Changed Plans

It had to be a dream.

Sirius sat across from Marlene McKinnon in a dingy café that was still open at this late hour.

She was a sight to be sure, her golden curls soaking wet and plastered to her head, her dress was probably a deep blue when dry but currently it looked as though it'd been drug through a lake and the color was nearly black. Her makeup must have been waterproof though because her ice blue eyes still popped with the golden shimmer surrounding them and her lips still pulled him in with their blood red color.

Then she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and Sirius' brain jumped back to memories from so long ago he'd nearly forgotten them.

"So, how was uni in Germany?"

"Alright, I managed to do well enough." Sirius toyed with his mug. "How was uni in Ireland?"

Marlene stiffened and looked away.

"Not good?"

She didn't answer and Sirius hated how he couldn't read her as easily as he had before they both left the country.

"Marls, I have no clue what's bothering you, so can you at least give me a hint?"

Marlene blinked, and the rigidness in her posture melted for a moment. Sirius capitalized on that moment of softness.

"Come on, Marls, it's me."

Her eyes returned to his and he was shocked at the pain he saw there. "I never went."

"What?" That didn't make sense. They'd both been wanting to get out of dreary old England and both came from families that had the funds to get them out, granted his family would have preferred him dead but they weren't the family that paid for him to go to school, Uncle Alphard had seen to that.

"I never went."

"But, James never said anything-"

"I threatened him not to." Marlene sighed and looked down at her mug. "No one but James and Lily knew."

Sirius couldn't help staring. His mind had gone blank. "Why?"

"Mum got sick," she shrugged. "I couldn't leave Dad and Catherine to look after her on their own."

"Is she alright?" Sirius felt his blood run cold.

"Yeah, the cancer is in remission, has been for two years, and the doctors think she'll be fine."

Sirius let out a long, shaky breath. "I'm really, really glad to hear that."

Finally she smiled at him. "I'm really, really glad to be able to say that."

He chuckled and resisted the urge to reach out and take her hand. "So what had you in the streets of London without an umbrella this evening?"

Her face fell.

Sirius briefly wondered if it was a date gone wrong. The thought soured his stomach.

"You might call it a business opportunity gone wrong." Her shoulders slumped and she stared back down at her drink.

Sirius tried to stamp down his relief at it not being a date. "What kind of business?"

"I was at a party where agencies look for potential new models."

Sirius opened his mouth but no sound came out. What happened in the six years he'd been gone? The Marlene he thought he'd sent to Ireland would have never pursued modeling. She wanted to be behind the camera, finding the perfect lighting, making him pull over on the side of the road because she had to get the perfect shot, obsessed with this lense and that film type. She was never interested in being the subject of a photograph.

"Yeah," she shook her head. "I thought I knew what I was getting myself into. I was wrong."

Sirius' brain finally started turning gears again. "Wait, how did that lead to you on the pavement in the pouring rain?"

"I made a scene and ran."

"Why did you make a scene?"

"Because one of the agents decided he didn't need to keep his hands to himself."

Marlene had said it so easily, almost flippantly, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Sirius, however, saw red.