktrn Alley were mostly those who ahd taken part in the bombing to begin with, since they’d known to stay away. But Dumbledore had punished them by placing them further away from the action. Which left the likes of Remus in charge of the Minister’s protection.

Even though the Healers at St. Mungo’s had told him that his ear was completely healed and that he would recover 100% of his hearing, Remus was still having certain difficulties, like the persisting beep ringing in his ear. The medwizard had assured him that in time the sound would stop too, but right now it was a constant distraction, and Remus couldn’t afford to be distracted. 

Of course, the whole ceremonial situation wasn’t helping much either. The Sonorus charm for the new Minister’s speech, along with the waved of applause she received from the crowd only seemed to increase the intensity of the beep in his ear.

“Ah!” he groaned silently, head tilting to the side and pressing his finger to his ear. A guard close to him cast him a puzzled look, but Remus raised his other hand to show that he was okay, before standing straight again and trying not to grimace.

Whatever Bagnold was talking about at the moment, Remus had no idea, focused on keeping his eyes open since his ears were not working well. He though he heard the words “peace” and “safety” (words that made little sense this days) but whatever else the witch had been saying, was cut out when the uninvited guests everybody had feared would show up, eventually did so, unleashing the chaos that normally followed their arrival. Damn Death Eaters, though by now, Remus was kind of used to them showing up to this sort of event. It was stranger when they didn’t. He just wished they didn’t’ take the “evil never sleeps” thing so seriously.

Jumping into motion, Remus had one task alone, and that was protecting Bagnold. He jumped onto the stage and bolted straight towards her, yanking her be the corner of her cloak and pulling her to the ground behind the podium.

“Excuse me, madam” he muttered, just when a curse soared the air where Bagnold’s head had been moments before. Out of the corner of his eye, Remus could see the Death Eater cornering them, wand raised for a new attack. In a desperate attempt, Remus levitated the podium and launched it towards the dark wizard, hoping to at least break his concentration long enough to get the politician to safety.

He pushed the future Minister into the arms of her personal bodyguards violently “Take her somewhere safe! Now!” He didn’t wait to see what the other men did, but turned to face his foe, wand ready. The ringing in his ear seemed insignificant now, as adrenaline took over.

“Oh no, you don’t!” he snapped at the Death Eater, and fired a Stinging Jinx straight at the bloke’s face.

[the-wolf-within-blog]

Masquerade  // Monsters or Madness? // James (Starbuck)& Remus (Phantom of the Opera) // October 30th, 1979.

The Ministry of Magic Atrium looked splendid with its Halloween decorations, and all the witches and wizards dressed up in flamboyant costumes added an even bigger touch of bizarre magnificence to the party.

Remus had to admit he did not feel at his best amongst such a large crowd, especially considering that amongst the guest there were people who would rather see him locked in a pit feeding on rotten meat like the beast he was.

He moved between the other guests trying to avoid physical contact as much as he could so as to not draw attention to himself. Good thing about his costume was that the skull mask covered more than half of his face, so even though his identity was no secret, he wasn’t so easily recognized. 

The costume was incredible, probably the most luxurious thing he’d ever worn in his whole life. The long red cape draped over one of his shoulders flowed behind him like a silent trail of blood. The golden buttons of his vest could’ve passed as real, pure gold. His black boots were so polished they reflected the light of the thousand chandeliers above them. And the ornamental sword that hanged from his hip was simply mesmerizing to the eye. 

Other guests were staring at him in a way he’d never been stared at before; with admiration. His costume made him look like a deadly prince of death and fire, coming to drag their souls to hell. Going as the Red Death was turning out to be a surprising confidence boost for Remus. The only thing that ruined his personification of the popular and feared character was his cautious pace and shy movements, that were unmistakably...well...Remus.

Suddenly, he spotted a familiar couple standing a few steps away, and he breathed out in relief, having finally found someone he knew. Making his way, he reached James and Lily with a friendly smile that mismatched the terrifying mask he was wearing. 

“Mate! Finally someone I actually know in this damn place!” he said as a matter of salute, clasping his friends shoulder and leaning to place a kiss on Lily’s cheek “You look lovely as ever, Lils”.

While the red-head left to talk to someone else, Remus turned to his friend with a crooked smirk, running his gaze up and down James with amusement.

“Battlestar Gallactica?” he teased “I would’ve never expected it from you”.

[cherrybomb-witch]

We’re All Mad Here //Loki (Atticus) & The Mad Hatter (Marley) //Monsters or Madness? //Oct. 30th, 1979.

//Location: Ministry of Magic Atrium//

The tea was stronger than tea was supposed to be, but then, no one had ever mentioned that tea was intended to have a certain strength in order to be proper tea. And truly this tea was indeed wonderfully proper in Hatter’s most humble and magnificent opinion.

Magnificent. Another word that started with “M”. Hatter added it to her mental list to investigate it later.

Speaking of letter “M”, what a wonderful display of “muchness” this curious gathering offered. All these splendid people wearing elaborated gowns and funny looking robes. Many of them had the most remarkable hats resting on top of their heads. Those were the ones Hatter liked the most. 

She paced cautiously between the guests, taking constant sips from her cup of tea. It was having a most notorious effect on her person. At times she felt like the world was spinning violently, and yet everything seemed to be extraordinary calm. 

“Curiouser and curiouser. I wonder what sort of potion they’ve poured on my tea” she exclaimed out loud to herself, taking another sip and tasting the drops that lingered on her cherry lips. Mhhm…Nope, not shrinking potion. Perhaps…no, it lacked the excessively sweet note of the growing potion too. Though it did give her the feeling that her head was getting larger. Wich couldn’t be too bad. Big heads meant even bigger hats.

Bloody Red!  But certainly no hat as splendid as the one that she spotted at the other side of the room, glimmering in royal golden light under the magical lanterns.

Hatter launched foward, dancing her way through the crowd. It would’ve been much easier to fly over their heads with her hat, but of course, with no one to toss it in the air for her to ride, and no shrinking potion either, that mean of transportation was not in her cards.

Cards! Ha! The Queen of Hearts would’ve had Hatter’s head of for that comment. Ah, if only Hatter had a head in first place.

She reached the muchful individual with the extraordinary hat. Oh, what a mesmerizing eye-sight. 

“Oh, another M word…keep it, keep it!”

The hat encircled almost the entire of its owner’s head, more like a helmet, actually. It seemed to be made of pure gold, thought it looked a lot harder than gold at the same time. The design itself wouldn’t have been much remarkable hadn’t it been for the pair of breath-taking horns that sprouted from the top, elegantly curving backwards and ending in a sharp, dangerous looking point. 

More than a hat, this was a helmet. More than a helmet, this was a crown. And a crown like Hatter had never seen before, and she’d had her fair share of crowns (all the Queens and Queen-abes of Wonderland wanted Hatter to design their crowns). Oh, but none would ever be worthy of such splendid work of art as the one that ruled that regal head before her. Not even the White Queen, with her tiny, pretty head, would ever be good enough for such spectacular golden horns.

“Well met, not so old friend” she chipped breathlessly at the horned man “By Absolem’s smoke, if your hat is not the very definition of how a raven is like a desk, then indeed that riddle has no solution. Such muchness I have never seen before in my nineteen years, eleven months, three days, twenty hours, forty-five minutes and seven…eight…nine…” she trailed off, watching the giant clock on the wall behind the horned creature’s head.

[cherrybomb-witch]

Prompt: Marlene lives though everyone else in her family dies and she is asked to raise Harry Potter.

He Lives In You, He Lives In Me.

Marlene’s knees hit the ground with such a force it would’ve set anyone’s teeth on edge, but the witch was completely oblivious to pain, save for the one in her heart. Her hands sank in the burnt earth of the Potters’ garden and grabbed chunks of coal and ashes that were easily blown away by the wind when she opened her palms again.

She had lost it all.

Barely a couple of weeks ago, she’d been in that same position, knees muddy under the rain, in front of fourteen coffins that held all of her family inside. All of it. Her parents, her brothers, her sisters, her little nephews and niece.

Fuck’s sake! Eyrin had only been five years old!

Marlene had died, she had truly died. Depression had finally won. It had finally broken her spirit. If there was no family to protect, then there was no life to live. No smiles, no laughs, no piggyback rides and brotherly hugs. She was over. Her life was over. She had been reduced to nothing.

And yet somehow she had been able to cling desperately to her own life. Because she still had one brother, only one, left to remind her how she was supposed to breathe through this nightmare. A brother that didn’t have a drop of McKinnon blood in his veins, whose hair was a dark as a raven’s wing. But he was part of her soul, and he refused to let go of that part that they shared.

James had caught her before she’d hit the bottom of the whirlwind, and slowly, they’d initiated the long, arduous climb back to light.

But now that brother was gone too, along with his beloved red flower. That house in Godric’s Hollow that had become the center of Marlene’s existence, her home, her family, was reduced to ashes and black bones. The life had vanished from James and Lily’s eyes, and now, it would vanish from Marlene’s too. This time, for good.

Hours, centuries, seconds rolled by as Marlene knelt in front of the broken remains of her life, when she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder. With an intensity she’d never felt before, the witch hoped it was Death, who had finally taken pity of her and had come to reunite her with her loved ones.

But when she lifted her face covered in dirt, save for the faint white trails left by her endless flow of tears, she didn’t find a black silken cloaked figure, but rather a pair of half-moon spectacles and a long silvery beard, staring at her with intense, soul-bearing blue eyes.

But Marlene didn’t want to know what Albus Dumbledore had to tell her. She didn’t care if he was here to try and persuade her to continue living, when she was already on the verge of dying. She just wanted the old man to let her be no more.

Until, before she had time to refuse, the wizard placed a warm, stirring bundle in her arms. Marlene yelped in surprise, and nearly dropped the baby. Harry. It was Harry, dear Lord. He was alive!

“Harry” she whispered, finding a voice she’d thought she’d lost. Her heart was suddenly beating inside her ribcage again, a sensation she’d believed to be gone for good.

“Harry, Harry. Oh Harry!” fresh tears slid down her cheeks as Marlene clutched the child against her, hiding her face in the soft blanket that wrapped him, not caring about the dirt on her cheeks. Her body shook violently with the sobs of everything she’d lost, and that one thing that against all odds, she suddenly still had.

“How…how?” she croaked after, looking back at Dumbledore with Harry’s face still close to her neck. She could feel the baby playing with the little bells of her earrings.

Dumbledore was still staring at Marlene intendedly, wise beyond any other living soul on the planet. His eyes were a labyrinth of secrets.

“There are magical forces that not even the most powerful wizards can understand” he replied vaguely, thought Marlene could perceive the shadow of a bitter-sweet smile on his face before they both turned their attention back to Harry.

“What’s gonna happen to him?” Marlene asked, her voice still coming out in whispers.

Dumbledore rested a hand on the younger witch’s shoulder.

“That, my dear Miss McKinnon, is up to you”.

For a moment, the witch just stared back blankly at the headmaster, wondering whether if the man had finally crossed the line between genius eccentricity and utter madness. But Dumbledore’s gaze spoke of a mind that was as sharp as ever.

Definitely saner than hers. She looked down at the bundle in her arms and saw him so pure, so innocent, so touched by tragedy, that Marlene immediately felt that she was poisoning baby Harry with her sadness.

“I-I can’t, Dumbledore” she muttered, shaking her head “There must be someone else…Remus-

“Remus would gladly take him in, yes. But you and I both know, dear Marlene, that Remus’s life is hard, perhaps too hard to raise a boy who’s already been through so much”.

“And you think I could give Harry a better life!?” a sharp, bitter laugh escaped Marlene’s lips, cold and dry like a desert night. How could she? She couldn’t even give a proper life to herself. She was a fuckin’ depressive maniac with an alcohol problem and every intention of ending her life on a short term notion. Yeah, she’d make one hell of a foster mum.

However, Dumbledore did little more than look slightly amused “Of course. Who would know about family more than you, Miss McKinnon? Besides, you are more of an aunt to Harry than his own blood relatives would ever be”.

An aunt. Marlene felt a stab in the heart when she remembered how James used to joke around saying that Harry’s first words would be along the lines of “Autie Maly”.

She looked down once again at the baby, who had fallen asleep in her arms by now. A violent, unexpected wave of tenderness invaded Marlene’s chest and pushed her to get on her feet, still clutching the baby tightly against herself. This was James and Lilly’s son, for Christ’s Sake. She loved the kid. Who else would protect it if not her? How could she not take him?

No, she couldn’t die, not yet. Once again, just when she'd thought she’d lost all her family, an unexpected member returned to hold her beating heart between his tiny hands.

“It’s okay, Harry” she whispered to the little ear half-hidden beneath strands of messy black hair “Aunt Marley will take care of everything”.

~*~*~*~

FOUR YEARS LATER

“Harry, Harry slow down!”

The boy was tugging insistently at her hand, half-dragging Marlene towards the shed of sheep, his little red boots splashing mud in every direction. Behind him, the witch struggled to keep the pace, too surprised by the child’s strength. Bloody Hell, when had her baby grown so big and strong?!

“Sheep, Maly! Sheep!” screamed the little boy, throwing himself against the wooden fence with such force that he nearly fell inside the shed. Marlene’s hand darted out to catch the boy.

“Easy there, tiger” she said with a smile, kneeling to wrap her arms around Harry and scooping him up to get him across the fence before jumping over it herself. Drawing her wand, Marlene casted a summoning charm to fetch the bottle of milk. She extended it to a Harry that could barely conceal his excitement.

“Want to feed the lamb over there?” Marlene pointed at a small black thing on the corner, curled in a tight ball between the hay. Harry’s eyes nearly bulged out their sockets and he tripped towards the animal before Marlene had time to warn him about watching his step. His glasses had reached a point in which not even magic would be able to fix another break.

With patience, Marlene showed her little boy (she was used to considering Harry hers by now) how to hold the bottle so that the lamb could suck without taking it from his hands. The boy was a fast learner. He definitely took after Lilly. Marlene couldn’t help a small little sigh escaping her lips while she watched Harry feed the baby sheep.

“Why we give tis one milk and not te othels?” Harry asked suddenly, without taking his eyes away from the lamb.

Marlene shrugged and leaned over to adjust the boy’s scarf around his neck “Because this one doesn’t have a mother” she explained softly.

The boy frowned as if he was meditating over something very grave before finally asking Marlene with a hesitant tone:

“Like me?”

The question was an innocent one, and Harry didn’t even look sad when he spoke. He was still too young to fully comprehend death, but Marlene had explained him a couple of months ago why the other boys normally had a mother and a father, but he had an “Autie”. Harry had started crying, as it was to be expected, but it had seemed more like a natural reaction that an intentional one.

Harry, as harsh as it sounded, didn’t really miss his parents, since he hardly remembered them at all. For the boy, his whole life had been with Marlene. Marley tried to keep James and Lilly’s memory alive as best as she could, and Harry understood perfectly well that they were his real parents. However, he didn’t suffer very much with the fact that they were gone. At least not as much as Marlene did.

Anyways, the witch didn’t want to insist too much on the subject because the idea wasn’t to depress the boy with the death of his parents either. In a way, it was good that Harry hardly remembered them at all, as sad as it sounded. It was all awfully complicated at times.

“Yes, Harry” she replied carefully, touching his plump red cheek with her gloved hand.

The boy was silent for a long while after that, and Marlene couldn’t find anything to say either. It was still so fuckin’ hard to talk about James and Lilly, and the fact that she had to pull a strong facade in front of Harry when she did exhausted her. Sometimes, at night, the old grey demons still found their way to her bed and wrapped their chains around her heart. But she always woke up in the morning, with Harry poking her arm and insisting for breakfast. When she felt like she was going to fall again, she always held tight to that sensation.

Harry muttered something, but lost in her thoughts, Marlene didn’t get the words.

“What was that, cutie-pie?”

Harry pulled the empty bottle from the lamb's mouth and patted the woolly head with a giddy grin.

“That at least, the mama’s that go to Heaven always sen petty agels like you to look aftel us” he repeated cheerfully, before wrapping his arms around the lamb neck and burying his face in its thick black coat.

~*~*~*~

SIX YEARS LATER  

Marlene pinched the bridge of her nose, looking down at her boy, but refusing to meet his pleading green eyes.

“For the tenth time, Harry, the school rules are clear. You can take an owl, a toad or a cat. But you cannot take a sheep to Hogwarts!”

“Then transfigure her into a cat!” Harry replied stubbornly, rolling his eyes as if the option was so obviously easy. Ugh, sometimes he was so like James, and not always in the best ways.

“Harry, even if I transfigure her into a cat, Norah Pandora will still be a sheep. The spell will wear off eventually, and then how on earth are you going to explain your teachers why you have a fat, black sheep sleeping in your bed?”

God, when she’d agreed to adopt the orphan lamb six years ago, Marlene certainly hadn’t expected to find herself in this situation now that Harry was about to start attending Hogwarts. Oh, she’d been and idiot to ignore the fact that the boy never went anywhere without his woolly little friend. It would be the first time in six years that they’d be separated.

The whole situation was a bit bizarre. But this was all her doing. James and Lilly had liked animals, but they’d never felt the same sort of love and connection Marlene had developed after growing up her entire life in a farm. No, no. Harry Potter’s attachment to Norah Pandora was entirely her fault. Well, that, and the fact that the little boy had established a special bond with the little lamb, finding comfort in the fact they were both orphans. It was heart-warming to see, really, and to separate them would be a cruel thing to do. Just…the puppy eyes those two were giving her. Who would’ve imagined sheep could even do puppy eyes…?

“Oh, don’t even think about it!” Marlene scolded herself.

“Cutie-pie” the witch was about to kneel, but she remembered that Harry wasn’t any longer a little boy, even if he was a bit lanky for his age. Instead, she bent over him to look him into those deep green eyes of his “I know that the idea of going off somewhere without your family can be very scary. But you’ll make yourself a new family while you’re there. Harry, Hogwarts is a wonderful place. It’s the kind of castle they talk about in fairytales, the ones where all of your dreams can come true” she cupped her boy’s cheek “I know it’s scary to leave your family behind, but we’ll be waiting for you right here. This will always be your home, Harry. I promise. But this adventure, you have to start it on your own”.

Harry lowered his eyes, one hand resting on top of Norah Pandora’s head, and the other gently intertwining his fingers with Marlene’s.“

’Kay” he agreed finally in a soft voice, kneeling to wrap his arms around the sheep. He looked into the big, poppy eyes of the animal for a second, before gazing up at Marlene “But can’t she at least come to the train station with us?”

~*~*~*~

A FEW DAYS LATER-PLATAFORM 9 ¾.

Walking around King’s Cross with a sheep on a leash earned Marlene more muggle stares than she had ever received in her entire life. So much for not drawing attention. No, the muggles wouldn’t think that Harry and her were wizards. They’d just think they were fuckin’ insane.

Once they’d crossed to platform 9 ¾, the looks were less puzzled, but they still persisted, even in a world were magic existed. Magic and madness were utterly different things, after all.

“You sure you ain’t forgetting anything, right Harry?” Marlene mumbled, fuzzing over her boy’s robes once more “Wand?”

“Up my sleeve”.

“Toothbrush?”

“Packed it just before we left”

“You’ve got all your books?”

“Brand new and safe inside my luggage”

Marlene nodded briefly “I suppose you’re not taking a comb with you as well, are you?” she added in a half resigned, half hopeful tone.

Harry shot her a matter-of-fact glare though the messy black strands of hair that fell over his eyes, despite Marlene’s best attempt to comb them “You know there’s no point in it, Autie Marley”.

“Yeah well” Marlene’s hand travelled self-consciously to the messy bun on top of her head, where she kept her wand tugged “I’m really not one to talk” she admitted, making Harry smirk knowingly.

Marlene took a deep breathe. How had it come to this? The past ten years had soared by like a gush of wind between her fingers, and the baby she’d received in her arms on that gloomy morning outside the ruins of the Potters’ house had suddenly turned into an eleven year old boy that looked so much like his father that Marlene was feeling the impulse of jumping on that train with him like she’d done with James in the past.

Somehow, she’d managed to raise James and Lilly Potter’s son, and make him just as much theirs as he was her own.

“Hey, cutie-pie” she said softly, rumbling through her pockets until she found the picture she’d come across the other day between the pages of her sketchbook “I thought you’d like to see this. It’s really stupid, but…I don’t know…now that you’re here…” she extended the photo for Harry to take “That’s your father and me standing right here on the platform, about to go off to our first year, just like you” Marlene pretended to be checking the leash around Norah Pandora’s neck so that Harry wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes.

The boy studied the picture for a long time, running his thumb with a mixture of longing and fondness over the laughing image of his father. Beside him, the well-known features of Marlene were recognizable even in that round, childish face.

“Can I keep this, Autie?”

Marlene blinked towards the boy, tears already dry. Her gaze shifted from the picture in Harry’s hands to his face, before nodding slowly.

“Of course, cutie-pie. It’s all yours”.

At that moment, the Hogwarts Express emitted a long, pestering whistle, announcing that it was time for the kids to kiss their parents goodbye and get on board in that magical iron machine that would take them off to their greatest adventure yet.

Marlene felt a pang of denial in her heart. She didn’t want to part with her boy, but she refused to let that fact show, or else Harry would never want to leave. For a while now Harry had been old enough to notice her aunt sometimes went through periods of sadness for apparently no reason, and the idea of living her alone had already bothered him for weeks. Now that she’d finally convinced that gold-hearted boy that she’d be fine, Marlene couldn’t just ruin it all at the last minute.

“Okay, listen” she grabbed Harry’s forearms fondly “Remember that the key is being a great student, but without forgetting that the most important thing is to have fun. Don’t get on the teacher’s bad side, because believe me, it’s more complicated than it sounds. Write to me once a week, or twice…or every day if you want to. Remember your uncle Remus will wat to hear from you every once in a while. And most important of all” she breathed deeply “No matter what house you get sorted in, you will always, always be worth the world for me. The person’s not defined by the house they get sorted in, but by the way they embrace said sorting in our hearts. And as long as you are happy and good, I’ll be the proudest witch in the world for having you” a sudden lump formed in her throat and Marlene had to take a deep breathe before continuing “I love you, you know that, do you?”

And easy smile appeared in Harry’s face, a smile that had turned into the center of Marlene’s existence. He flung his skinny arms around Marlene’s neck, smoothing her hair and kissing her cheeks repeatedly.

“Of course, Autie, I’ve always known” he replied, burying his face in her shoulder like he used to do as a toddler “I love you too. And I thank my mum and dad every day that, even though they had to go, they left an angel like you to watch over me like a mother”.

Marlene’s heart nearly stopped at those words, so deep for an eleven year old boy. But of course, her Harry had always been wiser beyond his years, and when he spoke, there was always something deep and meaningful to his words, even when he was joking.

There was so much that Marlene wanted to tell him, but the train was whistling again, and she wanted the boy to leave with a light heart to school. So instead, she hugged him tightly, and promised to write, and repeated over and over again how much she loved him.

Harry knelt to wrap his arms around Norah Pandora, whispering God knew what to his woolly friend’s ear, before standing on his tiptoes to place a quick, distracted kiss on Marlene’s cheek before hurrying off to the train with his trunk behind him.

Marlene never took her eyes away from him. She saw two red-headed boys (most probably, Molly and Arthur Weasley’s offspring) help him with his trunk. She saw him laugh when one of them said something. She watched him turn his head and offer her one last, loving smile over the crowd before jumping on the train.

Marlene finally allowed the tears to roll freely down her cheeks, but these were tears of happiness, of hope, of love. Of everything she thought she’d lost ten years ago, and then miraculously, she’d found again.

It had been nine years since Marlene had last touched a bottle of alcohol. It had been three since her last depressive break-down. It had been ten since the life in Lilly Potter’s eyes had vanished and James’s smile had disappeared from his face.

But they’d never left Marlene. Because there was still a spark of that life in Harry’s eyes, so much alike to his mother’s. And the easy smile that Marlene had once seen on her soul brother’s face, still lived in Harry’s.

Ten years ago she’d lost it all, yes. But she’d found a new everything too.