Marlene McKinnon, half-awake and wishing she could be anywhere but on the bus on her way to school, was rudely interrupted by a tap on her shoulder.
"Hey, mind if I sit here?"
Marlene looked up to find Sirius Black, one of the boys from her school, a few years younger than her and someone who was widely thought of as an egotistical attention seeker.
She slid her bag off the seat next to her by way of response, rolling her eyes.
"There are other seats on the bus, idiot," she thought to herself. She bent down, pulling some notes out of her bag, figuring she should at least try to study for her maths exam. She picked at the hem of her skirt for a few minutes, trying to absorb some of the words through the fog that permeated her brain at this early hour in the morning.
She suddenly registered the sound of rock music coming through Sirius' headphones, far too loud and close to her to be of any pleasantry.
She sighed in exasperation. "Will you please turn that down?"
He smirked. "Is it bothering you or something?"
Narrowing her eyes at him, she growled in frustration and shifted back to looking outside the window.
Finally, after far too long of Marlene whispering bits of her chemistry notes to herself, Sirius' infernally loud music in the background, the bus pulled up near the school. Marlene stood up, snatched up her bag and stomped off in a hurry to get to her first class, and as far away from Sirius Black as possible.\
Dumping herself in her seat just as the bell rang, she banged her forehead on the desk.
"Remind me again why I take early classes?" she moaned to Alice Shafiq, who was seated next to her.
"It will supposedly be worth it once we get accepted into university at the end of the school year," Alice reminded her, a small smile on this face, having repeated this conversation many times over the past months.
Marlene groaned yet again. "Can't come soon enough. I slept in again this morning. Didn't even have a chance to have any coffee."
Alice chuckled and patted her on the back. "You'll be right. Although I do suggest finding some before our maths exam."
Marlene sat in the seventh-year common room, desperately searching her bag for her maths textbook.
"I had it here, I know I had it," she cried to Alice. "Where the hell did it go?"
"I don't know, where did you see it last?" Alice asked.
"The last time I studied, which was, I don't know, on the bus," Marlene rubbed her hands over her face in frustration.
"Marlene," Alice groaned. "I thought you'd finally gotten yourself together enough to stop leaving your textbooks on the bus."
"Apparently not," Marlene moaned. Just as Marlene finished her sentence, the bell rang. Marlene made several more noises of frustration, groaning as she got to her feet and slowly shuffled off to her next class.
While Marlene was making her way to class, she bumped into Sirius Black.
"Sorry," she mumbled. "Wasn't look-"
"Hey, Marlene right?" he grinned. "I've been looking for you all day. You left this on the bus."
He held out Marlene's maths textbook, still in its original condition.
Marlene's face lit up with joy. "Thank you so much!" she squealed.
Sirius nodded. "You're welcome,"
James Potter chuckled. "I'd bet you five pounds that he stole it to have an excuse to talk to you,"
"Shut up, James!" Sirius retorted, stamping on James' foot.
James Potter grinned and swept out his hands in a dramatic motion. "And that, my dear friends, is the story of how Sirius Black and Marlene McKinnon got together. Debate continues over whether Marlene actually did leave her textbook on the bus, or whether Sirius did indeed take it. Regardless, Sirius learned very early on not to get in Marlene's way in the mornings, and that coffee is the key to her heart."
The gathered friends and family laughed, some of them clapping their hands together in appreciation for James' best man speech.
James raised his glass. "To Marlene's scatterbrained personality, a lost maths textbook, and Sirius' daring flirtatiousness. And last but not least, to the happy couple. May they have a long happy marriage filled with great sex and all things good."
As all the guests clinked their glasses together, toasting the newlyweds, Marlene blushed a crimson red, before turning to whisper to Sirius. "I thought Lily said she would make sure James didn't make any inappropriate comments."
Sirius chuckled. "I think this is their payback for the drunken pranks that happened at their wedding."
Marlene laughed again. "Should've known that would come back to us one day. Karma's a bitch," she said cheerily.
Sirius pecked Marlene on the lips. "I love you."
Marlene smiled. "Good, otherwise, I'll be out of here and have these rings sold before you can even blink."
"And that's exactly why."