Marauders Mistakes (blackinnon)

Part one

Lily watched Marlene make her way into their potions classroom, a whole fifteen minutes late with a serious look on her face. A look that Lily couldn't quite describe, somewhere between stressed and terrified, with anger mixed in. But when wasn't Marlene angry at someone or something? And when wasn't she late?

"Hello Miss Mckinnon, nice of you to make it today." Slughorn snarled at her. The teacher had previously loved Marlene, with her charm and pureblood upbringing that he would never admit he loved. But recently Marlene had been a bit too cheeky, and a little too late with her work never being handed in and when it was, it was far below the NEWT standard now expected of her and knew she was capable of.

"Oh, I am sorry Professor." She said throwing her bag on the floor and rolling her eyes, only infuriating him even more. Lily was always amazed at Marlene and her attitude, it got worse and worse everyday but she had never spoken to Slughorn this way before, ever.

"Would you mind telling me where you have been for the last twenty minutes of my lesson? Or perhaps where the last three essays I asked of you are? Or maybe where you were for last night's detention?" He demanded. "Because you were not in my office, where you were supposed to be, for missing a previous detention that's for sure!"

Lily's mind was racing, where had Marlene been last night? She had told Lily and the others that she had been in detention, and she hadn't been in the dorm, at quidditch practice, the common room or the library. She watched her friend across the room as Marlene turned slightly and caught Lily's eye, she was desperate for help.

"Oh Sir, I forgot to tell you," Lily spoke out, to Slughorn. "I was helping Marlene catch up on potions work last night, from the lessons she missed last week." Lily lied smoothly.

"Well if you say so Miss Evans." Slughorn said doubtfully. "Perhaps you would be able to assist Miss Mckinnon with this week's potion, as she will not have the time needed to perfect this particular one in lesson time. I will be back shortly class, no messing around or cheating, I will know." He said sternly before striding out of the dungeons and towards the stairwell that lead up to the castle, not his office.

Marlene moved quickly across the classroom and slid into the seat next to Lily, "Thank you so much, you saved me" She said, sinking onto her stool, relief present on her face.

"You may have gotten past him by lying, but you will not lie to me again Marlene, or I won't be able to trust you and you know that, where the hell were you last night?" Lily said, searching Marlene's face for answers she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"Look, can we talk a little quieter?" She said glancing up at Sirius, who was staring at her across the room looking more pissed off than Lily could even fathom.

"Holy shit Marls, what have you done?" Lily said, starting to panic.

"I've really screwed up, like majorly." She said, not looking up from the desk, where she was picking at her nails, like she always did when she got stressed.

"It can't be that bad Marls, you know you can tell me anything right?" Lily said, trying to comfort her friend.

"Well, I er-" But Marlene was interrupted, by a furious looking slughorn.

"Marlene Mckinnon remove yourself from my classroom this instant! Get out, NOW. And you Miss Evans! Mcgonagall would like to see you both, and as would I, in detention tonight." And with that he stood, holding the door open, and all Marlene could do was sigh, and when she thought Lily wasn't listening she even caught her whispering, "Not today."

Lily grabbed their bags, and her robe and stumbled out of the classroom, ashamed of herself. Marlene however didn't look at all ashamed, in fact prior to her concern she actually looked calmer than before, striding ahead of Lily and up the stairs in heels that Lily knew she wouldn't be able to stand up in.

"Fancy explaining why this is so great Marl? Because I'm a little confused over here." She said, throwing Marlene's bag back at her and raising an eyebrow.

"The last place I needed to be was in potions with Sirius Black and bloody Fabian Prewett."

"Wait what about Fabian?" Lily questioned, more confused than before.

"We need to go see Mcgonagall, come on." And with that Marlene had sauntered off towards Mcgonagall's office, leaving Lily more befuddled than ever.