Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
ღ chapter forty ( partner in crime)
MARLENE MCKINNON WAS the world's most interesting woman to Juliet Black, who bore her name as a tribute. She had blonde curls, blue eyes, and freckles, frozen at the age of 21, just like Stevie. They were both forever young, only six years older than what Juliet was now. Their age was a haunting reminder for Jules; they'd barely been in their twenties when they'd been killed on Voldemort's orders in their home, bodies found in the nursery. She was sparkling and vibrant, even in her ghostly state, her eyes scrunching up into slivers when she smiled.
The person sent to kill them had left Aster alive in a small act of mercy, and as Marlene, invisible to anyone but Jules explained, had done so because he couldn't kill a baby. Peter Pettigrew had been the one to fool them all, but he would forever have to live with Marlene and Stevie's blood on his hands. Dorcas Meadows was killed by Voldemort personally just weeks before, but he had leaked her location the same way he leaked the Potter residence in October.
Jules found herself in conversation with Marlene and Stevie until the early hours of Boxing Day, watching the sun come up over the mountains from the Ravenclaw common room's beautiful windows. "How can I see you?" Jules asked Marlene. "You aren't a ghost only I can see, are you?"
"How much do you know about Solene Valentine?"
"Who?" Jules asked, wrinkling her nose slightly. Her grandparents lived in Paris and she very rarely saw them. They distanced themselves from her mother after Sirius was thrown into prison, and the last time she'd visited them had been a few years ago. But her grandmother was named Ines and her grandfather Victor. She'd never heard of a woman named Solene.
"Marlene," Stevie warned softly. "You have to let Cordelia tell her. It's not our place."
"Cordelia needs to know she can't wrap her in bubble wrap forever!"
Jules heard footsteps coming down the stairs, her head whipping in that direction. There was a gentle touch to the side of her head, and when she looked back, Marlene and Stevie were gone. "Black?" Lisa Turpin asked, walking down the stairs. "It's early... oh, you never went to bed."
Lisa nodded, lips pressed into a firm line as she watched Jules ascend the staircase leading up to the dormitories. The fourth year girls were at the very top, like they had been since first year, meaning that they got the best view. Jules in particular, was tucked right in next to one of two massive bay windows, the blue silk bedspread and satin sheets tucked neatly, unlike the jumbled mess they'd been in when she'd left for the ball. She pulled her softest pajamas from her trunk, fumbling around in the dim light creeping around the curtains.
