Chpt. 8 - The Black Knight

A few days later, after the owls delivered the post - including Peter's books, Sirius and Laura announced they were going steady. Laura was still having trouble believing it herself. His lips, his eyes, his hands, his voice: they belonged to her. And in return, she gave him herself; her smile, her kiss, her love. When she held his hand, everything felt right. Unfortunately, she had to keep her P.D.A.'s to a minimum, and soon realized that she could not share her romance stories with Lily or Chris. One day, during a study session in library about Vanishing Charms, Laura was telling Chris and Lily about her latest adventure with Sirius.

"And then he said something, and behind the witch was a passageway. Guess where it led - to Honeydukes! Of course, we left some money under a box of Peppermint Imps to pay for what we took. You wouldn't believe what snogging with Exploding Toffee feels like!"

Lily and Christiana both glumly sighed at the happiness in her voice. It was obvious to Laura that the two girls would not want to listen about the wonderful days she was having with Sirius.

Her only other friends were Marlene and Av, and Marlene was almost never around. She was gone when everyone woke up in the morning, disappeared after every class, and was never to be found after dinner. No one saw her except for during classes and after curfew. It was like she was living a separate life from years before when she was never seen without her friends. Laura supposed Marlene might be upset with her, since Marlene and Sirius had something going on between them last year, but she could never find her to ask. Av was there to listen to Laura, but only whenever she was free from Lily and Chris, both of whom Laura thought deserved Av's ears a little more than she did. The plus side of all of this, though, was that it left Laura more time with Sirius, which didn't bother her one bit.


The green leaves of summer faded and the colorful hues of autumn arrived. Everything seemed perfect, but as much as Sirius liked Laura, he could not help but stare at Marlene now and then. Of course, she had moved on. He should never have been so stupid. What was he thinking, drinking that night?


It was James's 17th birthday, March 27th, and Sirius was in his sixth year at Hogwarts. As he and Peter snuck back to the Gryffindor common room with butterbeer, gin, and fire whiskey smuggled from the Three Broomsticks, and Exploding Snaps from Zonko's, for James's surprise party, Sirius reflected on how great his life was. The Marauder's had a wonderful family outing two weeks ago in the Forbidden Forest, and Remus had finally gotten over his head cold. Sirius and Marlene had been seeing each other somewhat secretly for the past 6 months, and tonight was the night he would reveal their secret to Prongs and the other guys.

The party went off without a hitch. James, being Quidditch captain, was a popular fellow, so naturally all of Gryffindor House joined in the fun. Sirius had bewitched the Exploding Snaps to wish James a happy birthday when they opened, and it began a fun drinking game to take a swig every time one's voice filled the room. Of course, Sirius joined in the fun. Halfway through the party, two snaps went off at once. A cheer filled the room, and Sirius passed his bottle to Remus after taking a long drink himself.

"Sirius, you told us earlier you had to make an important announcement. Don't you think you should make it before wasting away on alcohol tonight? I thought we talked about staying sober for the party last week so that we could focus on James having a good time."

"No! I will be just alright an' fine for… erhm… my announ- announcess- annou-... my special news! Jus' wait. It will be- the best thing you ever saw. Er, heard."


If he would have stayed sober, like Remus suggested, he never would have forgotten his promise to Marlene to announce their relationship. Or ended up on the common-room couch with that tease, Alecia Cornwall. And Marlene never would have felt the striking pain of jealousy.

Why stop there? If he wouldn't have put himself in that situation, he would not have broken up with her. He knew she would get over the kissing, after all, he was drunk, and she knew him all too well. But his lack of judgement had made him think, and he knew he needed to sort out his priorities before he let the two of them get too involved. Unbeknownst to Black, he and Marlene were already too involved by the time the whole scenario went down. The break-up crushed her. She was a ghost for months. And he was regretting it now more than before. He knew in his heart that he loved Marlene so much more than he loved Laura, and that Laura was more of a need for physical connection tied to a deep friendship than a passionate love, but he was hoping it would evolve into something more, something to replace Marlene. After all, they had all that history, right? And they were both attractive individuals. And Laura really cared about him. He and Laura had to be meant to be. That was what he told himself. So far, this was not working. Plus, Marlene's unusual distance from the group and large number of disappearances had Sirius wondering and dreaming about her even more. Where was Marlene off to all this time, anyway? Sirius could not stoop down to spying via Marauder's Map for this one. He thought about asking Peter to look at it for him, but instead, he decided he would just find out the old fashioned way.


Marlene sprinted out the door of McGonagall's classroom as soon as the chimes rang. Rushing past windows that framed the crisp colors of fall, to the statue of the Black Knight on the 4th floor. And there Macnair stood, waiting for her. They glanced around to see if anyone was watching. Not seeing anyone, Walden pulled Marlene into a warm embrace. She felt safe. Lately, the two had been spending as much time possible with one another, and especially trying to get to know each other. Of course, the more they got to know about the other, the stronger their friendship became. And the stronger it got, the more they wanted to spend more time together, and yearned to get to even know more about each other. At this point in time, Marlene knew Walden's favorite color was blue, his favorite animal was a ferret, and that he had two back at home named Filbert and Flara.

"I missed you," Marlene whispered.

"I missed you too," Walden replied with a smile. "And I think we're all alone."

His strong hand swept Marlene's soft hair off the side of her cheek and behind her ear. With a flicker of his wand, a tune on violin started playing out of thin air. Macnair grabbed Marlene's hand. They began to dance. Marlene couldn't help staring into those eyes that had once looked at her with such ice, such malice. Sometimes she wondered what Walden was truly capable of. His demeanor had been so cold that first day, but now that she got to know him, he was as gentle as a puppy. She really couldn't comprehend how he even fit in with his Slytherin friends. He spun her around, and she crashed into him, laughing. Suddenly, the music stopped, like the end of a Muggle record. A dark figure stood at the end of the corridor.