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The day following the best day of James Potter's death, Marilyn was livid with her twin. He had managed to earn himself detention on the first day and with Umbridge no less! She was currently refusing to talk to him and had been sure to sit at the Ravenclaw table for breakfast, ignoring every one of his attempts to get her to talk to him. She was excellent at holding grudges.

Marilyn had Transfiguration for her last class before lunch and she was irritated to no end when Marvolo decided to sit next to her and poke her with his quill until she looked at him. So far, it was having no effect whatsoever as she just continued to listen intently to McGonagall and take notes. They were reviewing the concept of animagi in the class, which neither Marilyn nor Marvolo actually needed to hear, considering they had both managed to complete the process to become animagi when they were in their third year.

Marilyn had to help Marvolo a lot, and she got help from a particularly enthusiastic James Potter, who was ecstatic with the idea of them following in his footsteps, as they were both illegal animagi. Even Tom was pleased with them going through the process as it was one of the few things he did not accomplish in school or out. 

Marilyn thought the world was playing a joke on her the first time she had transformed, but no, she could actually transform into a twenty-five foot long Hebridean Black. Yes, an actual dragon. James had been highly offended when she first transformed, considering Hebridean Blacks were known to eat deer, but secretly found it highly amusing. 

Marvolo, meanwhile, could turn into a coyote. Marilyn thought it was fitting, seeing as they generally represented someone mischievous of playful with a hint of foolishness. Marvolo, on the other hand, was not amused. His sister could turn into a fricking dragon and he was stuck as a glorified dog. Marilyn had proceeded to point out that Sirius Black could turn into an actual dog and a coyote was better than that. After a few days of ignoring her, he had conceded his argument and agreed that a coyote was a pretty cool animal to take the form of. Not as cool as a dragon though, of course. 

Marilyn continued ignoring Marvolo as he continued upping his game of how to gain her attention. Finally, he picked up his Transfiguration textbook and whacked her over the head with it, gaining the attention of the entire class while she turned to him incredulously.

"What was that for?" She hissed, glaring at him.

Marvolo beamed, "You talked to me!"

Marilyn growled under her breath and promptly turned back to the front.

"Detention, Mr Marvol," said McGonagall, making Marilyn's lips twitch.

She didn't care nearly as much about him getting detention when it wasn't with Umbridge, or as James had so eloquently put it, Umbitch.

"What for!" Marvolo crowed in outrage.

McGonagall stared at him, trying to figure out whether or not he was joking. She noted no signs of humour in his eyes though and sighed. He reminded her very much of Sirius Black.

"For hitting your sister over the head with your textbook," she replied plainly.

"It's not like it actually hurt her," he defended, turning to his sister, "Right, Mary?"

Marilyn looked at McGonagall with her usual expressionless face, but there was a hint of humour that usual belonged in her brother's eyes present.

"Actually, it hurts very much. So much, in fact, that I think I'm blacking out." She slurred the last four words before promptly collapsing to the floor, in a state that looked very much like she was unconscious.

For a moment, McGonagall stared at her with wide eyes, unsure if she was joking or not, considering she was not normally one to joke, but when she did not get back up, she rushed to her side and knelt down decide her.

"Marilyn?" She asked, tapping the girl on the shoulder sharply.

Marilyn made no move to move at all and McGonagall's eyes grew worried as she conjured up a stretcher for her.

"Two weeks of detention, Mr Marvol," she said sharply and then walked out of the classroom with Marilyn floating on a stretcher at her side.

Marvolo gaped at the door they disappeared out of for a solid five minutes. There was no way he had actually hit her hard enough to knock her out. Not even close. After several minutes of staring at the door, he turned back around to find the rest of the class looking at him incredulously.

"Did you actually knock your sister out?" Katie Bell questioned anxiously.

Marvolo swallowed, frowning.

"I-I don't think I hit her that hard. I barely tapped her really, there's no way she's actually unconscious." He said, furrowing his eyebrows.

Marilyn never really joked about anything, so either she was actually unconscious, or she felt he deserved revenge for either hitting her with his textbook or getting detention. He didn't understand her reasoning.

"So...she was pranking you?" Eddie Carmichael asked doubtfully, "She doesn't seem the type..."

Marvolo frowned, shrugging. "I'm sure she's fine, but I'm going to go to the Hospital Wing to check." He said, gathering both his sister's and his own things before bounding down the corridor in the direction of the Hospital Wing.

He arrived just as McGonagall was leaving and she sent him an exasperated look as she left. Marvolo set down Marilyn's satchel on the chair beside her bed before leaning over her to see if she was truly unconscious.

"She's out cold if that's what you're wondering, Mr Marvol," came Madam Pomfrey's disapproving voice, "She was hit by a nasty stunner. She won't be up until dinner, so there's no point in waiting here for her."

She then proceeded to herd him out of the Hospital Wing, telling him to come back after dinner, when she would actually be awake. He went down to the Great Hall, unusually quiet. He couldn't believe it. His twin was actually unconscious and wouldn't wake up until after dinner. But how was she stunned? That made absolutely no sense, no one he had seen even had their wands out, let alone pointed at her.

He sat down with Fred, George, Ginny, and the Golden Trio for lunch, still looking extremely befuddled. Hermione caught onto this immediately and looked at him questioningly.

"What happened?" She asked.

Marvolo was about to answer when Katie Bell dropped into the seat beside him.

"I'll tell you what happened." She said, "He hit his sister over the head with his textbook and knocked her out cold, getting detention for two weeks with McGonagall."

The Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione turned to stare at him incredulously.

"You did what!" Shrieked Hermione.

Marvolo grimaced, "I have no idea how she's unconscious! I barely tapped her, and Madam Pomfrey said she was stunned. She won't wake up until after dinner."

Hermione's expression turned thoughtful rather than infuriated, "Stunned?" He nodded, "Well, that doesn't make sense."

Marvolo nodded furiously in agreement.

"Exactly. Anyway, what do you think of her? Everyone she knows told her to talk to people other than me this year, so she's finally decided to talk to other people." He asked, cocking his head curiously to the side.

He was curious as to what they thought of his twin, but if they said a single bad thing about her, he wouldn't hesitate to hex them into oblivion.

"I like her," declared Ginny immediately, "She's just the opposite of you, and I personally, think that's a good thing. She seems nice enough to the people she cares about even if she never smiles."

Marvolo beamed, approving of Ginny twenty times more.

"Good," he said, nodding. "And you should have seen her yesterday, she was laughing her head off. She hasn't laughed like that since she was six," he said fondly, recalling the memories of his sister before she died.

Harry tilted his head to the side curiously, "What made her laugh?" He asked.

Marvolo froze. He wasn't allowed to tell anybody about Marilyn's abilities, and even if he was, he wasn't about to tell Harry that it was his dead father who had been betting with a bunch of other dead people on who would make her crack a smile first. Harry would think he'd gone mad.

"U-um...Someone did a funny impression of Umbridge," he said, voice higher than usual.

It wasn't technically a lie, but it was stretching the truth a bit. Marvolo Gaunt was a terrible liar, something he had definitely not inherited from his Slytherin ancestors. Marilyn had gotten that, she was an excellent liar and always had been. It was impossible to tell when she was telling the truth vs lying.

Harry nodded but was eyeing him with slight suspicion. He supposed it was none of his business though, and it wasn't all that important though, so he didn't comment.

Meanwhile, Marilyn had 'woken up'. It wasn't like she had actually been unconscious, but she was good enough of an actress that everyone had believed it. When she arrived with McGonagall to the Hospital Wing, she had managed to convince both the Transfiguration professor and Madam Pomfrey to help her get back at her brother for hitting her with a book. And getting detention with Umbridge. 

She figured it was good for him to worry about her, considering she'd be out of her mind with worry when his detention with the pink toad rolled around. And, he'd hit her with a book. A book!

She spent the afternoon in the Hospital Wing, helping brew healing potions for Madam Pomfrey considering she was excellent in the subject, and Madam Pomfrey had definitely appreciated the help.

When dinner finally rolled around, she thanked Madam Pomfrey profusely before shouldering her bag and walking down to the Great Hall, where she stormed right over to her twin, who paled three shades. She dropped into the seat next to him and glared.

"You hit me with a book!" She exclaimed, glaring at him.

"You were ignoring me!" He retorted, pleased she at least wasn't wearing the emotionless mask as she was usually.

Marilyn tended to only drop the mask around people she knew. Aka, Aberforth, Turner, Charlie Weasley (when she saw him), and Marvolo.

"You hit me with a book!" She repeated.

"You were ignoring me!" Marvolo retorted again.

"Do we need to have a duel?" She asked, glaring at him.

"Maybe we do!" Marvolo said, matching her glare.

Marvolo was actually an excellent dueller, added with the fact that both he and Marilyn were able to cast spells in parseltongue, making them much more powerful, and much more difficult. They had only mastered it the previous year and both of them were very proud.

"We both know how that will turn out," Marilyn frowned suddenly.

Marilyn and Marvolo nearly always tied in duels.

"Yeah..." Marvolo mirrored her frown and they both thought for a moment before they perked up in sync, glaring at each other again.

"Then it's coyote vs dragon!" Marvolo decided before his face dropped as he realized how stupid that sounded. 

Marilyn in dragon-form could easily charbroil him as a coyote. He would never win that.

"...Fine, you win." He conceded eventually and Marilyn nodded smugly. She won their arguments ninety-seven percent of the time.

"Good," said Marilyn and then Marvolo wrapped one arm around her and they both turned to the food as though they hadn't been fighting seconds before.

For a moment, the other Gryffindors just stared at them.

"Are their fights always like that?" Ron eventually whispered to George, who nodded solemnly, having witnessed a fair few of the fights between siblings.

"Always. Marilyn always wins. It's because one of them always brings up that dragon vs coyote thing which makes no sense." Geoge whispered back, completely aware that both Gaunt twins could hear every word they were saying.

"Huh," muttered Ron, no less confused than before. 

People tended not to understand the Gaunt siblings, and they were both completely fine with that as long as they understood each other, which they always did.

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