Astronomy tower
Fuck, fuck, they’re actually losing. James is good, so is their whole team, but he can’t seem to get any of the balls past Dorcas, who flies around the hoops like a brick wall, nothing can get past her, nothing.
Slytherin isn’t especially good, but if they can’t score, the game will turn in the Slytherin’s favour. Their only hope now is the snitch.
Their seeker hasn’t seen it yet, but Slytherin’s seeker, Regulus Black hasn’t either. Although he’s flying around the pitch in a calmy elegant manner. He sort of reminds her of Dorcas. God, how she wishes a buldger would wipe that smug smile right of his face, truly annoying.
With a huff she turns around and catches the quaffle from James, together the throw it from the one to the other, flying low then high as to avoid the Slytherins to catch it. After flying together for years now they have synchronized to the point where there movements are entirely natural and instinctively.
They get closer to the hoops and she prepares herself to throw as hard as she possibly can when James doesn’t return the quaffle and throws it himself. When it gets blocked, again, she can hear the sigh that escapes his mouth from where she’s flying. To be fair, she’s getting pretty tired too, and if they don’t score fast their chance of winning will soon be a zero.
And just at that moment both seeker seem to be activated in an instant manner, tensing up on their brooms and lying flat as to increase their speed. They go neck to neck and if their seeker catches it, they win.
The whole world seems to slow down to that moment and that only. Marlene watches intensively at their every move, both having stretched their arms, but Black is faster and Marlene loses the only hope that she had left when suddenly he slows down a little.
Their seeker catches the snitch.
They won.
Not having expected this Marlene stares up to the score board, when, to her surprise she hears the Slytherins cheering.
They didn’t win.
At that exact moment, when everyone was focussing on the two seekers, a Slytherin swooped in and scored a point, like a true snake. So they lost, by 1 score point.
And when she looks up, she sees no other that Dorcas Meadowes grinning down at her.
“Fuck.”
---
After their atrocious loss Marlene decides not to go on her daily rounds of flying, having it taken all the fun out of it. The fact that her tights are burning are also a big factor in her decision.
When she comes downstairs she sees James and the others around the fire, James sulking in the corner with Sirius and Remus and Peter playing exploding snap on the couch, waiting for their roommates to be in a better mood before engaging in any activities with them.
Marlene had done her own respective sulking in her room under about 5 blankets. She had come to the conclusion this wasn’t going to help and got up. Tomorrow she had to walk around with a stupid stupid sweater, with a stupid stupid snake, so she should make the most of the time she had left before committing social suicide.
How could she have been so stupid to actually take the bet, that she started, but anyway. She knows she can be a bit impulsive sometimes, but that had never had serious consequences, until now.
Sighing she walks down the warmly lit corridors and stops by a window to look out over the lake. It’s a clear night and most of the stars are visible and if she remembers correctly, it’s almost full moon. She should really get an astronomy book to learn all the stars, it has something so mystical, or perhaps ask Sirius, he would know with his whole family being an entire galaxy and all.
To get a better view of the sky she decides to go up to the astronomy tower, it’s too cold for couples to come up there anyways.
When she opens the door she stops right in her tracks as she sees a familiar silhouette sitting against one of the pillars. Still angry about her loss she slams the door and walks up to her, but she doesn’t react. She stays as she were.
“Meadowes? What are you doing here?” Marlene asks annoyed, tired of seeing her everywhere. Is there truly no place in this whole goddamn castle where she can just sit alone with a good view? She squeezes her eyes and looks at Dorcas once again and sees the dark circles under her eyes reflecting the moonlight in its shimmering. She exhales and her breath forms a little cloud in front of her.
“Are you okay?” She asks hesitantly.
Dorcas looks up, a blank look in her eyes. “I don’t know, are you Marlene?”
Her name seems to roll so effortlessly of her tongue so that it almost seems familiar in a way, like she has been calling her that for ages, but that’s not the case.
“Meadowes?”
“No you wouldn’t know, would you? You are so perfect, with you perfect friend and probably perfect family, all soaking up each other’s happiness.” She snorts but it turns into a sniffle.
Marlene is left standing there, with absolutely no words to offer.
“You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.” She decides on, but Dorcas just looks her in the eye, calmly she stares at Marlene without saying anything. Then, she turns her head around to its original position, continuing to stare out in the night.
“I always pick my books on basis of what they look like.”
“It was a metaphor.”
“I know.”
“Well I’m not perfect.”
“You are.” Dorcas answers with ferocity. She reaches out to Marlene, almost touching her cheek with her finger tops, but seems to think better and pulls her hand away.
“Aren’t you supposed to be celebrating your victory?” And then it clears up for Marlene. “Wait, are you drunk?”
“Yes like any other teenager of our age would be if they just won the fucking match right?.”
“Well good to see you’re no longer sad.” She stares out in the night. “But really, why aren’t at the party?”
“Didn’t feel like it, they won’t miss me.”
“Well then you’re stuck with me. I’m not going away just because you are here.”
“Yay, such fun.” Dorcas says with a straight face as she watches Marlene who lowers herself down to where Dorcas is sitting.
“Do you know anything about stars?”
“Oh we’re actually going to talk, good to know.”
“I was just curious! I’ll shut up, jeez.” Marlene slumps against the wall with her arms crossed in front of her chest.
“That one is Sirius, but you already knew that I assume.” Dorcas says, breaking the silence. She’s pointing to the brightest star in the sky.
“Of course he gets the brightest, same size as his ego.” Next to her Dorcas snickers, which is a totally new experience for Marlene.
“Did you just laugh Meadowes?”
“No I didn’t, and remember I’m totally intoxicated.”
“Mhm sure.”
“Well Regulus’ middle name is a competent opponent, being the third on the list of brightest stars, with canopus being the second.”
“I didn’t know you knew so much about stars.”
“I am actually really into astrology, had to be more of.”
“What do you mean?”
Dorcas shrugs and continues to stare at the stars, so Marlene doesn’t ask any further.
“I would really like to be named after a star. It’s so pretty and you can always see yourself up in the sky.”
Dorcas looks at her with a frown.
“Marlene, your name literally means ‘star of the sea’, so not only are you a star, you are one of the sea.”
“Wait really?”
“Yes, you didn’t know?”
“No, that’s nice.”
“It is.”
It’s quiet again, but not a quiet where you get the urge to break it, a quiet that’s comfortable, soft. And it is nice, being named after a star, not an actual star, but a star nonetheless.
“How did you know, that about my name?” Marlene remarks, deciding to break the silence and turn her gaze away from the sky to look at Dorcas again.
“I know a lot about astrology.”
“Yeah, you said, but it’s very specific.” Which it was, Marlene doesn’t know the meanings of her friends names, but maybe that was just the result of being a bad friend.
It is quiet again. A little more stifling than before, but she still didn’t feel the need to fill it.
“Well, I’m cold, I’m going to go back.”
“Alright Meadowes.” Marlene says, watching Dorcas walk towards the door, till she turns.
“And don’t forget the sweater, Mckinnon.” She pulls out her wand and a pen, and in one swift motion she has a green fabric in her hands, which she throws at Marlene.
“I trust you wear that, with your Gryffindor honour and all.” She smirks as she closes the door behind her and Marlene lets out the biggest sigh, Dorcas may even have been able to hear it all the way trough the door.
Fuck, she was actually going to do this?