Marlene,
I wanted to send you this flower because it looks like you. Sunflowers are both stronger and prettier than roses, I think. Additionally, it's almost certainly a Hufflepuff. Look at it. You know it's a Hufflepuff. I hope you like it. Maybe you'll reconsider letting me take you on a date?
-Sirius
Marlene folded up the parchment that the letter had been written on. She didn't even want her sister to see it. It was embarrassing.
She felt like such a coward. She'd snuck away and avoided him because talking about the strange thing that has developed between them would have been hard. Even just thinking about it was uncomfortable. How could she talk to him about it when she didn't even know what she wanted? She couldn't reconcile the feelings bubbling underneath the surface with the image she wanted to portray. She was supposed to be sure of herself. Steady. Persistent. An exemplary Hufflepuff.
She'd tried to tell herself it was all just confusion brought on by the intense physical chemistry they had. He was probably still a giant wanker and she'd just imagined the sweetness and sincerity. That line of self-delusion didn't hold up to this flower.
"You have an admirer." Sandra Cresswell, a fellow 6th year Hufflepuff noted from across the breakfast table.
"I dunno. It's just a flower. Nothing really."
"Who sends people sunflowers? That's not very romantic. Aren't roses the done thing?"
Marlene shrugged. Despite herself she felt defensive of her sunflower. He'd sent it because he thought it looked like her. That was more personal… and more romantic… but she wouldn't say that out loud that would make it seem like she approved. Which she didn't.
"Did it come signed?"
"No. I guess it'll have to be a mystery sunflower then." She lied.
"Well, I guess it's nice that someone's thinking of you."
Was it? She'd almost prefer to forget about the whole thing. She'd certainly rather not talk to Sandra about it.
She managed to shut that conversation down but she wasn't as lucky when her brother and sister dragged her to the corner table of the Hufflepuff common room. The twins were two sides to one coin. They were an unstoppable force together when working against her. She found the whole twin arrangement unfair. She'd taken the issue to her mum more than once.
"You're not getting out of this baby sister. Where is it?" Grace asked with the utmost authority.
"Where's what?"
"The love letter you received this morning. Word gets round."
Lucan was such a gossip. It was near impossible to keep anything from him. She hoped he didn't actually have sources who could see through walls or he might know way more than she was comfortable admitting to anyone.
"It was just a flower. No love letter. It's nothing."
Marlene felt sure that Helga Hufflepuff was rolling and restless in her grave. Lying to family… Pushing someone away for the sake of pride… Had the hat even made the right decision?
"Right and I'm the Queen of England."
"All hail her Majesty, Queen Lucan."
"You've been acting very strangely, baby sister. It's almost like you're… happy… or something. Don't think we haven't noticed." Grace sounded like she was making an accusation.
"Am I generally morose?"
"No, of course not, but this is different. I catch you smiling for no reason."
"Well maybe I'd been reading a good novel or something. Can I have some peace, now?"
"Why? So you can day dream about whoever sent you the love letter which you very clearly got?" Grace was quite confident in her assertion.
"No! I will do no such daydreaming! I don't even like him actually…"
"So you admit there was a letter and you know who it was from! Ha! Caught you."
"Oh Lucan! I'll bet it was Sirius Black. He asked after our dearest baby sister a while back, after our herbology class with Gryffindor. And you know she turned him down prior to that…"
"I still can't believe you turned down Sirius Black…" Lucan looked horrified.
Marlene shrugged. She didn't want to talk about it. It was weird. Sirius Black was weird. People weren't generally so confusing. Why couldn't he have been like other people?
"Marlene do you even know who he is? I'd think you'd probably be a bit impressed if you did."
"He's some Gryffindor who knocked into me in the hall and gave me some line about being pretty when I'm mad? I dunno. Is he some sort of wizard chess champion or something? What's so great about him?"
She deliberately failed to include the subsequent encounters she'd had with him. She hadn't told a soul about it, and would have preferred to keep it that way. Her brother and sister and Merlin only knew who else knew she'd told him to bugger off. It wouldn't cast her in a very flattering light if they knew she had gotten overly fond of kissing him and then spent the night in his arms wondering if her whole concept of him was a mistake…
"His brother is in your year. Regulus Black. He's a right bigoted wanker, no? And from what I hear, Sirius was disowned over a year ago. He comes from a family of the very worst sort of blood supremacists. But he refused to be like them. He wouldn't back down or pretend. So I guess that he hasn't lived at home since before his 16th birthday. That's… well… he might have given you a cheesy line… but you can't deny the guts that must have taken."
Marlene stared off into space. She hadn't expected that. She thought he had just been some arrogant tosser who was used to getting whatever he wanted.
But now her own family was trying to convince her that the Gryffindor who had held her and made her laugh despite herself was some kind of brave principled aristocrat who'd been disowned by his own family?
They wouldn't lie, of course. So it must have been true. But… that…why would he…
She felt so confused. Even more confused than she had before, which was no small amount.
"I hate to admit it Marls, but Lucy is right."
"Will I ever convince you lot to stop calling me Lucy at school?"
"Nope. Sorry, Lucy. But you were right about Black. He's got principles. He's not a bad bloke. Just annoyingly popular."
Marlene let out an exasperated groan. She couldn't process all this.
"It's ok Marls. You don't have to… accept his weird flower offerings or whatever, but just know he probably means well. It's entirely possible he's never had to pursue anyone before."
"Well that'll be it then. I'm a challenge. That's all. I'm sure he'll get over the novelty of it."
She was sure that if he was really all that fantastic then he wouldn't keep wasting his time on her, anyway. He'd find someone better.
Later that night, with her curtain pulled around her bed Marlene got out her sunflower, which she'd charmed to stay fresh, and looked at it.
This was really sweet. No one had done anything like this for her before.
She wished she remembered what exactly was so awful about him, the first time she'd met him. All she could remember was the feeling. The impression of revulsion stuck with her, rather than any sort of actual behavior that had been really awful. She put a lot of pride into her instincts being good when it came to judging a person's character. How could she be that far off base? What had it been?
She could think of several things that were not awful in the least…
The memory of his hands all over her sent a shiver up her spine.
She wished he hadn't gone and done that. It was better when she didn't remember what he looked like. That was only the first hurdle, but it had been hard to reconcile the undeniable fact of being physically attracted to him, with the fact she'd wanted him to leave her alone. She had rejected him several times already and it would be embarrassing to swallow her pride like that. It would have been easier if he just left her alone and moved on with his life after the first time.
It would have been easier but she couldn't quite put her heart behind wishing it hadn't happened. Worse than that, she kept hoping he'd find her again. If Marlene had the map, she was sure she wouldn't have been able to stay away from him. She was going to have to admit to herself that somewhere along the line she'd grown fond of the irritating git. But she didn't really want to draw attention to the whole bizarre ordeal and she wouldn't go confront him in front of people.
Besides, what would she even say? 'I still don't know what to make of you as a person, but I do know that you're absurdly hot so please come sneak into my bed again'? That would be unfathomably rude, especially after he'd sent the flower… She couldn't be so callous to someone who liked her enough to find a flower that actually did resemble her quite a bit. He was right. It was a Hufflepuff.
Maybe Sirius Black wasn't so bad.
