When Lemon Meets Smoke

dates secured

December 15th, 1976

-Marlene-

"Marls, you can do it."

"Don't be a wuss."

"Just ask her when she gets here."

Lily, Adelaide, and Mary were in the midst of hyping Marlene up to go secure herself a date for the ball. 

"Okay but what if she says no?" Marlene hissed at her friends while continuing to scan the Great Hall for a head of dark brown curls.

"Then you ask Bell, she's always shown an interest in you," Adelaide replied with a wink.

"But don't worry about that, she won't say no," Lily replied with a small warning glare to Adelaide.

"Well now is your chance to find out," Mary spoke up. "Maybe not... looks like Cerleny got to her first."

The four girls all looked over to see the smiling face of Dorcas Meadowes practically skipping into the Great Hall only to be stopped by a Hufflepuff boy that seemed quite nervous to be speaking to her.

"You have got to be kidding me," Marlene groaned as she watched Dorcas smile and hug the boy. 

Adelaide and Lily exchanged worried glances as Marlene began to hit her head on the table. 

"What is going on?" James whispered to Adelaide as he, along with the other three boys, slid into their respective seats. 

"Why is McKinnon hitting her head on the table?" Sirius piped up as he shot the obviously irritated girl a weary look.

"Did you do anything new to piss her off?" Peter asked with a raised eyebrow towards his friend.

Sirius shook his head, "No... not that I am aware of..." He met Adelaide's eyes, "I didn't do anything right?" 

The blonde chuckled lightly, "For once, her frustration isn't with you... you've been quite well behaved." Sirius smiled slightly at her words.

"Still an arse... an arse with stupid hair..." Marlene mumbled as she continued with her self-inflicted pain, while James and Peter snickered at her words. 

Remus took off the jumper he was wearing over his white button-up. Balling it up, the werewolf then placed it under Marlene's head to soften the consistent blows to her forehead as she was still banging her head against the wood. 

"She's just a bit... uh..." Mary looked at the other two girls in hope of the proper word to use.

"Agitated?" 

"Annoyed?"

"Crabby?"

Lily, Adelaide, and James all replied in synch. 

Marlene snapped her head up and glared at the bespectacled boy, "I. Am. Not. Crabby."

Potter only smirked, "I got you to stop abusing the table though, didn't I?"

The brunette was about to spit out a comeback when her name was called.

"Marlene!"

The whole group turned to look at the approaching Meadowes girl who had a bright smile on her face. 

"Hey!" Marlene replied as she shot the entire group a warning message to not speak of her previous behavior to which they all silently agreed.

Dorcas slid into the seat to Marlene's left and began talking at a quick pace."I found a dress I really liked, it's light blue but it does have some other colors on it... it's very pretty... anyways. I was wondering if blue will match with your outfit for the ball or if it will clash. I can always make the dress another color if you don't want to match it with blue... the dress would look nice in yellow I think-"