A/N Hello, all, I am aware that I suck, am terrible at updating, etc, etc. However, after a long summer interning with no internet, and no laptop for a large portion of it, I am back and ready to update. This update is brought to you in celebration of Pottermore! Look out for updates on all of my HP stories, as they are receiving update priority in honor of the new website.

Thanks to all Reviewers!

Dedication: To paintthesummer, whose review for the last chapter made my day.

Disclaimer: The only characters I own are Marlene's siblings who are jointly owned by myself and do I need a pen name.

"You look like shit…" Marcas noted sliding into a seat next to his older sister at the breakfast table. It was early still and not even the teachers had made their way to the Great Hall yet.

Marlene glared.

"…In the nicest possible way of course," He backtracked swiftly.

Marlene glared harder.

"It's kind of true though…"

Marlene was certainly not looking her best; she had been up half the night sobbing, and her eyes were red-rimmed from the experience. She hadn't bothered with any of her usual (mostly futile) attempts to tame her overly rambunctious hair and had instead piled the enormous mound of orange curls on top of her head in a messy ponytail that curls kept springing free from every few minutes. Her skin was pale under her freckles, and she looked like she could use a decent night or five of sleep.

"Whatever." She said finally. "It's not like it matters what I look like."

Marcas didn't miss the way her eyes darted to the other end of the table where Sirius was holding court with a group of giggling sixth year girls.

Marcas had always been fond of Sirius, but this was his sister, and he was more than a little bit fed up with the way the other Gryffindor had been treating her recently. If he had looked closer he would notice that Sirius' smile was strained and that his laugh was just slightly too loud to be real.

Not noticing any of these things, Marcas simply saw the cause of his sister's misery having a fun time with a bunch of airheaded girls while his sister had spent half the night sobbing.

Without saying a word to Marlene, he strode over to the other end of the table and stopped in front of Sirius.

"Can I have a word with you?" He asked curtly.

"Sure," Sirius replied easily. "I'll see you later, ladies," He said with a wink that set them into a new fit of giggles.

Marcas waited until they were a good five feet from the table.

…And then he punched Sirius in the jaw with as much force as he could muster.

He braced himself for a returning blow but one didn't seem to be forthcoming. Several other things did happen however; he heard several alarmed screams from the pack of girls Sirius had been entertaining, Marlene tried to get up, tripped over the hem of her robe, and collided with a group of sixth year Slytherin boys, one of whom attempted to cop a feel, resulting in a swift punch to his eye.

One of his friends decided that he didn't appreciate Marlene's response and grabbed her by the hair, dragging her back when she attempted to walk past them. This of course led to shouts of outrage from the Gryffindor table.

Marcas would have headed over there himself to let them know how he felt about them touching his sister, but before he could do anything, Sirius had stormed over to the group and skipping any formalities had hexed the guy holding onto Marlene.

This resulted in roars of indignation from his cronies who immediately retailed…by attacking Marlene.

"Oi, pick on someone your own size!" Sirius shouted.

Marlene huffed angrily as she aimed a kick for the Slytherin currently holding her around the waist.

At this point James and Remus who had just wandered into the Great Hall accompanied by Dorcas and Lily spotted the fight. James groaned in dismay, and Remus signed in resignation, however they both swiftly made their way over and began simultaneously attempting to fight off the Slytherins and extricate Sirius and Marlene.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" Professor McGonagall shrieked upon walking through the doors and spotting the ensuing conflict.

Everyone froze, perhaps thinking they would become invisible if they stood still long enough.

How'd we end up this way?

"I have never seen such insubordination, such disrespect, and worst of all this fight was started within our own house. I cannot believe that you started this, Marcas McKinnon, to demonstrate such a blatant disregard for basic decorum, I expect better." McGonagall fumed, as Madam Promfrey bustled about patching up injured students.

Marcas looked like he was going to argue with her, but he was silenced by a swift kick from his sister. "Er, sorry, professor."

"I doubt it. But you will be." The transfiguration mistress replied. "I have had just about enough of this nonsense. First of all fifty points from Gryffindor for your actions, Mr. McKinnon and you will be scrubbing the floor of the dungeons with a toothbrush until they return to their original color-"

"And what color would that be, Professor?" Marcas ventured cautiously.

"White." McGonagall answered, the corners of her mouth twitching slightly with what might have been a smile if allowed to grow up.

"But they're BLACK right now." Marcas exclaimed sounding revolted.

"Precisely." McGonagall replied. "Perhaps you shall think before you decide to punch a member of your house in the future."

"So, he can punch people of other houses?" James ventured from a few cots over.

"Five points from Gryffindor, Potter."

"It was just a point of clarification, Professor." James protested.

"Moving on," McGonagall said completely ignoring his complaints. "I understand that one of you saw fit to lay hands on Miss McKinnon," She said glaring at the gaggle of Slytherins on the other side of the hospital wing. "That is inexcusable, reprehensible behavior, and I am appalled at the lot of you. One hundred fifty points from Slytherin. You will all be attending detention with me, every night for the next two weeks, and during your detentions we will be discussing appropriate treatment of women, since you all seemed to have missed some critical lessons in that area."

There were some grumbled protests, but no one dared to speak up. This was the angriest any of them had ever seen McGonagall.

"Black, Potter, Lupin, I gather that you were attempting to help Miss McKinnon, which is noble, but your methods of doing so were inadvisable at best, therefore I award you each ten points and three nights of detention. Count yourselves lucky." She finished, finally she turned to Marlene and spoke in a somewhat more sympathetic tone. "Miss McKinnon, I don't see any cause to punish you for as all of your actions seemed to be in self-defense, however do try to be more careful in the future."

With that final word McGonagall strode out of the hospital wing.

See me nervously pulling at my clothes and trying to look busy,
You're doing your best to avoid me.

"Are you okay?" Marlene asked Sirius quietly after McGonagall left.

"'Course." Sirius answered with a nod, not meeting Marlene's eyes.

"Um, that's good." Marlene replied awkwardly, fiddling with the sleeves on her robes. "Not that I needed your help or anything." She hastened to add.

"Why would you?" Sirius agreed.

"I'm glad you know that." Marlene answered softly. "I had better be going. Come on, Dorcas." Without waiting for a reply, she turned on her heel, seized the other witch above the elbow and dragged her out of the ward after her.

"You two are so dumb." Remus sighed in exasperation.

"Whatever." Sirius mumbled. "Let's just go."

I'm starting to think one day I'll tell the story of us,
How I was losing my mind when I saw you here,
But you held your pride like you should've held me.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

Marlene could literally hear the time passing as she stared blankly at her Arithmancy textbook. It was a Saturday and she was in the library, studying, at nine in the bloody morning. Marlene didn't do mornings, and she definitely didn't do mornings spent cooped up in the library studying.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

Of course, it's not like she'd had a whole lot else to do lately. But, you would think she'd at least have better grades with all the time she'd spent studying. Unfortunately, she wasn't actually having an easy time when it came to the focusing bit.

She wondered what Sirius was doing-wait no, she didn't because Sirius didn't matter to her-and, she didn't need him-

And, oh, Merlin, she was lying to herself now that has to be a whole new kind of low.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

In the darkest, most secret-est corner of her heart, she always kind of dreamed that she and Sirius were meant to be, and that they would grow up and get married and have six or seven kids, and a whole gaggle of grandchildren that would set about livening up Hogwarts for generations to come.

Of course, the most logical, practical part of her brain had always whispered that she wasn't flashy enough for Sirius, she was good enough to be his friend but nothing else, and sometimes she wished that she were less 'cute' with her short stature, curly hair, and freckles, and more like those statuesque blondes that every guy she knew seemed to salivate over.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

But then, it's not like she would ever say anything to Sirius because what would be gained by that? He wouldn't return her feelings, he couldn't. And then she would have lost her best friend. Although, it's not like it much matters anyway; since they've already been reduced to shouting across classrooms and muttering out the occasional request for quills.

She kind of thinks she's going insane, like she's trapped in this alternate dimension where nothing at all makes sense, because how could anything make sense when she exists separately from Sirius. If such a thing can be called existing. For almost as long as she can remember it has always been Marlene and Sirius, Sirius and Marlene.

She hears the door to the library open and she looks up briefly and spots Sirius walking in with James at his side, which is really odd, because those two wouldn't be caught dead in the library.

For some reason, and she doesn't really know why she swiftly moves out of their sight ducking behind a cart of books.

"I'm telling you Sirius, you need to get over this stupid fight, it's really not worth it," James says in the tone of someone who has said something many times before and is beginning to lose hope that it will have any impact.

"And, I've told you, I have absolutely no desire to make nice with her," Sirius snaps back.

Marlene's breath hitches involuntarily, she knows that she's said that and worse multiple times to Dorcas, and Remus, and anyone who will listen, but it's a whole other thing to hear it on Sirius' lips.

"Sirius-" James starts.

"I don't need her." Sirius interrupts in a curt tone.

Unbidden, a sob escapes her lips, and Marlene squeezes her lips together tightly to compress further emotion.

She sees James look towards her hiding spot with narrowed eyes, and she thinks he knows she's there, but he doesn't bring Sirius' attention to it.

"Let's go, I don't see Lily's book anywhere." James says finally.

At least that explains why they were here, the part of her that doesn't feel like it's disintegrating into a million tiny pieces concludes.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

Oh, I'm scared to see the ending,
Why are we pretending this is nothing?

"Hello, Dorcas, Marlene" James greeted the two witches cordially. "Aren't you supposed to be with Remus right now?" He asked Dorcas without waiting for a response to his greeting.

"No," Dorcas replied. "Remus is doing patrol right now,"

"Aren't you supposed to be helping him with that?" James asked.

"No, because I'm not a prefect, ergo…"

"I really, really, think you need to go meet Remus." James emphasized.

"Well, I guess I will just go do that." Dorcas said getting to her feet, and shoving her textbooks back in her bag. "I'll see you later, Marly, and as always James your subtlety astounds me."

"Later, Dorcas." James called absently after her.

"So, want to come for a walk with me?" He asked Marlene.

"If you were just going to ask me to leave the room anyway, why did you bother sending Dorcas away?" Marlene asked.

James flushed. "It was necessary."

"You didn't think about it, did you?" Marlene asked knowingly.

"I refuse to answer that, now just come with me, okay?" James answered waving off her comment.

"I'm kind of trying to study." Marlene huffed.

"Your book is upside down."

"I'm um, working on a new study technique?" Marlene tried.

"Sure, now why don't you take a little break, from your clearly rigorous studying and come have a chat with your dear friend James?"

"Fine," Marlene ground out.

"Excellent," James grinned, and proceeded to tow Marlene from the room and toward the nearest door out of the castle. "So." He finally said when they were standing near the lake watching the giant squid propel lazily about.

"So?" Marlene repeated.

"You miss Sirius." James stated plainly.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Marlene scoffed.

"I know you were in the library this morning." James crossed his arms and stared the short witch down unblinkingly.

Marlene wavered. "Shinach (1)."

"I'll take that as a compliment." James replied.

"It wasn't one." Marlene shot back.

"Eh." James shrugged. "Now, admit you miss him."

"What would I gain from that?" Marlene demanded. "It wouldn't change anything. And, besides Sirius and I are better off apart."

"Why are you acting as if this fight is nothing?" James demanded. "The two of you have a whole hell of a lot in common, beginning with the fact that you are both too hardheaded to see what's right in front of you, and ending with the infuriating pride that you both suffer from, you would both rather lose each other than say you're sorry." He snapped out.

Marlene looked away across the water. "I don't like this anymore than you do."

"Then say something, do something!" James exclaimed.

"I can't."

"You can't or you won't?"

I'd tell you I miss you but I don't know how,
I've never heard silence quite this loud.

"You two are honestly the only people I know who can be loudly silent." Dorcas complained to Marlene from their spot in the far corner of the common room.

Sirius was seated with Remus and Peter on the other end of the common room, sitting with his arms crossed and not even trying to pretend that he was working on his homework. Instead he was just staring blankly into space, while Remus and Peter carried on a conversation around him.

"It's a gift," Marlene's lips twitched in what could have been a smile if allowed to grow up. She gave Sirius what Dorcas would have called a fond glance if the two weren't committed to hating each other.

"Why don't you just say you're sorry?" Dorcas wondered. "Surely, you two have had much worse fights in the past?"

"Sirius and I have never really fought." Marlene negated.

Being with Sirius had always felt like an extension of herself, like she always knew what he would say and what he was thinking the same as she knew what she wanted to have for breakfast. It was part of the reason they made such a great team as beaters, because they always knew what the other one was thinking, and could quickly get into position.

"Marly-"

"I don't want to hear it, Dorcas."

Now I'm standing alone in a crowded room and we're not speaking,
And I'm dying to know is it killing you like it's killing me, yeah?

Normally, the day people look forward to in February is the fourteenth; it's the day of flowers, candy, chocolate, and a million other silly little traditions. Sirius and Marlene had made rather a hobby of mocking the sickeningly sweet couples that seemed to spring up all over the place that day.

The day they always made sure to celebrate was the seventeenth of the month, a day of no particular significance to anyone but themselves. Sirius and Marlene became friends on February seventeenth, when they were just five years old.

They normally celebrated the day with a particularly spectacular prank, one they planned out for weeks prior to the event. This year was supposed to be the prank to end all pranks.

February seventeenth had fast become a day that students looked forward to with great anticipation, and the teachers dreaded. Thus, it was not surprising when McGonagall strode into their Transfiguration class that day with a look of extreme suspicion.

Marlene slouched down in her seat next Dorcas and hid her face behind her hair. Sirius was staring blankly into space, not even pretending to pay attention to whatever Remus and James were saying to him.

The lesson was very scattered as McGonagall kept twitching in fear every few minutes as though something was going to explode at any moment, and the rest of the class kept glancing between Sirius and Marlene clearly expecting something to go down at any moment.

"Class dismissed." McGonagall said finally. "Black and McKinnon, you stay after, I need to speak with you both."

Marlene obediently shuffled to the front of the room, determinedly not looking at Sirius.

McGonagall waited until the other students had filed out before she spoke. "All right, when is it going to happen? I know you two have to have something planned?" She demanded impatiently.

"Honestly, Professor, and I won't presume to speak for Marlene, but I don't have anything planned, besides attending Quidditch practice, and maybe doing some homework." Sirius answered.

"And, how about you, Miss McKinnon?" McGonagall asked surveying the younger witch over the top of her spectacles. "What are your plans for the evening?"

"I was going to go visit Hagrid before Quidditch, I go see him a couple times a month, and I make dinner usually." Marlene replied. "He has a new pet he wanted to show me."

"Are you two quite alright?" The Gryffindor head of house questioned.

"Of course, my dear Minnie," Sirius said with a charming smile.

"I'm great." Marlene agreed with false brightness.

"Very well, be on your way then."

I don't know what to say, since the twist of fate when it all broke down,
And the story of us looks a lot like a tragedy now.

"So, uhm, that was weird, right?" Sirius mused as they headed towards Ancient Runes.

"Yeah," Marlene cleared her throat awkwardly. "I-I guess she thought we were going to do something, 'coz it's the seventeenth, and everything."

"Oh. Is it really?" Sirius asked nonchalantly. "I hadn't realized."

"Yeah, I hadn't either, until McGonagall started acting like a scarred rabbit." Marlene hastened to clarify.

"I can't believe we even made such a big deal about the whole thing in the past." Sirius said with a shrug.

"It was silly, really." Marlene said with a nod that sent her curls bobbing all over the place.

"Mmhmm." Sirius muttered. "Well, we're here." He nodded towards the door to the classroom. He strides into the room and claims a seat next to Emmeline Vance, immediately slipping an arm around the back of her chair.

"Miss me, Vance?" She hears him say. Then she ignores the rest of the conversation and sits down in between Caradoc Dearbron and Fabian Prewett and begins laughing loudly at their clearly hilarious conversation about the traditional rune translation method vs. the reform method.

This is looking like a contest,
Of who can act like they care less,
But I liked it better when you were on my side.

"I have called you all here to have a very important discussion." McGonagall announced. "I have ignored the situation long enough, because I try not to meddle in the private affairs of my students, but I cannot allow this to continue any longer. What precisely is going on with Miss McKinnon and Mr. Black?"

"They got into a really stupid fight, and haven't spoken in months." Dorcas summed up.

The crowd she had assembled included James, Remus, Dorcas, Lily, and Peter. She had called them all to her office for an impromptu meeting following her discussion with Sirius and Marlene earlier that morning.

"Do you know what I found strange about today, Mr. Potter?"

"What's that, Professor?" James asked cautiously.

"I have made it through most of the day so far, and there has been no prank, no explosion, nothing. And can you think of a February seventeenth, in which life at Hogwarts has been allowed to proceed normally?"

"No." James replied.

"I do believe it is past time for Miss McKinnon and Mr. Black to resolve whatever issues they have. And you five are going to take care of it."

"Erm, what?" Remus asked clearly shocked by the Transfiguration professor's plans.

"What did you have in mind, Professor?" Lily spoke up.

"You lot are going to pull off a prank worthy of their usual displays. I will of course be forced to award them detention as everyone with half a brain will know that they are responsible. I will confiscate their wands, and then you will make sure they cannot escape the room until they have made up. I will not have any more of this feuding going on in my house, and certainly not within my Quidditch team."

"Wow…professor, did you just suggest we prank people?" Peter asked.

"I am so proud to be in your house." James exclaimed gleefully.

"If you tell anyone about this I will of course deny everything." McGonagall emphasized. "No get to work."

"Of course. We provide only the best." James said with a bow.

The battle's in your hands now,
But I would lay my armor down
If you said you'd rather love than fight.

Dinner was a strange affair that night. The hall was hushed with anticipation; everyone clearly expected something big to happen at any moment. Some of the seventh years, who knew the situation with Marlene and Sirius carried on eating as normal, since it seemed pretty clear that nothing was going to happen.

It happened just before dessert; or rather it happened when dessert should have happened. Except that instead of dessert shooting forth on the platters in the middle of the table, something very strange happened.

Gold slime burst forth enveloping everyone at the Slytherin table. Attempts to vanish it caused it to grow larger.

At Ravenclaw table bludgers made out of paper burst forth, colliding with chairs, and walls, and exploding colorful red and gold candies.

At the Hufflepuff table a rainbow of glitter shot forth and safety scissors appeared next to every member of the house.

Fireworks shot into the air from the Gryffindor table, they exploded and formed the number twelve, which (un)coincidentally was the number of years Sirius and Marlene had been friends.

"Detention! Miss McKinnon, Mr. Black, I am shocked by this display, such disregard for basic decorum, and to lie to me like you did this morning! Unbelievable! Come with me immediately." McGonagall demanded.

Sirius and Marlene were both looking on in horror. "We didn't do anything, I swear! Or at least I didn't!" Marlene exclaimed.

"I'm innocent! For once, really." Sirius seconded.

"At least own up to it." McGonagall scowled having reached them. She grabbed each of them by an ear and dragged them from the Great Hall ignoring their loud complaints.

The last thing Sirius and Marlene saw before they made it out of the room was James winking at them both. They let out identical howls of outrage.

So many things that you wished I knew,
But the story of us might be ending soon.

A/N Review! Next chapter will be out soon.

(1)-Sly Bastard