In the week leading up the Quidditch match, Marlene didn't get much time to spend with Bert except for their walks in between classes. He had taken it upon himself to wait for her outside the classroom in the period directly before lunch. They would walk together to the great hall before parting ways for the day.
She didn't have much time to dwell on this as she found herself once again engulfed in the never ending pile of homework and he fell into the usual pressuring that all Quidditch players faced in the wake of a match.
The tension seemed high as the Hufflepuff vs. Gryffindor Quidditch match loomed closer. Normally the teams seemed a bit on edge the week leading up to each match, no doubt a result of the insurmountable amount of extra practice they were required to put in and the exceedingly high expectation to win. Marlene had always been aware of this tension but it seemed that some members of the Gryffindor team were even more unbearable in the week leading up to the match than ever before.
Marlene became well aware of this during Potions class when Professor Slughorn announced that they would be switching up partners for their befuddlement draughts.
"Alright class," he announced loudly in his attempt to capture the class's attention. It took a few attempts before he was able to take hold of the class and begin his lecture.
"The last few classes we focused on Strengthening solutions and now I believe is as good a time as any to begin to attempt our skills at Befuddlement Draughts. Let's try some new pairings, shall we? Pettigrew and Snape."
Peter's eyes widened and Snape's lip curled with obvious disgust. Professor Slughorn continued on without noticing the unfriendly exchange that passed between the boys.
"MacDonald and Lupin."
Marlene felt her heart sink slightly. She knew that she wouldn't be lucky enough to be paired again with Remus but he had been an excellent partner and she was sad that they would not be working together.
"Black and McKinnon."
Marlene felt a new sense of panic as she realized that he had just paired her with Sirius. Sure, she had been getting along decently with him in the last few months and he had proven to her that he was completely capable of excelling in his studies, but she had never been paired with him in class before and he was famous for wasting his class coming up with pranks with James. Not to mention that her previous pairing with his best mate had been less than desirable. She groaned inwardly at the thought that the majority of their class would be spent trying to wrangle him into focus and she dreaded the thought of being caught in the middle of another failed prank.
Marlene hadn't spoken to Sirius since the morning she had grabbed her textbooks from him the previous week. He had seemed rather tense afterwards and made no attempt to pursue any sort of communication. She felt a different sense of apprehension as she observed the look on his face as their names were called out together.
Sirius didn't seem too pleased about the pairing. Of course, Marlene wasn't sure whether or not this had to do with the fact that he was irritable from Quidditch tension, or he genuinely was displeased with their pairing.
He didn't even look at her as he sunk down into the seat beside her. Marlene was instantly able to feel his irritation after she offered him a feeble smile and wasn't even offered a blink of the eye in return.
"And finally, Potter and Evans."
The classroom went quiet. Marlene quickly forgot about her thoughts on Sirius and her head swiveled to look at her friend on the other side of the classroom. Lily's face had paled slightly and her hand shot up into the air. James on the other hand, looked absolutely delighted.
Finally, a smirk broke out across Sirius's face.
"Sir," Lily called out when Professor Slughorn failed to call upon her.
"Yes Miss Evans," he glanced over at her with surprise.
"I thought I heard you incorrectly," she said firmly, "I thought you said I was paired up with Potter."
"You heard me correctly my dear," Professor Slughorn looked surprised. He turned his attention to the rest of the class and began offering instruction to begin. His back turned and he began scribbling the list of ingredients on the board.
Lily looked shocked. It was common knowledge between the Professors at Hogwarts that James and Lily did not get along. They had not been paired up for assignments in years, surely something that Slughorn would have full familiarity of.
"How do you suppose that will go?" Marlene tried breaking the tension by offering up a casual conversation starter with Sirius. He ignored her.
"Black?" she asked questioningly when he failed to acknowledge her first question. He raised his eyebrows slightly but did not turn to look at her.
"Did I do something to upset you?" she couldn't help herself from asking. She watched as his mouth twitched slightly as if he was finding the right words to say before he settled on shaking his head at her.
"Let's just do this assignment, ok? It's pretty complicated and we don't have time to waste."
His words stung Marlene as they came out perhaps more harshly than he had intended. She couldn't be quite sure but she did not pursue it any further. It was clear from the rest of the class that he was extremely irritable as he was constantly snapping at her for adding ingredients too early or not cutting up pieces into the proper sizes.
"McKinnon," he said flatly, "they need to be one half an inch those pieces are far too small!"
Professor Slughorn didn't seem to agree, however. Upon his inspection he offered up encouragement that their potion was coming along rather nicely. Marlene felt her patience with Sirius's unpleasant treatment of her beginning to wear thin by the end of the class as they were constantly bickering over the correct texture of their concoction.
"It is supposed to be thicker," he snapped with irritation.
"If you looked at the instructions on the board it says that after directly adding sneezewort it is supposed to thin out before it thickens," she retorted back. He narrowed his eyes at her which she returned with fierceness.
Surprisingly enough, the two students to get along well together were Lily and James. A quick scan over to their station told Marlene that they were working in harmony. Lily had even laughed a few times and was smiling. Professor Slughorn had seemed exceptionally pleased with their potion as he walked by it.
"Marvelous!" he had exclaimed. This only seemed to make Sirius more agitated.
His attitude had reached its peak at the end of class. The potion had started thickening but was still slightly off in color. Marlene had felt rather impressed with their performance; her potion skills were exceedingly less notable than her partners, this much was obvious to Marlene as she had witnessed the finesse that Sirius had executed all class, but she had managed to confidently implement the directions given without second guessing her handiwork. Sirius, it seemed, was doing a good enough job doing that for her.
"The only befuddling going on here is your inept ability to follow a simple instruction," he had snapped one last time as the color of their potion had started turning a murky brown instead of the light grey it was supposed to. Marlene had had enough and at the commencement of class she had whipped out her want and pointed it firmly towards the legs of his chair.
"Evanesco," she said angrily. And as if she had never experienced a single problem with her vanishing spell, the legs of the chair disappeared with such perfection that Sirius went crashing to floor.
"How's that for an inept ability to follow instruction," she retorted quietly. "How's my concentration and confidence now, Black?"
Thankfully, Professor Slughorn had stepped out of the classroom and into his office so her actions were only witnessed by the few students surrounding their work station. A few snickers could be heard from around the room, presumably from the Slytherins that Sirius had bullied over the years but Marlene didn't bother to pay them any attention.
Sirius had a look of stupor on his face as though he hadn't been expecting retaliation. Marlene didn't stick around long enough to see his next reaction. She shoved her text books into her book bag and turned on her heel, pushing her chair away with such force that it tipped over, and walking briskly out of the classroom.
Bert was waiting for her, smiling. She couldn't help but feel slightly agitated by it.
"Hello," he said sweetly. Marlene didn't even wait for her friends as they proceeded towards the great hall for lunch.
The week went by slowly; Marlene and Sirius avoided speaking. Only during potions did they offer any sort of communication with each other and even when there was an exchange, it was curt and to the point. Sirius's hostility did not dwindle towards her and his irritable mood was noticeable even where Marlene was not concerned.
Even James seemed put out with his best friends attitude. Marlene had witnessed them arguing a couple of times in the common room, something she had never witnessed before.
"Stop being such a prat," James had said loudly in the hallway one afternoon. Sirius did not reply but disappeared down an adjoining hallway.
"Trouble in paradise?" a passing Slytherin snickered at James and was rewarded with a trip-jinx.
Finally the day of the match arrived. It was a chilly January afternoon and the sun was hiding behind the clouds, the missing sunshine left the grounds feeling colder than desired and extra layers were deemed necessary for the devoted fans that made the commitment to venture out.
Even Lily had had a change in heart about attending the match and had even conjured up a perfect warming charm to keep the girls from feeling the full effect of the harsh outside elements. Breakfast had been extremely tense. Sirius and James weren't speaking to one another and the entire Gryffindor team seemed to be at an impasse at the hands of their unforgiving feud.
Even Remus and Peter were steering clear of the duo and Marlene was surprised when they settled into the seats beside the girls, passing on the opportunity to join their friends at the opposite end of the table.
Quite quickly enough the Gryffindor team pulled themselves from the great hall to prepare themselves for the match and the tension in the hall eased slightly. The Hufflepuff table seemed animated; their team appeared to be in good spirit, engaging with other students open and freely as though they weren't feeling the pressures of the game.
Marlene didn't have a chance to speak with Bert before he bustled off with the rest of his team mates but he had looked over at her and offered a wave as they exited the great hall.
"So are you dating Aubrey?" Peter asked quite suddenly as Bert disappeared from view. Marlene hadn't been expecting the question and she choked slightly on the glass of orange juice she had raised to her lips.
"No," she said too quickly. "I don't know."
"Oh," Peter stated, shrugged his shoulders and proceeded to pick at the eggs that covered his plate.
"Mind if we sit with you girls today?" Remus asked casually, changing the subject much to the pleasure of a grateful Marlene.
"Of course not," Mary said brightly before either of the other girls could open their mouths. Remus and her exchanged smiles.
Lily glanced over at Marlene and half rolled her eyes in good nature. It had seemed that Mary was already forgetting about her newly ex-boyfriend Davey, whom she had not spoken with since the Christmas holidays.
The group of students finished their breakfast and, after bundling up with extra clothing, joined the rest of the students on their way to the Quidditch pitch. Lily conjured up her warming charm and they settled into the bleachers in anticipation of the game. Despite the weather, it seemed that team spirit was not lacking; a quick glance around the stadium indicated that the majority of the student body had joined them. The exception of course, was the Slytherins.
"Teams, mount your brooms!" Madam Hooch called from center field as a parade of Red and Yellow had entered from opposite corners.
"And they're off for what appears to be a promising game!" the announcers voice magically magnified the stadium and there was a generous uproar of cheering that followed.
"Hoopers got a nice lead on the quaffle, looks like he's trying to feint to the right – and passes off to Potter!" the excitement in the announcer grew audibly amidst the cheers. "Although a nice attempt for Gryffindor, looks like the pass was intercepted by Aubrey for Hufflepuff. He dives out of the way of Black's bludger and makes his way back towards the Gryffindor goal posts."
Marlene couldn't help herself but she let out a big cheer as Bert diverted the Gryffindors pass and managed to carry the quaffle all the way back to the opposite end of the pitch. He was quite graceful on his broomstick, swerving in and out of the other players with ease. He had dodged Sirius' bludger with a quick dive downwards before shooting up and into a spiral out of the way of yet another.
"Which team are you cheering for?" Remus frowned slightly at her and she was almost taken aback by his sudden change in demeanor.
"Gryffindor of course," Marlene smiled shyly and she mentally willed herself to keep her future excitement about watching Bert's performance to herself.
"Looks like Kirke has become the victim of yet another bludger attack – Oy, Kirke, keep your eyes out mate!"
Dennis Kirke had been too preoccupied trailing behind Amos Diggory that he had narrowly missed being hit in the head with a bludger sent his way by his opponents. Luckily, Sirius had sent back a retaliating bludger, hitting Darren Johnson's broomstick and forcing him to spin into a spiral. The two of them spent another good twenty minutes targeting each other before they tired of their game and refocused on derailing the Chasers.
"Potter scores for Gryffindor!" roared through the stadium and the crowd around Marlene erupted. By about an hour in it was easy to assume that the Gryffindor team had been having a rough match. They were trailing behind 230 to 60 and the realization that they were losing was causing even more demoralization to the team.
"What's going on with those two?" Lily asked suddenly during a brief time-out. Sirius and James were yelling at each other and looked ready to start a fight. Sirius's hands were balled into fists, as if ready to swing at the boy in front of him.
"Er," Remus looked apprehensive. Marlene did not miss the lingering look he had on her before focusing his attention to Lily. "Sirius is just having a bit of a rough time right now; he's been taking out his frustration in the wrong ways."
"He's going to hurt someone," Mary mused as they watched the team kick back off into the air. Sirius didn't miss his first opportunity to swing a bludger menacingly at his opposition.
"Hooper steals the quaffle from Aubrey, he makes his way back down to the end of the pitch he throws – no wait! He was only bluffing, folks! Tough luck McDougall, no match for Hooper!"
Whatever conversation had been said on the field had surely inspired the Gryffindor team. Their energy had drastically improved and they began sinking in goals one, two, three in a row. The excitement of their sudden wave of determination was addicting and Marlene felt herself slowly falling victim to the adrenaline coursing through the stands.
There was a collaborative intake of breath as a sudden blur of red and yellow captured the eyes of the audience at the corner of the field.
"Kirke and Diggory have spotted the snitch!" the announcer cried. The glittering gold was sparking at the end of the field right next to the Hufflepuff goal post and both seekers were in a race to reach it first.
"Oh no," Lily cried right before the announcer had the chance to voice exactly what Lily must have been thinking.
"With a score of 360 to 200 in favor of Hufflepuff, it looks as if Hufflepuff is bound to win despite whoever gets to the snitch first! Come on Gryffindor, you only need one more goal to win!"
That's when everything happened at once. Gryffindor needed one more goal, and provided that Kirke reached the snitch first, they would pull out ahead on the score board. Potter was bounding towards the goal post, quaffle in hand, Bert closing in behind him. The Hufflepuff beater, Johnson, had forcefully aimed a bludger at James' head. He hadn't seemed to notice, or care for that matter, and refused to dive out of the path of the incoming assailant. He raised his arms to shoot the quaffle into the goal post. The quaffle was intercepted by Bert, who had nearly dived off his broom to snatch it from its pathway.
A sickening crunch sounded throughout the stadium as the bludger originally aimed for James crashed into Bert's chest and he was flung backwards.
And the flash of red and yellow halted as a streak of red soared upwards, a glittering gold object sparkling in the sunlight, clasped in the hands of the Gryffindor seeker, Dennis Kirke.
"HUFFLEPUFF WINS 360 to 350!"
The crowds erupted into cheers with the exception of the Gryffindor fan section. It was blatantly obvious from the reactions of the Gryffindor team that they were less than impressed by the turn of events.
"Well tonight's going to be tense," Peter was saying to Remus. Their conversation gave off the impression that the two boys seemed apprehensive of their impending contact with their friends.
"Oh," Marlene's face had paled slightly as her eyes focused on the more imminent matter occupying her mind. She was vaguely paying attention to the others around her but she was more intent to focus on the state of Bert. He had luckily managed to grab a hold of his broom after the blow of the bludger, but he was descending rather awkwardly, clutching at his side, while Madam Pomfrey rushed out onto the field below him.
"I need to go," she said quickly to the others and she hurriedly pushed her way down the stands towards the field.
The Hufflepuff team had gathered in a crowd surrounding each other, whooping loudly. The Hufflepuff fans from the stands were slowly trickling down onto the pitch to join their celebration. Once Bert had landed he was quickly enveloped by a large group of people which made it nearly impossible for Madam Pomfrey to assess the damages.
Marlene hurried over, pushing through the students that were getting in her way, not even bothering to apologize. She barely even registered as she ran past the sulking Gryffindor team on their way to the change room; she only had one thought in her mind.
As she neared the growing crowd of cheering Hufflepuff's she caught a glimpse of Madam Pomfrey trying to pry Bert out of the grasp of the mosh of adoring fans. He happened to catch sight of Marlene amidst the chaos and he quickly pulled away from Madam Pomfrey and started pushing his way through the crowd towards her. Marlene couldn't help but notice he was still clutching his side and appeared to be in excruciating pain.
"We won!" he yelled to her from a couple of feet away. Marlene smiled despite the fact that this meant her team had lost.
"You should let Madam Pomfrey look at that," she said with concern as he finally got through to her.
"I will later," he said breathlessly. A brilliant grin had broken out across his face and his eyes were sparkling with excitement. "I have more important things to do first."
And before Marlene could utter another word he had released his hand from his side, reached out to encircle his hands around Marlene's waist and lifted her into a small spin. As he brought her back down he pulled her tighter into his embrace and crashed his lips into hers in a fiery first kiss.
She had finally managed to convince him to let Madam Pomfrey assess his injury. He had reluctantly pulled away from her and allowed himself to be taken back to the hospital wing where he was readily joined by the rest of his team mates. Marlene did not opt to join them and insisted that she would visit with him when the excitement of the match had calmed down.
By the time Marlene was ready to leave the field she had noticed that the stadium was nearly deserted. Even the Hufflepuff students that had crashed onto the pitch had slowly dissipated; no doubt to continue on the celebration in their common room. Marlene scanned around in search of Lily and Mary but they could not be seen. She assumed that they had already gone back to their own respective common room with the rest of their peers.
When she entered in through the portrait hole she was immediately met with an unbearably dreadful tension. Even if she had not attended the match it would have been painfully clear to her by the lack of enthusiastic chatter that their team had lost.
Lily and Mary were sitting in a corner by the window playing a game of muggle cards. Marlene began to make her way over to them when she caught sight of the boys. They were surrounding the fire place in complete silence. Peter and Remus looked like they would be happy elsewhere but nevertheless continued to support their friend's misery by sticking around. James and Sirius looked despondent. Marlene felt a small pang of pity as she observed the look on each of their faces.
James looked clearly more frustrated than anything. Marlene assumed it probably had to do with the fact that they had come so close to winning. A fact she felt almost guilty about as it was her boyfriend who had destroyed his efforts.
Boyfriend. The word still felt foreign to her and upon thinking it her eyes trailed automatically to Sirius.
Although clearly frustrated, he also looked defeated. He had been in such a foul mood the past couple of weeks and Remus's explanation earlier during the match about him going through some things suddenly floated into her mind. He definitely looked like he was elsewhere in the moment and she felt a sudden urge to comfort him.
She hesitated. She couldn't piece together the sudden overwhelming sensation she had to run over to him.
He must have sensed that she was looking at him as his eyes snapped up to meet hers. His expression didn't change but he also didn't seem quite as agitated to see her as he had in their Potions class the previous day.
Marlene smiled sympathetically at him and he looked away. Feeling slightly embarrassed that she had been caught she ignored her inner battle to speak with him and instead continued on her originally intended destination towards her friends.
"So?" Mary asked knowingly. Marlene assumed that they had probably witnessed the entire ordeal on the pitch. She didn't even try to hide it.
"He finally kissed me," she said blushingly.
"How was it?" Lily asked curiously. It appeared that they were playing the muggle game of 'go fish.'
Marlene contemplated for a moment. As much as she had enjoyed spending the last few weeks getting to know Bert better, she had been anticipating him making his first move. She had been progressively looking forward to it yet she couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed when it had. She didn't know how to express this to her friends and instead settled upon a slight shrug.
"It was okay I guess," she offered. Mary looked at her skeptically but Lily was smiling. Why was Lily smiling? Marlene wanted to wipe that smirk right off of her face.
"A first kiss shouldn't just be 'ok'," Mary said scandalized. She pouted as she handed over a pair of three's to Lily before slapping the rest of her cards down in defeat.
"I've never had a kiss before," Marlene mumbled with embarrassment. This had been her first. "I'm not quite sure I know what it should be like."
After a few more rounds of cards, Lily dominating each with victory, it was time to head down to the great hall for dinner. The Hufflepuff table was still alive with excitement when they entered the noisy room and surprisingly the Gryffindor table seemed to be in significantly better spirits with the exception of the Gryffindor Quidditch team who were still sulking to themselves. Marlene was quick to notice that James and Sirius had not joined the rest of their peers for dinner.
Bert wasn't in the hall either, Marlene presumed that he was probably still in the hospital ward and she mentally reminded herself that it would be wise to pay him a visit after dinner.
She relayed this to the girls after they had finished and the trio parted ways; Lily and Mary were planning to visit the library for a quick study session with Alice and Marlene would join them in the common room when she had returned from the hospital wing.
She felt her nerves getting the better of her as she neared the familiar doors leading into the infirmary, a quick flashback to the time she had spent there only a few short months ago flooded her memories as she pushed through the doors. Bert was propped up in one of the beds nearest to the entrance, skimming through an old looking textbook and scribbling some notes on the parchment beside him.
He glanced up at the sound of the creaking doors and a smile formed on his face as he recognized his visitor.
"Hey!" he said brightly. "I wasn't sure if you were going to visit."
"Of course I'd come visit you," she said with a slight flush rising to her cheeks. In fact, she had debated whether she would visit him or not.
"I'm sorry about earlier," he looked a little sheepish. "I had hoped I hadn't scared you off."
"What do you mean?" Marlene felt confused.
"Erhm," he hesitated while looking a little embarrassed. "The kiss I mean."
"Oh," Marlene felt her face growing hot as she instantly concluded that he had regretted his decision to do so. As if sensing what she was thinking his eyes grew wide and he became flustered.
"No no," he said hurriedly, "I rather enjoyed it I just – I didn't stop think that perhaps I was being a bit forward, doing it in front of such a large crowd and all. The adrenaline…"
He looked nervous and Marlene felt instantly relieved that she wasn't the only one feeling flustered.
"Um," she said quietly. She didn't quite know what to say. She was fighting an inner battle on whether or not she had, in fact, enjoyed it.
She moved closer to the bed and sat down into a chair beside him. Bert reached across and grabbed her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. The feeling felt more awkward to Marlene than it did comforting.
"Thanks for coming to visit me," he said happily.
Madam Pomfrey didn't agree, however, when she came bustling in a good ten minutes later. They had been chatting idly about nothing of importance when she hurried in to inform Marlene that Bert had had enough visitations for the day and needed his rest.
"He will be discharged tomorrow morning," she insisted when Bert had asked her for an exception, "you may visit him tomorrow all you like."
"Goodnight," Bert said dejectedly as Marlene stood to leave. She hesitated slightly and knew that with Madam Pomfrey's eyes burning into her that she was far too edgy to do anything that could remotely further her embarrassment. This is what she told herself as she waved goodbye instead but a large part of her had the overwhelming sense of relief that she had managed to avoid any more physical contact with him for the day.
The walk back to the common room seemed a lot longer than Marlene remembered it being in the past. Perhaps it was because she was left alone to dwell on the numerous thoughts floating around in her head and she couldn't overcome the overpowering amount of emotions that she seemed to be feeling.
She liked Bert. This much she had been aware since well before Christmas. The more that she had spent time with him in the past weeks talking and getting to know one another, the more she had realized that she looked forward to spending time with him. She knew that when they separated she had anticipated the next time they would see each other and whenever that time came she was always genuinely happy to see him.
Bert made her feel blissful; he was always polite, kind and thoughtful. He was smart, funny and as a bonus he was definitely easy on the eyes and her friends were approving of the relationship. There was no doubt that they were getting along very well with each other and Marlene couldn't see why she felt wrong about it all.
She had wanted him to kiss her but when he finally did she had felt a knot in the pit of her stomach and had instantly felt relieved when he had pulled away. Everything felt different now that he had finally taken the next step and Marlene was struggling to figure out why she suddenly wished that he hadn't.
Then there was Sirius. She scolded herself mentally for letting him enter her thoughts at all but she knew that he had been weighing heavily on her mind for the past while. Lily had insinuated that there was something going on between them. Marlene had felt sick at the thought.
But why? What was so wrong about Sirius Black? He was smart, funny, popular, extremely good looking and he was uncharacteristically brave, chivalrous and loyal. Not to mention that he had willingly assisted Marlene a couple of times with her studies without expecting anything in return. Sure he could be a conceited, pompous bully and more often than not he had too much of a carefree attitude that left Marlene doubting how serious he was about certain things.
There was definitely a mystery there. Lily had been right about one thing though; Sirius Black did not pay much attention to girls. This was definitely an odd characteristic for someone who so flawlessly attracted a sickening amount of attention from the opposite sex. It never seemed to faze him and Marlene struggled to come up with a single girl's name that he had ever communicated with outside of the classroom that had lasted longer than ten minutes.
Except for her.
Why was she having such a hard time deciphering Sirius? Why did she even care for that matter?
As she neared the common room after what seemed like an eternity she started to slowly wonder whether or not her apprehension towards Bert stemmed from an unconscious notion that she harbored feelings for Sirius Black. Had Lily been right?
"Bowtruckle," she said dully as she stared upwards at the portrait of the fat lady.
Lily was waiting for her in the common room. Marlene was relieved to discover that Sirius was nowhere to be seen. She couldn't even fathom the idea of seeing him while her mind entertained such thoughts of him. Mary had stayed behind in the library with Alice but both Marlene and Lily mused whether or not she had started up her infamous relationship with Davey Gudgeon again.
"He's not here," Lily said quietly when Marlene had scanned her head around the room with what she had thought had been inconspicuous.
"Sorry, who?" Marlene played dumb but Lily gave her a knowing look.
"I think you know who I'm talking about Marlene," she said simply. Lily was far too smart for her own good.
Marlene sighed. She wasn't sure if this was a conversation she was prepared to have but the inner battle with her thoughts was weighing heavy on her mind and Lily was, after all, her best friend.
"I don't know how I feel about him, okay?" Marlene didn't even offer a name but in truth, she didn't know which boy she was referring to.
"I'm pretty sure that he has feelings for you," Lily replied. She had been reading her novel but it was placed neatly on her lap and she was looking pointedly at Marlene.
"Is this a conversation we should be having in the common room?" Marlene glanced around. Despite the fact that nobody seemed to be within ear shot, there were still quite a large handful of people around them.
"I told you, he's not here right now," Lily confirmed that they were speaking about Black.
"How do you know?" Marlene asked hesitantly.
"I watched them leave after dinner. I suspect they are up to their usual, I'm pretty sure I heard Potter talking about Black needing to 'unwind' or something of the sort."
"And you didn't stop them?" Marlene smiled ruefully at Lily. As a prefect, Lily often strongly disagreed with the boy's pranks.
"Give me a bit more credit than that," Lily smiled.
Marlene didn't reply. She had focused her attention towards the window where the sun had long ago set and the twinkling stars were prominently displayed in the dark sky.
"If you don't have feelings for Bert," Lily continued, "then perhaps you should let him know."
"I don't know what I want," Marlene twisted her head to give Lily a pained look. Lily shrugged.
"I don't know Black very well but he obviously cares for you and I'm pretty sure you feel the same."
Marlene laughed doubtfully.
"Don't laugh," Lily was scowling. "I don't know how you can't possibly notice the way he looks at you in class."
"Where have you been the last couple of weeks?" Marlene asked incredulously. "Black has been nothing but nasty to me in Potions."
"He is probably just jealous," Lily shrugged. Thankfully, she did not continue to pry into the matter for which Marlene was utterly grateful. Her mind was a jumbled mess of her confusion and she was having a difficult time making sense of them on her own, let alone to Lily.
Mary and Alice arrived shortly after. It wasn't until the portrait hole swung open and the four familiar voices of the Marauders reached Marlene's ears that she hastily decided it was time for bed.
Lily gave her a knowing look as she bid them goodnight but Mary and Alice were too absorbed in their conversation about boys to pay much attention to her fluster. It seemed that Alice had begun dating their fellow sixth year Frank Longbottom and it was starting to get rather serious and this was something that Mary seemed expressively intersted in.
Marlene couldn't bring herself to look at the boys as she quickly made her way across the common room and up into her dorm.
She lay in bed for what seemed like hours; the other girls had made their way upstairs while Marlene remained silent behind her drawn curtains, pretending to be asleep. Sleep did not come easy for her. She tossed and turned, readjusted her pillow about a half dozen times and even threw the covers off when the heat seemed unbearably uncomfortable only to pull them back up quickly when the cool breeze from the slightly ajar window entered in through the crevices in her curtains.
No matter what she did she was unable to tear her thoughts away from the chaos that was keeping her preoccupied from sleep. Eventually, after it seemed as if the other girls were fast asleep, Marlene snuck quietly out of her bed, grabbed the book sitting on her dresser and down into the deserted common room.
The clock on the wall indicated that it was half past one in the morning.
The fire was still going, although it was starting to fade away and Marlene wasted no time curling up into the chair closest to it. She sat staring into the flickering flames for a few moments before opening up the book she had begun reading over the holidays and attempted to finish reading it.
Despite the fact that she was engrossed in the story, she was not oblivious to the creaking sounds of the staircase across the room. She glanced up but saw nothing. She continued to read until another sharp creak and a soft curse disturbed her thoughts again.
"I don't care if you're sneaking out," she said aimlessly. She didn't know why she had felt inclined to call out but she had been fairly certain that the boys were planning an afterhour's adventure.
Three boys confirmed her thoughts as they stepped off the landing leading up to the boy's dormitories. Marlene glanced up briefly and noted that Remus was not with them.
She forced herself to look away when her eyes landed on Sirius.
"Right then," James said nervously. "You never saw us."
They were quick to exit the portrait hole and Marlene threw her book to the ground in obvious frustration. She slumped back into the chair and returned her gaze to the fire.
Seeing him had confirmed what she had feared all evening.
She definitely had feelings for Sirius Black. Now she was even further from clearing her thoughts than she had been an hour earlier.
Curse Lily for being right.
