“ Is it supposed to look like this? ”
“Are you really asking me, Mary?” Marlene questioned with a frown.
“Yes!” Mary whispered, “I asked if you wanted to work with me because I thought you were good at potions!”
The blonde looked dumbfounded, “I’m terrible at potions.”
“But- but you and James always make perfect potions,” Mary looked confused, her brows were furrowed and her forehead was shiny from sweat.
Marlene scoffed and crossed her arms, slouching in her seat, “He’s practically top of the class, Mary. That’s why I always work with him.”
“I thought he was terrible at potions?”
Marlene's eyes widened, “His dad’s a potioneer, Mary. It’s basically in his blood to be good at potions.”
Mary sighed, looking defeated, “Bloody hell… what are we supposed to do?”
Marlene stood up and put a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder, “I think we have to give up.”
“No,” Mary hissed, pushing away Marlene's hand, “It’s fucking boiling in here, I can’t think. I wish Lily was here.”
“Your girlfriend's sick. Accept it. But- I mean… I could sneak over to Remus’ cauldron and see what it looks like?” Marlene suggested with a shrug.
The brunette looked thoughtful while she stared down into their cauldron filled with bright orange goo. After a few seconds, she looked at her friend with a determined expression, “Sure. But be quick about it”
Not even a minute later the blonde was back with an unsure smile, “I think we might’ve messed up… quite badly.”
Mary’s eyes widened, “ How badly?”
“Mmm, well- Our potion is an orange slime, yeah?” Marlene said with a fake cheery voice, “Remus’ is like… basically a yellow liquid.”
“What?!”
“Shh,shhh,” Marlene hushed her friend, “It’s fine! We can fix it.”
“How?” Mary looked murderous.
The blonde girl put her hands on her hips and stared angrily at the potion, “We just need to figure out where we messed up! Let’s look at the instructions.”
“Yeah, fine, whatever,” Mary sighed, rubbing her hand on her brows, “Put up your hair and pass me the book.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” Marlene did as she was told and passed the potions book to the frustrated witch.
“Thank yo-” Mary stopped talking, and a confused expression took over her face, “Marlene?”
“Hm?”
“You know we’re doing the elixir to induce euphoria, right?”
The taller girl scoffed, “Of course, I’m not stupid.”
The shorter girl fake snorted, “Yeah, of course. But… why is the book showing the recipe for Erumpent potion?”
“What?” Marlene choked.
Mary only raised her brows in question.
“I- I promise I didn’t open the book to that page!” the blonde stuttered, “I knew we were doing the euphoria elixir.”
Mary sighed and slumped down onto her chair, “Fucking shit. The page must’ve turned by itself.”
“By itself?”
“Yes! By itself!” Mary snapped, “Or one of us accidentally pushed it or the wind, or- or- I don’t know!”
“But… what was the last step we did before we accidentally started following the wrong recipe?”
Mary rubbed her hands over her face, “I don’t know, let’s check.”
“Okay!” Marlene exclaimed happily, “We put in the Shrivelfig, and the Porcupine quills, did you stir four times anti-clockwise?”
“Yeah,” Mary sighed, fanning herself with her hands.
“Great! And then… did you add the Peppermint sprig?”
“Mhmm,”
“And then the Sopophorous beans?”
“Yep.”
“And the wormwood?”
“Yes.”
“Did you stir six times anti-clockwise after?”
Mary closed her eyes, “No.”
“No?” Marlene blew up her cheeks, “Well, shit.”
“After the wormwood, you told me to stir ten times clockwise , and then let it rest for thirty minutes.”
“Oh…” Marlene stood awkwardly still, just staring at the book, “Well, I don’t think we can fix it.”
“Yeah, no. Obviously, Marlene,” Mary sighed, “It’s fine. Give me to book. Could you start cleaning up?”
Marlene did as asked of her and started cleaning up on their workbench, whistling the melody she’d had stuck in her head all day, only being interrupted when Mary tapped her on her shoulder.
“Marlene?”
“Hm?”
“Not only did we follow the wrong recipe at the end,” Mary smiled sweetly, “But you also read it wrong.”
“No, I didn’t!”
“You did!”
“No!”
“Yuh uh!”
“No-”
“Ladies!” Professor Slughorn interrupted their bickering, “I see that your potion has… turned out slightly wrong.”
Marlene sighed and put her face in her hands, “We can’t fix it.”
“No, it looks like it’s beyond restoring,” the professor agreed, taking their wooded ladle and stirring the slime.
“We accidentally followed the wrong recipe for the last steps,” Mary mumbled, feeling the embarrassment heat her cheeks.
“That is very common. Sometimes I need to open the window so the students won’t get affected by the vapours. Many students have been the victims of the wind, you will get another chance to prove you can do the potion at a different time. Just pay closer attention to which recipe you’re following next time,” Professor Slughorn smiled awkwardly before trudging away.
The pleasant smile Mary had painted on her face for the professor quickly fell off before she turned to her friend. “You said to stir it clockwise but the erumpent recipe said anti -clockwise, and also to let it rest for twenty minutes when it says thirty minutes!”
“Well, it’s not my fault!” Marlene defended herself.
“It is!” Mary argued, “You need to wear your glasses, Marlene! This isn’t even the first time this happened.”
“I will never, ever, put those horrible monsters on my face! And they don’t even work!”
“What do you mean they don’t work?”
Marlene whined and stomped her foot on the floor, it reminded Mary of her baby cousin, “When I don’t wear my glasses everything is blurry, but when I wear them the words still blur together! They only help with making pictures and stuff clear.”
“I- Marlene,” Mary mumbled, trying and failing to keep the smile off her face, “Are you… maybe dyslexic?”
“What’s that?” Marlene frowned.
“You don’t know what dyslexia is?”
“No?”
“Gods, no wonder you can’t read,” Mary scoffed.
“Hey!” Marlene looked offended, “I can read. I just can’t see very well.”
“I-” Mary let out a disbelieving laugh, “I can’t believe you’ve lived for sixteen years and never wondered if you might be dyslexic!”
“What is it?” Marlene whined.
“What? Don’t wizards know what it is?”
“ I don’t know what it is,” Marlene corrected.
Mary shook her head and turned around, “Oi! Dorcas!”
The Slytherin turned her head from where she’d been scribbling something on a piece of paper on the other side of the room, “What?”
“Please don’t yell across the classroom!” Slughorn said.
Mary and Marlene quickly made their way across the classroom to the Slytherin.
“Hello, love,” Dorcas said warmly, grabbing Marlene's hand and pulling her onto her lap.
“ Hi, ” the girl mumbled back.
“Dorcas, you’re half-blood, right?” Mary asked.
“Mhm,”
“Do you know what dyslexia is?” Mary questioned.
“Of course, my dad and girlfriend are both dyslexic,” Dorcas answered with a shrug.
Marlene gasped and stood up, “No! I’m not!”
“Darling, you may not have gotten it checked out, but I think it’s pretty obvious. You can’t read,” Dorcas said with a frown.
“I can read,” Marlene argued, “I just can’t see very well.”
“There’s nothing wrong with it,” Mary said, “No need to get so defensive.”
“Hey,” Dorcas said, grabbing hold of her girlfriend's hand softly, “We can go to Pomfrey after class, see if there’s a way to check. I don’t really think it’s a thing in the wizarding world, though.”
Marlene pouted and huffed out a breath, “Fine. But we’ve got to throw away our slime potion first.”
"No," Mary whined, "It's our child now, Marlene. We're married, and now you want to throw away our child?"
Marlene looked at her friend with a deadpan expression, "I want a divorce, and I'm applying for sole custody, for you."