Here We Go Again

Chapter 6: Marlene

All these people think love's for show

But I would die for you in secret

The devil's in the details, but you got a friend in me

Saturday, August 31st 1989

Marlene was the first one to get up the next morning, which was not unusual at all. She had known not to participate in any drinking the night before — it turned out, as she was nearing her thirtieth birthday, that alcohol only resulted in making her stomach sick, and she had already indulged in too many of Mrs. Moore's infamous pigs on blankets (which had more grease than meat in it) for the entire party. She stretched herself, quite contently.

"Oh, is it morning already?" moaned Mary beside her, covering her face with her pillow.

Marlene went to the window and cracked it slightly open. It seemed like a lovely day. "Yeah, it seems so."

Mary only grunted in bed.

"You can sleep over", she said, kissing Mary on the cheek before changing herself. "You already did so much last night."

"You're the best", Mary murmured.

She chuckled lightly. "Love you", she said before leaving.

"Love you", Mary echoed back, already half asleep.

The inn was charmingly silent. Marlene heard a symphony of calm snoring as she crossed the first floor hallway, and she could already hear the crackling of oil on a pan as she neared the kitchen. Mrs. Moore was already there, dutifully scrambling half a dozen eggs, and barely noticed her coming in.

"Morning", she called.

"Oh, Ms. McKinnon", the matron greeted her. "Good morning."

"Is Lily up yet?"

"No, miss, you're the first. Quite the event last night, eh?"

"Yeah, it was fun", Marlene laughed. "Your nephew's very good, we were all saying it."

"If only the boy could put as much dedication to school as he does to music", she sighed. "My sister's going crazy back home. He's starting his A-levels this year, and Lord knows he has no idea what he's doing."

"Right." Marlene smiled politely and nodded. She decided to change the subject before Mrs. Moore tried to get into detail about the muggle education system, which she didn't know enough of to carry a conversation about. "I should get started with cleaning up. People should be waking up any moment now, right?"

"That's right, miss. And good luck out there, it's quite the mess."

"Thank you", she said, smiling. It was better, actually, that Lily wasn't there, so Marlene could use magic to clean the whole thing up in seconds. She understood Lily's satisfaction of doing things with her bare hands, but hungover party cleaning should definitely not be one of them.

Just as she had taken out her wand, though, a couple of muggle guests exited the inn, waving at her and making themselves comfortable at one of the outdoor tables. She waved back, discreetly putting the wand away, and cursed them mentally. Could they not have waited a minute or two to come down? Who wakes up this early when on vacation, anyway?

"Morning, Marls!"

Remus had appeared in the garden, a coffee mug already in his hand.

"Oh, hey!" She greeted him. "You're up early."