A Marauder's Guide to Falling Together

Chapter One

The sun beamed in through the half closed curtains. Light scattered across the wooden floor, pooling at the edge of the metal framework of the bed that lay tucked away neatly in the corner of her new bedroom. The room, apart from the streak of sunlight, was dim from a lack of muggle electricity, and was silent as Marlene lay contentedly sprawled out across the cool covers.

Marlene had been doing a rather decent job at avoiding her days outside. If possible, her skin had paled even slightly more than could be considered healthy, and she was constantly battling with her Uncle Tom on whether or not she was ill because of it.

She had been home for summer holidays for just over a month and had been content to do nothing but spend her days curled up in bed, or on the couch reading or daydreaming about nothing in particular.

She knew that she was being silly; trapping herself indoors so that she could avoid the sun was one thing, but she knew that that was not the real reason why she refused to step outside the confinements of the house.

After she had arrived in Godric's Hollow she had had little to distract her thoughts from Sirius.

She was at first irritated with the notion that James Potter had been right. After awhile, it became painfully evident that there was a reason why he was one of the top students of their year; he was definitely much smarter than he would let up, and the conversation they had shared in the library a few months prior was enough evidence to convince her that his common sense could quite easily match his ego.

I don't think Sirius is the only guilty party here, McKinnon. Perhaps you should mull that over for a while. His voice still rang sharply in her ears and stung like a fresh wound each time she replayed the words in her memory.

After awhile she managed to realize that her normally level headedness had gone awry on Sirius after she had confronted him about Remus. The truth, she discovered, was that he really did have good reason to be angry towards her for her actions, and it was completely unfair for her to blame him solely for what had transpired between them.

She was still adamant that he had mishandled his behavior towards her; she was not an emotional punching bag, and his moodiness towards her in the weeks leading up to the full moon was not just. However, she had dug her nose into business that was not her own, putting herself and others in danger, and for that he had had every right to be cross with her.

The worst realization that had finally sunk in about a week after she had allowed herself to actually mull things over, was that Sirius had tried to reconcile with her, tried to explain, and she had shot him down the opportunity because she was too absorbed with herself.

Initially she had found comfort in the belief that by avoiding Sirius, this indicated that she was 'moving on' from their breakup. She had been fooling herself into believing that.

Perhaps it was a mask to cover up the insecurities she truly felt about the whole ordeal, something she was beginning to come to terms with the more she dwelled on it. She had allowed herself to open herself up to him during a time that she was most vulnerable, and in a moment of self sabotage she had found every excuse imaginable not to let him back in.

Of course this conclusion didn't offer Marlene any comfort. She knew that she still cared deeply for Sirius and that she had made a terrible and rash mistake with how she had handled things. She knew that she had caused irrevocable damage to their relationship, and she didn't know how to move forward. She should be so lucky if he decided to ever give her the time of day again after the way she pushed him away, literally, during their last encounter.

So as the summer days passed, and Uncle Tom had insisted each day that she get out and socialize with the neighborhood kids, Marlene had managed to use up every imaginable excuse in the book as to why she couldn't possibly go outside. She was sure that he was finally starting to catch on to her antics as he had finally stopped pushing the suggestion, and for that she had been thankful.