A/N: WOAAAAAH. A POST? NO WAY! Yes, I had a disaster few months. BUT, I'm back. This chapter isn't massive, it isn't the best, but your feedback would be amazing. If you'd stayed for me, thank you! My posts will become more recent, I'm editing and perfecting the next chapter.

Chapter 28
Or,
Of Dating, Disgust and Sun

"They're dating?"

"Yes."

"Sirius has a girlfriend?"

"Yes."

"And it's Marlene McKinnon?"

"Yes!"

The news that Sirius Black had a girlfriend spread around Hogwarts quicker than lightening. Somebody had overheard Sirius and Marlene chatting in the Hospital Wing and by breakfast the next day, everybody was talking about it.

"She's so lucky."

"He's probably only playing with her." A jealous Gryffindor sneered.

Lily and James shared a confused look as they sat down together in their usual spot. At their time at Hogwarts, they'd both witnessed times like what they were witnessing now, but never were they both as equally as confused as to what was going on.

Admittedly, Lily never normally cared. Whatever they were gossiping about normally didn't affect her, unless it was news of an attack, but judging by the amused- and shocked- looks on the students faces, an attack was out of the question.

Nudging James in the ribs, she asked, "Do you know what's going on?"

"No," He replied, a mouth full of bacon, "Why would I?"

"You're always involved with the gossip train," She sighed out of frustration, craning her neck to see if she could locate Marlene or Sirius.

"If you're looking for Marlene, she didn't come back to the dorm last night." Alice said over her newspaper, noticing Lily's look.

Lily's jaw dropped, "What?"

"Yeah, she didn't come back. Once she left to go see Dumbledore, she never returned." The other girl shrugged, "No big deal, don't worry."

Lily kicked Remus under the table, which in return scowled and winced, "Oi, what the hell was that for?"

"Marlene didn't come back last night."

He blinked a moment, trying to make sense of why he was being told of Marlene's late night antics, but looking at her happy gaze, he caught on, "That doesn't mean it worked."

"Oh, stop being such a pessimist."

"What the hell are you two talking about?" James interrupted, taking an enormously large swig of pumpkin juice (which he dribbled down his front.)

Lily gave her boyfriend a look of disgust, "Remus and I set Marlene and Sirius up on a date last night, and Marls didn't come in last night."

"Nor did Sirius, what's your poi- Oh. Oh. You think that it worked?"

Lily grinned, "I hope so."

"Maybe that's what everybody is talking about." James commented wisely.

"Well, we're about to find out." Remus said as his eyes landed on Sirius, who looked slightly haggard, as he sauntered into the Great Hall.

"What are you three staring at me for? Have I forgotten my pants?" He looked down, then back up, a grin on his face.

"Where were you last night?" Remus asked with a reprimanding look as Sirius shovelled three different foods into his mouth as once.

Lily was smiling at Sirius, her eyes glinting with hope; she wouldn't normally get so excited over something like this, but considering she wanted to help her friends get something they deserve, she was making an exception.

"Gingersnap, why are you looking at me like that?" Sirius asked with a frown.

"Like what?" She asked innocently.

He raised an eyebrow at her, but James prevented him asking another question that Lily would undoubtedly hesitate in replying, "Never mind changing the subject, Padfoot; where were you last night?"

"You don't know?" Sirius asked, frowning.

"Know what?" James asked, his eyebrows knitting together.

"I'll take that as a no," Sirius replied, dropping his fork and swallowing his food so he could continue the story with a bit of dignity (not like he really cared, but still) "Marlene was lured to a house by Isabelle and beaten up a fair bit. I've been in the wing with her all night."

Lily was the first to overcome the initial shock, "Is she okay? What did they do to her?"

"Why her?" James interjected Lily's ramble of questions.

"Isabelle was only using Marlene to get to me." Sirius replied, his eyes darkening slightly. He wasn't quite over the whole ordeal.

Remus, who had been quiet up until now processing the information, asked a question that was on all of their minds, "How did you know where Marlene was?"

"She dropped the letter, the one she'd received from Isabelle, near the 7th floor classroom and I immediately went after her."

"Marlene went voluntarily to meet Isabelle?" Lily asked, amazed.

"Yes." Sirius replied, his voice tight. Despite the happiness he felt knowing he was dating Marlene, he still wasn't happy about the events that had taken place beforehand.

"Is she crazy!?" Lily started, her cheeks flushing red, "Isabelle nearly killed you and then Marlene just swans up to a random house to meet her, not knowing who could have been waiting for her. We're in the middle of a war and she just risks her life, for…for nothing!"

"I did it for Sirius." Marlene's voice stopped Lily's rant and made Remus suddenly remember that he was eating. "But do carry on your misjudged rant, Lily."

"Misjudged?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow at Marlene who was standing determinedly in the aisle between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables.

"I can tell what you're all thinking. How stupid of me. I went running right into the middle of a Death Eater plan, I was the fish that swam stupidly into the hook without a worm, but I did it with a purpose."

"A purpose?" James asked intrigued by what Marlene could say. (He also wanted to stop an inevitable argument between the two girls)

"Isabelle nearly killed Sirius and I wanted to know why."

"You could have found those answers another way." Lily said with a pointed look.

"Stop judging me, Lily." Marlene snapped with a glare, "I did what I did and I paid for what I did, I also knew what could be waited for me and I wasn't completely unprepared, so why don't you just leave the lecture for now, okay? In fact, leave it completely."

"You paid for what you did?" Sirius frowned at her, while Lily cut him off and said, "You weren't unprepared?"

"Leave it." Marlene shook her head, turned on her heel and flipped off a couple of girls would were glaring at her, before she left the Great Hall without any breakfast.

Considering she didn't have to technically attend a lesson until before lunch, Marlene ended up outside. It had rained most of the night (Marlene would know, as she lay awake for a good couple of hours) so the sky was a shade that Marlene couldn't put her finger on, but found it beautiful nevertheless.

It wasn't blue, nor purple, or pink. It was a combination of all three with sharp strikes of orange that hugged the edges of the clouds, as if it were a ray of sun trying to prevent the rain.

With a sigh, Marlene strolled leisurely along the pathway which would lead her down to the lake. Her mind was racing with all sorts of thoughts and emotions. What she wanted to do was turn up at breakfast, sit down next to Sirius and her friends, and act as if nothing had happened. She trusted her friends, but she didn't like the judgement and label that came along with their trust. Marlene expected to do what she wanted, when she wanted, confide in her friends and that'd be it.

It wasn't as if she hadn't thought about what she was doing. Marlene knew she was going to confront Isabelle about Sirius and the way he was treated by her- not because she thought Sirius couldn't handle it himself, but because Marlene cared about Sirius and she was given the opportunity to get two things from going.

The first was the answers Sirius thought Sirius deserved to know why he was wanted by a teenage Death Eater, and a guy passing for a Death Eater, but who could only probably count to ten without referral to his fingers. And deep down, Marlene was curious too. Why did Isabelle want Sirius so bad? Who was the person she had been working for? Or had this been a plan purely from her own mind? (Which was unlikely, Marlene thought, but she was trying to make sense of this whole thing)

The second was the approval Marlene thought she could get from going. Ever since being accepted into the Order by Dumbledore, Marlene wanted to prove herself. She knew Dumbledore wouldn't give her missions or classified information as a sixth year, but she didn't want it to appear like she wasn't doing anything for the cause she so strongly believed in. Obviously she couldn't tell Lily or Sirius or James about the Order- she'd sworn she wouldn't- and she didn't really want to tell them, if she was being perfectly honest with herself. But Marlene knew Dumbledore must have seen something in her, otherwise he wouldn't have picked her, but she wanted evidence of that. And she'd screwed that up already.

"McKinnon?" A voice came from behind her. It was Gideon.

Slapping a smile on her face, she stopped walking and turned around, "Hey, Prewett."

"Alright?"

"Of course."

"Then why are you skipping class to take a romantic like walk by yourself?"

She almost laughed, "I'm not skipping class."

"But you're taking a romantic like walk by yourself?"

"Maybe I am, or maybe I'm waiting for Prince Charming."

He frowned, "Who's Prince Charming?"

"You're such a pureblood, Prewett." She scoffed.

He stuck his tongue out at her and lifted a hand to his heart, "Oh, you wound me!"

She grinned, "That's what I like to hear."

"Anyway, next meeting is tonight." He said subtly as he passed her, "See you at 7, McKinnon!"

"See you later, Prewett!" She waved and continued her walk down toward the Black Lake, as Gideon headed off in the other direction, undoubtedly off to cause mischief.

Marlene smiled as she walked. That brief chat with Gideon make her feel the tiniest bit better. When talking to him, he didn't seem to care about anything but having a pleasant conversation, making her smile. She
loved that. She loved that she had friends that wouldn't judge her. And watching Gideon's hyperactive retreating figure, she knew she had a friend in Gideon that she didn't have in Lily, or James, or Remus, or even Sirius.

She had a friend she could go to no matter what. If she murdered a man, Gideon wouldn't judge. She could tell. He'd probably call her a bit of a heartless bitch, but seconds later, he'd hand her a bottle of firewhiskey and his smile.

She liked that.

Sirius stood beneath a tree watching Marlene wander aimlessly down to the lake. He saw her face and he frowned as he tried to figure out what was running through her mind.

He wasn't good at reading emotions, but he thought he'd be better at reading Marlene. Thinking about it, he thought he was actually considerably good at reading Marlene's emotions in comparison to everybody else's.

Putting the pieces together, Sirius understood that Marlene was upset about what happened last night and the way Lily reacted this morning. He could tell that she was hiding something from him, that much was obvious.

He hesitated as he started to walk over to her. Gideon passed her and she grinned almost immediately; all of her sadness simply vanished as he sauntered past her and said something to her, which she nodded to- what, Sirius didn't know. But he planned on finding out.

"Marls!" He shouted, picking up the pace of his steps so he reached her almost instantly.

"Hey."

She would have smiled if it had of been Gideon greeting her. A voice said to Sirius. Pushing it away, he slinked an arm around her waist, "Talk to me."

"What about?" She said, leaning into his touch slightly.

"Last night."

She tensed, but tried not to show it, "The part where I got tortured, or the part where I got a boyfriend?" She retorted sarcastically.

Sirius paled. "You got tortured?"

"I…No, not technically tortured, but well…"

"Marlene." Sirius said harshly, stopping them walking and making her face him, "Tell me what happened. Tell me what they did to you."

"It's nothing, honestly." She replied, averting her eyes.

"Tell me what they did to you!" He pleaded, forcing her to look into his eyes. "You can trust me."

"I know I can!"

"Then why won't you tell me?"

She yanked her tie off and popped open the top two buttons of her shirt. Sirius wished, for once in his life, that he hadn't looked at a girl's chest. Seeing the engraving of 'Blood Traitor' alone Marlene's chest made him feel physically sick.

"See, you're disgusted." Her voice shook and she yanked her tie on again.

"What?" Sirius asked, dumbstruck, "Disgusted? I'm the biggest blood traitor going!"

Taking a deep breath, Marlene nodded and realised that Sirius was right. "Personally, I think they're the blood traitors."

"They're bloody bastards, that's what they are." He spat, fixing Marlene's tie properly. "Anyway, considering our date was ruined rather rudely last night, I think we should make another go of it."

"Since when was Sirius Black a big old romantic?" She teased.

"Since he met a gorgeous blonde called Marlene McKinnon."

"Hm, never heard of her. Is she popular?"

He rolled his eyes, "Oh, shush you."

"Make me." She wiggled her eyebrows.

"Oh, tempting."

"Evidently not tempting enough." She winked.

"I'm saving it for later." He teased.

"Later?" She replied, eyebrow lifted with surprised.

He grinned, "We're going on a date, McKinnon."