Aftermath
“So you have no memory of the party?” Lily asks, drinking some mysterious beverage against hangover.
“No.”
“Did someone obliviate you?” Mary asks behind her sunglasses.
“I hope not!”
“Well we didn’t see you.” Lily says very serious.
“You asked everyone?”
“Everyone! But I don’t really want to know anymore. Whatever happened, I was alone or with someone I don’t care about and who doesn’t care about me, otherwise they would have come to me. It’s probably better forgotten.”
“Maybe they were obliviated too.” Mary proposes.
“No one was obliviated!” Marlene yelps.
“My uncle was obliviated once.” Says Peter, sitting in front of Marlene, purple half circle under his eyes, “Couldn’t remember his own name.”
“See?” Marlene says pointing at him with her fork, “I remember my name.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.” Mary says, rolling her eyes behind her glasses.
“That means everything.” Marlene corrects.
Sirius comes back from the Slytherin table where he was talking to his brother and sits loudly next to Marlene. He rests his head on her shoulder and closes his eyes, “Ungrateful brat!”
“What did he do this time?” Mary asks.
“He won’t share my own best friend with me! He kidnapped him! Look at them!” Sirius cries.
The group turn to the Slytherin table where James is chatting with Regulus and his friends, a wide smile on his mouth. Marlene meets Dorcas’ eyes for a instant before turning back her attention to Sirius, “He looks terrified out there.” She nods to Sirius.
“Right?” Sirius says, suppliantly, looking at her with wide eyes.
“He is definitely tormented.” Lily agrees.
“I knew y’all would understand.” Then, like if he suddenly remembers something, he straightens, “Who was it with you this morning Wormtail?” He grins.
“Oh! Is that the Ravenclaw girl you were kissing yesterday?” Mary asks.
“Kissing is soft for what it was.” Sirius ads, stealing a chips from Marlene’s plate.
Peter lower his head, “No, it was a Hufflepuff one.”
“Bloody hell mate!” Sirius starts, looking at Peter in surprise, “people have to stop saying I’m the flirt of the group. Look at that man, two girls the same night!”
“Three, actually. If I recall correctly.” Remus says, sitting next to Peter. He looks at Sirius for a while, “Hello Sirius.”
“Moony.” Sirius greets.
“What do you mean ‘three’?” Marlene asks, trying to avoid discomfort.
“Dear Peter also kissed Pandora.”
“It was just a smack!” Peter yelps, defensively.
“Pandora?” Sirius cries.
“My brother’s best friend?”
“Come on, Sirius, we cannot avoid your brother’s friends forever.” Marlene says. “You have to stop overreacting that. We are not fucking your brother.”
“Don’t talk about fucking my brother.” Sirius frowns, putting his hands on his ears. “He’s just a baby!”
“He’s fifteen!” Lily says.
“He’s a baby.”
“James was still fifteen when they got together.” Mary recalls.
“I am not earring you!” Sirius says, pressing on his ears.
“Did you say that because of the Dorcas thing, Marlene?” Mary asks, grinning, taking her attention out of Sirius to put it on Marlene.
“Especially since you kissed her yesterday.” Peter says calmly, taking a bite of his toast.
“I did what?” Marlene shouts, alarmed.
“Full on the mouth. Tongue and all.” He continues.
“I did not!” Marlene cries, defensively. Why the hell would Peter invent such a thing? She get that they like to mess with her but there are limits.
“You did so.” Says a voice behind her. They all turn to face Dorcas, standing alone in front of them. “McKinnon.” She greets.
Marlene stares at her in bewilderment. “What the heck?”
“Can I have a word?” Dorcas asks, not moving her gaze from Marlene.
Sirius pushes Marlene in Dorcas’ direction and gives her the Sirius Black’s grin when she glares at him. Marlene follows Dorcas outside the Great Hall and they sit on a bench.
“So.” Marlene begins, uncomfortably, “We kissed?”
“Yes.” Dorcas says, not looking at her.
“Okay.” Marlene answers, having no clue how to react. “Are you sure?”
“Yes I am sure, Marlene.” Dorcas answers suddenly facing her and Marlene’s heart miss a beat.
“Well, I had to check.”
They fall silent. Why on earth did she kissed Dorcas Meadowes? What happened in her head at that particular moment? Marlene cannot figure this out and it infuriates her.
“Okay, we’ll, what do we do now? We kissed, so what? We were both pissed, right? I know I was.”
Dorcas glares at her for a moment, “We do not acknowledge each other. You don’t talk to me.”
“I didn’t intend to.” Marlene snaps suddenly angry. “ You came to me. I don’t even remember kissing you, not a memorable kiss if you ask me.”
Dorcas stands up and walks away without a word, letting Marlene alone on the bench, feeling at the same time anger and incomprehension.
***
“Who was right?” Sirius asks later when they are laying on a stretch of grass.
It’s only the two of them. Lily, Mary and Remus are working at the library, Peter is playing chess with a seventh year and James is who knows where but probably with Regulus.
“Shut it.”
“No, no, I want to ear you say it.”
“Well she told me not to talk to her, and I did not intended to do it anyways. I don’t even remember kissing her Sirius. You weren’t right. There is nothing.”
“I’m always right, Darling. You’ll see.”
“Did you talk to Remus?”
“That’s weak!”
Marlene looks at him for a bit then she gently asks again, “Did you?”
“No.” Sirius answers, visibly defeated.
“You will, okay? And if he doesn’t come to you, he is an idiot. And if you try and he doesn’t want to listen, he is even more of an idiot.”
“I want to eat him.” Sirius says, sincerely.
“That’s concerning.”
“Okay, no, that sounded weird. I don’t really want to-“ he pauses, considers the idea, “Okay, maybe I want to, but it’s like-“
“We agreed not to talk about fantasies.”
“When?”
“When yours began that weird!”
“We always did!” Sirius rolls his eyes and gently pushes Marlene’s arm. “So, we don’t talk about that Dorcas thing?”
“I have to go to class.” Marlene says, standing up.
“It’s Sunday! Don’t avoid me McKinnon!”
Sirius continues to fuss behind her but Marlene ignores him. She won’t admit it to anyone, but this story about Dorcas have been turning over and over in her head. Something doesn’t seem right about all of that and she cannot figure this out. She has a weird feeling deep inside of her every time she thinks about Dorcas Meadowes. She didn’t like the way Dorcas just walked away at the end of their conversation. It makes her angry and something else. Something she cannot put a word on. And that too, makes her angry. Because if there is something Marlene McKinnon hates, it is not understanding something. And she has no clue what this is all about.
She had kissed before, the problem isn’t there. She had kisses she forgot too, the problem isn’t there either. The problem is Dorcas. Why would she kiss Dorcas? Even pissed. Why would Dorcas let her kiss her? Even pissed. They cannot stand each other, they haven’t got a single nice word for each other since the beginning of their scholarship. Them kissing doesn’t make any sense. She knows that all of her friends think that something is going on but it is only because they romanticise every single situation. Sirius would loose his shit if she said those kind of thing about Severus Snape!
Well, Marlene has to be honest, Dorcas is not as bad as Snape. And she’s pretty. And she kissed her for Godrick’s sake!
“Excuse me?” A girl’s voice says behind her.
She turns to face a fourth year Gryffindor that she doesn’t know. She looks around and sees that there is no one else in the corridor, “Me?”
“Yes. You. Are you and Sirius Black together?” The girl asks.
“Excuse me?”
“Are you and Sirius Black dating?” The girl repeats, visibly annoyed. She has a reason to be annoyed?
The girl’s tone annoys Marlene who wasn’t in a good mood already, “Is that any of your businesses?” she asks, drily, raising an eyebrow. She and Sirius are not a thing and she could simply say that but, Circe! Who does this girl think she is?
“Why don’t you answer my question?”
“Why do you asks the question in the first place?”
“Well,” the girl begins, suddenly fidgeting,
“He’s quite handsome.”
“Yes, he is.” Marlene answers, cautiously. She gets it now. It’s been a while since neither Sirius nor her have been dating anyone, and they always spend a lot of time together. She didn’t though that people would start to assume they are dating. Okay, they kissed a few times but Sirius is obviously enamoured with Remus and, for Merlin’s sake, she stated several times that she is a lesbian! Sirius and Mary even put a sign in the common room saying that she has zero interest in men when a seventh year boy wouldn’t stop asking her out. How does this Gryffindor girl doesn’t know that?
“So, are you?” The girl asks after a time.
Marlene rolls her eyes, “No, we’re not.”
“Oh.” The girl says, smiling widely, “Great. Do you know where he is right now?”
Marlene is not mean, not usually. She doesn’t do things in the purpose to hurt, not usually. Right now she’s just, not in a mood for these bullshits. And this girl just gets on her fucking nerves, okay? So she shouldn’t be blamed when she says, “Probably snogging someone somewhere. Anyways, I think you’re a bit too young.” Maybe she sounded jealous but it is not like if she really cares. Sirius must not be snogging anyone anywhere, but this poor girl doesn’t stand a chance against Remus Lupin.
She doesn’t let herself the time to hear the girl’s answer or to see her react before she turns her heels and walks away. She just hopes she won’t meet anyone for the next hour, because right now, she needs to calm down. How can people be so annoying? First Dorcas, then this girl. Oh how Dorcas infuriates her! She feels it boiling inside of her. Hatred. Hatred and something else.
Right now, all Marlene wants is to be alone.
***
If there is a situation Marlene didn’t think she would find herself in on that particular day, is locked up with Dorcas Meadowes in a closet. But here they are.