#marlene mckinnon: harry potter (wildtruths)

[melnchly-a]

@wildtruths​ (HARRY!) said:  “Without you, I could never have been anything at all.“ to MARLENE!

“now, that’s simply not true,” she says, resting a hand on his shoulder. “you were always going to be somebody special, harry. you just would have just been a little bit different.” she squeezes his shoulder, thinks back all those years to the first time she had seen him : the cupboard under the stairs, the faces of his aunt and uncle. thinks of all the days that had followed. “you were always going to be brave and almost stupidly selfless. but you made yourself that way, not me. it’s as much a part of who you are as your hair or your eyes.” she ruffles his hair affectionately, just as she’d always done. “i’m proud of you. harry. and i know sirius is proud of you. and.... i know your parents would certainly have been proud of you. and if me being here has helped you at all, then i’m glad. but you should know that without you, it’s me who wouldn’t have been anything at all. i didn’t want to see how lost i was, after....everything. and if it wasn’t for you?” she sighs heavily, shakes her head. “that never would’ve changed.” 

[melnchly-a]

HEY JUST GIVE ME SOME RANDOM HC THOUGHTS about our au where sirius and marlene get to raise harry

JACKIE, I CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON YOU!! 

marlene actually really struggles early on. she’s heavily traumatized. she watched her entire family die and was the only one who survived! many of her best friend are dead! and she never let herself process that. as soon as she was well enough to leave st. mungo’s, she was throwing herself into trying to get sirius out of azkaban. (she doesn’t know what happened, but she’s sure he didn’t do what everyone’s saying he did.)  and now she’s helping to care for her dead best friends’ little son, and he already looks so much like james! he has lily’s eyes! and she’s not experienced with small children! she’s constantly second guessing whether she’s doing any good, she’s exhausted, and then - - - as they all start to settle into whatever this new normal is - - - she has to actually think about what’s happened to her. she tries really hard to always be positive and happy-seeming for harry, particularly when he’s littler (she’s more honest with him when he grows up a little. not to a ridiculous extent, but enough.) but she’s definitely had really bad moments of stress and anxiety. sirius is really the only one she talks to about all of it, ever, and she still probably keeps a lot of it to herself. 

the attack against marlene’s family destroyed a lot on the interior of the house (torn up walls and floors, broken furniture, etc) but the house is still standing and still technically belongs to marlene. she can’t quite bring herself to live there, sell it, or demolish it. not for years. but there were things she asked other people to get for her, including her old school things, including letters and photographs. a lot of these included james and/or lily. many of these photographs are on display in various corners of her flat, and she has photo-books that she has always shared with harry. most importantly, though, once they do get harry? she puts framed photographs of his parents in his room so that he’ll always know what they looked like. 

at first, it’s really difficult for her to really talk about lily and james though. it hurts, and she’s already hurting beneath the happier front she tries to put on for harry. but she makes a real and concerted effort to talk about them with him and around him, as normally as she can. it gets easier as time goes on, but there’s always a tinge of sadness to it. (no matter how hard any of his questions are to answer, though, she always does it. she tells them anything and everything he asks about his parents and what happened to them.) 

i think marlene definitely wants harry to be sent to muggle school until it comes time for hogwarts. i think she thinks it’s what lily would have wanted. (though whether that actually happens is, of course, up to you, since you write harry!) if he does go, i like to think he’s a lot better off. than he is in the books: he has clothing that fits, he has guardians who love him and take good care of him, there’s no dudley to torment him and make the other kids avoid him, etc. 

harry’s friends are absolutely always welcome around their place, it’s really not even a question. 

[melnchly-a]

@wildtruths​ (HARRY!) said: i’m not trying to be difficult.” to MARLENE! 

         his voice reaches her through the dim of the room, makes her open her eyes and turn toward the sight of harry silhouetted in the doorway, and at first she cringes. there’s a pang of guilt that shoots straight through her : she hadn’t meant to lose her patience, hadn’t meant to snap at him - - at them, because it had been at both of them, at him and sirius - - but for a moment the whole world had just seemed so loud, and she was so tired, and it was just a fact of the world that sometimes six-year-olds just didn’t know when it was time to stop. she can still remember the way they’d both looked at her before she’d come here, both harry and sirius, before she’d mumbled something about needing a nap and gone off to do just that. but she’s awake, now, awake and terribly guilty, and she shakes her head as she turns on the lamo beside her bed. “harry potter, you are the least difficult little boy i have ever met in my life,” she tells him, patting the side of the bed in front of her with both hands as invitation for him to come sit. “i’m the difficult one, don’t you think? i shouldn’t have shouted, and i’m sorry. i just....” she runs a hand through her hair, looking at him solemnly. he’s still so young, still too young, to know exactly why. “i wasn’t feeling very well, that’s all. none of it was your fault.” 

(PIPPA LOST TRACK OF MEMES : probably still accepting if you can find it)