long way to heaven || marauder ff

23- falling

"Have you ever been in love?

Horrible isn't it?

It makes you so vulnerable.

It opens your chest and it opens up your heart

and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up."

― Neil Gaiman, The Kindly Ones

✵✵✵

The third knock on the door finally caused Marlene to put on her Quidditch robe.

"We'll be out there in a second", Elaine assured whatever teammate had been sent out to get them this time, sending Marlene a death glare at the same time. "I slept in their dorm and am not as afraid of going out there as you", she hissed. "Sirius has no idea about anything, unless you give him a reason to worry"

"I know", the other Gryffindor answered, nevertheless gnawing on her lip. "He doesn't know, right?"

Elaine smiled reassuringly at her friend, ignoring her urge to strangle the girl. "He should have no idea. Let's go out there before they carry us out"

The two girls grabbed their brooms and water bottles, leaving the empty changing room behind. At the end of the small corridor stood John, the keeper of their team, looking as uninterested as always. "Finally", he groaned. "I thought we would have to drag you out there"

Elaine sent him an apologetic smile. "I couldn't find my shoes", she explained. "But then I remembered my bag being too full to carry them, so I put them in Marlene's bag, but hers is magically enlarged so it was quite a trouble finding them. We are here now, so everything is good, right?"

John only shook his head in silent laughter. "You two are something else", he promised, leading them out on the field. The rest of their team was already making laps around the field, throwing balls in between each other. As James caught sight of the three of them, he flew down to the ground and blew in his whistle, causing the rest of the team to join him.

"Since everybody is here now-", the captain sent Marlene and Elaine a death glance, "-We can finally start with the practice. Remember, the game against Ravenclaw is in January, so there is not much time to train left. Especially if some people believe they don't have to show up in time-", another death glare, "- for our pitch hours. I expect nothing but the best from all of you, understood?"

James' speech was met with affirming whispers and words by the rest of the team, which caused Elaine and Marlene to exchange an amused glance.

"Enough with the talking. Let's get practicing. I called on some reservists to join us, we will be playing a few training matches with special tasks. Sauveur, you come to me, the rest can warm up a bit more", their captain instructed, causing the other players to push away from the ground while Elaine went over to James, slightly worried as of what he was expecting of her.

"Before you scold me, I'm really sorry. We didn't mean to be late, there were just some issues", Elaine apologized straight away, adding "It won't happen again, I promise"

James only shook his head, though an amused smile was playing around his lips. "As long as you keep to that promise, we won't be having any more problems. But it's not what I wanted to talk to you about"

Elaine's eyebrows furrowed up as she tried to figure out what the marauder wanted from her. "Did I do something else?", she wondered aloud, though James quickly jumped in.