𝐞𝐧𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐲 , marlene mckinnon

𝐯. The gossip

" shame "

Familiar setting to a hungover night, Marlene Mckinnon woke up with Mary's leg over her stomach. To be fair, she's woken up in someone else's bed, (partially never clothed) woke up in the Gryffindor common room, a literal bathroom. She wasn't at all surprised when she sees most of her friends seemingly passed out in the scattered living room of her apartment flat.

Days after the big wedding, some of the Marauders were closely approaching their first meeting with the Order. Meaning, they get to be in on the organization they always wanted to be in prior to becoming a hero. Or simply for the glory. Neither of these were denied.

Staying up all night with straight Vodka and Firewhiskey as their source of beverage, Remus Lupin got a little too drunk and spilled something which isn't a beverage he was holding.

"You know, Marls, I wouldn't blame you. If I wasn't remotely attracted to someone else, I'd have a huge crush on Charlotte Adler as well." Remus slurred his own words apart, ripping Marlene's sanity to shreds by his blunt words.

"You have a crush on Charlotte?!" Screaming in shock, Dorcas and Mary looks at Marlene who now felt surprisingly sober by the yelling and revelation.

"You fancy Adler?" Sirius gapes, late on reacting which was accurate. This was before he got tipsy.

"Merlin's beard, I'm too sober for this crap." Marlene groans, standing up to get another bottle of liquor in her kitchen.

Remembering, Marlene considered strangling Remus in his sleep with a pillow he was hugging. It made her groan, knowing she has to deal with numerous questions from her friends who did not know the concept of boundaries.

"Well, this is surprising." Lily says, standing in the kitchen while brewing a cauldron of hangover cure. One that can ease a whole village of drunken wizards.

"Shh— Not so loud." Marlene complains succumbing to the depths of her headache, heavy eyes and naturally messy blonde hair. Besides her hair looking like a bird's nest, she honestly wouldn't care for her friends to see her like this. They've all been together since their primary ages.

"Normally Dorcas is the first to wake up and stomp on Sirius's crotch by accident."

"I'd love to see that again. Makes me think it'll cure my hungover state." Marlene laughs silently to her own gain of not over compensated her suffering. "How come you're already awake? Didn't you have two shots last night?"

Lily scoffs, "I'm not a lightweight, Marls."

"Really?" Marlene frowns, tilting her head to the side. "Sixth year in the Hufflepuff common room, one drink of the elf-made wine and you were already dancing on the table top."

"You just had to remind me." Lily mutters, stirring the liquid with a large wooden spoon as she adds another ingredient. While Marlene was grinning, Lily took it as an opportunity to make her morning a bit embarrasing. "Don't think I've forgotten what Remus said last night."

"Remus was drunk, get over it." Marlene rolls her eyes resting her arm on the kitchen counter and looking the other way. Preferably to hide her pressured expression of the mention of last night's occurrence.

"You know what they say. Drunk words, sober thoughts." Lily laughs. "Besides, Remus wouldn't say it if he's certain."

"He's assuming wrong."

"So you don't find Charlotte attractive?" Lily counters in a frown, smirking.

"I never said that." Marlene defends quickly.

"So you do find her attractive?"

"Merlin— I wonder how James is holding up on being married to you." Marlene whispers, sinking on her seat much more deeper than before. It almost made her want to wallow in the ground, letting it swallow her until she's gone.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The morning wasn't entirely a good thing even when the sun was beaming brightly, clouds were clear and the sky blue as it could be. Charlotte wouldn't have agreed to come with if she knew she was going to see four dead children and two parents lying around the living room. It made her chest tighten, seeing the trail of blood on the little girl's cheek and eyes filled no longer with life.

Outside windows, they couldn't see the sun as the sky above the large mansion held the Death eater's mark. Being the only one that's not afraid of the sight of it, Charlotte was silent when she, Frank and Alice Longbottom was verbally saying their uneasiness of seeing children's body. Alice even cried at one point of their investigation but Charlotte was unsure if that was true. She was too caught up on her own thoughts to notice.

"It's recent." Charlotte says, rising from her feet and glancing at the wall nearby, blood splattered on it like paint on the ripped apart wallpaper.

"I agree. Blood like this would've stick if ten hours goes by." Frank lightly grazes his finger on the blood, sighing. "We were close of this being prevented."

"There's nothing we could have done." Alice assures him and Charlotte whose eyes scan around the living room. It was a disaster to stand around lifeless bodies. "I'll send a patronus to the Aurors in this type of department, make sure their bodies get buried respectfully."

Worst part was, they were a muggle family. They couldn't have seen it coming and even if they did, they couldn't protect themselves.

"Hell. Edgar's in the Ministry, it's a whole riot in there because of the explosion from Diagon Alley." Frank complains, taking off his hat and brushes his hair with his hands to ease his mind.

"Didn't that happen three weeks ago?" Charlotte asks, confused as to why they still have a problem with it.

"There's a new one." 'of course there is.' "Blew up a Joke shop along with TerrorTours." Alice informs. "Killed nearly a dozen of wizards, leaving them on the streets as usual."

Charlotte left the muggle village empty that day. Despite getting away from the dark mark, involving herself in the bright afternoon, she still felt a bit dull that sickened her mind to the point she wanted to cry. Blaming Lord Voldemort was the only thing she could ever do. She wondered what would happen if they saw each other in person.

That she got to see what kind of monster he is, would finally see why people are afraid to even look at him when his eyes were bloodshot red and face scarier than any monster anyone has ever encountered. Charlotte didn't understand why someone so greedy for power would go at great lengths like this. Killing children, parents. Innocents.

Upon living by herself, Charlotte did what was best to keep her safe little space comfortable to her own gain. Maybe the vinyl records would do the trick along with the music player. Or the plants she'd take care of in the mornings and leave them be near the window for a speck of sunlight to grow. The sofa which she would often sleep on when she was too exhausted to go to her bed.

There was a lot Charlotte did to be comfortable in the flat and only did so little progress for she always wanted to leave it the moment she wakes up.

Like any other day, she slept on the sofa with her wand clattered on the carpet, wearing a small headphones that was connected to a cd player.