Dorcas A. Meadowes (awinterstale) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-05-25 22:07:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! [1979-05] may, dorcas meadowes, marlene lupin (née mckinnon) |
Placeholder: Dorcas and Marlene
Who: Dorcas Meadowes and Marlene McKinnon.
Where: The Tonks residence.
When: 25 May 1979, evening.
Summary: Marly and Dorie pick out their new dream home (or town, rather) together and discuss just exactly what is going on with Marlene and Remus.
Rating: TBD.
Dorcas was curled up on the Tonks's couch, looking over real estate information and some pictures she snapped of Fleetwood and Leigh-on-Sea. Dorcas really rather liked both areas, which was why she was wishing Marlene would pop in the living room so they could make a decision about where they were going to move. Dorcas enjoyed staying with the Andromeda and Ted, but she was certain they would like to have their house to themselves again, and so really it was best for everyone if they picked a place and moved out as soon as possible. Besides, a change of scenery would be nice, exciting even, which was why Dorcas was currently distracted with all this 'picking a new place to live' business rather than getting a little extra time in on the article she was supposed to be witting for the Quib.
Dorcas liked writing articles for the Quib, really, she did, but currently she had too much Dorcas stuff on her mind to possibly sit down with her source material (as flimsy as it may be, because hey, it was the Quibbler, no need to go crazy over that stuff) and write an article on the ministry safe house raids. After all, aside from all the moving things Dorcas had to think about, there was the peculiar situation between Marlene and Remus that was perpetually tugging at the back of her mind. What was going on between those two? Marlene hadn't said anything, officially, that they were any sort of...item, but Dorcas was savvy enough to these sort of things to realise that Marlene and Remus had been acting rather...coupley lately and so she had reason to suspect they may be just that. A couple. Yes, Dorcas's best mate and her...well, not 'enemy' that was a bit harsh, but her person who she is not particularly fond of as of late may just be a couple. Dorcas didn't know how she felt about that. She didn't even know if it was true which is why she would really like Marlene to show up right about now so that they could have a little chat. Dorcas needed some answers, both about their preferred place for relocation and this whole 'Remus thing' so that maybe Dorcas could stop thinking about herself and her friends and get back to actually doing her job, for once. Dorcas fully realised she hadn't been the model reporter as of late, and she could only thank God that her boss was Xenophilius Lovegood. The man wasn't exactly strict about how many articles his staff put into his paper, as Dorcas was fairly certain he would be perfectly content filling the paper up with stories about Big Foot or whatever those creature things were he was constantly babbling on about.
Nonetheless, Dorcas still felt somewhat guilty that she was being negligent of her job. She had taken a lot of days off these past few weeks, and although she had reason enough to do so, Dorcas still needed to get back into the swing of things. Dorcas shifted around on the couch a bit, and decided she would get cracking on that article very soon, but first she would rather take some time to figure out all this other stuff. She couldn't really write when her mind was cluttered with other things anyway, so there was really no point trying.
Dorcas didn't have to wait long for Marlene to show up. She'd gotten back from work early that day (after she'd helped finish up with training Jilla the new Herb Girl, Mr. S. had let them both take off before their shift was scheduled to be over), and while she'd gone back and forth about whether or not she wanted to take a nap or not -- she decided against it, figuring that'd just throw off any semblance of a sleeping schedule she'd tried to maintain over the last few weeks -- there weren't all that many places that a person could go in the Tonks house without eventually passing through the main room. After taking Sammie out for a short walk and getting a much-needed shower (because seriously, after a day at the Apothecary? There was no leaving that place without reeking of potions ingredients), Marlene threw her hair into a ponytail and flounced out of her bedroom and into the room where Dorcas was waiting on the couch.
"Ooh, I loved the bathroom in that place," Marlene noted, hopping over the back of the sofa and onto the cushion next to Dorcas, peeking over her shoulder at the photographs her roommate was looking through. "We would definitely need to repaint, though. I don't know who in the world told them that an olive green bathroom was a good idea." She glanced at the notebook laying buried in real estate information, figuring that had something to do with a Quibbler article that wasn't getting finished. "How's the story coming?" Marlene asked her, even though the answer was a bit obvious from the look of things.
Dorcas looked up from her pile of real estate goodness and flashed Marlene a smile. "Yeah me too, it was nice," she said and then looked at the photograph again, wrinkling her noise slightly when Marlene mentioned the olive green interior "I think a lighter colour would work much nicer in there," she said. "The rest of the place was pretty nice too, and I think the size of the flat is just right for us," Dorcas said thoughtfully as she continued to look at the picture. "Oh..right, about that article.." Dorcas said and shook her head a bit in amusement. "I haven't actually started writing it yet which is, you know, a key part of getting it done, but eh.." Dorcas said and shrugged her shoulders, and that really was all she had to say about it, 'eh'.
"Let's just...talk about this for now," she said and neatly laid out the papers on the Tonks's coffee table. Dorcas wasn't an exceptionally messy person, but she did find herself being a lot neater in the Tonks's house, which made sense, she supposed. It took a very...special sort of person to truly feel at liberty to be a pig in another person's house, and Dorcas wasn't that type of a person. "Fleetwood or Leigh-on-Sea?" she asked.
"Yeah, starting usually helps. Which is, of course, why we should completely ignore work and figure this out instead," Marlene agreed, looking through the photographs of the places they'd toured in the two fishing towns, trying to remember the pluses and minuses of each flat. "Let's see. I think I actually like the neighbourhood a bit more in Leigh-on-Sea that this flat was in," she explained, pointing at the respective photograph of a lavender-painted flat with a large front window. "Plus, you know. The flat was only a floor off the ground, so it'll be easier getting in and out." And no fire escapes. Despite the fact that having the damned thing at their old building is what saved their lives, Marlene didn't remember the experience of toppling down it all too fondly. Little bit painful, not to mention embarrassing. "That one was more expensive, though, and money is an issue. Plus the one with the big closets was in that one in Fleetwood... oh, but the one with the nice bathroom in Leigh-on-Sea had that cute little old lady across the hall who wanted to make us biscuits, augh, I dunno, let's get them both," Marlene laughed indecisively, slouching back on the couch and looking to Dorcas for apartmental-guidance. "Which one did you like best?"
"Ignoring work is always a good thing," Dorcas said and then turned her attention back to the photographs and the other flat related documents. "Mmm.." Dorcas nodded in agreement. "I liked the window," she said. Dorcas scrunched her brow a bit, 'I liked the window' sounded weird, but Dorcas was pretty sure Marlene knew what she meant. It was big and let a lot of light in the flat and created good 'atmosphere'. "This is true," she said. "It will be easier to make quick...escapes should we need to, and aside from that we won't have to walk up a lot of stairs to get in," Dorcas pointed out. "Argh this is difficult," Dorcas said and ran her hands through her hair. "Oh, let me think," she said and looked at the pictures, a look of concentration dawning on her face as she mentally weighed out the pros and cons of each flat candidate. "Well, I think my favourite is the lavender place with the big window, but we really should keep price range in mind," Dorcas said. "Which, in that case, my second favourite is the other Leigh-on-Sea one, with the nice bathroom and the biscuit lady," Dorcas said. "After all, bathrooms are important and that nice little old lady will probably habitually make us biscuits if we move in and that is definitely a good thing," she said.
"But I don't know, did you like the big closet one, or do you think we should splurge a bit and go for the more expensive place?" Dorcas asked, though she wasn't exactly sure where they were going to get the money needed to splurge. Dorcas liked being financially independent from mummy and daddy, but without a little help from them or the McKinnons she wasn't sure if they'd have the money for the lavender Leigh-on-Sea flat.
"Oh, I definitely liked the one with the big closets," Marlene nodded, hoping she hadn't sounded like she disapproved of the rest of the flat in focusing mostly on the closet space. She just liked having space to keep her stuff. Unfortunately, they.. well, didn't really need that much storage space, given that quite a bit of their stuff had been lost back in the attack on their flat (or at least Marlene's, as her room had kind of taken a lot of the heat from the firespell damage. ...Pun not intended.) "But I dunno, it's just up-wind from that fish market, and that might be why it's cheaper than the others. Plus on hot days..." Marlene wrinkled up her nose. She got her fill of bad-smelling things while at work. She didn't need to come home every night to the scent of warm fish in the summer heat. "Yeah, so I think we can at least settle on something in Leigh-on-Sea, yeah? And hey! It almost rhymes; always a perk."
"But... money, hmm," Marlene frowned, picking up the flier for the flat with the big front window. It was such a nice place, and was right there on the water and everything (which probably didn't help the price being hiked up quite a bit more than it really needed to be), but with only entry-level pay at Slug and Jigger's and a lot of her savings spent replacing things that had been damaged or destroyed in the raid, it seemed a little out of her reach at the moment. Marlene was sure that her parents would be willing to help her out some if she asked, and there was always that money that she'd been left from her sister's family... Marlene didn't want to touch either of those, though. She was too independent to ask her parents to help her more than she needed them to, and she felt incredibly off about using what basically felt like bloodmoney to help secure a down payment. Besides, that money would run out in a year or so, and then she'd be right back in the same situation. "Would you be okay with settling for second best? I think I could splurge on that one, what with the bathroom and the biscuits. And Ms. Old Lady Across the Hall kept mentioning she had a grandson..." she giggled, nudging Dorcas amusedly.
"Ugh I don't think I would be able to handle the fish smell," Dorcas said. "And I can't really think of any spells off the top of my head that make places smell better," she said. "Although, that would be useful, wouldn't it," Dorcas said thoughtfully. "Spells that make things smell better," she clarrified. For all Dorcas knew a spell like that could exist, after all, Dorcas wasn't exceptionally knowledgeable of home improvement type magic. Nevertheless, the big closet flat still seemed out of question due to fish stench. "Yeah," Dorcas agreed and laughed "It does, and that's good. Besides, it just sounds pretty in general. Leigh-on-Sea," she said. "It does have a nice ring to it."
Dorcas could tell from Marlene's prolonged silence that she wasn't having any luck thinking up ways to come up with the extra galleons either. Well, besides maybe thinking over the same options Dorcas had which really weren't all that appealing to anyone fresh out of school trying to make it on their own without any parental supervision. It wasn't as if Dorcas felt funny turning to her parents for help, she just didn't want to in this instance because it wasn't really necessary. There were other, less expensive places to pick from that were nice flats in their own respect. "Absolutely," Dorcas said. "Yes it will pay off in the end," she agreed and then rolled her eyes. "A grandson who we have yet to see so let's not go and get excited prematurely. For all we know he might weigh three hundred pounds and be a total bore," Dorcas teased.
"Brilliant; I think it's settled then?" Marlene replied excitedly, nearly bouncing in her seat. The fact that they had to go flat shopping again in the first place was bloody annoying as all get-out, but now that they were finally settling on a place, and a place that they liked, she found herself nearly as keyed up by their final decisions as she'd been when Dorcas and she had first picked out the place in Grindylow Gardens when they were just leaving Hogwarts. This was something new and different, and they were going to be around muggles which was an entirely fresh prospect for Marlene. She'd lived somewhat near a few muggle neighbourhoods while growing up, but she'd never experienced having them live in the same building before. It was also nice knowing that they weren't going to have to worry about people knowing where to find them this time. Hopefully. "We can owl… er, ring the realtor about it tomorrow. Think I might let you handle that bit, though. I always talk too loud into the hellofone."
"And ew, you're right. She did seem rather over-zealous to pawn him off on us, didn't she?" Marlene frowned, hoping that wasn't the case. Watch Ms. Little Old Lady Across the Hall's grandson wind up looking like Snape or something. She wasn't that desperate for her to make her cookies, and it also wouldn't be fair to pawn him off on Dorcas because she was the one of them who was still single. "Don't think we need someone to volunteer to kill our spiders for us that badly."
"I think so," Dorcas grinned. Frankly, Dorcas was pretty excited herself. Finding a new place to live hadn't been nearly as difficult and tiresome as she had originally anticipated. On the contrary, the whole process had gone by relatively quickly, which was good. Although living around muggles certainly wasn't new for Dorcas, living in a shore town was and that she found exciting. Dorcas always thought the shore kids seemed so cool whenever she vacationed in an area like that, and now lo and behold, she was going to be one. "Yeah, we probably shouldn't owl him that might not go over so well," she said and laughed. "I'll ring him on the telephone," she said.
"A little bit, which should always send off warning singles," Dorcas said. "Then again, maybe he's not so bad and his grandma's just generally over zealous but there's always the possibility that he may just be repulsive," she said. "No, if that's the case I think we can manage our spiders just fine."
"Watch the poor guy be bird-o-phobic or something too, I'm sure that wouldn't help things. "Oh hello there, we're interested in renting this flat from you! Please nevermind the fact that you were just attacked by an owl. Have a nice day!" I'm sure he'd love us straight-off," Marlene laughed, finding the mental picture of that whole ordeal extraordinarily amusing. She knew that muggles did all their mail delivery a bit different than wizards -- that was something she should probably look into, as well, given that they might expect her to pay her bills that way -- but wasn't quite sure of how it all worked. She knew it didn't involve carrier birds, though. "Oh, oh yeah. Telephone, right right."
"And I'm sure he's fine. And after all, if he does end up being horribly gross and malformed or anything, we can always have the guys over to chase him off," Marlene noted, referring (as she usually did when referencing "the guys") to Remus, James, Sirius, and Pete. After pondering this for a moment, she paused and reconsidered, "Or maybe not. They might actually have too much fun with that, and we're supposed to be laying low. Only if desperate times call for desperate measures."
"Even if he wasn't a bird-o-phobic muggles aren't used to seeing owls just flying about during the day time and into their kitchen windows anyway," she said and laughed. "He may think we're a bit wonky if twe did that and then he might not be so keen to sell us the flat if he thinks we're two owl loving loons," Dorcas said. Truth be told, Dorcas didn't really know much about paying the bills the muggle way either. Well, obviously she knew how to mail them out, because she knew how to mail things in general, but when it came down to the nitty gritty of paying bills the muggle way Dorcas was a little lost. Naturally, her parents had always taken care of that growing up, and she spent the last year or so emerged in the wizard way of doing things. Still, Dorcas was sure she'd be able to figure it out.
"Yes, and that will be that," Dorcas said. Ah, 'the guys'. The conversation was very gradually beginning to steer towards Remus, and with a bit of extra prodding she could oh so discreetly pry out the answer of Marlene and Remus's relationship status. Or, you know, Dorcas could just ask because she didn't exactly have any real issue with bluntness, but she figured it may be weird to veer so wildly off subject. "Right, because they may unnecessarily scar the boy for life," she said.
"Anyway," Dorcas began. "Should we get cracking on that 'VIP' list of ours now or save that for another day?" she asked.
Marlene also didn't have an issue with getting right towards the facts of the matter, but given that Dorcas was attempting to prod specific information out of her, didn't have the slightest where Dorie wanted the conversation to go. If she would have asked, Marlene wouldn't've had a problem with supplying her with the information that she wanted: it had just never occurred to Marlene that she was supposed to go running through the streets throwing confetti into the air and proclaiming proudly that yes, she -- Marlene McKinnon – had a boyfriend. Or a boy who liked her who she liked back who had been a friend for quite a long time and who she'd dated.
"Oooh, yes, very good idea," Marlene nodded, curling her legs up underneath her on the couch and turning so that she could better face Dorcas while they discussed this. Now that they actually had the flat that they wanted in mind, it would make sense to figure out who they'd be able to share this information with. "Ted and Andie first off, obviously. I think they deserve to know where we're skiving off to after letting us kick 'round their house for over a month, and they knew we were planning on leaving anyway."
"Yeah, just running off one day with no word as to where we're going might be a little rude, especially considering how hospitable they've been," Dorcas said. "So who else?" she asked. "Well, Agnes, obviously," Dorcas said. Saying Agnes was on their VIP list was a bit like stating the obvious. Clearly Agnes had to know where they were moving, and clearly there wasn't any reason why she shouldn't know. Agnes obviously wasn't the one who told those Death Eaters how to break into their flat.
"Oh, definitely. I'd say Agnes even before Ted and Andie had we not specifically been staying over here," Marlene nodded, wondering if they should be writing this down. Well, not that she was expecting the list to get long enough to where she and Dorcas wouldn't be able to remember who was on it. "Obviously she wouldn't've let them know where to find her to come kill her," she vocalised what Dorcas had been thinking. Continuing on that train of thought, Marlene added, "Sirius too, then. He was there, and if it had been him, it would've been really damn easy for him to take off leaving me all practically unconscious on the fire escape." And that brought them closer to the conversation that Dorcas wanted to have, as it was difficult for Marlene to think of one of her former housemates without the whole caboodle following right along with it. "Let's see. I'd say Remus, of course, and James and Lil and Pete. None of them would say anything, I'm positive. Emmeline too," Marlene added. Yes, she was capable of trusting people who weren't Gryffindors, thank you very much.
"Exactly, it doesn't seem likely at all that she would have owled one of them and said 'Oh, hey guys so I'm not really dead but please do stop by Marlene McKinnon and Dorcas Meadowes' flat at Grindylow Gardens so you can try to murder me and destroy their place. Thanks'," she joked lightly. "Yeah," Dorcas agreed to all of the people Marlene listed. Well, she still wasn't entirely sure about Remus for her own personal probably somewhat batty reasons, but of course if he is, in fact, Marlene's boyfriend then obviously he needs to know where they live and whatnot, and Dorcas can't very well object to that. Well, Dorcas would feel guilty objecting either way because even if they weren't dating they still were friends, but Dorcas really did believe they were more than that. Which of course led right into..."So, Marly," she began. "What exactly is going on with you and Remus, hm?" Dorcas questioned. "You two have been spending a lot of time together lately," she pointed out. "Anything going on there?" Dorcas asked.
Aha. There it was. Dorcas and her "hm?"s. Marlene should've been expecting it, not that being asked about what was going on between her and Remus was a problem, of course. Frankly, Marlene did feel a bit guilty about not bringing it up to Dorcas herself, but... well, she'd been distracted by the whole people dying thing, and then she and Sirius and Remus had all gotten into run-ins with edgy purebloods, and then there'd been that whole little werewolf thing... Marlene supposed she'd figured that everyone would guess on their own, and that would be that. "Well, we do have rounds together," she replied coyly, only to stop herself short. Ew. No, Marlene was not going to play that game; that's what the annoying girls did when they wanted attention and crap. "Yeah, there is. Well, not as much as Sirius would like to lead people to believe, or wishes was true or any of that, but we've been on a date and went to the fair and it's been really kind of brilliant," Marlene explained, hoping that she wasn't coming across as one of those girls who needed to have a boyfriend in order to not feel like less of a person, as that wasn't the case at all. "It just sort of happened, but, you know, I'm not complaining," Marlene laughed. "Why? Do we get your blessing?"