For Mary

As Mary walked along the corridor to get to the boys to fulfil her role as “the bait” as Marlene had called it, she wondered how exactly she had ended up here. The whole day, she had been acting weird, her mouth moving before she could think, making decisions she normally never would.

But it was too late to turn back now, Marlene`s plan was full on under way. Marlene had told her that they had an hour before the first speech from the principal would take place in the assembly hall. Apparently, that was where the prank of the boys was planned. Apparently, the boys where now in the gardens. That´s what Marlene`s she had had watching the boys had told her anyway. And apparently, her new roommate Marlene was insane.

Mary refrained from another headshake and instead concentrated on her task: Finding the `marauders`.

“But don`t call them that, they`ll like it too much.” Marlene had said.

Mary shook her head at the memory. Just what had she gotten herself into?
Before she could question anymore life choices, she heard voices coming from behind the hedge.

“-Padfoot what the fuck are you talking about?”

“No, guys, seriously, it works, you just- “

the voice was drowned out by laughter from the rest of the group.Weird nicknames. This must be them.
Mary took a big breath and walked around the hedge to get to the boys. There were two things she immediately noticed. 1. One of them was missing. 2. One of them was Regulus`s brother.

Mary recognized the black curls and same grin from this morning. Next to him stood the `Moony` as he had been called.
Mary should have known.

All day, there had been signs. From Regulus escaping his brothers’ friends to the Regulus`s brother making that joke about the rain in the entrance hall. But she hadn`t been paying attention, not like she normally was.

Marlene had told Mary how it was “tradition” for the Marauders to prank the whole school on the first day. This time though, Marlene had “reliable sources” who had told her the exact plan the marauders had.

“Where are you getting all your information from? Are you hiding a secret minion army in our dorm I should know about?” Mary had asked, which had made Emmeline let out a laugh.

“They`re not my minions,” Marlene had answered. “And they aren`t yellow, only red when practice gets hard. And it usually always does.”

“She`s the football captain,” Emmeline explained proudly.

“So, you let your team stalk them?”

“It`s part of practice.”

“So that they learn to stalk properly?”

“So that they learn to never let boys get away with anything.”

She held eye contact with her usual grin. No one could replicate Marlene`s grin if they tried.
“Sounds good to me.”

She had smiled back at her, and both Emmeline and Marlene had been surprised by her reaction. Mary had seen it in their eyes.

Mary had weirdly enjoyed it. Surprising them and herself had given her a thrill and Mary was chasing it now, walking up to the boys and talking to them.

Her friends at home could never surprise her. They were too predictable. Mary knew what they would think of this school, of the marauders and her new roommates. She knew they would think of both the prank and Marlene`s counter prank as childish.
Mary had most of the people around her figured out. Except one. One person who could still surprise Mary. His last surprise had been leaving.
My brother, the magician. Poof, and gone.
Mary shook her head. Focus. She cleared her throat.

“Uhm, sorry guys, but I`m looking for my roommate,” Mary approached the boys with a shyness that was only partly fake. “Her name is Marlene; she has the keys to our dorm.”

The laughter still written in their faces, they curiously looked at Mary.
“What is Marls up with now,” The boy with the glasses laughed.

`Moony` nudged his elbow. They were suspicious. Good. Mary acted as if she hadn`t seen.

“I saw her in the entrance hall, and she said something about not getting wet again? Maybe she`s drying her hair somewhere? I just don`t know where the bathrooms are.”

“Not getting wet? Lads, she`s trying to sabotage us again! We have to- “

“-help her find Marlene,” `Moony` interrupted.

A bunch of idiots. Could they be more obvious?

“Yes, right. What I meant.”

“Wait, I know you.” Regulus`s brother, the one who had been interrupted, frowned.

Spoke too soon. Mary hoped they couldn`t hear her heart beating suddenly louder. Would he suspect her of lying?

“You were looking for your brother, right? Did you find him?”

“Nah, the little fucker vanished or something,” he said.

A beat. They were all looking at each other. A silent nod.

“But we could help you find Marls. We have something to talk about, too.”

There it was. Mary understood Marlene`s urge to always grin a bit better.
“Thanks,” she said and put on her best innocent smile. This was fun. Marlene had been right.

Together, they left the gardens to search for Marlene. Mary walked a bit higher now. She`d done most of her part now. She hadn`t messed it up.

Emmeline`s part was was the technical aspect of the plan. She was responsible for deactivating the sprinklers to stop it from raining inside. Like a reverse rain dance, as she had called. Marlene though had said she gave her far too less credit.

“It`s far more complicated than some kind of dance, it`s got do with computer codes and all. I don`t even understand half of it. Emmeline`s a genius.”

“It`s fun,” Emmeline had responded. Mary was getting the impression compliments weren`t her thing.

Her counterpart was Peter. He was the other “computer genius”, Marlene had explained.

While Emmeline was working on the “computer stuff”, Marlene was supposed to distract him so that he wouldn`t get in Emmeline`s way.
Apparently, Peter and Emmeline knew each other from the computer and photography club.

Mary and the boys entered the building and walked by the entrance to the Slytherin dormitories as they heard shouting coming from down the corridor.

“-Mckinnon, I swear to god, if I find out what you have planned again-“

“-Bloody hell, why are you so obsessed with me? I don`t have anything planned and even if-“

“I saw your minions in the courtyard! They were probably plotting another-“

“-For the last time- they`re not my minions! And they never did anything!”

“Right, so the pink hair dye on our jerseys was just an accident?”

A laugh. Marlene? What was she doing here arguing with this girl? Why wasn`t she with Peter?

The two girls didn`t even notice them when they came up to them. The were both shooting daggers at the other, eyebrows furrowed. Marlene`s cheeks were red from fighting. She broke eye contact.

“I don`t know what to tell you, Dorcas, I thought you looked pretty good in pink,” she winked. Dorcas rolled her eyes.

The boy with glasses-James as Mary had learned-cleared his throat: “Sorry to interrupt, but your roommate was looking for you, Marls.”

Mary was almost embarrassed for interrupting until she remembered the mission. She shot Marlene a look. Where was Peter?
Marlene looked terrified and flustered at the same time.

“For fuck`s sake.”
Everyone turned around. She had said that out loud.

“What I was going to say,” Sirius said, smirking and looking between Marlene and Dorcas. But Remus had put two and two together. He had been suspicious from the start.

“You`re not looking for Marlene. You were trying to distract us, and Marlene was supposed to distract Peter, but...”

James laughed. Mary may have noticed how infectious it was, if she hadn`t been absolutely panicking.

“But she was to busy flirting with Meadows,” he finished.

“And assembly is about to start. Where are Emmeline and Peter?” Mary asked.

“Making it rain,” Sirius said triumphantly.

“Not on my watch,” Marlene said and cringed. “Sorry, that was weird. But seriously not on my watch, come on, Mary,” she said and started running.

Mary hesitated, but honestly, what was one more slipup?

They were both running now, trying to get to Peter to stop him.

“The station should be upstairs over the stage; we just have to- “

Marlene pointed to the stairs. They were right next to the entrance to the assembly hall. Mary turned around to see the others almost having caught up to them. She definitely wasn`t athletic enough for this. At least Marlene was fast.

She was at the staircase when suddenly, a tall woman got in the way. Mary and the boys arrived at the staircase, all trying to catch their breath.

“Students to their seats, please,” she said and looked at them sternly. Sirius groaned.

“You too, Mr. Black.”

“But- “

“To your seats, please,” she said. Mary was expecting from one of the boys, but they listened to their teacher and went inside the assembly hall.
Marlene sent the boys a death glare before nudging Mary to the other side of the room.

“Now all we can hope for is Emmeline. Maybe she managed to stop Peter,” Marlene said.

“What was that by the way? What happened to you stopping Peter?” Mary asked. There was that blush again. Mary smiled.

“Ugh, it`s not my fault, it`s Dorcas`s! She was onto me!”

And you into it, Mary thought. She didn`t say it out loud though. Instead, she cleared her throat and turned to the stage. The teacher from before, McGonagall, the principal, Mary realised, walked up to the stage.
Where was Emmeline? Had she done it?

McGonagall walked to the centre, the school choir and pianist behind her. She welcomed everyone and introduced the performers behind her.

Mary raised her head to get a proper look at them. She wondered what they were going to sing, she had never heard a choir live before.

Mary still couldn`t see the choir, but she did hear it. She recognized the first chords immediately. She turned around to Marlene to share the surprise with her, but she just got a confused look from her.

“It`s Hey Jude!” Mary whispered and she got a look of surprise from Marlene again.
Mary was too happy about the song choice to notice. She silently tapped along the beat with her foot, closing her mouth to refrain from singing along.

And anytime you feel the pain
Hey Jude, refrain
Don`t carry the world upon your shoulder

Mary almost didn`t notice the door opening, but Marlene elbowed her and gestured to it. Emmeline and Peter were walking head down to their seats.

Professor McGonagall was frowning at them and put her finger on her lips. They both looked mortified, especially Peter.
Marlene was on the edge of her seat, trying not to run to Emmeline to find out what happened.

Emmeline got to her seat next to Mary and looked straight ahead at the choir. Her cheeks were still red.

“And? Did you do it?” Marlene couldn`t wait and got another stern look from McGonagall.

“What? Oh, uhm…”

“What do you mean- “

The choir now sung the “Na, na, na, na-na-na-na”, and clapped along. Mary may have thought about the threat that posed Emmeline`s “uhm”, but she hadn`t been listening.

Not until she swore, she could hear sound coming from the wall and suddenly, everyone was getting drenched.

Marlene swore multiple times while Emmeline and Mary both just screamed. They looked at the boys who were smiling brightly, shaking their hair like dogs in the rain.
Mary looked at Marlene, expecting some kind of reaction, but instead, Marlene calmly went to her seat and got her umbrella from under it.She smiled and showed the boys her middle finger as Mary and Emmeline got under the umbrella with her. They turned their back to the boys and the stage, the performance clearly was over, though it definitely had been a show, Mary thought.

McGonagall was running around, shooing the students back to their seats and telling them the caretaker would deactivate the sprinklers soon.

“I am sorry it didn`t work out, I really tried for you,” Emmeline said.

Marlene smiled and patted her shoulder. “It`s fine,” she said, “I mean, I have nothing to complain, I got an umbrella.”
“Besides, we`ll get `em next time,” she added, as they all left the hall, umbrella over their heads.