Sorry for long updates, I'm just not really feeling myself recently.

Please review and let me know what you think!

"Now are you sure you have everything you need, dear?" Lily's mother asked her as they stood beside the bright red steam engine and quarter to eleven, children and parents of all ages gathered similarly around them.

"I'm sure, mum." Lily said, smiling at her mother who she was slowly becoming the same height as.

"Okay then dear. Be good, keep working hard and please be careful." Her mother said, an anxiously forced smile on her face.

"I will be, Mum, you don't need to worry," she said, hugging her mother tightly breaking away only when Lily heard someone call her name. Before she could even see who it was, she felt someone small crashing into her, pushing her backwards a few feet.

"Urgh! Lils, it's been ages since I saw you!" Alice said, smiling up at Lily. She had short, black hair styled into a sort of pixie cut, her dark eyes shimmering with excitement. "Nice to see you Mrs Evans." She said, nodding at the woman who smiled back.

"You must be Alice." She said, knowing immediately that this was the strange and bubbly girl that Lily had so many stories about.

"The one and only." She said giving a mock salute to Lily's father as well. "Nice to meet you sir, and you must be Petunia, Lily's said so much about you." Alice said, still smiling.

"I bet she has." Pertunia sneered, looking at the girl with distaste, something Alice didn't pick up on, but Lily did.

"Be nice, Tunia," Mr Evans said but Petunia just huffed, sticking her nose in the air and crossing her arms.

"I'm going to wait in the car." She said snootily and stormed off towards the barrier, eyeing it sceptically. She seemed to decide better than going through it on her own, and decided instead to stand next to it, a look of disgust on her face as she watched the witches and wizards.

"Don't' worry about her, Lily," Mr Evans said. "I'm sure she'll come around eventually." He said hugging his daughter.

"Sure, when hell freezes over, I'll bet." Alice said and Mr and Mrs Evans looked at her questioningly, like they weren't sure whether she was joking or not, a very common thing with Alice. "Come on Lils, we need to nab a decent compartment before the others get here," She said, linking her arm through Lily's and dragging her towards the large train. "Nice to meet you!" Alice shouted back over her shoulder and Lily's parents gave her daughter and her friend a wave before waiting patiently for the train to leave so they could see their daughter off properly.

"Now you're sure you've got everything, Drew," Freya McKinnon asked as she fussed over her son, making sure his jacket was done up and that he had his packed lunch in his bag. Marlene had very subtly thrown her sandwich to the pigeons while her mother was fussing with her brother. In all honesty she just wanted to get on the train and leave. "And Christa, you'll make sure he gets a seat on the train and that he knows where he's going." She said, talking to the now third year girl who nodded excitedly as Marlene rolled her eyes.

"Marlene," Her mother said and Marlene looked up from her shoes and looked instead at her mother who was eyeing sceptically with a smile on her face. Marlene knew this wasn't a good thing. "Why aren't you wearing your badge, love?"

"My what? What badge?" Marlene asked, looking at her t-shirt in confusion.

"Your prefect's badge," Her mother said, sounding slightly irritated, looking at people passing by from the corner of her eyes.

"Mum, I thought you knew, Lily got prefect, not me." If Marlene thought her mum would accept that excuse, she was very wrong.

"Christa, go and get on the train, love, we don't want you not getting a seat." Her mother said and Chrissy sent an apologetic shrug to Marlene before scurrying off towards the train, a confused Drew in tow. "What do you mean you're not a prefect?" Her mother said, rounding on her eldest daughter with a crazed look in her eyes.

"I mean I'm not a prefect." Marlene said, shrugging nonchalantly, truth was, Marlene didn't want to be a prefect, all that responsibility and being a role model, the thought was enough to make her shudder.

"Don't take that tone with me." Her mother said sternly "Now what do you mean you're not a prefect, of course you are, you're a McKinnon." She said and puffed her chest out proudly. Marlene wanted to laugh.

"Mum, I'm telling you, I'm not a prefect, I wasn't good enough." She said carelessly and her mothers eyes narrowed.

"Well you're right about one thing." Her mother said coldly, and Marlene was shocked for a second, before she narrowed her eyes at her.

"Excuse me?" she asked, her voice intimidating, but her mother held her ground.

"You heard me, young lady. You said you weren't good enough, and I agree." She said and it felt like someone had just punched Marlene straight in the gut. "Both of your brothers were prefects, Ross was even head boy and Cameron was Quidditch captain, they've both got bright futures ahead of them, and I'm not so sure you do."

"How can you say that?" Marlene said, abashed that her mother was saying such things to her.

"Because you're ruining your life, Marlene, you'd better pluck your ideas up if you want to live up the McKinnon name." she said, holding her head high.

"Well maybe I don't want to live up to the fucking McKinnon name." Marlene burst out, the rage coursing through her mingling with the hurt from her mothers words were seriously obscuring her judgement, but she didn't have the mind to care.

"Marlene!" Her mother said, sounding shocked as she looked over her shoulders, checking no one had heard her daughter use such language. "Don't you use that language towards me."

"Stop telling me what to do." Marlene countered, her fists clenched at her side. "You always do this, tell me I'm not as good as Cameron or Ross or even Chrissy like it's going to magically change me into the perfect daughter." she ranted but her mother didn't seem to be paying attention. "Are you even listening to me?"

"You'd better get on the train." Her mother said. "We'll talk about this another time." Her mother said and turned to walk away.

"Unbelievable." Marlene said, turning on her heel and stalking towards the train and climbing aboard, not looking back towards her mother as she walked down the platform towards the barrier.

"So what did you do all summer then, Marlene?" Dorcas asked, looking at the girl opposite her in the compartment. "Aside form Gideon of course."

After she'd gotten on the train, Marlene had flopped into the window seat of the first empty compartment she'd found, quickly to have been joined by Dorcas, Peter, James and Sirius.

"I stayed in mostly," Marlene said reaching for the bag at her feet. They'd been on the train for at least an hour now, but the prefects weren't back from their meeting, meaning they were short of Lily and Remus. Alice had disappeared looking for Frank Longbottom and Mary MacDonald had only stopped to say hello once before scurrying off to find her boyfriend Amos Diggery.

"Ooo, exciting." Dorcas said, rolling her eyes and Marlene pulled a packet of cigarettes out of her pocket, sticking one between her lips before opening the window of the compartment.

"What about you two love birds?" she asked, turning towards James and Sirius,

"Well we went for a few moonlit walks and ate dinner on the beach at one point." Sirius said with a smirk. He was sat by the window opposite Marlene but was making a point not to look at her while she dragged on her cigarette, blowing the smoke out of the window.

"Sounds romantic." Dorcas replied. "Merlin, why is everyone so dead today!" she exclaimed while the others looked at her blankly. "You're all being so dull, James isn't fawning over Lily, Remus isn't here to roll his eyes and for god sake why aren't you two trying to kill each other yet?" she said looking directly at Marlene and Sirius who just looked at her blankly. "Urgh! I'm off to find Alice and Frank, perhaps they can save my sanity."

They sat in silence for a little while longer until Peter looked up excitedly from his comic and jumped at the doorway just as the woman said –

"Anything from the trolley dears?" they all sniggered slightly at Peter's excitement and even sparked some conversations between each other while munching quietly on some of the sweets Peter bought, but it was short lived.

"I think the prefects are finished," Peter said after another hour of silence, to which James practically jumped out of his seat in an attempt to make himself presentable. He smoothed his clothes and ruffled his hair, giving it the I-Just-Got-Off-A-Broom look, something that made Marlene laugh and Sirius scoff.

"Hey guy's" Lily said as she entered the compartment with Remus and Gideon in tow, something that made Sirius scowl even deeper than before. "We met Gideon on the way out and he said he wanted to- Marlene," She said, looking accusingly at the girl who was sat with her feet up on the seat. Marlene gave Lily a 'hmm' of recognition but didn't say anything. "Have you been smoking in here?" she asked, her hands on her hips as Sirius chuckled at the scenario. Lily looked like an angry mother in a school uniform, obviously having changed into her robes for the meeting. James was looking at her adorningly and Gideon was looking at Marlene with a strange put off expression as she smirked her notorious smirk at Lily.

"It's nice to see you too, Lily, I had a great summer, thanks for asking." She said, making Sirius laugh. She shot him a look and he shrugged innocently, something that made her furrow her brow in suspicion, an expression that Sirius thought was extremely attractive on her face.

Sirius and Marlene had an extremely complicated relationship, they hated each other, could hardly stand to be around one another, yet the second they were alone they were all over each other, kissing and touching each other wherever they could. It was addictive, it was electrifying, and Sirius had gone a long time without that rush, he was getting impatient.

And now here she was, sat on Gideon's lap, his arms around her waist as she whispered seductively in his ear. Boyfriends had never got in his way before, so he didn't know why it bothered him now, they usually used each other to cheat on their respective partners anyway, yet this one barrier seemed unable to be crossed, and Sirius was sure to change that.

"So have you all had a good summer?" Gideon asked in his polite voice, one than made Sirius sneer, something that went far from unnoticed by Marlene who narrowed her eyes at him.

"My Parents took me and Petunia to France for a week." Lily said with a smile "It's beautiful there." She said

"I've never been," Marlene said longingly, sweeping her blonde curls over her bare shoulder where her shirt had slipped down, revealing her black bra strap.

"Maybe I'll take you," Gideon said, kissing her cheek and she scoffed slightly.

"If you say so," she said cheekily, but Gideon looked affronted as he looked at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked and Marlene rolled her eyes at him.

"What'd you think it means?" she asked, seemingly oblivious to the problem with what she'd just said. Everyone else was watching them with bated breath, even Sirius was watching them interested from the corner of his eye.

"It sounds like you were taking a dig at my family." He said, straightening his back with pride, Marlene just raised an eyebrow at him.

"If that's how you want to take it, fine." She said, reaching down for her bag on the floor and beginning to rummage through it.

"You can't smoke in here!" Gideon said, sounding a lot angrier than was necessary as Marlene placed the cigarette between her lips.

"Fine," she huffily, jumping off his lap and readjusting her frayed shorts as she tucked the cigarette behind her ear for safe keeping, something Sirius noticed she did a lot "I'll fucking go somewhere else then," she said coldly and after throwing her bag back into the floor, she left the compartment, slamming the sliding door after her.

Gideon fell back against the seats, running a hand across his face and through his ginger hair while everyone else watched him curuiously.

"Trouble in paradise?" Sirius asked, smirking at the seventh year and Gideon rounded on him like a bull.

"Screw you, Black," he said darkly and Sirius laughed, "what's so funny, Black?" Gideon asked, his fists clenching at his sides.

"Nothing, nothing at all." He said innocently, but he snickered afterwards and looked at his lap to hide his grin.

"No, if you've got something to say, then say it." Gideon said and Sirius raised his grey eyes to meet his.

"I just don't see how you think you can keep Marlene reined." He said with an innocent shrug.

"Maybe because I'm her boyfriend." Gideon replied smugly, clearly under the impression that Sirius was jealous of him, but Sirius just smirked at the older boy.

"True, but for how long?" Sirius asked and Gideon's face reddened angrily, his neck and ears tingeing pink.

"Is that a threat, Black?" he asked through gritted teeth. But Sirius remained un-phased.

"No, I've no interest in her." He said and he saw James's meaningful look from beside him, "But it's not me you need to be worried about."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Gideon asked dangerously, standing up so quickly that everyone was shocked he didn't topple over. Instead, he glared down at Sirius challengingly, and Sirius, ever the arrogant one, rose to that challenge, standing up to face him.

Gideon was about a head taller than Sirius, and a sure sight stockier being keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, but where Gideon was boiling with anger, Sirius remained cool and collected, his grey eyes looking challengingly into Gideon's brown ones.

"You know what I mean." He said feigning caring, "You know she's a loose cannon, and she's not exactly pure. Not a brilliant mix." He said feigning thoughtfulness as Gideon's face, if possible, reddened more.

"You're one to talk, Black," he spat back and Sirius laughed.

"No you're right, and you've got her to thank for that." Gideon's fist moved so fast that Sirius didn't know it had moved until it impacted with his jaw. Lily gasped and Peter squeaked slightly, but James was on his feet, whether to hold back Gideon or Sirius, he wasn't entirely sure. But before he could do anything Sirius had swung a well aimed punched that collided with Gideon's nose with a satisfying crack.

"James!" Lily shrieked as the two boys began fighting, kicking and punching whatever part of the other that they could. "James, do something!" She said but James held up a hand to stop her, clearly thinking that the two of them needed this. Lily jumped to her feet, pulling her wand from her robe pocket and pointed it at the two boys, but before she could utter a spell, the two were forced apart, each one thrown back into their seats, Gideon with his face covered in blood from his nose, and Sirius's jaw was slowly purpling, his lip split and bleeding.

"I'm gone for two fucking minutes and you decide to rip each other apart." Marlene said her wand in hand as she held the door open in the compartment. Sirius sat back against his seat with his arms crossed, a sly smirk on his face, but Gideon stood up, opening his mouth to plead his case to his girlfriend, but Marlene cut him off. "I don't care, Gideon, I really don't." she said, holding up a hand "Fabian is three compartments down with Doe, Frank and Alice, go join them." She said darkly and instead of arguing with the determined look on Marlene's face, he left, throwing Sirius a dark looked before leaving.

Sirius waved in response.

"And you," Marlene said, pointing her wand at Sirius, "Give me one good reason I shouldn't hex you into oblivion," she said threateningly, and Sirius smirked.

"Because he started it?" Sirius said and Marlene scoffed loudly.

"And why the fuck should I believe that?" she asked and then Sirius was on his feet, looking at her across the gap.

"Maybe because he's a twat," Sirius reasoned and Marlene laughed harshly.

"You're one to talk. You can't even sit alone for five minutes with somebody without bigging yourself up or shouting abuse."

"Me? You should hear yourself." He said harshly and Marlene's eyes narrowed. "Moping around and shouting at people because you're not mummy's little angel anymore." He said and Marlene raised her wand, her hand steady. Sirius, James knew, was seconds away from getting his own out from his pocket.

"Fuck you, Black," she said coldly, "You know nothing about my family," she said and Sirius laughed, it wasn't a humorous laugh, it was dark and cold. "Besides, you're not exactly one to judge other peoples families, isn't you're brother a death eater?" she said harshly, raising and eyebrow. Lily gasped again, James moved to hold Sirius back, but he already had his wand out, pointing it at Marlene.

"Don't fucking start, McKinnon," Sirius said darkly, and Peter recoiled back into his seat slightly.

"Padfoot, leave it," James said, standing infront of his taller friend, but Sirius was still glaring at Marlene over James's shoulder.

"No, I want to hear what else she's got to say!" Sirius shouted, but Lily was already standing back to back with James, trying to calm Marlene down as Remus had his arms around her waist and was trying to drag her from the compartment, an apologetic and guilty look on his face as Marlene shrieked and shouted abuse at him.

"Get off me, Lupin, or I swear to Merlin I'll rip you're fucking bollocks off!" she shouted and Sirius shouted over James shoulder.

"Empty threats, McKinnon, always empty threats!" but Marlene was gone, having been taken down the corridor of the train by Remus. Once she was gone, James and Lily relaxed for a second before Lily rounded on Sirius.

"Was that really necessary?" She said, her hands on her hips as James shifted away from in front of Sirius.

"what?" he asked incredulously, his anger slowly ebbing away, but not enough to clear his vision.

"All of it!" Lily exclaimed, "Winding up Gideon, getting into a fight and then threatening Marlene."

"I didn't threaten her,"

"It sure looked like you were when you had your wand pointed at her chest!" Lily half shrieked, and passers by turned to listen, peering in through the glass door of the compartment, but one look from Sirius and they scuttled away. "Look, we'll be there soon, just change into your robes." She said "Both of you." And then she left the compartment, grabbing robes from Marlene's trunk before walking in the direction that Remus had taken her.

"She has a point, Pads," James said reasonably, reaching for the robes in his trunk.

"Fuck off, Prongs," Sirius said, peeling off his leather jacket and throwing it onto the seat "Just because you want to get into her pants" he said, pulling on his school shirt and trousers, not looking at James while he gaped like a fish, his face reddening to the colour of Gideon's hair.

"You didn't have too mention his family," Lily whispered reasonably as she sat next to Marlene at the Gryffindor table, Dorcas on her other side, Remus and Mary MacDonald in front of her, Gideon sitting with Fabian half way along the table, pointedly looking away from her as he clutched his most likely broken nose.

"He didn't have to punch my boyfriend, but there you go," she said, spinning the golden goblet in front of her as she looked at where Professor Dumbledore was giving his start of year speech, not taking in a single word.

"Where even are the boys?" Mary asked, looking over the heads of every one at the Gryffindor table, trying to stay subtle as she did so, "I can't see them," Mary was the quietest of their group, very rarely engaging in arguments and tending to shy away from most of the confrontation that occurred. She was small, not as small as Alice but very petite with long, straight brown hair, pale skin and big hazel eyes.

"With a bit of luck," Remus said quietly "They'll be on their way," he finished, but he knew his best friends. Sirius was probably too busy brooding to come to the feast and James would feel bad leaving his friend alone, chances were they were wandering around the grounds, Sirius smoking and James playing with his snitch.

The group of friends were so caught up in conversations that none of them noticed the sorting had begun, only when Lily heard the words "Drew – McKinnon" did she finally come back to her senses and poke Marlene's arm.

"Ow! Lils, what was that-" but she was saved answering when Lily pointed towards the small boy sat on the chair, the hat slowly falling over his blonde hair. Marlene crossed her fingers before looking over at the Ravenclaw table to see Chrissy, her black hair tied in a high ponytail with a blue ribbon, surrounded by her bronze and blue tie wearing friends biting her lip.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat shouted and Drew, his face white, clambered off the stool and began walking towards the sea of black and yellow students applauding him, openly ignoring the shocked faces of his sisters as they stared after him.

The rest of the sorting was ignored by Marlene who was too preoccupied to care. Her little brother, a Hufflepuff, she was sure he'd have been in Ravenclaw at least, he was so smart, but then she remembered his kindness how he was always polite and never shared a secret when he was told not too. He was where he belonged.

Once the feast began, Marlene filled her plate with food, trying desperately to catch the eye of her little brother, but he wasn't paying attention. Only when all the food was gone, the announcement shared and the students dismissed did Marlene finally catch up to him. She was reaching through the crowd, pushing people of all houses until she was finally within shouting distance.

"Drew!" she called and the little boy stopped but didn't turn around. "Drew!" she called again, and the little boy turned his head slowly and looked sadly up at his sister, his big brown eyes sparkling with tears. "Hey," she said kindly, "What's wrong?"

"I'm not in Gryffindor," he sniffled, "I wanted to make you and Cam proud, but I cant now," he said sadly, and Marlene quickly wrapped him in a hug that he immediately returned.

"Hey, you will make us proud," she said, pulling away and wiping his face "I only said I'd disown you if you were a Slytherin" she said with a wink and Drew smiled.

"Thanks, Marley."

"Now go and find you're housemates, you need to find your common room." She said kissing kiss forehead and ruffling his soft blonde curls.

"Love you, Marley!" He called, waving over his shoulder as the Hufflepuff prefect, Amos Diggory from the year above, stood waiting for him to catch up.

When she reached the common room, she found Dorcas and Mary sat on the sofa opposite the empty fireplace.

"Where've you been?" Dorcas asked, her legs crossed underneath her as Mary looked up from the book in her lap.

"I had to speak to my brother," she said with a smile and the two of them nodded in understanding, neither of them moving when Marlene landed on the sofa between them, putting her feet up on the table since her legs were the only one out of the three of them long enough to reach. "Where's everyone else?" she asked, looking at the mostly empty common room.

"Well, Lily and Remus are showing the first years to their dorms, James, Sirius and Peter are in their dorm and Frank and Alice are over there she said, pointing to an arm chair not too far away where Alice was sat on Franks lap, her eyes shut as she smiled with her head on his chest. "Gideon's up stairs too," she said with a smirk and Marlene nodded.

"Well then, if you don't mind, I'm going to go see my dear boyfriend." She said, slapping each girl on the knee as she got up before flouncing towards the boys dormitory stairs, her blonde curls flying behind her.

"I'll never understand that girl," Dorcas said, shaking her head as she laughed.

"I don't think you're supposed to," Mary said with a small shrug, closing her book. "I'm going to bed now, you coming?" she asked pushing her dark hair behind her ears.

"In a bit," Dorcas said, waving her off towards the stairs, "you go." she said and Mary left, leaving Dorcas alone on the sofa, thinking about the brewing war, and whether or not they were truly safe in the castle that so many called home.

"Lil's, you've been back two days," Marlene said as she sat on Gideon's lap, watching the girl as she sat on the common room floor, scribbling notes on parchment "How could you possibly have so much homework already?" she asked and Lily looked up at her irritated.

"We have the same OWLs, Marlene" she said, eyeing the girl disapprovingly, "You've got the same amount of homework," but Marlene just shrugged, feeling Gideon as he chuckled into her hair. After their first night, Marlene had stayed in Gideon's bed, her way of apologising without admitting she'd done anything wrong, while Gideon practically chorused his apologies until Marlene had kissed him, just to shut him up.

"Lily, aren't you and Remus supposed to be patrolling?" Marlene asked, but Lily shook her head.

"Me and Remus patrol on Wednesdays," she said, pushing her red hair from her face. Marlene looked at Gideon and laughed slightly before looking at Lily again, who was once again bent over her parchment, her nose practically touching the paper.

"Lily," she said, and the girl looked up her eyes narrowed angrily.

"What?" she said clearly frustrated.

"It is Wednesday," Marlene said. Lily looked confused for a moment before her green eyes widened and she leapt from the sofa, grabbing her robe and throwing it on as she barrelled out of the portrait hole.

"I've got to go too," Gideon said, slowly moving Marlene from his lap so that he could stand.

"Oh?" Marlene asked, raising an eyebrow as she sat crossed legged on the sofa, wearing only her school skirt and shirt, which was un-tucked, the top two buttons undone.

"I got a detention with McGonagall for punching Black," he said and Marlene laughed slightly.

"Did he get a detention too?" she asked, smiling up at him cheekily.

"He had his just before me," he said and grabbed his robe, pulling it on quickly, "But I'll see you tonight?" he said as he bent down to kiss her.

"If I'm not already asleep." She replied, kissing him quickly before half shoving him away. The second she heard the portrait hole close she let her head fall aback against the sofa, sighing in relief.

Two days, two whole days of his needy, pushing and possessive behaviour, she was getting sick of it. He'd sit with her at breakfast, walk her to her lessons, meet her after lessons and then sit with her again at lunch. She was being suffocated, she couldn't even sneak off to smoke anymore, knowing that he'd somehow find her and lecture her about how the smoke was slowly destroying her body.

Reaching into the waist band of her skirt, Marlene pulled out one of her hidden cigarettes. It was slightly squashed, but would still work. The truth was, she had to hide her cigarettes just to avoid a lecture from him.

Putting it between her lips, she went to find her lighter, only for it to be gone.

"Need a light?" she heard a voice say from behind her. Turning around she saw Sirius black, leaning against the wall by the portrait hole, clearly back from his detention. His shaggy black hair was falling in his eyes slightly as his smouldering eyes looked over at her, the flame from his silver lighter illuminating his iris's orange.

"Piss of, Black," she replied, continuing the search for her light between the sofa cushions and on the floor, under the table and even under the sofa, all the while feeling Sirius Black's eyes burning a hole in the back of her head.

"Can I help you?" she finally said, looking up at where he was leaning, his arms crossed loosely across his chest, his shirt undone by at least three buttons and his gold and scarlet tie hanging loosely around his neck.

"I think I like you in this position," he said, smirking at her. It was only then she realised she was searching the floor for the lighter on her hands and knee's.

"You're a prick." She said, getting up and sitting back on the sofa.

"And you're sexy, but let's not dwell too much on that." Sirius replied vaulting over the back of the sofa so he was sitting next to her; she pointedly turned her face away.

"What do you want, Black?" she asked impatiently, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You," he replied, his arm resting on the back of the sofa as she tried irritatingly to move away. But every time she moved, he followed until all she could smell was cigarette smoke and what she thought was oil coming off of his body.

"Well I hate to be the barer of bad news," she said, looking up at him from where she was half cornered on the sofa, "But I've got a boyfriend." She said with a quick, meaningless smile.

"That's never stopped you before," Sirius replied with a smirk as he leant closer to her, "Who was it last time, Amos Diggory?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"A horrible mistake you helped me realise," she said before mentally slapping herself, was she honestly letting Sirius Black flirt with her, and flirting back.

"You see, I can help you realise the same with Prewett," he said sultrily as he leaned even further, Marlene's back pressed up against the arm of the sofa, but she didn't move, she was ready to play Sirius at his own game.

"There's just one, tinie, tiny little problem," she said, sitting up slightly so that he moved back, moving closer and closer, never touching his body with her own, until he was in her previous position, his back pressed against the arm of the sofa, Marlene leaning over him, her golden hair forming curtains around them both.

"And what's that, McKinnon?" he asked, tilting his head up and parting his lips, waiting for her to close the gap. She leant in closer, so close that they were breathing each others air, him tasting the fruit she'd had for desert still flavouring her mouth.

"I hate you," she said before pulling away, smirking down at him as he stood up, walking towards the girls dormitory and leaving him alone on the sofa.

"You know you don't!" he called after her, but he only heard her laugh in response and the sound of the door closing behind her.