Je t'aime, Marlene

If Marlene was thankful for one thing in this stupid old school, it was Mary Macdonald and her vast knowledge of pretty much everything. Is the cute senior over there single? Marlene would ask.

"Yes, but his ex girlfriend is super jealous. His best friend however is looking for a rebound after his last..." and on and on till Marlene knew pretty much every secret about every person in all of Hogwarts. Of course, she'd never remember any of their names or actual secrets, but the sentiment was nice enough.

"Is there a library?" Marlene would ask.

"Two stories below. Past the chemistry class and take a right at the portrait of the fruit and old man," Mary would answer. Thankfully, the pair had almost every class together so Marlene would know how to get almost anywhere by at least the second day, but Gym and French were separate, as Mary was taking Italian.

"French is for hopeless romantics who had posters of the Eiffel Tower in their childhood bedroom." Mary explained. "But no offense. Honestly, that decor was kinda cute." Mary was like that. Marlene truly did not mind.

After chemistry, the two separated to their respective language classes. It was practically torture for Marlene to even think about having one class away from her new best friend, and she hadn't even stepped foot into class yet and was already dreading being more than 5 feet away from the other girl. Even if Mary didn't see her as a best friend yet, which Marlene figured would be perfectly normal as they had only met 6 hours ago, it was still a little upsetting to think about. Of course, she'd never had the best luck with finding a best friend, so it wouldn't exactly be surprising if nothing best-friend like happened between them, but a girl could dream. Or choose not to dream, because sometimes hope is more dangerous than disappointment. That didn't make any sense, but the point is she'd rather not hope. Back to the original friends point- despite having a whole friend group, she had never made a best friend out of any of them. It was sometimes depressing and lonely, but now was not the time to think about her miserable-but-not-miserable social life, as she was about to walk into an entirely new class with nobody who knew her history and a class where she would meet the love of her life, even if neither loves in that life knew it at this point.

Because it was the first day of a new class, for her and everyone else, Marlene did not have to worry about finding a place to sit as much as she had at breakfast, due to an assigned seating chart. She was seated next to the girl from the table who had complained about James, and someone she recognized as one of the journalists that had bothered Mary. She did her best to avoid him, and turned to talk to her other seatmate. She had found out her name was Lily, and Marlene was sure she'd be able to remember it. Lily had some of the reddest hair she'd ever seen, and was automatically friendly. Mary has good taste in friends. Marlene thought, before amending, hopefully. So far, the reporter-stranger only doodled in his notebook and sighed impatiently, like he had better places to be.

Funnily enough, the redhead next to her, Lily, did try (and succeed) to befriend Marlene. Lily had that sweet country vibe to her, the kind of "nice, innocent farm girl whose only friends are the cows and the girl next door" vibes, and vibes like that, where you know the person was going to be amazing, were the best kind of vibes. Unfortunately, Marlene was terrible at making conversation to a nice stranger, so it was a good thing Lily Evans was the first one to initiate their friendship, something Marlene would always be grateful for.

"So I know you're Marlene, Mary's good at introductions, and I'm Lily, Lily Evans." She looked at Marlene's seat assignment, clearly marked by a postage note. "Mckinnon? Huh. I used to have a friend with that last name but he moved to Scotland, the wanker. Any chance you know Frankie?" Marlene shook her head. This girl was talking fast, Jesus Christ.

"No? Oh well. What about a Chris?" She asked.

"I know a Christopher, but he goes here." Marlene told her, remembering the name of someone who Mary had described as "gay for one man only." Marlene was yet to find out who that one man was, but before she could think about asking her, a girl sped into the classroom.

She had dark skin, causing her uniform to brighten more than the usual blinding that only washed out Marlene. It was crisp, with neat edges and no loose strands or buttons, and a sweater vest on top. Her face was hidden by hexagon shaped, wire rimmed glasses with a rose gold tint to them, but the rush of color in her cheeks from the embarrassment of being tardy was apparent just as well. She carried a stack on uneven books in her arms, ranging from geometry to English and back again, and she looked as if it was taking everything in her not to drop them.

"I am so sorry, Professor. Slughorn. I swear it won't happen again, I really do." She nodded up and down vigorously, so much so that Marlene almost got whiplash just watching her. Slughorn just rolled his eyes and directed her to the only available seat, somewhere in the back row next to someone who looked like trouble.

He ignored her, and continued to drone on about the rules and regulations of the classroom. Marlene looked behind her, at the girl swiftly organizing her desk. Everything about her screamed neat, from the small, sharp eyeliner on her lids down to the even length of her pure white socks. 

The teacher started his lecture, which was just a review of basic rules and regulations for Marlene's benefit, before jumping into the lesson.

"Can anyone tell me how you might greet me, a professor, in school?" He asked the class. Most looked extremely bored, but the messy haired boy sitting next to Dorcas shouted out the answer, to a chorus of loud guffaws and back slapping from the two boys sitting near him. Lily rolled her eyes, and Marlene figured she had finally met the mysterious James.

"Salut!" He yelled, in a terrible french accent, looking directly at Lily, who then rolled her eyes again. James did not look discouraged at all, and smirked openly. Most of the class didn't care and just went back to googling the answer, when Dorcas Meadowes raised her hand.

Professor Slughorn shook his head at the boy, looking at the only other hand up in the classroom, one that was held high and shaking slightly.

The professor checked the seating chart, calling on Dorcas. "Ms. Meadowes?" He asked, seemingly surprised she would be the one to know the answer. Marlene got the impression this girl was going to be correct every time she would be called on, and was proven correct only a few moments later. 

"Bonjour." She said, in perfect french so graceful it made Marlene's head turn. "Salut is for friends and family, not for people you respect or who have the power to fail you." Dorcas looked bored as she said it, and went back to writing down notes wit her head almost touching the paper. Marlene turned back around, scribbling a little in the school notebooks that had been supplied to her automatically.

"Correct. Class, you would know that if you payed attention at all to your books. Mr. Potter, please take notes instead of trying to distract Ms. Evans this year." Slughorn nodded at the class. "This applies to all of you. French is a vital subject this term. You're going to need it." He finished dryly, ignoring the eye rolls and smirking at the red of both Lily and James face, Lily's more of anger then embarrassment. She knew she would never like James Potter back, so why did everyone continue trying to tell her she did?

The rest of the class sent Dorcas dirty looks as the bell rang, signaling lunch. Marlene looked curiously at Dorcas, at how neat and tidy her desk area was, and everything about her. Something about the other girl made Marlene want to know her better, and not just the fact that she would probably need her help later on in class, due to her terrible language skills. Dorcas looked up at, ready to go, catching Marlene's eyes for a few seconds before they both looked away, embarrassed. Whatever had just happened, it had given Marlene butterflies. Or at least before Lily had pulled her away towards the lunch table, and started complaining already about the professor's teasing comment(s). 

Mary greeted her with a wave, and some of the other girls at the table looked at her with friendlier faces today, now that it was known she was friends with Lily too. She even waved back, and joined in on the conversation more this time. Now that the other girls were more friendly and a little better known, she found it easier to communicate with them. She almost asked why the boy who had been sitting with them earlier was not anymore, before noticing him sitting and reading near the James boy and the two who had laughed at his humorless answer. Why anyone would willingly do that was a mystery, but she was smart enough not to bring up what was most likely a very sore spot for Lily.

The girl with the book name, Alice, talked to Marlene the most. She might have assumed Alice was part of the school paper for all the questions she asked, but she had a kind face and seemed more interested in Marlene than in a story. Two of the other girls, Emmeline and Pandora, didn't talk to Marlene much, but she barely minded. After all, it was normal to be at least a little wary of some girl randomly showing up and making friends with multiple people on the first day. Despite the awkwardness of the situation that clearly seemed to be brewing, the girls were not cold to Marlene whatsoever, and she tried to return the gesture. More friends wouldn't exactly hurt, and the best thing to do would be to not make enemies the first day. 

The boy who was now sitting with James was Remus, Marlene soon found out, from a complaining Lily and Alice. 

"And that absolute frog spawn of a human wasn't even doing anything to me this time! It was just Slughorn being annoying, once again! God, both him and James need to take the hint, I am not interested!" Lily steamed. Mary listened in from across the table, nodding her head up and down absent mindlessly while Lily ranted. She looked like she was about to take notes on Lily's complaining, and save the insults for later. She also looked relieved Lily was so surely not interested in James. 

Alice patted her back. "Lily, you have got to actually ask him to stop!" She told her. Lily shook her head. 

"I don't want him to think worse of me or that I can't handle one teenage boy. I need to make a good impression this year! This new girl is good, and I need to be the best." Lily explained. 

Marlene got a strange feeling that this was probably Lily's competitive side talking. The sweet girl from before had vanished, and while she didn't say anything against Dorcas, Marlene got the idea they did not like each other. Nothing seemed too bad about her, and as Marlene searched for her in the large hall, she only found her sitting alone, a book in her hand. Dorcas looked up again, and Marlene averted her eyes. She felt bad, but she couldn't decide anything about her, not while her friends seemed adamant about competing with her in a contest not even known to all players. 

Mary shrugged, and scooted closer to Lily. "You're good. I don't think she can take that from you." She told her, eyes shining and mouth grinning. "We know I'm not the best in french, but from what I've seen, you are. You'll be fine, and I'm sure you can join whatever slug club you want." 

Lily smiled, and it seemed genuine, like Mary's words had actually helped. "Thanks, but I'm still worried."

Mary rolled her eyes, scooting back down to the other side of the table to talk to other, more willing conversationalists. She knew how Lily was. The other girl wasn't in the same French class last year, and Lily was wary of new competition.

Alice agreed with Mary. So did Marlene, but she kept her mouth shut. She had an inkling that Dorcas was good, though she couldn't tell how much just yet.

As lunch continued, the conversation at the table moved on to other topics, such as football, boys (which Lily loudly groaned at), and different teachers and such. By the time any of them knew it, lunch was almost over, and everyone was packing up to go to their next period. Marlene had track, and after a few directions from Mary, began to make her way towards the field. 

She walked slowly through the corridors, winding around the old structure towards the fields carefully, when she heard a voice that sounded an awful lot like a certain classmate. 

"No notes now, Dork." Some greasy haired man held the school issued notebook high above his head, his tall, skinny frame making it easier to keep swatting it away from Dorcas' outstretched arms and hands. 

"My god, just give it back!" She snarled, in the same french accent she had used in class. Marlene wondered why she'd use it outside of class, and if she should step in and try to get the notebook or not. The halls were empty, and everyone else were already in their respective classes, oblivious to the chaos happening outside. 

Marlene waited until the man put the book down, ever so slightly, to sneak up behind him. 

Whack. A paperback book Marlene had found at the table that morning made a satisfying thud against his head. She needn't smack it hard, just loud enough to surprise him and for Dorcas to retrieve her notes back. He immediately reached towards his backside, turning around, and Marlene fought the urge to physically recoil from his greasy hair and ...interesting smell. The contrasting flaky skin and unknown stain on his uniform didn't help either.

"The fuck was that for?!" He squeaked out. His voice clearly hadn't broken yet. 

"Give her back the notebook or I'll do it again." Marlene countered. She wasn't sure why she had stepped in, and she didn't know what to say exactly, but this felt ok.

"I'm fine." Dorcas huffed, snatching the book back. She speed walked away, eyes down and cheeks red with embarrassment. Marlene looked after her, bewildered. 

The guy rolled his eyes. "Next time, just let me do it. It was just a joke, anyways."

Marlene was pissed by the time she got down to the track.