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Marilyn stood outside the room Arthur was in, watching the door stoically for several hours. Her death sense was on high alert and Marilyn was carefully listening to her instincts as they shifted around saying whether or not Arthur was going to make it. Finally, around two in the morning, they settled on him surviving and she was immensely relieved. Her face relaxed ever so slightly as she glanced at Molly Weasley who had been pacing around in front of her.
At around three, a healer in lime-green robes spattered with blood walked out of the room and smiled reassuringly at Moody, Molly, and Marilyn.
"He'll be alright. He's awake right now, but he won't be for long if you want to talk to him." She told them.
Molly nearly sobbed out of relief as she nodded frantically.
"I'll wait here," Moody growled, looking up and down the corridor.
Marilyn made to do the same, but Molly shook her head when she saw the look on her face at once. "You saved his life, you're coming in." She said sternly and Marilyn didn't bother arguing as she followed the woman into the ward.
Arthur was lying in a bed looking very tired but cheerful overall.
"Oh, hello, Molly dear." He said brightly, moving to sit up before wincing and lying back down.
Molly let out a sob as she rushed to his bedside and began fussing over him. When she finally stopped crying, she beckoned Marilyn over to her. Marilyn walked over and offered Arthur a hesitant smile, earning a very thankful smile in return.
"Are you feeling any better, Mr Weasley?" She asked smoothing his sheets slightly.
"Yes, a bit. You have no idea how thankful I am to you, Marilyn. You saved my life. Thank you." He said sincerely.
Marilyn smiled bashfully at him.
"You're very welcome. I'm just glad you're alright. Have they found an antidote to the poison yet?" She asked.
"Not yet, but I'm sure they will soon enough." He said.
Just then, the door swung open again and the three of them turned around to find a wild-eyed Bill Weasley in the doorway.
"Dad!" He exclaimed and strode over to the bed next to Marilyn whom he offered a small smile.
"I'm all right, don't worry Bill," Arthur told him before glancing at Marilyn. "Marilyn here saved my life."
Marilyn fiddled with the sleeve of her bloody Ravenclaw robes as Bill gave her an appraising look. Quite suddenly, he leaned down and hugged her, making her eyes widen in surprise. None the less, she hesitantly hugged him back, unused to physical contact with anyone other than Marvolo, Turner, and Aberforth. After a moment, Bill pulled away, looking gratefully at Marilyn.
"Thank you so much. You're Marilyn, right? Fred and George are best friends with your brother?" He asked.
"Yes," she nodded, "I believe your siblings are currently at Grimmauld Place by the way. They're undoubtedly very worried." She told him.
Molly nodded, glancing at the clock to find that it was half-past four o'clock am.
"Will you be coming with me, Marilyn?" She asked the brunette who nodded at once.
"Yes, please." She replied before glancing back at Arthur to find that he had drifted off with his hand loosely held in Molly's.
"I'll stay here, I'm taking the morning off of work," Bill said, taking his mother's place in the chair beside Arthur's bed.
"Thank you, dear," Molly said gratefully, hugging him tightly before she and Marilyn left the ward.
As they walked, Molly looked curiously at Marilyn. "You apparated to the Ministry?" She asked.
Marilyn turned slightly pink but nodded. "Yes, I've been able to do underage apparition for ages. The trace doesn't work on me." She said and Molly nodded.
She had heard about Marilyn from Dumbledore and knew there was a lot about the girl unknown to most of them. Her not having the trace was not to be discussed.
"So you can apparate us to Grimmauld Place? I would, but I don't think I'm in the right state of mind..."
"Of course, here hold on," Marilyn said, offering the woman her arm.
Molly gripped her arm tightly as she spun on her heel and apparated them to Grimmauld Place, where they immediately walked up the steps.
"He's going to be all right," Molly said when the entered the kitchen, her voice weak with tiredness."He's sleeping. We can all go and see him later. Bill's sitting with him now, he's going to take the morning off work."
Fred fell back into his chair with his hands over his face. George and Ginny got up, walked swiftly over to their mother, and hugged her. Ron gave a very shaky laugh and downed the rest of his butterbeer in one.
All of them sent confused looks at Marilyn and the bloody state of her robes but smiled at her nonetheless.
"Breakfast!" said Sirius loudly and joyfully, jumping to his feet."Where's that accursed house-elf? Kreacher! KREACHER!"
But Kreacher did not answer the summons. Marilyn frowned and glanced around the house. House-elves were bound to serve their masters and Sirius was his master, that meant he wasn't in the house and that couldn't mean anything good.
"Oh, forget it, then," muttered Sirius, counting the people in front of him. "So it's breakfast for — let's see — nine . . . Bacon and eggs,I think, and some tea, and toast —"
Marilyn walked over to the stove and took everything Sirius was holding from his hands, shooting him a reproachful look. She knew just how bad of a cook he was, having visited once or twice since Turner had mentioned it at Hogsmeade. Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Oh, fine." He grumbled, but couldn't argue knowing he had been living off of burnt toast whenever Kreacher did not answer his summons.
Marilyn began preparing breakfast as Molly hugged Harry tightly.
"I don't know what would have happened if it hadn't been for you, Harry," she said in a muffled voice. She had not been told that Marilyn had been the first one to know and it was to stay that way. No one else was supposed to know. "They might not have found Arthur for hours, and then it would have been too late, but thanks to you, he's alive and Dumbledore's been able to think up a good cover story for Arthur being where he was, you've no idea what trouble he would have been in otherwise, look at poor Sturgis. . . ."
She soon released him to turn to Sirius and thank him for looking after her children through the night. Sirius said that he was very pleased to have been able to help, and hoped they would all stay with him as long asMr Weasley was in the hospital.
"Oh, Sirius, I'm so grateful. . . . They think he'll be there a little while and it would be wonderful to be nearer . . . Of course, that might mean we're here for Christmas. . . ."
"The more the merrier!" said Sirius with such obvious sincerity that Molly beamed at him, threw on an apron, and began to help Marilyn with breakfast.
Out of the corner of her eye, Marilyn watched as Harry and Sirius disappeared into the pantry, undoubtedly to talk without being overheard and kept one eye on the door as she cooked.
When breakfast was over and everyone but Harry had disappeared to go to sleep, Marilyn approached him before he could follow. He noticed with a start that she looked nowhere near as tired as the others-not at all really, only enforcing his theory that she didn't sleep.
"You didn't attack Mr Weasley." She told him so firmly at he stared.
"How do you know that?" He asked desperately after a minute. "I was the snake-I attacked him-"
"No," Marilyn said sharply, cutting him off and looking at him seriously. "You were not the snake. You were seeing the snake attack Mr Weasley from the snake's point of view. That doesn't mean you were the one who attacked him. I've seen him and he's healing nicely. I was the one who got him out of the Ministry. Harry, you were not the one who attacked him. That was Voldemort. Not you. You only saw it through the eyes of the snake because Voldemort was the one controlling it, you saw it because Voldemort saw it. You're connected to him, that does not mean you are him, nor are you responsible for anything he does or did."
She said this all very seriously and the argument drained right out of the Potter boy who was just grateful that someone had given him a straight answer for once. He very much wished everyone could answer like her, with the same firmness behind it and actually telling him something rather than just dancing around what he wanted to know.
"Now, Harry, you are going to go upstairs, and you are going to sleep."
Harry went to protest, but she only continued talking.
"No. Harry, you need to sleep. I know you're worried you might somehow attack the people in the house but I can assure you, that will not happen. If you somehow turn into a snake while you're asleep, I'll knock you out or something. The point is, you need to sleep."
Harry stared at her.
"Now, are you going to sleep on your own, or do I need to shove a sleeping draught down your throat?"
"I'll sleep on my own," he croaked and she nodded approvingly, gesturing for him to go upstairs.
He offered her a grateful smile before turning and hurrying up the stairs, feeling oddly reassured. When he reached the room he shared with Ron, instead of staying up out of fear, he found himself curling up in his bed and falling asleep instantly to a thankfully dreamless sleep.
Marilyn meanwhile, apparated back to Hogwarts where she found Dumbledore sitting in his office. He looked up as soon as he heard her arrive and his blue eyes twinkled behind his half-moon glasses.
"I trust you've taken care of him?"
Marilyn nodded, sitting down in front of his desk. "He's recovering quickly. Bill Weasley is with him currently." She told him and he nodded.
"Good, will you be all right bringing these trunks back to Grimmauld Place and then going to Romania to inform Charlie of his father's condition?" Dumbledore asked.
Marilyn nodded and grabbed the many trunks that had been brought up to the office. She disapparated from the office and appeared back in Grimmauld Place where she left the trunks before apparating back to Dumbledore's office where he was waiting with a portkey.
"Here, this will bring you to Romania. It's too far to apparate." He told her and she nodded, offering the elderly headmaster a small smile before grabbing the portkey.
✮✮✮
Marilyn managed to land properly in Romania, but still coughed a little from the portkey. She wasn't overly fond of them, much-preferring apparition. Marilyn looked around and realized that she was indeed in the dragon sanctuary that Charlie worked at. She knew Charlie a bit better than the other Weasley children and had been at Hogwarts during his last year for her first. He was one of the few who knew she was an animagus, but she hadn't told him what form she took yet because she knew how much he obsessed over dragons.
Marilyn found Charlie dodging a blast of fire from a Hebridean Black that was a bit smaller than her in animagus form. She snickered slightly and then walked right into the enclosure in front of Charlie and up to the dragon.
The dragon's attention immediately switched to her and it stopped blasting fire everywhere as it recognized her as one of them. Instead, the large dragon sat down looking docile and cocked its head at her. Grinning briefly, she pet the dragon before turning to Charlie with a raised eyebrow.
"Lyn?" He asked, eyes widening as he recognized her.
Charlie was about the only person creative enough to come up with a nickname for her that wasn't Mary and he was like another brother to her.
"Hello, Charles." She grinned.
Charlie tackled the younger girl in a hug before pulling back and looking her over, evidently impressed.
"Look at you! You've grown up!" He exclaimed, ruffling her hair.
She snickered but smoothed down her hair as her expression quickly turned serious.
"I have, unfortunately, I'm here for Dumbledore." Charlie's face fell at once. "Your father was attacked by Voldemort's snake. I got there in time, though, and he's okay. He's recovering in St. Mungo's, but he'll probably be out before Christmas." She told him.
Charlie nodded grimly before hugging her again. "Thank you for saving him, Lynnie."
"Of course," she replied, hugging him back. "You know what? You need to get your mind off of this Charles. How would you like to see my animagus form?"
Charlie's eyes glittered with excitement as he nodded enthusiastically. "Finally," He emphasised, having been begging for years, "Let's see then."
Marilyn smirked at him and he followed her out of the enclosure, making sure no one could see them. "You may want to back up, and I'm going to have to ask you not to squeal." She said, making Charlie's eyebrows draw together as he stepped several paces back from the clearing Marilyn had led them to.
As he watched, the girl he considered a little sister grew bigger and bigger, growing shining back scales and her eyes turned bright purple. As he watched, Marilyn Gaunt turned into a literal dragon.
Charlie Weasley squealed.
"You're a dragon!" He bellowed, "And you never told me!"
Marilyn let out a puff of steam before gesturing with her head for him to climb onto her back. He did so immediately, stationing himself in a way he was sure wouldn't hurt her. He knew these things, he did work with dragons.
With a loud roar that blended perfectly with the cries of the other dragons, Marilyn took off into the sky flapping her huge black wings. Charlie gripped her scales tightly and looked at her dragon self. She had a fond glint in her eyes as she flew that didn't appear very often.
Marilyn flew around for a while before landing and transforming back into herself in the same clearing she was in before.
"That." Charlie breathed, looking at her as though she had just fulfilled every wish he had for life, "was bloody brilliant!"
Marilyn gave him a dazzling smile reserved for those closest to her as she curtsied jokingly. "Yes, well now you can say you've ridden a dragon." She said brightly, making Charlie snort.
"That's true, wait 'til Mum hears!" He said cheerfully, grinning at the look he imagined his mother would have on her face should she find out.
"Should I tell her you were riding a dragon when I got here?" She asked, grey eyes glinting mischievously.
"No, definitely not." Charlie said quickly before he smirked, "Tell her I was riding two dragons."
Marilyn laughed and bounded forward to hug him tightly again. He gladly returned the hug, smiling at the girl. He, Turner, and Marvolo were the only people who could get the Gaunt girl to open up.
"Tell Dad I say hello and wish him a speedy recovery, please." He told her as they pulled apart.
Marilyn didn't hesitate to nod as she beamed at him. "I'll tell him. Bye, Charles," she said cheerfully.
"Bye, Lyn!"
Then, Marilyn grabbed the portkey in her pocket and disappeared from Romania once again.
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