A Marauder's Guide to Falling in Love

Chapter Twenty Two

"No need to get defensive," she said in an equally icy tenor. "I'm just merely making small talk with you. You looked lonely over here all by yourself and I thought you might enjoy some company."

"I was doing perfectly well without your company," Marlene couldn't help it; the words came flowing out before she had a chance to stop them. She knew that the polite thing would have been to thank her and ignore her underhanded remarks but she was too irritated with the girl's bad manners that she didn't even feel like she owed her any courtesy.

"That's too bad," she said, not sounding like she meant it at all. "When Sirius gets bored of you I thought it might be nice for you to have someone to talk to."

"You're delusional," Marlene laughed bitterly. "My relationship with Sirius is none of your concern."

"Right, well don't say I didn't warn you," Natasha smirked ominously. "I've seen him in action before, it's always the same; flirtatious, gorgeous smiles and witty banter until you're head over heels and then when he's got you cornered and trapped under his glorious spell, he drops you like your yesterday's news."

Marlene didn't even bother watching as the girl removed herself from the table and sauntered over to the table across the room where she had come from. She could hear hurried whispers from the general direction and assumed that she had, no doubt, gone back to report her findings to her friends.

Getting back on track with the essay was even more difficult than Marlene had hoped it would be. She knew that putting too much thought into her encounter with Natasha was doing more harm than good and no doubt had been intended to get under her skin. Lily seemed to agree with that notion when she finally joined her in the library fifteen minutes later and she had quickly filled her in.

"She's probably just trying to push your buttons," Lily said with a quick glance to the table filled with Hufflepuff girls across the room. "They don't seem concerned with you at all, I'm sure by now the topic has long been forgotten and you're the only one dwelling on it."

"I know," Marlene said with annoyance. "She's distracted me from my essay now."

"Don't let her get to you," she smiled empathetically. "She's probably just jealous. You saw how she fawned all over him during the O.W.L.s last year. And you know she must be trying to stir the pot, I've never seen Sirius date anyone before so she must be making things up to get under your skin."

"I know," Marlene sighed. She tried to push the thought from her head and instead concentrated harder on Lily's most recent prefect meeting.

"I really think I stand a chance at getting Head Girl next year," she said with such excitement that it was hard for Marlene not to give her anything but undivided attention. "Professor McGonagall hinted very heavily that she's extremely impressed with me."

"Of course she is," Marlene laughed. Lily had an ego but she was always seeking out reassurance.

When the two of them left the library Marlene had to force herself to ignore the frenzy of giggles that erupted from the table in the back corner where she knew Natasha Madley to be sitting. The only sense of appreciation she had was when she heard Madam Pince ream them out for obtrusive misconduct and threaten to kick them out of the library if they couldn't control themselves.

James and Sirius were studying in the common room in a different space than they usually occupied. Normally they liked to situate themselves out in the open around the fireplace as it was a good center point in the room and they no doubt liked the attention they received when they were there. However, this evening they were shoved into a far back corner, keeping much quieter than normal and Marlene would have missed the fact that they were there if she hadn't been paying closer attention.

"I think I'm going to visit Sirius for a bit," Marlene said a bit nervously to the girls when they had joined Mary who had claimed the couches by the fire.

"Don't put too much more thought into what Natasha said," Lily said sternly as she shot a look over towards the direction of Sirius. "She's trying to get to you."

Marlene left Lily to fill in a questioning Mary and instead made her way over to the table that James and Sirius had occupied. She pulled up a chair beside him and he shot his eyes up to glance at her, giving her a brief smile before delving back into his essay.

"A bit late to be working on that isn't it?" she had craned her head over the paper to see what he was working on and noticed that it was the Herbology essay that was due the next morning. She had finished hers nearly two weeks ago and was surprised to see how late they had both left it.

"Been a bit busy," Sirius said gruffly without peeling his eyes away from the paper.

Marlene felt guilty. Sirius had been spending so much time helping her with her transfiguration she hoped that it wasn't because of her that he was falling behind. However, that excuse couldn't be used for James who seemed to be working on the same piece of homework and she wondered what other reasons they could have had for such procrastination.

"I don't really know how long I'm going to be," he said with a bit of edge to his voice. He sounded almost impatient, as if he was annoyed that she was hovering around his work station.

Not wanting to be a distraction for him she excused herself from the table to rejoin Lily and Mary by the fire. He barely acknowledged when she removed herself from his presence and she couldn't help but feel the slightest twinge of annoyance towards him for it. She knew that she was probably reading into it too much because of her previous conversation with Natasha; Sirius was busy writing a last minute essay, he was bound to requiring his pure focus on the task and she would be selfish to deny him that right because of her own insecurities.

"You're back quicker than I anticipated," Lily said with surprise as Marlene sank down into the seat beside her.

"Busy working on homework," she waved her hands in the air dismissively. Lily and Mary looked shocked at the thought of James and Sirius working on homework. "Yes they do actually do homework!"

She didn't feel like sharing Sirius's rough interaction with her as she knew that both Lily and Mary would assure her that she was overanalyzing things so instead she brushed it off like it was nothing and attempted to let it slip from her mind. After about a half hour of random discussion in which Marlene did not feel inclined to want to dwell too much more on the conversation she had had with Natasha, Lily spent the majority of the time going over the same prefect story that she had shared earlier in the evening as Mary had not been present for it. Marlene felt herself growing tired of the conversation so she opted to spend another portion of the evening continuing on with her forgotten potions essay.

Despite the hitch she had experienced earlier with being unable to concentrate on its completion, she had found a renewed sense of attentiveness to her paper. She scribbled away fiercely until Mary tapped her should to indicate that it was time to head to bed.

"Is it really that late already?" she asked incredulously. She glanced over to the clock and was completely shocked to discover that it was already nearly eleven o'clock. "I should say goodnight to Sirius before I head up. I'll meet you both upstairs?"

"I think Sirius already went to bed," Mary said uncertainly. She pointed over towards the table that the two boys had been sitting earlier and Marlene was shocked to see that it was completely empty. In fact, nearly the entire common room was deserted and the two boys were nowhere to be seen.

Marlene scowled slightly and she felt her frustration return. It was one thing for him to work on school work and wish to be left alone, but she would have appreciated his decency to at least say goodnight to her before he had departed.

"You didn't see him leave?" Marlene asked as she packed up her school things. Both Lily and Mary shook their head; they had also been too engrossed in their own respective studies to pay attention to much else.

With a heavy sigh, Marlene picked herself up from the couch and joined the girls on their way to the dormitory trying desperately hard not to exert too much frustration on something so insignificant. Natasha's words clung to her thoughts like fresh paint and she had to mentally remind herself that her mind was just overreacting and she would see Sirius tomorrow who would confirm she was being unnecessarily insecure.