astronomy • marlene mckinnon

sixteen

Marlene sighed as she pushed through the crowds on the platform, trying to find a familiar face. She still had ten minutes before she had to board the Hogwarts Express and her father had already left for the ministry.

After a while of searching, but finding no one, she figured that all her friends must have already boarded the train, and was about to board the train herself when she heard someone call out her name.

The blonde-haired Gryffindor turned around and noticed Lily Evans waving at her with a huge smile. Marlene grinned and went over to her and gave her a hug.

"Hey!" Marlene smiled as the two broke apart. "How are you?"

"Great," Lily smiled and the two boarded the train as the sound of a whistle reached their ears. "How about you?"

"Brilliant. Have you seen Mary or Alice?"

"Alice is with Frank," Lily answered. "I still can't believe it's Alice's seventh year already. I don't know where Mary is though."

"We'll find her," Marlene nodded and the two started to look for empty compartments as the train doors started to close.

As Marlene closed another door to a full compartment, the thought of this year being Alice's last year with her, Lily, and Mary finally settled in her mind and she frowned slightly. She'd miss her, who wouldn't, and the girls' dorm would start to feel a bit more empty without her, but then she shook her head and told herself that she still had a whole year left.

A whole year of memories to make, and it wasn't like the three sixth years would stop talking to Alice once the brunette graduates, they would still exchange letters and they would be together again once Marlene, Lily, and Mary graduate too.

Another frown settled on her face as she thought of the war brewing in the outside world. Her parents had tried to hide it from her, and so had her brothers, but she had seen the daily prophet and the horrors painted upon it.

Mysterious disappearances, and deaths.

Marlene wondered if she'd have to face all that when she would complete her education at Hogwarts and more sets of dark thoughts would cloud her brain, and she would finally understand why no one wanted her to see what was actually going on.

What no one saw was that she wasn't a little girl anymore, and she didn't need protection. She was capable of defending herself, and her family and friends from anything that was against them.

She looked at Lily who was apologizing for interrupting a conversation after she had opened a compartment door and then she thought of Mary, both of them were muggle-borns, and had a huge target on their backs.

Marlene had never understood the whole blood-purity thing most pure-bloods followed. She didn't understand why a lot of wizards and witches thought that anyone whose ancestors weren't all wizards was considered unworthy.

The blonde Gryffindor had been shielded from all the horrors of the world by her family, but they should have known that in the end, the truth finds a way to emerge.

She had heard about a lot of pure-bloods treating others like lesser people before she started Hogwarts, of course, but she didn't understand how any of that could be true, but it didn't take long for her to see it with her own eyes.

Victoria Malfoy had called Lily Evans a 'mudblood,' not a week after they were sorted and she had just stood beside with wide-eyes, not saying anything, she didn't even know what to say.

She remembered that encounter with Victoria Malfoy very clearly, she remembered Lily stepping in, her green eyes fiery after the Slytherin had pushed Mary McDonald, causing her to fall on the ground.