A Marauder's Guide to Falling in Love

Chapter Twenty Three

The next morning Marlene awoke without a concern for the previous night's worries and had nearly forgotten about it entirely until she had reached the common room with the girls and Sirius wasn't anywhere in sight.

He was usually waiting for her in his usual place by the fire but a quick glance over there indicated that none of the marauder boys were within the vicinity of the common room. She opted to wait a few extra minutes before Lily pointed out that they might still be sleeping.

"It's already eight thirty," Mary said doubtfully to this statement and even Lily had to shamefully admit that it didn't quite seem plausible for them to have all overslept so late.

"Let's just go down for breakfast," Marlene let out a sigh of frustration. She didn't want to be the cause of their tardiness and it seemed far more believable that the boys were probably already down in the great hall having breakfast. She didn't want to jump to any conclusions but the edge that she had been feeling the previous night had returned and she could feel the knot in her stomach growing tighter. "He probably just got tired of waiting for me."

Sure enough he was sitting at the table with the rest of the Gryffindor boys and Marlene hesitated before making her way to join them at the empty seats beside them.

"Good morning," she said hastily. She could instantly tell that he was in a bad mood because he barely looked up to acknowledge her and only mumbled an incoherent greeting in reply. He was slouched over his plate, stirring the food on it aimlessly with a sour look on his face.

Lily and Mary exchanged questioning looks with Marlene but she shrugged her shoulders in reply. She had absolutely no inclination as to what his issue was.

"You seem a bit off this morning," she whispered to him as she helped herself to some breakfast.

"Late night," was all he managed to reply in a gruff, annoyed tone that was unusually abnormal for Sirius's typical carefree behavior. It vaguely reminded her of the time that he had acted irritable during their potions class in the week leading up to the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff and she frowned. She didn't bother pointing out to him that she had been up even later than he apparently had and instead focused on the full glass of juice that she had poured herself.

"We should probably get to class," Remus noted not long after; the table had been subdued with an awkward silence that nobody seemed keen to break. "We're going to be late."

Marlene speedily removed herself from the table without even finishing her breakfast. She had planned to give him a little bit of space to calm down from whatever broodiness he had gotten himself into but she had been pleasantly surprised when he easily caught up to her stride to slide his hand into hers.

"In a bit of a hurry aren't you?" he asked curiously in regards to her sudden hasty departure from the great hall. She hadn't bothered waiting for him before making her way into the main hall in route of Charms.

"Don't want to be late," she lied easily and for once in her life he seemed to believe it.

Despite the immediate relief she had felt in that moment, it seemed to be short lived once they had arrived at their Charms classroom and Professor Flitwick had commenced class. The rest of the day seemed to go downhill from there and Marlene was less than impressed to discover that whatever bad mood he had been in previously, had carried over to the end of the day.

Sirius hadn't waited for her at the commencement of classes and was nowhere to be found in the confinements of the common room when she had arrived with Lily and Mary.

"He's acting strangely today," Marlene said apprehensively.

"You're overthinking it Marlene, it's just a coincidence," Lily tried to sound comforting with her assuredness. At the sight of the other three marauder boys enter in through the portrait hole to join them without the accompaniment of Sirius, Marlene could feel any sense of comfort that Lily had been able to provide her diminish.