CHERRY // marlene mckinnon

-eleven

As the days turned into months, the weather started to get cold. And then, on the third of December, it snowed. The huge castle was covered in snow and the students were outside playing with the snow too. Aurora usually wasn't into these kinds of activities, but this day, she felt different.

And as soon as she stepped outside she got hit by a snowball. She turned around and saw Marlene. She had a smirk on her face after throwing the ball of snow.

"Oh so that's how you want to play, Mckinnon? Well two can play at that game." Aurora said.

She then made a few snowballs with her wand and started attacking Marlene.

"Hey, no fair! I didn't use my wand." Marlene said as she was running from Aurora.

They both started laughing and attacking each other. As Aurora was running away from Marlene, she tripped and fell into the snow. Marlene was caught off guard by her action and fell on top of her.

And there they were. Staring into each other's eyes. They both felt an indescribable feeling , similar to getting butterflies in your stomach.

The moment ended as Lily Evans could be heard calling Marlene.

"Sorry, duty calls." Marlene chuckled as she got up and helped Aurora up.

"It's fine, see you around." Aurora said as she waved goodbye.

Aurora still had that indescribable feeling.

What was it? What did it mean?

*****

"There you are!" Lily said as soon as Marlene walked towards her. "And why were you with Sirius' sister?"

"Oh, we're friends." Marlene simply replied.

"Just be careful. She is a Slytherin after all." Lily said.

"Lils, you shouldn't be talking. You were friends with Severus Snape up until last year." Marlene said.

"Fair enough." Lily replied, chuckling.

"So are you sure you two are just
friends....?" Lily asked again.

"Uhm, yes what else would we be." Marlene said. She felt awkward for some unknown reason.

"Oh i don't know, maybe something more." Lily said, not looking Marlene.

"What? Why do you think that?" Marlene asked, truly confused.

"Well for starters, maybe because  friends don't look at friends that way." Lily said again.

Just as Marlene was about speak, James and his friends came up to them.

"Why hello there, Lily." James said, smirking.

"What do you want, Potter?" Lily asked, but it came off rather rudely.

"Woah, no need to speak that way to your future boyfriend." James said, once again smirking.

"Aww. Well keep dreaming." Lily said, sounding nice at first, then her tone got serious.

"Anyways, moving on, we came here to tell you guys about the party in the Gryffindor common room on Friday. And all the houses are going to be there. And yes, sadly Slytherin too. But we decided, 'hey it's the holidays, so let's invite all the houses." Sirius said.

"Sounds nice, we'll be there!" Marlene said. She loved parties, and it didn't matter which house was there or not.

She just had to ask one specific person if they were coming or not.

"I'll be right back guys, I have to do something real quick." Marlene said as she left to find Aurora.

Lucky for her, Aurora was right across the yard, sitting on a bench.

"Hey." Marlene said as she reached her.

"Oh hi, your back!" Aurora said.

"So, I don't know if you've heard, but there's this party in the Gryffindor common room this friday, you should come. All the houses are invited." Marlene finally said.

"Parties aren't really my thing. It's too loud." Aurora replied.

"Come on, it'll be fun!" Marlene tried to convince her to come.

"Ugh, fine, I'll be there." Aurora chuckled.

"Great! Well, Lily's going to kill me for leaving her with James, so I've got to go again. Bye!" Marlene said.

"Bye!" Aurora replied.

When Marlene returned, Sirius was the first one to speak up.

"What we're you doing with her." Sirius asked, glancing at Aurora.

"Honestly, why do you care Sirius?" Marlene said, rolling her eyes.

"I don't. It's just that she's not usually the friendliest type." He said.

"Okay you two, cut it out." Remus said, before the two got in an actually fight.

"No, if anyone, it's Sirius that needs to cut it out and keep his nose out of other people's businesses!" Marlene said, as she pushed past Sirius and with that, she left.