Close enough to touch
“Earth to Marlene” James was energetically waving his hand before Marlene’s face. “Do you copy?” Marlene broke her gaze from the Ravenclaw table “I’m sorry what did you say?” she blinked a few times as she looked at the two grinning faces before her. ”She’s back!” Sirius said excitedly.
The great hall was mostly empty, which was not surprising given that it was 8 a.m. on a Saturday. It wasn't any ordinary Saturday, though; today was the first quidditch match of the season, Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw. Marlene had been able to reserve the field for two hours in the morning to get in some last-minute practice. Marlene had to win this game since it was her first as Gryffindor's captain, and she needed to show James that she could do just as well as he did, if not better.
"No need to worry, Marls. I would not have picked you if I didn't believe you would be the most brilliant captain Gryffindor has ever had," James said reassuringly. Sirius and Marlene both raised an eyebrow. "Oh, other from myself, of course," James smiled.
He had resigned as quidditch captain at the end of last season to focus more on his schoolwork, or so he claimed. Marlene suspected it had something to do with his nightly adventures with Remus, Sirius, and Peter, which caused them to fall asleep throughout breakfast and lessons. "Besides it's Vance's first game as captain too. She is probably just as nervous as you," Sirius added. Marlene returned her gaze to the Ravenclaw table, "she doesn't seem nervous to me," she mumbled, "look at how she's ignoring me, she hasn't spoken a word to me all week." Sirius and James followed Marlene's gaze over their shoulders to where Emmeline Vance was laughing with a few of her teammates over some joke one of them had made.
"You two never spoke anyway." Sirius pointed out. "Not the point," Marlene sighed, her focus still fixed on the Ravenclaws. "Marls, we won the last five house cups, I'm sure we'll be fine," James reassured Marlene again. "l hate her," Marlene said as she bit into her toast angrily. "Who do we hate?" Remus said while placing his hands on Sirius' shoulders. "Emmeline Vance," Marlene and James responded simultaneously.
Sirius looked up. "Mornin' Moony,"
"Good morning Pads" Remus replied, putting a kiss on his forehead before sitting next to him.
"And why do we hate Emmeline?" he asked, grabbing a piece of toast. "I think she's quite nice.” "I don't hate her, but Marlene does because she has ignored her since her first year," James explained. "That's not the reason!" Marlene said defensively. "So why do we hate her?" Remus inquired as he opened a jar of peanut butter. "Because... because..." Marlene thought "I'm not sure, I just do!" "That's hardly a good reason, is it?" "I don't care" Marlene crossed her arms. "Come on, there's got to be something." Remus looked at Marlene. “I think it's just that she's joking with her teammates, not giving a fuck that the most important match of my life is in less than 7 hours.”
“Wasn't last year's final match the most important match of your life?" Sirius asked. “I thought that was the match before the finals,” James added. Marlene let out a sigh. “You can't bully me anymore, I'm your captain.”
”You bullied me all the time”
”That's because I’m me and I can do whatever I want”
”That’s not fair”
”Life is not fair, sorry James”
—
“AND POTTER SCORES AGAIN” the commentator's voice sounded all over the quidditch field followed by a “NICE ONE JAMES” from Sirius. They were 30 minutes into the game and Gryffindor was in the lead, but only with 20 points. Marlene heard a quick zoom by her ear, the snitch, quickly after Emmeline Vance flew by and for a second time seemed to slow down as her eyes locked with Marlene’s who felt a little heat rise to her cheeks as Emmeline smiled at her. While this all happened in a split second it was enough for Emmeline to lose sight of the snitch. “Head in the game McKinnon” Marlene thought as she looked around to see a bludger approaching James who was on his way to one of Ravenclaw’s hoops. She leaned forward on her broom reaching James just in time to slam the bludger and redirect it to one of the Ravenclaw chasers. “MCKINNON SAVES POTTER AND HE…” James flew up to the left ring but last second he changed his direction confusing the Ravenclaw keeper just long enough to throw the quaffle at the middle ring. “AND HE SCORES AGAIN!!” James flew back to the middle of the field, high-fiving Marlene on the way.
The game goes on both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw scoring goal after goal when in the corner of her eye Marlene saw a red and a blue dot dive down, the seekers. Both of them had their hands stretched out reaching for the snitch. “THE SNITCH HAS BEEN SPOTTED, I REPEAT, THE SNITCH HAS BEEN SPOTTED!” Marlene flew closer “VANCE IS IN SEEMS TO BE GETTING CLOSER, WAIT NO PREWETT, NO VANCE” the commentator yelled confused. Once again a bludger was approaching this time to the seekers, if no one would redirect it was going to hit Emmeline. Marlene looked around, the Ravenclaw beaters were busy redirecting the other bludger that was trying to hit one of their chasers. Without thinking Marlene dove down and slammed the bludger back into the middle of the field. “MCKINNON JUST SAVED VANCE FROM A WEEK IN THE HOSPITAL WING, WAIT THAT'S THE WRONG TEAM MCKINNON.”
Marlene hung still in the air realizing that she just saved the other team's seeker in a race for the snitch. Sirius flew down next to her “What was that?” he asked sounding both concerned and a bit disappointed. ‘’I don't know Sirius” she answered shortly, flying back up to the middle of the pitch. “WAIT DID I SEE THAT RIGHT” Marlene looked around at the sound of the commentator seeing Fabian Prewett holding his hand in the air in triumph. “PREWETT caught THE SNITCH, THIS MEANS GRYFFINDOR HAS OFFICIALLY WON THE FIRST QUIDDITCH MATCH OF THE YEAR” The crowd starts cheering as red fireworks go off above the field.
As soon as Marlene’s feet hit the grass she felt James’ arms around her and she was lifted into the air “I told you we’d win” he said smiling widely “Best captain that I’ve ever had, even though you’re apparently color blind!” Marlene sighs “Very funny, you can put me back down now.” James put her back down. “You played well too,” Marlene smiles “But I wouldn’t expect otherwise.”
After Marlene congratulated and complimented all of her teammates she headed to changing room but as she pushes aside the flap of the tent she feels a little tap on her shoulder. “Hey?” a soft voice says, Marlene turns around to see Emmeline Vance looking at her. “Oh hi, I’m sorry I-, hi” she stumbles over her words. Why is she stumbling over her words, she just saved this girl from a bludger and beat her in a quidditch match there was no reason for her to be nervous. “I just wanted to say, good game” Emmeline holds out her hand. “Yeah” Marlene looks down at the hand “Good game” she repeats as she grabs Emmeline’s hand and shakes it excitingly. Her hands are surprisingly soft, Marlene catches herself wondering if her hair would be soft too, it looks soft, or what about her lips, they look-. Quickly she pulls back her hand. “I just wanted to thank you for saving me from that bludger earlier.” Emmeline smiles that same smile again. “Yeah, no problem,” Marlene said quickly smiling back. “James just called me color-blind so I guess that’s what I’ll be telling people too” she joked. “Well, even if that is the case I am still thank full that you ‘just saved me from a week in the hospital wing’” Emmeline says the last bit trying to sound like the commentator. Both girls start laughing. “Well, I’m just gonna get changed,” Marlene says pointing to the changing room “I have a party to get to.” Emmeline smiles “Wish I could say the same thing, well I’ll see you around” She turns on her heel and runs back to her team. “SEE YA!” Marlene yells before she disappears into the changing room.