Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition

Team: Holyhead Harpies

Position: Keeper

Prompt: "The lingering question kept me up, 2am who do you love?" - Enchanted

W/C: 1,455

Summary: Marlene allows her brother to drag her to a party and meets an old acquaintance she thought she was over...

Note: I used inspiration from the song for this story. Muggle!AU

Please don't be in love with someone else

Two metallic chimes drifted through the house from the small clock in the living room of the McKinnon household. Marlene sighed heavily at the sound. She'd been in bed for over an hour and sleep did not want to greet her tonight. She lay on her back, staring at the items in her room, her eyes long adjusted to the dark at this point.

She should never have gone to that party. She didn't want to go in the first place; parties were always boring without Lily around to keep her sane. Yet, she'd still let her stupid brother talk her into going to the stupid thing, and now she was stuck thinking about that stupid man because her stupid heart had decided he was a good choice for a stupid rebound.

Four Hours Earlier

Marlene leant against a wall by the entrance to the large ballroom; primely positioned to make a quick escape. She had one hand clutching a wineglass close to her mouth so she could sip every other minute, the other arm was wrapped tightly around her waist, with her hand tucked tightly under the opposite elbow. Even her legs were crossed at the ankle, everything about her body closing off the party as much as possible.

She could feel herself scowling at her brother, her brows tightening down and her nose scrunching. How dare he talk her into coming and then abandon her for the first pretty face he saw. To be fair, if a man like that had looked at her the way he had looked at Simon, she would've done the same thing too. But still…

Instead of sighing, Marlene took another sip of the room temperature white wine. The people around her laughed and nodded at each other, the tightness around their eyes giving away the fact they weren't enjoying the party as much as outward appearances seemed. Did any of them even know what the party was for? She certainly didn't.

A band that had been setting up at the opposite end of the room exploded into song, causing a few of the partygoers to jolt in surprise. Some spilt their drinks over their hands and clothing. Marlene moved her glass in front of her mouth as a smirk crept along her lips with a bout of schadenfreude.

It was also her cue to finally escape. She never enjoyed the bands they hired for these things and she certainly didn't dance to the music.

As she stood up straight, her shoulder tingling now as the blood flow returned to it, Marlene readied herself to down the last of her drink when he caught her eye from across the room. She froze in her movements, staring at him while he smirked back at her, with his dark curls almost covering his eyes. She felt a familiar zing of electricity race through her nerves at knowing his attention was on her.

Marlene hadn't seen him since college, but she'd heard rumours of what he got up to, not much of it good. Antonin Dolohov started to move through the dancing bodies to get to her, his eyes not breaking away from hers. Another zing pulsed through her.

Really? Him?! she silently asked of her body. After everything Sirius Black had put her through, it thought another rule breaker was the one to get her back in the saddle?

She was by the door, she could still slip out before he made it to her. There was a bar next door she could quickly hide in before Antonin had even made it out the door; should he choose to follow her.

And yet her feet remained firmly put.

She finally let go of the sigh that had been itching to escape her all evening. "Antonin," she greeted him curtly, her throat suddenly very dry.

Without preamble, Antonin put a hand on her bare elbow and leant in to kiss her cheek. Her heart thudded heavily as sensations overwhelmed her body; his hand on her arm feeling like it was always meant to be there, the stubble on his chin briefly grazing her skin, and the smell of his aftershave – clean, sharp and expensive – cloaked her like a blanket she never wanted to take off.

"Marlene," he said back as he took all his sensations with him, the touch, the graze and the smell. "Still drinking cheap wine?"

"Once again, not by choice," she said with a laugh as a memory of playgrounds and cheap bottles of wine floated through her mind. She glanced down at the drink in his hand, a tumbler of scotch, and noted the tattoos across the back of his hand, a familiar gang tattoo she'd seen before. "Still up to no good?"

Antonin tilted his hand a little to look at the permanent ink, like he needed reminding that it was there. "Once upon a time," he said wryly, switching the glass to his other hand so he could put the one in question in his trouser pocket.

Thud, thud, went her heart. She could feel her pulse in her neck. "What changed?"

"The loss of good friends," he answered, a darkness flitting across his green eyes.

Her hand itched to reach out to him, to place it on his forearm and comfort him. His eyes dropped to her hand as she flexed her fingers. "You can't say you didn't know what would happen," she said sharply, to force his attention back to her face.

His eyes lit up in amusement without even a grin to go with it. "I was warned once or twice by an old friend," he admitted.

"We were never friends." She finished her drink. "I was besotted with you and you were cruel."

Antonin tilted his head, an unspoken apology lingering in his gaze.

Thud, thud.

"Not that it matters now. You went your way and I went mine."

"How are you?" he asked, like they were still on the pleasantries of the conversation.

"Bored and tired," she lied, putting her empty glass down on a nearby table.

A hand landed on her forearm as she let go of the glass. His fingers gripped gently as he pulled her to look back at him. "I was never good enough for you. You deserved the world."

Marlene shifted on her feet, her shoulders dropped as an unexpected invisible weight left her. "Ant," she said through a sigh, "I didn't want the world. I only wanted you. Just you."

Reluctantly, she pulled her arm from his grasp, not sure how she managed to find the willpower to do it. She put one foot in front of the other and she left the party.

Antonin didn't follow.

Now

Marlene paced her room, her plush carpet barely dulling the sound of her bare heels stomping down with each step. She would fling her arm out in exasperation every so often, a shrill question shriekring in her brain: why him?

Her nerves had never truly settled since he'd touched her and every few minutes she would convince herself she could still smell his aftershave, even though she'd showered when she got home and herdress was now in the washing basket. But it wasn't this that kept her awake, that kept her striding back and forth in front of her large bay window. It was one thought, a prayer to a god she didn't believe in.

Please don't be with someone.

Marlene could live with the idea of never seeing him, but she could never live with the idea that he would settle down with anyone but her.

Then she stopped moving, frowning as she realised what she'd never wanted to admit. Her heart wasn't attempting to make Antonin the rebound – it was Sirius who had been the rebound. Yes, she had been with him on and off for four years, but her thoughts had always repeatedly wandered back to Antonin. More so when a rumour had found her.

Please don't be with someone, she pleaded silently into the early hours of the morning. Her heart almost ached with the need.

A light tap came at her window as she started her pacing again. She rounded on the window, her hands up ready to fight whomever was there, which was ridiculous as she was on the second floor. The tap happened again and she realised it was a small stone.

When she looked out of her window, she found Antonin standing in her front garden, arm raised to throw another stone and still in his dark grey suit from earlier.

The small shrug and half-smile he gave her, the streetlight behind him highlighting his sharp cheekbones, was all Marlene needed to know her pleas hadn't been unheard.