Seven (R.L)

50

CHAPTER 25 (part three)
A FORGOTTEN LESSON

Marlene backed against the unfamiliar door, thick with wood that looked Prestine enough to have never been worn by the sweat of hands but old enough to look like petrified stone.

She had walked backward to the door into the room, ready to run back to Remus at any (more) concerning motion.

Entering the sizable great room, Marlene half expected to see Lily and Marlene in a cat fight, or Sirius and James surrounded by burnt books, to make sense as to why Remus looked so addled.

She spun around, growing more confused, as she took in the theatre level high ceiling painted to combat the Sistine church, then the detailed stained glass.

Her eyes finally landed on a beaming dulcet sight. A fox laying on a hill of white feathers, perched up at least six feet high.

Ana looked like a melancholy princess from an eccentric children's book, like the image of The Princess and the Pea, with restful eyes and a tower of fashioned, mis-patterned mattresses.

I skip class once, to go see her. And I've completely lost the plot.

Slam! Ana jumped, hearing the door snap shut. She half expected it to be Remus, following her after the dramatic flee. She might have dropped her shoulders lower than respectable at the sight of Marlene.

Marlene waved, cupping her hands to make a microphone. "OH Princess Anastasia, will you let down your hair?"

Ana tousled around in the feathers to sit criss cross, a few crowning her face. "How did you get in here?"

"I walked through the..." She pointed behind her only to see the door had disappeared, "... door. Remus told me to."

"Remus did?" Ana smiled a little.

Marlene rolled her eyes. They are so obvious. "Yeah... you know your boy looked pretty forlorn back there."

Ana frowned, leaning down more to hear Marlene. "He did, mmm might be getting sick again."

Marlene shrugged. "He did look a little green. We'll have to check on him later."

"What?" Ana yelled down, a hand to her ear.

Marlene rolled her eyes. "Gosh." She put her hands down on the thick mound of feathers, like a rock climber. Only with her first lean in weight, she fell straight through the feathering.

Marlene stood again, brushing the loosened white plume off her vest. "How did you manage to climb up there?" She grumbled lowly, too quiet for Ana to hear. "And what is this place?"

Ana rolled over, pulling her wand out from in between her hip and pleated skirt, pointing down to Marlene she lazily said. "Luxutapluma."

Marlene was no longer falling through the feathers like a leaf pile. She could climb up the steep white hill side without a tug in a single swan's threads.

She got to the top, sitting like a proper lady and shaking the laying Ana a little. "What? What spell is that?"

"I made it." Ana smirked a little, a break in her glum, unexciting demure today.

"You made it! Anastasia Fox, that's amazing."

She kept her bored casting off tone, but Marlene could see a spark of please in her eyes. "Each spell is made up of a principle of motion and Latin cogitation. I really just said light as a feather in Latin."

"Ana, you're so much smarter than you make yourself out to be."

Ana sat up on her elbows, turning to Marlene. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Marlene leaned into her friend. "Oh shhh. Now, where the hell are we?"

Ana realized again how foreign this place was to most, when she saw it a common refuge. "Oh, it's the Room of Requirements. It shows itself to whoever needs it."

Marlene sat up looking around the room with new found knowledge it all made sense how her eyes could squint and still not see the end of the room, how the curtains when she had entered the room were a blush pink had now become a light violet.

"Oh, my gosh, I thought this place was a myth."

She sighed. "Yeah... I've been coming here since second year."She rolled to lay on her stomach, a hand holding her head, and one dangling off the hill to play with the penna.

"I like to come here when I am feeling particularly.... bad, reminiscent." She said reminiscent like it was the worst feeling ever.

Marlene turned to Ana, shaking her head. This wasn't right. She leaned over to catch Ana's eye. "You know, you can always come to me or the girls. You never have to force yourself to lay in.. a bunch of feathers."

Ana giggled. "It's actually usually a trampoline."

"Trampoline?" Marlene asked, gasping as one appeared across the room."Woah, I need to come here more often."

"Yeah, well, I'm not as good as you at telling all my woes." Ana groaned, dropping her head lower. She was really saying something considering Marlene wasn't close to an example of an emotionally open person.

Marlene paused, trying to explain to her friend. "Well, divulging is the only way of letting go, passing it onto the next ear."

Ana stayed quiet. Marlene continued nudging her shoulder. "Trust me, I am nowhere near Lily or Mary's level of disclosure, but even if it isn't us."

Marlene got lost in her motivational monologue, her words sounding a little too plucked from personal experience. "You'll find someone who you can, and it will just feel so.. easy, and- and refreshing just telling them the most miniscule detail about your life."

Ana thought- Remus. She smiled. It makes sense he's her person, and thought nothing else of her implicating internal statement.

The feathers slowly disappeared, lowering the two till they laid on the tile floor, and the grand door appeared again.

Standing up, Ana scowled, looking at Marlene suspiciously. "When the Salvar did you get so wise?"

Authors Notes:

I love Marlene so much. Her and Dorcas are my favorite female characters in this fandom.

this is the 50th part of the story which is so cool

Date Posted: January, 12th 2023