Marlene Lupin is plotting her revenge (on_the_wall) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2009-05-12 19:33:00 |
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Marlene stood on the edge of Caradoc's mother's property, hugging her arms across her stomach while her hair blew against her face in the chilly spring wind. How in the hell was she supposed to do this? It occurred to Marlene that she'd never actually met Caradoc's mother before. Was she a Mrs. Dearborn? Had she remarried? Had she ever even been married? It occurred to Marlene all at once that she knew very very little about Caradoc's personal life. Maybe she should just go home and send a letter. She didn't know if the woman had wards up around her house that would let her in anyway. But Caradoc had asked her to do this -- well, asked her and Remus to do this -- and she knew how awful it was finding out this sort of thing through a letter. She'd just have to suck it up and deal. Marlene took a deep breath, slid the key that Caradoc had asked her to deliver into the pocket of her jacket, and moved up to the porch, knocking quietly a few times before taking a step back. It dawned on her as Marlene saw her face in the window's reflection that despite the glamour charms she'd attempted to apply before leaving, she still looked a little like she'd been run over by the Knight Bus. Hopefully Mrs. Dearborn wouldn't fore-go opening the door in favour of owling the Ministry that there was a scary beat-up beastly thing standing on her doorstep. Una Dearborn had, in her long years of solitude, developed a routine that had served her well. Despite her years, she kept a garden and tended to a rather sizable flock of lambs that never seemed to diminish but simply grow with the seasons. It was hardly ever, however, that she received visitors - for she knew of Caradoc's activities as well as Meaghan and Kirley, who simply had to go away - (unless one of the village children was sent by a parent to ask for butter or a bag of wool) and so, from a copse of rose brambles, she espied the person knocking on her door. Oh dear. Pushing a strand of silver hair from her face, she made her way to the forefront of her rather impressive old rosebush and placed one hand on her hip. Despite the glamour, despite the rather beat-up appearance, she had recognised certain features in the girl ... Caradoc had spoken of her often. He might have even flashed a photo. Her name was ... "Marlene McKinnon," was spoken in a full-on brogue. " ... though you and somebody else tried very hard to be less than recognisable." She had to hand it to the lady -- it took a lot to recognise someone you've never actually met, especially when the person in question didn't quite look like themselves. "You've heard the legend then?" she asked with a soft smile, pushing her hair back behind her ears to keep it from whipping against her face while she was trying to get a look at Mrs. Dearborn. "Yep, Marlene. You're Mrs. Dearborn? He looks like you." She nodded, a small twinkle in her eye. Due to her son's wards, she could have never set foot on the front stoop without having been woven into the fabric of the magic he created. "I've grown out of Una, young lady. And I know that my Caradoc sets quite a store in you, so it's Una ... " Pausing in speech, she walked straight to Marlene and swept her up in her soft arms, a strong embrace and then she stepped back to open the door. "First, tea." Marlene tried to reciprocate the hug (and to not wince despite lingering injury from last week), because even though she was still sore, it was incredibly nice to have someone around who was willing just to hug her. It had been a while. "Hello then, Una," she squeezed back with her left arm, hating herself a little that she was moments away from breaking this poor woman's heart. "Tea would be lovely, thank you," Marlene said as she followed her into the house, keeping her hand on her wand inside of her pocket just in case to watch the woman make tea, just to be sure that polyjuice wasn't getting dumped into Una's cup. And Una flourished her wand, letting the tea do the job for itself as she wiped her hands upon her apron and took a seat in one of the high wingbacked chairs. "Sit down," she said, "before you fall down. You look horrible." Marlene actually appreciated the bluntness. It was easier to hear what she already knew instead of the 'It doesn't look...that..bad...mostly's she'd been getting from her friends since Friday. "Thanks," she said with a slight laugh, curling up in the chair across from the woman, drawing her knees up and hugging them to herself. "Mrs. Dearb... Una -- oh boy, I was going to ask you to sit down too but you're already sitting. Um. I don't... I'm sadly not stopping by with the best of news..." she trailed off, feeling rather awful for getting right down to it, but not wanting to sit there and enjoy the woman's hospitality only to inform her about Caradoc as she ran out the door. "Alright, honey," she said, and crossed her legs, her face full of no-nonsense bluster. "Just spit it out." And that is exactly where Marlene always ran into trouble. She could talk about nothing for hours, but ask her to get directly to the point, especially when it was something she reaaaally did not want to talk about? Not quite so simple. "Okay. Well. I don't, um, know exactly how much you know about how dangerous Caradoc's... job could get sometimes, but there was a... there was a fight, and there were Death Eaters, and lots of them, and he fought so bravely and kicked a bunch of them's ar---butts," she corrected herself, filling in gaps that she assumed were true based on how Caradoc was, despite having not seen him at the fight. "But then it was over, and they even killed Professor Dumbledore, and... Doc didn't make it, I'm so so sorry, Una." The first thought - before despair, before grief could kick in - any mother would have when told that their child (no matter how old) was no more ... disbelief. She had seen him pick himself up after he carried his family home, she had seen him far outstrip the notoriety of his bookish father and then raise another family, only to send them off again. Who was Marlene McKinnon to tell her that her son was dead? "Did you see him?" she said quietly, her jaw set. "Did you see his body?" Marlene felt her jaw quiver a bit, and she swallowed hard to keep herself from tearing up -- she couldn't let herself cry. She wasn't going to come tell Mrs. Dearborn about her son and then cry all over the lady. "I..." she stuttered, her voice catching in her throat. "Not at the last second no; we -- Remus and I, we got these letters from him that said... he wanted me to give this to you," she finished, making herself stop talking by biting her lower lip as she dug the key out of her pocket and placed it gently in Una's hand before returning to her spot in the chair. "Maybe it was a mistake; maybe the owl wasn't supposed to send to us and he's just gone; I'm sorry." She shook her head slowly - the key to his old house on her property - and curled her old, spotty fingers over the key. Una had never given up on Caradoc and she certainly would not begin to when he had disappeared ... she could only hope - no, pray - that he was somewhere in the world with Meaghan, living the life he was supposed to live with their babies on the way. "Thank you, Marlene," she said finally, the strength back into her voice as she looked at her with clear eyes. "This is the key to the house he lived in with his first wife and then with Meaghan. It's got some old things in it and, well, if you ever need a place of refuge I know he wouldn't be minding me to offer it to you and yours." He is not dead. A whistling in the kitchen took her concentration as, even then, an ornate old silver tray glided smoothly to sit between the two of them with matching porcelain teacups. "Tea," was said with finality, more of an order than a suggestion for the both of them as she leaned forward to pick up one of the saucers to pass to Marlene. "Thank you." For the tea, for the offer to use his house if there was nowhere else to go, for not completely losing it on Marlene when she was already on the verge of tears. She hadn't really had a chance to think about it and accept that it had happened yet, not since the night she and Remus had gotten the letter owled to them. Why was she the one fighting back tears when this was his mother? Instead of letting herself feel like the world's most unstable loser, Marlene spent a few moments silently sipping her tea to calm herself down. "Thank you," she said again after a bit, this time nodding to the tea cup she held in her left hand. "The place is probably warded up something crazy though, yeah? The... we asked him to be our secret keeper. We never actually got around to doing the spell, though. Doc's totally a father figurey type to me, he's taught me a lot. Probably would've wound up looking a lot worse than this if he hadn't," she noted with a short laugh and a gesture up toward her face. Sipping her tea quietly, she considered Marlene's words and nodded along. She knew that his work with these young people gave him purpose in the wake of Marion and Fiona's deaths ... they had become his family and had, inadvertently, led him to Meaghan and Kirley. She was thankful for that and, well, if he left the world defending that honour, then it was a death well earned. "He spoke of you often," she said, "and said the same of you. He told me once that he wished, if Fiona had lived, that she would have been exactly in your image." Marlene could feel her cheeks going a bit pink at the fact. "She'd probably be more gingery," she smiled, stirring her tea carefully (as her right arm was still giving her trouble). "That's very much a compliment, though. It was utterly baffling to her as to why he would mention her. She didn't feel that she was anything really impressive, especially not recently. "I wish I would've met him sooner. I feel like he would've been good friends with my dad. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do him proud." "I think, dear, you already have. Just keep on fighting, like he di -- does." "I'm gonna try," Marlene set her teacup down on the table between them and got to her feet. "I think I want to give you another hug if that is okay." Rising to her feet with a smoothness that far belied her age, Una Dearborn wrapped Marlene in her arms again. The girl, too young to be a soldier -- too young to be a part of this ill-fated war -- was nevertheless noble, sweet ... all too broken and strong at the same time. She wished that she would will her life-force into Marlene. She wished that this world would lay down its weapons and consent to loving and living in peace with everyone, or at least saving the killing for another day. But Una was a woman of surpassing reason and she knew it wouldn't happen. Not in her lifetime, not in Caradoc's ... not even in Marlene's. Maybe the children that would come from them. Maybe the children of those children. But her vision didn't run that far and her hope, well, it was an old woman's hope and it only extended to the reach of her arms. "Little Marlene," she whispered, "thank you for doing my boy's wishes. Thank you for giving him some purpose to the latter bit of his life. I'm proud of him for fighting, I'm proud of you for fighting and if you ever need anything, you come straight here and I will do my damndest for you." Marlene hugged Una tightly, blinking back tears, feeling incredibly close to her despite only having met her. "You are so definitely his mum," she sniffled a little, hoping that came off as great a compliment as she intended it to be. This is why they still needed to fight -- for moments like this... although hopefully without the reasoning behind it being one that was so awful. There were people who would fight back if they were capable but couldn't, and there were people who likely could but were too afraid to try. She could still do both, and Marlene wasn't going to stop until she'd changed something. "I will. I might stop back in sometime if that's okay?" she asked, hoping Una wasn't just being nice until Marlene left, raring to set the wards to eat her if she came wandering back onto her property. "And I'll let you know if I find out anything else, I promise. If nothing else I'm going to find out why he disappeared and who did it and they are going to regret sticking their nose where it doesn't belong." Releasing Marlene, she left her with a cool kiss upon her brow as she nodded. "You're welcome back her at any time, Marlene, and Imean it ... " Now my family is gone. "Keep in touch." "Absolutely," Marlene replied, wiping at her eyes, only to roll her eyes at herself a moment later. "Sorry, i'm ridiculous. I'll definitely be back by again. I'll bring Remus too, if you'd like." Provided Remus was able to pull himself out of his whirlwind of self hatred sometime before the world ended. "Thank you again for the tea, and... yes. Next time it'll be better circumstances, I hope," she said as she moved towards the door, zipping up her jacket and leaning against the wall for a moment before taking off. A pause, and she ran back towards Una and gave her another quick hug before scuttling out the door. |