Twelve Going on Twenty

Character(s): Marlene McKinnon, Mary Macdonald, Lily Evans, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape & Horace Slughorn

Stirring the contents of their cauldron as Mary went to get the next ingredient, Marlene was surprised by how mesmerized she was by the shimmery blue liquid of her unfinished potion. She cocked her to the side in consideration. As a realization dawned on her, a smirk quirked her lips. The potion looked exactly like her older cousin Jeannie's favorite nail varnish!

She snickered quietly. Soon, the curve of her lips became a full blown smirk as she recalled how loudly her cousin had screamed when Marlene's older brother, Daniel, had upturned it during their summer together at the McKinnon Country Cottage. The incident had become downright hilarious when her brother ran past her and through the kitchen with Jeannie right on his heels.

The fact Jeannie was a hand-span away from catching Daniel the entire time while clomping after him on her heels had been enough to cause Marlene to tumble to the kitchen's tiled floor laughing.

So distracted was she that the second year didn't notice Sirius Black's quick approach.

"Marlene!" Mary cried.

Her eyes snapped upward. Marlene was just in time to catch a glimpse of Sirius's leering countenance before what appeared to be newt eyes were flung into her potion. Gaze dropping downward in response, she cringed at how it burbled into an ominous storm cloud gray. Arm shooting up to cover her face, the girl had no time to duck as the potion gave one clamorous kaboom and its contents shot out. Within a span of a breath, not only was she splattered with the stuff, but Sirius too.

She shrieked at the sting of the hot liquid hitting her exposed skin. Marlene stumbled back, only to trip over her chair as her body gave into sudden, aching pains.

Groaning and moaning as she rolled around on the ground, Marlene attempted to ride out the feeling of her bones and skin being stretched taut by biting her lip as she curled into a tiny, tiny ball. Through the pain, she felt someone take her hand. Relief flooding her at the knowledge she wasn't alone, Marlene squeezed it with all the strength she had to spare. A few minutes later, when the pain ebbed away to only leave her legs and arms twanging with sudden spasms, Marlene sat up.

"Oww..." she muttered as she brought a hand to her head.

Squinting through a mild headache, Marlene blinked when she saw something black and soft be shoved into her face. Looking up, she noticed that Lily wore a grim expression. Pushing the robe right beneath her nose, the redhead declared, "Take it, you need to cover yourself."

"What?" Marlene said as her fingers fumbled in their pursuit to grasp the fabric.

Sighing beside her, Mary took the robe for her and murmured, "Let me…" as she draped it over Marlene's front.

Touching the fabric, Marlene frowned in puzzlement, but soon that confusion turned to panic as she realized something about her was very different. She had a pair of knockers. Big ones too. On the verge of hyperventilating, Marlene's gaze darted between Lily and Mary. "What - What happened?" she cried.

Lily turned her head. "Sev?" she called.

A moment later, the ugly, dour Slytherin that Lily spent so much of her time with appeared in front of Marlene. Dark eyes glittering with what she was sure had to be some form of vicious glee, Marlene was only further rattled by how plainly he said, "Black inadvertently created an Aging Potion when he threw the frog eyes in your potion – which wasn't even close to the Pepper-Up we were supposed to be making, I might add."

Irked, Marlene rolled her eyes before demanding, "This will wear off, right? Or do I need to go to the infirmary?"

"From what I understand, Aging Potions wear off on their own. But if Slughorn ever returns from wherever he buggered off to twenty minutes ago, he might say differently."

Crinkling her nose at the vulgar language, the woman-child asked, "Then should I just go see Madam Pomfrey now?"

The boy gave a flippant shrug as he looked past her to the arguing voices of what sounded like James Potter, Remus Black, Peter Pettigrew and... someone else. "If you do, take Black with you. He's enjoying his new found age-up more than he ought to be."

Marlene looked behind herself and openly gawped. Sirius Black, at whatever age he was now, was absolutely dashing. He looked almost like something right off the romance novels her cousin Jeannie liked!

Having caught her staring, Sirius turned his head and gave her a wink. "Hey there, Marlene." He smirked. "Aren't you cracking?" said Sirius with an expressive glance to her breasts.

Without care for her modesty, Marlene got up. Stalking toward Sirius, she recalled Daniel's advice for dealing with toe rags like him.

"Walk right up! Smile like you're gonna give 'em something sweet and then - Wham! Take 'em out with a knee to the bits!"

Putting on a simpering smile as she paused in front of the uncertain looking man-child, she waited for him to give a hesitant grin of his own before–

"Marlene!" Mary and Lily shrieked in surprise.

Flipping back golden locks, as Sirius toppled to the ground moaning, she told her mates, "He deserved it. Any man who tries to chat up a woman like that deserves no better."

"Hello, children! I'm back and I-"

The students looked to the doorway where a shocked and quickly paling Slughorn stood.

"Professor?" Remus called. "Sirius needs to go to the infirmary and, erm, Marlene probably should too..."

Nodding vigorously, Slughorn gave a nervous chuckle. "Dear me, I think you're right! Hurry along you lot! And if you don't mind, let's not let our lovely Madam Pomfrey know this all transpired when I stepped out for a moment during lab?"

Marlene smiled victoriously. "Of course, sir," she agreed.

And together, Marlene and Sirius (with the help of Remus) left the classroom and headed for the infirmary.

Thoughts on this one? How do we like Marlene? Did you find it amusing?

Thanks for reading and please review if you got a minute!