Everyone was thrilled to see Marlene, of course. Sirius ushered her through the fat lady portrait as fast as he could, and practically trumpeted her arrival to the whole common room, as though he had conjured her from thin air.
Lily and James rushed over, hugging her and taking her bag, and cloak and leading her to the couch by the fireplace, where Mary hugged her so fiercely Marlene almost squeaked.
“We’ve missed you!” Mary exclaimed, finally letting her friend go.
“I can see that!” Marlene gasped, pink cheeked. “Have you all been that bored without me?”
Remus hung back a little. He and Marlene didn’t hug much, anyway, so he didn’t think it would be noticed. He watched her warily, and chose to sit in the armchair furthest away from her, trying not to draw attention to himself. Christopher had slipped away too, at some point, maybe up to his dorm room. In the back of his mind, Remus hoped Chris wasn’t angry with him, but he filed that away for another time. He had too much to worry about with Marlene’s return.
“How’s Danny?” Mary was asking now, lowering her voice.
“He’s… recovering.” Marlene nodded, her eyes serious. “He’s at home now, mum’s driving him crazy as usual. He won’t… he won’t be going back to the Cannons.” She swallowed and looked down at her hands.
“It’s a bloody disgrace.” James banged his fist on the arm of the couch, “If I was their manager, I’d--”
“He’s too badly injured, anyway.” Marlene shook her head, wiping quickly under her eyes, “He’d have been off for the rest of the season either way; it’ll be months before he’s back on a broom. So. Just as well.”
“Still bollocks.” James muttered.
“Yeah, well.” Marlene looked up, stonily. “Can hardly blame them. I know I would have… anyway. Not worth thinking about.”
Remus felt sick with tension. Everyone else sitting in the group knew what he was - everyone except Marlene. The guilt he had been successfully avoiding for a week came crashing back over him like a cold shower. It had been his responsibility to warn everyone of the attack. He had told Dumbledore, but it hadn’t been enough; he’d failed. And now the evidence of his failure was sitting right in front of him, her face thin and her eyes dark with worry.
Marlene cleared her throat and flashed them all a brave smile,
“I’m going to talk to Madam Pomfrey as soon as I can; see if she recommends anything. The healers at St Mungo’s were useless, more concerned with keeping him quarantined than actually helping him. Hardly anyone could answer the questions I had about transformations, or aftercare, or pain relief… it was like they’d rather I just stopped talking about him; like they wanted to pretend he wasn’t there...”
Her voice was getting higher and thinner as she said this, tears threatening to choke her. She cleared her throat again. “I mean, I know what he is, don’t get me wrong. I know what he’s going to become. But he’s still my brother for fuck’s sake!”
“Of course he is.” Mary said, squeezing Marlene’s hand. She gave Remus a look, and he looked at his feet. No. No way. Absolutely not.
No one else was speaking, but they all had the same look on their faces. Are they thinking about me? Remus wondered, queasily, do they blame me? Are they wondering what I’m capable of?
“Anyway.” Marlene shook her head again. “What’s been going on here? Is that your cat, Lily?”
“Valentine’s day present,” Lily smiled, stroking the purring bundle in her lap. “His name’s Hieronymus.”
