Marlene POV
It should have been a happy day, a joyful, memorable day. And for everyone but two of us, it was. Lily looked radiant, James looked like the luckiest guy in the world, and everyone else could only look on in jealousy at the disgustingly happy couple, including me. To be fair it was a beautiful ceremony, short thankfully, and within twenty minutes they were kissing under a shower of sparks coming from everyone's wands. James then proceeded to pick Lily up and carry her down the aisle, to which she shrieked James on the arm, but simply looked blissfully happy. The reception was simple, within minutes we turned the pews from the ceremony itself into chairs and tables, and food was served to all the guests. Then came the speeches, which turned out to only be two, from Sirius the best man, and me the maid of honour, because there was no father of the bride. That was the painful part, having to stand up and talk, knowing that the whole time Sirius was watching me. My speech was short and sweet, one story that told the tale of Lily and I's first fight as best friends, for which we managed to not speak to each other for a full two hours, then we had to sleep in a dorm together so we came crying to each other apologizing. Then I told her how much I loved her, and threatened James by telling him that although he was like a brother to me, I would charm his balls into ten kilogram weights if he ever hurt Lily.
Then Sirius stood up, and had everyone laughing within two minutes, and I had to sit their and laugh in small amounts, so as to seem like everything was okay, whereas in fact everything was far from okay. Even looking at him hurt, because all I could think of was how devilishly handsome he was in a suit, and how he twisted his hands around each other in a nervous tick sort of way. Then all I could think about was his hands, and how they felt wrapped around my hands, cupping my cheeks as he kissed me, his hands running down my body. God he was amazing with his hands. But his voice was low and soft from the alcohol, and it brought me back to all those sleepy nights we'd spent sitting in front of the fire together in the common room at two am. Talking about how much of a cop out this life was, and how scared we were for having to leave Hogwarts.
Godric he was like a drug, only he left me alive and thriving when I was with him, and dead and failing when I was without him.
I hated it. Hated him for the power he had over me.
And yet I couldn't get enough of him.
Three hours later and every single one of us was drunk as hell, dancing (if you could call it dancing) in the centre of the room while some knock-off band played covers of both magical and muggle music. Lily's hair piece had fallen out, and all our heels were off because dancing in heels sucks. Being with the girls was one of the rare moments that I was distracted from real life, and the nostalgic music as well as the general high-spirited atmosphere kept me fairly ignorant to who else was currently in the room.
Lily shouted into my ear that she was going to the toilet and needed help with her dress, and so I reluctantly bid the dance floor goodbye and went with her. We traipsed up the stairs slowly, relishing in the quietness outside of the hall.
"How you doing Mar?" Lily finally asked, it was the question that had been eating away at her tongue all day.
"I'm good Lil, stop worrying about me." I told her, shoving my shoulder into hers good-naturedly.
"Never." She replied, grinning at me. "As your best friend and chosen sister it's my legal job to worry about you."
I smiled at her motherly nature, and continued down the upstairs hallway. Lily opened the door to a random hotel room, and I looked at her quizzically.
"Lil, this is not the toilet." I informed her.
"I know that, but this has an en-suite and it's nice than the other toilets, and bigger." She held the door open for me, and gestured for me to go inside. So I did, and then she slammed the door shut behind me and I heard whispering several incantations from outside the room. I banged my hands against the door.
"Lily what the fuck are you doing?" I shouted frustratedly.
"Call it a friend intervention." She shouted gleefully back. I pulled my wand off of my thigh from the sticking charm I'd cast there, and attempted to unlock the door. I was unsuccessful, whatever charm Lily had cast, I didn't know it. I cursed aloud, and hit my palms against the door in frustration.
"I don't like this Lily." I called out sadly. "Let me out!"
"No can do Mar, you've got to learn your lesson." I heard her footsteps as she walked away, and began to shout louder.
"What lesson? I don't understand!"
I cursed again and looked around the room. It was like mine, a double bed, a sofa and a bathroom. I sighed and went to sit down on the sofa, knowing that Lily would come back and unlock the door eventually, after I'd learnt my lesson, whatever that meant.
Sirius POV
Godric she looked so happy, so blissfully unaware of what she was doing to me. She was driving me crazy, and not in the way that Lily drove James crazy: the I'm obsessed with you and would do anything for you and I'm glad about that type of crazy. No, this was different; this was painful crazy, when simply looking at her made my heart bleed because I just couldn't have her. It was her voice, rising and lowering with every beat, torturing my mind because even a conversation with her was painful.
I looked down for one minute at the table covered in glitter, picking up my drink to try and forget my woes, and when I looked back up, she was gone. For a moment my heart beat picked up, and I scanned the room, panicking, for her. I could only imagine that someone from Voldemort's inner circle had come to attack us, and I immediately stood up to see better. I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw Lily leading her out of the room, and sat back down, huffing at my obsession.
Five minutes later Remus grabbed my arm and began to pull me away from my solitary seat on the top table, away from my wallowing and dragged me out of the room and up the hotel stairs.
"Remus, where are we going?" I asked sluggishly, only realising then how much I'd already had to drink. He looked at me in disgust,
"Godric, you're already drunk." He said, appalled at my behaviour. I rolled my eyes at him, he'd gotten drunk with me enough times to know that he was a worse drunk than me.
"I'm tipsy." I corrected him as he pulled me up the stairs.
"Mmkay." Remus agreed non-committedly. We came to a hotel room, and Remus pulled out his wand, waving it in a sort of broken infinity sign. The door unlocked, and he shoved me inside. I turned around to ask him what the fuck he was doing, but the door was already closed behind me, and I could hear him uttering an incantation outside.
"Fuck." A small voice from behind me muttered. My mind froze, and I turned around to see none other than Marlene McKinnon, beautiful as ever, sitting on the sofa. My eyes widened, and I turned back around and began to bang on the door.
"This is not funny Remus! You let me out now!" I shouted in irritation, letting my palms hit the door.
"You two sort yourselves out, and then I'll let you out." Remus called out, a hint of laughter in his voice. I let my head fall against the wooden door.
"Remus, I will kill you." I groaned.
"You just worry about not killing each other." He called back, his footsteps growing quiet, indicating that he'd walked away.
Remus POV
Walking away from the door, I couldn't help but wonder if we were doing the right thing, after all our lives were extremely complicated, and Sirius didn't need any extra stress. Lily was waiting for me at the top of the stairs and I walked towards her solemnly.
"They needed this Remus." Lily told me as I reached her, forever knowing what I was thinking before I said it.
"But Sirius is already drunk, and they're both furious at us and each other for putting them in that room together. What if instead of making up they end up hating each other more?" I worried, pulling at my hair in frustration. Lily patted my hands that were fisted into my own hair to make me stop harming myself, and I let go with a sigh.
"You forget that they don't hate each other, they're in love with each other but neither will accept it because they have too big egos and problems the size of elephants they don't want to burden on each other." She explained patiently, always the voice of reason in our chaotic lives. "And even if they do end up pushing each other further apart, they have the rest of their lives to sort it out. Sometimes you forget Remus that we are actually young, despite what we do."
I smiled at her gentle words and offered her my arm.
"There's a slow song currently on, fancy giving your best friend a dance?" I asked her, raising my eyebrows.
"Dorcas wants to dance with me? How did you know?" Lily asked sarcastically, grinning as she joked around to lighten the mood. I gave her a light shove, offering my arm to her again, this time she took it and looked at me sincerely.
"Of course I'd love to dance with you Remus." She said as I began to lead us down the stairs to the party. "Let's just hope we don't make Dorcas and James jealous."
Marlene POV
Sirius kept on shouting at the locked door for another couple of minutes after it was evident that Remus had walked away, his suit jacket stretching around his arms as he banged on the door in frustration.
"You realise he's gone?" I helpfully informed Sirius, shouting above his own shouts so that he could hear me. He turned around slowly, baring his teeth at me in a rather dog like way.
"I am aware of that, but if I shout loud enough, maybe a passer-by will hear me and get me out of here." He said through gritted teeth, barely able to look at me.
"He's probably put a silence charm on the door as well." I pointed out. Sirius shouted one final time, kicking the door in frustration and then exclaiming at the pain that caused him. He hobbled over to the bed and threw himself down on it, staring up at the ceiling like it was actually interesting. I sat down on the sofa with a huff and burrowed my face in my hands.
"To think I was actually having a really good day today." I moaned, my hands muffling my distraught voice.
"Let's just try and survive these few hours alright? They'll have to come and unlock the door eventually." Sirius said in a monotone, sounding uncharacteristically bored.
"Oh yes, because normally you'd have a great time if it was just you and a girl in a locked room together, but when it comes to me it's like being put in a nightmare." I drawled sarcastically, pulling my tired face out of my hands to glare at him. He looked up from his staring contest with the pale cream coloured hotel ceiling to glare back at me.
"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, his voice less bored now and more interested in what was going on.
"Nothing." I sighed. "Forget that I said anything." I leaned back against the sofa and began to fiddle with a strand of my dirty blonde hair.
"No, come on." Sirius said, his voice laced with anger and need for a confrontation. His own black hair flew into his face as he got up from the bed, now standing only a couple of metres away from me. "Tell me what you think of me. I'd love to hear what the perfect Marlene McKinnon thinks of me."
"You know I hate that word." I said unusually quiet, normally I was the first person to stand up for themselves and others when it came to something like this. But when it came to Sirius insulting me, it took me a bit longer to get riled up.
"What perfect?" He asked, his hands spread out mid-air as he attempted to get under my skin. I watched as his grey eyes flared up a storm at the sight of me, and prepared myself to fight. "Well you shouldn't hate it, after all, haven't you been raised by your family to be perfect your whole life? Aren't you perfect?" He mocked, I was up on my feet in an instant, pointing my finger at him accusingly.
"Don't you dare bring my family into this." I half-shouted, my blood boiling at the mention of them. He huffed in amusement, glad that he had managed to get a reaction out of me. "And you're one to talk, the Blacks had you on a leash for years before you managed to get off of it. You were at all those pureblood parties right alongside me Sirius, so don't try to pretend that you've always been more than your blood status." I taunted. His grey eyes darkened and he took a step towards me. He was only a few inches taller than me, but it seemed like he towered over me.
"At least I wasn't in an arranged marriage." He whispered tauntingly, his voice ice cold and low. My eyes widened and my heart beat faster.
"That's different." I hissed, my voice hot and fast. "You know that that's completely different." He raised his eyebrows at me.
"Is it though? You didn't seem to keen to get out of it." He suggested immorally, taking a step towards me. We were now only half a metre away from each other, but neither of us noticed the proximity.
"I KNEW ABOUT IT FOR TWO DAYS!" I shouted furiously at him, at what he was suggesting.
"AND THAT WAS TWO DAYS IN WHICH YOU DIDN'T TELL ME!" Sirius shouted back, his grey eyes a fierce storm while my blue eyes a sea of irate waves. "You didn't tell me Mar." He said, his voice soft and almost pleading. "I could have helped, I could have helped you. Instead you pushed me away and took care of it yourself." He took another step towards me.
"I barely knew myself what it meant, and if I was outraged by it you would have been ten times worse." I argued.
"And it was twenty times worse when I found out from my brother." He argued back, his voice low and his eyes pleading. He looked like hell, like he was reliving the moment he found out that I was in an arranged marriage."From my brother, Mar. My brother knew before I did. Do you have any idea how much that hurt?"
"Oh stop making it about yourself!" I cried, taking another step towards him, we were now centimetres apart, close enough that I could see the black flecks in his grey eyes. "You always have to make everything about you and I hate it! That was about me and me alone and it was none of your business."
"I was your boyfriend!" He cried in exasperation. "It affected me too!"
"Well you're not my boyfriend anymore, so it doesn't matter." I sniffed, looking down at the floor.
"Mar." Sirius whispered softly after a silent pause. I looked up to see his eyes were no longer furious, but burning passionately. I let out a shaky breath, because I'd seen that look too many times before, and I knew what was coming next.
"Sirius." I whispered pleadingly, acknowledging how close our faces were as he began to lean down towards me, and begging him not to.
And then he captured my lips in his and his hands were cupping my face and one of my hands was fisted in his shirt while the other pulled at his tie and helped him to pull his jacket off. We stumbled backwards, falling onto the bed with his body hovering over mine. We paused for a moment, simply staring at each other while breathing heavily. But then his lips were trailing down my neck, and I was pulling the half unbuttoned shirt over his head, and his thin fingers were trailing up my thigh and under the skirt of my dress. I threw my head back as his fingers felt me in places that hadn't been touched in months, and suppressed a moan.
Sirius POV
"And it was twenty times worse when I found out from my brother." I argued back, my eyes trained on Marlene like hawks, because honestly I couldn't look away from her. She was so beautiful it hurt, hurt so much knowing that being with her was the worst thing I could possibly do to her, even if she wanted it. And she wasn't just beautiful, she was witty and intelligent and talented and she played quidditch and made me laugh with her sarcastic one-liners and she knew exactly what I was going through with my family because she was going through it too and she got me and I got her and even though she hated the word she was perfect despite all her beautiful faults. "From my brother, Mar. My brother knew before I did. Do you have any idea how much that hurt?"
"Oh stop making it about yourself!" She cried painfully, though it was emotional pain not physical, it hurt just as bad. She had taken another step towards me, and we were close enough now that I could see the dark blue flecks surrounding her pupil that disrupted the pale blue of her eyes. "You always have to make everything about you and I hate it! That was about me and me alone and it was none of your business." Her words cut through me like a knife, and I ran a through my hair in frustration.
"I was your boyfriend!" I cried in exasperation. "It affected me too!" The memories of the night I had found out that she was engaged to someone else sliced through me, mixed with the memories of our relationship. It was a bitter-sweet experience loving her.
"Well you're not my boyfriend anymore, so it doesn't matter." She sniffed, looking down at the floor, unable to look at me any longer.
I looked down at the top of her blonde head, finding that the flowers were still laced into it. I remembered brushing that hair out myself, running my hands through it after a quidditch match I'd been banned from playing in because of a stupid prank (which Mar had shouted at me for), when her arms were aching and she could barely move. She had laid her body against my chest in the empty common room late in the night, and we'd sat their in silence, relishing in the comfort of each others company. I'd run my fingers through her wet hair, brushing out the tangles while she'd traced patterns on my legs with her fingertips. We hadn't really talked that evening, but we didn't have to, because we had each other.
Suddenly, I couldn't stand her being so far away from me.
"Mar." I breathed, desperate to see her face once more and have her eyes staring into mine.
Slowly, she looked up at me, and her eyes were filled with a sliver of fear, but she looked up at me with a sort of expectancy, as if she knew what I was going to do before I did. I began to lean towards her, our faces getting closer and closer. I could see the cute freckles on the bridge of her nose now that she detested, and for some reason my eyes zeroed in on them.
"Sirius." She whispered back, her voice almost pleading for me. I don't know what for me; it could have been for me to stop, or it could have been for her wanting me. But either way I continued.
And then we were kissing, and nothing felt more perfect than the way her lips fit against mine, and how her tiny hands pulled against my shirt and my tie, while I shrugged my jacket off, my hands cupped her cheeks desperately, before moving to clutch her waist. Then we fell back against the bed, and her body was beneath mine. For some reason we both pulled away and spent a few seconds simply staring at each other. But then I was pressing wet kisses to her neck and she was pulling my shirt over my head and my hand was travelling up her skirt. She arched her back against the bed as my fingers moved against her, and I could see her trying to stop herself from moaning, but all I wanted to hear was that moan escape her lips. And then it did and my lips were back against hers, pushing her back into the mattress as I attempted to get our bodies as close to each other as possible because there were too many layers stopping our skin from touching and I couldn't get her dress off of her fast enough.
But her body between my hands and her lips against mine and the fact that I just couldn't resist her, no matter how hard I tried, told me all I needed to know. I'd tried to suppress it but there was no hiding it now.
I was in love with Marlene Mckinnon.
Marlene POV
Half an hour later we were pulling our clothes back on while trying to stop the grins on our faces from showing.
"I don't think this was what Lily and Remus had in mind when they locked us in here together." I said, letting Sirius do up the zip of my dress, his fingers brushing my back and making me shiver as he helped me.
"Probably not, but it was a good attempt of them." Sirius said chuckling. I bit my lip, a thought just occuring to me.
"We never talked about it." I said quietly. "About us, about what we are." Sirius shrugged on his jacket, looking un-perturbed by my worries, and walked over to me. He took my hand in his.
"Is this okay?" He asked, his eyes sincere and loving. I smiled softly at his unusual show of affection and nodded. "Then that's all we need to worry about for today. This is us." he said , gesturing to our entwined hands. I stood up on my tiptoes to press a soft kiss to his lips, before whispering "Okay."
We found the door unlocked when we tried to leave, and walked downstairs hand in hand together, ignoring the stairs we got form strangers and friends alike. Dorcas pulled me away from Sirius the moment we were downstairs, demanding to know everything that had happened. I could see Lily and Remus snickering to themselves in a corner of the room, and saw James looking overjoyed as he put a hand on Sirius' shoulder. It was unusual that your chosen brother approved of your relationship with his chosen brother, but he'd seen that we were both worst off without each other, so he sort of had to be happy for us.
Eventually I ended up back in Sirius' arms on the dance floor, swaying side to side to a slow song, with my face burrowed in his neck.
"People are staring." Sirius whispered to me. I took my face out of his comfortable and nice smelling neck to look at him.
"Since when is Sirius Black put off by people staring at him? Normally, you either love the attention or just don't give a shit." I pointed out, tightening my arms around his neck. He frowned down at me.
"And normally, people staring doesn't bother me. But there staring at you as well, and that bothers me." He explained. My mouth spread out into a grin, and I leaned up to peck him on the cheek.
"You're sweet." I said. "I'm not sure I like it." His mouth opened in fake shock, acting offended.
"Well firstly, I'm sweet all the time. I buy James roses, and Remus chocolate, and write love poems for Peter, and I get Lily cake, and I always remember to buy Dorcas her stuffed animals and -" I cut him off by pressing my hand over his mouth. "MMMMMM" He half wailed from behind my hand, and I giggled uncharacteristically. I removed my hand to let him finish.
"And secondly, can't I be sweet for my girlfriend?" I nodded sheepishly in agreement and went back to dancing with him.
Neither of us mentioned the fact that he'd called me his girlfriend, and nor did I protest to it. I just let it be, mostly because I couldn't bare to tell him off for calling me his 'girlfriend', and secondly because it sounded so good coming out of his mouth.
James POV
Two years ago, if someone had told me that at the age of just twenty, I would be marrying the woman I'd been in love with for three years, Lily Evans (now Potter), I would have laughed in their face. But here I was, with Lily between my arms, in a white dress and with the largest smile on her face as I spun us round the dance floor to the Beatles. I couldn't help but notice that it was a dream come true. Neither of our parents were alive to see it, but we had our chosen family here to celebrate with us and that was enough. I looked over to my right to see Sirius (who seemed to have made up with Marlene thankfully) let go of his girlfriend to hold his arm out to Minnie. She protested slightly, but couldn't hold out against Sirius' charms for long and let him pull her onto the dance floor. To my left Remus was twirling Dorcas round gently, a solemn look on his face that I knew meant he was worrying about the future, but then Dorcas wrapped her arms around his waist and he grinned lovingly down at her tiny height.
Myself, I looked down at the stunning redhead who know held my last name, and who held my heart, and could do nothing but be thankful for everything I'd been given in life. Sure, our current circumstances weren't exactly ideal, Lily was pregnant and there was a war raging furiously around us, a war in which we'd become involved in. We were young with so many responsibilities lying on our shoulders, and blood on our hands and nightmares that haunted our days. But we had each other, and I wouldn't have changed that for the world.
"I love you." I told Lily, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
"Well you better." She joked. "You did just marry me after all." I grinned at her and twirled her around suddenly. She shrieked with laughter and it was music to my ears.
"We're married Evans." I whispered, just loud enough for to hear over the music. She grinned back at me.
"Potter."
"Yes?" I answered, raising an eyebrow. She chuckled at me.
"No, it's Potter." She said, correcting me. "My name's Potter now. You can no longer call me Evans." My mouth opened in realisation.
"Something tells me I'm going to enjoy calling you Potter a lot more than I liked calling you Evans." I admitted. Lily laughed in response and nodded her head.
"Something tells me you are." She replied. I leaned down to kiss her and she accepted eagerly. Somewhere behind me I heard wolf-whistles and laughter, probably Sirius' doing, but I couldn't have cared less because I was married to Lily and we had a baby on the way and I had an amazing family.
And although everything was going to hell, I couldn't have wished for a better way to go.
What did you think? This is a one-shot, and the story will not be continued, but feel free to tell me what you thought of it on the comments!
GirlFromAnotherWorld - is out.
