That morning during classes Marlene and Sirius sat at opposite ends of the room from each other. And, though they didn't so much as look at each other, there was an obvious tension in the air between them. Marlene spent the entirety of Charms waiting for Sirius to finally snap. It was with untold relief that she finally escaped the class at the bell and made her way to the library for her morning break, where she was meeting Regulus.
Not wanting to keep any secrets from him after everything he had done for her, Marlene almost immediately came clean to Regulus about her earlier interaction with his brother. Surprisingly, he hadn't been mad at her. Though, reflecting on it later, Marlene probably thought that was due to his extreme relief at her accompanying announcement that their fake relationship had run its course and was thus over, mostly due to the fact that she had already revealed the ruse to James and two of her brothers.
After their break, Marlene convinced Regulus to skip lunch with her, so as to avoid Sirius for just a little bit longer. Although he tried to persuade her that talking to him as soon as possible would probably be for the best, ultimately Regulus accepted defeat and went with Marlene to beg some food off of the house elves instead of enjoying the meal in the comfort of the Great Hall.
It was later in the afternoon, when Marlene was sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room with several of her fellow seventh year's, that Sirius finally confronted her about the conversation they had had that morning during practice. Marlene was busy revising a Transfiguration essay that she had finished during her morning break, while Remus and Dorcas sat to her left reviewing old Potions notes for the quiz they would be having the next day. James and Lily, meanwhile, were on the other side of the table, finalizing the patrol schedule for the week (glancing at the pair out of the corner of her eye, Marlene made a mental note to bring up the topic of how incredibly friendly James and Lily seemed to be with each other later, in the Dormitory). Mary had just left to grab a book she needed for a Care of Magical Creatures essay from the library, and Alice and Peter had both disappeared shortly after lunch; Alice with her boyfriend, Frank, and Peter…well, no one was entirely sure where he had gotten off to.
In short, they were all absorbed in their own work when they were interrupted by the portrait of the Fat Lady slamming shut. They all looked up to see Sirius standing just inside the entrance to Gryffindor Tower, scanning the Common Room with an angry scowl that was looking to become a permanent feature etched upon his face. If possible, his expression darkened considerably as his eyes alighted on the table in the back corner where his year-mates were seated.
"He's going to kill me," Marlene stated in a barely discernable whisper, as Sirius made his way over to them, practically running over a pair of first years as he did so.
"I'll come to your funeral," Dorcas told the redhead, patting the other girl's hand in an attempt to comfort her friend.
"You alright, mate?" James asked, though he knew full well that his best friend was anything but alright. In fact, Sirius was quite possibly as far away from 'alright' as it was possible to be, in that moment in time.
"Can I have a word, McKinnon?" Sirius asked, ignoring his friend.
Marlene's eyes narrowed at his second use of her surname that day, though she knew full well she deserved it after what she'd said to him before. "What do you want, Black?"
"A word," Sirius practically spit out. "Or were you too busy thinking about other…things to pay attention to what I was saying?"
"Like…?" Marlene challenged, stony-faced. In all practicality, Marlene knew she wasn't helping her cause in the slightest. And while she knew that Sirius had every right to be angry with her, she couldn't help but get angry back, after how he had treated her for the past few months. Yes, she understood that she had crossed the line by telling him it was his fault that Regulus was well on his way to becoming a dark wizard, but that didn't change the fact that Sirius was the one who had originally gotten them into this mess. Clearly none of this would be happening right now if he hadn't decided to date that blonde bimbo he called his girlfriend. So yes, while Marlene could admit that this was largely her fault, in a way, she was also adamant in her refusal to completely accept the blame; she had no problem with making things difficult for Sirius.
"Don't play games with me, McKinnon! You know exactly what I'm talking about," Sirius seethed, his voice rising as he uttered each word so that by the time he finished, the Common Room was just about silent and a majority of Gryffindor House was now staring at the corner where the seventh years were situated.
"Padfoot, mate…" James began slowly, standing up and attempting to pull his friend in the direction of their dorm. "Maybe you should go cool off a bit."
"I'm fine," Sirius snapped, yanking his arm out of James' grip. "I just want to have a word with McKinnon. In private. Is that a problem?"
"Yeah, I'd say it is," With all of her attention focused on Sirius and then James, Marlene hadn't noticed her brother Merric approach them. "You know, considering how you've been ignoring her for the past two months and all of that."
Sirius merely glared at the fourteen-year-old, who was totally unfazed by it. (As a proud Gryffindor, Merric didn't like to make it common knowledge that the one person who could still terrify him with just a look was his mother.)
Marlene, meanwhile, no matter how much she didn't want to accept the blame she knew was hers, knew that this conversation was going to have to happen sooner rather than later. And a small part of her couldn't help but hope desperately that maybe Sirius would forgive her if she could just explain everything to him. And so, with that in mind, she pushed her chair away from the table and stood up, standing as tall as her short stature would allow.
"We can talk," Marlene informed him curtly, unable to let go of her frustration with him no matter how much she just wanted to put it all behind them.
And without another word, Marlene swiftly made her way across the crowded, yet oddly silent, Common Room. Without even once looking back to see if Sirius was following her, Marlene exited the room and walked a short way down the corridor to an unused classroom that was always unlocked. Once in the room, Marlene perched herself on a desk and waited for Sirius to appear. Merlin, he walked slow…
Just a brief moment later, Sirius entered the room, pointedly pulling the door closed behind him and looking angrier than before, if possible. Marlene chose not to speak, knowing that Sirius was bound to explode any moment now. Sure enough, no sooner had the door clicked shut than Sirius had rounded on Marlene.
"What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" Sirius demanded, to which Marlene merely raised an eyebrow. He continued, "You're bloody ridiculous, that's what this is! What the hell has gotten into you since you started dating my brother? And speaking of him, why in Merlin's name are you dating my bloody brother?"
Marlene waited a moment before speaking, keeping her voice level. "Are you quite finished yelling?" Sirius glowered at her and opened his mouth to speak again but she cut him off. "That's what I thought. Now, I'm not going to lie and pretend that what I said this morning wasn't out of line. And I am truly sorry about that. I never should have implied in any way that it's your fault that Regulus seems to be following a less-than desirable path in life. I don't blame you at all for being mad at me about that."
"That's it?" Sirius demanded, incredulous now when Marlene made no move to continue speaking. "That's all you're going to apologize for?"
"I wasn't aware that there was anything else I'd done that you felt I needed to apologize for," Marlene replied promptly.
"How about the things you said about Joscelind?" Sirius questioned. "And what about dating my brother in the first place? I'll ask again: what the hell was that about?"
"I'm not going to apologize for speaking the truth," Marlene responded to his first question, before finally hesitating. "As for dating Regulus…well…that didn't quite go as planned."
"As planned?" Sirius repeated. "There was some twisted logic behind you dating my younger brother?"
"It wasn't twisted," Marlene insisted, starting to sound just the slightest bit insecure as she began to think that wallowing in self-pity for the rest of life would have been a better option than revenge. "It made perfect sense."
"Would you care to enlighten me?" Sirius requested sardonically, "Because I, for one, fail to see how dating my brother would make any sense whatsoever. Last I checked, you hated Regulus! And mostly because of how he treated your brother. I know how protective you are of your brothers; don't tell me you forgave him for that."
"I don't need to justify myself to you," Marlene replied. "I can be angry at or forgive anyone I like. Right now, for instance, I'd love nothing more than to forgive you, but I'm finding that a little difficult, what with how completely and extremely mad you make me."
"I'm making you angry?" Sirius questioned, stopping just short of laughing at the very notion. "Are you going to give me a straight answer if I ask what the hell I've done to make you angry? Because last time I checked, I'm not the one being a complete arse about things."
Marlene really did give a short spurt of mirthless laughter at that. "Have you been paying attention to the way you've been acting at all in the past few months? Or have you been too busy focusing on Joscelind to notice the way you're treating everyone else?"
Marlene could tell by the way Sirius' expression changed as she spoke that everything seemed to be falling into place for him.
"Oh, I get it now," Sirius said, "You're just jealous of how much time I've been spending with Joscelind, so you decided to date my brother to get my attention and prove some point that you have yet to make clear to me."
"You're a bloody idiot!" Marlene just about shouted at him, finally losing her cool. "It's because I love you!"
Do you still feel like you know what you're doing
Cause I don't think you do