Lost Out, Beat Up
Word travelled fast, and soon everyone was up to date on the most recent Marauder mishap. Lily Evans, who had caught word of this on her way to the carriage she'd just seen Marlene McKinnon duck into, rolled her eyes heartily and began to prepare herself for losing House points before the year had even begun. Sure enough, McGonagall would have caught word by the time the carriages reached the castle. She'd be stone faced and subtly disappointed as she greeted her seventh years, and this bothered Lily, because she very much respected her Transfiguration professor. Lily Evans was partial to the rules, with her eyes set on the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and something inside her splintered when they were broken. She had been known to occasionally bend a rule herself but only, only ever, for the greater good.
One hand over her face to shield herself half-heartedly from the rain, she slid into the carriage moments after Marlene to find Dorcas, Mary and Emmeline shaking with cold and swearing to themselves. Marlene wore an expression of vile disdain, Emmeline eyed her carefully. Dorcas and Mary were chatting lightly, turning to acknowledge her entrance with slight smiles. Lily settled herself next to Marlene, who was pulling a cigarette from the inside pocket of her robes as the carriage started forward.
"Please, Mar, not in the closed carriage," Lily begged. The blonde had already rested the cigarette between her lips, full and pink, and her eyes narrowed at this. "I'm so pleased to have you with us, really, but I can't stand the smell."
She sighed, stuck the offending cigarette behind her ear and crossed her arms over her chest. "Only because I love you."
Lily grinned. "What an honor from the beast. What's with the face?"
"We've just seen Sirius Black," Emmeline said casually. Marlene's eyes narrowed even further if possible, dangerously awaiting the next comment. Lily raised her eyebrows.
"Ah."
Mary and Dorcas had now suddenly sprung to attention.
"He looks… Well," offered Dorcas. Marlene sneered.
"I don't care if he's well. In fact, I hope he isn't."
She looked towards Lily for support, but the Head Girl only shook her head and smiled softly. "I won't choose sides, it's not fair…."
"Oh Lily the politician." Mary teased. "Our first female Minister….."
"One can dream," Lily grinned. She glanced over at Marlene, brooding in silence, and rested a comforting hand on her knee. "Isn't it nice to have Marlene with us?"
And the girls agreed, loudly, reassuringly, and Marlene McKinnon felt a flicker of warmth in the pit of her hollowed out stomach, and the rain beat down on the the hood of the carriage relentlessly and she felt it in her soul. Mood weather. She longed for the cigarette tucked behind her ear, thought of James and Sirius (and probably Peter) puffing and pulling and mucking about. The girls had fallen into idle conversation. She mentally thanked them for being so accepting. They'd known each other for quite a long time, slept in the same dormitory, borrowed the occasional hair brush. They must have known, somewhere inside them, that she wasn't all bad. She wasn't what everyone said, and that was what she'd told herself the sleepless night before the train departed, feeling very much like a friendless first year at seventeen. There was of course Emmeline, the wolf in sheep's clothing, eager to tear her apart. Marlene thought, with a small smile to herself, she had dealt with better wolves.
Too Wild
"Black!"
Professor McGonagall stood amongst a throng of pulsating students, gathering the first years for the sorting. She'd been momentarily briefed on a fight on the platform and told that the instigators had been of her house, news she greeted with a grimace that held no surprise. When she spotted Sirius Black in the company of a black eye, she sighed darkly and advanced on him.
"Professor!" he chirped cheerily. "Nothing to see here, nothing to see…."
"Twenty points from Gryffindor and a week of detention, I think," she said stiffly. He shrugged. Beside him, Remus Lupin bit his tongue. Peter Pettigrew pressed his lips into a thin line. James Potter offered a warm smile.
"And how was your summer, Professor?"
Her eyes moved to Potter, who bounced casually on his heels. "Very relaxing. I would like to stay in that state of mind."
"Have you tried meditation? I hear it's very effective."
She resisted the urge to simultaneously smile and roll her eyes, maintaining her poise. "On your way, boys."
As the good professor retreated, the Marauders turned inward. James had begun to whistle.
"Your cheer is bringing me down Prongs," Sirius grumbled. Jame clapped a hand to his shoulder.
"Oh, come on. It's a beautiful night-"
Outside, a clap of thunder shook the grounds.
"- there's a fresh crop of firsties-"
An aforementioned firstie, all of eleven years old, overhead this and looked momentarily terrified.
"- we're in good health -"
Peter gave a great, smoke induced cough.
"- there's a wealth of opportunity, all around us!"
Marlene McKinnon walked by, flanked by the seventh year girls, all seemingly blocking her view of the Marauders. Sirius's handsome face darkened. Heavy silence fell over them amidst the excitement of the new term. James raked a hand through his hair, his bulleted list of optimism was faltering quicker than he'd planned.
"How the hell," Sirius grimaced, "am I supposed to get anything done with that blonde tart walking around…."
"What exactly were you intending to get done?" Remus asked with slight amusement. Sirius's eyes remained on the back of Marlene's head.
"I was thinking," he mused, "that Emmeline Vance was looking well."
"Dangerous territory," said James.
"She talks too much," concluded Peter thoughtfully. Sirius grinned in a wicked sort of way.
"You think so? I think she talks just enough."
"I want no part of this," sighed Moony, turning towards the Great Hall. "I'll get our seats."
"Are they not reserved?" James asked lightly.
Remus chanced a look at Sirius, who was lost in whatever scheme he was currently concocting.
"... I'll get our seats."
Too Wild
Marlene McKinnon took a seat next to Lily Evans with her eyes trained on the stool boasting the sorting hat and allowed herself to think back to the previous year. Strange, how things could change so suddenly and seemingly without her permission. She had sat with the Marauders on the train, shared cigarettes in the carriage. It hadn't been raining then, it was a perfectly lovely pre fall evening. She had walked into school flanked by James Potter and Sirius Black, arms linked. There had been no fight on the platform, just a few stolen, dirty glances. There had been no black eyes. There was laughter, an abundance of it, over something Peter had said. And she had taken her seat between Remus and Sirius at the back of the table. They whispered and joked through the sorting. As it had always been, every year until now.
Her heart hurt with something like regret.
"Oh fuck em," Lily whispered in her ear. She allowed a small smile. "I for one am glad to have you here."
"You might be the only one," Marlene sighed quietly, nodding towards Emmeline, who was immersed in conversation with Dorcas. "You know who I miss?"
"Who?"
"Alice and Frank. So odd here without them."
"Ah, but they're training to battle the Death Eaters," Lily mused. "Off to bigger and better things…"
"Wish I was with them…"
"Oh, well fuck me too," said Lily, and Marlene laughed.
"Look at you, pottymouth!"
Lily poked her tongue out jokingly. The persistent chatter around them began to die down as the sorting began. Professor McGonagall stood before the staff table with a long scroll. They listened to the sorting hat's song, something about bravery in dark times, the same warning it had been giving since the rise of the Death Eaters two years prior. Marlene often wondered how Lily felt about all of it, the pureblood purity, as one of the few muggleborns at Hogwarts. Marlene herself was pureblood. She came from an old wizarding family, the kind with midsummer balls and vaults upon vaults of gold and short of a hundred cousins she barely knew. Maybe it was some kind of privilege, how she'd never felt threatened by the uprising of the Death Eaters and Voldemort, their leader. She disagreed with their practice but remained unafraid. Lily Evans rarely showed fear in a general sense, and that was something Marlene had always admired about her, but deep down….
"Alonzo, Danielle!"
A mousy brunette stepped forward, obviously shaking. She took a seat on the stool and McGonagall placed the hat upon her head.
"Hufflepuff!"
The Hufflepuff table erupted in cheers and the girl raced off to join them.
"Bathe, Jordan!"
"Slytherin!"
Marlene snorted. "Off goes another future Death Eater."
Lily shook her head, her small smile full of patience. "Not all Slytherins are bad."
There were many things to admire about Lily Evans, Marlene thought.
This was one of them.
Too Wild
"Look at her, just fucking sitting there."
"How absolutely dastardly," Remus drawled sarcastically, his chin in his palm. Sirius grumbled as he pushed his food around his plate. The spread before them was magnificent as always, heaps of food prepared by the house elves. Pete's plate overflowed onto the table. James helped himself to another slice of shepard's pie.
"Padfoot," he said thoughtfully with his fork in the air. "Allow me to preface this criticism with how much I positively adore you…."
"Preface, very good word," Sirius interrupted.
"...Thank you, I thought so too. Anyway, I positively adore you and as charming as I find your thirst for revenge on my dearest Marlene-"
A snort. An eye roll. A shove of mashed potatoes in an open mouth.
Three ways, respectively.
"- If any of this, pardon my French, absolute fucking bullshit infiltrates my Quidditch pitch, I will not hesitate to hex you midair."
"Point taken, Prongs."
"Good man."
"But, hypothetically speaking…"
"I never liked that much."
"If my bat were to slip," Sirius shrugged, his fork raised. "And a bludger were to find itself, let's say, hypothetically speaking…."
"I will, hypothetically speaking, hex you midair."
Sirius grinned. "Just to clarify, this is hypothetical, yes?"
"Such vocabulary," Remus said dryly. "So proud."
"I would dare to say if your bat slipped, Marlene's bat would also slip," Peter said once he'd come up for air.
"It wouldn't be the first time she missed her mark," Sirius muttered, stealing a glance down the table.
"Hypothetically speaking," James said loudly. "I don't have to let either of you twits back on my team."
Sirius looked outraged. "You wouldn't!"
"Oh, I would."
"No, he wouldn't," Remus and Peter sighed together.
"After what you two pulled last year I shouldn't let you come to trials at all."
"Ah, yes," Peter said dreamily. "The Ravenclaw match. I remember it fondly."
"If anyone shouldn't be allowed back on the team, it's McKinnon," Sirius sneered. "Nearly knocked me off my broom!"
"Did you or did you not aim a bludger at her?" Remus asked dryly.
"It was merely…." Sirius trailed off, searching for the word.
"... Hypothetical?" James offered.
"Good man."