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Marilyn Gaunt was being followed. Of that she was certain. She had been being followed since the very beginning of the summer and it had not ceased. The people—death eaters moreover—had made no move to approach her. They only followed her silently and quite honestly, she was getting sick of it.

Currently, it was rather late at night and she was walking along the edge of the forest near the Shrieking Shack. She had directly ignored the pamphlet the Ministry of Magic had sent out warning her not to go out and night and things of the sort, seeing as she had nothing better to do in the wee hours most other people were sleeping. Plus, she knew Death Eaters were everywhere, they were following her everywhere.

As she once again felt the eyes on her, she sighed deeply in annoyance before turning around. Her eyes searched the trees around her before landing on a shadow that did not belong to the trees. She marched over to it before the Death Eater could apparate away and grabbed his arm, yanking him out of his hiding place.

The man looked slightly terrified at being caught but didn't move to struggle from her iron grip at all. She supposed Voldemort had ordered them not to hurt her. Great, now she had an evil overlord cousin who cared. 

Like she needed that.

Marilyns nimble fingers found the skin of man's wrist and lifted it up so that his hand she was clutching was in front of his face where he could see. As they both watched, his hand began to decay like a dead body, making him scream, squirming in her grip.

Marilyn watched emotionlessly. "Tell my cousin I don't need babysitters." She said, her tone deadly quiet as her stormy eyes watched him.

He nodded quickly, still whimpering because of his hand that now looked very dead. "Yes, yes!" He exclaimed, nodding furiously.

"Good," she said, dropping his hand and stepping back. He turned on his heel, disappearing with a crack while Marilyn turned back to the trees to continue her walk.

✮✮✮

Amycus Carrow returned to his master, still horrified by whatever magic the Gaunt girl had used to kill his hand. He stumbled toward the Dark Lord and immediately bowed so deeply his nose practically touched the floor as he tried to conceal his fear.

"Why are you back, Carrow?" Voldemort questioned coldly, looking at him in distaste. 

"T-the girl," he whimpered. "She has a message."

Voldemort straightened and looked down at his follower in interest. "Continue."

Carrow feebly presented his hand to the Dark Lord, who grabbed it, yanking it toward him so he could study what she had done. His eyebrows rose as he examined the hand. Whatever she had done to him was dark, dark magic. He was almost certain it was Death itself. Death's touch. Yes, he had to get his young cousin to join him. 

After a minute, he dropped the man's hand, allowing Carrow to back up, cradling it. 

"You said she had a message?" He asked, his voice high and cold. 

"Yes, My Lord. She said to tell her cousin—you, my lord—that she doesn't need babysitters." Carrow whimpered.

Voldemort let a satisfied smile spread across his face. He was liking his baby cousin more and more. But she was young. She needed someone to watch over her whether she liked it or not. Especially with the locket she unknowingly wore. The girl was protecting a piece of his soul without even realizing it and he did not want to change that. Despite his curiosity to how she had gotten it, he knew the safest possible place it could be was with the girl too powerful for her own good. She would protect it because it was a family heirloom, but she would really be protecting her family itself. Yes, he definitely liked that idea. 

"She will join us," he murmured in parseltongue. 

Nagini flicked her tongue in agreement from where she was wound around his shoulders. Voldemort returned his attention to the trembling Death Eater at his feet.

"You let her see you. For that, you must be punished. Crucio!"

Somewhere far away, a boy with a lightning bolt scar shot up in his bed, breathing heavily from what he had just witnessed. 

✮✮✮

Marilyn returned to the Hog's Head with a frown settled on her face. She had already slept as much as she needed in a night and knew Marvolo and Aberforth would be up soon enough. She had told both of them about her being followed weeks ago and Aberforth had said that the next time she was certain of it, she and Marvolo were being sent to the Burrow where they were safer. Marilyn wasn't about to argue with that. Hopefully, the Death Eaters would be unable to reach her there. 

She sat behind the bar and watched the sunrise for a while before jumping slightly when the bell rang signalling someone had entered the pub. Her stormy eyes snapped to the door and her expression softened instantly when she recognized Sebastion grinning at her. He had been visiting nearly every day of the summer so far and Aberforth seemed to dislike him quite a bit more after finding out that he was dating Marilyn.

"Hey, Mary." He said, leaning over the counter in between them and smirking at her. 

"Hello," she replied, trying to stay dignified. 

Her attempt was thwarted when Sebastion placed a sweet kiss against her lips before pulling away and smirking at her red face. Marilyn rolled her eyes slightly, trying very hard not to let her face turn entirely crimson, it was already pink. Sebastion only grinned and kissed her again and this time did not pull away, allowing her to kiss him back. 

"Hey, Mary, have you seen my—oh gross!" 

Marvolo made a face, covering his eyes and Marilyn and Sebastion jolted apart with red faces as they stared at Marvolo who hesitantly parted his fingers to peer through them at the pair of them. He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized they were no longer kissing and let his hands drop back to his sides as he smirked. 

"Hello, Turner." He said. "Are you taking advantage of my baby sister?"

"We're twins," Marilyn muttered, glaring at him. 

"I'm four minutes older," Marvolo dismissed. "Anywho...Turner?"

"Of course not!" Sebastion said, scowling at the younger boy, who was still smirking.

"Well, in that case, carry on," Marvolo said, waving a hand at them.

They did not, only continued staring at him until Marilyn remembered what she needed to tell him and Aberforth.

"Oh, we're going to the Burrow this afternoon." She said suddenly, making both Sebation and Marvolo's eyebrows scrunch together.

"...Why?" Marvolo asked, squinting at his sister. 

"They were following me again." She stated blandly, pouring herself a cup of coffee. "I may or may not have killed the guy's hand."

From where he was perched in his usual chair, Tom said, "You definitely killed his hand. I doubt he'll be forgiving that anytime soon." 

Marilyn only shrugged in his direction before looking back at the to living boys who were both looking torn between being proud, exasperated, and worried. 

"Well, I'll go pack, I suppose." He said and bounded out of the room and up the stairs to his room so that he could pack his trunk. 

"I'll come visit," Sebastion promised, smiling at Marilyn, who gave him a small smile back. 

"Often?"

"As much as I can," He confirmed. "I think I'll be leaving with Sirius for a mission when school starts though, so we won't be able to be in contact."

Marilyn nodded with a small frown. "Well, then I suppose you'll just have to visit a lot before you go."

Sebastion nodded, grinning. "Of course I will. Now you should go pack, don't what the Death Munchers coming back before you leave." 

He paused for a moment with a contemplative look on his face and then asked, "Mary, you know, you're technically, like Death or something, so does that mean the Death Munchers want to munch on you?"

Marilyn snorted, smiling softly. "I sincerely doubt they're cannibals, but I'll be sure to tell you is one of them suddenly stops duelling so they can try to eat me." She said drily.

Sebastion shrugged. "Good, I'll see you at the Burrow."

He leaned forward ad pecked her on the lips before pulling back and grinning at her before he apparated away. Marilyn stared at the place he had been a moment before for a minute before shaking out of it and darting upstairs so that she could pack. She passed Marvolo's room and paused staring inside with raised eyebrows. He was waving his wand madly as his belongings flew about the room looking very much as though they were fighting each other for space in the trunk. 

The twins had turned seventeen in January, not that they had really celebrated it. They weren't particularly fond of the day because it reminded them constantly of their parents, but anyway, Marvolo was pleased beyond measure that he could finally do magic outside of school. They had both passes their apparition tests first try as well and Marvolo had refused to walk anywhere for a month straight. 

"What are you doing?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Marvolo froze, as did everything floating around his room. With a quick flick of his wand, everything was packed properly and he was wearing an all too innocent expression.

"Whatever do you mean, oh lovely sister of mine? I'm packing." He said innocently.

"Uh-huh," she said, nodding slowly. Then she turned around and walked to her room while she heard the banging start up again from Marvolo's room. 

She packed most of her belongings with a swish of her wand before heading over to the shelves that held her journals, along with the jar of basilisk fangs. She placed them all in a bag that had a lot of protective enchantments on it, no one would even know they were there. When she was done packing, she dragged her trunk downstairs and set it down next to Marvolo's. Said brother was sitting with Aberforth at the bar and both of them looked up when she came down.

"You'd better come see me on Hogsmeade weekends," said Aberforth, pulling Marilyn into a tight hug.

She smiled, hugging him back. "We will, don't worry. And please be careful, I don't want you to get hurt because you're close to us." She said.

"Of course, I will, but you know I can defend myself." He said gruffly, patting her on the head. 

"Of course, we do. We'll see you in a few months, bye!" Marvolo said, grinning at him.

Marilyn nodded, picking up her trunk. Marvolo grabbed his as well and they both smiled at Aberforth (who waved), before linking hands and turning on their heels, disappearing from the pub with a crack. 

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