A Marauder's Guide to Falling Forever

Chapter Thirty Four

Marlene staggered backwards while her her wooden lifeline flew through the air and into her enemies anticipating hand. Her own wand trained on Marlene as she slid into the room, the glittering aura of her beauty only further illuminated by the moonlight cast in through the open curtains.

"I'm sorry Marlene." Her voice was honeyed and laced with unapologetic humor.

Rose.

"What are you doing here, Rose?" She tried to keep her voice smooth and calculated, so as not to give away the underlying terror that consumed her. It was obvious what was supposed to happen next, even without Rose saying the words.

"I have to kill you and your god father of course," she said with an upwards turn of her full lips. "I don't want to do this, Marlene. I really don't. I'm so sorry. " But nothing about her tone or body language supported her statement.

"Then don't," Marlene said, trying to sound casual like she wasn't just standing in front of the weapon meant to end her life. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do, Rose. Just put your wand down and we can talk about this."

"Why did you have to get yourself involved in all of this?" she asked, twirling Marlene's wand around like a baton. "You could have just walked away from all of this and you could have lived. Patrick wanted that for you, and I want my brother to be happy. A long and happy life. You both could have had that together."

Her stomach turned over. "So this is about Patrick? Because I refused to date him?"

She laughed, "Of course not you silly girl. But my dear brother set his sights on you, and of course I tried to figure out a way to ensure that you'd be spared so that he wouldn't be devastated by your death. Of course I didn't want to be the one to kill you, I really didn't wish for this. But you've made it quite difficult to get in here. To get you alone."

"Why do you want me alone?" She tried to stall for time, though it did no good. Sirius wasn't due back to the hospital until morning, and Emmeline and the others were floors below. She had no wand to call for help.

Rose continued to twirl the wand aimlessly and ignored Marlene's question. "Did you call them already?"

"Call who?"

"Don't play stupid Marlene, did you alert your friends?"

"I don't know what –"

"I know how this works." She stopped twirling Marlene's wand. "You communicate with one another by patronus. Did you alert them to meet you here?"

Rose knew how they communicated. That meant Sirius was right, there was a spy inside the Order and had been leaking information. Marlene considered whether lying would be worth it. She decided it wasn't because Rose would figure it out anyways when nobody showed up. "No."

She nodded her head. "That's good then, that will make this easier. You're lucky actually, that I'm going to do it so quick. When the others arrive I'm not so sure it will be as gentle. You and your god father just casualties caught up in the cross fire." Then she laughed in a way so similar to Bellatrix Lestrange that Marlene sank to the floor out of fear.

"What do you mean when the others arrive?" she asked weakly.

"I think you know what's coming," she replied, practically purring with satisfaction. "We can't have it look like a targeted attack on your lives, now can we? The Ministry might become even more suspicious if the second Keeper of the Hall was killed." She paused, her eyes flashing with amusement. "But then again, Tom isn't the Keeper, now is he?"

Marlene didn't respond. Rose knew the answer to her own question, and she wouldn't be swayed from her intended mission. Marlene didn't know how the key worked, but it didn't appear that she needed to be kept alive for Voldemort to obtain access to it. Taking a deep inhalation of breath, she closed her eyes and waited for death to take her away from all the pain.