Chapter 3
“Hi Remus.” Lily greets Remus cheerfully when they walk in the great hall. She is the only one of the three who can actually function in the morning.
Marlene is the worst and needs an actual half hour that she spends staring at the wall reconsidering all her decisions that led her to having to wake up.
“Merlin, how can you be here every day this early, do you ever sleep?” Marlene says as she stumbles after Lily
“No.” Answers Remus without batting an eye.
“But really, I have never not seen you here before we come.” Marlene thinks about it for a second, but it is truly too early. “Well maybe once or twice now that I think about it.”
She goes to sit down next to Remus so she faces the direction of the Slytherin table.
“I’m not such a morning person you know, not a night person either, I really am just a sleepy person.”
“I’ve noticed since I’m the one who has to get you out of bed every morning.” Mary says, she had to drag Marlene out of bed just 20 minutes ago.
“You don’t have to.” Marlene answers back.
“Oh but I do, if I don’t you will sleep the entire day.”
“Which wouldn’t be such a shame, I wish I could just sleep an entire day.” Marlene sighs and wishes it was a Sunday, so she could at least sleep till 10 am. “But we are free today, you could have at least let me sleep a little longer.” Whines Marlene on.
“Well we got shit to do.” Mary says with a smile, so Marlene glares at her.
“You got any coffee left in your cup?” She leans over Remus to check, but nothing is in it.
“You could also learn the spell yourself marls, instead of nicking my coffee every day.” Says Remus as he fills the cup up with one simple spell and gives it Marlene.
“But where’s the fun in that.” She gratefully excepts the coffee, it’s going to have to help her through the day.
Over the rim of her cup she can see Dorcas and her Ravenclaw friend Pandora. She doesn’t really understand why Pandora is friends with Slytherins, but she isn’t going to judge her.
“Are you starring at Meadows again?” Lily says, pulling Marlene out her thoughts.
“No I wasn’t.”
“Yes you were.” Lily says stubbornly.
“I don’t blame you marls, she’s hot.” Mary says without looking up, still browsing her magazine.
Marlene needs a moment to process.
“Sorry?”
“What! She is!” Mary says now looking up. “Look at her, isn’t it common knowledge that she’s like the hottest girl from the Slytherins?”
“Uhm no.” Marlene proceeds to look at Dorcas again and for the second time they lock eyes. As fast as she can she looks at her cup on the table, but when Mary begins to laugh she whips her head in her direction.
“Shut up.”
“I don’t think I will.”
“So Mary,” Lily begins. “if Dorcas is the hottest girt from Slytherin, who is the Gryffindor one?”
“Me, obviously.”
“Of course, like we could forget.” Marlene says in a sarcastic but affectionate tone.
“And Ravenclaw?” Lily continues.
“Mhm, maybe Emmeline Vance.”
“Yea, I gotta agree with that, isn’t she the Ravenclaw quidditch captain.” Lily answers.
“Ever since she’s captain we are having real trouble with Ravenclaw.” Marlene says. “But we have James as captain now, so we’ll be fine this year.”
“That’s right, he’s been made captain.” Mary chirps.
He received a letter this summer where was stated he would become captain. It was to no one’s surprise, if it was democratically chosen, it would still have been James.
“Oh I forgot, Dorcas is also made prefect you know, I was supposed to hand her the schedule for the patrols, be right back.” Lily says as she gets up and walk towards the Slytherin table. A few heads turn, it isn’t always that people from Gryffindor and Slytherin engage, and if they do it result into violence most of the time.
She sees Dorcas turns her head to Lily and then to pandora, who after a few seconds nods and Dorcas’ gaze is on Lily again.
A deathly gaze, but Mary was right, she certainly isn’t ugly. She has this elegant beauty decides Marlene. Like a swan.
“Mary, if you were an animal, what would you be?” She asks Mary as she abandons her observation.
“Mhmm, well obviously something pretty,” Mary says now looking at Marlene instead of Lily. “a libelle maybe?”
“That fits you, I like it!” Marlene says, when Lily is sitting down at their table again.
“I don’t think Dorcas likes me very much.”
“I don’t think she likes anyone very much, lils.” Mary says patting Lily on the back. “I heard some boys last year had this challenge to asks her out. The first one that succeded got like a price or something, but they couldn’t walk for days because she hexed them all.”
“Well deserved.”
“You shouldn’t gossip so much Mary.”
“Says you.”
“I don’t gossip!” Lily says, a hand on her chest in a offended manner.
Mary and Marlene share a look.
“Yea you do.” They say together.
“No I don’t!” Lily stubbornly continue.
Again they look at each other.
“Oh stop it you two.” She hits Mary in her arm, but she dodges it as this has happened more than once.
“If you stop lying to yourself, and most importantly us.” Mary counters her.
“Tsch, alright.” Lily says while angrily sipping her tea. “Fine.”
---
It’s almost dark outside, which Marlene loves. In the winter people complain that the days are so short, but Marlene thinks the opposite. The nights are long.
She especially enjoys this at Hogwarts, because here she can fly. She has missed her broom so much, as she couldn’t use it the entire vacation, being in a muggle village and all.
Flying in the evening is one of her favourite activities, feeling the cold air on your face and basically being invisible in the sky. She always feels like a sort spy.
So she goes down to the changing rooms and takes a moment to feel the familiar texture of the fabric against her body.
When she stands in the field no one is there, but it’s not quiet. She hears all sorts of little sounds coming from Hogwarts, laughter, talking. Marlene smiles to herself and takes off.
Getting used to the feeling again she goes faster and faster, loop after loop. Then dives down to take a sharp U-turn right before she hits the ground and goes up again. Higher and higher, until she can see the entirety of Hogwarts.
She stops in the middle of the sky and closes her eyes.
In.
Out.
With the fresh air in her lungs, Marlene opens her eyes. She lays her head down on her broom. There are not a lot of clouds this night and you can see the stars clearly.
If she would actually pay attention at astronomy she might know some of the stars or constellations she’s seeing, but she doesn’t. That however doesn’t make it any less pretty to look at.
She sighs, Sirius is named after a star, so is his brother, it’s such a pretty thing to be named after. She’s just Marlene, nothing more, nothing less.
She closes her eyes again, almost considering to fall asleep up here, but deciding against it. She would fall down a hundred percent.
Looking around her one last time she speeds down and with a perfect landing she heads to the changing rooms.
She opens the door, but then stands still. Someone is here already, she hears the shower running. She didn’t see anyone at the pitch, but maybe she was up there longer than she thought she was.
She picks up her clothes and puts it in her bag, then looks at the clothes of the other person. Slytherin tie. Mhm. She’s going to shower in her dorm.
It’s not like she has anything against Slytherins, it’s more like they have something against her and her friends. From the three of them, Marlene is the only one who is pureblood, so she herself has never been the victim of their obvious bigotry, but there had been multiple times that she heard what was Lily and Mary had to go through.
Although with only a father she wasn’t really their favourite anyway. It felt a bit like a one-sided hate, but Marlene is childish enough to bitch them back just as hard.
When she comes back in the dorm Mary and Lily have music filling the room, they are sitting on Mary bed, books scattered everywhere.
“Oh thank goodness, you’re here marls help me.” Mary says with pleading eyes, slumping of the side of the bed, her head almost hitting the floor.
“She didn’t do her summer homework, like she was supposed to,” Lily says with gritted teeth, “so I’m helping her.”
“More like torturing me.”
“I can’t help you, sorry but you will understand when you’ll come closer. I honestly stink more than James after training.”
“You didn’t shower at the pitch?” Lily asks.
“No, a Slytherin girl was there already.”
“Understandable.”
“There isn’t any practice yet right? Why was she there?”
“I don’t know, she’s probably training for the match against us that they won’t win. Again.” Marlene says with a smirk.
“Nah they probably won’t.” Mary says, matching her smirk. “But they’ll still have some time, when is the next game again?”
“In like two weeks, it’s to introduce quidditch to the first years and all, so if you win you’ll have less points then if you win a regular match.”
“James told me about that. Said that if you win it, it means more luck for the entire season or something.” Lily says, scribbeling something on a piece of paper and sticking it between two pages.
“That’s right.” Marlene says, skipping over the fact that she’s now apparently talking to james potter, the guy she supposedly despises. “So that’s why-“
“Wait you’re talking to James now?” Mary says, not skipping over the matter. She has straightened her back and is tapping her finger against her thigh in a fast pace.
“Well anyway I’m going to hop in the shower.” Marlene says bored with the conversation as soon as it shifted away from quidditch.
She turns the shower on and steps in, letting the cold water wash away any remaining worries or headaches. Cold showers are a favourite of Marlene, it’s just like being reborn.
That night she falls asleep in a comfortable bed and after a month of restless sleep, she can finally have a break.