Overshadowed - An HP Marauders Era Story

7,8,9, and all the rest-

-because this story was never meant to have a happy ending, not really, so here it is (because I love Harry Potter and the fandom and the most of the people who contribute to the fandom but I think it's time to stop pulling this out for way too long. This book will always hold a special place in my heart, and maybe one day I'll do something else with it, but for now this is it. But I made a promise to finish this story, so here's the summary I wrote up absolutely ages ago):

Gwen McKinnon doesn't exactly make friends, mainly just hangs around Marlene etc. 

She takes enough photos of the castle by third year, and then gets to exploring. By this she finds a lot of passageways etc.

Marlene kinda gets sick of having her sister following her, and in fifth year (before the by the lake thing, with Severus and James and a word no friend should ever say to another) tells her to leave them alone. Gwen then spends a lot of her time with the Gryffindor boys, and takes a few photos of the fight before following her sister in concern (she gets yelled at, and Marlene tells her to go away, this is time to look after Lily).

She takes photos of basically everyone in her year in the castle. Plus some others.

Eventually (eventually), Marlene just ignores her rather than yelling at her.

A year and a bit after Hogwarts, she gets Marlene a cat, just like the one she'd always wanted.

When she brings it home, her home is on fire. The entire building is burning, the garden and the grave of the dead cat Marlene had admired for so long, all of it. It's all just burning, and Gwen McKinnon knows no coincidence (this was the only time the entire year they'd all be home, afterall, and she'd been late by ten minutes. Ten minutes none of them will ever get back).

She tries to put it out, but it's too strong and she hears a final scream from inside (sees a final faded figure looking a lot like the woman she's always compared to fall in a flash of red too direct to be the red of fire) before she apparates with the cat.

…

Book 2? Probably not.

When the article shows up in the papers, everyone thinks she's dead (if they'd realised she existed in the first place). She decides not to correct them.

She keeps the cat as her own and lives with it in a cottage in the woods, taking photos from a distance now.

She dies her hair blonde, and waits.
When Sirius breaks out, she tries to find him, knowing of his animagus form.

She can't.

She hears about the disaster at Hogwarts and goes to find Dumbledore, sensing a storm brewing.

In the end, she moves in with Sirius and he kinda yells at her a bit (why didn't you save them and where have you been, all the things he never yells at Remus) before the portrait wakes up and he leaves to shut it.

When Harry etc come around, they ask who she is and she says she's Marlene's sister. This works for them, 'cause they'd seen the photo Sirius had shown them (the Order of the Phoenix, the one photo Gwen never took, because this is the Order and she had followed her sister for a long time but never then, not to that, she wasn't allowed).

Her cat (Malene's cat) lives with them, and when Sirius mentions the photos one unassuming day Harry perks up a bit.

"You have photos?"

"Oh, she used to take them all the time."

"I still do, Sirius."

She takes the camera out from around her neck and snaps a photo right then, just because she can (and she talks now, that's new, but no one seems to comment on it. Maybe she's always talked. Not like anyone ever paid enough attention).

Then she shows them some photos of when she and her and him and them were children, Harry seeming especially excited, Hermione being interested in the past, and the Weasleys getting a laugh out of how their parents used to look.

At the end of that year, in the ministry, the only thing of note she does is push Sirius out of the way of Bellatrix's curse, falling into the veil instead.

.

And she's important to Harry, and the Weasleys, Hermione, Lupin, the Order, and her relentless photo-taking is important to them all to, but it's not until she's dead that they really take it all in. It's not until she's dead that they set up a funeral (because there are no funerals for the living, not one, not in any way that isn't for two or more people or for those just beginning the journey to adulthood, because birthdays and weddings are funerals in a way, celebrations of life, and future life, and life that will never return).

.
.
.

And it's not until she's dead that anyone realises that not a single soul - not her or anyone else - had ever even once taken a picture of Gwen McKinnon.

------------------------

Published on: 5/3/20
Words: 874
It was never meant to have a happy ending, because some stories just don't, but the funeral thing was newer than the original plan. Other than that, yup, that's all I have to offer y'all for now.
Thank you for coming on this journey with me; my first and currently only multi-chaptered fic (unless the Ginny one counts ;D). It's been great to hear from y'all and thank you so much to everyone who's read this. I'll be marking it as completed, for in my eyes it is, mostly, at least for now.

Special thanks to:
Emilia_Severus_Snape  for being the absolute best I could ever ask for.
TOMISANOBSCURIAL   for being a glorious friend and sticking with me (you can read it now hehe)

And anyone who's read this far, I love you all. You're all amazing and perfect and the world doesn't deserve you.

Signing off this for the final time,

Cassie.