“Why do you care, Black? Why do you care if I care, or don’t care? What’s it to you?�

He gives a humourless half smile. “I should that would be obvious, to you.�

She cannot face him, she cannot look up into those turbulent grey eyes, and so she walks away, again, but she can feel his eyes watching her all the way across the room, until she turns the corner and disappears up the stairs.

-

It has been four years. A lot can happen in four years.

For example, the sad-eyed, long-legged, too-thin boy with the amber eyes and pale hair and mysterious scars is a boy no longer, but a young man wearied by the strife the world has thrown at him. His dark friend is a man as well, but of a different sort: his trials have made him shine all the more, for he sees every difficulty overcome as a victory to be celebrated, and he stands tall, and laughs at life when it is hard.

And they need each other, these two. She has always known that much, though she doesn’t fully understand it, yet. She will, in time, but by then it will almost be too late.

But none of them know that, so it doesn’t matter.

-

Marlene McKinnon died two weeks before her twenty-second birthday.

At her funeral, James Potter quietly says something about the tragedy of having your life cut short after only twenty-one years. Lily Potter’s eyes are red and swollen, and she hugs baby Harry to her chest and thinks about Marlene holding her younger brother, and wonders if they were together when the Death Eaters came, or if they died alone.

Sirius and Remus cannot look at each other, so instead they watch the coffin being lowered into the black earth, and know that they have both lost something important.

Dumbledore says some words as one by one they walk by and drop a handful of earth onto the box, because there is no father there to speak words of remembrance for the girl, and no mother to weep tears of loss onto the headstone. They are all gone, the entire family: the parents, Marlene, and the five-year-old son. The Order grieves for their fallen comrade today, but yesterday they grieved for the loss of one of the brightest wizarding families in England, and mourned the fact that there will never again be a McKinnon birth registered in the wizarding annals.

-

Sirius remembers Marlene jokingly wondering whether it was she or her baby brother Matthias who was the accident, because nobody plans to have two children sixteen years apart.

Sixteen years aside, Marlene loves that boy with a fire that was obvious to anyone who had watched the two of them for five minutes. When she plays with him, she looks happy in a new way – like she has not a care in the world, like everything is simple and clean, and his laughter is all she needs to find joy.

At an Order meeting once, she volunteered for a particularly dangerous assignment, and Dumbledore looked as if he wasn’t going to let her have it until she said very quietly, “For Matthias. I don’t want him to grow up to a world like this.�

-

Remus first met the entire McKinnon family when they came to Marlene’s graduation ceremony after her final year at Hogwarts. The McKinnons, it transpired, knew the Potters, and James of course had to greet them, and Sirius had bounded over to congratulate Marlene, and Remus had followed his friends but hung back as James reported family news to Mr. McKinnon and Sirius charmed Mrs. McKinnon and the little boy threw himself at Marlene’s legs and wound up tangled in her robes. Marlene would have none of Remus’ shyness, however – it was a concept alien to her, it seemed, and she simply grabbed him, announced “Remus Lupin!� to her family, scooped up her two-year-old brother, and thrust him into Remus’ arms. Remus held the child gingerly as Matthias regarded him solemnly with pale blue-green eyes.

They were the very same eyes as Marlene’s, and this was all Remus could think of as the boy examined his face, reached out, grabbed a handful of Remus’ light brown hair, tugged as hard as could, and gurgled joyfully. Marlene laughed at them both then, and came to Remus’ rescue, and seventeen-year-old Remus found himself thinking Hogwarts was not going to be the same next year without Marlene stealing away the apricot jam the instant it appeared at breakfast every morning, or singing snatches of bawdy Scottish ballads late at night in the common room, or grinning mischievously at him over the top of a dusty manuscript in the library.

Years later, when Marlene grasps Remus’ hair in her fists as she kisses him fiercely in the doorway of Sirius’ flat, he remembers the child’s eyes, and wishes Marlene would open hers so that their light would illuminate things enough for him to see it all clearly.

-

Sirius is shocked the first time he plays Quidditch with her.

Marlene is not a tall girl: at 5’4� she is the smallest person on the Gryffindor team, and her delicate features and small wrists and hands hardly recommend her for such a tough sport. When Sirius makes the team for Beater in his 4th year, James suggests that he keep a close eye on Marlene, as he might be able to learn a thing or two. Sirius thinks James is joking until their first practise, when he learns first hand just how hard she can whack a Bludger. Apparently, looks can be deceiving.

He thinks the same thing again, much later, when they battle side-by-side, their backs to a wall in a dark alleyway, and the Death Eaters’ taunts and curses fly around them, and Marlene coolly works bits of magic he’s never even seen before.

When the fight is over, and the remaining Death Eaters vanish, leaving their single fallen behind, Marlene examines the body without a word, and while Sirius pants heavily, still trying to register the fact that it’s over, she glances up and down the alley to double check that there have been no Muggle witnesses, sends the spilled rubbish back into the bins with a flick of her wand, and returns the light to streetlamps shattered by a rebounding curse.

His heart rate is just beginning to return to normal, and he’s about to ask is he dead?, but she’s ahead of him, again, saying, “Take a look at this fellow, will you? I think it’s Wilkes, but I’d like to know for sure.�

Sirius looks, and it’s definitely Wilkes, because Sirius remembers clearly seeing him among Regulus’ crowd at Hogwarts, and he’s definitely dead, and so he tells Marlene as much.

She nods briefly. They’ll tell Dumbledore later, of course, but they have a bigger problem now. Sirius can’t think what in Merlin’s name they’re going to do with the body, but he doesn’t want to ask Marlene, because saying it out loud just seems too gruesome. She bites her lip for a moment, but then it’s settled. She tells him what to do, where to Apparate, and then together they speak the spell and watch the body burn, and it’s not until it is all over that she finally looks him in the eyes, and her stony face crumples, and she whispers, “I don’t know whose spell killed him.�

There is nothing to say, because he doesn’t know either, so he doesn’t say anything, just takes her in his arms, because it’s the natural thing to do, and when he does he’s suddenly aware that it’s been years since he held her but it feels the same as it always did: easy, comfortable, reassuring. When she pulls away at last, a myriad of emotions on her delicately featured face, it’s all he can do not to ask her to come home with him tonight.

-

“It’s Remus, isn’t it?�

Marlene goes very still, but she meets his eyes without qualm when she replies, “What do you mean, ‘It’s Remus’?�

“You care for him.�

She watches him warily. She has no idea where this conversation has come from, nor where it is going. “I care for you,� she says distinctly.

“And what about Remus?� Sirius’ tone could almost be called concerned.

A moment passes before she responds, “I care for Remus.�

“I care for Remus.�

“I know.�

“He’s one of my best friends.�

“I know.�

Sirius doesn’t touch her this time. He actually hasn’t touched her in weeks, since that chilly March night when they kept each other warm on top of the Astronomy Tower, and he wants to touch her again now, but he doesn’t, because of Remus, and though it doesn’t all make sense in his head, he still decides not to kiss her, even though they are the only two people left in the common room, and her eyes are bright and soft, and she tilts her head to the side as she watches his face and her dark hair tumbles across her cheek and shoulder with the movement. Instead he swallows hard, and tells her, “You never even try to get me alone anymore.�

She is almost surprised that he had noticed. “You can’t pretend to be heartbroken about it.�

He shakes his head ruefully. “No. But…� He is not sure what else to say. He can’t very well tell her that he fell asleep with a werewolf in the bed in the Shrieking Shack last week, and woke up in the morning next to Remus, and stayed there because it felt right, and because his friend had woken with a start, tense, surprised, and then grabbed two fistfuls of Sirius’ shirt as if it was an instinct, and because Remus relaxed the instant Sirius wrapped strong arms around him and pulled him close. He can’t tell her he likes the taste of Remus’ bony chest, long limbs, and open mouth. He can’t tell her he suspects that Remus has a soft spot for her, the way that he does.

“But?� she prompts, and he realizes with a start that there was a sentence he never finished.

“But…the way you behave now, it’s hard to believe that you ever cared…so I can't help but wonder when you say you do."

That hurts, but she doesn’t say so, and tries not to let it show. “Did you, then?�

“Care? As well as I knew how, which, I admit, probably wasn’t very well. But you were always…� She waits for the word, and her heart skips a beat. “Nice.�

She draws away from him in that instant, because she does care, and he doesn’t understand. She will not be the one to come between two friends. She has watched their friendship for years now, and it is too beautiful to ruin. And although it’s really not as simple as she thinks, her instincts are good.

But she has herself to care about, too, and so she tries not to let what he says matter too much, and she gives her voice an edge to it when she replies.

“Why do you care, Black? Why do you care if I care, or don’t care? What’s it to you?�

-

“We were children, Sirius. How could we have known what we were doing then?�

“I was sixteen. I made many important decisions for myself that year. We were not so young.�

She sighs because she knows he is right, if only halfway. She knows it was not all that long ago. She remembers well that conversation in the fire-lit Gryffindor common room in her seventh – his sixth – year. She also remembers turning away from him that year, because it was not a good idea. She remembers convincing herself that it was not a good idea, but she can no longer remember how she did it.

“Go for a drink with me.�

It should be a question, but they both know it’s not, and although she puts up a front, it’s late already, I’ve promised to watch my brother tomorrow, they’ve always said you’re not to be trusted around a pretty girl, Black, in the end she goes with him, because they both want that drink.

And it’s not the drink (drinks), but the company, that keeps them out until three in the morning, and the bar closes, and they stumble out into the damp, dark street, holding on to each other for balance, or warmth, or something, and he slips his leather jacket off and places it around her slim shoulders when he sees a shiver.

And this time, he says it.

“Come home with me, Marlene.�

She stops in the middle of the street, and looks up at him, and he nearly reaches out to brush a stray black curl away from her face, but he doesn’t because he’s waiting for an answer, and when it comes, it is exactly what he was expecting. She wants to know, what about -

“Remus?�

-

“Come on, Remus.�

He looks up at her, surprised. He hadn’t seen her approach, he’d been talking with Dorcas and Fabian, he’d had his back to the rest of the room.

It is Christmas, and the Order has thrown a party, because “All work and no play is sickness to the soul,� as Gideon Prewett put it when the idea was mentioned, and everyone is there, and there is so much laughter, and drinking, and far too much mistletoe because Benjy Fenwick is determined to get Alyssa Vance to kiss him tonight, and then Sirius put on a record and whisked Marlene into a ridiculously rapid waltz, and instead of watching the couples pair off, Remus acquires another drink from the tray Peter is ferrying around the room and strikes up a chat with Dorcas, and tells himself he doesn’t really dance, anyway.

But then he hears her softly-lilting Scottish voice, and she is at his elbow, and she only has to repeat herself once, “Come on, Remus,� before he’s following her over to where James is twirling Lily around, and Frank and Alice are laughing at Frank’s attempts to dance, and Gideon actually has Alyssa in his arms while Benjy mock-glares from not far away.

And Sirius is waiting for them.

The music is fast, and she dances in between the two them, facing first one, then the other, but it’s not long before she notices the way they are looking at each other, and suddenly she begins to understand why Sirius is so protective of Remus, and why Remus never seems to know what to do when Alyssa flirts with him, and why the two of them share that tiny one-bedroom flat Sirius found in an isolated corner of London.

Later, James enchants the mistletoe to follow Sirius around the room, until he’s kissed both Alyssa and Benjy, and Alice as well, and only gives up when Sirius takes up a post next to Lily, and Sirius illogically seems to decide to take his revenge on Remus, and when Marlene finds herself next to Remus beneath a hovering cluster of mistletoe, she whispers “I think I see now, though it's really okay,� before kissing him softly, and he realizes she knows practically everything, and it’s actually a relief to him, because he doesn’t like having to pretend that some things don’t matter.

-

Remus knows that Sirius slept with Marlene, sporadically, and among others, during sixth year - partly because he watched it happening, Before, and partly because Sirius more or less told him, After.

There are two periods of time in Remus’ mind: Before, when he only watched Sirius, and wondered about all the little “accidents�, fingers brushing, a look across the darkened dormitory, a playful nuzzle in the Shrieking Shack, and wanted things he knew he couldn’t ask for. And then After, after the morning he woke with Sirius in his bed and realised things had changed and he never even had to ask, and every touch and glance meant something even if he didn’t always understand, and now maybe, just maybe, things would be alright.

Sirius says he “explored� in sixth year, and tells Remus he wondered why nothing ever felt quite right, and tells Remus he is the best thing that ever happened to him, but every discussion of Sirius’ former involvements ends when Sirius covers Remus’ mouth with his own, and the words stop, and usually it is distraction enough, but sometimes Remus can’t help but wonder if he’ll ever get the whole story.

When Remus asks about Marlene, Sirius responds differently than he does when Remus asks about the other girls. When Remus asks about Marlene, Sirius looks vulnerable, and Remus wonders if this should worry him, and thinks it probably should, but it never really does, because he thinks he knows, all too well perhaps, how Sirius feels.

When Sirius finally thinks to ask Remus about Marlene, Remus says the thing Sirius always thinks but never speaks when Remus asks him, and Sirius isn’t really surprised, because he always thought so, anyway.

They are old enough now to know that Remus is not afraid of becoming one “among others,� because Sirius is his without question, but an ideal fulfilled is never quite what it was first imagined to be, and they somehow agree, without too much talking, though their mouths do a good deal of another kind of work, that Marlene is a special case, and there will simply be no arguing.

-

When they first leave Hogwarts, Remus moves in with Sirius, because James and Lily are going to get married, and Peter seems to have a sudden desire for greater privacy, and besides, Sirius already has his own flat, and neither of them can think of any reason not to live together, and it will save the hassle of figuring out whose place to sleep at on a regular basis anyway.

James takes it all in stride, and Peter might not even have noticed, and Sirius catches James watching him sometimes with a pensive look in his eye and a curious smile on his face, and they although they never really talk about it, Remus is pleased one night when James, as he is leaving their flat, hugs him fiercely and whispers “It’s good to see you look so happy, Moony.�

-

“Tattoos,� Sirius announces to the room at large.

They are gathered in the kitchen of the old abandoned farm outside London that the Order has been using as headquarters these last few months, and the meeting has just finished, and everyone is scattered around the room, finishing their cups of tea or taking their leave of friends.

“Excellent.� James is on board at once, naturally.

“Tattoos?� Remus is accustomed to his two friends and their harebrained ideas, but even he was not expecting this one.

“The Death Eaters have theirs; we should have our own mark,� Sirius defends himself. “Something special to the Order.�

“What of?� There is a slow smile spreading across Elphias Doge’s face, and Sirius starts to think that maybe it won’t be so hard to get everyone in agreement.

“A Phoenix,� James declares; it’s the obvious answer.

“But where?� By the sceptically raised eyebrow, Lily isn’t sold on the idea yet.

“Our right wrists.� Marlene smiles at Sirius, and the image of her thin wrists and pale arms rises unbidden to his mind. “To counter the left forearm.�

It is finally Dumbledore who indulges them by providing the right spell, and most if not all of the Order get the tattoo, because Sirius will later notice the way the Phoenix’s tail feathers curl around Marlene’s wrist when he holds onto her arms and presses her down into his bed, and just before he buries his head in her neck he thinks it was one of his particularly finer ideas.

-

“Come home with me, Marlene.�

“Remus?�

He watches her without saying anything, and she starts to think that maybe there is still something she doesn’t understand. “What about Remus?� she asks again. She needs to know.

Remus is in Wales with Hagrid, he explains. Something to do with a dragon, he thinks, and a troop of Celtic witches they do not want on Voldemort’s side.

“Besides,� he says softly, because he wants her to understand, “Remus and I have an agreement.�

“Which is?�

“That you are…exceptional.�

So she tells herself that this is an exception, and slips her hand into his, and they walk close together down the dark street and up three flights of stairs and he unlocks the door but doesn’t turn on a light, because as soon as they’re in the room he has her up against a wall and she wraps her legs around his waist and pulls him close as they rediscover each other’s taste, and begin to recall the hollows and curves of the other body.

And she lets him undress her, and he explores her pale body with more care and attention than when they were younger, and takes her gently the first time, and then roughly a second time, and the third time is slow and spectacular, and she’s not sure that they sleep at all that night, but she isn’t tired the next day because her body is still humming with pleasure and she can’t stop thinking about stormy grey eyes that seem to pierce straight to her soul.

She can smell him on her all day, afterwards.

-

He can only think of one time he has ever seen her truly frightened.

She arrives at the Order headquarters, James and Sirius are there meeting with Dumbledore, but they all jump up at her sudden and unexpected appearance. She is breathless, her face is drawn and white, and she is holding Matthias close to her chest.

“I took him to the park.� She stumbles over the words. “Death Eaters, out of nowhere, I was taking care of him, I couldn’t fight, I didn’t know where to go – �

The idea that someone else will suffer because of her is unbearable. The realization that her innocent brother could be hurt because she has chosen to take a stand is something that shakes her to her very core.

Somehow, James ends up entertaining Matthias while Sirius looks on, I don’t have a clue what to do with babies, Prongs, and besides, you’re going to need the practise, and Dumbledore takes Marlene on a walk.

Sirius never finds out exactly what Dumbledore said to her that day, but it must have helped, because that really is the only time he can remember seeing such fear in her eyes.

She was a Gryffindor, after all.

-

In the dim and smoky lamplight in a forgotten corner of the Leaky Cauldron, she holds his amber eyes with her pale sea-coloured ones, and his heart catches a bit when he feels her press her knees against his under the table, and her expression is so gentle and intimate that he finds himself wishing he could keep her safe, even though he knows it’s a silly thing to think because all of them are in danger and she knows how to take care of herself and he of all people is far from being safe.

They are quiet for a while, content to simply watch each other, but then she takes a deep breath and asks softly, “Are you ever afraid to die?� like it’s been on her mind for a while, and they talk for a long time about good and evil, and fighting, and how to live, and how to die, and it is one of those times when the hours fly by too fast, because all of the sudden it has gotten late, but she says “Don’t go yet,� so he doesn’t.

Instead they order another round, and she gets up and comes around the table to sit next to him, and after awhile they’re laughing again, and he reaches over and pulls the pin out of her hair so that it spills across both their shoulders because he likes it better that way, and by the end of the night he is sitting with an arm around her and they lean their heads close together as the murmur to each other every amusing story they can remember about the members of the Order, and he’s entranced by the lilt of her voice and the scent of her skin and the shape of her lips as she says his name, “Remus.�

She winks at him over her shoulder just before she disappears down on the corner.

When he gets home he undresses in the dark and tries to slid into bed quietly but Sirius wakes up anyways, and when he wraps an arm around Remus’ neck and pulls him close he whispers, “You smell like smoke and whiskey and woman, Moony,� and he smiles into Remus’ shoulder because he recognises Marlene’s scent, and he recognises the contentment in Remus’ voice when he replies, “You weren’t waiting up for me, were you Padfoot?� With a playful growl, he hauls himself on top of Remus.

-

One mild spring evening, she visits her parents’ house and has dinner with her family, and afterwards she reads Matthias the story about the Goblin and the Snitch, because it’s his favourite this week, and kisses his forehead when she tucks him into bed, because she’s never sure if this will be the last time she sees him.

When she comes out of her brother’s bedroom, she finds her mother standing at the top of the stairs waiting for her.

“Your friend is here to give you a ride home.� Mrs McKinnon’s face is unreadable, but Marlene detects a definite note of humour in her tone.

“My friend?�

Downstairs, she finds Sirius lounging on one of her parents’ overstuffed armchairs in the sitting room, and she can’t help but smile at the picture he makes, having a polite conversation with her father, pausing every now and then to sweep long dark hair out of his face, his leather jacket and heavy boots clashing fantastically with the room’s traditional and cosy furnishings. He has an aura of belonging, nonetheless, and she suspects that he feels comfortable wherever he goes, because it simply never occurs to him not to be.

For a brief instant, and it must be the unusual surroundings, she sees through his carefully constructed rebellious and hardened exterior, and there is a sensitive, warm boy in there somewhere, and she is less surprised than she might have been when he drapes a warm arm around her shoulders and promises her parents to get her home safely and there is a something distinctly tender in the way he helps her put on her jacket, although he still forgets to hold the door for her, just like he always does.

It’s not until they’re out in the front garden that she realizes he had said “a ride home,� and when sees what they’re going to be riding she’s tempted to tell him to forget it and she’s going back inside, but there is a challenge in the way he raises an eyebrow at her, so she just climbs onto the motorbike behind him and when he says “Hold on tight,� she wraps both arms around his waist and holds on for dear life because this thing actually flies and for Merlin’s sake how did he ever think of such a thing and there’s no way this is condoned by the Ministry’s Flying Object Regulation Act.

And when she shouts in his ear to ask why they aren’t headed back into London, she hears his bark of laughter and then he tells her they’re going stargazing, and he hopes she remembers from Astronomy class how to work the telescopes, and later, when she’s laying under him in a grassy field under a clear open sky, she thinks this may have been worth the wild ride after all.

-

Nobody can say how Dumbledore knew it had happened, but it is a dark summer night and there is no breeze and the air is hot and close and the stars draw a veil of clouds in front of themselves so they won’t have to look upon the pitiless scene.

Only a few members of the Order have gathered to hear the account, and when Gideon places the three McKinnon wands on the table the room falls instantly still and silent, and they know there is no way to steel themselves for what is about to be said, because Marlene had just taken a week to relax and be with her family and nothing like this was supposed to happen, because no one outside the Order even knew where the McKinnons were living, and they were all so talented that surely they would be a match for whatever came their way.

But the Prewett brothers went to check when Dumbledore asked them, and now they report that the house was blown apart, although nobody was inside, and Fabian found them in the woods behind the house, and there must have been a terrible fight because the tree trunks are scorched and patches of grass have been burned away entirely, but the bodies are unmarked, and illuminated only by the flickering green light of the Dark Mark above them they could almost be sleeping.

-

When the leaves start to change they take a walk together through Hyde Park, and there is a brisk wind that lifts her dark curls and blows them around her face, and he admires the flush in her pale cheeks, and she admires the sunlight in his pale hair, and she teaches him how to skip rocks in the pond with the ducks he has named.

“What about the one the with the white flecks on his back?�

“Marcel.�

“And that pretty lady over there?�

Remus blushes faintly. “Minerva.�

She laughs.

“Just wait until she fixes you with her stare, then you’ll see,� he explains as the ducks circle enthusiastically.

She laughs again, and he realizes how much he likes her laugh, and so he does something he’s never done before. He catches her eye, and then he steps closer, very close, and he slides one hand around the back of her neck and cups her face with his other hand, and then he presses his lips to hers, gently. It’s wonderfully strange and new, and her lips are soft and smooth, and then she opens her mouth, and he’s pulling her closer and pressing their bodies together before he remembers that they’re in a park, and when he jerks back abruptly, breathing hard, there are two older Muggle women watching them from the other side of the pond, looking scandalised and amused respectively at their sudden and public display of passion.

He blushes again, but she only smiles and leans against him to whisper, “Your place is just around the corner,� and so he wraps her scarf more securely around her and draws her arm through his and takes her back to the flat.

He offers her tea and she says “Don’t be silly�, and takes him by the hand and leads him into the bedroom, and as she is unbuttoning his shirt he inhales the scent from her hair, and it is blacker than black, like Sirius’ hair, but it falls all the way to her waist and her hands are much softer than his.

He is still thinner than he should be, because the full moon always takes away every pound he ever manages to gain, but with Marlene he learns what it is like to be the bigger one, and he enjoys covering her body with his, though he’s careful not to put too much weight on her because she just seems so small in comparison, and he likes the soft little noises she makes and the way she runs her hands gently up and down his back and the light, fluttering trail of kisses she leaves along his jaw line and his collarbone.

After it is all over, Remus does go and make tea, and they sit up in bed sipping it and stretch their bare legs out in front of them, and she laughs at how skinny his legs are, and he laughs and tells her she’s hardly one to talk, and then she sets her mug down and crawls onto his lap and it starts all over again.

-

One time, she arrives without any warning and knocks on the door to their flat. Sirius answers, Remus is at home too, and none of them are really sure what to do, and there is a strange moment when she sits on the couch between them and can feel them watching each other over her head.

But then Sirius suggests a poker tournament, and Remus loses and has to make dinner, which is a good thing anyway because neither Sirius nor Marlene can cook to save their lives, and at the end of the night Marlene falls asleep on the couch, and when she wakes early the next morning and peeks into the bedroom, she sees Sirius and Remus entangled in each other’s limbs and sleeping peacefully, and she feels overwhelmed with so much fondness for them both that she actually goes into the kitchen and tries to do something with coffee and eggs, though she’s wonderfully relieved when Remus pokes a tousled head around the corner and offers to take over if she’d like to use the shower now that Sirius is out.

-

“Hagrid, you have to stand at the back. No one is going to be able to see Benjy if he’s standing behind you.� Dorcas pokes Benjy until he re-emerges from behind Hagrid, Alyssa close behind him.

“Lily, Alice, try as you might, there isn’t the slightest chance of my hair lying flat for this photograph.� James ducks away from the assault his wife and her friend are waging on his unruly hair.

“Oi, Peter, don’t hide in that corner. Come stand here between me and James.� Sirius grins affectionately as he manoeuvres his rather shorter friend into position front and centre.

“I still don’t understand why we need this documented. I hate having my photograph made.� This grumble comes from Aberforth, who nonetheless takes up his place next to his older brother and faces the camera.

The Prewetts each drape an arm around each other, Caradoc straightens his tie, Moody reminds everyone that taking a picture is not reason to let their vigilance down, Marlene stands next to Remus and squeezes his hand briefly because she thinks he need it, and finally everyone is ready.

“Three, two – � The camera clicks a second too early, causing everyone to exclaim in dismay, but it’s done now, and there’s no rallying them all a second time, so this will have to do.

Time is running out.

-

The last time any of them see her, she triumphantly enters the Order headquarters, sets a platter down on the table, and announces, “I made cookies.�

Naturally, this statement is met with some suspicion, and Sirius is even heard to ask “Has someone Imperioused her, or is this a Polyjuice impersonation?� but Remus finally works up the courage to try one, and his first reaction is “Where did you get these?� but it turns out that this incredulity is because they actually are good, and after Moody determines to his full satisfaction that this is actually Marlene, well and whole, the cookies get passed around the table and by the end of the meeting the platter is empty and she’s feeling very satisfied with herself.

On the way out, Marlene hugs Remus and Sirius and Remus again for good measure, and even lets Sirius tug teasingly on her hair before slipping out the door with the promise to see them soon.

“I’m going home for a bit, try not to forget about me.�

“Of course not.�

“Never.�

A smile flashes, blue-green eyes twinkle, her dark curls glint in the sudden sunlight from the open doorway, and she is gone.