A Marauder's Guide to Falling Apart

Chapter Nineteen

The Christmas holidays were over before Marlene could blink an eye. She begrudgingly took her test to get her apparition license after Sirius pointed out that she had been doing it successfully for the last month. Despite her hesitation, she had successfully passed on the first attempt. It had been something to celebrate as the holiday season wrapped up and the return to school loomed closer.

The only thing she could look forward to about returning to St. Mungo's was the fact that she would not be returning to the Potion and Plant Poisoning unit. Or more specifically, she would not have to endure being under Donna's direct supervision ever again.

Sirius had taken a few days off from pursuing Order business which made it all that more unbearable for her to roll out of bed the first morning of training and return to St. Mungo's.

"I was wondering if you had moved out." Emmeline was sipping a cup of something steaming when Marlene walked into the kitchen.

"Hah," she said dryly. She had spent the better part of the last week over at Sirius's flat and had not seen Emmeline in a number of days; how many she couldn't be certain.

"Do you know where you're moving to next in rotation?" she changed the subject but not before returning a wry smile and raising her eyebrows suggestively. Marlene ignored the gesture while preparing herself some toast.

"No, the notice should be posted already at the hospital. Likely it's been there for a while now but I couldn't stand the thought of going in early over the break to check it."

"I'm hoping you'll get placed in Creature Induced Injuries, that way I might actually get to see you once in a while."

"Oh shove it," Marlene said, trying her best not to flush. "I wasn't gone that long."

Emmeline was laughing though. With all of the tension she had endured over the holidays it was nice to hear her laughter break through it. She spent the remainder of her breakfast listening to her friend talk about all of the recent happenings at the hospital over the previous week. It wasn't until she had swallowed the last remnants of her toast that she realized Emmeline was still dressed in her pajamas.

"Day off?" she questioned before raising a glass of orange juice to her lips.

"Yes and it's about time," Emmeline swatted a strand of hair that had fallen into her face. Marlene observed that she had recently cut her hair much shorter than usual, but her bangs still hung low enough to be considered a nuisance.

"You should cut those," she said absently. Emmeline shrugged; she had never been one to worry that much about appearances, and Marlene presumed that she didn't care all that much to put any more effort than was necessary. 

"I can think of much better uses of my time than worry about cutting more of my hair," she rolled her eyes.

"You're a witch," Marlene said pointedly, eyes narrowing slightly. "It would take you less than ten seconds."

"Yes but that's still ten seconds longer I could put towards doing absolutely nothing."

Marlene couldn't resist rolling her eyes.

**

The hospital was very busy when Marlene arrived. She was partly relieved to be back, but also quite nervous. She had been enjoying the time she had had with Sirius over the previous week and didn't want to go back to her regular routine out of fear that it would pull them apart again.

But Sirius assured her that he was going to make more time for her, and she promised not to be so angry about his need to put the Order at a higher priority from time to time. When she had a clearer head it was easy for her to see that distracting Sirius with her petty anger could have serious, if not life ending, consequences in his line of work. She knew that she would need to try to understand a little bit harder.