Blackinnon One Shots

A complicated mission

This one was requested on my tumblr.

Request: Hi there, saw you were looking to write something, sooo, why not Blackinnon, and Sirius worrying because Marlene hasn't come from her mission yet, and James or someone trying to calm him...end it however you like, but please, for the love of Merlin, don't kill Marlene (because SHE DOES NOT DIE, OK?!?) Yeahhh, anywhooo, hope you're well x

"Don't beat yourself up, mate. You don't know what's going on, so..."

"Exactly," Sirius sparkled angrily at his best friend, "I have no idea what happened. I have no idea where she is now. I have no idea if she's all right," while he spoke, Sirius walked furiously up and down the room. Marlene should have returned from her mission more than an hour ago, but had not reappeared at the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix yet.

At first her absence had only slightly disturbed Sirius, as it was not uncommon for the young witch to be a little late. Especially since this mission had made a rather harmless impression at first. Dumbledore had sent Marlene to meet an old acquaintance of his, who apparently had important information about some Death Eaters. A meeting with the wise old wizard himself would probably have been too conspicuous, so he decided to send Marlene instead. Sirius had tried several times to convince himself that this acquaintance had more to tell and that Marlene hadn't shown up for so long because it simply took him so long to tell her everything, but with every minute he waited, his hope that this was the case vanished.

"I understand," Sirius suddenly felt James' hand on his shoulder and turned jerkily, "If Lily was out there and I didn't know what was wrong with her, I'd probably go crazy too. But you have to consider one thing: Marlene is an incredibly talented witch and can take care of herself. If a Death Eater had actually crossed her path, then I would be more worried about them than her."

Sirius knew James meant well and appreciated it, but that didn't help him. James made him sit down again, but the annoying voice in his head that kept persuading him that something bad had happened to Marlene became louder and louder, so he soon felt he would lose his mind if it screamed louder. The scene that took place in front of his inner eye made his blood freeze. Marlene, completely on her own - left alone by him as the voice whispered in his head - surrounded by several masked figures. A green flash that suddenly bathed the whole room in a dreadful light. As if in slow motion, he saw her fall to the ground. Her wand rolled out of her hand as she hit the cold, hard floor. Her blue eyes were wide open and as they stared directly at Sirius, he could see the fear in them.

Why had he let her go alone? Why hadn't he asked her where they would meet? Then Sirius could go there and make sure she was all right. But he had no idea where she was at that time and maybe he would never find out. Perhaps the Death Eaters were busy at that very moment making her body disappear forever. Sirius heard James' voice only muffled, as if he were under water. Every second he thought of Marlene's dead body was like another drop of water filling his lungs and making it impossible for him to breathe.

"Sirius, look at me. Sirius," James had recognised the plight of his friend and now tried with all his might to calm him down again, "Think of Marlene coming through that door right now. Imagine her entering this room completely unharmed in a few seconds, without a single scratch. She will come to you and you can finally take her back in your arms."

His breathing slowly returned to normal, maybe James was right. Yet a small part of his brain still couldn't to believe this version. As he continued to try to relax and believe James, another idea made its way into Sirius consciousness.

"What if they took her with them? What if they want information from her? She could be held captive and tortured somewhere right now and we're just sitting here!" He was so angry he started yelling at his friend.

Again a picture spread in front of his inner eye. As before, Marlene lay on the floor, but this time, she was not motionless at all. On the contrary, her whole body twitched frenziedly. She was completely cramped and her back bent so far as if it would break in two soon. Her limbs were flailing around, her face was smeared with blood and her top had some spots which implied an injury underneath. Worst of all were her screams, each even worse than the previous one. To Sirius, it felt as if every one of her cries transferred the pain from her to him, without alleviating her own pain. The voice of self-reproaches in his head had long since ceased, for every single cry caused Sirius greater pain than that voice could ever have.

"That will not happen! Marlene is certainly fine. She wouldn't want you to drive yourself crazy." James knew that there was no evidence to support his thesis, but he also knew that he would do everything he could to make his best friend feel better.

"And what if not? If it's like Regulus," Sirius stopped briefly. The thought of his little brother caused a sting in his chest, "He had suddenly just disappeared, too, and no one has heard from him since."

It was unusual for him to talk so openly about his little brother. The relationship between the two had deteriorated greatly after Sirius ran away from home, but when he found out that Regulus had joined the Death Eaters, the bond between the two brothers seemed forever destroyed. Only when it became known that Regulus had disappeared without a trace did Sirius' reaction clearly show that his brother still meant a lot to him. The idea that the same could happen to Marlene was inconceivable to him. Jerkily he jumped up and wanted to storm towards the door when James held him back.

"What are you going to do?"

"What do you think? I will look for her."

"You have no idea where she is!"

"I don't care, I'm just going to -" he was interrupted when the door suddenly swung open and a completely ruffled and soaked Marlene stood in front of him.

"Sorry I'm so late. I only got the message from Dumbledore that I should meet his friend in St. Ives, but apparently there is a St. Ives in Cornwall and one in Cambridgeshire and with my luck he was of course in -" she couldn't finish her sentence, because the next moment he had already taken her face between his hands and pulled her towards him. His lips were pressed against hers and his arms embraced her so tightly that one might think he would never let her go again.