A Marauder's Guide to Falling Apart

Chapter Twenty Eight

She was a shaking mess. Her hands were bleeding from where they had smashed into the mirror inside the healer's lavatory, and her uniform was drenched in a combination of blood, sweat, tears, and vomit. Her hands reached up to grab hold of her hair at the roots, tucked her head down and buried her face into her arms. Her legs gave way and she collapsed to her knees before eventually tucking her body into a crouched fetal position on the dirty, glass covered floor. She let out a piercing cry of anguish.

She had tried, and failed, to save Euphemia Potter.

After James had retreated, the severity of his mother's condition became quite evident. When she had given Euphemia the antidote she was only acting on a heavy suspicion. Neither she nor Freya had ever seen dragon pox before, but both girls were confident that they had guessed right. It wasn't until after James had left her sight that she pulled the legs of her pants up to assess the condition of the disease on the skin underneath her clothes.

And it was bad. Very bad.

In fact, Marlene knew seconds in that she had arrived too late to the hospital. Euphemia must have known it too. She grabbed Marlene's wrist at one point towards the end, and Marlene was forced to stare at the fear in her eyes as life faded away within. Marlene whispered comforting words into her ear; her hands stroking the woman's hair, forehead pressed against her and telling her how the medicine would soon make her feel better. She knew that she was breaking protocol with her actions, but Euphemia Potter was not going to die without someone who cared about her present.

She had instantly vomited all over herself and the floor of the room in which they had managed to get into before the entire wing had woken to watch the show in the hallway. It wasn't necessarily the sight of her dying that had unsettled her stomach, it was the realization that James would soon be back with Lily.

Marlene felt completely devastated.

James would never forgive her for this, surely. He had trusted Marlene with his mother's life and she had failed him.

Marlene's screams had attracted unwanted attention and Freya bent over her to rest a gentle hand on her back. Marlene flinched but Freya didn't pull away.

"Marlene," she said quietly. "The Potters are here."

"I can't tell them Freya," she sobbed. "I can't do it."

"Clover is already doing it," Freya sounded sad. Marlene felt the knife in her gut twisting around painfully. "I just thought you'd want to know that they were asking for you when they got here. You should go home, Marlene. You really don't look well."

But Marlene couldn't bring herself to leave the room.

It was a little while later that Freya returned to tell her that "Mrs. Potter would really like to talk to you." This had only made her feel nauseous again until she realized that Freya was referring to Lily, and not Euphemia. She had still not grown used to Lily being married.

Whatever emotions she was battling in her own head were nothing compared to that of her friends. Lily had only just lost her own parents and now this. Marlene knew that keeping Lily waiting a second time was not a good option so she pulled herself up from the floor and analyzed over her appearance in what little mirror remained against the wall. She did not look well at all, and Marlene thought to herself what a horrible idea it was to visit Lily in such a state.

But Lily was standing outside the healer's lounge where Marlene had taken refuge in the lavatory, and she couldn't have escaped past her even if she had wanted to.

Lily's eyes were red and splotchy. Clearly she already knew. Her eyes looked horrified as she eyed Marlene's body up and down and appeared to formulate some unthinkable thought in her head. Marlene wanted to reach out and tell her that it wasn't as bad as it looked, but that would be a lie. There was no sugar coating what had happened.