A Marauder's Guide to Falling Forever

Chapter Fifteen

"Peter?" Marlene wiped at one of her eyes, trying to rid herself of the tears that had collected but not yet spilled. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here with some people from work. Are you okay?" He was looking at her with genuine concern. Marlene didn't know Peter very well, he had always kept to himself at Hogwarts even when she had begun to hang around with him and his friends. But even though he was quiet, he had always been kind.

"Yeah I'm fine," she lied. "I'm just trying to find Emmeline so that we can leave."

"Is Sirius here with you?" Peter's brows pinched together, contemplative or confused, she couldn't be certain.

"No. I haven't seen Sirius in a few weeks."

"Oh." He brought the bottle he was holding in his hand to his mouth to take a drink. "I just thought maybe you guys were talking again."

"Why would you think that?" She hadn't seen Peter since the last Order meeting so she wasn't certain how he would draw such a conclusion. It wasn't like she spoke to any of her other friends often either, not even Lily. They had been rather distant with one another ever since – well, since she left.

"He's just been distant lately. I haven't seen him much either. But when I do he's pretty moody." He dropped his voice and leaned in to whisper, "I didn't think he was doing specific Order business." Back to regular volume. "So I figured that he was spending all his time with you and just moody because you were fighting or he was worried about you." Then suddenly he looked sheepish, "Sorry. Just with your history..."

Sirius was distant and moody? What did that mean?

"No, I don't know what he's been up to," she admitted, wishing that she did and ignoring the fact that Peter was bold enough to straight out remind her of her ongoing relationship issues with Sirius. He wasn't completely wrong.

"Hmmm," Peter frowned again. "Hopefully it's nothing. If you talk to him, maybe you can figure out if somethings bothering him. He won't talk to anyone, not me, not Remus. Even James is struggling to get through to him."

"Is that so?" Now Marlene's brain was focused on something other than Patrick. She was contemplating apparating over to Sirius's flat instead of going home when a delicate finger tapped her on the shoulder. Startled out of her thoughts, Marlene spun around.

"Hi," Rose said, smiling. Her cold demeanor had vanished. Then she glanced over Marlene's shoulder, which wasn't difficult because she was so tall. "Oh hello Peter!"

"You too know each other?" Marlene asked, confused.

"We work with one another," Peter admitted, blushing slightly. Marlene could see why; Rose was gorgeous and her veela like qualities would be alluring to any man that looked her way.

"I just wanted to check and see how you were doing," Rose continued, directing her attention back to Marlene. "I am sorry about Patrick. He's been rather stressed lately, and I'm afraid he's made a few bad decisions lately. Not that that makes what he did right, but as I'm sure you have guessed he has had feelings for a while. It hasn't been easy on him waiting around to see if you felt the same way."

"I don't," Marlene grumbled, her eyes still unable to look away from the flawless features of Rose's face.

"Yes, yes, I think that was made abundantly clear. I do hope that you are alright." She tucked a piece of blonde hair behind her ear and it seemed to shimmer. Marlene averted her eyes out of fear she was staring rudely.

"I'll be fine. I just need to find my friend and get out of here," she repeated what she had said to Peter.

"Actually there is something else I'd like to talk to you about if you aren't in a terrible hurry?" Rose took a step closer and suddenly the heavy scent of her floral perfume clouded Marlene's senses.