CHERRY // marlene mckinnon

-thirty four

"Hey Marls, pass me a butterbeer will ya?" James probably shouldn't have asked that, seeing as it made Marlene more annoyed.

"Oh you want a butterbeer? Well I'll give you a damn butterbeer—"

"Woah! Okay Marls, let's just calm down, alright? We don't need to get sent to Azkaban for the murder of one of our closest friends now do we?" Alice being, well, Alice, quickly rushed over to Marlene before she seriously injured James.

"Alright, let's get this party started now shall we?" Sirius yelled, turning the music up louder.

One hour later.

"So, it's broken."

"It's broken." Sirius repeated what James had said as they stood around the chandelier that fell and broke as a result of their recklessness.

"And whose fault is that?" Lily questioned, raising her eyebrows. Well it wasn't really a question since she was staring right at James.

"Oh come on don't look at me!" James groaned. "My excuse is that I was pretty drunk. We all are."

"And for that reason, nobody told you to swing on the fucking chandelier. What were you even thinking?!" Lily's voice raised at James, which hadn't happened in quite a while since the two seemed to be on good terms.

"Well what I was thinking was that it could probably carry me. And it would've made for a great photo." James tried to excuse his actions, but Lily wasn't having it.

"Here we go again with the bickering." Marlene sighed before turning to Alice. "Hey Alice, where's the rest of the popcorn. I think I'm going to need it."

"Who wants to go out for a smoke while these two sort all of whatever that's going on, out?" Sirius suggested, earning a 'yes!' from Marlene.

The two went outside and the 'argument' between James and Lily could still be heard from there.

"Finally some fresh air." Marlene said, taking in all of the fresh air outside.

Sirius took two cigarettes from the box and passed one to Marlene. He then pulled out his lighter to light them.

"Your lighter, it looks very similar to the one your sister has." Marlene pointed out, just noticing the resemblance.

"Yeah, I got them both for the two of us. I actually bought three, one for the each of us, including Reg." Sirius explained, taking another drag from his cigarette. "But him being mummy's perfect little boy didn't want to smoke. Dunno what he did with it at this point."

"I actually saw her a couple of weeks ago." Marlene started, gaining Sirius's attention. "Yeah, Lily and I were out shopping and we happened to see her in one of the shops. It was quite awkward to say the least." Marlene continued.

"How uh- how was she?" Sirius genuinely asked. He hadn't spoken to Aurora since their last conversation at Hogwarts, and he didn't want to send a letter just in case Walburga or Orion found it.

"She seemed to be doing okay. But I don't think she was telling the truth." Marlene answered, recalling that day.

"What do you mean?" Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"Well she seemed quite tense if I'm being honest. And she mentioned your parents and their reaction to, well everything that happened this past year." Marlene blew out the smoke, watching it dance in the air until it eventually faded away.

"Oh don't remind me of them." Sirius groaned, even just the thought of his so called parents made him want to throw up. "They are probably two of the most horrible people I've met."

"They're really that bad, huh?" Marlene wondered.

"They're homophobic blood supremacists. So yes, they are that bad, if not worse." Sirius explained.
"You're lucky, you know that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well for starters, you were born into a normal and non-dysfunctional family." Sirius started. "I mean your parents also don't mind that you like girls."

"The only reason they 'don't mind' is because they still don't really understand the whole concept of it." Marlene laughed. "At first they thought it was a phase, I mean, I kind of did too."

"I think we all did. With the girls I've been with, it just never really felt right. But with Rem— er guys, it's different." Sirius explained, grateful that he didn't accidentally say a specific person's name.

But Marlene had already caught onto it and smirked. "You mean with Remus."

"What?! I said no such thing!" Sirius quickly tried to cover it up.

"You know, I don't know why you two even try to deny or hide it. Well from us at least." Marlene sighed, just to finally get a reaction out of him. "I mean Remus gets red even by the smallest mention of you. And you get, well, like this whenever someone mentions him."

"Like what? What's that supposed to mean?" Sirius said, which earned him an all-knowing look from Marlene. "Okay fine, maybe I do get a bit defensive at times."

"A bit?"

"Fine, a lot. It's just— well— I mean it's not that I'm ashamed of him or anything but it's just that when we're together, it's like we're in our own little bubble, you know? And it's just the two of us. No friends making a big deal, no people saying things, just me and him." Sirius didn't even realize that he had said that all in one breath. "Wow, that was deep."

"That it was." Marlene responded, still in a small state of shock at the fact that Sirius had shown even a bit of vulnerability. He usually played everything off with a joke, but not this.

The two smoked in silence for a few more minutes, but like always, that silence didn't last. It was followed by a very angry Lily screaming at James for something else he had done to make matters worst.

"And that's our cue to go." Marlene dragged Sirius inside alongside her, hoping that James wasn't dead before they even went back in.

*****

Heyy, how are y'all doing? Anyways, here's another mediocre chapter that I don't know how to feel about LMAO.

Also, I'm trying to show some other people's perspectives (mainly Marlene's) and we get some ✨wolfstar✨ mentions ;)

Anyways my school is going online from this week up until winter break ends because there are new cases at the other buildings that are a part of my school. So let's hope that it's not a repeat of the last "break" and quarantine we had because we all know what happened after that-
But I watched No Way Home a couple of days ago and omg, it was so good, although I did cry like every two scenes LMAO. But If you are able to watch it, I highly recommend it, it's so good (and emotional) !

I feel like this book is flopping big time at this point but I hope y'all enjoy this chapter.

Stay safe and have a nice day/night ! <3