Chapter Text
“Cassie! McGonagoll is pestering us all to ‘plan out our goals in life’ in our meetings.” Marlene complained after bursting into Dorcas’ room and throwing herself on her bed.
This happened often enough to not startle her and always promised amusement, there was the added plus of getting to hang out with her girlfriend so she had never denied the blonde her dramatics. The usual cause was stupidity from James or Mary, Marlene's best friend and dormmate respectively.
“Marls, that is the point of the meetings.” Dorcas put her Astronomy books down at her desk, she knew she wasn’t going to get any studying done anymore.
“Well what are you going to do? Surely I can just wait at home and be your loving wife, prepare you meals and live off of your generational wealth. I bet I could even get James to convince his mum to give me a dowry.” Marlene teased.
“Oh please, you would go crazy from boredom before the first day ended, I know you, McKinnon.” Dorcas replied with a roll of her eyes. “Surely, you have to have something that caught your interest.” Something action-packed would suit the girl, something to keep that burning fire in her eyes. It would be hell if she was forced into an office job practically designed to drain the liveliness out of their employees.
“Well, maybe.” Marlene started, sounding strangely unsure of herself. “There is always petitioning to enter the Aurors guild. Its just, you know, with the whole war that the newspapers are going on and on about and all the raids they are leading. Amelia heard from her brother that they stopped an assault on Diagon Alley last year. I’ve even heard that sometimes they have to go out to the muggle world and protect them. It has been mainly centered around London but I’ve seen some Aurors being sent over to France and all around Europe. I just wouldn’t want to do that without you, my main goal in life is to be with you for as long as possible” Marlene rushes through the ending of her speech, her cheeks coloring red at the end.
Marlene buried her face in the blankets sprawled across the bed.
Dorcas smiled and walked over to Marlene. She sat on the bed beside her and nudged Marlene until she flipped around, now on her back, reddening face covered by her hands. Dorcus gently lowered her hands and grabbed her face with her own hands, cradling her head as one would a precious stone. She turned her head up so that they could make eye contact.
“All I want is to spend our lives together. If you want to be an Auror then we can be Aurors together. Besides, it would be better that way, we can protect each other. No worrying if the other would make it home from a mission. I’m sure we could even strong arm someone in order for us to be partners. I will allow nothing to tear me away from you Mars.”
Marlene’s face softened in Dorcas’ hands and slowly a smile spread and lit it up. “Deal then, we will be Aurors, together.”
“Together.”
The memory brought itself to the forefront in Dorcas’ mind. Dorcas walked up to the steps of the Ministry of Magic with determination. There was a lot of traffic once inside, people apparating and flooing in and out. It has only been growing more and more hectic as terror haunts Britain.
After a deep breath, she walked towards the elevators that would bring her up to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and ultimately to the office of one Mad-Eye Moody, also known as her current boss.
The office was one of the more imposing in the building, only beaten out by the Department of Mysteries with the Unspeakables with their eeriness, silence and long black cloaks. In the DMLE, walls and furniture were full of sharp angles and scattered with weapons of various calibers. The halls are filled with hurried dangerous people who fight to arrest and occasionally kill more dangerous people.
She walks past some desks and moves towards an office sat on the opposing side of the elevators, Alastor Moody’s office. Of course it was rarely used, he much preferred being out in the field, he would lose his remaining limbs before he was ever truly shackled to a desk. Unfortunately, all of the law enforcers have paperwork to do, and an Auror as important and experienced as Moody even has a private office to do it in.
As usual the office was sparsely filled, a mahogany desk with a week's worth of papers stacked on it, a board with notes and pictures pinned to it, along with some ‘trophies’ that lined the shelves hugging the walls of the room. A mask, a sword, a hippogriff feather, a golden snitch, even some shards of four separate broken wands to name a few. There are bets in the office, bets Marlene used to participate in, ones she dragged Dorcas into, of where they come from, what their meaning is. Why Moody would keep them, and so proudly, where all could see.
Unusually, Moody was also in his office, his wandering eye looking immediately to Dorcas as she approached the door to knock. “Come in.” Moody bellows from inside. He looks simultaneously angry at the interruption and glad for a distraction from his mountain of paperwork he needs to read over and sign. “Ah, Meadowes, what are you doing here? You have got the day off after the funeral yesterday.”
At the mention of Marlene, even in the context of her funeral, the memories flashed by her mind once more, “ Aurors together” Marlene’s voice seemed to ring in her brain, she was sure it always would. Now neither of them will be.
“About that, I am not going to be coming back tomorrow. Or any other day. I started at this job with Marlene, so we could protect each other and so that I wouldn’t have to rely on my family's money to get by. Now, I can use a mix of both and live on just fine. I can not stay on as an Auror. Feel free to consider this as me officially handing in my resignation.”
“Are you sure about this Dorcas, really sure? You are a great addition to the Aurors, it would be a damn shame for a talent like yours to waste away at home. Do you think that this is what she would want, for you to give up?” Alastor asked.
“That is the thing with the dead, all their wants and dreams die alongside them. I don't think Marlene wants anything right now.” With those final words Dorcas turned away and left the office.
Dorcas apparated home to her apartment, after leaving. Moody had been their direct authority, he helped train them and then led them out in the field. Having to separate from him, from the job that she had spent the better part of two years training and working for was hard. She knew she had to do it though.
After all, the last thing Dorcas’ talents would be doing is ‘wasting away at home’. No, she will be using her talents, just not in a way that would particularly align with the Ministries law enforcing Aurors.
She landed in her living room, facing the board currently taking up her wall. The one that she started to put together last night. There were 6 sections, each with a prominent moving picture at the top.
A smiling girl with long flowing blonde hair, colorful glasses resting on her head, her dress twirling around her as she spins. A boy with sharp aristocratic features, black curly hair resting on his forehead, staring resolutely at the camera with piercing gray eyes. A tanned, ocean eyed boy with blonde hair, smirking at something, someone, just off to the side of the camera. A freckled green eyed boy with wild straight hair laughing, throwing his head back. A bespectacled boy with brown eyes, jet black hair messily curled on his tilted head, smiling softly at the camera. They each had an air of mischief and trouble around them.
Below their photos were notes, looking closer it was easy to decipher them as something of a schedule, trying to figure out where they are based on where they were.
All she had to do was find them. Everything would be easier once that was done. Find out who she can rely on, who is able and willing to do what needs to be done to stop this. She is sure she could convince them to join her, so long as they have yet to join anyone else so far.
The last picture on the board was of a white man with a mask covering his face, his arm in his cloak slowly raising with his wand. Under his picture was a collection of newspaper articles alongside more photos of people in masks like his, a tattoo hidden under each of their arms.
Dorcas was staring up determined, from her couch, at the board, specifically the man centered in the picture on the right. “You have no idea the enemy you just made. I am going to find out who you are, just you wait, and I will rain down hell”