Marlene Lupin is plotting her revenge (on_the_wall) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-05-18 16:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! [1979-05] may, bellatrix lestrange (née black), marlene lupin (née mckinnon) |
Who: Bellatrix Lestrange and Marlene McKinnon.
When: Sunday 18th May, 1979. Morning, and apparently not a pleasant one.
Where: Diagon Alley, London.
What: Bellatrix is out picking up some supplies on a relatively quiet Sunday morning, and is content enough to go about her business. The 'quiet', alas, can't last for very long, because Marlene arrives on the scene, and...well, safe to say it won't be pretty. No violence, because they're out in public, but they're both women who are at least competent with rude quips.
Status: Complete!
Naturally enough, it was not the usual practice for Bellatrix Lestrange to do her own shopping. They had people for this kind of thing, and not people that Bella ever had to look directly at. Both parties for grateful for this, of course: Bella because she enjoyed pretending as though the lower classes didn't actually exist, and the help because there were rumours circulating that a single gaze from Mrs Lestrange (or 'the old Madame' as she was known out of earshot) could turn any normal human being into a pillar of salt. It was Sunday, though, and as well as being horrifically bored, Bella also desired a visit to Diagon Alley for far less above-board reasons. She glided down the bustling street, slowing ever so slightly to linger on the still-ruinous buildings left over from the Death Eater attack. They were still rebuilding, and though the street was open for business, not everywhere had managed to fix itself just yet. Most of the shops were ridiculous nonsense, and Bellatrix could simply enjoy their no longer being there with self-important smugness: there was a pang of regret at the husk of Flourish & Blott's , but it was short-lived. The place would be operational again, eventually: apparently the books had been further protected from damage, and so most of the damage was cosmetic...and perhaps structural. A small smile as she passed: the Death Eaters really had done a good job that evening, even if she hadn't been there herself in order to make the most of the fun that had been going down. She lingered outside the window of Ollivander's, wicker basket held in the crook of her arm. Bella had no real need for a new wand, but the display of raw power was something that she simply couldn't resist. All those wands...it spoke so clearly of strength to her that it was difficult not to go in and buy another, just for kicks. So maybe Marlene should have assumed that the landlord of Grindylow Gardens wouldn't've been too pleased to see her face popping up around the apartment complex again, what with the rather... utterly decimated state that her and Dorcas's flat had been left in when they'd been forced to hastily take their leave a month earlier. Not, of course, that it had been their fault -- a fact that the owner of the building seemed a bit confused about. Confused and completely unsympathetic. It had made sense to Marlene, though, that she and Dorcas might be okay if they rented out another flat in the same building. Obviously no one in the right mind would go back to living in the same place where they'd been attacked by a half dozen death eaters, so clearly the death eaters would never think to try to attack them again if Dorcas and she moved back in! It was a plan of pure genius, if she did say so herself. Or maybe not. It was probably smarter for the two girls to look for somewhere to live that was off of wizarding property anyway, and it did feel kind of nauseating just being back in the building itself. "Thank you for your time!" Marlene called cheerily to the landlord as he pointed her to the door, eyebrows furrowed and bald spot shining in the Sunday sun reflecting through the glass door. Just because he was going to be rude didn't mean that she had to do the same, right? She'd look into other places after work; her lunch break was only so long, and there was a strange, annoying little something that made Marlene dislike this side of Diagon Alley. Perhaps it was the fact that she'd almost died there twice in the last month! Highly logical. Marlene started back up the right side of the Alley, making her way back towards Slug & Jiggers (and with every intention to pop into the Leaky to grab something to eat before her break was over), trying to ignore the state of the still-crispy buildings post the latest attack. It was strange how the most ridiculous bits of that night seemed to be the things replaying in her head as she made her way past the place where she and Agnes had gotten cornered by four death eaters at once: there was where Agnes had been when she'd shot all those disgusting vegetables at the short one -- that was the spot where the cart they'd been hiding behind had been before it shot up in flames -- oh! That's where Marlene had been standing when she'd totally set one of them on fire! That had been a highlight, considering how much that night had fucking sucked. She shook her head, blinking herself out of flashbacks. This wasn't the time for that; she was hungry. However, despite her best attempts, Marlene still seemed to be seeing memories of death eaters lurking by storefronts -- only this time, unmasked and (as far as she could tell) unaccompanied. Shit, she thought almost immediately. This is so not what she needed today. Especially when half of her friends were in jail until Monday; there were less people to call for back up in case Lady Lestrange the Batshit Insane decided that she didn't care about the fact that there were several potential witnesses about if she tried started anything. ...But it was Marlene. Checking to make sure that her wand was somewhere that she could grab it fast (Sirius's belief that Bellatrix was definitely a death eater still ringing in Marlene's head), she flounced up to the window of Ollivander's and pretended to look inside as well. "Old wand not good enough for you anymore?" Marlene asked Bellatrix as innocently as she could muster, what with her voice somewhat filled with implications that this maybe could have been because her current wand might've been a bit too incriminating, should someone check what the most recent spell cast from it had been. Marlene almost added that she would've put money on it being some sort of Unforgivable. Then again, she really didn't want to be the person that caused that quip to become a truth. Bella's admiring reverie had been rudely broken: she cast a glance sideways, and the almost immediate switch between dreamy amusement and lip-curling disgust was sort of hilarious in its own right. She shifted her basket to the other arm, providing an ever so ineffective wicker barrier between Bellatrix and Marlene. She didn't speak for a few moments, content to allow the air of pure disdain radiate outwards for a moment or two first -- when she finally did, the neutrality of her tone was essentially a blatant giveaway as to the mammoth effort that it was taking for Bellatrix not to simply pull out her wand and hex the other woman into a small puddle. She was far too aware of this woman's dealings with the Black family, but there were too many people around to make a simple lesson difficult to teach. "My wand is perfectly fine," she said indifferently. "It isn't unthinkable, however, to simply enjoy a wand for what it is: an excellent piece of craftsmanship. I understand how people like you might not be able to understand the finer points of the artisan's work, but by Merlin, couldn't you at least try not to embarrass yourself in public?" Bella turned inwards slightly: to the casual observer, it might have seemed like a friendly gesture in order to share the typical feminine gossip that so filled the high society lady's time; to the initiated, however, Bella's drawing closer to Marlene simply allowed her to say far ruder things in a way that would ensure nobody else could overhear. "I hear that you've been quite busy, sharing correspondence with my dear cousin?" The smile that Bella adopted was a unique one, insofar as it was the only smile currently capable of making Bellatrix Black Lestrange even more terrifying. It was a humourless and tight smirk, betraying all of the dark and evil thoughts that lurked behind those lustrous, hooded eyes. It robbed her of a great deal of her beauty, that piranha grin, and she was all too aware of it. Spooking Marlene McKinnon was worth a little sacrifice in the good looks department. Besides, even if it was narcissistic? She was still very pretty. Bloody hell did it take these people a ridiculously long time just to say a simple "no." Of course that's what Bellatrix was hanging out in front of the wand shop for. To admire craftsmanship. Oh, how darling and dainty and absolute cow dung. So that's where Narcywarcy got her unending amounts of grace! When Bellatrix shifted closer, Marlene's initial reaction was to grab for her wand and back the hell up before she started something, but she managed to stand her ground without flinching. She couldn't do anything to her. There were too many people around. Marlene simply had to keep telling herself that, and everything would be perfectly fine. Besides, she was certain that Bellatrix wouldn't want to do anything to chance destroying the finer points of her wicker basket's craftsmanship, now would she? Now, to figure out which of Bellatrix's cousins she was referring to, considering the woman was probably related to the entirety of pureblood society in about six different ways. Marlene would have to turn this into a clever party game next time she and her friends were all plastered. Hell, she could bring up the whole peacock affair despite Narcissa being Bellatrix's sister, and that would probably still count as cousinly correspondence. Not that she was stupid enough to do that, of course. Contrary to popular belief, Marlene McKinnon honestly did not have a death wish. Alert the presses. "Oh, which one?" Marlene asked, concluding that playing the naive card would be the most amusing, while also probably the likeliest to get her the real person Bellatrix was referring to. "Do you mean Sirius? You mean you're considering him your cousin again? Oh gosh, that's such wonderful news, I'm so absolutely thrilled for you both!" Marlene replied, spinning the ends of her hair around one of her fingers, the amount of sarcastic perkiness in her words seeming incredibly out of place when paired with Bellatrix's terrifyingly disturbing expression. Good lord, and she'd been looking into Ollivander's window? How had the glass not cracked? Despite her actions around Narcissa the other day, Bella managed to resist the urge to spit at Sirius' name. It wouldn't do to reveal such base passions in front of theMugglelover , and to give her more ammunition to try and claim that they were anything approaching equals was just stupid. Bellatrix tossed her hair contemptuously, trying to channel her desire to hex McKinnon into that single movement of disdain. "Whilst I realise that your mental capacity is obviously lacking, given the company you keep, I know that you aren't quite that stupid. Nothing short of a cataclysm could return that boy to the fold, and we are glad to be rid of him." She turned back again, seemingly content to ignore Marlene for a few moments; indeed, Bellatrix leaned forward to inspect one of the wands in the window, sitting atop its smooth purple cushion. When she spoke again, there was a forced casual tone to it that didn't suit her and sounded incredibly insincere -- but then, it was unlikely that Mrs Lestrange had even intended to fool the girl with HOW she said something. "Although your association with the disgusting traitor of our family is obvious, I was actually speaking about Regulus. Apparently you just refuse to learn from the numerous lessons you've been given. What will it take to keep you away from our family, McKinnon?" "And he's better off that way," Marlene actually agreed with the older woman's snit, although obviously for extraordinarily different reasons. True, had Marlene been one of the sorts to share in the ridiculously whacked ideals of pureblood mania, it might've come off as her agreeing that the only one suffering from this arrangement was that horrid Sirius Black, who deserved everything he had coming to him. Of course, that thought process was absolute bullshit. Sirius and Andie were the only ones out of that lot to've retained some sort of minor grip on reality. Obviously being booted from the family tree had done them some good. "Can't have him running around with dignified society, now can we?" she asked, although not actually knowing that it had been Bellatrix behind the nice little note she'd received anonymously the other day. Marlene held back a smirk at the mention of Regulus, wondering which "correspondence" it was that Bellatrix was referring to. True, there was her typical favourite pastime of harassing the little dip over the journals, but then there was also the most recent excursion involving some red paint and a few rolls of feisty single-ply toilet paper. (Not, of course, that Bellatrix needed to know that had been Marlene and Remus, and not, of course, that Marlene was going to say anything to make her believe that it was her.) "Oh, Reggie, that's right," she replied, as if the thought had just then dawned on her that they'd had a tiny little bit of interaction over the past few days. "Well, he's such a charmer, it's hard not to be drawn to talk to him, you know?" she answered, biting her tongue to hold back her other question of 'I don't know, what would it take to keep your people away from mine?' But oh. There it was anyway. That fun little mention that kept popping up about these supposed "lessons" that Marlene was being taught. Otherwise known as the fact that her family kept getting targeted and attacked for no bloody reason. Yep, should've figured that Madame Lestrange would've had a hand in that. Merlin, Marlene would've given anything to throw resistance to the wind and tackle the woman right through the window of the wand shop just then, give her a really close up look at the one that Bellatrix seemed ever so taken with by jamming it up her nose. Marlene kept her cool as well as she could, struck nerve be damned, a bit nervous that Bellatrix would find some way to somehow turn all of those wands in the store on her at once if she got any closer to them. "I'm a bit unclear as to what you mean about these lessons, ma'am," Marlene replied, a much sharper edge to her tone now. "As far as I can recall, no one's taken anything up with me personally, which I would hope that they'd do instead of skirting around, getting other people involved." ...Not, of course, that Marlene actually wanted them to come after her, but better that than her family. Or something. Why was she still having this conversation; she needed to get back to work. And, you know, not encourage people who wanted you to die. Bellatrix was visibly shaking now, the desire to forget even her wand and simply strike the other woman almost more than she could handle. She didn't, not yet, though the temptation was great: how dare Marlene attempt these pet names and familiarities, as though they were friends or even casual acquaintances? Nobody was allowed to speak about Regulus in that manner, especially not someone who was quite so much of a disgrace to the wizarding world as the McKinnons were. She took a few calming breaths, the urge to kill subsiding ever so slightly, and gently pushed a lock of her hair out of her eyes. "Your kind never take anything to heart unless one targets something dear," she said, in an oddly matter-of-fact tone. "Would you prefer it if I had someone break your legs, my girl? I dare say even that wouldn't be enough to stop you from peddling your unwanted attentions. Make no mistake, your conversations with my family will be ceasing, even if I have to ensure that your interactions with everyone ceases at the same time." Bella smiled pleasantly, as though she'd done nothing more than comment on the weather. Shifting the basket slightly, she reached into it and slowly drew something out. It was a lumpy-looking root, dark and mean even in its natural state. "Do you know what this is?" she asked, ploughing onwards without waiting for a reply: whether it was because Bella doubted that Marlene would have the first idea what it was, didn't wish to hear the girl's voice at this particular moment or just hadn't intended for the question to be answered at all. "This beautiful little plant is a Venezuelan Grasping Fern. Needs no water and no nourishment in order to bloom...it grows exponentially the moment it touches the ground, tendrils seeking out food in order to grow properly. It loves human flesh, they say..." She smiled wider, revealing a row of white teeth that annoyingly lacked any kind of fangs whatsoever. "It would be a terrible pity if it found its way into someone's house, perhaps was accidentally delivered by an over-eager owl...? Apparently, it's very difficult to control, the Grasping Fern." And this is why Marlene typically preferred it to be over the journals when she got sassy with people. There was written proof then that could come in very handy should anything happen. Then, perhaps, she'd be able to get Bellatrix herself on "harassment." That would probably make Sirius's day, seeing his psychotic cousin brought into the DMLE for the same crime that he'd been taken in for. Damn stupid Bellatrix and her abilities to restrain herself from antagonising people in places and in ways that she could be held accountable for. Marlene folded her arms across her chest as she continued to look up at Bella with defiant and unfalteringly amusement, refusing to let herself look more intimidated than that. Oh yes, in her head she was screaming at herself that 'now was definitely the time to make her exit,' but she'd be damned if she were to let this information onto Psychopath Lestrange by quailing physically. "Looks like our kinds really aren't so different then, are they?" she inquired with as much feigned charm as a person could muster when holding casual conversations with someone who'd threatened the lives of their family. "After all, isn't this just about Reggiepoo not being able to fight his own battles? Again?" The precocious act dropped just as quickly as it had started when Bellatrix started flaunting her plant-lore in Marlene's face. Oh no. You did not talk down to Marlene McKinnon about Herbology . "Of course I know what that is," Marlene snipped, although, granted, Bellatrix's little spiel on the root did cause Marlene to take a step back. She was very much aware of what a Venezuelan Grasping Fern was, despite having never actually come in contact with one. Not that Marlene had ever taken issue with this fact, as she was even more aware as to what the plant could do. "You sure you should be carrying that around with you? I'm pretty sure they're slightly illegal," she noted, her tone rising slightly in volume with that word alone, hoping to possibly catch some passer-by's attention. And failing to do so. Dammit, why did people not react to things like she wanted them to? "And I shudder to think of what it could do to your poor wicker basket there if it started feeling tetchy." Bella smirked. "Illegal to sell, my dear girl. Not to buy, curiously enough. I was ever so diligent when it came to checking the loopholes." Diligent, obsessed: they were both much of a muchness, in all truth. Bellatrix had made sure of the laws before she bought the thing: having fun was one thing, and so was exploiting the stupidity of the dirty-blooded monsters, but there was no point in being obvious about things. "Really, I might be just on my way to report that horrid little stall-keeper to the proper authorities. You must think so badly of me. And as for it being tetchy, idiot girl, you'll notice that would why I'm keeping it off the ground...unlike you, my reasoning capabilities haven't been ruined by associating with filth." She slipped the Fern seed back into her basket, and drew her wand out instead. Though she held it by the end, rather than the handle, just having it out in the open changed the mood dramatically: Bella relaxed, her earlier jitters replaced with cool serenity now that her wand was in her hand. "Perhaps I do need a new wand," Bellatrix said thoughtfully, apparently to herself though the whole pantomime was clearly only for Marlene's benefit. "What do you think? This one has always served me faithfully, but sometimes you have to part ways." Bellatrix Lestrange had never claimed to be a particularly subtle woman. Her threats were more of a direct form of conversation -- really, this was positively cryptic of her. Marlene would have been more than okay with Bellatrix parting ways with her wand. Immediately. Any time that she wanted to put that thing away would have been absolutely dandy by her. Despite the fact that it might've taken a bit longer than it would have for most people's sense of self preservation to kick in, even Marlene knew that enough was enough when Bellatrix Lestrange had taken her wand out. Yes, she wasn't holding it by the handle, but really, how long would it take her to see to changing that? Half a second? Marlene was a speedy little thing when the occasion called for it, but she couldn't move that fast. No one could move that fast. As well as she'd been doing standing her ground unflinchingly moments earlier, a person would've had to have been blind to not notice her tense up at the sight of Bellatrix With Wand. "For some reason I have this sneaking feeling that my opinion on that wouldn't really matter much to you," Marlene replied, moving slowly, very slowly, back and away from Ollivander's and the crazy woman, never taking her eyes off of her as she spun so that her back was facing the direction of Slug & Jigger's, wondering if she would make things better or worse for herself if she moved for her wand. If she needed to walk back to work backwards just to be safe, so be it. There are witnesses, she's not going to do anything. There are witnesses, she's not going to do anything. There are witnesses, she's not going to do anything. Marlene repeated to herself again and again, really really wanting that to be true. Besides, if she was going to do something, she would have already, yes? Yes. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully. "And speaking of parting ways, it's really time for me to be heading off. Time is of the essence, cheerio and all that, lovely talking to you," she said her slightly rambled goodbyes, knowing that later she'd be kicking herself for not throwing in some sort of parting snark about how she was sure Bellatrix needed to get home to make sure Rodolphus's balls were still in their proper place on the mantle. After the novelty of miraculously not being dead had worn off. |