Marlene McKinnon

OOC

Game	Journal	Portrayed By
Find the Horcruxes	heart_of_a_lion	Amber Tamblyn

Basic Stats

Full Name: Marlene Eugenia McKinnon
Nickname(s): Marly, Mar
Gender: Female
Age: 19
Date of Birth: October 16, 1959
Zodiac: Libra
Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Single
Bloodline: Halfblood
Hometown: Edinburgh, Scotland
Residence: A flat in muggle London with Roland Williamson
House & Year: Gryffindor 1978
Occupation: Auror trainee
Wand: 11 in, maple, phoenix tail feather
Pet: Brown fish owl (Merlin); chihuahua (Chewbacca Williamson, "Chewie")

Family

Father: Kenneth Iain McKinnon (wizard; Gryffindor 1950; Auror; b. October 31, 1931)
Mother: Fiona Morag McKinnon (née MacFusty; witch; Gryffindor 1950; Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures; b. May 15, 1932)
Sister: Effie Catriona McKinnon (witch; Hufflepuff 1979; seeker: Montrose Magpies; b. September 27, 1960)
Sister: Isobel Greer McKinnon (witch; Gryffindor 1981; b. December 16, 1962)

History

Kenneth McKinnon and Fiona MacFusty were school sweethearts. From their sixth year on, they had eyes for nobody but each other. Fiona's family was from the Hebrides Islands, northwest of mainland Scotland, where they cared for the Hebridean Black Dragons. Kenneth's family was a bit more conservative, hailing from Edinburgh, Scotland, and tending to work in the Ministry of Magic. Indeed, Kenneth's greatest dream growing up was to become an Auror. After Hogwarts, both Kenneth and Fiona pursued Ministry jobs: Kenneth as an Auror and Fiona in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. She was hoping to keep things safe for not only "her" dragons, but other dragons, as well.

Although they both finished school in 1950 and knew that they wanted to get married and spend their lives together, they didn't actually get married until the fall of 1958, wanting to wait until they could afford a good place to live, where they could raise a family. Once they were married, though, and settled into a nice medium-sized home just outside of Edinburgh, Scotland, they were quick to start their family. Their first child, a daughter they named Marlene, was born just under a year after they were married. Two more daughters, Effie and Isobel, followed quickly, after which point the McKinnons decided that having three little girls running around was more than enough for two parents, already run ragged by work, to handle.

As the oldest daughter, Marlene took it upon herself, even from a young age, to be her sisters' protector. Even when their parents hired a nanny to help care for the girls, Marlene considered herself a second mum to Effie and Isobel. However, it was more her father that Marlene identified with. More than anything in the world, she wanted to be just like her father when she grew up, only a girl. Her fondest memories were of him telling her stories before bed of all the great things that he and the other Aurors did. While most other little girls might have been dreaming of growing up to become princesses, or mothers, or herbologists, or potioneres, or whatever (or often changing their minds every other week, as Isobel did), Marlene was steadfast and positive: she would become an Auror when she grew up, no matter what.

Marlene's childhood was spent, for the most part, in Edinburgh, either in the area of her family's home or the area of her father's home, but at least for a few weeks every summer, the McKinnons visited Fiona's family, where Marlene often spent her time running around with her cousin, Boyd MacFusty, who was a year older than her and more than a little bit reckless and crazy, just like Marlene was. They were often to blame, directly or indirectly, for the other's many broken bones over the years. The family knew to keep the two of them far from the dragons when they were together, for fear of what kind of damage they would manage to do.

In the summer of 1971, when Marlene was eleven, she received her long-awaited Hogwarts owl. She spent every day that summer watching for her owl to come, impatiently asking her parents and the nanny incessantly if it had come yet. She had been showing signs of magic since she was three, so she had no doubt that she would receive her owl. She was equally positive that, when she arrived at Hogwarts on 1 September that year, she would be sorted into Gryffindor, just like her parents. Sure enough, the owl arrived, Marlene was taken shopping for her school things, and when it was her turn with the Sorting Hat, it merely had to skim her head before shouting out "GRYFFINDOR!" for all to hear, and Marlene gleefully took her place at the crimson and gold table.

The only thing that upset Marlene about going off to school was that she had to leave her sisters behind at home. Surely nobody else could take care of her sisters and protect them as well as she could. Once she had secured her own place in Gryffindor, she began hoping that both Effie and Isobel would be sorted into Gryffindor, as well. Although Effie joined Marlene at Hogwarts a year later, she was — to Marlene's dismay — sorted into Hufflepuff, though Marlene then tasked her best friend, Roland Williamson (who she had met when they were both on the train to Hogwarts their first year; he was sorted into Hufflepuff, though they still became quick and close friends, almost like siblings from the start), with watching out for her sister while they were at Hogwarts. When Isobel joined her sisters at Hogwarts two years later, she was sorted into Gryffindor with Marlene, which thrilled Marlene, because she would be able to keep a close eye on her.

Through her years at Hogwarts, Marlene cultivated close friendships with her fellow Gryffindors, as well as a few outside of her own house. She was determined to not let house borders keep her from making friends, but it was certainly easier to make friends with the people that she shared a common room with and everything. She was particularly close with her yearmates, her roomies and their male counterparts, as well as her fellow quidditch players, as she made the Gryffindor quidditch team as a chaser in her second year (then later was made captain in her seventh year, which delighted her to no end).

Marlene knew what classes she would need to excel in to be accepted into the Auror Training Programme, so she worked hard to maintain good marks in those classes. She also chose to add Care of Magical Creatures to her class schedule in her third year, primarily because of her love of her family's dragons. She excelled in that class, as well, and opted to continue into the N.E.W.T. levels of it, as her fifth N.E.W.T.-level class, in addition to the required Charms, Defense, Potions, and Transfiguration.

In her seventh year, she applied to the Auror Training Programme, and after going through the interviews and character and aptitude tests the following summer, she was accepted into the programme, along with Roland. The two of them got a flat together in muggle London.

It was in her first year of Auror training that she was recruited into the Order of the Phoenix by Dumbledore himself. It had to be done carefully, because her loyalty to the Ministry was well-known and deep-seated, and it was equally well-known that she would do nothing to jeopardize her career as an Auror. But her desire for justice and willingness to do almost anything for it also made her desirable. Although she was torn not only by her loyalty to the Ministry, but also by the prospect of having to lie to her best friend and roommate, she joined the Order, driven by the desire to do something more swift and active.