Le serpent doit laver
After a month of attending Hogwarts, it was interesting to learn more about everyone. Even if she hated them, Marlene had to admit that James and Sirius were some of the smartest men Marlene had ever met (and there aren't many). James participated lots in class, always got straight As while being part of the football team, and had a basically never-ending supply of clever pranks and new ideas to ask Lily out, though those never worked and were very obviously never thought through. Sirius was also smart in his own way. He averaged mostly Bs because of his lack of homework turned in, but always got projects and work done on time. Maybe it was the detention he seemed to have every night, but he somehow got studying done.
Marlene also learned a shit ton about Lily and Mary too. Mary came from a semi wealthy family and was here on a partial scholarship. "I'm smart enough that they want me here, not smart enough that they'd pay for me to be here," was her reasoning, which Marlene figured made just enough sense. Lily had come from a country family who'd saved up their whole life so Lily and her sister (who'd already graduated) could go here. The family had one close enough neighbor named Severus, aka the greasy boy who had stolen Dorcas' notebook too. James and Sirius called him Snvillilous, much to the disdain of Lily.
Marlene had learned a lot about Sniv- sorry, Severus, both from experience and simply observing and encountering him herself. Remus and Lily argued almost daily about his character, Lily defending his actions, and Remus arguing and bringing up instances where he was a total jerk. Lily's excuse was that Severus had had a traumatic childhood, and the bullying he faced from James and Sirius was the cause, but Remus pointed out his dad hadn't been to good either and he had gone through plenty of bullying in his life without being a jerk. Then they'd stop talking till dinner, where Lily would complain about something Severus did and Remus would agree, and they'd laugh.
Marlene didn't get her own personal encounter with him until about 2 weeks after the first day. Because she has an awful memory, she had gotten lost before French without Mary to help her out, and was blindly stumbling around the huge school when she encountered him and his little band of bastards.
"Well look who it is." A big buff one said to his friends, making them turn around and acknowledge her presence. Marlene immediately recognized him as someone who had tried out for track, but hadn't suceeded.
Snape sneered.
"You're one of Lily's friends, aren't you?"
Marlene wasn't sure how exactly to react to that, so she just ignored him and kept walking.
"Hey! He asked you a question!" The buff one said.
"And you look awfully familiar, know anything about a notebook?" Snape added.
Marlene gritted her teeth, before turning around to the boys. She wasn't sure what either of their problems was with her.
"Yes. I am Lily's friend. What about it?" Marlene replied, making sure to roll her eyes hard. She was nearly late to class, and didn't want to be late in the first month of school.
"I am Lily's friend." Snape literally almost growled, and Marlene laughed.
"Ok?"
"So stay away from her. She's mine. And tell that scarred freak that too."
Marlene saw red. Insult her as much as you like, she mostly didn't scare, but insulting Remus was to far. She almost lunged at him, before considering her situation. She was on a full scholarship, and couldn't really afford to be off it, especially to this loser weirdo creep. So, she did the best thing to do.
She looked him up and down, snorted, then walked away almost giggling.
But she knew she had a former threat to fulfill, a ginger to tattle too, and a wanna-be-team-captain prankster to get in touch with to make it work.
Arriving late for French for the second time isn't a great impression on a teacher, Marlene knew that. Professor Flitwick gave her a look not nearly as bad as the one she had given Snape, but creepy in the way that only a teachers could be. After searching for Dorcas' eyes and finally finding her, Marlene was kind of embarrassed to see Dorcas already staring back. She didn't even let her mind wander as to why, because half the class was also staring at her. Taking notice of this, she quickly sat down.
She pulled out a fancy pen and began writing the two different notes she'd have to deliver in this class. One wrote in clear lettering
Don't trust Snape for Christ's sake, he's a weirdo and a stalker. I'll explain tomorrow.
That one was for Lily. Marlene felt that this sweet country Ed Sheeran lookalike deserved to know if her best friend was keeping tabs on her.
The other one wrote;
Prank on Snape. Shampoo surprise. You in? -Marlene
She got a sweet looking girl to pass that to a kid behind her, who passed that to James in the back row, who read it then gave Marlene a thumbs up. She saw him pass the note to Sirius before Professor Flitwick gave all three of them a death stare. Sirius didn't care, and sent back a "hell yeah."
Marlene smirked, before going back to watching Dorcas take notes.
Later that day at practice, Marlene, Sirius and James worked out the kinks in the prank to make sure they could pull it off. First, she'd ask Lily for Snape's locker number.
"To send an apology note and ask if we can be friends." She said, when Lily asked why.
Then, Sirius would use whatever skills it took to get his locker code. Every student had a 4 digit locker code kept safe by teachers.
Once it was all ready, they'd just have to get shampoo and wig hair. When Snape had a look of surprise on his face, and Marlene wasn't caught, she will have pulled her first prank at Hogwarts High school.
The prank went... amazing? Marlene got Snape's locker number and then code as well, and Sirius took care of the many bottles of shampoo needed for his locker. They opened a few, and careful not to ruin anything to important, poured the bottles on the wall of the locker. They left the rest at the bottom with a bar of soap.
Snape's reaction was a mixture of wanting to sue and wanting to kill James. To quote him,
"POTTER I SWEAR ON MY MOTHER'S GRAVE-"
Marlene thought it was worth it, until she met the absolute shitstorm that was Lily Evans mad.
"You don't even know what he's been through, you've never met him before! Sure he has a few issues but I swear he's good! It's all Potter and Black's fault he's been acting out, if Potter wasn't such a creep he wouldn't feel protective of me! I mean, c'mon Marlene, seriously! Did you even write him that nice note or was it just for some stupid prank?!" She fumed. Marlene almost felt bad for Severus, who's story she truly didn't know, but Marlene had seen how he treated Dorcas. She wasn't going to let it slide, no matter what Dorcas said.
Lily's talent of endless talking did not come in handy when she was giving a lecture about not bullying, to the dismay of Marlene, who had to sit and take the whole lecture. Admittedly, the lecture didn't change Marlene's opinion on if the prank was worth it or not, but Lily did start ignoring her in lessons, which sucked, since then Marlene's only friends in French and Chemistry were James and Sirius.
On the bright side, Marlene, James, and Sirius were now friends. She, Remus, and Mary all decided James and Sirius could join the study group, because they were actually quite smart, even if Sirius considered himself "to cool for school."
Marlene noticed Remus always seemed happier whenever Sirius was around. That's a weird thing to observe, but she was always good at observing. That was one of the plus sides of being the "outcast" in a friend group. It was the same thing that happened when James was around Lily, though the feeling was clearly not mutual.
"We're dating!" Mary said, walking into the study room, smiling huge and linking her arm with Sirius, who looked rather bored yet still happy.
"Errr, what?" James asked. It would've been hilarious, if Marlene hadn't been so confused herself. Hadn't Remus and Sirius "secretly" been shagging in love for months? This was confusing. Marlene was also sure Mary had had feelings for someone else, in this room at the moment.
"Yep! Dating!" Mary just about sang. Marlene would've been happy for her, if she could somehow block out the expressions on her friend's faces. She could see the look of hurt on Remus' face he was quickly trying to cover up, and Marlene was pretty sure Lily could too. She also noticed how Sirius didn't look at Remus once in the whole conversation. Lily, admittidly, wasn't to happy herself. She was glowering at Sirius, though Marlene couldn't decide on the specifics of why.
Grant interrupted her pondering by congratulating the halfway happy couple. He seemed ok with it, so Marlene made a decision to just let it be. Mary would never believe her, so what was the point? She sighed, slumping back into her chair before sending Remus a look that both sympathized and let him know that she knew and understood. He smiled back at her halfhearted before going back to being not-sad.
The rest of the session was very awkward. Not many people spoke or did anything besides read and occasionally ask for an answer, not for help. It was suffocating, and for the first time ever Marlene was glad it was over. Soon enough, Mary and Sirius would have to break up, right?
She hoped they would. Not to be mean or anything but the sooner Mary realized Sirius didn't actually like her the better. Poor Mary, head over heels for a guy who didn't even like her that much. While Marlene didn't doubt Sirius liked Mary, she was positive it wasn't that -pardon the pun- serious.
She didn't really bother telling Mary about her assumptions though, guessing it would do no good. She was right. Lily had tried her best to stop Mary from dating Sirius, who was known as a huge player, but she would not listen. Lily also argued many flaws of Sirius' and used very colorful vocabulary to describe him and James (that I will not be mentioning) which led to Mary ignoring Lily.
At the moment, Marlene and Emmeline were the only ones who talked to Lily anymore. Sirius and Mary were mad about her (correct) view on the couple so they stopped talking to her, and Lily stopped talking to James and Remus over the prank. Marlene actually felt sorry for her. This whole fiasco continued for about a week, until Lily stole a cake from the kitchens to give to Mary, and eventually started talking to Remus again, but not James, to his disappointment.
Marlene was glad the group was back to normal. As normal as it could be. At least, until another member joined. A dorky, neat, hexagon-shaped glasses wearing member.