Getting In Isn't So Hard

"They're still in there." Marlene stepped back with him, the cloak sliding against them. Sirius didn't hesitate to use their forced proximity to put his hand on her waist.

"Good, let's move." He pulled her against him as they walked carefully into Slughorn's office and Sirius couldn't keep the sneer off his face when he looked at the Carrows.

Bloody cowards, the both of them.

"I don't know what happened to the jacket, Professor. I didn't see McKinnon wearing one." Alecto looked at her half-wit brother. "Did you Amycus?"

"No, she wasn't wearing a jacket."

Sirius felt Marlene tense against him and pushed aside his own anger at Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber to whisper against the shell of Marlene's ear.

"Breathe, McKinnon, we'll make sure we get it back."

She stayed tense, but did let a long breath out. Sirius moved his hand from her waist to rub along her back.

"We've got this. Trust me."

"Fine." She grumbled, but Sirius didn't miss her relaxing against him.

"You're asking me to call into question the Head Girl, Ms. Carrow." Slughorn shook his head.

"Professor," She smiled at him, "Please remember that the Head Girl and McKinnon are good friends, and you know how everyone is suspecting the Slytherins of terrible things right now. I wonder if that has anything to do with it."

Slughorn looked torn. "I'll have to discuss this with the Head Master then. In the meantime, if you do happen to find Ms. McKinnon's jacket, please ensure it gets returned to her. If there are more examples of Slytherins helping and caring for their fellow students, we'll see less situations like these."

"Of course, Professor." Amycus nodded as he and Alecto moved out of the classroom.

"Let's go." Marlene began moving forward and Sirius moved his arm back to her waist, keeping them moving as one under James' cloak.

"What are we going to do with it?" Amycus whispered.

"I don't know yet. Maybe we'll make a dummy with it and see how many slicing curses it takes to shred it into a thousand pieces. Then send them to McKinnon one by one." Alecto laughed.

"I like that idea, she always was too stuck up for her own good." Amycus sneered.

The only thing that kept Sirius from blasting the two of them right there was knowing he had to keep Marlene from doing exactly that.

"It's in my dorm, I'll bring it out later tonight and we can tear it apart."

"I'm going to tear her apart," Marlene's voice came out in a sharp whisper that Sirius knew well at this point in their friendship.

"As long as it's after we get your jacket back, sure." Sirius pulled her closer. "But for now, let's focus on one thing at a time."

"Fine, but I swear she's going to get what's coming to her."

Sirius chuckled, in his opinion, Marlene's fight had always been the best part of her.

They walked silently behind the Tweedle Twins and right into the Slytherin common room, Sirius cataloging the password for future reference.

But to his frustration, Alecto didn't move to the dorms, she sat down on a couch and began speaking with a group gathered near the fire.

"Now we just need to figure out which room is Tweedle Dumb's." Marlene whispered.

Sirius smirked and pulled his wand. "Hold on, Marls."