A/N okay so sorry again for the wait, it's been a chaotic two weeks (my eighteenth birthday) so I haven't had much time to write BUT ITS CHRISTMAS NOW so I should have loads of time (theoretically) what with A level mocks coming up and all that... Sorry aha but it sucks. ANYWAY I've also started an Instagram Marauders account where I'm posting aesthetics of all the marauders and co. If you want to go and check it out, it's called maraudersera_aesthetics. Most of them are based off my story Broken Glass but check it out and I hope you like them as much as you seem to like my stories x

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Will It Ever End?

Chapter 37:What Happened That Day

"What a feeling in my soul

Love burns brighter than sunshine.

Let the rain fall, I don't care

I'm yours and suddenly your mine

And it's brighter than sunshine."

- Brighter than Sunshine, Aqualung

The world was spinning, but it was in a good way. Marlene stared up at the dark sky above her and had to lean against the wall for balance, the stars were mostly obscured by light pollution from the city but she could make out one or two - the brighter ones.

Sirius handed her a spliff and Marlene took it lightly, taking a hit before giving it to Dorcas and blowing out the smoke. There was a silence that was only broken by the noise of the traffic a couple of streets away and the sounds from inside the club.

"I can smell that stuff from a mile away," Lily muttered, wrinkling her nose in distaste. "But I'm going to ignore the fact you're all smoking an illegal substance because I can't be bothered to argue." She was leaning against James with her head resting on his chest, his arms wrapped around her.

"Cheers Lils," Dorcas muttered, eyes closed as she took a second hit. "That's very considerate."

"Very," Marlene echoed. Her voice sounded slow and was reverberating in her head. "Very considerate..."

"Remus!"

Marlene looked round to see a shocked Lily staring at Remus who was holding the spliff between two fingers and looking back at her with a curious expression. "What?"

"You don't smoke," Lily frowned in disapproval at her fellow prefect.

Marlene smirked at Sirius as everyone turned to look at Remus then back to Lily.

"Weed is different," Remus muttered but he cast one last glance at Lily and handed it back to Sirius without another word.

Sirius grinned and offered it to Alice who shook her head, "no thanks."

"You're all so boring," Sirius grumbled, handing it to Peter who took a hit then began coughing violently. "Yeah, it's quite strong mate, watch yourself."

Lily shook her head and yawned, "I'm knackered, what time is it?"

"Way past your bedtime Evans," Sirius smirked, reaching out to play with one of Marlene's curls hanging off her shoulder. She watched him lazily until he pulled her towards him. "You're gorgeous McKinnon," he muttered.

Marlene had already completely forgotten about everyone else. She wrapped her arms around Sirius's shoulders and smiled, "you ain't so bad yourself."

Sirius smirked, "oh I know," he muttered, leaning down and kissing her deeply.

"Oh god, here they go again," Dorcas grumbled. "Those two when they're drunk, they're..." She waved her hands for want of a better word.

"Horny?" Remus supplied, smirking.

"I was thinking more along the lines of 'mushy'," Dorcas said. "But I don't know if that's a word so we'll go with horny."

"They're in a bubble of love," Peter said dreamily. "Don't pop it guys."

James cleared his throat, "Right, I think it might be time to head back before Pete either smokes himself into a stupor or chucks a whitey."

"Agreed," Alice said as Lily nodded sleepily. "I'm tired as well."

"Pads," James said hesitantly, looking extremely uncomfortable at the sight of his best friend and surrogate sister. "Padfoot!"

"SIRIUS!" Remus said loudly and Sirius looked up at them, frowning.

"What?"

"We're heading back mate," James said. "I think we'll probably have to do side along apparition for some of us," he looked at Marlene.

Sirius cast a glance down at Marlene who appeared to have passed out on his chest and he grinned in amusement. "Lena," he prodded her then shook his head and wrapped an arm around her waist, supporting her weight. "I think that might be a good idea."

"Hey Padfoot," Peter giggled, pointing over at him. "You kissed her into unconsciousness!" His giggles grew higher pitched until it was almost hysterical.

"We don't usually give him weed that strong," Remus explained to Dorcas, shaking his head as Sirius gave his friend a middle finger with his free hand. "It seems to have gone to his head."

Dorcas took one last hit of the spliff then chucked it onto the ground and stamped on it. "I could never have guessed," she laughed then spun on the spot and disappeared.

Marlene regained consciousness just as Sirius was about to apparate her back and she staggered into him as she hit the frost hardened ground in Hogsmead. Sirius wrapped an arm around her and kissed the top of her head. "Nearly there Lena," he muttered.

When they did at last reach the common room, Marlene staggered up to her own bed with Alice, Dorcas and Lily on her heels. Marlene just about managed to strip down to her underwear before she collapsed onto the bed and fell into a deep sleep. Lily was next to go, then Dorcas and last of all Alice, who actually managed to get to the bathroom to brush her teeth before nestling down into her pillows and closing her eyes.

"Well, I can officially say that after last night, I'm not drinking anything for s good three weeks," James groaned. They were all slouched out in the common room, settled in armchairs by their favourite fire. "And that includes Padfoot's birthday."

"Not going to happen Prongs," Sirius piped up instantly. "We didn't throw a party last year because, well..." He gestured to Marlene who was snoozing with her head on Dorcas's shoulder. The others needed no more reminding; this time last year Marlene had been taken captive.

"We are doing one this year - our last year." Sirius finished with a finality to his tone. "I don't care wether you don't drink anything, we're partying."

No one argued with him. No one seemed to have the energy to do so. Marlene gave a light snore, her head tucked into the crook of Dorcas's neck and Dorcas looked over at Remus, who was sitting on the other side of Marlene and grinned. Alice was writing a letter to Frank, propped up against the cushions which she'd stolen from another armchair across the room. Lily and James were sitting very close together, his arm was around her shoulders and they both looked sleepy but happy. Peter was sprawled in an armchair, eyes closed but Dorcas didn't think he was asleep, just resting and Sirius had copied the actions of Alice and was lying across his own stolen cushions at Marlene's feet. Dorcas kept having to resist the urge to kick him..

"I think I might go down to the kitchens," Remus said, getting slowly to his feet. He looked around at them all then sighed, "actually, I can't be bothered." He sat down again but jolted Marlene awake. She blinked sleepily and looked around.

"What's going on?"

"Literally nothing," Dorcas muttered. "I'd go back to sleep if I were you Mars."

Marlene's eyes moved around their little circle then stopped on Lily and James, "obviously we've all missed something, what's going on with you two then?"

There was a long silence in which everyone's eager and curious gazes fell on the pair sitting on the sofa and stayed fixed there. Then James coughed and grinned, "Evans has agreed to go on a date with me!"

Dorcas knew the excitement of that statement was incredibly restrained. James looked like he was only just stopping himself from jumping up and doing a victory dance in that moment.

The room sighed as everyone rolled their eyes and muttered "finally's" and "well done mate" while James just sat there looking like he was king of the world and Lily blushed and tried (and failed) to hide her grin.

It was silent and pitch black as Marlene, Lily, Alice and Dorcas all crept into the boys dormitory at five in the morning. Marlene grinned as she heard a thud then a curse as Dorcas stubbed her toe on something in the dark. She hoped the boys had remembered and woken up themselves but she needn't have worried.

"Please, keep the noise down or you'll wake him," Remus hissed, sounding nervous. "Then we'll all have to deal with the consequences."

Marlene turned just in time to see Dorcas shoot Remus a rude hand gesture and James poking his head out of his curtains with a large grin on his face, teeth flashing white in the light from Peter's wand.

"Put the light out!" Lily whispered urgently. "Or he'll wake up."

Marlene scoffed at that; not even a firework display could wake Sirius at this time in the morning. "Don't worry Lils, we have to follow a special technique to do this properly."

Lily's eyes narrowed and Marlene could see her mistrust and skeptical look from across the dorm. "What technique?"

Marlene grinned and then pulled back the curtains around Sirius's bed and jumped on him.

"Omph!" Sirius jumped awake and his eyes shot open in shock only to land on her grinning face.

"Surprise!" Marlene called happily and she heard her friends echo the call along with "happy birthday's!"

Sirius groaned and rolled over, hiding his face in his pillow. "You wankers! What time is it?"

"About five," Peter yawned from his bed where he'd obviously decided he could watch the festivities just as well as if he'd stood gathered round Sirius like the girls had.

"You've got to be taking the piss," Sirius growled, voice muffled by the pillow. "Go away all of you - except you," he added, lifting his head to look at Marlene. "You can stay."

Marlene rolled her eyes and pulled herself up so she was leaning against the headboard. "I feel honoured," she said, voice edging the bounds of sarcasm. "But it's your birthday and you have to open your presents now!"

There was a silence in which Sirius didn't move from his pillow.

"Shame," James shook his head sadly. "I couldn't wait to give it to him and he obviously doesn't want it... I suppose I could give it to Peter for Christmas."

Sirius sat up. "Fine, I'll open them now!

"Damn," Peter muttered, grinning. "I was hoping he'd gone back to sleep."

"Not a chance," Sirius scoffed as he caught the present James had chucked him. "Pull up a chair ladies, this may take a while - as you can see, I'm insanely popular."

Marlene rolled her eyes again as Sirius gestured to quite a large pile of presents at the end of his bed. She knew a lot of them were from admirers of his and that it would be wise to keep away from them in case of any love potions.

Lily had already perched herself on the end of James's bed, sitting nervously on the edge and keeping her eyes resolutely fixed on the present in Sirius's hands but Dorcas and Alice pulled up two chairs without hesitation and sat, eagerly awaiting the reveal.

"Whoa mate, that's fucking brilliant, well done!" Sirius grinned as the wrapping paper was torn away to reveal a handwritten piece of parchment.

Marlene, who had known all along what it was laughed but Lily and Alice were both frowning in puzzlement at how happy a bit of paper could make him.

"What is it?" Lily asked cautiously.

James chuckled and lent back against his pillows, arms propped behind his head. "It's a list of instructions and a spell; Padfoot here bought a motorbike over the summer in a moment of madness -"

"It wasn't," Sirius snorted. "It was an excellent buy I'll have you know."

"Yeah, well anyway, we've been trying to find out how to make it fly for ages and I found the spell. It's the same as what they put on the Qudditch brooms except slightly different because it's a motorbike but it'll work."

Lily looked speechless for a moment then gave a tiny, almost imperceptible nod of the head, "that's actually pretty ingenious."

"Thank you," James grinned, looking extremely pleased with himself before turning back to Sirius. "The other thing is for the bike as well, I thought you might like to personalise it a bit."

Marlene looked down as Sirius pulled out a silver metal plate about four inches long with 'Sirius Black' embossed on it. She laughed again as Sirius chuckled. "Cheers mate, that's awesome."

James nodded and smiled. "Not a problem Pads. That parcel is from mum, I told her not to bother but she's a safety obsessive at the moment.

Sirius leant over and pulled out a parcel that was large and round. Marlene looked on in curiosity as Sirius opened it and smiled before pulling out a black shiny bike helmet. "She should know full well I'm not going to wear this," he said jokingly but Marlene saw him place it down carefully with his other presents and the touched smile on his lips as he looked at it, and she knew that he appreciated the gesture of care and love from his surrogate mother more than he'd admit.

"Mine next," Remus got up from his bed and bent to pull a long package out of his bedside drawer. "It was difficult to find but its exactly the same as the original version you had." He handed it to Sirius and ruffled his friend's hair. "Happy birthday Pads."

"Cheers Moons," Sirius had started to grin as he slid the long tube out of the paper and Marlene knew he'd guessed what it was.

Remus did too. He cleared his throat and explained, "I assumed you might not be going back to your parents place so you'd need a new copy. I thought you might like to put it up when you get your own place or something."

Sirius looked up at him and laughed. "Yeah, bet my old mum's going mad trying to get it down."

"What is it?" Alice asked, leaning over to have a look. Sirius rolled it out on the bed and Marlene recognised it instantly. It was all four of the boys standing arm in arm by the lake. Marlene knew it because she'd been the one to take it at the end of fifth year after they'd finished their exams. It was sunny in the photo and all of them were laughing their heads off at something James had said. They all looked so happy.

Sirius cleared his throat and Marlene looked up at him. His face was difficult to read but there was no denying there was emotion clear on it as he looked down at the photo. He cleared his throat again and looked up at Remus who was watching him carefully. "Thanks Rem, a lot."

"That was a really thoughtful present," Lily said approvingly as Remus returned to sitting cross-legged on his bed.

James frowned and poked her in the arm, "hey what about mine, it was thoughtful as well!"

Lily just shushed him, eyes twinkling with humour as Sirius picked up the next gift which was just an envelope of heavy parchment and Marlene snorted, catching the sulky look on James's face. He really was just a big baby sometimes.

"Who's that from?" Dorcas frowned at Sirius as he froze.

Marlene leant over to try and read it but the return address was tilting away from her and she couldn't make out the writing. "Sirius?" She asked quietly because he'd suddenly gone pale and wide-eyed.

"Pads, you alright mate?" James scooted to the end of his bed and was staring at his friend nervously. Marlene knew he'd recognised the signs as well and she braced herself.

Sirius on the other hand just drew in a long shaky breath and placed the envelope to one side, not looking at it. Now Marlene could read who it was from now and she swallowed as she recognised Walburga Black's spiky handwriting. She shot a look at James who seemed to know straight away who'd sent it.

"Padf -"

"Leave it James," Sirius muttered. "We'll deal with it later, okay?"

James pursed his lips but said nothing. Everyone else just remained silent as Sirius unwrapped Peter's gift of a jumbo box of Bertie's along with Lily and Dorcas's joint gift of a set of muggle crime books about a detective called Sherlock Holmes, the mood had suddenly taken a downturn. The letter that Sirius's mother had sent had cast a cloud of discomfort over everyone, and although it was unsaid, they all felt it issuing in waves from Sirius. Marlene shuffled uncomfortably and remained silently next to him, trying to offer what little comfort she could but feeling like she was failing miserably.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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