A/N: Written for the International Wizarding School Championship.
Written for AnneAquilla, who wanted something fluffy with the Marauders!
Thanks to Hemlockconium for Beta-ing!
School: Beauxbatons
Year: Year 1
Theme: Circinus - the Compass constellation, represents a journey or an adventure.
Main Prompt: 5.) Sirius Black and Marlene McKinnon [Romantic Pairing]
Side Prompts: 1.) Astronomy Tower [Setting], 11.) Begging [Action]
Word Count: 2337
Sirius Black, resident bad-boy and devilishly handsome fifth year Gryffindor, was smirking up at the stars. Finally, after over a year of begging, he had landed a date with Marlene McKinnon, another fifth year Gryffindor.
Marlene was in every way Sirius' equal. They had tempers to behold, and both always wound up arguing, much like two of their other friends, Lily and James. As opposed to Lily and James, however, they both admitted they liked to argue and enjoyed each other's company. At first, Marlene had been hesitant to go out with Sirius, not wanting to ruin their friendship. When she had finally accepted his offer, he had asked her what had changed her mind. Marlene had come up with some sort of excuse, but the truth of the matter was that she found that he was becoming much more mature than she knew to be possible, and found what he had gone through for his friend Remus to be truly touching. She knew then that she couldn't deny her feelings any longer.
Marlene was currently leaning over the railing of the Tower, looking down into the courtyard below, and Sirius was quite content to just stand back, staring at her like a lovestruck fool. It was past curfew, but the pair knew that they were safe since Lily and Remus were on Prefect patrol. Sirius had planned this date out perfectly, mainly to coincide with both of their friends' prefect duties. First, they had gone for a romantic stroll around the lake, and then gone up to the Astronomy Tower for a nice dinner courtesy of the house elves. Marlene had once said that the Astronomy Tower was such a clichéd setting for a date, so Sirius had made it his goal to prove to her why clichés were popular. In his humble opinion, his mission had been a success.
As Sirius joined Marlene by the railing, they suddenly heard a loud crash. They jumped and spun around, wands at the ready. They waited but saw no one. Marlene whispered a quiet Lumos, and her wand tip lit up. She cautiously walked forward, raising her wand higher to light up the four corners of the room, but again, saw no one. She shrugged and lowered her wand, only for another crash to ring out, not a minute later, louder than the last and followed by panicked shouts.
The door to the Astronomy Tower flung open, and one Lily Evans came running through. Her eyes were wild and her hair was coming out of her typically neat ponytail. She looked more disheveled than Sirius had ever seen her before as she stood there, breathless and clutching at a stitch in her side.
"Lily?" Marlene asked, her confusion clearly written on her face.
"Uh, hey, 'Lene," Lily said, panting.
Sirius took a step forward and put his arm around Marlene's shoulders, just in case Lily had somehow forgotten that there was a date going on here, a date which she had promised not to interrupt. "Evans? What's up?"
"Well, I, uh, didn't want to interrupt, but there's, an, um, deer, running around the castle, and we might need your help," she said, looking Sirius dead in the eye.
Sirius looked back at her, blank-faced until he understood what she meant. He was too wrapped up in Marlene, and James hated being called a deer. He doubled over laughing when it finally occurred to him. What had his best mate gotten himself into this time?
James Potter had officially become an Animagus last night and had decided to have a "Marauders Only" party, but since Sirius had a date and Remus had patrol, it had only been James and Peter. As usual, James had sweet-talked the house-elves into getting them a little firewhisky.
So, they now had a drunk stag on the loose. Not the way Sirius had planned this date to go. For a second, Sirius thought about asking Lily to bugger off and tell Peter to search for James, but then realized that his heightened senses as a dog would be quite beneficial to the hunt, and that Peter was probably passed out somewhere. As usual after a Marauder party.
Lily and Marlene were the only ones who knew about the boys' biggest scheme yet, seeing as they knew that Remus was a werewolf.
"Are you sure you need my help, Evans?" Sirius asked. He was all for helping out a friend in need, but he had waited a year and a half for this date, and wasn't willing to see it end just yet.
"We really need your help, Sirius," said Lily. Her tone was firm and steady, but there was a pleading in her eyes that the hard set of her jaw couldn't hide.
Sirius knew that she had to be truly desperate if she was coming to him for help, and who wouldn't be if they had a drunk, unregistered Animagus wreaking havoc around their school.
Marlene must have realized this too because she squeezed Sirius' hand and whispered, "We can hang out anytime, Siri. James needs you."
"Fine," Sirius sighed.
The two girls turned around and headed out towards the door as Sirius transformed, but were knocked off balance by a big black dog. Padfoot turned around, and tilted his head, lolling his tongue. Marlene smiled and pet his head. He barreled off, and the two redheads shared a smile as they jogged to catch up. They caught up to the big black dog at a split in the hallway, where Remus was waiting.
"Pete fell asleep," Remus said, wrinkling his nose and nodding towards the wall, which Peter was snoring against, "So I guess it's just us. He said that they'd gotten bored and wanted to go on an adventure, hence the reason why we have a snoring Pete and drunken James the stag."
"Okay, who saw James last?" Lily asked, naturally taking charge.
"Well, Siri and I heard him just before you came rushing in," Marlene said. The black dog nodded his head in agreement.
"I saw him go pounding by when Pete came to tell me," Remus offered. "Pete said that he'd used the map to come find me, and I wasn't able to catch James, let alone comprehend what I'd seen, before he was gone."
"I haven't seen him yet," Lily said, "but -" She was interrupted by a loud crash coming from somewhere nearby. The four looked at each other and went running down the hall, Padfoot in the lead.
Padfoot took to sniffing the floor, tracking the massive stag, and followed the trail down to the level where the kitchens were. He had lost the path a couple of times, and the drunken deer hadn't taken the most direct route to the kitchens. He'd been on the trail for nearly an hour so far. He stopped abruptly, transformed, and looked on in dread as he realized what his best mate had done. He was bumped in the side as Marlene ran into him, obviously not realizing he'd stopped. Remus and Lily weren't far behind but managed to avoid hitting either him or Marlene. They too stared at what Sirius was looking at. It dawned on Remus first.
"Oh, dear Merlin," he muttered, facepalming. He looked at Sirius, dread in his eyes. The shaggy-haired boy nodded back at him, emotions mirroring his own. The girls still looked lost, and it occurred to Sirius that most people didn't know about the secret entrance to the kitchen. He sighed and tickled the pear on the portrait, and the hidden door swung open. He shepherded the three in, closing the portrait behind him, as a dozen or so house-elves suddenly flocked around the group of teenagers.
"Twinkie?" Remus called to the Marauders' favorite elf. Sirius heard a giggling sound and turned to see Marlene laughing at the baffled expression on Lily's face.
"I'll explain later," he promised to his confused classmate, realizing that as a Muggleborn, Lily probably didn't know about the elves. He turned back to see Twinkie appearing before Remus, bowing so low that the tip of her nose touched the floor.
"Twinkie, have you seen a stag come through here?" Remus asked.
"Yessir, we's seen a great big deer comes through here," the elf replied happily.
"Great, thanks, I don't suppose you know where he is now?" Sirius asked.
"Well, sir, since deers are belongings outside, Twinkie Apparated him outside."
"YOU DID WHAT?!" Came the startled voices of four sleep-deprived teenagers.
"Thank you, Twinkie," Remus said hurriedly, ushering out the other three who looked ready to hex something.
"He's outside? He could be anywhere!" Sirius exploded, once they were out of the kitchen. Well, I guess our date is now well and truly over, he thought sadly, looking over at Marlene like a sad puppy.
"Well, let's go find him," Marlene sighed, resolute.
An hour and a half later, and three meltdowns by Sirius, Sirius, and Sirius, respectively, and the group was standing on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, trying to will themselves to go in.
"Oh, dear Merlin," Lily and Remus muttered simultaneously, while Marlene and Sirius rolled their eyes.
"Let's just get this done," Lily said, making her way into the forest. Sirius transformed into a dog, sniffing out James' trail as the others followed behind him.
This better not take much longer, Sirius thought grouchily, taking a left turn. I'm going to give James hell for this, mark my words.
"Is it dead?" One asked another, bending down to sniff the deer.
"No, just asleep, I think, Ronan," the first's friend said, poking it with a cloven hoof.
"It smells bad," the one called Ronan said. "It doesn't smell like a typical deer, Firenze."
Firenze tilted his head; "Something's coming."
Ronan looked up, startled. "Good or evil?"
"With good intention," Firenze answered. "I can hear it coming," he said, quieting and hiding in a shadow, Ronan following suit.
Soon enough, a big shaggy black dog came barreling through the clearing, followed by three wand-carriers, each holding out their light-tipped wands. The dog transformed into a human and reached down to poke the deer.
"Greetings, humans. You are far away from the safety of Hogwarts, and here at a dangerous time of night, on centaur land," Firenze announced, walking out of the shadows. Ronan walked out behind him.
The humans startled, and the shaggy-haired one stood up.
"Oh, dear Merlin," the two redheaded girls and shaggy-haired boy quietly murmured simultaneously.
"Greetings, great centaurs," the sandy-haired one with many scars said, stepping forward, "I apologize for being on your territory, but we have followed our friend out here," He gestured at the deer, "and must bring him back to Hogwarts. Again, I apologize, and we mean no disrespect."
Lily, Marlene and Sirius looked at Remus, shocked. Since when did Remus know centaur customs?
Firenze and Ronan looked at each other, considering what the human had said.
"Very well," Ronan said, eventually. "Just don't let us catch you out here again. It is unsafe for you."
"We won't. Thank you so much," Remus said, bowing his head, the other three following suit.
Sirius became a dog again and woke up James the deer. James and Sirius looked at each other, communicating through their strong bond. Sirius was tired, and silently begged James to get up. Eventually he did, swaying and staggering a bit. They walked off back towards Hogwarts, all thoroughly exhausted by their nightly adventure, and decided to leave all explanations, apologies and tellings off until morning. When they reached the front doors, Sirius convinced the still very drunk stag to transform back into his human form. Some begging and cajoling was required, but James finally did as he was told, although he needed both Remus' and Sirius' help to keep him upright.
As they reached their common room, Sirius pulled Marlene aside to apologize for the horrendous date disaster that they'd gone through.
"Actually, Siri, I kind of enjoyed it," Marlene said, smiling shyly.
"You - what - you did?" Sirius asked, shocked.
"Well, yeah. It was an adventure!"
"Well, adventure or not, I can assure you our next date will be much better," Sirius said, grinning at her.
Marlene smiled cheekily. "What makes you think that there'll be a second date?"
Sirius scoffed. "Don't kid yourself, McKinnon, we both know you're crazy about me."
"Only because you were crazy about me first!" Marlene exclaimed, reaching up to give him a goodnight kiss on the cheek. The pair walked off to go to bed, and the second they were back in their dorms, they all crashed into their respective beds, exhausted from their ordeal. As Sirius drifted off to sleep, he quickly remembered something that concerned Peter, but shrugged it off. Whatever it was could wait until morning.
In the morning, Sirius and Remus dragged James down to the common room before speaking to him at all. They sat on the couch, next to Marlene and Lily, both of whom looked very mad and very tired.
"So… I had an odd dream last night," James said awkwardly, trying to break the tension. The door to the common room went slamming open, and all five of the Gryffindors jumped at the sound. They craned their necks to see what had made such a racket, and there was Peter, angry and exhausted.
"Did you all know I spent the night sleeping in a HALLWAY?" His voice boomed.
"OH, DEAR MERLIN!" Came the voices of five teenagers, running from their very angry friend.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed! If you did, please review! I'd love to hear from you!