A Marauder's Guide to Falling in Love

Chapter Fourteen

She had finally managed to convince him to let Madam Pomfrey assess his injury. He had reluctantly pulled away from her and allowed himself to be taken back to the hospital wing where he was readily joined by the rest of his team mates. Marlene did not opt to join them and insisted that she would visit with him when the excitement of the match had calmed down.

By the time Marlene was ready to leave the field she had noticed that the stadium was nearly deserted. Even the Hufflepuff students that had crashed onto the pitch had slowly dissipated; no doubt to continue on the celebration in their common room. Marlene scanned around in search of Lily and Mary but they could not be seen. She assumed that they had already gone back to their own respective common room with the rest of their peers.

When she entered in through the portrait hole she was immediately met with an unbearably dreadful tension. Even if she had not attended the match it would have been painfully clear to her by the lack of enthusiastic chatter that their team had lost.

Lily and Mary were sitting in a corner by the window playing a game of muggle cards. Marlene began to make her way over to them when she caught sight of the boys. They were surrounding the fire place in complete silence. Peter and Remus looked like they would be happy elsewhere but nevertheless continued to support their friend's misery by sticking around. James and Sirius looked despondent. Marlene felt a small pang of pity as she observed the look on each of their faces.

James looked clearly more frustrated than anything. Marlene assumed it probably had to do with the fact that they had come so close to winning. A fact she felt almost guilty about as it was her boyfriend who had destroyed his efforts.

Boyfriend. The word still felt foreign to her and upon thinking it her eyes trailed automatically to Sirius.

Although clearly frustrated, he also looked defeated. He had been in such a foul mood the past couple of weeks and Remus's explanation earlier during the match about him going through some things suddenly floated into her mind. He definitely looked like he was elsewhere in the moment and she felt a sudden urge to comfort him.

She hesitated. She couldn't piece together the sudden overwhelming sensation she had to run over to him.

He must have sensed that she was looking at him as his eyes snapped up to meet hers. His expression didn't change but he also didn't seem quite as agitated to see her as he had in their Potions class the previous day.

Marlene smiled sympathetically at him and he looked away. Feeling slightly embarrassed that she had been caught she ignored her inner battle to speak with him and instead continued on her originally intended destination towards her friends.

"So?" Mary asked knowingly. Marlene assumed that they had probably witnessed the entire ordeal on the pitch. She didn't even try to hide it.

"He finally kissed me," she said blushingly.

"How was it?" Lily asked curiously. It appeared that they were playing the muggle game of 'go fish.'

Marlene contemplated for a moment. As much as she had enjoyed spending the last few weeks getting to know Bert better, she had been anticipating him making his first move. She had been progressively looking forward to it yet she couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed when it had. She didn't know how to express this to her friends and instead settled upon a slight shrug.

"It was okay I guess," she offered. Mary looked at her skeptically but Lily was smiling. Why was Lily smiling? Marlene wanted to wipe that smirk right off of her face.

"A first kiss shouldn't just be 'ok'," Mary said scandalized. She pouted as she handed over a pair of three's to Lily before slapping the rest of her cards down in defeat.