It was a grey day, the type that never seems to begin or end, the day that Dorcas walked into the kitchen and caused a thunderstorm.
It was in that strange, dead few hours between lunch and the evening meeting, and Dorcas was at a loose end, having filed her report at the knitting magazine (anything that pays the rent, she'd told her mum) and not being on any missions at present, and so she was wandering around the mostly-empty house as she tended to do when she had nothing else to occupy herself with.
Humming softly to herself, she ran her fingers along the radiator that lined the walls of the hall. The radio was playing in the kitchen, a Pumpkins song she'd danced to when she still went to dances. There were people in there too, she knew because there was a low mumbling sound underneath the pretty melody of the music. She thought it might be Edgar and Sarah, but the voice in the back of her brain that sounded like Mad Eye told her that it might not be friend, it could be foe.
Quietly, she slipped her wand out of the pocket of her dungarees, and stepped forward, peering through the crack between the door and the frame. The light in the kitchen was bright, and two figures stood by the oven, sipping Butterbeer and talking quietly. And then, very quickly, they weren't talking anymore, but kissing, bottles still in hands. As her eyes adjusted to the brightness of the kitchen, Dorcas realised, with a gasp, who they were.
It was Marlene and Sirius, wrapped around each other with such ferocity it was almost alarming.
In a slight state of shock, her wand fell to the floor with a clatter, and the couple, surprised by the noise, broke apart. It was one of those moments in which Dorcas temporarily forgot she was a witch of immense skill and talent, and instead she grabbed her wand from the floor and scurried away from the kitchen as quickly as she could. Her mum always used to say that cold air was an excellent way to clear your head, so that's where she headed, out onto the porch, where she lit a cigarette and thought about what she'd just seen.
The sky was still grey when Marlene strolled out a few hours later, leather jacket draped over her skinny shoulders. She was whistling, one of those funny Scottish folk songs that Moody sang when he was drunk, and she didn't look like she'd just enjoyed a quickie against a cupboard door. She looked cool, calm, collected; like Marlene, basically.
"Alright, Dor?" she said when she noticed her friend, "Aren't you cold?"
"Not on the inside," Dorcas replied, gesturing to the smouldering cigarette in her hand. Marlene nodded shortly.
"Can I scrounge one? Sorry, it's just Matt nicked mine, so…"
Dorcas tossed her the packet.
"You off with me or something?" Marlene asked curiously, sticking the cigarette between her teeth. Just tell her, Dorcas, tell her that you saw her.
"No, of course not."
"Just tired, yeah?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Marlene pulled a face of exasperation. "Well, y'know…normally, you're a bit more…lively? That's probably not the word I should've used, but that's why you're the writer and I'm the-"
"I saw you," Dorcas said quickly, "With Sirius. In the kitchen."
"- soldier…" Marlene finished slowly, "You what?"
Dorcas stubbed her cigarette out on the floor. "I saw you," she repeated, "kissing Sirius in the kitchen. And I…I mean, it's not my place, but-"
"You're my best friend, Dor," Marlene replied quietly, "Whatever you have to say, say it."
"Do you love him?"
"Christ on a motherfucking bike, Dorcas!" Marlene cackled, "That's a loaded question!"
"Well?" she looked up at Marlene, and the wind whistled through the thin glass of the front windows.
"No."
"Really?"
"I don't…" she ran a hand through her long blonde hair, and leant beside Dorcas, "I don't think I believe in love. I mean, I know it exists, I can see it, but…I don't – it's like when you're a kid, the first time you cast a spell with a wand, first lesson of Hogwarts, and you can see it happening around you, so you know that it's possible, but you can't…there's a bit of you that doesn't believe that you, yourself, can do it? It's like that."
Dorcas nodded slowly, and Marlene smoked in silence. Nothing was said for a while.
"I don't think you should see him, if you don't love him."
"I thought you would." It wasn't said cruelly, but honestly. Dorcas would later remember it as one of those conversations where you see inside another person's soul.
"You understand me though, don't you?"
Marlene nodded. It was hard, keeping her walls up, and she was exhausted. It was exhausting keeping Sirius Black at arm's length, and it was exhausting fighting this war and she just wanted to sleep. Merlin, she was tired.
"I'll tell him," she promised Dorcas, "Would that make you happy?"
"It's not about me," her friend replied with a smile, "it's nothing to do with me at all."
"Mmmmm…"
There was quiet again, and it began to drizzle, like the sky was crying.
"D'you wanna go back in? It's getting a bit cold…"
"Yeah," Marlene said, "yeah, let's go inside."