Everything seemed frozen in time. She could still feel the lick of heat radiating from the flames and the fear that she would die in Gringotts. Marlene reckoned that if she ever got out of this war, then the memory of her last twenty-four hours would never leave her, even if she wanted them to.

She sat with a blanket draped around her shoulders as the combined effort of Madam Pomfrey and Craig helped Regulus stay awake long enough to give him some much-needed potion. She wasn't the only one around here with scars they had acquired, both mentally and physically.

Painstakingly, Marlene's eyes scanned the room for someone to relieve her of a certain revelation. Of course, she knew that everyone in the room would most likely learn about it sooner rather than later—which was better for everyone—there was a specific person she needed to speak to in order to put anything into action.

It didn't take long to find Dumbledore speaking to Alastor Moody about what only Merlin knew. She could start planting her idea into both of their heads, but she recognized that Dumbledore would be much more open to thoughts from her than Moody would be. So, she settled with her original idea of talking to just the leader of the Order, maybe he would even have some alternative ideas to share.

"Mr. Moody?" Marlene interrupted the two men, quickly drawing their attention to her.

She didn't need anyone to tell her that she probably looked like a mess. Earlier with the news of the deaths of Liz and Hayley, she had dried every drop of water in her by crying the moisture out in the form of tears. Currently, she felt numb.

"Yes, Miss McKinnon?" Moody answered in the same formal way that she had addressed him in.

"Would it be alright if I talk to Mr. Dumbledore about something? It's urgent," Marlene emphasized her point by making direct eye contact with the man in front of her, not paying attention to even what Dumbledore was doing, who was right beside them.

"I s'pose I can spare a few moments, McKinnon," Moody said before he left the area in search of someone.

"You needed a word, Miss McKinnon?" Dumbledore made his presence known again.

Marlene felt a little ridiculous to be standing in front of the wisest wizard in the world with such a stupid epiphany. He had probably already run through every scenario in his mind by himself. It wasn't like he needed her input.

"Never mind, it seems silly now that I think about it," Marlene shook her head to herself.

"Now, you have my interest piqued, please do continue," Dumbledore insisted and Marlene took a deep breath before speaking.

"While in Gringotts, Bellatrix knew a lot of information about me that only a select group of people could know, so I've got reason to believe there's a mole in the Order," Marlene said in a muted manner.

Dumbledore nodded solemnly, "I've come to the same conclusion myself recently. I appreciate you telling me, and I'm working on solving the problem."

Across the room from where Marlene was floored by the fact that he agreed with her, Sirius and James stood with Harry on James's hip. They had been surveying Marlene and Dumbledore's progressing conversation for a few minutes since she walked over.

"What do you think they're talking about, Prongs?" Sirius asked with creased eyebrows.

"Nothing good by the looks of it, Dumbles and Marlene don't look too happy," James pointed out, bouncing Harry on his hip as he spoke.

"To be fair, there's nothing much to be happy about right now, mate," Sirius replied, a million different concerns flying through his head.

"You've got a point, mate," James spoke as Marlene walked away from Dumbledore with a calculating look pointed towards the ground.

Before Marlene ever stepped into Hogwarts, her mum was her first confidant. She was the person that Marlene could run to no matter how big the mistake that had been made was, no matter how upset she knew Eve would be because, in reality, Eve's love was always going to be unconditional. So, even if Marlene knew that Sirius was probably dying to know what Dumbledore had to say, and Lily would always lend a listening ear, the person Marlene ran with her dark epiphany was her mother.

Her mother held Asher and a stoic expression equally. At the moment, Marlene could not tell what her mother was thinking, but as she walked over to her, she saw the same Eve McKinnon that picked her up when she fell off her first broom. Things had changed, and time had passed, of course, but under the calloused, thick skin they had all grown, their caring nature still burned radiant as ever.

"Mum?" Marlene started, in a voice that made it clear she was not about to talk an easy subject.

"Yes, Sweetheart?" Eve replied at once.

"There's a spy in the Order," Marlene whispered and turned to scan the room once more.

Eve held no response for the revelation her daughter held, instead just standing stilly next to her. Together, they looked at everyone in the room and came to the nightmarish conclusion that anyone could be out to get them.

With her blood running cold, Marlene leaned on her mum's shoulder wishing for simplicities in the future. Closing her eyes, she saw herself with a cold glass of lemonade, laughing, with an innocent glow in her bright, blue eyes. She wanted to have no worries about anything, but with a mole on the loose, worries filled every crevice in her brain until there were no longer any rational thoughts.

...

Just a few days later—three days to be exact—Marlene sat across from Sirius in deafening silence.

Holding onto her newfound realization made the situation much less real. Yet, the issue when holding things in—especially sirius things like this—was that it caused Marlene's mind to become cloudy. It was a heavy smoke that infiltrated her brain and made it difficult to think, difficult to do anything really.

So, to clear the smoke, lift the fog, and maybe even lessen Marlene's anxieties, she told Sirius. This was the very reason he sat before her with wide eyes and a clenched jaw.

"We've got to figure out who it is!" Sirius said passionately, with the look in his eye that scared Marlene.

"We can't draw any conclusions just yet, Sirius. Dumbledore is aware of this and I'm sure that he's-"

"Dumbledore is running a school right now, 'Lene! He can't focus on this as best as we can!" Sirius interrupted, still looking quite manic.

"He's balanced Hogwarts and the Order far better than anyone else could. We must trust him!" Marlene insisted.

"After all he's gone and done to us, you want me to trust him! He locked Lily up in the safe house instead of letting her grieve with us," Sirius pointed out.

The group of them—especially James—would never find it in their hearts to forgive him for that. It had practically ruined the last few months of their seventh year at Hogwarts. The seven of them had become worry-warts because of not knowing where or how Lily was.

"If we don't trust Dumbledore, then who are we supposed to trust, huh? Sirius, he's all we've got
left! Voldemort fears him," Marlene replied with salt in her undertone.

"What if Dumbledore's the mole? That would make sense! He's so far up and he said he would bloody take care-"

"Dumbledore! How can you suggest the leader of the Order is the mole? Dumbledore does not stand for the shit that Voldemort does, it's the opposite quite actually," Marlene became more flabbergasted as the argument continued.

They resolved into silence as their pulse inclined. Both passionate people, the more Sirius suggested and the more Marlene denied, the messier the situation got. At one point, Sirius and Marlene glared at different parts of the floor, as if they were glaring at the mole.

"It could be Remus," Sirius said quietly.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? Our Remus?" Marlene looked about ready to cry and she refused to look Sirius in the eye.

"Think about it, Marlene! We don't know what he was doing on his mission! He comes home with another werewolf from a questionable family," Sirius continued as Marlene shook her head 'no' and pressed her lips in a thin line. "And this is right after he broke up with Mary, which was a shock to us all."

"How dare you suggest that Remus would work with people like Bellatrix Lestrange! With people who killed my brother!" Marlene started to shout as her tears became more apparent. "Remus would never, ever do something like that!"

"I'm just saying that-"

"No, please shut up," Marlene spoke in a dangerously low whisper, "please just shut up."

Not turning back to see Sirius sink into the floor, Marlene left the room briskly to be alone. After all, the only person she could truly trust was herself.

...

In a fast-paced world, Christmas brought with it feelings of joy—to most people anyway—and a break from the going-ons in the world.

James and Lily were determined to make Harry's first Christmas a spectacular one, even if he wouldn't remember it. The photo album Lily had taken to filling could certainly do to having a few more pictures, which was how they found themselves taking pictures of Harry in a much too big Santa hat.

Harry giggled at his father while Lily took his picture with an instant polaroid picture. James was the only reason the operation would work because he and Sirius accidentally found that if James sprouted his antlers, Harry thought it was hilarious.

When Lily finally took the perfect picture of her son with bright green eyes and the start of James's unruly hair, she handed it to her husband before picking Harry back up and swinging him around in a circle.

Harry happened to be a very happy baby, which both parents were grateful for. He cried a normal amount—just as a child should—but Lily and James found that most of the time, they could get their son to giggle.

"I think we'll send this to Minnie," James grinned at the picture in his hand. "I'll write 'future quidditch captain' as the caption."

Lily laughed, the sound triggering one from Harry too.

"Sounds good, love," Lily put Harry in his high chair, "make sure to save one for Sirius, though. He'd go mad without one."

"How dare you suggest I would forget about my best mate?" James said, placing a hand on his heart.

"You do have a tendency to send all the pictures out to everyone we know to the point where there's none left for us," Lily said, looking up to see James sending off the letter to McGonagall.

"Yeah, yeah, I just can't let dear ole Minnie forget about us," James replied, putting the Santa hat on himself and exaggerating his smile for the next picture Lily took.

"She wouldn't ever dream of it, I'm sure."

...

Craig was in no way a selfish person. He actually considered himself pretty much the opposite, however when the chance was given to him to tell someone about the time turner he found on the ground in the hospital wing, he chose not to mention it to anyone.

He told himself that the time turner had reached good hands, and he couldn't necessarily be sure that the time turner would end up in good hands at the Ministry. As they say, you can only truly trust yourself during wars like these.

Maybe he'd tell Regulus about it when he got home.

Maybe.

...

Mary had held awkward eye contact with Leilani and Remus at least five times each, and even with her degree in silent speaking, she still had no idea what the hell was going on. Despite Marlene and Sirius's tendencies to be firey, the couple had been nothing but loving towards one another ever since they started dating.

That was, until now. The two hadn't spoken a single word to one another, and Mary suspected they were doing this on purpose.

"The tension is thick in here, ey?" Mary chuckled lightly until she saw Marlene's expression.

Marlene chewed through her salad before speaking. Mary awaited the bomb to be dropped.

"Why don't you tell Sirius to stop acting like a dolt?" Marlene said bitterly.

There it was.

"I'm just running through everyone on the list! It's rational!" Sirius argued.

"Accusing your best mate of betraying everyone we care about is the most idiotic thing I've ever heard you say, ever," Marlene narrowed her eyes at Sirius, who scoffed.

Leilani didn't have a clue what was going on, so she figured the best way to get through the argument was to take a swig of the egg nog she found horrid.

Mary and Remus shared a look, their friends must be insane. They appeared to be talking about sirius matters, but the two wouldn't be able to decipher what it was they were talking about, given that Marlene and Sirius were speaking without giving any context. Julia was also present at the table, and she promised herself that she'd relay all the information she heard to Annie later on.

"I was just running through options, Marlene!" Sirius sounded desperate to get his point across. "I think that-"

"I'm leaving," Marlene stood up abruptly.

Remus and Mary started to protest immediately, but, much like Sirius, whenever Marlene made up her mind about something, there was no stopping it. She grabbed a jacket and her emergency packed bag for Order missions and slammed the door with Mary following her.

"Marlene! What's going on?" Mary asked gently, grabbing ahold of her friend's hand, squeezing it affectionately.

"I'll tell you later, alright Mary?" Marlene kept her tearing up eyes on her feet.

Mary nodded in understanding, "Where're you going then?"

"Mum and Dad's house, I'm gonna spend some time with them for now," Marlene said and Mary accepted her answer, pulling her in for a goodbye hug.

Marlene stayed true to her word and apparated to her parents' house. She stood on the door stoop for a moment, taking in the outside as her tears started to fall. Whenever she used to see the outside of her house, she would think about the memories brought to her with joy, but now, she could hardly go into Marcus's room without having a panic attack.

She should probably work on that last bit.

She stuck her wand into the door lock and opened the door. Marlene was met with Christmas decorations that had been put up each year without fail and the unfamiliar fearful expressions of her parents.

"What was your first word?" Darwin demanded with his wand pointed at her. Eve stood right behind him.

"It was bell because our dog at the time had a bell on his collar," Marlene replied with a placid face.

The only way one could tell she had any emotions at all, was because her tears betrayed her. Her blue eyes were merely glassy mirrors that showed what she was seeing in the whites of them.

"Marlene? Are you alright?" Eve stepped up from behind Darwin, determining that Marlene had just decided to show up without any announcement beforehand.

"No," Marlene shook her head to put emphasis on this before her parents at her down at the kitchen table where their food still sat growing cold.

Marlene felt as if someone had stabbed her and her contents were spilling out onto the table with the way she just said anything that came to her
mind. It was definitely something she needed, and in hindsight, she should've spoken to her parents about her hardships a lot more in the years gone by.

..

Sirius was siriusly struggling with the fact that his girlfriend had left because of an argument that she had had with him. He knew he was out-of-bounds when he suggested Remus, but it was far too late to take back his words since he had already said them. Enough damage was done though, and he figured two days was long enough to let the storm stew for, so he set out for the McKinnon household to talk to Marlene.

He really had no idea what he would say, yet he figured he would just have to find it along the way. Trying not the let insecurity get the better of him, the moment he apparated onto their doorstep, he knocked.

It didn't take him long to be greeted by Darwin McKinnon's glare and a wand pointed directly at his throat.

"When was the first time you met Marlene?" Darwin raised an eyebrow.

"The first I can remember was in Diagon Alley when I was around five—I think—and I remember my parents tolerating your presence oddly enough," Sirius answered without hesitation.

"Well, she's in Marcus's room," Darwin opened the door wider so that Sirius could step inside. "Just follow the sound of the record."

"Roger that," Sirius replied, following the sound of The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby.

"All the lonely people

Where do they come from?"

Humming along with the tune, he quickly found Marcus's door and awaited a response from Marlene. When he heard a faint-"Come in!"-Sirius took the liberty of pushing the door open for himself to finally see inside.

He saw Marlene laying down on her brother's bed, wearing Marcus's quidditch jumper. He picked up on the feeling that she had been crying, but he didn't mention it as he sat on the wooden floor.

"Marcus wanted to become a professor one day," Marlene spoke softly as the song's sound diminished.

"Of what subject?" Sirius asked, even if not talking about their argument made him antsy.

"Charms, he was always brilliant at it," Marlene's features were graced with a small smile. "He wanted to be around the kids."

"Marcus would've been a great professor," Sirius responded, not knowing exactly what Marlene wanted to hear.

This time when they stopped speaking silence filled the air instead of the soft music playing in the background. It grew more uncomfortable with the argument between them this time until Sirius couldn't take it anymore.

"I'm sorry, Marls," Sirius started, exhaling a deep breath, "I got really carried away with accusations, and I didn't mean to take it that far."

Instead of speaking, Marlene offered him a hand to take from where she laid on the bed. He took her hand in his as at least a peace offering, if not forgiveness.

"I know," Marlene said shortly. "To suggest that one of your best mates was selling us to Voldemort threw me over the edge though. Promise to never do that again unless solid evidence is presented?"

"I promise," Sirius frowned slightly.

Marlene sat up from the bed, which meant Sirius could see Marlene's face for the first time since she left the flat on Christmas. She looked sad and tired, yet he suspected that's also how he looked.

"Mum and Dad reckon it's better if I stay here for a while," Marlene spoke quieter than the wind, like if no one but Sirius could hear them, then the words wouldn't become reality. "Michael is gonna come home too."

Myles would've joined the McKinnom family too, but he and Dorcas had a child. There wasn't enough room in his old childhood bedroom for all three of them.

"For how long?" Sirius's eyes shone with panic.

"I dunno really," she shrugged, "until further notice, I guess. There's more protection set up here than at Mary and I's flat."

Marlene desperately wanted Sirius to understand that her parents wished for her to stay there for her own good. She wanted him to know that if they hadn't nearly demanded it happen, then she would be right back in her flat with Mary, just down the hall from him. It was the funniest thing though, she was having trouble saying all of that, so he had had no idea.

"You're sure this has nothing to do with me?" Sirius's self-doubt kicked in.

"No, of course not," Marlene reassured him as she slid down off the bed until she was sitting next to him on the ground.

"So, you still love me?"

"Of course, I do."

...

Author's Note:

Would y'all all rather me do a double update with the last chapter and then epilogue or the last two chapters? I'm having trouble deciding myself, which could've been predicted XD

Also, I just started an account on ao3 where I'll be publishing trilogy as well, but I'm wondering if I should split it up into three books as it is on here, or put it all as the same work so its easier to access. If you could give me your input on this too, then I would greatly appreciate it.

Lmao anyways thanks for reading
-teddy🦓

(Zebra because TheAmazingMaddy loves zebras, and they helped me pick it out.)