A Marauder's Guide to Falling Apart

Chapter Twenty One

"So you know how you've been wondering what my friends have been up to all this time that puts them in so much danger?" Marlene was leaning against the counter watching Emmeline attempt to bake. She wrinkled her nose in disgust as Emmeline pulled a tray from the oven and observed the black, scorched remnants of what had intended to be cookies. She had insisted she wanted to do it the muggle way.

"Oooh are you finally going to tell me?" her eyes lit up and she dropped the pan onto the stove top. The cookies were so far gone that they stuck to the pan and didn't even budge with the movement of being tossed downwards.

"I trust you," Marlene said truthfully. "And the rest of them do too. I had to get permission to let you join our club."

Marlene cracked a smile at Emmeline who only leaned in further, eyes bulging with curiosity.

"A secret club of sorts?" she speculated. "I've never been invited into a secret club before. I always wanted to, you know? But the Slug club just wasn't ready for someone like me."

Marlene let out a small laugh. She had never been invited into Professor Slughorn's club either. Lily had been a member though, and from what she had spoken of it, Marlene surmised that she hadn't really missed out.

She filled Emmeline in on the small details at first; telling her about the war against Voldemort, and how a group of them had banded together to oppose him. And then slowly the rest of the story began to unravel even though she hadn't intended it to.

Marlene told her all about Hogsmeade and the Order meeting that was supposed to have taken place that day. She told her all about Sirius and the other meaningful tasks that her friends had been busy with over the last many months. She even revealed what had transpired that night in Northern Watford when Emmeline had helped clean up some of her wounds with no questions asked.

Emmeline listened patiently and uncharacteristically void of expression or humor, and Marlene could tell she was taking everything in with sincere contemplation. It was strange to see Emmeline looking so serious. It was almost unnerving.

"So you want me to join you?" Emmeline finally asked after Marlene had run out of things to say.

"Honestly, I don't really know what I'm asking you," Marlene shrugged. She had even admitted her own reservations about joining the battle. "I'm just offering you information. It's up to you to decide what you want to do with it. There's a meeting tonight. You're welcome to come with me if you'd like to check it out."

"It's about time you finally told me everything," she mused. "You know, I figured out long ago what you lot were doing. I mean, save for the fine-tuned details. But nobody waltzes home looking like you do, or has a boyfriend who likes to hunt Death Eaters without having some serious involvement in all the shady stuff going on."

"I figured you'd probably catch on to something sooner or later," Marlene sighed. She was thankful that Mad-Eye Moody had been receptive to Emmelines involvement because it was apparent now that she had not been oblivious to their illicit activities.

Lily was the secret keeper for the current Order meeting. She had told Marlene earlier in the day that they were holding it at Remus's, and so Marlene dragged Emmeline along at seven o'clock to where Lily told her the location would be.

It was an old, worn down building on the edge of a dark and sketchy looking street in a rougher area of London. The street lights were burnt out on the block and Marlene wondered briefly if they had been darkened on purpose, or if they were always like that.

"Hey Marlene!" Remus opened the door to his apartment and moved to the side to allow them in. She hadn't been to Remus's place before but it was his turn to host the Order meeting.