Together We're Different--a Marauders fanfic

Chapter 13:Changes

Everything changed after Marlene died. Voldemort got stronger, more aurors joined the program, and well, we didn't have Marlene anymore. It's weird to think that one of my best friends, my sister, was just gone. Every single memory, all our dance parties and gossip sessions about boys, I'm never gonna have that with her again, and it's scary. It's scary that I don't have my best friend anymore. Remus took this surprisingly well, of course it was rough for everyone the first few days, but he was back to his normal self shortly after. Lily, on the other hand, was a different story. She still blamed herself for her best friends death, saying that if the knife hit her instead of Marlene like it was supposed to, then Marlene would still be alive. We all tried to convince her that if was Marlene's choice, and that there was nothing we could do now. Marlene wanted to save her sister, and Lily had to realize that it was her choice, and no one else could've stopped her. Lily didn't really seem to realize this until after the funeral.

The funeral was so depressing that it hurt. They made it so sad and quiet, but trust me, I knew Marlene McKinnon, she would've wanting music and good food and a dance floor. She would've wanted everyone to be getting drunk on fire whiskey. She wouldn't have wanted everyone to be depressed the whole time. But the service did bring Lily back to her senses, especially when she had to make a speech. Since Marlene's family had all passed away already, she wanted Lily to make a speech, and that's what she did.

"Hi I'm Lily Evans. I was Marlene's best friend. She was my sister. I only knew her for 7 years, but we had a whole lifetime of adventures during those years. My favorite memories would be her trying to get me to sneak out of our dorms at night, and me totally refusing because I was a prefect, and I was supposed to play by the rules. But looking back, I'm glad I let her get me to sneak out and get me into trouble. Because if I didn't, I would hate myself right now. There was also those moments whenever we were stressed or we accomplished something, we would literally just have a dance party in the middle of our dorm, or in the middle of the common room, we didn't care. I was never the type to have many boyfriends or anything like that, and she was before she finally found a steady boyfriend. But she always accepted me no matter what, no matter how different we were, she was always my best friend. And that's never going to change. Marlene McKinnon will always be in my heart, no matter what happens to me in life."

With that, Lily walks off back to her seat next to James and starts bawling into his shoulder. As we were leaving the service, James went back because he left his jacket behind, so it was just me, Lily and Alice walking together. "Are you okay?" Alice asks Lily. "I think so. Getting that speech off my chest really helped I think." Lily answers. I all of a sudden feel a huge smirk spreading across my face. "Oh no, that's your evil 'I have a plan' look." Alice warns. "What are you going to do this time, Iz?" Lily asks impatiently. "Follow me!" I say and grab both my friends' wrists.

By now it's night time, and I see us standing outside of the Gryffindor common room. "How did I let you sneak me in here? Do you know how much trouble we can get into?" Lily stammers. "What could they do Lils? We don't go to school here anymore. It doesn't matter." I tell her. "What are we doing here? What's the point of this?" Alice asks me. "You'll see." I say. The fat lady asks for the password, but we obviously don't have it. "Oh, why it's you dears, hello! I miss you guys you know. The new heads of Gryffindor are completely horrid!" We laugh as she lets us through. We walk into the common room that I studied, played games, and planned pranks in for 7 years. Man it was weird to be back. But it also felt good, like this was where I was meant to be. And it was, it really was. This was the room where I really became friends with the people who became my brothers and sisters, this is where I got to know my true love. If it weren't for this room, what would I be doing right now, where would I be?

"Bell, what are we doing here?" Alice asks again. I snap out of my trance. "Oh, right. Dance." I say. "What? You snook me into our old school so that we can dance?" Lily asks. "This is where you became best friends with Marlene. This is where you had your dance parties when you were stressed or happy about something. Trust me Lil, I watched you guys for 7 years, and I think to move on, you need to bring it back to where it all started. This room. So, dance. Everyone." After a moment of silence, we all just go crazy. We dance everywhere, jump on couches, everything. And it's amazing. Once everything was out of our system, we all sit down on our old couch. "Wow, I really needed that." Lily says. "I know." I tell her. "I miss my best friend." Lily says. "Me too." Alice agrees. "Everything is gonna change now, right?" Lily asks. "Lils, it already has." I answer.