The Dorcas and Marlene question
“Mary, I think Fenwick wants to talk to you.” Marlene commented as they walked through the Great Hall. Mary, Dorcas, and Lily followed her gaze to see Benjy grinning and waving at them enthusiastically from across the hall. He was a tall guy, perpetually cheery in the same way a puppy would be. So essentially, Mary’s antithesis.
“No one should be that happy at 7 AM.” Mary rolled her eyes, but she still waved back and started towards the Ravenclaw table . “I’ll go see what he wants.”
Lily shook her head at her retreating figure. “Can that girl just admit she likes him?”
“Right?” Dorcas agreed, turning to watch as Marlene heaped eggs onto her plate the moment they sat down. “Merlin, leave some for the rest of us, Marls.”
“Ha ha, very funny.” She responded sarcastically, reaching for a bread roll. “I need to protein load for quidditch.”
“When’s your first match, again?” Lily asked, pouring herself a cup of coffee.
“November 3rd.” Dorcas and Marlene said at the same time. Marlene turned to look at her, confused.
“How’d you know that?”
“I listen when you talk.” Dorcas shrugged.
“I knew you loved me.” Marlene smirked triumphantly before turning back to Lily. “First match also happens to be Sirius’ birthday, so basically the most important day of the year for James.”
“That’ll be funny to watch.” Lily said, amused by the image of a stressed Potter trying to plan Sirius’ birthday bash on top of the first match of the season, against Slytherin no less.
“The party if we win will be wicked.” Dorcas commented.
“And the party if we lose will be James desperately trying not to be sad and ruin his best mate’s birthday.” Marlene pointed out. “But we’re not losing to Slytherin, so no need to worry about that.”
“Damn right!” Potter appeared out of nowhere at the mention of quidditch and clapped Marlene on the back, the other guys in tow behind him, looking exhausted.
“Prongs, be quiet.” Remus groaned, running a hand over his face like this wasn't the first time this morning he's had to say that. He looked the worst off of them all, his abnormally pale appearance causing faint scars to stand out against his skin.
“I don’t understand how you’re never tired.” Peter said to James incredulously, biting into a bread roll.
Sirius slid a cup of coffee to Remus, who accepted it wordlessly with a grateful smile. “Probably the same reason he doesn’t get hangovers.”
Dorcas scoffed at that, leaning around Marlene to fix James with a critical look. “That cannot possibly be true.”
He shrugged, smirking. “Never had one.”
“He’s not lying, unfortunately.” Sirius sighed, shaking his head in annoyance. “Git.”
“What happened to you guys?” Lily questioned, taking in their appearances. Remus looked close to falling asleep with his head on the table, and Peter and Sirius looked only slightly better off. Even Potter was looking spent; his hair had managed to do the impossible by looking even messier than usual.
“Yeah, you all look like shit.” Marlene added bluntly.
“Long night.” Remus answered, voice muffled because he refused to pick his head up from where it was buried in his arm.
Lily groaned. “Don’t tell me you’re plotting another prank? If all the tables start dancing during Charms or something-”
“We are way more creative than that, come on!” James exclaimed through a mouthful of pancake. Peter made a noise of agreement as Lily wrinkled her nose in disgust.
“Just some advance Halloween planning, Lily Flower.” Sirius winked. “Worry not, you’re safe for another week.”
“Don’t call me that.” She snapped, but a small smile still played on her lips. Ever since their talk a few nights ago, Lily found herself reluctantly warming up to him.
“Lily Flower!” Marlene echoed, grinning. “I’m stealing that.”
“Stop jerking around so much, you’ve got jam on yourself.” Dorcas sighed, reaching over to wipe jam off of her face. “There, much better.”
“Oh, thanks.” Marlene responded, uncharacteristically gentle. Her usual intensity returned, however, when she caught sight of Sirius’ shit-eating grin directed at her. “What, Black?”
“Nothing.” He responded in a sing-song voice, stretching out the syllables of the word. “We can discuss it later.”
Lily glanced at Dorcas, seeking clarification for whatever Sirius was on about, but she was suddenly deeply interested by the contents of her porridge. Marlene was turning an alarming shade of red beside her, hissing something across the table at Sirius.
Potter, who looked as lost as Lily, turned to Sirius. “What happened?”
He patted his hand comfortingly. “Nothing happened. Eat your pancakes, Prongs.”
~
“Again, the Draught of Living Death is a tricky one. I do not expect perfection from any one, simply your best attempt. You have one hour.” Slughorn finally stopped talking, releasing Lily and every other student in the class from their boredom. She immediately snapped into action, flipping through her textbook and running her finger over the list of ingredients.
“Sopophorous Bean, African Sea Salt, essence of wormwood…” She muttered the items to herself as she went to grab the ingredients from the cupboard in the back of the classroom. She felt Severus’ eyes follow her as she passed his table, but that was a regular occurrence by this point. She didn’t allow him the satisfaction of getting her attention, keeping her eyes straight forward when he and Knox approached the cupboard.
As she went through the rhythmic movements of cutting, measuring, and stirring, Lily felt herself relax and block out all the noises around her. There was something about the physical act of creating a potion that made her feel so connected to magic. Of course, she loved it in the form of spells and charms as well, but being able to hold magic that she created? That feeling was unmatched. She stepped back satisfied as her potion turned a shade of pale lilac that marked the halfway stage, something that no one else in the class had done yet.
“Slughorn is going to piss himself with excitement at your potion.” Sirius remarked, looking admiringly over at her cauldron.
As if summoned by the use of his name, Slughorn appeared suddenly in front of their table, gaze fixed on Sirius’ potion.
“Very impressive, albeit a little too dark. I expect that is from the use of too much wormwood, Mr. Black.” He noted, Sirius nodding along uninterestedly. He turned to Lily next, already smiling in expectancy.
“Merlin’s beard!” He gasped, peering over the edge of the cauldron wide-eyed. “This is the best Draught of Living Death I have ever seen a student brew!”
“Called it.” Sirius muttered from beside her.
Lily smiled at the praise, satisfaction filling her. While she did love Potions mostly for the joy of making them, the validation was a small part of the enjoyment. It was gratifying, seeing the way bigoted purebloods fumed at her excellence, like Avery was doing right now from a table over.
“Thank you, professor.”
“My dear, you are truly a talent.” He smiled. “Can I expect to see both of you at my Slug Club dinner tomorrow night?”
She paused, thinking for a moment. There was no doubt Severus would be there, along with Knox, Avery, Mulciber, and several other of his nasty Slytherin friends. Still, she felt bad declining Slughorn, especially when he was so kind to her.
“I don’t think-”
“We would love to go!” Lily cut Sirius off before he could decline. If she was going to go, she’d be damned if she wouldn’t make him come along too.
“Excellent!” Slughorn clapped his hands together, turning away before either of them could say another word.
Sirius turned to glare at her as he moved on to the next table. “Thank you for that. I was planning on skipping out, actually.”
“If I have to go, so do you.” Lily retorted, turning back to her potion and stirring it counter-clockwise.
“But you don’t have to go!”
“It’s good for- for connections.” She supplied weakly. “Besides, I feel bad saying no to him.” She whispered that last part, glancing back to make sure Slughorn was far enough away to not hear her. He was predictably already at Severus and Knox’s table, gushing praises like he just had for Lily.
“Whatever you say.” He muttered. “But now you have to explain to a heartbroken Pete why I can’t help him with his Charms essay tomorrow like I said I would.”
“Can’t Remus help him?”
“He always ends up having to, poor man.” Sirius shook his head solemnly. “Still, it’s his fault for being smarter than the rest of us for no reason.”
“It’s not his fault you guys don’t read.” Lily commented as she measured her Valerian root.
“I read!” He scoffed. “Can’t speak for James or Pete, though.”
“It baffles me how I’ve never seen Potter step foot into a library and yet he’s still almost top of our class.” It truthfully made her madder than she was letting on, she had to work what felt like twice as hard for things that seemed to just come easily to him. She used to think Sirius was the same way, but she was starting to notice how much he actually cared about his grades (Lily didn’t like to think too much about the fact that yet again, that probably had something to do with his upbringing).
“Behind you and Remy-kins, of course.” Sirius added.
“Does Remus let you call him these horrible nicknames?” She laughed.
“He acts like he hates it, but he secretly loves them.”
“I highly doubt that.”
They worked in silence for another minute, before Lily suddenly remembered what she had been wanting to ask him all day.
“Sirius, do you know what’s going on with Marlene and Dorcas?”
He put down his knife, making a full turn so he could be facing Lily. “I am so glad you asked. In my humble opinion, they’ve got it bad for each other. Marls won’t admit it, because she’s stubborn as hell, but still.”
“Oh my god.” Lily gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. “I thought that was just me, noticing how odd they’ve been since we got back to school.”
The two were simultaneously clingier and touchier than normal and more awkward than ever. There were so many times Lily would notice Dorcas zoning out watching Marlene talk, or Marlene watching Dorcas while she was reading with a look that Lily could now aptly describe as love-sick. Having Sirius say it out loud made her realize what she had been suspecting all along.
Sirius nodded enthusiastically. “Right! The longing stares, the flirting, it’s getting out of hand.”
“You’re telling me, I have to live with them.” Lily muttered, turning back to her textbook. “No jealousy then, as her ex-boyfriend?”
“I think me and Marlene have both long since realized we are not each other’s type.” He bit his lip, as if he was suppressing a laugh.
“You were so bad that you made her realize she was gay, then?” Lily teased, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, of course.” Sirius agreed exaggeratedly. “I turned Marlene Mckinnon lesbian.”
Avery glanced over at their table at this, glaring disgustedly at them. Lily turned to look at Sirius, the two of them bursting into laughter the second their eyes met.
~
Lily slumped in her chair and threw her quill down on the table in front of her, which was covered in crumpled parchment. The runes were all starting to blend together in her head, resulting in the muddled mess she was making of her translations. She longingly stared out the common room window at all the students down below, enjoying the good weather by the lake. It was an unusually warm day for October, and the leaves on the trees had finished turning deep oranges and bright reds. Yet, here she was, doing Ancient Runes homework all alone because she had taken it upon herself to load her schedule up with as many classes as she possibly could this year.
The common room was peppered with fellow stressed out sixth and seventh years, buried behind stacks of textbooks and piles of parchment. Lily had been occupying her own little corner for two hours now, trying to work through her never-ending piles of schoolwork. A change of scenery would help her focus, she decided. She stood up, collected her things, and slung her bag over her shoulder to try her luck in the library. Besides, she hadn’t seen Dorcas since breakfast, and she was likely to be in the library herself.
Just as she got up to leave, Mary came in through the portrait hole and spotted her.
“There you are!” Her eyes drifted to the overstuffed bag on Lily’s shoulder and she sighed. “Library?”
“Ancient Runes is kicking my ass.” Lily crossed her arms in defense.
“You and Dorcas, you say that then you end up with an O in every class. Let’s just go to dinner and you can worry about that tomorrow, okay?” Mary held her hand out, smiling when Lily reluctantly handed her bag over.
“There we go!”
As they climbed up the steps to their dorm, Lily lowered her voice.
“By the way, have you noticed the whole Marlene-Dorcas situation?”
Mary’s eyes widened, and she stopped walking.
“I thought that was just me!” She whispered. “They’ve been so weird, what is going on?”
“That’s what I said!” Lily slapped her shoulder.
“Wait, to who?”
“I only talked about it with Sirius, in potions. What?” She asked at Mary’s expression.
Mary raised an eyebrow, smiling. “It’s Sirius, and not Black now is it? Next thing you know, you’ll be making friendship bracelets with him and Potter.”
“Oh, bugger off.”
“Well, expand on what you were saying.” Mary urged her.
“Right, so at breakfast-”
Suddenly, a few steps above them, the door to their dorm swung open and Marlene stepped out. She glanced back and forth between Lily and Mary, clearly curious as to what they had been discussing.
“Why are we plotting on the stairwell?”
“Plotting? No we're not!” Mary laughed nervously, causing Lily to cringe internally and externally. She really couldn’t be any more suspicious if she tried.
“Okay, don't tell me.” Marlene rolled her eyes, walking down. “Are you two coming?”
“Yeah, coming!” Lily called, before turning and glaring at Mary. “Why do you have to crumble under pressure?”
“I’m sorry!” She whispered, tossing the bag into their room.