A Marauder's Guide to Falling in Love

Chapter Nine

The sight of her parents waiting at the edge of Kings Cross station brought a new sense of excitement for Marlene. They were safe, happy, and oblivious to the teenage drama that had been occupying their daughters mind over the last few months. Being home was most definitely going to be a welcome distraction, she was sure of it.

"Goodbye Lily, Mary!" Marlene called over to her friends, waving them off as she departed from the group, and into the warm embrace of her mother's hug.

"How was your train ride home?" Molly asked curiously as they parted while Marlene offered her father an equally amorous squeeze.

"It was good," Marlene said simply. "Completely uneventful."

After they had walked a fair distance to the familiar brown station wagon, her father lifted her trunk into the back of their vehicle and Marlene crawled into the back seat where she became bombarded with questions pertaining to the school year thus far. Her mother, thankfully, had reconciled the fact that Marlene was now a teenage girl and opted from asking Marlene any embarrassing boy related questions – these she saved for after dinner as they were washing the dishes.

"So," she had started out casually enough but the tone in her voice made Marlene's stomach drop slightly. Marlene grabbed another dish from the kitchen counter and dumped it into the sink with a little more force than she had intended causing the water to splash upwards and douse the front of her mother's blouse.

"Why do I have the feeling that I know where this conversation is headed?" Marlene groaned slightly under her breath but loud enough for Molly to hear. Her mother frowned slightly with discouragement but none the less continued on with the conversation as though nothing had been said.

"I'm just merely curious whether or not you had met any boys yet this year?"

The question was innocent enough but Marlene blushed furiously with embarrassment. It seemed like Molly was more determined than she was for her to have a boyfriend.

"No," she lied curtly.

Surprisingly enough, Molly dropped the subject and instead began listing off the remaining tasks around the house that needed to be done before the rest of the family would arrive for the holidays. Molly's sister, and Marlene's Aunt Charis and her husband Uncle Bernie were arriving with their daughter Marjorie the following morning and Marlene's grandparents would be arriving the day after. Uncle Ned, who wasn't really her uncle, was her dad's best friend from college who had no family of his own, and the remaining relatives from her dad's side of the family all lived within the vicinity of the McKinnon's and therefore would be joining the family for Christmas supper.

Marjorie was one year older than Marlene and constantly competitive in comparison. Marlene did not dislike her cousin; merely, disliked spending time around her. She was constantly trying to one up everything Marlene accomplished and was fuelled by her parent's constant encouragement. The McKinnon's were very modest individuals; they never encouraged bragging or rubbing success in another's face and therefore only proclaimed the necessary praise for their only daughter's accomplishments. Molly's sister and her family, on the other hand, primarily focused on making it known how extraordinarily talented their children were.

They did not know that Marlene had a special gift. Molly had been born into a muggle family, making her the only witch. When Aunt Charis was married it was agreed upon that her muggle husband, Bernie, would never know of his sister-in-laws aforementioned talents. Although Marlene had never spoken to her aunt about her magical abilities, her mother had insisted heavily that it was never to be spoken about.

Her cousin Marjorie had been accepted into a prestigious all girls academy in France – the constant conversation topic with her parents. Marlene groaned heavily at the thought of having to endure more of pretending that she was attending a regular boarding school and enduring the constant bragging that Marjorie was not.