#marlenetag

[thephoenix-hq]

☞ NAME: Marlene McKinnon. ☞ AGE: Nineteen (09.20.1959). ☞ BLOOD STATUS: Pureblood. ☞ HOUSE: Former Slytherin. ☞ GENDER: Cis-female. ☞ FACECLAIM: Ana de Armas.

+ THE STORY SO FAR +

The first Slytherin in a long line of Ravenclaws and Gryffindors, Marlene stood out right from the start of her little life. The only girl of seven children in a pureblooded family, she was given expectations the moment she exited the womb. In her formative years, she fought her mother to play like her sons did, a trail of cut ribbons and muddy footprints. The older she got, however, the stricter the woman became. She was in ballet and piano lessons from the time she could walk and comprehend on her own right up until she left for school. A brutally Spanish woman with a big family prior to making one of her own, aptly named Maria was slightly disgruntled by the idea of Hogwarts and preferred her daughter to attend Académie de Magie Beauxbâtons where all the Castillo women before her graduated.

Marlene had other ideas, however, and begged her father, an incredibly Scottish chap named Balgair, to convince her mother to allow her to attend school with her brothers. Going off to Hogwarts had been the lucid dream Marlene wished for her entire childhood. By then, however, her need for control was already a viscous beast clawing at the inside of her skull. She became a master of disguise, fooling almost everyone she met within the grounds of school that she was a picture perfect dream, untouchable in every way.

In the middle of her sixth year, things began to fall within her life. More and more, her house mates were disappearing from school, taking part in a war she, at the time, wanted nothing to do with. She didn’t speak her mind on the matter because it never matched. She started a downward spiral that ravaged her brittle bones and paper-thin skin, turned the whirling mess of her mind into a hurricane. Just before Christmas of her Seventh year, she was pulled from school.

Only three people know what really happened, though everyone could see how sickly she had grown. She would never return to Hogwarts, but instead (after spending nine months recuperating) be sent to France to finish her schooling at Beauxbatons. Her mother, though delighted that her only daughter would be attending her Alma mater, eased her grip on Marlene and began to treat her as her own being instead of the doll she had been trying to sculpt before. Aside from the three individuals who know the real story, there is a lot of speculation as to why Marlene left the school only to finish a semester later than her peers in another country.

-  J U N E  1 9 7 9  -

Despite being of pureblood descent, Marlene’s father (unbeknownst to the ministry of magic) worked in a muggle hospital while her mother was a very successful auror in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Knowing this, Albus Dumbledore recruited their systematically manipulative daughter feeling that her position (and previous positions) made her the perfect candidate for the Order of the Phoenix. Her answer was simple and firm. “I’ll do it,” because despite what she grew up around and the turmoil she faced in her younger days, Marlene knew right from wrong - and she longed to fight for magic and the muggles around her. At her heart of hearts, the girl who once longed for nothing more than something to control was good.

←  C O N N E C T I O N S  →

← Remus Lupin

At the beginning of her sixth year, Marlene had been minding her own in an empty train compartment when a Gryffindor she knew but had never truly met trudged in on her with ink dripping from his shoe. She was fascinated by this handsome, bumbling boy messing up all the carpets. They both had scars but only his were visible, and yet even from that first moment, she felt like he could see hers. She was porcelain on the surface, her insides as marred and beaten as his exterior. Due to a fateful prank between Sirius Black and Severus Snape, Remus distanced himself from his closest friends for a while and in that, grew closer to the Slytherin girl they all seemed very much against for no real reason other than her affiliation and opportunistic timing. Perhaps the first person to truly get to know her in her most genuine moments, Remus was someone Marlene found equally compelling and terrifying. Shortly before her departure from school, they had a moment together that changed everything - something that crossed her mind from time to time even years later. They were hindered from discussing whatever could-have-been (perhaps gratefully) by her swift and tumultuous departure. He is one of three people that know why she truly left Hogwarts in December of 1976. She knows without a doubt that he will have been someone Dumbledore wanted to recruit and would be far too noble and tragic to turn him down. The idea of seeing him again after two and a half years is, ironically, both compelling and terrifying.

→ Lily Evans

Marlene had been friends with Severus Snape once, and in this she met perhaps the most lively witch there ever was. Their relationship was never particularly deep, but they were always pleasant. Moreover, when Remus and Marlene grew close in their sixth year, Lily was there for it, also growing close with Marlene being that she was the only Gryffindor that didn’t see it as a terribly bad idea. Marlene could feel Lily’s faith in her and though it was akin to her childish faith in Severus when they were children, it wasn’t quite the same. Marlene couldn’t help feeling like Lily knew who she truly was. She could see the pure heart that sank beneath layers of pretending. When Marlene fell victim to her own mind, Lily had been there swiftly and fiercely. From the hospital wing to the Slytherin’s house in Inverness to Beauxbaton’s school, Spain and all the places in between, they stayed in touch over the years and through parchment have a strong kinship that outlasted the years.

← Dorcas Meadowes

Sheer dumb luck is what brought Dorcas Meadowes to Marlene’s side that night. They were in the same year, even shared a table a time or two in herbology or transfiguration, or something. It had been mortifying for Marlene, an almost stranger seeing her at her absolute worst. She was the girl who remained put together, always. The Slytherin Siren; pretty like a doll, charming like a friend, but manipulative and impersonal where it really counted. Dorcas Meadowes, though she resented her for it for a time, saved Marlene’s life. She’d sent her an owl eventually, perhaps a little too long afterwards, thanking her for being in the right place at the wrong time. If she hadn’t, Marlene feared to think what might have happened otherwise. Though they hadn’t seen each other in person since, she would always hold a special place in Marlene’s mind.

→ Amelia Bones

Maria McKinnon and Derek Bones were partners in the auror department and had been for years. Their families had been close most of their childrens’ lives, but it wasn’t until the older girl spent a travel year in France during Marlene’s year at Beauxbaton’s that they truly developed a close-knit understanding of each other. Having an equal love for coffee and sweets, old French artists, and staying out late, their casual kinship was a breath of fresh air for the both of them in some of their darkest times.

MARLENE MCKINNON IS CURRENTLY CLOSED FOR APPLICATIONS.

[incarbonite]

marlene and me in queue for New York Comic Con tickets this afternoon. 

BAHHH!