Marlene could have easily managed to sleep a very long time. Given the early hour she woke up the day before, she felt like she could sleep for years. Maybe she'd sleep all the way until James' Christmas party, and not have to talk to her family at all. So many possibilities for sleep. She even was having a very nice dream about her and some guy with a motorbike. In the dream they had been flying over London shagging enthusiastically. It was a lovely dream she would have preferred to finish, but Megan always had horrid timing anyway.

"Marlene," A finger jabbed aggressively into Marlene's side. She groaned, rolling over. "Wake up." The finger began jabbing again.

"Bloody what?" Marlene hissed, opening her eyes to see her sister standing over her bed.

"You have to take me to Diagon Alley."

"Why?"

"I need to go Christmas shopping."

"You haven't gone already?"

"No, you have to take me."

"Megan, I can't apparate yet." Marlene rolled her eyes. "Have Mam or Da take you."

"Mam is out with Maggie," Megan huffed. "And Da is at work."

"Then Michael-"

"With his girlfriend and Matthew."

Marlene sat up. "I still can't apparate."

Megan scowled, seeming like she was coming to an unwanted conclusion. "The bloodtraitor is seventeen isn't he?"

"His name is Sirius." Marlene clenched her jaw.

Megan ignored her. "Can he apparate?"

"Go ask him."

"I'd rather not." Her sister sneered.

Marlene sent her sister a dark look, throwing off the covers. She yanked an old shirt over her head before stomping out of the room. The hallway was cold and oddly silent without her family. Marlene did her best to ignore the portraits of dead ancestors muttering about her 'taste in men'. Some comments weren't even quiet, and she knew that Megan was getting endless joy from all of it. So when she finally got to Sirius' room, she wrenched the door open and didn't even care to knock.

She realized it was probably a mistake when she saw him standing there without any pants on. With a surprised shout, he yanked on a pair of boxers.

"GODRIC GRYFFINDOR ON A STICK!" Marlene slapped a hand over her eyes.

"MERLIN'S SAGGY BALLS, MCKINNON!"

"I think I've gone blind!"

"You couldn't knock?"

"I'll never be able to forget the image!"

"You're with your younger sister."

"My grandchildren will remember that!"

"It's not like you haven't seen it before." Megan interrupted the yelling.

"Er, right..." Marlene flushed, looking down. They had almost blown it. She really needed to be more careful with him, and... well, knocking. What if he had been wanking, instead of just getting dressed? Oh Merlin, she didn't even want to think about how she'd handle that, let alone what her sister would say. She already had enough to deal with.

"Ask him," Megan commanded, nudging Marlene with her elbow.

Marlene frowned. "Megan wants to know if you could take us to Diagon Alley."

"What for?" Sirius asked.

"She hasn't done her Christmas shopping." Marlene rolled her eyes.

Sirius frowned amusedly. "You're a fourth year, why not?"

"None of your business, you filthy blo-"

"Right!" Marlene cut in. "Can you take us, Sirius?"

He frowned. "Guess so."


Marlene really didn't think about how busy Diagon Alley would be two days before Christmas. Every shop was filled completely to the brim with wizards and witches trying to make last minute purchases. She couldn't even see Quality Quidditch Supplies with the hordes of people in the store front. Flourish and Blotts was basically a mass of young cloak and hat clad witches vying for the newest romance novel For the Love of Merlin. How did she know that's what they were there for? Call it a hunch named Megan.

Megan had managed to drag Sirius and Marlene through every store, looking for the perfect gifts for ten of her friends. After three hours, they were all getting a little tired, but Marlene was damn near done with it. The countless shops coupled with the underhanded comments Megan made to Sirius was getting to be too much. Marlene had almost hit her breaking point. It was a beautiful relief when Megan decided she didn't have to drag her sister through the masses of Flourish and Blotts, and left Marlene to her own devices. And with this newfound, yet limited freedom, she and Sirius went to get ice cream.

Sidling up to the counter, Marlene ordered. "One chocolate, one strawberry please?"

"Five sickles," The girl working, Alice Fortescue-only a year ahead Marlene, smiled. Marlene handed her the money; then went to where Sirius was sitting, and waited for their orders. He was watching the crowds, frowning only slightly, though Marlene noticed. It was hard not to, especially since she only ever knew him to smile. And maybe that was a testament to how much she really didn't know him anymore, because things were changing, and it certainly wasn't a time to smile about. Really, he didn't look happy, and it registered as wrong to Marlene. Sirius Black should be smiling. He was someone who smiled.

"See anyone interesting?" She asked.

"Huh?" His eyes snapped back into focus.

"Anything interesting," Marlene repeated, nodding to the window. "Out there."

"Oh, not really." His eyes drifted back to where they'd just been. Marlene watched discomfort, anger, and grief all play across his face at once. She reached out to grab his hand before thinking about the action. That wasn't something she normally did. That's not how she or Sirius ever showed affection towards each other. She drew her hand back before he could catch her.

"Chocolate and strawberry?"

Marlene glanced up to see a boy holding bother her and Sirius' dishes. She smiled, thanked him and took their ice cream, placing Sirius' in front of him. He tore his eyes away from whatever he'd been staring at. It was a moment before he actually started to eat the ice cream, and Marlene thought again how weird he was acting. But she figured for the time being he could eat. She would hold her tongue.

Instead she admired the view out the window. It was an activity she had enjoyed greatly as a young girl, imagining what Diagon Alley looked like to muggleborns walking through for the first time. There was much more color than in muggle London, that was for sure. It wasn't much cleaner, but the litter tended to be a slight more magical. There was no cloak of one color, really. Most of them were some kind of festive color. Hell, she even saw a woman wearing one where the reindeer actually pranced around the edges.

As Marlene's eyes danced over a group of Slytherin, Death Eater wannabes, she thought the people were all the same. There was prejudice no matter what part of London you lived in, at least according to Lily. It seemed like there was nowhere you could go to escape the real shit the world had to offer. She glared at the Slytherins. Who were they anyway, to think that they were any more special than Lily or anyone like her? Her eyes lingered over each one, disgusted that she knew their names. She knew what they did, and she knew what they got away with.

And that's when she saw him. Regulus.

Marlene slapped a hand over her mouth. She knew from what Sirius told her Regulus had been heading down a bad path, but from what she knew, he never actually joined up. It looked like he finally had.

"Mother must be so proud."

She glanced up to find Sirius had followed her gaze.

"I'm sorry, Sirius."

"Why should I care?" He shrugged, but Marlene could see the cold look in his eyes and hear the veiled pain in his voice. "He made his choices and I made mine."

This time Marlene did grab his hand.


When they finally got back home, Marlene was about ready to scream. Megan's attitude was really riding her nerves, and she swore she was close to killing the girl and accepting the Azkaban charges. All she raved about was blood purity the whole trip back. Granted it was only about three minutes, but three minutes of the same ridiculous stuff she read in the Prophet every morning was three minutes too many. Marlene knew well enough to keep her mouth shut because Megan would just love to rant to their father about how much of a bloodtraitor she actually was.

But Sirius didn't know.

"Shut up, Megan." He interrupted her as she ranted about muggles and their 'dirty culture'.

"Excuse you?"

"You heard me," Sirius growled. "Do you even understand half the shit pouring from your mouth?"

"Don't tell me what to do, bloodtraitor." Megan scoffed.

Sirius' eyes narrowed. "I'd rather be a bloodtraitor than what you lot are."

"Would you, really?" Megan scowled. "Regulus tells me you were the biggest disappointment your family ever had."

"I fail to see the insult."

"That's because you're as stupid as the rest of your mudblood friends-" Megan cut off the rest of her sentence as soon as Sirius' wand was out and at her neck.

"Say it again." His voice was dangerously even.

"Didn't Walburga ever teach you not to hex a girl?"

"You said it yourself, I'm the family disappointment."

"You don't have it in you."

"Try me."

Marlene thought that was about the time to step in. With her back to Sirius, she stepped between the two, shoving her sister away. "Just stop, Megan."

"You're taking his side?" Her jaw dropped.

"Of course I am," Marlene scoffed. "It's the bloody right side!"

"You can't-"

"I do,"

Megan's hand flew from her side and connected with Marlene's face. First, there was no sensation at all, just the shock. Next, the stinging set in and it consumed Marlene's mind just long enough for her to cry out. Finally, the burn of tears or pain or both. Marlene felt her breath catch, and she decided it was tears. Her eyes caught the motion of Megan's hand rising again. She braced herself for impact, squeezing her eyes shut, but it never came. Peaking an eye open, she saw the reason why.

Sirius had caught Megan by the wrist, wrenching her back. The look on his face was one Marlene had never seen before. Or at least, not in any relation to her. She'd seen this look plenty of times before... on James. Whenever anyone ever threatened Lily, he got the same look Sirius had. It was scary when James wore it, and he was just a sprightly kid with messy hair. But on Sirius Black. Sirius Black, with his broad shoulders, huge arms, and dark eyes. Sirius Black, who ran away from home at sixteen, and went toe-to-toe with blood-purists twice his size weekly. Sirius Black who had never so much as hinted at feeling that sort of protective about anyone, let alone Marlene. On Sirius the look was fucking terrifying.

"Don't fucking touch her." Sirius warned.

Megan visibly shrunk back. "I-I'll tell my parents."

"Good," Sirius dropped her arm, backing towards Marlene. "You can pass the message along." Megan squeaked and ran inside.

Then there was a moment where Marlene stood watching Sirius shoulders move up and down as he took deep breaths. She tried to ignore how visibly tense his back looked. The key word being 'tried' since not a moment later she was gently touching his shoulder. He didn't move, but let out a huge exhale.

"Sirius," Marlene prodded. "Look at me please."

He turned around slowly, anger radiating out from every inch of him. It took forever, yet finally his eyes found hers. She reached up to cup his face, brushing her thumb gently across his cheekbones. He rested his hands on her wrists, moving them back and forth along her forearms. They both took a moment to take physical comfort in each other before feeling the need to speak.

"Are you alright, Marls?" Sirius asked, and with the softest possible touch he brushed his fingers along where Megan had slapped her. Marlene fought the heat rising to her cheeks.

"It didn't even hurt."

"Marlene," Sirius frowned, cupping the side of her face.

"Sirius," She echoed his tone, wrapping her fingers around his hand and, in a spurt of the moment decision, pressed her lips to his palm. "I'm alright, I promise."

He stared at her for a moment, and then grinned like nothing had even happened. "Right, want to play Gobstones then?"

"Sure." Marlene laughed.

"Race you up?"

"You're on."

Marlene chose to forget the way her heart stuttered when he tugged her along by her hand.


A/N- so talk about a long time coming. Sorry it took forever, I've just been very stressed.