Marlene gets it, James needs to rant to someone but god, he's very oblivious, "James," she cuts him off, "Go ask the poor lad out,"
His eyes widen, "Marls, I can't! He might be straight-"
"You think Regulus Black is straight? My gaydar is rusty, but it's not that rusty," she laughs and pats his shoulder.
"Well..." he trails off and grimaces, "I don't know, Marls, there's no way he likes me anyway," he shrugs.
"James, I love you but you are so oblivious, he looks at you all the time and he doesn't tell you to fuck off when you approach him, he does that to everyone else!" She folds her arms and narrows her eyes, daring him to deny.
"Yes but he's gorgeous, he has this beautiful curly hair and oh my god his eyes, Marls and he's hilarious without meaning to be and I like him so much,"
"I know, and you're just as handsome, James,"
"Thanks, Marls,"
"No problem, James," she laughs before catching someone's eye. A certain someone's eye.
"Someone's distracted," he teases.
"Like you can talk," she rolls her eyes and pats his head, "I'd better go, James, good luck with Regulus!"
He laughs as she walks away towards where Dorcas had left with a happy grin on her face.
Her friends make fun of her for this stupid Quidditch rivalry crap saying things like how they're soulmates, shit like that and of course she knows how amazing it is that they can talk about things like this freely and she knows most of her friends are at least slightly gay and she's definitely okay with that but a tight knot in her stomach every time they bring up Dorcas says something different and she has no clue what it is.
She's not homophobic.
Right?
"Hey, stalker," a voice shuts down her thoughts almost immediately, practically tumbling into her in surprise.
"I'm not a stalker," she feels a heated sensation flush her cheeks without her permission, she grimaces.
"Okay, McKinnon," Dorcas says sarcastically, huffing a laugh.
"I mean it!"
"And as I said, okay, McKinnon," Dorcas rolls her eyes before turning away again waving her fingers in a goodbye.
A reluctance to let the girl go strikes her in the face with such force that she grabs Dorcas' hand with a surprising amount of dominance.
"Oh, sorry, I don't know why I did that," she frowns before continuing, "I just wanted to say that, um, me and James are going to the Hogsmeade trip this weekend since Sirius and Remus have... other activities and Peter is hooking up with some Hufflepuff girl. I just wondered if you wanted to maybe come with us? I don't mind if not," she grimaces again, trying to calm the heat of her face.
Dorcas' lips curve up gracefully, a smile, hardly noticeable, unless you were looking, faintly appears on her lips which sends a small flutter down to her stomach.
"I'll bring Regulus," she says before turning away and walking away.
"James will be glad!" She shouts back with a small smile and a light hearted feeling in her chest as she walks back to the comfort of the Common Room.
James is in fact not glad.
"You set me up with him?" His eyes go wide as he shrieks, nervously biting at his nails.
"Dorcas did, technically, and would you stop doing that, you know it's bad," she smacks his hand away from his mouth.
"Sorry," he grimaces, "I'm just nervous, it'll be like a date, won't it?"
"It'll only be a date if you make it a date,"
James splutters and throws his hands in the air dramatically, "I really like him, Marls,"
"Yes, I know, we've established that,"
"Well I don't know what to do!"
"Kiss him, shag him, I don't know!" She huffs a laugh, grabbing a brush and stroking it through his hair, she does it when he's stressed and it always works.
"You're so unhelpful, Marls," he grumbles with a small smile.
"Go ask your best friend for advice then!"
He quickly turns to look at her with an unimpressed expression, "That's not funny,"
"Fine, I wonder how he'd feel knowing his platonic soulmate fancies his brother?" She starts to stand jokingly only to be tackled to the ground with a loud laugh.
"Marlene Elizabeth McKinnon, don't you even think about it, young lady,"
"Ooh, you sound like Effie when you say that, it's quite endearing,"
"Shut it," he grumbles with a loud laugh as he stands up, helping her up along the way before sitting back down.
"You know I wouldn't tell Sirius unless you wanted me to,"
"Mhm," he hums.
"Good," the sit in silence for a while, Marlene's hairbrush discarded as she runs a hand through his hair, distractedly thinking a she stares out the window.
A few weeks prior they were in potions, this time the potion was Amortentia. And of course, she doesn't like anyone so she expected to smell nothing but her friends, perhaps.
But she smelled something completely different. Marlene smelt grapes and passion fruit and she was struck with the realisation that she'd smelt this before, ever since then she's been thinking of who it is and never seeming to put a finger on it.
"It'll be the talk of the whole school if anyone finds you guys like this," Regulus raises an eyebrow at them before turning away, walking up to the dorms.
"Hey! What are you doing here?" She finds herself calling back after him.
"I don't see how that's any of your business, McKinnon," he quips back before closing the door to the dorms dramatically.
She turns to James who stares at where Regulus just left, "You're in love with him," she sighs.
He blinks and frowns before his eyes widen, "You can't just tell me that!"
"Yes I can and I just did,"
"I was supposed to realise it!"
"You took too long, I don't know!" She shrugs and stands up, holding out her hand for him to take.
"You're a terrible friend," he smiles at her, a pink flush apparent on his cheeks.
"I'm sure I am," she laughs, messing up his hair more than it already was.
"Hey!"
"Go talk to him, I'll see you later, Potter," Marlene smiles and slaps his back, pushing him towards the stairs.
"Bye," he rolls his eyes with a smile before heading up to his dorm.
Marlene smiles, she thinks she's quite the matchmaker after all.
She heads up to her own dorm, hoping to the God she doesn't believe in that she won't find Mary and Lily shagging again as she opens the door.
Her prayers were not answered apparently.
"What the fuck!" She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose dramatically, "We are talking about this, I don't care!"
That's how she finds herself making her friends work their shit out and leaves the room happily knowing she just helped her best friend's love lives from crashing.
And she can finally not have to hear both their pining.
Marlene doesn't know why she cares seeing as she's just going to Hogsmeade but she does and she's mentally refraining herself to not have a mental breakdown on what to wear.
"But it's too... I don't know!"
"But you always wear this, Marls," Mary raises an eyebrow at the shirt and trousers she's picked out.
"Yes but... I wear it too often, exactly! I have to wear something more original..." she trails off, looking through a pile of clothes with a frown.
"Is this whole thing about a certain someone?"
"I don't have a crush on Dorcas!" She huffs, and there it goes again, that little flutter. Marlene chooses to ignore her stomach and her best friend and dig through the clothes still, putting a shirt against her chest and frowning at it, "Do you think Sirius will let me take one of his leather jackets?"
"Absolutely not,"
"I'll just have to take one anyway," she mumbles before running towards the boys dorms, peeking her head in and taking a leather jacket from Sirius' bed and rushing back towards her dorm, finally running in with a heavy pant.
"Sirius will kill you,"
"As long as I look pretty,"
"You're ridiculous," Mary laughs, holding out cargo trousers for her to take.
"As you've said," she smiles thankfully before quickly slipping into her outfit and checking herself out in the mirror.
"Hot as always, McKinnon," Lily pipes up from the bed, only glancing at her for a minute before going back to her studies.
"Hey! You're my girlfriend!"
"You call Marlene hot all the time!"
"That's because she's my best friend!"
"And she's my best friend too!"
"That is entirely different!"
"How?" Lily glares at Mary for a whole minute as her girlfriend splutters about knowing her longer, "You're saying she's your best friend more because you met her a couple seconds earlier than me?"
"Yes!"
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Marlene holds back a laugh as she mutters a quiet goodbye before hurrying off to meet James who, she thinks with a smile, will probably be sweating his dick off with nerves.
She leans against the wall next to the boy's dorm staircase, zoning out as she stares out at the clear blue sky above the castle's grounds.
"Hey, Marls," James places a hand on her shoulder with a nervous smile, "I'm about to piss myself with nerves,"
"I knew it," she turns to him with a smug look.
"Don't worry, I definitely didn't see you take Sirius' jacket while I was in the bathroom,"
"I'm sure you didn't,"
"Hey, nice jacket," he smirks at her and they both start howling with laughter whilst making their way down to the grounds of Hogwarts.
"Looks like you're having a splendid time," Dorcas walks round the corner to where they are, a small smile on her lips.
Those damned butterflies.
"Could you be anymore posh?"
"I'm sorry my whole entire vocabulary isn't as colourful as yours,"
"Well I'm sorry my vocabulary isn't as dull as my personality,"
"Harsh words for someone who doesn't know the meaning of gatekeeping," Dorcas quips back with a smug look that surprises Marlene into silence with a glare, "Nothing else to say, McKinnon?"
Marlene glares at her again, a small flutter in her stomach again.
"If you'd like to take your flirting outside, I'd appreciate it," Regulus rolls his eyes walking ahead of them with an elegant air.
"Hey! We were not flirting!" Marlene frowns at him.
"Whatever, I'd rather not freeze to death though," he motions his head outside as he starts to walk in front of everyone else, James practically following like an eager puppy.
Honestly, she has no idea why James likes him in the first place.
She begrudgingly walks forward, next to James who had walked back next to her with a big grin, atleast someone's enjoying themself.
"Good conversation, then?" She whispers with a small smile.
"The best,"
"I'm guessing you talked and he listened?"
"What else would you expect?" he laughs with a fond smile.
"Nothing less," she replies with a roll of her eyes and a quiet smile.
They eventually make it to Hogsmeade without anymore arguments, which is a surprise because that's all Dorcas and her ever do and Marlene is slightly suspicious that her and Regulus are conspiring against them.
"We are absolutely going to Zonko's!" James practically shrieks with excitement.
"Not all of us want to get killed by one of your stupid pranks," Regulus rolls his eyes, a small smile almost tipping over the edge of his lips.
"You haven't been to Zonko's before?" James turns to him with a blink of horror.
"No?" And before he can protest he gets grabbed by the arm and hurried into the shop with a laugh.
And, great. She's left with Dorcas now.
"You know, I find it unbelievable sometimes how they haven't even started dating yet," Dorcas says, surprising her speechless before she realises she's looking at her expectantly.
"Oh, yeah, they basically are a couple at this point, except from the kissing and shagging part," Marlene replies with a grin.
"Oh, you do not want to know about the things Regulus says to me about him, goodness, he makes James sound like a Greek God," they both laugh as they walk after them.
"James told me once when he was absolutely wasted that Regulus was the male version of Aphrodite," Marlene laughs again, glancing over at Dorcas and wondering how it would be to talk to her like this all the time.
"Sounds like something James would say,"
"Yes, he does have a streak for being a romantic,"
"Oh, yes, all that stuff with Lily was more funny than romantic if I do say,"
"Yes well he was quite in love with her,"
"Regulus told me once when he was drunk that he 'wouldn't mind at all if he did all those things to me'," Dorcas grimaces with a small smile, "And I asked what and he started listing off a very detailed and kinky list,"
"Oh. My. God," Marlene manages to pant out before she's howling with laughter, full on slapping her knee and almsot falling down kind of laughter.
"It was a very traumatising experience," Dorcas huffs a laugh walling forward with a roll of her eyes at Marlene's antics, "C'mon they'll probably think we're conspiring against them,"
"Well I supoise we are,"
"We don't want them knowing that though," Dorcas laughs quietly, grabbing her arm and pulling her into the shop, damned butterflies.
For the rest of the afternoon, Dorcas and Marlene talk and talk, laughing at the obliviousness of both of their friends and talking about things to Quidditch and to what they want to do when they're older and it feel so bloody good that Marlene hopes they can do this again insead of arguing every damn minute.
Then they reach the end of they're trip with a surprisingly sad pang to her chest as she smiles softly at Dorcas, "I guess I'll see you on the pitch on Friday?"
"I suppose you will," Dorcas laughs quietly and smiles at her.
They both look over at James and Regulus who seem to be bickering at something before Regulus almost smiles at James with a roll of his eyes.
"I like you," holy motherfucking shit.
Regulus blinks and frowns at James, "Did you just tell me you liked me in front of my best friend?"
"I suppose I did,"
"Ridiculous," Regulus laughs lightly which causes Marlene to frown, Regulus can laugh?
Dorcas coughs which causes Regulus to roll his eyes, "I like you too, James,"
"You just called me James!"
"Was that all you heard from what I said?"
"No," James practically squeals before kissing Regulus' forehead that earns a laugh from both him and Dorcas.
"That was bloody brilliant, Potter, I've been having to deal with his stupid pining for six months," she whispers to Regulus who holds back a smile.
"That is entirely not true," James blushes and takes his hand, "Would you be my boyfriend?"
"Yes, James," he sighs with a quiet smile and they kiss sweetly.
"Yipee," Dorcas says sarcastically, "Now I'm freezing so we'd better be off, Regulus,"
Marlene laughs at that and gives James a high five as they both walk away smugly. But she notices something on the ground and pics it up, frowning.
"Hey, Dorcas! You forgot your scarf!" Dorcas couldn't possibly hear her which makes her groan and begrudgingly run after her.
"Oh, hello there," Dorcas laughs as she watches Marlene pant when she finally gets to her.
"You... left... your... scarf," she pants, holding out the scarf to Dorcas.
"I thought you were a Chaser, McKinnon,"
"Yes, well, you don't exactly run on a broom,"
"I suppose," Dorcas holds out her hand to help Marlene up with a small smirk on her face.
She stands up brushing non-existent dirt of her clothes, Dorcas rolls her eyes and walks past her and that's when she smells something too similar.
Passion fruit and grapes.
Passion fruit and motherfucking grapes.
"Fuck,"