A Marauder's Guide to Falling Forever

Chapter Thirty One

Finally she was pushing through the doors into the Spell damage unit, and she could hear the masculine screams that she suspected belonged to her god father. Immediately she felt like she might be sick. The piercing cries sounded anguished and riddled with the promise of torture. She might have thought the cruicatus curse would be more generous than whatever curse had been inflicted upon him by touching that prophecy.

She recognized Martha immediately behind the desk and right beside her was...

Patrick.

Marlene scowled. She hadn't even had time to consider the possibility of running into him. He didn't look up right away when she rushed through the doors and approached the counter, and only after Martha exclaimed, "Marlene!" did his head snap upwards. There was a brief, awkward connection between their eyes before he pulled away to stare back at the papers on the desk.

"I need to see Tom," Marlene said firmly, directed at nobody in particular.

Martha had a sympathetic smile, and a tone that reminded her of a condescending mother. "Oh sweetie, you really shouldn't see him like this. We need to get him calmed down a bit first."

"I don't fucking care! I need to see him NOW!" she snapped, loudly enough to cause an echo. It was unlike her usual behaviour, and both Martha and Patrick recoiled at her outburst. Under different circumstances she would have felt, or felt inclined to be apologetic. But not now.

She didn't bother to wait. She flew past the desk in the direction of the screams, ignoring the yells from the Healers behind her. He was down at the far end of the hall and with each step the screams of his mania became louder and more disturbing.

She nearly lost her lunch when she pushed into the room and caught sight of him withering on the floor, blood pouring outside his left side temple from where he had either hit his head, or been hit by someone or something else. His eyes were wide, pupils dilated so far that the irises had disappeared completely. It was like she was staring directly into a dark abyss, all traces of humanity vanished.

A large gash raked down his disfigured face, bloody and raw, and she noted with disdain that he was visibly missing three fingers. But even past the physical distortion of her god father was the sheer psychosis that told her that Tom no longer existed. He had died the moment his fingers touched the orb.

Then his dark, demon eyes caught hers and she felt herself being pulled deep into the void of darkness. He began to laugh erratically, scrambling to claw his way from where he laid on the floor in a desperate attempt to reach her.

"Key. Key. Key. Key." He chanted in a demonic undertone, cackling in between syllables and his body began to slip in the pools of blood that collected on the floor underneath him. Marlene hadn't watched a lot of muggle movies, but everything about this scene reminded her of a Hollywood concoction of pure horror.

She stared in dismay, completely unable to pry her eyes or will her body to move away from him. Then a pair of strong hands slammed down onto her shoulders and pulled her so hard away that she felt her body falling. Whoever was behind her folded their arms around her and practically dragged her out of the room, her heels dragging against the marbled tile.

Suddenly, somebody was sobbing. The feel of wet, salty tears raining down her face made her hyper aware that the sound was coming from her lips.

"It's okay Marlene. It's going to be okay." The voice was soft and gentle, and they stroked her hair in an effort to comfort her. Marlene looked up through watery eyes to see Patrick watching her cautiously, his body stiff and uncertain about whether or not he should even be talking to her, let alone touching her.

She pulled away from him and viciously wiped at her eyes. "Why did you take me away?!"

"You don't need to see that," he replied quietly. He didn't make a moved towards her, instead he tucked his hands into his pockets and stared down at the floor. "He'll be better once we get a calming draught in him."

"I'm not leaving," she said stubbornly. She remembered the drill; visitors were not permitted to stay past visiting hours. "I will not leave. You will physically have to kill me before I move from this unit."

He flinched at her words. "Don't worry. I'll make sure you won't have to leave in a body bag."

Her name filling the hallway caused both of them to refocus their attention to where another figure was racing down the hall. A blur of color, and then Sirius slammed into her with enough force that they both went flying backwards into the wall. The sickening thud of where her body smashed the plaster was nothing in comparison to the sound of his thundering heart, his staggering breaths.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" he growled into her ear so low that nobody else would be able to hear. His hands were both snaked into her hair and curled around her body, pulling her into him so tightly she thought he might constrict the air from her lungs. The question was completely rhetorical and she didn't bother to answer.

When he finally allowed her to move away, though not completely out of his grasp, she looked up into his face to see the fire raging in his pupils. Sirius was angry. Very angry.

Perhaps under different circumstances she would feel affected by that, but not now. Their previous quarrel seemed to melt away, all her energy and attention focused elsewhere. Later. They'd deal with it later.

"He touched it," she whispered low. "And Rookwood..."

Sirius leaned back in to mutter into her ear, "You don't need to think about that right now. Seriously Mar! This was the dumbest most reckless thing you could do yet."

"We can't leave Tom alone right now!" she squealed. Sirius shushed her and then whipped his head around. Patrick had dispersed, and Tom's manic screams were loud enough to drown out their whispered conversation.

"You shouldn't be here," he told her. "You need to leave. Frank is here, he's going to stick around to make sure nobody hurts him."

"I'm not leaving!" she hissed. "I swear to god Sirius don't make me hex you. I will do it. I don't care if you sling me over your shoulder and drag me out of here like some barbarian, I will hex you every minute of every day for the rest of my life!"

Sirius pulled away from her, his arms dropping to his sides in defeat. Marlene's own hands flew to her hips and she leaned inwards in what she meant to be a menacing sort of stance. A 'don't-mess-with-me' look chiselled into the features of her face.

"Everyone has been worried about Lily's temper all this time. I think we've all underestimated you." Finally he cracked a smile, traces of his anger beginning to fade. But only slightly.

"I'm not playing around, Sirius," she said with authority. "I'm not going anywhere."

He folded his arms across his chest. "So then neither am I."