Marlene woke up to the sound of someone clearing their throat loudly behind her and when she turned around it was none other than Madame Pince. She stood there her face in its permanent scowl, grimacing at Marlene.
"The library is not for sleeping" Madame Pince said dryly. Marlene jumped up in her seat taking a look around the library to find all of its previous occupants now gone.
"Sorry" she mumbled standing up and beginning to gather her books. "I was studying for potions."
"You need to be awake to study" Madame Pince said smartly returning to her desk. Marlene rolled her eyes exiting the library swiftly. The halls of Hogwarts were fairly deserted and Marlene assumed she had overslept past curfew. She walked past a couple locking lips on a nearby bench and suppressed the urge to gag loudly. It was then that Marlene slammed into a hard surface her eyes not facing forward quite yet and she looked down to see Sadie Coal's books in a pile on the floor.
"Hey!" Sadie shouted angrily. "What the hell was that?"
"An accident" Marlene shrugged not sure how else to respond. Sadie Coal was just a little shorter than Marlene but made up for it with her large bone structure. She had greasy black hair she kept pulled back in a low ponytail with a few strands hanging free. Just as Marlene became solid on her feet again Sadie jumped forward shoving her hard.
Marlene toppled backwards landing with a smack on the cool stone floor.
"What the fuck Sadie!" Marlene shouted as the Slytherin began to walk away.
"Sorry" Sadie replied mockingly. "It was an accident." Marlene stood up rushing at Sadie despite her better judgment telling her it was a mistake. Marlene ran into Sadie pushing her hard so that her neck swung forward and she tripped a little, surprisingly maintaining her balance.
"Are you kidding me?" Sadie shouted turning around and grabbing a handful of Marlene's long blonde hair in her large hands. In a matter of seconds the girls were scratching at each other and attempting to smack one another while holding large handfuls of their hair.
Marlene heard pounding footsteps as someone ran in the direction of the two and suddenly she felt herself being pulled away from Sadie by her waist.
"Marlene! Marlene!" A familiar voice shouted at her. It took a while for Marlene to tune in, adrenaline pumping through her blood. She looked up to see Sirius holding her back as Sadie smiled slyly as if she had somehow won.
"That's right," she said to Marlene. "Let your boyfriend hold you back."
"Fuck you Sadie!" Marlene hollered at her. Pulling her wand from her back pocket in anger. Sadie laughed cruelly pulling hers out as well and pointing it straight at Marlene's chest.
"Come on McKinnon" Sirius whispered into Marlene's ear. "Don't do this."
"Do it than Sadie" Marlene egged her opponent on. "Hex me, give it your best shot."
"Why cause you've got your little boyfriend here to protect you?" Marlene rolled her eyes struggling to break from Sirius's grasp.
"Let me go" she snapped at him becoming irritated.
"No! I'm not letting you do something you'll regret-" Before Sirius could finish Sadie took a cheap shot firing a spell straight at Marlene whom luckily was well prepared with her shielding spells.
Marlene deflected the hex and before she could say another word the sound of rushing feet filled the hallway and Professor McGonagall appeared looking less than thrilled.
"What is this?" she demanded sternly. Sirius dropped his hold around Marlene stepping back.
"I swear Professor I know just as much as you! Marlene just started attacking me as I was helplessly strolling the halls. I had to fire at her in self-defense!" Marlene rolled her eyes watching with amusement, as Sadie fought to make her disgustingly sharp facial features seem innocent and pitiful.
"Of course" Marlene muttered under her breath with a roll of her eyes.
"My office now" McGonagall said through clenched teeth. The two girls followed her their heads bowed guiltily. "You too Black!" McGonagall called behind her.
"But I wasn't fighting!"
"Out past curfew. Now follow."
"I have never seen girls with such little respect for themselves" Professor McGonagall said to Sadie and Marlene in disbelief. "The type of behavior I just witnessed has never and will never be tolerated at Hogwarts. Now I want a detention tomorrow night from all of you and I think fifteen points from Slytherin will do, twenty-five from Gryffindor and you can thank Mr. Black for the extra five. Now I want all three of you in my office tomorrow immediately after dinner." Sadie's face dropped.
"But Professor-"
"Please Ms. Coal it is much too late for anymore of your stories" Professor McGonagall said, sticking her nose up. "Now I'd like to get some sleep. You can all go back to your houses now." McGonagall said ushering the three students from her office.
Sadie gave Marlene a cold glare and then headed off in the direction of the dungeons. Marlene and Sirius walked silently towards the Grand Staircase. Sirius kept looking at Marlene expectantly as if waiting for her to say something but she remained silent.
"Are you mad at me then?" He finally asked, becoming impatient.
"Yeah is there something wrong with that?" Marlene replied coolly.
"I'm sorry was I not supposed to try and pull you out of a bad situation? If you'd listened to me you would have never gotten us detention."
"I had it under control!" Marlene snapped. She stopped walking and looked up at Sirius with fury. "I was fine and I didn't need you stepping in and rescuing me. Do you know how embarrassing that is? You're not my boyfriend." Marlene continued walking leaving Sirius frozen in place a few steps behind.
"Hey!" he called after her. "You don't get to do that!"
"Do what?"
"Act like I'm the bad guy, because I'm not! You told me we couldn't even be friends when I finally opened up to you-"
"After treating me like shit for months!" Marlene hollered "and than you expected me to bend over backwards the minute you figured out how you felt." Marlene and Sirius were now half way to Gryffindor tower, Marlene walking at a quickened pace as Sirius fought to catch up to her.
"I never treated you the way you treat me!" Sirius bellowed.
"Oh please" Marlene said shaking her head. "You never treated me with any kind of respect."
"And you think you give me so much of it?" Sirius demanded as the pair finally reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. She was asleep and snoring quietly.
"Please I didn't get you drunk take your virginity and than push it aside as something that didn't matter!"
"There you go again blaming everything on me," Sirius growled. His small brown eyes looked furious as he stared down Marlene. "I didn't get you drunk you chose to drink that Firewhiskey and it isn't as if you didn't know what was going on when we shagged the first time and anytime after that and no matter how shitty I treated you I never told you that we weren't friends or that you shouldn't ever speak with me."
"I didn't do that Maliciously" Marlene told him her tone calming down now. "I did it for me because I can't do it anymore."
"Do what?" Sirius demanded angrily. "What can't you do?"
"This!" Marlene replied her voice cracking. "I can't continue having the same argument every day. You know how I feel Sirius-"
"And you know how I feel!" Sirius hollered back.
"No you-" Marlene began to say. Sirius stepped towards her quickly and before she knew what was happening his lips had crashed against hers and they were kissing. First he was just kissing her and then she was kissing him back his hands roaming through her long blond locks as they continued.
Finally Sirius pulled away and looked her hard in the eyes. "That's how I feel." He said to Marlene whom was still completely out of breath. Then he turned to the Fat Lady, who was now awake and staring at the pair in awe, and said the password before entering the common room briskly.
"I'd snatch that Lad while he was still free" the Fat Lady instructed Marlene. "He's quite a catch."
Marlene sat in Professor Slughorn's class waiting anxiously for it to begin. She had not completed the assignment due the night before and she was terrified of receiving any more detention than she already had. To her luck Cassandra Murphy tapped on her shoulder as she made her way to her seat in the front of the class.
"McGonagall wants to see you in her office" she informed Marlene before stomping away. Marlene looked at Lily nervously before getting up and walking out of the class towards McGonagall's room. When she finally reached it she knocked on the tall wood door lightly worried a further punishment might be waiting for her behind it.
"Come in" ordered Professor McGonagall. Marlene pushed the heavy door slowly, entering the room to find her teacher seated at her desk, quill in hand, writing.
"Come take a seat Ms. McKinnon" she said sternly. Marlene gulped nervously slowly approaching the large chair opposite Professor McGonagall.
"I called you here today to discuss your future" McGonagall said.
"My future?"
"Do you know you're one of the only seventh year students who hasn't give any thought to their future career?" Marlene shook her head. "I have questioned most of your classmates about their plans for the future and you seem to be the only one whom refuses to give me a steady answer."
"I just don't feel much like wasting my time getting a job." Marlene replied with a shrug. McGonagall raised her eyebrow questionably.
"Wasting your time? Are you not interested in a bright future?"
"With current events a good job is irrelevant to a bright future in my case." It was then that Professor McGonagall seemed to catch on to what Marlene was saying. A warmer expression came upon her face and she nodded slowly.
"You're Muggle born if I'm correct?" She asked Marlene.
"Correct."
"It may seem scary to see what's happening in the world at the moment but not finding yourself a suitable career would just be foolish."
"What if I want to fight back?" Marlene asked. "What if I want to be part of the resistance? Part of the team of people that changes the world so future generations never have to go through what I am?" McGonagall pursed her lips and for a moment Marlene wondered if she might reach out and grab a hold of her hand.
"You're only sixteen Ms. McKinnon give yourself a fighting chance in this world before you sign up for war."
"The truth is Professor I don't feel like I have a fighting chance to begin with." McGonagall nodded her head sadly giving Marlene a long hard stare.
"That'll be all" she said returning to the writing she'd previously been working on.
(Sirius)
When Sirius arrived at Professor McGonagall's room he found Marlene already waiting. He stood in the doorway for a moment staring at her in detail. She was sat at a desk near the front of the room her chin rested on the palm of her hand as she tapped her small foot lightly against the stone floor. Sirius watched as she ran a hand through her soft blonde locks her fingers twirling in them.
Get it together, he thought to himself. You're a mess. He was disgusted by the thoughts that entered his mind whenever Marlene was in a room. The way his hard outer shell seemed to crack down around him and he felt totally and completely exposed to her and to make matters worse she repeatedly shoved him away. Things had been so much easier when Sirius was the resistant one.
"Are you planning to enter the room Mr. Black?" Professor McGonagall asked form behind Sirius. He jumped a little colour rising in his neck.
"I was just...yeah I suppose so..." Sirius mumbled grabbing a seat a few desks away from Marlene, who looked up at him before turning away quickly. a few minutes later Sadie strode into the room her greasy black hair hanging in one long braid down her along back.
"Glad you could join us Ms. Coal. Now, I'll have the three of you scrub all the desks in this room down until they are sparkling, using no magic." Sirius thought Sadie's eyes might bulge from her head.
"What are we supposed to use?" She asked in shock. Sirius could swear he heard Marlene stifle a laugh from beside him.
"I think those will do" Professor McGonagall said point towards a wall lined with three buckets that had cloths hanging along the side of them.
Marlene was first up heading towards one of the buckets and soaking a cloth in the wet and soapy water.
"I suppose you'd be an expert at this" Sadie said to her mockingly. "I hear Mudblood's do better cleaning than House Elf's." Sirius watched the muscles in Marlene's face tighten and her blue eyes filled with rage. Sirius caught Marlene slowly moving her hand towards the inner pocket of her robe. He knew that the minute she drew her wand she would have done exactly what Sadie wanted and Sirius was determined not to let this happen.
"You'll never believe what I was just remembering today Sadie" Sirius spoke up, improvising on the spot and causing Sadie's snake like eyes to turn on him. "Do you remember that one year your family came to my family's house party? Before Hogwarts?" Colour had already started to rise in Sadie's cheeks. "You, Regulus, and I were all outside and you kept teasing Regulus about how terrible he was on the broom and so he told you to give it your best shot and you had absolutely no idea what to do and managed to get yourself stuck in a tree. I think it's still a running joke in my family-" Sadie was no longer looking at Sirius but was staring down at her sneakers with embarrassment.
"Piss off Black" she mumbled under her breath as Sirius grinned broadly. He looked over at Marlene expecting to see a much brighter look upon her face but instead she stared at Sirius coolly and turned away from him quickly, grabbing her bucket and moving towards the closest desk.
"Marlene-" Sirius began following her.
"Just leave me alone!" Marlene snapped at him in a hushed tone, "please." Sirius couldn't help but feel as if someone had just punched him hard straight in the stomach. He grabbed a hold of the last bucket and headed towards a desk far away from Marlene.
(Marlene)
The entire detention Marlene endured dirty looks from Sadie and an awkward tension placed between her and Sirius. When Professor McGonagall finally decided that the three of them could leave Marlene was more than excited.
Sirius and her walked towards Gryffindor Tower together, Sirius lagging a few steps behind. Marlene was furious with him and she could hardly figure out why. Since the Holidays Sirius had done everything she'd been hoping he'd do since the start of the year but for some reason it wasn't enough. It bothered Marlene when he fought for her as if she couldn't do it herself and when he expected his sudden realization of feelings to change the way he'd made he feel for months.
Marlene felt as if her head was about to explode from the amount of thoughts swarming around inside of it. She stopped on the Seventh Floor landing and stood in front of the Portrait of the Fat Lady without saying the password.
"Why?" she asked Sirius as he came up the stairs behind her.
"I'm sorry?"
"Why didn't you tell me the truth about how you felt when it mattered? The first time we were standing here or in the Hospital Wing after that game?" Sirius ran a hand through his long brown hair looking pensive.
"It's not really my thing," He said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "I wasn't exactly raised in the most loving environment and truthfully the first time when we were standing here and you were asking me what I wanted to do I didn't understand it."
"Understand what?" Marlene demanded her patient with Sirius running low.
"The way you made me feel." Marlene stood there for few seconds her mouth gaping open.
"I don't-"
"I'm not going to stand here and tell you how I feel anymore Marlene because I've done it already and you know. I can't give you anymore then I already have."
"Is that the best I get?" Marlene asked her large blue eyes becoming watery. "Someone that doesn't really appreciate me, isn't exactly sure if they're even in love with me and doesn't even want to date me. Is that really all I deserve?"
"That's all I can give" Sirius said, defeated "but you choose what you deserve Marlene not me." Sirius turned his back to her then and gave the Fat Lady, whom had been listening intently to their entire conversation, the password.
Marlene didn't want him to go. She didn't want to spend another night lying awake in bed trying to figure out what their conversation meant and how she felt. The routine had become tiresome.
"Sirius!" Marlene called out before the portrait had shut behind him. He looked back at her, his sad grey eyes boring into her blue ones. Marlene stood there for a second not sure what to say. "Did Sadie...did Sadie really crash her broom in the tree?" Like magic a large grin came upon Sirius' face and he nodded his head.
"Yeah." He said to Marlene, whom had now come through the portrait hole and was standing beside him. "Everyone saw it too..."
sorry that this is such a short chapter, and a few important issues from the previous one weren't addressed (Damien, Panda, ect..) but I promise they will be in the next one! This one was more strictly about Sirius and Marlene's relationship. As always reviews are most appreciated and really my biggest motivation for updates. xx