Close enough to hope
"I swear, I was this close to catching the snitch" Emmeline groaned as she sat at the Ravenclaw table. "Prewett hadn't even seen it yet," "Don't worry, Em. I think you played really well." Pandora said as she sat across from her. "It's very common not to catch the snitch on the first try."
"You don't get it, I had it, I could practically touch it, but then-"
"Then what?" Pandora asked. "I guess," Emmeline thought for a moment, remembering that split second in the middle of the game, that split second of eye contact with the Gryffindor captain, "I guess I got distracted." Pandora wanted to ask something else, but the great hall fell silent before she could speak.
"Dear students," Dumbledore's voice rang out all through the great hall. "Before we begin dinner, I'd like to congratulate Gryffindor on the first match of the year." The Gryffindor table began to applaud and cheer as the Quidditch team jumped on the table and started waving around. Red and gold fireworks exploded in the sky, or rather the ceiling. A handful of students at the other tables were booing, but you could barely hear them because James Potter yelled "GIVE IT UP FOR OUR CAPTAIN, MARLENE MCKINNON" and raised her hand in the air. The Gryffindors began beating their fists on the table, yelling "MCKINNON, MCKINNON, MCKINNON." Some students at the other tables joined in, but the Ravenclaw table was awfully quiet.
Emmeline watched as Marlene stood there, laughing, cheering, she almost seemed to sparkle. She felt happy for her, she got to win her first game as a captain, simultaneously she felt a sort of envy because that should’ve, no that could’ve been her. Marlene had protected her from that bludger, which she was thankful for of course, but despite that Gryffindor had still won the game.
“Alright everyone” Dumbledore sounded again and the Gryffindor table went silent again, Marlene and James took one last bow before sitting down like the rest of their teammates. “now let’s enjoy this wonderful dinner” Dumbledore put up his hands and on all of the tables were suddenly filled with amazing smelling dishes.
—
"What about this?" Marlene spun around. “I love it!” Lily responded. "Me too, you look stunning." Mary smiled widely as she clapped her hands together. They were preparing for the post-match party. This was not the party Marlene had mentioned to Emmeline earlier; this party was way better. Instead of the dull one straight after the match the professors organized, the students organized this one. It's more dancing, less handshaking, and, most importantly, better music.
Marlene looked in the mirror. “I agree, this is the one.” she turned back around “Now, hair up or down?” Lily and Mary looked at each other, then back at Marlene. “Down,” they said.
When they walked to the stairs leading to the common room they could see it was packed, everyone was wearing red and gold and ABBA was blasting through the room. “THERE SHE IS” James yelled pointing at Marlene. She walked down the stairs and pushed her way through the crowd to where James and the others were standing getting congratulated by everyone while doing so. Sirius pushed a glass of what looked like fire whiskey in her hand and guided her onto a table. “SPEECH SPEECH SPEECH” He and James started yelling, Lily, Mary, Peter, and Remus joined in, and before she knew it the whole coming room was yelling at her to give a speech.
“Okay, okay, calm down everyone” she laughed “I’ll give a speech, but a short one because I want to party” The crowd started cheering. “I would like to thank James for trusting me to be his replacement as captain while he’s off doing boring stuff like studying” Some people started laughing and James Potter took a bow. Then Marlene took the time to name every team member and point out one of their best moments of the game. “And of course last but not least, Fabian Prewett for catching the snitch.” The crowd started clapping as Fabian jumped up the table next to Marlene and waved around at everyone. “Now what do we say we get this party starting?!” Marlene yelled as she put her glass in the air. Remus turned up the volume of the record player again and the crowd started cheering.
“I think it’s really nice what you did,” Peter said. The party had died down a bit and most people had gone to bed. “huh?” Marlene looked up. “Saving Vance from that bludger” he explains “You didn't have to, I mean we could’ve lost the game because of it, but you did it anyway. I think that’s nice” Marlene smiles “Thanks Pete,” she sighs “Some people thought it was stupid, but honestly, I wasn’t even thinking. I mean I know how much damage those bloody things do.” she thought for a moment. “Although I guess it doesn’t make sense I protect one of the rival team members since I hit bludgers to them all the time, I mean it’s the whole point of being a beater” She took a sip of her drink. “I think you shouldn’t worry about it, we won the game and you saved Madam Pomfrey some work, that’s all that matters,” Peter says.
Marlene's mind immediately went to Emmeline's impersonation of the commentator, and she nearly burst out laughing again. Then she remembered how Emmeline's eyes seemed to shine when she laughed and was again flushed by that same warm feeling.
Marlene stood up, “I think I’m gonna get some air, want to join?” Peter shook his head “I think I’m going to bed”
“Well, goodnight then, I’ll see you tomorrow.” She turned around and made her way to the portrait hole.
—
When Marlene walked out onto the clocktower courtyard she saw that there was already a girl sitting there. When she walked closer she noticed it was none other than Emmeline Vance. Marlene quickly looked the other way as she walked by her, hoping that Vance would be busy enough with the book she was reading to not notice her.
“McKinnon?” Marlene stopped and looked around. So much for walking by unnoticed. “Vance, hey I didn’t see you there!”
“I thought it was you”
“What are you doing out this late?” Marlene said walking over to the bench.
“I could ask you the same” Vance smiled as she closed the book she’d been reading. “shouldn’t you be celebrating your victory right now?”
“I was” Marlene gestured to her outfit, which was red with golden details, Gryffindor colors. "I just needed to get some fresh air." "Do you want to sit?" Vance asked, patting the empty spot on the bench next to her. "Sure, why not?" Marlene responded as she sat down. "You still haven't told me what you were doing." Vance responded by holding up her book, "Astronomy homework, I prefer to do it under the stars."
“That’s such a Ravenclaw thing to do” Marlene laughed.
“It really works, you can see the stars in the sky instead of just in the paper, you should try it out sometime”
"Maybe I will," Marlene answered, not telling Vance that she usually just copied Lily's homework, especially for subjects like Astronomy that she didn't find particularly interesting. “Am I not keeping you from doing your homework, then?" She asked. Vance looked up and as the moonlight lit her face Marlene realized her eyes were not fully green like Lily’s but also had some brown in them. She realized she was staring at it and quickly shifted her gaze. “No don't worry, you're fine, I was almost done anyway,” Vance replied as she took her bag from under the bench and began packing her books and quill. “Besides, I'd like to get back to the common room before curfew,”
“If you want, I can walk with you for a bit.” Marlene offered without thinking. Vance looked up from her bag “If you want”
“Yeah of course no problem, it’s on the way to my way anyway” It was not on her way, the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor tower were basically on opposite sides of the castle. She stood up “Shall we?” Vance nodded as she stood up and threw the bag over her shoulder.
It was a past curfew for the 1st to 5th years already so it made sense that the castle and the hallways were almost empty when they entered the school. “Red looks good on you,” Marlene was caught off guard by the compliment “Sorry what did you say?” She asked quickly, not certain if she heard it correctly. “I said that red looks good on you” Vance repeated. “Oh, thank you” Marlene felt her cheeks flush red. “You look good in…” Marlene quickly looked over to check if Vance was indeed wearing her quidditch jumper. “…blue, you look good in blue”
“Thank you” A short silence fell as both girls tried to think of something to say. At last, Marlene broke the silence “So next match, Slytherin vs Hufflepuff, are you gonna watch?”
“Yes, definitely.” Vance responded, happy by the change of subject “It’s way easier to observe the opponent's weak spot from the side when you don’t have to focus on the game itself as well”
“I was thinking the same thing” Marlene nodded. She thought for a second about asking Emmeline to go together but changed her mind last minute. It would be like teaming up with the opponent even if they wouldn’t have to play against each other again this year they would next year. “So have you figured out my weakness yet?” She asked instead. Trying to think of the answer herself.
“You defend your opponents” Vance laughed. “Hey!” Marlene said laughing too as she bumped against her shoulder lightly. “I saved you” The light touch of their shoulders flooded Marlene with warmth again, she had no clue what it was or where it was coming from. It didn’t make sense, that same morning she had told James and Sirius how much she hated the new Ravenclaw captain, but now she had figured out that it was impossible to hate Emmeline Vance. Even if she wanted to hate her she couldn’t hate her, look at her, even after she lost the match she was still so nice to Marlene, how could someone possibly hate someone like that? If only Emmeline wouldn’t have been the captain of the rival team, if only she had been the seeker of the Gryffindor team instead, then this all would’ve been easier, they would’ve met years ago, they could’ve been best friends, or maybe even-
“I have to go this way” Vance woke Marlene out of her thoughts “Gryffindor Tower is that way right?”
“Yeah, that’s right” Marlene shook her head trying to clear her thoughts. “I guess I’ll see you around,” she said walking as she walked into the corridor leading to Gryffindor Tower. “Goodnight McKinnon!” Vance called after her. “Marlene!” She called back as she turned around. The other girl had a confused look on her face. “Call me Marlene!” she explained. “I will, but then you should call me Emmeline” Emmeline smiled, that damn smile.
“Alright, Goodnight Emmeline!”
“Goodnight Marlene!”