Written for the Test Your Limits Competition round one with the prompt: 'your character posed for Playwitch magazine. Years later, his current romantic partner finds out.'
Disclaimer: I don't own it, you get the point
Enjoy :D
The door slams shut behind me as I enter the old apartment. The boxes that still haven't been unpacked yet are stacked haphazardly around the room and judging by the small decrease in the amount of boxes Marlene's done a little to get us moved into our new home - though that doesn't mean much, we've both been unpacking boxes in the two months since we've got here and clearly we haven't gotten far.
I walk over into the living room to where Marlene's sitting with her legs curled up beneath her reading something with a half scary, half cute scowl on her face. She glances up at me. "You're home," she says it in a clipped voice. Something is clearly wrong.
After half a second of deliberation I decide to try to break the tension in here that could probably be cut with a knife. "I see you've done some unpacking," I say in a falsely light voice.
Marlene's scowl may be absolutely adorable to look at when it's directed at someone else but directed at you it's better to run as fast as possible in the opposite direction. "Yeah, I have," the warning behind the words is evident and I am seriously considering forgetting all my Gryffindor bravery and running straight out the door - except she'd hex me before I managed two steps. "Guess what I found in one of the boxes," she continues.
I rub my hands together behind my back, a nervous habit I developed years ago and glance around the room trying to find some incriminating evidence against something, anything that she doesn't know or hasn't guessed already.
She holds up whatever's in her hand and after staring at it for a few seconds I realise with a jolt what it is. A Playwitch magazine - a very specific Playwitch magazine. This ones going to be hard to explain.
There was actually a perfectly good explanation and I was only seventeen - but that doesn't mean Marlene will accept that perfectly good explanation but I guess I could man up and try - or I could be a whimp, make it up and save my arse - saving my arse it is. "Well, you see when I was seventeen, young and innocent and all that I got approached by a talking monkey who forced me to strip and then turned into the photographer for Playwitch magazine, he's an illegal animagius, can you believe it! Then he took the photos and left me stranded without clothes for three whole hours and then-"
"Nice story and all but stop with the bullshit. You do realise that I watched you make up excuses for various Professors for seven years, I think I can tell when you're lying, I was one of the ones that realised that you were lying about where Remus went once a month and that you were the one that blew up the Great Hall in forth year." She has a point - unfortunately, though maybe I did go a little over.
"Yeah, well, er. It was all James' fault." Way throw your best mate into the deep end, though it is the truth for the most part and between his life and mine I will always go for mine. "We made a bet, in fifth year, so that if James could get Lily to go out with him I had to do that" I say, inclining my head to the magazine, "I mean it was made in fifth year it was properly the most sane and rational bet I've made!"
She's just staring at me with one eyebrow raised - something I've been trying to learn to do for years - but there's slight amusement hidden behind her scowl so I might be off the hook. "You're are a big idiot you know that."
"Yeah," I say, "but I'm your big idiot." With those words it seems I'm forgiven, the Playwitch magazine falls out of her hands - which I mentally note to burn as soon as possible - and she leans in for the kiss.