Marlene

22- Sirius Takes A Vow Of Silence

"So do you actually forgive me?" Sirius asked Marlene when the two walked back to Gryffindor from the Hospital wing after having both received calming drafts in order to counter the effects of the poorly performed cheering charms.

"Yeah," Marlene shurgged, "you seem sorry about it, and I know that you wouldn't do it again," she fixed him with a glare, "will you."

"Of course not," said Sirius, "but I'm not letting Snivellous get away with saying things like that again."

"What did he say?" Marlene frowned.

"Called Erica a dirty little Squib," said Sirius with a glare, "he didn't think I could hear him." Erica McKinnon was by no means a Squib, but magic didn't come as naturally to her as to others. She struggled with spells, and had endured an awful lot of teasing because of this.

Marlene stared at Sirius, her mouth gaping open. He had done it in defence of her little sister.

"Th-thankyou," Marlene stuttered.

"No problem Lenie," he winked at her.

"Just when I think I could actually like you, you go and call me Lenie again!" She whacked his arm.

"Oh, I am so incredibly sorry," laughed Sirius.

"Shut it Black," Marlene said in a playful fashion.

Sirius obediently made a motion as if zipping his mouth closed. They climbed back into the common room and found themselves seats in front of the fire with James, Remus and Peter.

Remus had his head resting on one of the arms of his chair and his eyes were closed. A thin layer of sweat was visible on his forehead. James was happily playing with a stolen snitch, whilst Peter watched.

When Marlene and Sirius at down, Remus opened one eye and looked at them, quickly shutting it again and groaning loudly.

"Moony is encountering his furry little problem," said James, shoot Remus a concerned look. "Why is Sirius not talking?" James frowned when he realised that Sirius hadn't yet said anything.

"Sirius is partaking in a sponsored silence," Marlene grinned.

"Well, at least you two have stopped laughing," said Remus, not opening his eyes, "I think I may have killed you if you didn't."

********

"I hate OWLs," said Marlene. As Easter drew closer, and the weather drew warmer, the fifth years were forced to stay inside and revise as there was not long before their OWL exams.

Marlene was generally good in most of her subjects, but she had nothing on Lily, who was naturally good at everything that she tried. Lily's revision habits had annoyed Marlene so much that she had opted to revise with Sirius instead.

The boy's laid back attitude meant that he was doing little work and spent most of the time trying to entertain himself in weird and wonderful ways, which provided an excellent excuse for Marlene to not do as much revision as she should be doing.

"I hate them to," Sirius nodded as he bewitched a fly to zoom over to where Remus sat at the other side of the common room, and buzz in his ear so that the boy swatted it with his hand, "I mean, look how sunny it is!"

Indeed, it was one of the first properly sunny days of the year. Most of the Gryffindors were enjoying the sun and were outside in the grounds, leaving the common room full of fifth and seven years, all immersed in revision for OWLs or NEWTs.

"You know what," Marlene threw her quill down, "let's just give up and go outside."

"I agree whole heartedly with proposal," Sirius grinned widley.

The two abandoned their books and hurried out of the common room, Marlene could feel the eyes of Lily and Remus (both of whom had been the ones encouraging them all to do as much revision as possible) on them. But she didn't care, she just wanted to be outside.