Third Year, Party Fever
Friday November 2nd 1973
The word swapping jinx had been the gift that kept on giving. Habits die hard -even when they make you say cutesy nonsense- so for the first few days following the Halloween feast, the hallways and classrooms had been a cacophony of sweet nothings and confused outcries. However, the first hysterics appeared to die down after a while and an odd silence impeded over the castle; for once the Slytherins seemed to have been put in their place. Of course none of them could go to one of their teachers asking for help, seeing as they would need to explain the situation; which, obviously, they couldn`t.
During dinner on the second day after the feast, Mary was once again sitting next to Sirius. It had been adopted as almost a common courtesy by now that she joined the boys during meal times. None of them seemed to have a problem with her joining them. Though she did sometimes see Remus scowl when she approached them, which she thought was odd seeing as they got along quite well normally.
`What time will you be free tomorrow, Black?` James asked, sticking his fork and knife into the thickly battered cod on his plate. Mary was carefully cutting hers, trying not to make a mess of it. When in the vicinity of Sirius, she felt very conscious of her every move.
Half paying attention to the conversation, Mary shot a look at Marlene and Lily, who were sitting a couple of seats away from her. Marlene looked back and Mary gave her a wave, which remained unreturned. Lily did wave back.
`What`d you mean?` Sirius asked as he splashed his chips royally with vinegar. Mary reached for the bottle, but Remus grabbed it from Sirius` hand before she could even touch it. Fuddled, Mary raised her eyebrows at him and Remus glared back. Right, so he really did have a problem with her sitting there.
`You know, what time to do you think your Black family tea will be finished? For your birthday?`
Mary`s eyebrows shot up. `Oooh, is it your birthday, Sirius?` she chimed, smiling. `You never said! I would have gotten you something!` Now she was making some money of her own with her piercing endeavours, she could finally afford to be a little bit more generous with her gift giving.
`Would you?` Sirius looked back at her, his eyebrows raised, looking bemused. Mary kept grinning back at him; obviously she would have gotten him something; they had been spending so much time together now, it was only appropriate.
Sirius turned back to face James. `I don`t think the tea is happening this year. Haven`t had a note.` Mary didn’t have a clue what they were talking about, but from the look on Sirius` face it couldn`t be very pleasant.
`Oh really?` James asked, sounding surprised and a bit worried. `Are you…I mean, is that ok?`
Mary looked intently at Sirius face, seeing if it would give anything away from how he was feeling. If there was one thing Sirius never seemed to discus, it was his family. Sometimes she`d see Regulus and him stare eachother down in the dining hall, but that was about it.
Sirius snorted, `Why wouldn`t it be! Like I give a toss.`
`Well…great then.` James grinned, though he didn`t look all that sure. `We crack right on with the planning you the messiest party Gryffindor tower has ever seen.`
`Yeah!` Peter added, though it was a little bit redundant.
Mary sat up straighter in her seat, feeling Sirius` elbow brush her side. A party would be the perfect opportunity to finally cover some solid ground with Sirius. Up until now, it had just been shy glances, accidental hand brushes and eluding conversations.
`Am I invited?` she asked.
`Obviously.` Remus replied curtly. `Everyone`s invited.` There was a sarcastic hard edge to his voice; Mary didn`t understand his sudden hostility.
`Look, maybe don`t make a big fuss.` Sirius mumbled as he pushed his food around on his plate. `I don`t feel like it that much.`
`Oh, why not?` Mary furrowed her brow and cooed. `It`ll be fun! We`ll make it as good as Remus` birthday last year- even better!` They needed to have this party.
Sirius didn`t respond and kept staring at his plate; Mary felt that maybe she`d overstepped.
Saturday November 3rd 1973
`Are you sure you don`t want to come?` Mary asked the following evening as she applied her lipstick in her little handheld mirror.
`No, I really need to work on that XXX-classified essay for Magical Creatures.` Marlene replied, already in her pyjamas, Cat on her lap.
`I though you already did that one?` Lily asked, coming out of the bathroom, brushing her hair.
`Aye…well I need to go over it again.` Marlene replied.
`Oh, come on,` Mary pleaded, blotting her lips with a tissue. `It`s Saturday! You shouldn`t be studying. You should be dancing!` she shimmied her hips.
Marlene shrugged her shoulders and looked at her hands. Lily and Mary exchanged a puzzled look. Mary didn`t believe a word of what Marlene was saying, but tonight she had more pressing matters at hand. If Marlene wanted to mope about, that was her choice.
Shorty after, Mary and Lily headed out. The Gryffindor common room was already filled to the brim with partying students. It seemed like almost the whole house had come. Mary had helped to put up the decorations together with Marlene; they always kept a box of streamers and balloons up in their dormitory for birthdays or other occasions.
Mary smoothed down her dress as they descended the stairs; it was a little on the shorter side and though she was glad with her decision to wear it, it kept riding up her thighs.
`Shall I get us something to drink?` Lily asked, clutching her elbows as they moved by a group of wildly dancing fifth years. They seemed to be drinking something a little stronger than butterbeer.
`Hmm.` Mary nodded, scanning the room to find Sirius. She really wanted to get him to dance with her. That was her primary goal of the evening.
She spotted him sitting on one of the couches between Remus and Peter, looking apprehensively at the crowd. Lucky for her, the record skipped to Bowie`sJohn, I`m only dancing.
`There`s the birthday boy!` she chimed as she danced her way towards him. `Come on, dance with me!` she laughed and tried to haul him up by his hand.
But Sirius kept seated, unmoving. Mary felt embarrassed and tried to find Lily again in the mass of people; she had a drink in both her hands and James was dancing violently very close to her. Mary met Lily`s eyes and she looked pleadingly at her to get her out of the situation.
The party wasn`t entirely as Mary had expected it to be. If she was being honest, she had expected to get a lot closer to Sirius. Now, all she could do was circle the room, now and then sit on the back of the couch or shoot a longing glance at him. Lily looked just as confused as Mary was feeling, evidently unsure how to hold herself.
When she circled past the boys for probably the tenth time that evening, she caught a snippet of a conversation.
`-another girlfriend?`
`Shuddup.`
`Who`s your girlfriend, Remus?` Mary asked, plonking herself down next to Sirius.
`I don`t have a girlfriend. Black`s just being a dick.` Remus hissed.
`Good.` Mary made herself comfortable in the chair, smiling. `Because if you did.` She twisted some hair around one of her fingers. `I know someone who`d be really disappointed…`
`Oh. Ok.`
`Who fancies Moony?` Sirius asked, nudging her arm and looking conspicuous. Finally some link.
`I couldn`t possibly tell you.` she replied teasingly and locked her lips, holding eye contact.
`Girls.` Sirius said, sighing and putting his arm around the back of the couch behind Mary. ` Nightmares, the bloody lot of you.`
Mary thrust out her lip bottom lip mockingly and batted her eyelashes at him.
***
Friday November 2nd 1973
Angrily Marlene stabbed her fork into her fried cod, cracking thought the crisp batter into the soft pink fleshy bit. In her periphery she saw Mary laughing at something, pushing her hair out of her face so her neck was free to breathe. She really knew how to do that well; Mary was so good at delicately and almost unnoticeably being charming. It was annoying truly how alluring she was able to make herself without seemingly any effort. Siren-like almost.
Once again, for the umpteenth time that week, Mary had abandoned Marlene and Lily to sit next to Sirius during a mealtime. Out of pure principle, Marlene refused to sit with the boys. Luckily, Lily was easy to convince and still sat with Marlene, a couple of seats away from them.
Lily was talking to her, but nothing about what she was saying was entering her brain, it all sounded like a big blur of words. Marlene bit off half a chip and chewed on it while she stared past Lily, at Mary, who was cutting the food on her plate with care.
Marlene took another angry bite of her fish and almost spit it back out when Mary turned to look at her and Lily; she gave them a wave and smiled; blissfully unaware of the war going on in Marlene`s head. Lily waved back, but Marlene felt frozen and just stared back, chewing her fish.
`-so anyway that`s when I told him…` Lily went on. `Marlene?`
`Hmm?` Marlene looked at Lily, tearing her gaze away from Mary.
`Are you even listening?` Lily asked.
`I am, I am.` Marlene nodded her head, feeling guilty. Her newfound revelations about herself had not made her a better friend. Not for Mary, but also not for Lily.
`Are you? Because, I feel like I`m talking to a wall here.`
`No, I`m listening.` Marlene insisted, though her gaze was caught by Mary putting a hand on Sirius` back.
Lily went on to talk about her Charms essay, but halfway through Marlene cut her off. `What does she see in him?`
`What?` Lily sounded confused.
`What does Mary see in Black?`
`Oh, that.` Lily rolled her eyes. `Beats me honestly. Anyway-`
`He`s such a dobber.` Marlene started furiously douching her chips with vinegar.
Lily bit her lip and continued eating, not talking anymore.
Saturday November 3rd 1973
The following day, Marlene felt so guilty for having been curt with Lily the previous evening and not paying any respect to her at all, that she tried her best to be extra considerate. Lately, she let herself get swept away in bouts of grumpiness; biting at everyone who displeased or annoyed her. Her general listlessness and moroseness bled through in every aspect of her life. Her grades were going down; she was still handing in all her assignments, but there was no real effort put into them. It wasn’t like she was failing her classes - she passed all of them with acceptable marks - though she was well aware that she should probably pick up her heels if she wanted to keep it that way.
Obviously, she knew it had to do with Mary; how could it not. Not only did she feel herself get jealous at Sirius, but at anyone for that matter. Lily and Mary were free to blabber on about who they fancied as much they desired. If Marlene would do so, she would be elected town piranha.
Desperately she wanted to talk to Danny, to someone – anyone - about her feelings. It felt like she was imploding, cooping up her secret like a breakable egg. However, being able to talk about it didn`t seem to be in the cards for her.
On top of it all, it was Sirius birthday and they were throwing a huge party in the common room. When Marlene had turned fourteen they`d celebrated it small, just the tree of them. But, surely, when the Prince of Gryffindor tower was celebrating his birthday, all the land should come out to bow down to him. Not that Marlene had wanted a party thrown for her, Merlin no, she loathed large parties. She just didn`t understand why Sirius needed to hog all the attention.
Despite helping Mary put up the decorations in the common room -it was the least she could do- she`d already told Lily and Mary that she wouldn`t be attending the party. She`d told them she needed to work on her essay for Care of Magical Creatures. Her back up plan had been to say she had a headache. Either way, she was not going to bounce along to music, watching as Mary swarmed around Sirius for the entire night.
Of course Mary had looked utterly striking getting ready for the party. Sirius truly would be a complete arse not to fall for her. And he surely would - Mary always got what she wanted.
`Bye Marls.` Lily waved her goodbye as they headed out of the dorm.
Marlene gave her a half-hearted wave. On her lap, Cat was purring loudly, prying its sharp nails into the leg of her pyjama bottoms. It would probably be a good idea to actually do something school related. However, she`d rather sit around and feel sorry for herself a little bit.
The heavy bass of the music coming from the common room was only partly drowned out by the door and Marlene could distinctly hear yet another David Bowie song blearing on. There was also a general hum of laughter and joyful chatter penetrating its way through the wood.
Marlene lay down on her back, looking at the roof of her canopy, following the stitching with her eyes. It pained her to think about what Mary and Lily were probably doing now.
She never liked parties. They were noisy, there were always too many people and her stepdad without fail ended up drinking too much. He did that either way, whether it was a party or not.
After maybe an hour so - in which she had tried to read, attempted to do some homework, cleaned out her already clean bathroom shelf and rearranged her plants, before putting them back the way they had stood before - she decided that it couldn`t hurt to take a peep downstairs. She just wanted to see what it looked like.
On stockinged feet she snuck out of the room and clambered carefully down the stairs. She pushed behind a violently snogging couple and some sixth years who were passing around a flask. Nobody appeared to pay any attention to her; becoming invisible was one of Marlene`s special tricks. Obviously not literally. It was more that she was able to go unnoticed without barely any effort at all.
Marlene went to stand in a dark corner, close to the portrait hole; obscured enough so she wouldn`t be seen, but in such a way that she had good view of the common room. James was in the middle of the dance floor, making an absolute prat of himself. Thank Merlin she didn`t actually fancy him. Though, she was still holding up appearances. That was how it had to be.
Her heart almost dropped through the floorboards when she saw Mary and Sirius coming her way; Mary whispering something in Sirius` ear. Panicked, not knowing what to do, Marlene backed up and climbed out of the portrait.
To her utter horror, Mary and Sirius climbed after her. Luckily, they didn`t appear to have noticed her and Marlene hid in an alcove behind a tapestry, peeking though the small slit that showed her the dark corridor.
`Why`d you want to come here?` Sirius asked, his voice echoing hollow in the deserted hallway, the banging of party music going on in the background.
`Just wanted some quiet to say a proper happy birthday.` Mary replied, twirling a curl around her finger. Marlene swallowed hard and hoped her heartbeat wasn`t audible to anyone but herself.
`Right.` Sirius scratched the back of his head and pushed a strand of hair from his face.
`So…happy birthday.` Mary laughed nervously.
Marlene bit down hard on her nails and pushed her cheek flat against the cold stone to see the two of them better. She knew it was wrong of her to spy on them, but she could hardly get away now, could she.
`Cheers.` Sirius grinned.
Mary already turned back to the portrait; Marlene could see was biting her lip.
`Mary, wait.` Sirius said and grabbed Mary`s hand, turning her back around. Marlene felt a hollow feeling entering her.
`What?`
A valley of sadness ripped open in Marlene`s soul when Sirius kissed Mary`s cheek.
Marlene didn`t know how long it took for the thunder to stop echoing in her chest; a low and hollow cry.
***
Friday November 2nd 1973
`No, I`m listening.` Marlene replied after Lily had asked her for the second time whether or not she was listening. Still, Lily didn`t feel convinced. Marlene kept staring over at the Gryffindor boys; a look on her face that could have killed even the hardest of people.
Lily was trying to figure out from which point to approach her Charms essay. She was getting stuck on it tremendously; by now she`d probably started over three times. If she wanted to stay top of the class, she needed this to be her best work yet. One disadvantages of studying together with Remus was the fact that because they were both good at Charms, they amplified eachother and it was getting harder and harder to beat him. Though, that was one of the charms of Remus; Lily supposed.
`What does she see in him?` Marlene cut her off mid-sentence.
`What?` Lily frowned, feeling confused. Evidently, Marlene hadn`t been listening to a word she`d said.
`What does Mary see in Black?` Marlene asked, glaring over at them.
`Oh, that,` Lily sighed and rolled her eyes. It was just as much a mystery to her. Black would always remain in the same realm as Potter; annoying. `Beats me honestly. Anyway-`
`He`s such a dobber.` Marlene interjected again.
Lily bit the inside of her cheeks, feeling completely disregarded by her friend. Obviously, she also didn`t like that the third member of their party had abandoned them for a boy. But Mary was a free agent and they saw her enough as it was. Lily was actually enjoying spending some more one-on-one time with Marlene.
They continued their dinner in silence; fish and chips. One time when Lily looked up from her plate, Severus caught her eye across the Great Hall. They had sort of made up after the Hogsmeade fiasco. At least, they were on friendly terms again. It was never actually like Severus had apologized for anything, at a certain point both of them just seemed to get tired of avoiding eachother. It was always like that.
The word swapping jinx had also had its effects Severus. He`d actually called Potter a lovely little poppet the other day, which had absolutely mortified Lily.
Saturday November 3rd 1973
There was already music whirring up from the common room when Mary and Lily were still finishing up getting ready for the party. Marlene wasn`t coming with them; which Lily truly though was a shame, because she was rather sure that Mary would disappear in a matter of minutes to entertain the man of the hour; or more boy of the hour, you couldn`t really call Sirius a man yet.
Lily had nearly had a breakdown when she found out the dress she had been planning on wearing didn`t fit anymore. Luckily, with some bolstering from Mary and a quick engorgement charm, it fit just fine again. Mary was wearing a short tight fitting dress that Lily would have never dared to wear, yet Mary looked like she`d been born to wear it. Her friend radiated confidence as she did the final touch-ups to her make-up. Lily hadn`t thought it worth it to faff about with make-up and just made sure her hair sat right.
`Bye Marls.` Lily waved at Marlene before she closed the door behind them. Secretly she hoped Marlene would change her mind and join them downstairs in a bit.
The common room was absolutely swamped with students. Apparently almost everyone from their house had gotten an invitation to the party. Well invitation was a big word. It had been Remus who had gone around to coax people into coming. Because it had been so last minute, neither Lily nor Mary had been able to secure a birthday present for Sirius. Lily felt a bit guilty about this, surely she didn`t like Sirius all that much, regardless it was proper to get someone a present on their birthday.
It was incredibly noisy; the record player loudly playing Bowie songs and a lot of cheerful chatter emanating from the crowd. Lily tried to find Remus in the mass of people, but couldn`t spot him. They pushed past a group of older students who were dancing violently, almost flailing their limbs into her face.
`Shall I get us something to drink?` Lily asked, hugging her arms to her body. She wanted something to hold in her hands to give herself a stance.
`Hmm.` Mary hummed as she scanned the room, evidently not really paying attention to Lily at all.
Lily took that as that she should get them something to drink. Manoeuvring herself though the room she almost tripped over a balloon; the common room was truly too small for so many people. There was a table set up in a corner of the room, streamers hanging along the edge; the work of Mary and Marlene. Quickly she poured her and Mary a glass of butterbeer, careful not to spill it all over the table as it foamed violently.
Trying to get back to Mary proved to be a more difficult task than imagined. Holding the two butterbeers above her head, she tried to squeeze herself to the other side of the room, but she kept getting stuck between taller students.
`Oi, Evans!`
Lily inhaled deeply and exhaled sharply, already annoyed.
James appeared in front of her, shaking his hips to the music. `Fancy a dance?`
`Get lost, Potter.` Lily sighed and tried desperately to find Mary.
`Oh come on, just one cheeky dance!` James pleaded, waving his hands to the rhythm of the music. `We can practice for our wedding.`
Fortunately for Lily, at that moment she locked eyes with Mary, who was standing next to a couch with Remus, Peter and Sirius sitting on it. The three boys looked the hight of discomfort. Lily hurried towards her, leaving James marooned in the crowd.
Going to a party proved to be an art on its own; one that Lily had not yet mastered. While Mary seemed to effortlessly blend into the drum of partygoers; meandering between dancing and sitting down. Lily kept getting lost or confused. At one point she tried to start a conversation with Remus, but was unable to understand him above the music, so she gave up.
Halfway though the evening she lost Mary again and decided she would just position herself in a comfortable chair, pull out her book and wait for her friend to come and collect her when she was done. Between chapters she permitted herself to stare at Remus. He didn`t get up once to dance and sat stationary on the couch, sipping on a butterbeer and engaging in conversation with Sirius and Peter - sometimes James when he was done absolutely trashing the dancefloor. She wished Remus would see her and come up to her; ask her how she was doing, or even better ask her to dance. However, she knew Remus well enough to know that he wouldn`t do that.
She startled when someone grabbed her shoulder and got torn away from her book.
`Lily!` Mary cried above the music, her eyes were wide and shining. `Si-!` The rest was drowned out by a guttural growl from a sixth year who drunkenly jumped on top of a table.
`What?` Lily frowned, indicating at her ears.
`Sirius kissed me!` Mary yelped, she looked truly like she was bursting with excitement.
`When!?` Lily cried, springing up from her chair, her book dropping to the floor.
`Just now! In the hallway.` Mary`s eyes widened even more.
`Oh my God?!` Lily spluttered.
`On the cheek.` Mary beamed. `I mean…it`s not a proper snog. But still!`
`Are you two going out now then?`
`I think so.` Mary grinned, baring her neat white teeth. `He certainly fancies me back!`
`Gosh, Mary,` Lily replied smiling, truly happy for her friend. `That`s so exciting! I`m so glad for you.`
Mary squealed and hugged Lily; they jumped around like that for a while in little circles.
`Oh, I can`t wait to tell Marls!` Mary said as they let go of eachother.
The party didn`t last long after that; both Mary and Lily were exhausted from excitement and the prospect of a warm and comfortable bed was way more inviting than sticking around to see the older years throw up their booze.
Lily and Mary tip-toed back up the stairs and quietly entered the dorm as not to disturb Marlene. Marlene`s bedcurtains were already drawn shut when they entered the room, obviously already asleep.
///