𝙱𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝙻𝚒𝚏𝚎

𝟶𝟸𝟹-𝙱𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚍

┌────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────┐

The last DA meeting before Easter, they had moved onto Patronuses and Marilyn had mostly been observing and helping others instead of producing her Patronus. It was rather large. She was helping Neville when Harry came over and looked expectantly at her. 

"I'm going to assume you can already produce a Patronus. Why haven't you?" He asked her curiously, used to her being able to do everything they worked on.

"Well, it's a bit big..." she said, fidgeting with her wand.

"It'll be fine, let's see it." He said, waving away her concern.

Marilyn shrugged and raised her wand, concentrating on the memory of her date with Sebastion.

"Expecto Patronum!"

She watched as her huge dragon flew from the tip of her wand and circled the room, breathing silver mist that looked like fire. Everyone in the room had stopped to watch the dragon in awe as none of the other Patronuses were magical creatures.

"I didn't know a Patronus could be a magical creature," Harry commented, watching the dragon swoop around. 

Marilyn shrugged. "It's pretty rare."

Just then, the door opened and shut, making her and Harry turn around, not immediately seeing someone. Marilyn's Patronus disappeared as she got a bad feeling in her gut. Then, her eyes landed on Dobby the house-elf who was tugging at Harry's robes. She knew him from her many nights spent in the kitchen.

"What's happened, Dobby?" She asked immediately, kneeling down to his height and holding his arms still so he wouldn't harm himself.

"Ms Marilyn...Harry Potter, sir..." He squeaked, trembling from head to foot.

"Harry Potter, sir . . . Dobby has come to warn you . . . but the house-elves have been warned not to tell . . ." 

He made to run headfirst at the wall, but Marilyn tightened her grip on his arms so he couldn't.

"What's happened, Dobby?" 

"Harry Potter . . . she . . . she . . ." 

Dobby made to bang his head against the floor, but Marilyn caught him before he could.

"Who's she, Dobby?" She asked sharply.

"Umbridge?" asked Harry, horrified.  "What about her? Dobby — she hasn't found out about this —about us — about the D.A.?" 

Marilyn quickly picked up the elf so he couldn't do any more harm to himself in any way.

"Is she coming?" Marilyn asked quietly.

"Yes, Harry Potter, Ms Marilyn, yes!" 

Harry straightened up and looked around at the motionless, terrified people gazing at the thrashing elf. 

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" Harry bellowed. "RUN!" 

Harry took Dobby from Marilyn and pushed her toward the door as everyone else pelted toward it. Marvolo, whose hand was clutched in Katie's, grabbed her with his other hand and the three of them bolted toward the library.

They managed to get there without being caught and immediately sat down at a table. Marilyn's gut feeling was worse than ever as she glanced around. She couldn't just sit there. She made eye-contact with Marvolo, who nodded, looking as worried as she felt. Marilyn turned to Katie seriously.

"Katie, you can't tell a soul about this." She said and the dark-haired girl nodded quickly, looking confused.

"Right, about what?"