The next morning was quite eventful to say the least.
Aurora and Veronica had ended up accidentally falling asleep on her balcony. The remainder of the food was still spread out on the small table. The two girls would've kept on sleeping, if it weren't for Evan and Regulus's loud chatting down below in the backyard.
"Will you two shut up?!" Veronica finally yelled at them, leaning on her balcony.
"Well look who finally woke up!" Regulus shouted back at her from the backyard. "We thought you died or something."
"Yeah no, I'd need more than a shit load of food to kill me." Veronica corrected him. Her eyes quickly glanced at Evan but went back to staring at Regulus. They had picked up, or not picked up, where they left off the previous day.
"Why don't you come down, it's a lovely day!" To Veronica, Regulus seemed to be in a good mood for whatever reason. But in reality, he was far from that. He just knew how to hide it really well.
"Well thank you for waking me up." Aurora finally joined the conversation, leaning against the railing.
"You know that sleeping too much isn't good for you right?" Regulus interjected.
"Yeah? Says who?"
"Says everyone." He remarked.
"Well I don't give a shit about what everyone or anyone says." That wasn't exactly true though, and Aurora knew it. She did in fact care about what some people said. Only a few specific people though.
*****
The Potter Manor, the night before...
At the Potter Manor, the Marauders and a few other friends had decided to throw a small end of the summer get together.
With the help of Lily, Marlene, and Alice, they had successfully decorated and set up snacks in the 'den'. The den used to be James' old playroom, but was later turned into a hang out room with a couch and even a muggle television. And there was even a wall filled with all of the polaroid pictures they took of whenever they hung out, the dates going all the way back to their third year.
Lily was in charge of, well, everything. She was making sure everyone did the 'tasks' they were assigned to, without any problems.
And speaking of those tasks, Peter and Remus were in charge of the food, drinks, and snacks. While James and Sirius were in charge of planning the entertainment and games. Alice decorated the place, adding stringed lights for a cozy ambience. And lastly, Marlene supplied them with the alcohol and other things to spice up the night, thanks to all of her connections.
"Alright, it all seems pretty good don't you think?" Lily looked around the room to see that everything was all set up and ready.
"It's perfect, Lils. I cant wait till Marls gets here. She's the life of the party itself." Alice smiled.
"We're back! Sorry it took us a bit longer than expected, we picked up a few muggle snacks for the non-muggles here to try out." Remus and Peter emptied out their bags of snacks and set them up on the small coffee table.
"Well finally!" Lily exclaimed. Soon after, the rest of the group started to arrive, and so did a very tired-looking Marlene.
"Oh yes, just sit there while I suffer carrying all of these bloody bottles by myself." Marlene stared right at them, barely managing to carry all of the bottles of drinks she had in her hand.
"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