fine line- harry styles
The early fall air was crisp and cool and clean, drawing many students of Hogwarts out to the pine covered mountains and sunny courtyards surrounding them. As usual on one of these perfect days, the shore of the Black Lake nearest to the castle with dozens of groups of students from all houses and years taking a break from their studies during lunch.
The breeze blowing through the leaves of a large oak tree made the five teenagers sitting underneath it shiver through their jackets and sweatshirts, and Hollis leaned into Remus's side to try and warm up more. And for the comfort of being close to him, obviously.
With quite a distance from Sirius, Marlene was having a staring contest with Peter, who seemed to have a hidden talent for the game it had taken him seventeen years to discover.
"They said they were going to be here twenty minutes ago," Peter pointed out once Marlene blinked her blue eyes finally. "What's taking them so long?"
With a small grin, Hollis took off her shoe and looked at the socks she was wearing. To her both amusement and shock, they were rapidly changing between the various colors she and Sirius had selected.
"Isn't it every time he says her name?" Marlene asked through laughter, and Sirius nodded.
"Okay, I am putting the shoe back on," Hollis declared. "That's disgusting."
Sirius started laughing at what Hollis had said as well, and for some reason, this made Marlene abruptly stop.
"Is everything alright?" Hollis asked the blonde girl softly. "You seem a little off."
Remus and Peter exchanged a nervous glance at their three friends in front of them and the tension building up. Thinking he had a pretty good idea about what was going on, Remus subtely gripped Hollis's hand on top of the grass.
Marlene's eyes narrowed cruelly at Hollis, seemingly uncharacteristic.
"No, everything is not alright, Hol," she spat, making the Rosier flinch back slightly into Remus. "You are causing so many more problems than you need to be right now."
Hollis brown eyes widened in confusion.
"What?" she asked, sliding away from Remus and towards Marlene. "What did I do?"
Marlene's eyes seemed to flicker between being angry and heartbroken and confused at the same time, making Hollis even more concerned.
"You and Sirius getting matching tattoos," she said in a low tone. "The four of you spending all summer together. I feel so alone."
"But, you have me," Sirius said gently, but Marlene held up her hand dismissively to him.
"You know, I thought friends were supposed to tell each other everything," she said, voice breaking and eyes watering. "But here you are, keeping dozens of secrets from me. And even though you are all here, I feel like no one is."
Hollis tried to move towards Marlene, but she just pushed her away roughly.
"It makes it hard for me to tell you things when you don't tell me shit," Marlene whispered, looking all of them in the eyes. "And I feel so damn rough right now."
Hesitating for a few seconds, Hollis wanted ask her this in the best way possible without spooking her again.
"Is there something you need to tell us?" Hollis prompted, her eyebrows furrowing. "Because we're always here for you, you know that right?"
Marlene's tears and angry expression melted away to reveal one of complete despair.
Hollis looked at the three boys behind her, subconsciously biting her lip and making a decision. She grabbed Marlene's hand and pulled her behind the enormous, rough trunk of the oak tree away from the other Gryffindors.
"Mufflitao," Hollis said under her breath, waving her wand at the surrounding area before turning to her friend.
"Thanks," Marlene said in a tiny voice. "I can't-"
Hollis cut her off with a warm hug. Marlene sobbed into her shoulder with what seemed like buckets of tears that soaked through Hollis's crimson sweatshirt. The Rosier gently rubbed her back, making both small and large circles the way Hope had for her.
Marlene was the first to pull away, holding both of Hollis's hands and looking her right in the eyes.
"You're the only one whose going to know this," Marlene said, tears gone and voice only with a small tremble.
"Yes?"
"I'm lesbian."
Hollis didn't know what she had been expecting, but it certainly wasn't this. Marlene's face paled as she saw the shocked expression on her face, not knowing if she had thoroughly messed up by telling the Slytherin or not.
"I shouldn't have told you-" Marlene mumbled, shaking her head in regret as she started to walk away and let go of her hands.
Hollis held on tight and pulled her back.
"Marlene, look at me," Hollis said firmly, and the Mckinnon looked her right in the eyes, even if her own had begun to water again. "I'm so proud of you."
"I was worried-"
"Honey, I'm bi, what do you mean you were worried?"
Wiping away tears from under her still red eyes, Marlene let out another tiny laugh that made Hollis smile in return. The Slytherin hugged her again, but this time much more tightly.
"I love you, Marls, and I want you to know that nothing is going to change that. You deserve all the love in the world, and I'm so, so sorry if I ever made you feel like you couldn't tell me something or I wasn't paying attention to you."
"I told Sirius I loved him."
"What?!" Hollis exclaimed, pulling back to stare at Marlene. "You did what?"
Marlene tilted her head back and groaned, absolutely furious with herself.
"I know!" she shouted back. "I'm so dumb, I know!"
This confession made a whole separate element of this situation dawn on Hollis.
Sirius.
"Wait, so did you ever like him?" Hollis asked with confusion as the two girls sat back down on the ground for a longer discussion. "What's the deal with that?"
Marlene held her head in her hands for a few seconds, ready to claw her eyes out with guilt.
"Yea, I did like him, but always just as a really close friend," Marlene said truthfully. "But then, as we got older, I just started to like this one girl more and more."
Marlene paused and fidgeted with a blade of grass, knowing what she was about to say was one of her largest sources of guilt.
"And I wanted to kiss her, but I couldn't, and well, Sirius was there."
At this very blunt statement, Hollis blinked several times to process what her friend was saying. She cared about Sirius very deeply, and knew that he would be horribly hurt if he had known Marlene was essentially using him for the physical affection she couldn't get from a girl.
"And I do love Sirius, just not like that," Marlene continued, starting to anxiously ramble. "I can't tell him though, because he's going to be heartbroken."
Hollis knew Marlene was right.
"He'll understand.." Hollis started, knowing how deep of a hole the blonde had dug herself into with Sirius. "He won't be that mad. He's a good guy."
"No, he will be furious, because I'm furious with myself!" Marlene exclaimed, standing up. "I am such a shitty person!"
Hollis reached up and pulled Marlene back down next to her as the girl let out a little dramatic puff by blowing air from her lips.
"You are not a shitty person," Hollis said firmly. "This is just more than most people have to learn about themselves. Like, imagine all of the raging hormones, a literal war, school, and then add on sexuality. It's a bloody catastrophe inside of our heads."
Marlene smiled slightly.
"It would be a miracle if you didn't make any mistakes," Hollis declared. "I think that coming out is enough stress for one day, though, no?"
Smiling sheepishly, the Gryffindor nodded.
"So who is she?" Hollis asked eagerly with a large grin, leaning forwards with her elbows on the grass.
Marlene's face broke into an enormous grin.
"Dorcas."
"OH MERLIN YOU TWO WOULD BE SO CUTE TOGETHER!"
Marlene quickly slapped her hand over Hollis's mouth and leaned her torso forward, making both of them erupt into giggles and topple over next to each other on the grass.
The two girls stared at each other for a few moments with empathetic expressions that no boy around them could ever understand.
"Thank you for being here for me."
"What kind of friend would I be if I wasn't?"
Marlene giggled softly and held Hollis's hand as they looked up at the leaves on the trees together. The past few minutes had been such a rush of chaotic emotions that they both needed to slow down for a few seconds.
Shutting her eyes, Marlene let one final tear trickle down her face as she felt such a huge weight lifted off her chest from telling Hollis what she had been confused about and then kept in for years.
"I'm like ninety nine percent sure we'll both have enormous grass stains on our skirts," Marlene said, being the first one to sit up. "Do we have a spell for that?"
Hollis was about to reply before she caught something odd out of the corner of her eye.
A dozen yards or so away, Sirius was in deep conversation with Snape as he gestured to the Whomping Willow.
I'm sure it's fine, Hollis told herself nervously. Sirius isn't that thick. Maybe he's actually trying to be nice to Snape for once. This is good.
"Yea, I'm sure we can find one," Hollis said with a smile at Marlene, who grinned back. "Let's go to the library."
The Rosier had no idea how large of an issue she had just left behind her.
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