Marlene staggered backwards while her her wooden lifeline flew through the air and into her enemies anticipating hand. Her own wand trained on Marlene as she slid into the room, the glittering aura of her beauty only further illuminated by the moonlight cast in through the open curtains.
"I'm sorry Marlene." Her voice was honeyed and laced with unapologetic humor.
Rose.
"What are you doing here, Rose?" She tried to keep her voice smooth and calculated, so as not to give away the underlying terror that consumed her. It was obvious what was supposed to happen next, even without Rose saying the words.
"I have to kill you and your god father of course," she said with an upwards turn of her full lips. "I don't want to do this, Marlene. I really don't. I'm so sorry. " But nothing about her tone or body language supported her statement.
"Then don't," Marlene said, trying to sound casual like she wasn't just standing in front of the weapon meant to end her life. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do, Rose. Just put your wand down and we can talk about this."
"Why did you have to get yourself involved in all of this?" she asked, twirling Marlene's wand around like a baton. "You could have just walked away from all of this and you could have lived. Patrick wanted that for you, and I want my brother to be happy. A long and happy life. You both could have had that together."
Her stomach turned over. "So this is about Patrick? Because I refused to date him?"
She laughed, "Of course not you silly girl. But my dear brother set his sights on you, and of course I tried to figure out a way to ensure that you'd be spared so that he wouldn't be devastated by your death. Of course I didn't want to be the one to kill you, I really didn't wish for this. But you've made it quite difficult to get in here. To get you alone."
"Why do you want me alone?" She tried to stall for time, though it did no good. Sirius wasn't due back to the hospital until morning, and Emmeline and the others were floors below. She had no wand to call for help.
Rose continued to twirl the wand aimlessly and ignored Marlene's question. "Did you call them already?"
"Call who?"
"Don't play stupid Marlene, did you alert your friends?"
"I don't know what –"
"I know how this works." She stopped twirling Marlene's wand. "You communicate with one another by patronus. Did you alert them to meet you here?"
Rose knew how they communicated. That meant Sirius was right, there was a spy inside the Order and had been leaking information. Marlene considered whether lying would be worth it. She decided it wasn't because Rose would figure it out anyways when nobody showed up. "No."
She nodded her head. "That's good then, that will make this easier. You're lucky actually, that I'm going to do it so quick. When the others arrive I'm not so sure it will be as gentle. You and your god father just casualties caught up in the cross fire." Then she laughed in a way so similar to Bellatrix Lestrange that Marlene sank to the floor out of fear.
"What do you mean when the others arrive?" she asked weakly.
"I think you know what's coming," she replied, practically purring with satisfaction. "We can't have it look like a targeted attack on your lives, now can we? The Ministry might become even more suspicious if the second Keeper of the Hall was killed." She paused, her eyes flashing with amusement. "But then again, Tom isn't the Keeper, now is he?"
Marlene didn't respond. Rose knew the answer to her own question, and she wouldn't be swayed from her intended mission. Marlene didn't know how the key worked, but it didn't appear that she needed to be kept alive for Voldemort to obtain access to it. Taking a deep inhalation of breath, she closed her eyes and waited for death to take her away from all the pain.
But it never came.
"Stupefy!" A loud, commanding voice shouted and suddenly a shrill feminine scream filled the air. Marlene's eyes snapped open to see Rose's crumpled, now unconscious body on the floor mere feet away. She could hear the subtle sound of her own wand rolling across the tile towards her, away from Rose's unmoving hand. She dove for it before even looking up to see who else had joined the room.
She stood, wand raised and pointing outward at the dark figure. It was Patrick. But he wasn't looking at Marlene; his face was a tangible mess of emotions as he stared down to his lifeless sister on the floor.
"What are you doing?" she asked, voice shaky and terrified. "Why are you doing this?"
His head snapped up to focus his attention on Marlene, and the conflicted emotions dispersed immediately. "Are you kidding? I just saved your life!" he cried out. "Now hurry and get out of here. The rest of them aren't far behind."
But she didn't move, her legs were like jelly cemented to the ground. "I'm not leaving with you. Your sister just tried to kill me and how do I know that you're not working with them. That you're not a Death Eater?"
"I would have killed you already if I was," he sneered defensively. "You seriously think I'm the bad guy? Black sure has you brainwashed doesn't he?"
"But all the awful things you did at school..."
"You know just because someone hangs around the wrong crowd doesn't mean they partake in the same sort of the terrible things the others do. People see what they want to see, and yes I'm referring to your boyfriend." He frowned, finally lowering his wand. Marlene kept her own trained on his chest in defense. "My sister got herself caught up in all this back at Hogwarts. I won't lie and say that the opportunity hasn't presented itself to me, because it has. But I'm not like that, Marlene. This isn't the life I want for myself. For you."
"James saw you hit her, hit Rose. He told me. At the end of your seventh year. She had a black eye."
"Hit her – " his face contorted into some sort of pained expression. "I've never laid a hand on her. That was Travers."
"James said it was you. He saw you – "
"They see what they want to see!" Patrick snapped. "I know exactly which black eye you're referring to and trust me, I didn't give it to her. Did Potter also tell you exactly when that happened?"
But she couldn't remember much else so she shook her head, no.
"It was during exams. Seventh year N.E.W.T.s," he continued. "Do you remember your N.E.W.T.s? Do you remember how part of the Potions exam is to brew polyjuice potion?" Marlene felt her insides twisting again, Patrick's hawk like gaze boring into her. "My partner was Travers. Luckily for us," he said, sounding sarcastic, "we had the best potion. The effects lasted nearly the whole day."
Marlene didn't know what to believe, but she let out a choked sob. "I'm still not going with you."
He looked pained. "I do care about you Marlene. But I can't do anything more for you here. You need to decide whether you want to head out this door and fight for your life or wait until they find you."
"How did you know Rose was coming here?" she asked. "If you're not with Voldemort, then how did you know to come back to the hospital?"
"Because I overheard my sister and her husband talking. I stopped by their place tonight and caught the tail end of their conversation. They're planning an attack on the hospital. It's not just Tom that's at risk, they're after you now too. Although I don't know why."
Marlene knew. Rose had already inadvertently confirmed that they knew Tom was not the Keeper of the Hall. Somehow they had figured it out.
"Please Marlene," he pleaded. "Come with me." He stretched a hand out for her to take and she analyzed it, considering whether or not to trust him.
It didn't take her long to decide. "I'm sorry Patrick," she sobbed. Her wand was already aimed at him, and she shot a defensive charge of electricity in his direction. She watched with dismay as the surge of electrical current coursed through his body, causing him to twitch and convulse into a pile on the ground next to his sister.
Then she directed three stun spells at him, the force blasting him out of the room entirely and rendering him immediately unconscious.
Marlene wiped at the tears in her eyes. She followed after him whilst dragging Rose's body out into the hallway, and then sealed a protective charm over Tom's room to keep them both out should they wake. She couldn't be certain it would be enough to keep Tom safe, but it was all she could do. Then she was running, leaving the unconscious forms of Rose and Patrick laying on the floor in the hallway. She couldn't allow herself to feel the guilt of her decision, she needed to warn the others.
Outside the unit she hurried to the spiraling staircase and bellowed into the vast opening, her voice projecting through and echoing off the walls, "PERICULUM!" Her wand raised high, red sparks shot from the tip and upwards in great height towards the towering ceiling of the mezzanine. Then she screamed, "DEATH EATERS!"
Sparks hovered high and then cascaded down to the lower levels and she hoped desperately her signal of impending danger would be noticed in time to anyone that might be wandering around below. Then, a large thundering explosion ricocheted somewhere above and the dust from ceiling plaster rained down upon the foyer.
The Deatheaters had arrived.