Marlene
Marlene slumped against the wall by the staircase, stretching her ankle. Falling off a broom hurt more than she expected, even from just two metres up. She glared at her leg sharply and trudged up the stairs to her dorm. Why did the seventh years have to be at the top of the tower? Eventually, she reached the end of the seemingly everlasting staircase and leaned against the door for a moment. She could hear Mary talking inside, presumably to Lily.
“--called stupidity, darling. And mild regret.” Yeah. She was definitely talking to Lily.
Marlene pulled herself together and flung open the door dramatically. She threw herself onto her bed, fumbling for her wand. Assuming she had left it on her pillow, she felt around for it until something jabbed into her stomach. Mary rolled her eyes as Marlene reached into the pocket of her quidditch robes and pulled it out. Marlene groaned. She could have removed the pain before climbing up so many flights of stairs. As she pointed her wand at her foot and cast the spells to get her through the night without pain, she hopped over to Lily’s bed and poked her head over the side to look down at her.
“Hey,” she tried not to grimace as the charms wove themselves around her foot. “What’s up?”
Lily buried her face in her hands. “I wish I was dead.”
Marlene hesitated, unsure how to respond. But Mary spoke up, giving enough context for Marlene to read between the lines. “Lily’s an absolute idiot.”
“Oh? So the infamous Lily Evans likes someone, does she? Who’s the lucky guy? Or girl.” Marlene frowned. “You’re bi, right? Probably. I’m not actually sure if you came out yet, but I am ninety percent sure that you aren’t straight.” She paused and looked at Mary. “Tell me she isn’t in that other ten percent because that would be royally embarrassing.”
Mary shrugged. “No clue,” she said.
“Thank you for the amazing contribution, Mary. Lily?”
Lily lifted her head from her lap quickly, as if she was snapping out of a daze. Marlene blinked. That was fast. “Huh? Oh, yeah, I am. I think so anyway. Honestly, I have no clue. Wait, how did you know? I only told Remus. If it was him, prepare to find a body somewhere on the grounds.”
Marlene waved her off hastily. “I didn’t know that he knew. Call it a sixth sense. Anyway, who do you like? Whatever gender, they must be amazing for you to have genuine interest.”
Mary glared at her. “Not helpful.” She reached for Lily’s hand. “Hey, I can punch her if you want. Or him, come to think of it…”
“When you say him do you mean Remus or—”
“You know full well what I mean, Marlene Mckinnon, so if you don’t shut up I might follow through on that threat.”
“Hey, don’t punch me, I’m injured!” Marlene paused as Mary glanced sidelong at her. “But I’m willing to punch whoever ‘him’ is, so…”
“It’s James.” Lily whispered, barely audible.
Marlene lapsed into stunned silence. Well, that would explain why he missed practice. He was meant to be the captain, for god’s sake!
She could punch the hell out of him later. Now, she needed to figure out what the hell had happened to lead to this. Frowning, she pointed at Lily, then turned to the door as if James would be standing there. After a while, she opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t think of anything to say. Instead, she turned to summon her outfit for the party. It took a few tries to work. God, non-verbal magic was a pain. After tugging the red top over her head and arranging it so it hung loosely off one shoulder, she looked back at Lily, finally finding the will to speak.
“What the hell?” Marlene exclaimed. “James. Okay, you like James. I’ve come around to that now.”
Lily shuffled across the floor towards her. “I’m dating James Potter.”
Marlene’s jaw dropped. “You’re– I thought– but–” she broke off, trying to articulate her thoughts better. She let out a long breath. “You’re dating him?”
Lily nodded. Marlene tried to process the information. No, this wasn’t right. James would have told her if he’d started pining after Lily again, especially after everything that had happened last year. There was no way Lily actually wanted to be with him… right?
After a few minutes of silence as Marlene got dressed, she announced that she was leaving to help the boys. Merlin only knows they need it. As she walked down the stairs, skipping two every time, she pondered upon how James and Lily had gotten together. Lost in thought, she nearly missed the last step, only snapping back to reality when she found herself in the middle of the common room. The scene Marlene walked into was chaos. Sirius and James had cups flying at their heads while Remus stood a few feet away, glaring at them. Half of the decorations were forgotten and dumped by the wall, and Peter – predictably – was the only one doing anything remotely productive. Marlene cupped her hands around her mouth.
“Heads up, Potter!”
James ducked without question and the cups missed him, hitting the opposite window instead. After picking himself up off the floor, he looked around the room. His face lit up as he met Marlene’s eyes.
“Hey, Mar!” He grinned, despite having cups repeatedly pelted at his head.
Marlene grinned back. “You’re welcome, J. You know, for saving your life.”
Marlene heard Sirius approach from behind. “And you couldn’t have saved me, Mckinnon? I was left at the mercy of Moony and his plastic cups!”
“I won’t apologise, Black.”
James touched her wrist and pointed down, which Marlene interpreted as duck again. After a second, they both dropped to the floor again. More plastic cups flew at top speed over their heads and ended up hitting Peter square in the face as he turned at the wrong moment. Honestly, where had the cup war come from? Marlene couldn’t say she was all that surprised, but it wasn’t exactly what they were meant to be doing. They did have a time limit, after all. But when had the marauders been known for doing what they were supposed to?
“Sorry, Pete!” Sirius glared down at Marlene and James. “These ones have some sort of secret code. Unfair.”
Marlene grinned at him. “Rule number one, Sirius: never let childhood best friends fight on the same side. We’ve grown up with it.”
James’s smile tightened after she spoke before relaxing a moment later. His expression became unreadable but he began to tap his fingers against his thigh. Oops. Maybe Marlene shouldn’t have phrased it like that. It clearly reminded him of the boys who tried to attack them at home. Marlene pressed her lips together. They held them off - without magic - for long enough that they eventually got left alone, but Marlene’s knuckles were torn up and she had bruises covering one side of her face. Besides, Effie showed up after a few minutes, not even knowing James and Marlene were out, but she had made her intentions very clear and no one had bothered them since. Marlene loved Effie. She still felt bad for bringing it up though, and met James’s eyes in a quick apology. He nodded imperceptibly. Sirius watched the whole exchange curiously as if he didn’t have the same sort of non-verbal conversations with the same person. Suddenly, Remus slammed his hand down on the table. If getting everyone’s attention was the goal, it definitely worked. Marlene’s head snapped in his direction. She raised her eyebrows as Sirius asked,
“Alright over there, moony?”
Remus glared at him. “You three need to actually start doing something, or I will personally murder all of you with the plastic cups. Do you think Gryffindor tower wants to be drinking your blood all night?”
Marlene laughed under her breath before turning away to stick up some of the red and gold streamers up around the room. She flicked her wand twice, and the pile untangled itself and stuck to the ceiling and walls. As she decorated the left side of the room, Sirius worked on the right with Remus, Peter went to get the drink stash from the dorm, and James stacked the cups to the ceiling. He placed them on the nearest table and grabbed Marlene’s arm, pulling her towards him. He smiled softly.
“Hey, Mar.”
“Hey, Jay.” Her eyes flicked over the room. “How long has it been since you kicked everyone out?”
It was tradition by now. Every time the marauders threw a party - mainly on birthdays and holidays - they stood on one of the many tables dotted around the room and told everyone to get the hell out. It started working better when they got Lily on board for Remus’s birthday party in sixth year. Marlene loved Lily to death but Merlin, she could be terrifying when she needed to be. The common room emptied immediately. Since James was now Head Boy (and Marlene still didn’t have a clue how he’d managed that), he could get away with a lot more. Therefore, he could stand on tables and shout at the common room. Anyone who had lived here for the past few years would get the message pretty quickly. James glanced up at the wall as if to check the time. Marlene rolled her eyes. They weren’t at home. James had been in Gryffindor tower more than his one house for the past few years, and he still looked at the wall as if Effie’s special clock hung there. Eventually, he glanced at his watch.
“About half an hour.”
“And how many cups have you been hit with by Remus in that time?”
“None, thanks to you and my amazing quidditch reflexes.”
Marlene winked. “You’re welcome.”
Marlene sat comfortably on the table and patted the space beside her. When he hesitated, she sighed exasperatedly and pulled back to sit. “Come on, Potter. There’s obviously something you’re bursting to say. If you don’t spit it out now, I’m going to ignore you for the rest of the evening.”
He looked at her disbelievingly. “And you know that because…?”
“J, I’ve literally known you since you were born.”
“And?”
“I can practically read your thoughts by now.”
James raised his eyebrows. “Okay then.” He cast the muffliato charm over them and turned back to face her. “Prove it.”
She closed her eyes mockingly and raised her hands to hover by his temples. “I see… you’re currently thinking about ways to tell your favourite person that you’re dating Lily Evans.” She opened her eyes again. “Am I right?”
“I must admit, you’re correct.”
“Awww, I’m your favourite person? Sirius would be so mad.”
“I’m going to ignore that.”
Marlene grinned. “I’m telling him.”
James shook his head and muttered something under his breath, then cleared his throat. “Lily already told you?”
Marlene shook her head innocently. “What on earth would give you that idea?”
“Oh, nothing at all.” He paused. “When?”
“While I was trying to get ready.” Her eyes flicked over him. “I’m not sure what I’m more impressed by - the amount of times you had to ask, or the fact that she finally gave in.”
James gave her a look that she interpreted as How am I supposed to know? “Look, we’d better do something before the others–”
Marlene glanced across the room to find Remus glaring at them. She opened her mouth, but Remus interjected before she could even speak. “Oi! Are you two ever going to get your lazy arses up and help, or will I have to hex you?”
Marlene huffed a laugh under her breath and hopped off the table as James got rid of the muffliato charm. She pointed her wand at the ceiling and conjured a Gryffindor banner that hung itself from the ceiling. Remus raised an eyebrow in appreciation and turned away. At that moment, Peter walked in with the drinks. Marlene did a quick scan of the bottles. Oh, good. Only butterbeer and alcohol. They could all do the aguamenti charm if someone got too drunk. (Marlene was definitely gonna get too drunk.) She and James turned to each other, grinning like idiots. The drinks were here. The party had officially started.
Marlene reached for a cup, but Sirius suddenly appeared beside her, holding her arm back. “I don’t think so, Mckinnon. You’re not allowed to drink before one of two things happens: either the party starts, or you tell me what was secret enough that James blocked Remus, Peter and I from hearing.”
James and Marlene met each other’s eyes. “Secrets.” They said in unison.
Sirius glared at them both, and released Marlene’s arm. “Yet again, betrayal! James, how could you do this to me?”
Marlene raised an eyebrow. ‘Yet again?’ She quoted Sirius with a smirk.. “What did he do the first time?”
“He said that Peter was his favourite person because I wasn’t appreciating his ‘amazing reflexes’ when he dodged all the cushions I was throwing at him.”
“Oh, he said that someone else was his favourite, did he?” Marlene turned to James, trying to hold in a laugh. “Well, funny story…”
As Marlene was about to speak, a shelf tilted and all the decorations fell off onto the floor. She threw her hands up in the air. Come on, just as she was about to piss off Black? She turned to James, who gave an unapologetic shrug. Oh. It didn’t take a genius to put the pieces together. She glared at him in outrage, hoping the look said something along the lines of this will have consequences, Potter. In return, he merely slipped his wand back into his pocket.
“Damn you, Potter.” She hissed, so only he could hear.
He laughed under his breath. “Last name? Someone’s annoyed.”
“I was about to majorly annoy Sirius! Of course I’m annoyed!”
“I’m not apologising, Mar.” He glanced at his watch again. “Besides. It’s 6:30. You know what that means?”
“That we had better get rid of the massive pile of decorations in the middle of the floor before anyone walks in?”
“What?” He looked down. “Oh. Yeah, right.” He vanished the remaining decorations and shouted, “Decorating over, everyone! Let’s get the party started!”
As if on cue, a group of sixth years walked through the doors, and another bunch climbed through the portrait hole. James grinned at her. “Well, would you look at that?”
Half an hour in, and the party was in full swing. The common room was packed, even with the undetectable extension charm James and Sirius had cast on the room before she had turned up. Minerva was going to kill them for that - but not if she didn’t find out. The fact the charm was illegal probably didn’t help. Searching through the sea of people, Marlene noticed that Dorcas still hadn’t turned up. Was she even coming? Marlene had definitely invited her. She always did. And Dorcas always came. It was what they did. Besides, the drunk teenagers were slightly more bearable with her there. Suddenly, Mary appeared by Marlene’s side.
“Looking for your girlfriend?” She asked. Marlene nodded without replying, eyes glued to the portrait hole. “I’d say the main reason she’s late is that you told her it starts at 7:30.”
Marlene tore her eyes away from the door at that. “What?”
Mary grinned. “Sirius told you it started at 7 o’clock before you told Dorcas. You invited her, then it got moved to 6:30 the next day. Dorcas doesn’t know.”
“You could have told her!”
“I expected you to. Clearly you didn’t.”
Marlene muttered insults to Sirius that were not worth repeating under her breath. Mary raised an eyebrow. “That was not as quiet as you thought.”
“I don’t care. Tell him if you want.”
Before Mary could reply, a hand slipped over Marlene’s eyes, blocking her view of Mary. The conversation forgotten, Marlene spun around. Her face lit up as she saw Dorcas.
“Hey,” Dorcas smiled.
“Dorcas!” Marlene smiled back and threw her arms around her girlfriend, careful to not knock the drink out of her hand.
God, she looked amazing. She wore a black corset over her dark green lace top, with a matching dark green mini skirt. Silver snake earrings hung from her ears, matching the ones that Marlene wore. Her braided hair was tied up in a bun tightly with her wand. God, Marlene wished she had dressed better. She briefly turned back to Mary, but she had disappeared. She felt a flicker of guilt, but squashed it quickly. She could apologise later.
“You look amazing.” Marlene looked down quickly to break eye contact.
“And in that outfit, I don’t think I can last any longer without kissing you.” Marlene’s eyes snapped back up as she watched Dorcas gesture to a corner that would conceal them from the rest of the room. “Come on.”
Marlene allowed Dorcas to almost drag her to the corner of the Gryffindor common room, trailing behind. Dorcas took the cup out of her hand and placed it on a nearby table. In sync, they glanced side to side.
“No one’s watching,” Marlene murmured, fiddling with the hem of Dorcas’s top.
Dorcas moved closer, eyes locked on Marlene’s. “Thank Merlin,” she whispered, as she leaned in.
Dorcas’s lips tasted faintly of alcohol. Marlene’s hands slipped down to loop around Dorcas’s waist as Dorcas tangled her fingers in Marlene’s hair. She felt her heartbeat quicken as Dorcas pressed their bodies together. They both pulled back after a moment, breathing slightly faster than usual. Marlene’s eyes flicked up to meet Dorcas’s, then trailed back down to her lips. Dorcas let out a breathy laugh. Marlene soon joined in. She leaned in and brushed her lips over Dorcas’s cheek, leaving the slightest smudge of red. After a moment’s hesitation, she slowly swiped her thumb over Dorcas’s lower lip, wiping away the traces of lipstick. Dorcas watched her as she drew away. They locked eyes, silent for a long moment. Marlene broke it, clearing her throat and gesturing to the party, in full swing on the other side of the armchairs. Dorcas nodded and they walked out, not letting go of each other’s hand. Marlene’s lips twitched.
“Looking to spread rumours?”
Dorcas glanced at her sidelong. “Do you care if anyone finds out? I mean, obviously some people know. Your friends, my friends…”
“They’re the same people, Dorcas.”
“Shut up. Still, do you care about the rest of the school?”
Marlene frowned. “Where’s this coming from?”
“Nothing, I just… I was worried you would start to hate hiding it.”
“Do you?” Marlene asked, brows raised.
“No! Well… sometimes I wish we didn’t have to, but…”
“But?” Marlene prompted as Dorcas trailed off.
“But as long as I get to have you, I couldn’t care less.”
Marlene’s concerned expression was replaced with a smile as Dorcas said that. “Right back at you, Meadowes.”
Both of them paused for a moment, unsure of what to say after that conversation had been shut down. The silence between them was rarely awkward, but standing there in the middle of the party, it was. Eventually, Dorcas nodded to the centre of the room, where more people had started to dance. “Shall we?”
Marlene grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Time passed, and the clock struck midnight. The common room was slowly emptying. Marlene had ended up sprawled over a sofa, head in Dorcas’s lap. The others had formed a misshapen circle in front of them. Remus sat in the armchair to their left, Sirius sitting on the floor in front of him. James had his arm wrapped around Lily’s shoulders, but they appeared to be engaged in conversation with different people. Mary whispered something to Lily and Peter, and they both nodded. Peter, the only one who still had his wand on him and was sober enough to use it, waved his wand to summon a stack of glasses. Lily took half of them and placed one in front of each person in the group. She clapped her hands together twice as Peter filled all of them with firewhiskey. Marlene didn’t know what was going on and was glad she wasn’t sober enough to figure it out. Dorcas groaned and Marlene frowned up at her.
“Hey, idiots!” A few people outside of their group looked over at Lily when she said that, which Marlene found amusing. “We’re going to play a game.” Lily met Mary’s eyes and tried to fight a smile. “It’s called never have I ever.”
Remus groaned. Lily, Peter and Mary smirked. James and Sirius looked at each other with matching confusion. Dorcas smirked. Marlene pushed herself up onto her elbows and frowned, thankful that she wasn’t the only one who was confused, at least. She twisted her head up to look at Dorcas, who was grinning from ear to ear.
“Oh, this is going to be so fun to watch.”
Lily arched an eyebrow. “Fun to watch? Who said you were getting out of it?”
Dorcas folded her arms and leaned back. “Me.”
“Oh, you are so hot when you do that,” Marlene mumbled. Everyone looked at her and she felt herself turn faintly red. “What?”
“Marlene, darling, you said that aloud.”
Well, shit. “Oops? Well, at least it’s true.”
Lily clapped her hands and everyone looked back to her. She quickly explained the rules to them. It seemed easy enough. And Marlene got why Dorcas was finding the idea so entertaining. Everyone was going to be so drunk by the end of this.
“Okay, who’s going first?” Lily asked when no one started.
“Well, seeing as it’s your idea, Lils, I think everyone agrees you should go first.” Dorcas said with raised eyebrows. Marlene forced herself to ignore how amazing she looked this time.
Lily sighed. “Okay then… Merlin, what do people even say for this?” She looked pointedly at James. “Oh! Never have I ever embarrassed myself and my crush at the same time.”
James glared at her and drank. “More than once, as we all know. While we’re at it, Pads…”
“I was trying to avoid that one.” Sirius rolled his eyes as he drank.
“Not how the game works, Black.”
“I’ll go next!” Marlene said suddenly, a memory coming to mind.
Dorcas swore under her breath. “Marlene Mckinnon, if you embarrass us both I swear to God–”
“Relax, Dorcas, it’s not even for you. Besides, you say stuff you haven’t done. Were you not paying attention in the three times Lily had to explain?” She stared at James. “Never have I ever kissed a stranger because I thought it was my girlfriend or boyfriend.”
“That was one time, Mar! One time!”
Sirius sat forward as he drank. He obviously didn’t know about this. “Did I miss something? James Fleamont Potter! Why did I not know?”
“It was last Christmas. You stayed here with Moony.” James explained hastily and tried to move on quickly. “Never have I ever–”
“I don’t think so, Potter. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Marlene and Dorcas shared a long look. They both remembered it. It was the Christmas that Marlene invited her girlfriend to stay over the holidays. James and Regulus had just started dating. Only Marlene and Pandora knew at that point. Marlene, Dorcas and James spent almost all their time together. Because Marlene and James lived opposite each other, they were nearly inseparable during the holidays. Their parents would know. One night, after a lot of persuasion from Marlene, they decided to stop bothering James’s parents and went to a muggle nightclub. There was a dark haired boy sitting at the bar who James couldn’t stop staring at. He looked almost exactly like Regulus, and James was drunk. Marlene was never going to let him forget it, until they broke up. After that, she decided it was better to leave those memories alone. It had ended some time in the summer of that year. A few months later, Marlene watched them in the Great Hall everyday and knew neither had forgotten.
James shrugged. “It wasn’t important. It was at some muggle club, I think. I don’t remember it all that well.”
Sirius’s eyes narrowed. “You can’t lie to me, James.”
Remus rolled his eyes. “Just drop it, Padfoot.”
Sirius looked up at Remus indignantly. “No!”
Marlene sighed and looked around at Dorcas. “This happens every day.” She complained. “I need more drinks to deal with this again.”
“Absolutely not.”
Marlene pouted but Dorcas didn’t give in. She huffed, but decided to watch Sirius, James and Remus argue about whatever they had moved onto now. After a while, she mouthed to Lily, I think Remus is winning. She nodded back in agreement, clearly also eavesdropping. Not that the boys were being quiet. Eventually, she and Dorcas decided it was too late for Dorcas to go back to the Slytherin dorms. They announced that they were going to bed, and left the room. It was only later, lying restlessly in bed that Marlene realised James still hadn’t told anyone he and Lily were dating.