A Marauder's Guide to Falling in Love

Chapter Nineteen

"So let me get this straight," Mary had leaned across the library table so that she could lower her voice. Madam Pince had already given them a warning look for being too loud once since they had arrived and Lily was adamant that she needed the library surroundings to concentrate on her studies. "You were accosted by Peeves, thus why you showed up to lunch looking as if you had taken a swim in the great lake, and then in the passionate moment of escaping said accoster, Black kisses you only to be pelted insults and engage in a hexing war with Snivellus and his minions?"

Lily let out a protesting noise as if she still felt the need to defend the boy that she had once considered her friend.

"Sorry," Mary rolled her eyes, "Snape and his minions?"

"Essentially, yes," Marlene smiled shyly at the memory. She had managed to avoid their questioning glances all afternoon but after dinner while studying in the library she had been unable to avoid them any longer. She questioned how the two of them must have looked as they walked into the great hall for lunch late and soaking wet. They had completely forgotten to perform a drying spell before their entrance. Marlene had insisted to her friends that she was not prepared to discuss the details where the Marauders had a chance of overhearing. She figured that the library was a safe alternative for their discussion.

"Your life sure bleeds romance, doesn't it?" Mary said humorously and even Lily cracked a smile.

"So now what?" Lily asked curiously. The girls had absorbed themselves in quizzing each other on the fundamental properties of non-verbal spells for their Defense Against the Dark Arts class which had comprised the majority of their evening.

"I don't know," Marlene said feeling defeated. "I really like him but I'm worried I'm moving too quickly."

"How do you figure you're moving too quickly?" Lily gave her a puzzled look. "You've had feelings for him for a while now, whether or not you realized this and I thought we had agreed that the relationship with Bert was over long before you ended it."

"I'm not referring to that," Marlene said with embarrassment.

"Then what are you referring to?"

"My parents..." Marlene trailed off. She had been doing well at diverting her focus to other matters which mostly comprised of school work. Personal matters, such as the breakup with Bert and her aforementioned feelings for Sirius had come in a close second but there were still the regular occurring nightmares and brief periods of time during the day that her focus drifted off back into a depressive yearning for their presence.

"Oh Marlene," Lily looked ghastly mortified as if she had neglected to acknowledge her friends grief at all. It was one of the reasons why Marlene rarely brought up their death, even when she was dying to talk about it.

"I don't want sympathy," Marlene said bluntly. Lily's face flickered momentarily with grief before she closed her mouth to whatever comment she had been planning to make. "And I most certainly am not looking for pity. I am merely stating that I have gone through a severely traumatic, life-changing event and I don't want to pursue the idea of a relationship on the off chance that I'm looking for a distraction."

"I don't think you'd be using him as a distraction from your grief," Mary chimed into the conversation. She looked deep in thought for a moment before continuing, "But even if you were, he is a quite good looking distraction."

Mary was blushing slightly as she said this but she hid her face quickly into the textbook at the table to avoid any persecution. Marlene looked at her with surprise but it was Lily who swatted her arm dolefully.

"Mary!"

"What?" Mary looked between the two girls innocently, "I'm allowed to think he's good looking! And he is. He's extremely good looking!"