𝐿𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒

Rushed Celebrations

"Counter all your quick remarks, like passing notes in secrecy..."

Marlene was the youngest in the octet. She had been sixteen for the entirety of the summer. Until now. On the day that Euphemia had chosen to kick everyone out, Marlene turned seventeen.

Sirius had made sure Euphemia wouldn't be allowed to dismiss the group before then. He said it was his job as her boyfriend to give her a spectacular birthday. Euphemia once again caved as she remembered what it had been like to once be seventeen.

On August 12, Marlene woke up to dog panting. At least, that's what it sounded like to her semi-awake self. It took a minute for her eyes to focus, but once they did, she saw a shaggy black dog with slobber about to drip onto her face.

For a moment, she did not know what was going on. Marlene probably could've woken up the other girls because of how loud she shrieked. It was a good thing they were heavy sleepers.

After about a minute of her throwing pillows at what she thought was a stray dog and him dodging them, Sirius turned back.

"Merlin woman! Pillows?"

Marlene was now the one panting with a rather confused look on her face.

The thing Sirius forgot was that the Marauders hadn't shown their animagi forms to the girls. This would've been why she was throwing pillows at him.

"Have I never shown you my dog form before?" Sirius asked.

"No! I thought there was some random stray dog in my room! I'm not even going to ask why you found that necessary, you could've just woken me up like a normal person!" Marlene was talking in excited whispers, perfectly pronouncing every syllable in the process.

"Babe, you should know by now that I am not normal." Sirius replied dragging her by her hand out the door and down the stairs.

"That's good because normal is boring. Anyway, where are we going?"

He opened the back door, with the sky still being pitch black. The sky itself wasn't clear and it would probably rain later in the day, but Marlene was not looking at the sky. She was looking at the blanket set up with ice cream and toppings on top of it.

"Food is the best gift you could've chosen to give me," she said as she excitedly sat down on the blanket.

"That's not all that I got you," Sirius said mysteriously and pulled a small white box out of his pocket.

Inside was a golden snitch necklace that Marlene figured out opened to let a piece of scrunched up paper fall out. It read: I'm in love with you McKinnon, but you already would know that. Wear this to remind you, even when I don't.

...

Many hours of countering quick remarks, stargazing, eating mountains of ice cream, and speaking of the near (or far depending on how you looked at it) future, turned into the two teens returning inside to a kitchen smelling of the sweetest aroma.

There in the center of it all was Euphemia, working away over the oven with a floured apron on and her long hair placed in a neat bun atop her head.

"I thought maybe cake for breakfast due to the special occasion. That sound okay?" Euphemia asked without even turning around, her motherly senses knowing full well who was behind her.

"You're like my second mother. I can't thank you enough and I would hug you if you weren't covered in flour," Marlene smiled as Sirius placed his arm around her.

Euphemia smiled back and the wrinkles around her eyes crinkled. Her biggest dream was having children, yet she never thought she would be able to. Things changed when she had James, now seventeen years later her house was full of them.