Chapter 3
“And you’re sure Potter knows what he’s talking about?” Meadowes said as she was given the keys to the restricted section.
“I’m sure, James wouldn’t lie to me,” Marlene replied.
Meadowes clicked her tongue, as she unlocked the gate to the restricted section, “And how exactly does James know this?”
“He says he saw them bring big black cats into the arena on the edge of the forbidden forest.”
“And he thinks that they’re Matagots?”
Marlene nodded, Dorcas sighed,”let’s find things on matagots then.”
A few minutes later it seemed that Marlene was surrounded by every book on Matagots known to man.
Matagots,great bloody black cat looking creatures. They had huge blue eyes and the ability to multiply when attacked.
“Wait, this says here that Matagots aren’t aggressive unless provoked,” Marlene said, pointing at one of the books.
Meadowes laughed, “I’m sure they’ll be provoked, for the sake of the task.”
“I mean they’re not that big, I reckon a few stunning spells oughta do it.” Marlene jabbed at a different book with a drawing of a Matagot in it.
“God McKinnon, are you even reading the books?” Meadowes said scathingly, “if a Matagots is hit by an offensive spell it’ll multiply.”
No she wasn’t reading the books, she wasn’t paying much attention at all.
“Then how do we fight it?” Marlene asked.
“That’s the question isn’t it? How do we fight something we can’t hit?” Meadowes said, leaning closer to one of the books.
———————————
Marlene woke the morning after a Quidditch victory party with her makeup smeared and a splitting headache.
She felt something tap her head.
“Marlene, you need to get up, you’re in my bed.”
Marlene looked up to see Lily standing over her in sweatpants and a sports bra, her hair was up in a low ponytail and she had a smear of pink lipstick on the corner of her mouth.
Marlene sat up, the pain in her head was hot and sharp,”you look like shit.”
Lily laughed, “right back at you McKinnon,” she then turned and walked away.
When Marlene got down to breakfast she was pleased to see that everyone was just as hungover as her.
James, fully awake and perky. He had an annoying power in being unaffected by hangovers. It drove Marlene up the wall
Sirius was asleep on Remus’ shoulder, Remus was scooping a proper hangover breakfast onto his plate, this meant that Remus was prepared to eat everything in sight.
Peter had his head down on the table while beside him Mary mixed sugar into two cups of tea.
Lily was nursing a bowl of porridge, looking a little green.
Marlene sat down beside James and across from Mary. She poured herself a glass of orange juice.
“So, how did everyone sleep?” Mary said cheerfully.
Everyone winced at the sudden noise.
To Marlene’s disgust and horror Mary seemed to be utterly unaffected by hangovers much like James. She’d only seen Mary hungover once and it was after a party where Mary got so shit-faced she couldn’t stand.
Marlene looked glumly into her cup, it’s going to be a long day. She thought.
———————————
Marlene sat in the library during her free period after lunch doing her homework. However she wasn’t making much progress.
Her head pounded, her mouth was dry and all Marlene wanted to do was sleep.
“Hey, McKinnon,” a voice said.
Marlene looked up, wincing, “what do you want Meadowes?” She said.
Meadowes set a cup down on the table, The cup was filled with turquoise liquid.
“What’s this, Meadowes?” Marlene asked.
“Pepper up potion, McKinnon,” she replied, “good for hangovers.”
Marlene sputtered, “I’m not hungover, Meadowes.”
“Yes, you are,” Meadowes said.
Marlene looked at the potion grimly, “you’re not going to poison me right?” She chuckled.
Meadowes just looked from Marlene to the potion, as if saying, are you going to drink it?
Marlene picked up the cup with shaking hands, she took a sip.
The potion was cool and pepperminty on her tongue. The effects of the potion works almost instantly.
Marlene’s headache subsided, the tiredness in her muscles eased and overall she felt happier.
The effects of the potion must have shone on her face because right after the pepper up potion began to work, Meadowes let out a low chuckle.
Marlene stared at the bottom of the empty cup, “this isn’t what a pepper up potion is for, right?”
Meadowes laughed again, “Nah, but we’ve learned through trial and error that it works.”
“Trial and error?” Marlene asked.
“Barty,” Meadowes said as if this cleared everything up.
The pepper up potions effects held steady as Marlene continued her homework.
Now instead of internal distractions like a headache, Marlene had Dorcas Meadowes, whose breathing apparently annoyed Marlene.
Meadowes broke the silence after a while, “there is a reference to a book I think might help us here.” Meadowes tapped a piece of parchment with her ringed pointer finger.
Oh, How Marlene hated Dorcas Meadowes’ rings. She had many of them, not that Marlene was keeping track. It’s just when she spends her time watching Meadowes flip pages of her book rather than actually doing anything, you tend to notice if the little bits of metal on her finger have changed.
Dorcas Meadowes had many rings. Rings of gold and silver. Meadowes had rings with jewels embedded into them, she had rings with designs carved into them.
However many times Meadowes changes her rings there is one ring that reminds the same.
It's a small silver ring on her right pinky finger. It has a small rosey pink crystal set in. It seemed to be special to Meadowes, she always fiddled with it when she read.
Not that Marlene was keeping track of the rings
Meadowes wore, or her habits with the rings.
Marlene leaned over to better see the paper,”What does it say?” She asked.
“Créatures Magiques de France: Comment les gérer,” Meadowes replied, “Magical Creatures of France: How to manage them.”
“That book would be in French, right?” Marlene lifted her head to look at Meadowes.
“Amazing observation, McKinnon,” She Replied, “but that won’t be a problem.”
“You speak French?” Marlene wided her eyes at Meadowes.
She rolled her eyes, “Yes, McKinnon I do.”
Meadowes then got up to go look for this French book.
Marlene sat by herself for a few minutes. After about five minutes Marlene concluded that Meadowes wasn’t coming back in a hurry. So she might as well get some (definitely not overdue) homework done.
After about an half an hour Meadowes came back to the table with a crusty looking book and dust in her hair.
“Alright, let’s see how to fight Matagots,” Meadowes said.
It was in a moment like this that Marlene all but forgot why she hated Dorcas Meadowes.
This was the first moment of many where Meadowes just look so beautiful.
No beautiful wasn’t the right word. Ethereal maybe? No, Dorcas Meadowes was not light or delicate.
Tangible. Marlene thought.
She was real. Dorcas Meadowes was real with all her dust covered hair, sweaty brown skin and gleaming deep brown eyes. With the silver clips in her braids and her ever changing rings.
She was so real, next to Dorcas Meadowes anyone could look fake.
Marlene has absolutely no clue what her thoughts mean or if they even make sense. But that’s how she thought and felt.
Dorcas Meadowes the most tangible beauty Marlene has ever seen.
———————————
One of the first things you notice about Matagots is that they have huge big eyes. Huge eyes that are ironically pretty sensitive to light.
Matagots were nocturnal and commonly lived in caves out in the wild.
So Marlene and Meadowes figured that lots of bright lights near a Matagots eyes would confuse them. Well it was mostly Meadowes who figured this.
Meadowes squinted at a page, “Damn,” she said.
“What?” Marlene asked.
Meadowes got up and stretched, her dark hair fell back, her gold and silver rings glinted in the low lamplight of the library.
“I don’t understand this last paragraph, so I’m going to get Regulus,” Meadowes answered.
“Regulus speaks French?” Marlene looked up at Meadowes.
“Yes he does,” She said, staring down at Marlene.
It was one of the rare moments where Meadowes would actually make full eye contact with Marlene.
Meadowes seemed to realise this as she broke eye contact, cleared her throat then walked away.
When Meadowes returned she had a small boy with Black hair.
Marlene doesn’t think that she’s ever spoken a word to Regulus Black. In fact she's never even been less than ten feet of him. So naturally when Meadowes approached their table with this black haired boy, Marlene thought that Sirius was trailing behind Dorcas Meadowes.
“Ah, you must be baby Black,” Marlene leaned back in her chair.
Regulus winced, “Don’t call me that,” he said sharply.
“Whatever you say, Black,” she sighed.
They got the paragraph translated in about five minutes, it wasn’t anything relevant. So Marlene was content to read her spell book and try to find something to slow a Matagot. If it wasn’t for the fact that Regulus Black was still sitting beside her.
Marlene was under the impression that Black would help Meadowes translate the book and then leave.
What Marlene hadn’t expected was to be sitting beside him an hour later watching him draw a star chart.
It’s immensely awkward, Marlene wishes someone would say something so they weren’t just sitting there in uncomfortable silence. But of course Meadowes and Black seem content with sitting doing their work in complete and utter silence.
Marlene figured that the worst thing that could happen was that one of her friends saw her purposefully sitting with Meadowes and her friend.
And of course, because the universe is out to get her this exact thing happens.
Marlene watches as James Potter and Sirius Black approach her table,snickering to each other, no not snickering they were fucking giggling. Marlene silencely resigned herself to her fate.
Once Meadowes and Black notice the pair coming towards them, they both have very different reactions.
Meadowes look at them with indifference, almost as if she’s bored.
However Black saw them and immediately tried to get up only to be yanked right back down by Meadowes.
“Dorcas...” Black says, still trying to get up.
“Regulus, I don’t know what’s going on with you,” Meadowes whispers, “so either tell me or sit your ass back down.”
Regulus sits back down, slowly and silently.
Sirius then sits down in the chair next to Marlene, stringing his arm across her shoulders.
“So McKinnon, do you want to tell us why you skipped practice to hang out with my baby brother and his friend?” Sirius asked with false cheer.
Marlene groaned,”I forgot there was practice today,James I’m really sorry,” Marlene looked over to James, who was not looking at her but looking just beside her, right at Sirius’ little brother, Regulus was trying very hard to look anywhere but the table they were sitting at.
“If I may cut in,” Dorcas said,”McKinnon and I aren’t ‘hanging out’ we’re studying, Black. Regulus is just here to translate something for me.”
“Which I have finished doing, so,” Regulus started to get up again.
Dorcas pulled him back down into the chair. Regulus shot her a dirty look.
This was going to be the longest year ever, Marlene thought grimly.
————————-
“Do you know anything about light spells?” Marlene asked, her hand was resting on Mary’s thigh.
“What, like Lumos and whatever,” Mary replied, “Merlin, Marlene you can use nail polish remover, you don’t have to wait for it to chip off your hands,” Mary scrubbed Marlene’s thumb with a cotton pad soaked in polish remover.
Marlene rolled her eyes,”do you know any more powerful light spells?”
“Nope, no need to know them,” Mary started to paint Marlene’s pinky finger with black nail polish.
They sat in silence for a few minutes as Mary worked on Marlene’s nails. Marlene would never admit this, but she was getting increasingly more worried as the first task crept closer.
Marlene shivered, the winter chill was slowly creeping over Hogwarts, the cold breeze blew dead leaves over the courtyard. Autumn was one of Marlene’s favourite times of year, the weather was perfect, shy from a little chill and everyone always seemed happy in Autumn, but that might just be the summer high before the cold month blues.
“Oi.” Mary poked Marlene, she nodded her head to the other side of the courtyard.
Two figures walked across the courtyard, one was ahead the other trailing behind, trying to catch up.
Marlene realized that the two figures were James and Sirius? No not Sirius the black haired boy that James was following was Regulus.
“Do you know what’s going on with James?” Marlene asked, “he’s been kind of twitchy the last few days.”
Mary shrugged, the girls continued to watch the two boys.
James caught up with Regulus, he grabbed the younger boy's wrist. Regulus yanked his wrist out of James’ grip. James stepped closer to him, placing his hand on Regulus’ shoulder, he froze.
James leaned forward like he was whispering something to him. Regulus flinched back, he then quickly slapped James across the face.
The sound echoed across the courtyard.
“Ohh,” Mary flinched,”that looked like it hurt.”
Marlene frowned, “what do you think that was about?”
Mary shrugged, before turning her attention back to James.
James just stood there in the middle of the courtyard looking dumbfounded, rubbing his cheek where Regulus had struck him as Regulus stalked away and out of the courtyard.
Marlene watched James turn and start to walk towards her and Mary.
“He’s coming over!” She hissed.
Mary let out a squeaky noise before ducking her head down as she began to repaint one of Marlene’s nails.
James stopped in front of their bench. “Are either of you going to Hogsmeade this weekend?” He asked.
At that moment Lily Evans appeared. Mary’s eyes widened. She pushed Marlene’s hand off her thigh as she smoothed down her skirt.
Mary had been cagey around their red haired friend lately.
Lily confided in Marlene earlier in the week that she thought that Mary was mad at her for some reason.
Marlene knew that Mary wasn’t angry at Lily but she also didn’t know what was with Mary lately.
“Mary’s going with me.” Lily answered James.
Mary opened her mouth as if to say something but Lily grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her away from the bench.
“Damn, what about you Marlene?” James turned to Marlene.
“I don’t have any plans,” She said.
“Brilliant, go with me then?”
“Sure,” Marlene blew on her drying nails, “mind telling me why baby Black just decked you in the face?”
James sighed as he sat down on the bench in Mary’s vacant spot. “Peter has some business that he has to do by himself for some reason and Remus and Sirius are going together so I’d be the third wheel.” He said.
“James… that doesn’t answer my question,” Marlene chuckled.
Sometimes James got off track when he spoke, it’d been like that since they were kids, since her and James were five and James had helped her up after she’d skinned her knee. He helped her over to her mum while he talked about the different germs that could get in her cut.
They became fast friends after that, she was pretty much her only friend until Peter came along when they were nine.
For the first few months at Hogwarts, Marlene barely left James’ side. People had teased her about being ‘James’ little girlfriend’ it was never true of course her feelings for James have never been anything more than platonic.
And after six years at Hogwarts James has often come to her for advice or just because he needed to talk to someone.
“Oh right, I asked him if he wanted to go with me,” James picked at the seam of his trousers, “I don’t even know why.”
“And he slapped you for it?” Marlene asked.
James sighed, jumped to his feet, “I just remembered that I have somewhere to be,” He started to walk across the courtyard, “good chat, Marls!”
Marlene had no clue what was up with James. She could not fathom what would ever make James ask Regulus of all people to hogsmeade. But then again Marlene knew better than to try and decipher every strange action or sentence that came from James. She might’ve known him since childhood but she wasn’t a miracle worker