p class="p1"Her leg won't stop shaking./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"It's not like she wants it to, either. The movement is causing her leg to hurt, and she's fairly certain it fell asleep ages ago, despite the fact that it won't keep still. She tried standing, but then she got tired of that and her feet felt stiff, so she had to sit again, and then her leg would begin shaking again./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"She knew why it was shaking, of course. At least she had that much. She didn't like thinking of the reason, because it wasn't something that terrified her, but she knew why. Her mum and dad had sent her an owl, the week before she graduated. She remembers the event, hell, the entire day, as clear as wizardly possible. (How could she not, with the bomb they dropped on her?) She had woken up that morning, completely and utterly exhausted from studying with Lily the previous night. "We have do to well on our N.E.W.T.S, Marly." After a very slow wake up and a scare from her owl, she had staggered down to breakfast, Lily dragging her by the arm. (The red head was wide awake. Of COURSE she was.) She only had toast, mostly because she was to tired to eat. Then they went to Charms, sitting sandwiched between four boys, all with messy hair and tricky smiles. She had barely stayed awake at all, the only thing keeping her from passing out was Sirius Black, repeatedly launching little balls of paper at the back of her head. After charms, (and after she had threatened Sirius immensely before rolling her eyes and kissing his cheek) the six walked down to the great hall together, watching as the owls filled the room. The letter landed perfectly in her lap, causing her eyes to glue to the dark blue seal. "Well, open it!" Lily had persisted, most likely more interested than Marlene herself was. She shook her head, a strange sinking feeling in her stomach. "I'll open it later."/p
p class="p1""No no no, open it now! You're mum write you letters, and your dad writes you letters, but you never get a letter from your mum AND your dad. It's obviously important." She looked up, seeing how interested the Marauders themselves were in her letter, although, Sirius' eyes never left hers. She looked between the five of them, finally caving when she looked at Lily. "Damnit fine." The red head let out a whoop as the blonde ripped into the envelope, reading the message inside. She was relieved it wasn't a howler. Unfortunately, it was worse. Her heart sank, and her hands dropped, though the letter stayed clutched in her first. Lily stopped laughing. "Marly? Marly, what's wrong? Is everything alright?" The blonde shook her head, bolting upright and walking (rather quickly) out the hall. Sirius followed quickly after her, but she barely even blinked when he called her name. "McKinnon! Marly! Merlin's beard, slow down!" He caught her wrist when she made it to the common room, twisting her around to where he could look into her still eyes. His face softened, and his left hand moved to cup her cheek. "…Marlene?" Her eyes snap up, and she rips her hand from his. "N-nothing. I need to- to go." And with that, she ran up the stairs and threw herself on her bed, her mind unable to forget the letter in her shaking hand./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"After that, she avoided Sirius like the plague. It wasn't hard to come up with excuses, she always was good at them. She had to study. or she was late for something, she didn't have time to talk, or Dumbledore needed to see her. Lily gave her concerned looks, but stopped pestering her after the third day. Sirius, however, was less relenting. He would stay up in the common room, sleeping on one of the couches and waiting for her to leave her room. But, he always fell asleep around midnight, and never woke up before eight. Marleen knew this after years of being around him, so, she would stay in the library or in a professors classroom until 12:30, go to bed, and would wake up right around seven. This went well, because Sirius didn't seem to catch on, so she continued avoiding him. It worked perfectly. /p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"Until their last N.E.W.T./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"The second everyone was finished, they all rushed out, Marleen staying back to talk to Lily, but instead finding Sirius sitting on a desk next to her. She went to leave, but he gripped her shoulders, keeping her in place. "Woah, there, McKinnon. You've avoided me since you're letter. I want to know why."/p
p class="p1""It's nothing. Sirius, let me go."/p
p class="p1""Nu-uh. Spill." She struggled, pushing and squirming, but his grip won't loosen. "I'm not leaving till you tell me, so you either tell me what's going on, or you and I-"/p
p class="p1""My parents picked my Pairing. I had no choice in it." The dark haired boy's grip goes slack, and Marlene takes her chance to run, getting as far as possible from the boy she loves./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"She stays with Lily for a bit, before moving into a flat above Broomstix where she works alongside a few people she knew at school, often seeing Lily and James every other day or so. She doesn't hear from Sirius until about two weeks after graduation, when a familiarly dark owl fly's through her window, a dark envelope in it's beak. She almost doesn't open it, at first. The thought of being rejected, well, it wasn't an idea she was particularly fond of. It gets opened eventually, in the dead of night. she basically rips into the envelope to read the elegantly messy scrawl inside./p
p class="p2" /p
p class="p1"That's why she finds herself sitting in the Three Broomsticks the next day, her leg shaking impossibly faster, her butter beer the current victim of her emotionless stare. Someone slams their hands gently against her small table in the corner, and her head snaps up to see a very serious, well, Sirius. She gulps, sitting up straighter, her nerves making her leg positively alive. "Sirius, how-"/p
p class="p1""Who?" Her mouth opens, but she closes it when he gives her a look, sitting down. "He... He's sweet, kind. He's funny, and he makes me smile." His hands clench into fists, and his jaw tightens. "He sounds like the perfect gentleman." It's said through gritted teeth, and Marlene can't help but laugh at the irony of her situation. "Oh, no. Not even close. He's a mess." Something crosses his eyes, but it's gone as soon as he comes. "There's something else. Did he do something wrong?" Her head shakes, her golden locks flying in every direction. "Not in the way you think. He just... I don't think he wants to marry me." /p
p class="p1""Who the hell wouldn't want to marry you? "/p
p class="p1""I'm not sure. My parents have owled him, but he hasn't replied." Sirius closes his eyes, taking in a breath. "First the girl I love gets Paired, and now it's with some ass." Despite herself, Marlene can't help but laugh. She wish she could, but she can't. It's the worst situation to find amusing. It is, though. Sirius' head snaps up, his eyes narrowing, if only slightly, at the blue eyed beauty. "Why are you laughing?"/p
p class="p1""You haven't pieced it together yet, have you?"/p
p class="p1""What?"/p
p class="p1""Merlin's beard, you're an idiot." His eyebrow raises, and Marlene takes in a deep breath, calming her nerves best she can. "It's you, Sirius. I got paired with you."/p
This is just an explanation to how the whole arranged marriage works. There's two different ways. For pure bloods, they get to choose who they wish to marry. But everyone else, half-bloods and muggle-borns, basically everyone not pure-blood, are put into a sort of lottery, where they get matched randomly with another witch or wizard that they have no say in the matter. Everyone has the option to accept or decline a pairing, and both parties almost always have to accept for it to be official. (I say almost because most everyone accepts, whether it's the persons guardian's doing it for them or the person themselves. The chances of being paired again after declining a pairing once is very slim. Course, some are okay with that.) When Sirius left his family, they disowned him, so his name was put into the lottery as well. When someone get's in an arranged marriage, it's called a Pairing, or being Paired, and when a marriage is set and both parties are aware and agree, it's called Matched.
I do hope you enjoyed this! I wrote it up a while ago, for a prompt, and finally decided to put it here. I'm thinking of adding on to it. Any thoughts?