Scar Tissue

It took approximately fifteen seconds for them to lose Evan in the crowd. Why the fuck did he always do that? Ever since high school he had this uncanny ability to simply vanish into thin air. He swore that it was never on purpose, but none of them believed him. At this point, it happened so often that none of them were fazed; the crowd would probably spit him back out at some point.

Besides, Dorcas was a bit preoccupied by the wall of people she was trying to elbow her way through. None of them had wanted to go early, or even on time, and so they had arrived towards the tail-end of the set. They had been gunning towards making it mid-performance, but they hadn’t taken into account that driving in LA traffic was probably slower than walking. She didn’t even want to think about how that was her reality now. Dorcas was beginning to miss what she had left behind. 

The Whiskey a Go Go was dark and stuffy and teaming with people. In front of her, Barty waved towards someone. Dorcas could guess who it was. They made their way towards the wall in the back left-hand corner. As she got closer, she spotted a girl with big doe eyes standing next to a man with black curly hair and a wolfish smile. 

“Sirius.” a voice behind her said. Regulus.

“Play nice.” Pandora warned calmly.

“I was always going to.” the other boy gritted out as if he was tired of repeating the sentiment over and over again.

“I wasn’t talking about you.” 

Dorcas turned around to see her light blue eyes staring directly at her. 

“I can’t make any promises.” She smiled innocently.

Pandora looked at her reproachfully, but when she made eye contact with the other boy, she saw a hint of silent gratitude. He quickly turned to look away as they approached Sirius and the other girl.

Dorcas was too preoccupied by the freakishly calm expression that had settled itself on Regulus’ face upon seeing his older brother for the first time in six years to remember that she, too, had to introduce herself. So when Sirius jumped up from his spot on the wall and nodded his head in greeting, Dorcas only remembered a few seconds later that she should probably smile back. If she cared more about the other boy, she would have felt bad, about this or about the fact that Sirius was acting as if he had just bumped into some casual acquaintances at a concert, not his abandoned brother and his friends. Fortunately for her and her ever-depleting source of sympathy, she didn’t find it in herself to care too much. 

She didn’t want to be overdramatic or anything, but she had to say that she was disappointed by the fact that he didn’t break down crying immediately at the sight of Regulus. 

Instead, she had to watch in pain as the two brothers awkwardly tried to figure out the proper way of greeting each other after six years of estrangement. It was creepy how similar they looked. Their stormy grey eyes were the same down to the exact shade, as were their angular bone structure and porcelain skin. 

“God you guys could be twins.”

 The girl next to Sirius voiced Dorcas’ thoughts aloud - Mary Macdonald, she was beginning to recognise from the photos - another model like Sirius. She was still leaning against the wall, shouting to be heard over the loud music in a sleek black lacey dress and flawless eyeliner.

“Aren’t there more of you?” Sirius looked around, finally giving up on his and Regulus’ picturesque reunion. 

“Evan’s somewhere around.” Dorcas replied casually. 

She wasn’t looking on stage, but she could hear the twang of the guitars coming to the end of the song. She was almost deafened by the sound of cheering and clapping that erupted around them. 

One day, that would be for them. They were already on the way up - their band just got moved to LA by their record label. They already had connections, albeit awkwardly tenuous ones. 

“God, it’s been six years since we last performed here and Marlene’s eyeliner hasn’t gotten any better…”

“One more word from you James and I will shove that drumstick right up your butt.”

“If you wanted to put something up his ass you should’ve just said so…”

Dorcas turned towards the voices coming from the stage as laughter went through the audience. Gryffindor Tower was known for their casual act in concerts. She looked up to see four figures in various degrees of slouching, some drinking water and others, like the lead singer, fully just sitting on the floor at the front of the stage. 

Almost as quickly as they had gone to laughing and talking, they moved straight back into a song. Dorcas knew they had been playing since they were seventeen and were comfortable on stage by this point, but she never really registered it until she saw them with her own two eyes. They looked like four sets of explosions. 

On top of a small square platform in the middle of the stage, James Potter sat hitting his drums with inhuman speed, eyes closed behind his glasses in concentration. The paparazzi loved him. Every Monday photographs came printed from the previous weekend with him jumping from a balcony, partying with models or involved in some drug scandal or other. He never faced any repercussions, too rich or too charming for anyone to hold anything against him. 

To his left was the band’s bassist, Remus Lupin. Unlike the other guitarist, he rarely moved around on stage. He just stared down at his bass, nodding his head and tapping his foot in time with the music. He was more of an enigma. Unlike James who would laugh off any scandal to the press, Remus just remained silent, choosing instead to smirk and walk away. Dorcas rarely saw him in the papers often, but when she did it was always jaw-dropping. 

On the other side of the stage Lily Evans danced around with her guitar, a permanent smile on her face. She seemed to float above everything, leaning into the mic to say sarcastic comments or scathing remarks. Her red hair was fluorescent in the lighting, always adorned with braids of some kind or other. Dorcas actually quite liked Lily, from what she knew of her - she always seemed ready to obliterate anyone with her words. 

And finally, twirling around the stage in a slouchy purple crochet dress transparent enough that you could see her black underwear was Marlene Mckinnon. Dorcas never knew exactly what to make of her. The press had it all quite clear. She was always in the papers because, whatever balcony James was jumping from, whatever models he was partying with and whatever drug scandal he was in, she was right there with him. Dorcas remembered the first time she ever saw her on MTV, almost a year since they had first started gaining traction. Her first thought was that she looked like a car wreck in action. Her black curls were messy, her makeup was smudged and her clothes were almost all ripped, one strap falling off her shoulder. But she remembered thinking she was fascinating to look at anyway. She still thought that as saw her on stage, singing and dancing with so much energy it was infectious.

The public adored them all. They were a tight little unit along with Mary, Sirius and their producer, Peter Pettigrew. They were always out with each other. Lily, Mary and Marlene in particular were almost inseparable. A while back, Dorcas was treated to pictures of dancing on tables in every magazine outlet for weeks. She tried to ignore the urge to roll her eyes whenever she thought about having to hang out with Sirius and his friends; they were talented and most importantly famous. They needed them. 

Sirius’ voice over the music pushed her out of her thoughts.

“This is the last song. We’ll wait until it’s over and then we’ll make our way backstage.” Sirius informed them.

She looked back towards the stage as the concert started coming to an end. The orange and red lights alternated in flashes, all of the instruments holding their last note as long as they could with their lead singer grinning in the centre of the stage. 

They thanked their audience through the loud uproar of cheers and claps and started putting their instruments down, making their way offstage. 

From the crowd, Dorcas started hearing voices chanting. She couldn’t make out what it said. Looking at her friends around her, she saw that they couldn’t either. Next to her, Sirius’ head snapped up towards Mary in alarm.

Eventually, she started to make out what the crowd was saying. 

“Under the Bridge! Under the Bridge!” 

By this point, the noise of the crowd was almost deafening. On stage, the members looked at each other warily. Something was going on, Dorcas just didn’t know what. Slowly, Marlene started making her way back to the centre of the stage. As if taking that as a cue, the others walked back towards their instruments as the audience erupted into screaming cheers. 

“Fuck me…” a voice let out. Dorcas turned her head to see Mary’s eyes transfixed almost in horror at the stage. 

Like most people, the first GT song she had heard was Give it Away - it had blown a hole through the music industry and lifted them into stardom almost overnight - but the first song she really connected to was Under the Bridge. 

Even now, the opening notes from the guitar rippled through the room sunk her into a sad and troubled mood. She had always wanted to do that; set so strong a feeling with only a few notes. 

From the stage, she saw Marlene take a deep breath, looking forward with a look of determination in her eyes. 

“Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a partner

Sometimes I feel like my only friend

Is the city I live in, the city of angels

Lonely as I am, together we cry…”

Even from this distance, Dorcas could feel how the atmosphere had subtly changed. Remus was looking downwards, jaw set. James and Lily kept taking small concerned glances at Marlene. None of this was probably evident to the audience, nor would it have been to Dorcas if it weren’t for the way Sirius and Mary had tensed up.

“I’ll go get the bucket.” 

“You sure?”

“Yeah…” Sirius smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes, “I don’t really want to listen to this anyway.”

Mary nodded and Sirius moved off into the crowd. When the other girl turned around, she was met with four sets of eyes looking at her in silent question. 

“It’s a long story.”

None of them stopped looking at her.

“Marls can’t sing this song without throwing up after.”

A small knot formed in Dorcas’ chest. Looking back at the girl in question, no wonder she looked so concentrated. She looked almost - nauseous. James hit the hi-hat like an impending clock over Lily’s guitar note. Marlene blinked rapidly and took another breath. 

“I don’t ever wanna feel like I did that day…” 

Dorcas felt like she almost had to look away. She’d always understood the hurt behind the lyrics, but that was nothing compared to what she was seeing now. It was subtle, but it was loud enough to Dorcas to make her feel uncomfortable. She felt like she shouldn’t be watching. 

“Take me to the place I love, take me all the way…”

The rest of the band were in similar states. The fire that they were playing with before had gone out, and they all looked like they were just going through the movements. 

“At least I have her love, the city, she loves me

Lonely as I am, together we cry…”

Marlene’s voice was dripping with emotion. Dorcas could almost feel it. 

“Take me to the place I love, take me all the way

Yeah, yeah, yeah

Love me, I say, yeah yeah…”

The crowd seemed to pick up at this point. Dorcas herself couldn’t look away from the way Marlene seemed to be almost crumbling on stage, holding the microphone in both hands. A car crash.

“Under the bridge downtown” came the voices from the other band members, like some sort of doomed choir.

“Is where I drew some blood…”

“Under the bridge downtown”

“I could not get enough…”

“Under the bridge downtown”

Marlene closed her eyes and kept them shut with force.

“Forgot about my love…”

“Under the bridge downtown”

“I gave my life away”

Marlene stood in the centre of the stage as a lone voice against the wall of voices behind her. She still hadn’t opened her eyes. 

As the last notes faded away, the crowd erupted into cheers. Dorcas could almost feel the mechanical effort with which Marlene opened her eyes and smiled back. She could see the look of desperation in her eyes. 

“Come on. Let’s go.” Mary said quickly before turning around and moving with speed. 

Barty had to push Dorcas to get her to start moving towards the back wall where the other girl was taking them. Her mind was still on the performance that she had just witnessed. Mary led them towards a metal door with two bulky security guards standing on either side. As they made their way, Dorcas could hear whispers of “Is that Mary Macdonald?” and muffled giggles coming from all around them. Mary seemed so grounded, Dorcas didn’t know how hearing that wherever she went didn’t go to her head.

“Is that all of you?”

“No, Evan’s still-”

“I’m here.” came a familiar voice from behind them

If she ever got close to him before her anger subsided, Dorcas swore that she was going to strangle Evan with her bare hands. He smiled back at her, a mischievous glint in his green eyes. 

“Well, I guess that is everyone.” Mary smirked.

Now that they were all together, the security guards eyed them suspiciously before letting them through. The corridor they were led into was painted black and only dimly lit by green emergency exit signs. 

“One of these days we should get you some sort of tracker installed.” Dorcas mused, turning her head backwards to look at Evan.

“Oh! Or one of those little kiddie backpacks with the leash on them!” Barty’s face lit up. Evan shoved him and tried to duck his head in order to hide the smile that was forming on his lips. 

“Remember what happened last time,” Pandora added, ominously. 

Evan put his hands in his face in embarrassment, “I still can’t believe you did that, Reg…”

Dorcas snorted at the memory. Regulus convinced the DJ at this party to put Pandora on the mic. Once she was on it, she made an announcement about Evan - the way people did when they lost children at supermarkets - asking that if anyone found him they should take him to the booth and just pleading for his safe return. It took no less than two minutes for Evan to be returned (safely, as Pandora had asked) back to them. 

They turned a left, approaching a door with a big star plastered on it with glittery gold paint. 

“This is it.” Mary turned to smile at them, looking at them all, clearly trying to scan their faces for any hint of admiration or nerves.

The warning Pandora had given her before came back to her mind. She knew she should play nice. This was a big opportunity for them as a band, and the record label had gone out on a limb for them - well, ‘gone out on a limb’ was a nicer phrase for it. As soon as they had realised Regulus’ connection with Gryffindor Tower, they had done all they could to ship them out to LA. Still, if all went well tonight they would be able to use the band’s large recording studio; they had recently bought one with Sirius’ vast inheritance from his uncle, which they rented out to up-and-coming bands for little to no money.

But it was hard to forget the moments Dorcas had cradled Regulus while he tried not to cry over his brother. It was hard for her to forget the sound of his choked sobs while he did his very best not to break down. It was hard for her to forget the way his hopeful eyes dulled the moment he realised Sirius was never going to pick up the phone. He gave him the number of his new place in LA to keep in touch, and for what? To ignore his calls? To leave Regulus for months without news from his brother? To find out that he wasn’t dead in a ditch through the front cover of a magazine? Dorcas couldn’t forget the way his hands shook when he picked up the telephone, years later, to a tepid apology from Sirius. Every time she remembered the scene it made her blood boil. She knew protection was the last thing Regulus would accept, but at some points she just wanted to hide him away and not force him to go through this just to further their career as a band.

But in the end, it had been Regulus who had insisted on going tonight (all of them willing to take a stand and just stay home in their shitty rental flat) so she guessed he wasn’t too shaken up about the whole thing. Despite everything, Regulus did have a reason to go: Peter Pettigrew. When Gryffindor Tower had first risen to fame, and their band members were all that anyone could talk about, Regulus had never really seemed fazed. He rolled his eyes whenever the conversation came up of who the hottest was or who they would date if they ever met in real life - a conversation they had embarrassingly often at the age of sixteen. Regulus never cared about any of the actual members of the band, but he sure put Peter Pettigrew’s producing skills on some sort of pedestal only rivalled by the likes of God. At one point, Evan joked that he had some sort of shrine built up to him in their dorm room and to this day Pandora and her never knew if he was joking or not.

“Cool.” Dorcas replied, not wanting to give the other girl the satisfaction of seeing them nervous.

Mary just smiled, like they didn’t really know what they were getting themselves into, and swung the door open.

Dorcas registered two things as soon as she entered the room: the sheer number of voices talking over each other, and the smell of smoke. The stage room itself was small. The walls were painted light red and the plants that sat on every available tabletop or corner were slightly old and wilted. Directly opposite the doorway was a dressing table, with a light-up mirror and a small chair in which Peter Pettigrew was sitting in sideways, saying something Dorcas couldn’t quite make out to James Potter. James, the first to realise that someone had entered, looked up at them like a deer caught in headlights. He was in a mild state of undress with only a Dolly Parton t-shirt and blue and white striped boxers. He looked in confusion towards Sirius, who was sitting on the green velour couch in the right-hand corner of the room, perched next to a tired and sprawled out Remus Lupin. Towards her left, Lily Evans was muttering something about the benefits of yoga to a figure next to a small coffee table. She moved away to reveal a mess of black curls and tanned skin. Marlene Mckinnon leant down towards the table and snorted a line.

Sirius jumped up from the couch towards them while the others made their way towards the doorway more slowly.

“Macdonald!” came a shriek from Dorcas’ left. Marlene’s face lit up as she bounded towards the other girl, tackling her into a bear hug so forcefully that it made her topple over onto the couch behind her.

“I missed you so much that I started talking to the empty space in our house and pretended you were there.” Marlene looked up from their tangled mess on the couch

Mary’s eyes widened, “Oh my god I did that too! You know, at one point, the empty space started talking back and I thought you had finally made that potion recipe you bought last month and projected your essence to Milan or something.”

Dorcas could hear Lily snorting, as if she knew what was about to come next.

“That’s exactly what I did! I put a fuck ton of white rum and Mojito mix in a bucket and I put some lavender essence to make it smell like you.”

“Really?” Marlene just nodded in response like a proud child, “That’s so sweet I feel like that captures me so well. But I don’t think it worked. It turned out that the voice speaking back was the person in the room next to me. Thin walls.”

“Fuck!” A voice interrupted them - Peter. He fished out a five dollar bill and passed it to Remus who smirked at him smugly. 

“I really don’t know why you took that bet.” Lily chimed in.

“I like to believe there’s some magic in this world. Is that so wrong?” he held up his hands in defence, “Besides, we drank so much wine that night I think you could have convinced me to do anything.”

James and Lily laughed loudly in response.

“Guys. You’re doing it again.” Sirius scolded.

James blinked harshly and then looked towards Dorcas and the rest of her friends.

“Sorry, we get carried away sometimes.” he held a hand out to Regulus, “I’m James Potter.”

“I know.” Regulus replied coolly. James’ smile faltered a bit, before Pandora moved forward to take his hand, which the other boy happily accepted.

“I’m Pandora.” 

“Barty.”

Evan just stayed quiet, though that wasn’t a particular shock to Dorcas. He didn’t really do anything unless he absolutely wanted to.

“I’m Dorcas Meadowes.”

Having moved to stand next to James, Marlene eyed her with unfazed curiosity, “We should start heading towards Skeeter’s if we want to make the party.”

Dorcas just smiled back, refusing to make a show of being flustered or embarrassed at such an obvious bid to kick them out.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sirius turn to them, “Do you guys want to come? We're only going to be there for like half an hour and then we can all go out to dinner or something?”

Before Regulus or any of them could open their mouths to protest, Sirius added, “Please.” with pleading eyes.

She saw a flicker of annoyance in Marlene’s dark brown eyes, before she turned around lazily and made her way back to the table she was sitting at. Dorcas’ smile became more genuine.

“...fine.” Regulus finally conceded.

“Who’s gonna break the news to Sirius that Regulus is only saying yes in order to spend more time with Pettigrew?” Barty whispered into Dorcas’ ear. The other girl snickered. 

“Well, I guess we’re all ready to go, right?” James looked around to all of them.

“You’re still in your boxers.” Evan pointed out in a monotone voice. 

James looked down like he had just realised, and then looked back up with a conspiratorial smile, “Something tells me Rita won’t mind.”

There were too many of them to fit in one car, so they had to split off into two. James, Barty, Pandora, Evan and Remus went in Marlene’s car, a gorgeous sky-blue convertible Cadillac that Dorcas was insanely jealous of. Regulus, Sirius, Lily, Peter and Dorcas went in Mary’s vintage jeep. It was dark out and, although conversation was stilted at first, it eventually picked up. Dorcas quite liked others, except maybe Sirius, who she didn't really think she’d ever be able to like properly. Bustling LA streets turned into quiet, palm-lined avenues that winded up the Hollywood hills. 

When they pulled up to the driveway, the sight of the house in front of them made her hold her breath. The driveway opened up into a four-storey seventies-esque house, with geometric lines and rectangular strips of window pane that revealed glimpses of the inside of the house. Bright pink flowers climbed up the side of the brick wall. People were milling in and out of the bright turquoise doors wearing long cocktail dresses. Dorcas suddenly realised how underdressed they were. 

Behind them, Marlene hopped out from the driver’s seat of her car and smiled at the valet guy with a mischievous glint in her eye, “We’ll just leave the cars here - we’re not staying long.”

When they gathered beside the front door, it was clear how undressed they really were. Next to them passed men in three-piece suits and women in long ball gowns with gloves and furs. Dorcas, with her white tank top and baggy jeans, stuck out like a sore thumb. In fact, they all did - like angsty teenagers at a family function. 

Sirius turned to them, “You guys can stay here. We’ll just be a sec.”

“What are you guys gonna do?” Evan asked.

Lily grinned, her green eyes glinting a little maniacally in the lamplight, “Rita put a lovely article in the news the other day. We’ve just come to express our gratitude.”

Dorcas looked at all of them suspiciously, “Well, I’m not staying here so either we come with you or we leave.” 

“What a shame, we were hoping you’d stay longer...” Marlene pouted with feigned upset, Sirius’ eyes next to her going wide.

Remus shoved her lightly before he smiled at the rest of them, “Sure you can come, but don’t ruin anything. What we’ve planned is a delicate operation.”

“You guys can’t go by yourselves -, you’ll have to pair up with each of us.” Peter started, already looking at all of them and muttering logistics, “Let’s find a room inside and then we can regroup there, instead of hovering beside the door.” 

“There’s an open window over here.” Pandora informed them all, turning back around the corner of the building.

“Perfect.”

Dorcas’ four years of gymnastics were finally useful for something, as she clambered in through the window with as much grace as she could muster. They had climbed into a guest bedroom with a large double bed and various modern, plastic furniture. 

“What a fucking weirdo.” Barty commented as he made his way in. Dorcas couldn’t help but agree. The room was grand, but sterile, too sleek for her tastes.

After everyone had climbed in, they all spread about the room, on the bed, on furniture and sprawled over the floor. 

Marlene, who was on the side of the bed nearest to the bedside table.

She turned around with a smile, “A pink fluffy diary.” 

“Hmmmm… a pack of tissues.” Sirius said thoughtfully.

“Socks.”

“You can’t say socks every fucking time Remus it ruins the game.” 

“I don’t care, I’m almost always right.”

“Incense.” “An incense holder.” Mary and Lily let out in rapid succession, and then grinned at each other babbling something incoherent about them being geniuses. 

“Human teeth.” Peter declared decisively. And then, “What? One day I’ll be right.” 

After whatever cult ritual that was, Marlene opened the bedside drawer next to her to reveal eye drops, cotton disks, and a pack of tissues. She was met with a mixture of disappointed sighs.

“That’s just not normal.” she muttered to Sirius, who just beamed at her in response. 

“Okay, now that that’s out of the way.” Peter turned around towards all of them, “Which one of you would you say is the fastest runner?”

“Me.” Dorcas piped up immediately with a smug smile. She knew she was the fastest, no matter how many times the others insisted on racing her to prove it. 

“Great. You’ll go with Marlene.”

Dorcas would rather suffocate herself with a pillow, if she was honest.

“Wait I-”

“Pandora will go with Lily, because she seems like she’d be good at sneaking around and making sure the passage is clear. Barty is with Mary and Sirius, who will do the distracting - you seem like you’d be good at doing that.” Peter nodded at Barty, who smirked in return like he’d just been given a compliment, “James will go with Regulus to install the speakers. Evan will help Remus and I set up the audio equipment in the car and Dorcas and Marlene will do the securing to make sure the speakers are almost impossible to move.”

Dorcas looked at Marlene, who was looking back at her with an annoyed glare. 

“What exactly are we doing? It doesn’t seem like we’re here on invite.” Regulus drawled.

“We’re just righting some wrongs.” Sirius smiled back at him, and that was that. 

Dorcas and Marlene were last in the timings - going behind everyone else and securing the speakers - and so they were left in the room by Peter with the instructions to leave in ten minutes and follow the route on the detailed floor plans he gave them, which Dorcas decided not to ask too much about. 

From her boots, Marlene pulled out masking tape, wires and string. 

“We basically have to make it as difficult as possible for anyone to try and take the speakers off the walls. We can use the tape and wires and stuff and we can tie the string into difficult knots.”

Dorcas just nodded, sitting herself on the bed next to Marlene and her pile of objects.

“This has all been carefully planned, so don’t screw it up.” she added

“Really?” Dorcas turned to look at her, eyes defiant, “For how long?”

Marlene’s dark brown eyes faltered a bit, “...three days. But that’s not the point.”

Dorcas had already turned back by the time she finished her sentence, refusing to show her how worked up she was getting. She didn’t know what the other girl’s issue was and what she felt gave her the right to be such a baby. It annoyed Dorcas more than she’d like to admit. 

Marlene got up from the bed, sighing and looking at Dorcas when she didn’t do the same.

“It’s almost been ten minutes.” she pointed out in a superior way that annoyed Dorcas. 

“Yeah but it hasn’t quite yet, has it?” Dorcas smiled, staying right where she was. Marlene just rolled her eyes and started collecting her stuff. 

Without saying anything, the other girl looked up at the clock and walked out the door. Dorcas did an eye roll of her own, before quickly following after.

Marlene lifted her head very slightly when Dorcas came up beside her. “Wow, you followed me like a nice little lap dog.”

On the other side of the double doors was a massive corridor with a deep blue carpet and concrete walls. Their path was lit with orange-hued lights in lanterns above them. 

“Well I’m not going to be the one to mess up the plans just because you decided to walk out by yourself like some fucking Mission Impossible wannabe.” Dorcas retorted.

Marlene scoffed, “You were being slow.”

“No, I was being on time. There’s a difference.”

“If you fucking ruin this…” the girl muttered underneath her breath.

“God, stop acting like this is life or death. It’s a fucking prank.”

Marlene looked at her disbelievingly, “You should have just stayed in the car.”

Dorcas huffed, “What the fuck is your problem?”

“No, no problem at all.” Marlene looked up at Dorcas innocently, “I just wish the lapdog knew their fucking place.”

Dorcas was finding it hard to keep her temper. It was hard to merge the two Marlenes she had seen tonight: the one onstage and the one offstage. 

They arrived to the first room on the plans. Marlene pushed it open silently, pulling out the supplies. 

“You act as lookout.”

“What? No way.”

Marlene just scowled at her. Dorcas made a grab for the string but the other girl pulled away at the last minute.

“Stop swiping at me like a fucking child.”

“You’re the one who started it!” 

Dorcas was fucking sick of it. She didn’t feel bad for the vulnerable Marlene she had seen on stage tonight. The Marlene that had shown up the past hour was a snooty little asshole with an ego the size of California. 

“Enough.” she said, calmly, “You’re going to give me the string because you don’t want to ruin the plan and you know that the most efficient way to get this done is for us to work together, okay? So stop being a little baby and give me the string.”

That seemed to shut Marlene up. The other girl handed her the string mutely and turned around to wrap a web of tape in front of the speaker. Without saying another word to each other, they worked on each of the speakers and absolutely trashed this poor woman’s house.

They were working on the last one when Dorcas spoke up again.

“Why the sudden need to wreck this woman’s eardrums?”

Marlene glared at her, before sighing and turning back to her work, “She wrote a review about us in the paper. She put something in it about Remus. About his scars. It was out of line.”

“Well, fuck her then.” Dorcas deadpanned. And she meant it. Marlene looked over at her with minute surprise, before rearranging her face to once again display vague irritation. 

They were halfway through their work, when a deafening blast of guitar shreds, drums and cymbals started coming from the speaker. Over it, completely out of time and completely out of tune, a cheery voice sang “Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!” over and over again. 

Dorcas stared over at Marlene in disbelief. 

“For fuck’s sake! That’s what happens when you’re too slow! We were supposed to be out by now!” she glared at Dorcas accusingly.

“Is that your voice?” The other girl was trying hard to contain her laughter.

A loud shriek came from the other side of the room. A woman with platinum blonde hair twirled up into two unflattering buns started marching over towards them.

“Fuck!” 

Marlene grabbed Dorcas’ hand and made a dash for the doorway behind them, dropping all their supplies and just running. When they swung the doors open, they were greeted by a hundred or so confused faces staring back at them, covering their ears. Next to her, she could hear Marlene giggling.

“That’s what you get, suckers!” she shouted as they ran through the bodies of people in the huge living room, making their way towards the front doors. Dorcas found herself helplessly laughing, caught up in the adrenaline of the moment. The music was still playing on full blast. She turned around to see the blonde woman following them and gaining speed.

In a desperate plea to bide time, Dorcas grabbed an open bottle of champagne from a silver platter nearby that a waiter was holding and emptied it out onto the floor behind them. It was the only thing she could think of. The other woman had to stop and walk slower so as to not slip. When she looked forward again, she caught Marlene’s eye who was just grinning at her.

“Do you drive?” Marlene shouted in her ear.

“Yeah!” 

“Here!” Marlene tossed her a set of car keys as they burst through the front doors. 

“Get them!” a voice screeched behind them. 

Dorcas didn’t dare to look back, just swinging herself over the car door of the Cadillac and sticking the keys into the ignition. In front of her, there was no sign of the others. They must have left before. Dorcas slammed on the gas and the car roared to life.

“Fuck you!” Marlene yelled gleefully beside her. She had stood up on the passenger seat of the convertible, wind rushing through her hair, pushing it in every direction. She was throwing up both middle fingers behind her. “That’s what you get for fucking with Remus! And that’s what you get for calling me dramatic, you little shit!”

She said the last part as they turned around the corner of Rita Skeeter’s driveway. Marlene turned around and sat down on the cool leather seat, a little bit out of breath. Behind her, the hills sloped down into the city of LA, a stretched grid of lights that looked like fireflies. It seemed endless. The night sky behind her made Marlene’s brown eyes glisten, breeze still blowing through her hair. When she smiled, two dimples formed on her tanned skin. 

The silence that followed was broken by Marlene breaking down into laughter. 

“Did you see her face when you poured that drink?” she looked over at Dorcas with eyes wide.

“It…went… red.” Dorcas got out in between laughs. Marlene just laughed even harder. Eventually, they calmed down a little bit.

The silence that stretched after that was longer than the first one. 

“I know you guys are here because you want to record at the studio.” Marlene sobered up. They were reaching the bottom of the winding roads that led up to the hills, and the houses were becoming closer together the further they went.

She continued, “I know you guys are gonna ask or bring it up sometime soon, and he’s going to let you. Regulus never once called Sirius, but now that he’s useful he suddenly wants to discontinue his radio silence? You’re taking advantage of him. That’s my fucking problem.”

Dorcas snorted. Regulus deserved it. It was the least Sirius could do.

“Whatever.” Dorcas just looked forward in the convertible.

Their little escapade hadn’t suddenly made them friends. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Marlene roll her eyes and turn forward as the car pulled right onto the Boulevard.