1975
Fifth Year: Gryffindor Girls Dorm
“Marls, it wasn’t that bad!” Lily called through the bathroom door, and Marlene heard shuffling, and the clacking of shoes moving.
“Yeah, the match could have gone so much worse!” Mary called, and Marlene rolled her eyes. Her friends were just trying to help her, but she wanted to be left alone. Dorcas Meadows had just humiliated her in front of the entire school, and Marlene had cost Gryffindor the match.
“Mary, what do we do?” Lily whispered, and Marlene heard Mary sigh.
“I don’t know, Lily! I was lying, it was horrific.”
“Mary! What if she had heard you?” Lily chastised, and Marlene pictured her emerald eyes narrowing at Mary, her lips pursing as they always did when she disapproved of something.
“I did!” Marlene called back through the door, at her unknowingly noisy friends. She heard a small gasp from Lily, followed by a light smacking sound, surely to Mary’s arm.
“Sorry, Marls, sweetheart,” Mary called, sounding genuinely crestfallen. “But you can’t always play well, and people sometimes expect mistakes to be made! God knows Sirius has mucked up before, and people still love the bastard! No one from the team is angry, James said so! Will you come out, please?”
Marlene didn’t respond. She knew Mary was right, but she just wasn’t ready to face the world again. To have people whispering about her. To see her friends’ sympathetic glances. To face Dorcas Meadowes in the corridors again.
“I’m sure Dorcas didn’t mean to do it,” Lily added, her voice gentle.
Marlene glared, though Lily couldn’t see her.
Of course, she had. She wanted Marlene to fail, wanted to snatch the win out from under her. Marlene respected that, of course. It was just the game. But had she needed to toss that bludger Marlene’s way? The loss would have been bad enough without an embarrassing fall.
Marlene Mckinnon hated losing. And failing. Dorcas Meadows had done nothing but try to make her, ever since she’d joined the Ravenclaw team in fourth year.
“Marlene! If you don’t open the damn door soon, I’ll break it down! You know how hard my boots are, I could, I swear it!” Mary said, stomping her boots for good measure.
Leave it to her friends to go from sweetly comforting her to threatening to break down a door in a matter of mere seconds. Marlene shook her head fondly and opened the door.
“There’s our favorite player!” Lily smiled, and she and Mary moved forward to hug Marlene, enveloping her between them, not caring about her muddy robes.
“Your hair is a mess,” Mary stated, tugging on the strands that had come loose from Marlene’s ponytail. Marlene shoved her, playfully.
“Shut up, Macdonald. I just fell nearly twenty feet!”
“Oh please, it was a mess before you even left for the match, right Lily?”
Lily didn’t respond, but her smirk answered for her. Marlene scowled at them both, before laughing. Mary and Marlene joined in, and soon all three of them were laughing, still siting on the dorm bathroom’s floor.
“Marls, we love you. Even when you lose. Alright?” Mary said, and Marlene smiled again.
“I know. I love you all too.”
Lily beamed, pulling them both in for another hug.
Marlene smiled, arms around her two favorite people. She loved them both so much. She cherished her friends for being so supportive, and able to tease her as well. It kept her in her place when she needed it.
There was no one else she would rather laugh with.
Dorcas Meadows could wait, for now.