"Hey Marlene," she looked up from the food in front of her to watch Patrick slide into the seat across the table from her. It was lunch time and she hadn't seen him since his outburst a few days prior.
"Hi," she replied with apprehension. He seemed to be in a much better mood than when they had last interacted.
"How are you doing?" he sounded sincere, and Marlene came to the conclusion that he would not bite her head off.
"Oh I'm alright," she shrugged, stabbing her salad with her fork.
"You don't really seem alright," he called her out. Marlene glanced up to note the crease between his eyebrows as he studied her.
"No?" she replied. "How about you, then? Have you gotten over whatever had you all riled up the other day?"
"I was a bit of a jerk, wasn't I?" he reached his hand up to run it through his hair and smiled weakly. "I'm sorry about that."
"It's not just me that you should be apologizing to," Marlene mumbled, going back to her salad.
"I've already spoken with Martha and a few other healers, but yes I will make sure that I apologize to everyone else that was affected by my behaviour," he said. "I hope that it didn't ruin consideration for making Spell Damage your specialty. How do you like it anyways?"
"What do you mean?" Marlene looked up at him again and he was watching her carefully.
"I mean, do you think it's a place you'd like to end up when you're done with all the other units? I think you'd be a natural fit in the department."
"Oh, uh," Marlene bit her lip and contemplated. So far she didn't really think that she had been succeeding enough to warrant his compliment. She definitely would not be choosing to pick Potion and Plant Poisoning as her specialty, that much she knew.
"I'm not really sure yet," she said instead. His face fell noticeably.
"There's still time to decide," he said. "It's too bad that we won't get to see each other at work anymore though."
"Yeah," Marlene gave him a weak smile, hoping that she did not appear deceitful. She felt a mixture of sadness and relief. As much as she heeded Sirius's caution towards him, and was herself weary about the obvious feelings that he displayed towards her, Marlene did enjoy spending time with him.
"So it's almost the end of term," he continued as though he had been working towards this part of the conversation ever since he sat down to join her. "We never did go and get that drink."
"I guess I've just been really busy," she laughed nervously. She had nearly forgotten about his suggestion nearly three months ago. Thinking about spending more time hanging out with Patrick, especially outside of the hospital, made her remember her recent conversation with Sirius.
"Well what are you doing this weekend? Term will be finished and you'll have a week before your next placement starts," he suggested.
Marlene could feel her insides squirming at the thought. She did like Patrick; at least the version that she knew, not the one that Sirius and James did. But she liked Patrick as a friend, and she couldn't help but feel that he did not reciprocate the feeling in a platonic sense.
"Um I'm not sure," she dug her fork around in the salad nervously. She didn't want to be rude.
"Are you worried about Black?" his tone changed at the mention of Sirius. "Are you two still together then?"
"Yes," Marlene was quiet. "I'm not sure that he'd be happy about that."
"So he controls what you do?" Patrick's tone was flat. His lips had drawn into a thin line and he drummed his fingers on the table top in front of himself impatiently.
"He does not control me," Marlene felt a flare of irritation. "I respect his feelings on this. Cleary by the way you two dislike each other so much, I would hope you could understand how awkward this is for me."
"I'm not trying to cause trouble in your relationship," he sighed and his fingers stopped tapping the table. "I'm sorry. I just enjoy spending time with you, and I thought it would be nice to see you outside of the hospital for once. I hate that I have to worry about stepping on his toes in order to do that."
"Why don't you like Sirius?" Marlene felt a surge of boldness.
He looked surprised. Marlene hadn't consciously planned to ask him, but it seemed like a fitting question given the current conversation. She already knew Sirius's side of the story; it would be nice to hear Patrick's version also.
"He hasn't told you that?" he asked wearily.
"I'm not asking why he doesn't like you, I'm asking why you don't like him."
"Fair enough," he seemed contemplative. "As I'm sure you already know, we hung around in very different crowds. I was in Slytherin and heavily pressured by my friends at the time to be a certain version of myself that I'm not proud of."
"Like Narcissa Malfoy and Evan Rosier?"
"Yes," his expression was stony. "But I'm not anymore. I haven't seen any of them since graduation nearly five years ago. "
"So you don't like Sirius because of his cousins then?" Marlene pressed further.
"Primarily, yes. But he and Potter strutted around the school and Godric's Hollow like they owned the place," he continued. Marlene couldn't entirely argue with him on that point; they really had. "The Gryffindor versus Slytherin mentality combined with the pressure by my friends to hate him, plus his own arrogance just created a feeling of hostility."
"And that's it?"
"He told you about the Hollow, didn't he?" Patrick scowled. "Some friends and I were messing around in the town square and I dared one of them to climb this ledge. It was a stupid and immature thing to do, and he ended up falling and shattering his leg bones. Black came running out of nowhere trying to hex me. He claimed that I had him under the imperius curse; like he couldn't believe that a teenage boy could naturally submit to doing something reckless without being under the influence of magic."
Patrick wasn't denying the situation had happened, just the circumstances around how. She wanted to believe Patrick's version but she knew that would come at the cost of thinking Sirius had been lying. Or maybe he was just seriously misinformed. She knew that she could never confront him about it though. Not right now.
"That's terrible," she finally replied.
"Yes, well," he grinned. "It brought me here. I spent seventh year trying much harder to get perfect N.E.W.T.s to get into the healer training program and the rest is history."
"I'm glad to see you turned your life around," she smiled half-heartedly. She didn't want to bring up James' mention of him hitting his sister, Rose, and it didn't appear that Patrick was planning to reveal much more on the subject willingly.
"Speaking of training," he glanced at the clock. "I think it's time to get back to work."
And he was right. They had been talking and Marlene had completely forgotten that her break had been nearing its end. She hurriedly cleaned up her space and the two of them walked side by side towards the fourth floor unit.
"I hope you'll at least consider my offer," he stopped just outside of the wings doors and Marlene turned to look at him. He was looking very sadly at her with his big brown eyes as though silently trying to guilt her into accepting his invitation. Marlene couldn't help but feel he was extremely cute looking like that, and she had to hold back a giggle. Horrified, she mentally slapped herself for thinking such a thought.
"I will think about it," she lied.
Yeah, there was no way it was going to happen.
**
A/N: Thank you readers for taking the time to check out my latest chapter. Don't forget to vote and review if you enjoyed it! ❤️
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A Marauder's Guide to Falling Apart
Fanfiction"So we're alone," he said slowly. "That's a thoughtful observation," she whispered. She could feel her fingertips tremble slightly as they clasped around his hair. She didn't know why she suddenly felt so nervous. She moved her hands and allowed her...
