"SIRIUUUS BLACK! SIIRIUS BLAAAAAACK!!"
The door was banged upon with double fists and a great deal of laughter.
"SIRRI!! Open the doooor you mother fucker!!!"
Peter Pettigrew pulled the curtain in the window of the door to one side, standing on tip toe, then backed up and opened the door, just as Marlene Mackinnon went to bang on it again. She nearly fell into the apartment she threw herself forward with such velocity, and Peter ducked out of the way as she stumbled forward, cracking up.
"Oh its you Peter - hullllo," she said, seeing him, and trying at sobering her tone a bit. "Hullo, Peter. I'm looking for Sirius Black. Is'e at 'ome?" She snorted, and laughed again, doing an exaggerated little curtsy type motion. "I have very important news to tell him?"
Peter stared at her, "Are you drunk?" he asked.
Marlene's mouth spilt into a grin. "Oh you were always soooo good at divination. I remember that about you!" she wagged her finger at him as though accusing him of some naughty secret behavior, then promptly tripped and nearly fell down.
Peter caught her this time and kept her upright. "I didn't need divination to tell, Marlene."
"Is it that obvious?" she asked, sounding rather devastated, then she laughed again and said, "Ol' Ernie on the Knight Bus must've thought me a right fool!"
Her eyes were dark with smudged eyeliner and her mascara seemed to have melted down onto her cheeks and her hair was all sort of puffy on one side only and her lipstick was faded but smeared a bit so that her features appeared blurry. Not to mention that she was wearing a pair of red boys sweatpants and an old, faded t-shirt with the band Deep Purple on it under her wool coat.
Peter didn't know what Ol' Ernie might've thought, but he knew he thought she looked a right fool. "You should go home," he said, and though the words were sort of smart, his tone and intention was kind, "And take a nap. Perhaps a shower, too. You look like you rather could use one."
Marlene shook her head, "I need to talk to Sirius."
"He's not here," Peter said. "He's at work."
"Who the hell needs degnoming done in the winter?!" Marlene said, frustrated. "The gardens are covered in snow!"
"A lot of the clients set charms to keep their backyards summer all year 'round," Peter said, repeating what Sirius had said to him the first time he'd asked Sirius that very same question a month ago. "He said Bilius reckons they should give the gnomes a break for winter or else provide them with winter coats at least when they kick'em out."
Marlene laughed, "A gnome with a coat on. Why that's what I feel like right now! Some warty old potato-shaped thing with a coat on."
"You look a fair deal prettier than a gnome, Marlene," Peter stammered.
"You're a doll," she answered, and she ran her hand through her hair - or tried to, there was a fair amount of tangling that stopped her from getting it all the way through. "Is he gone the entire day, then?"
"Yeah," Peter answered. "Sorry."
Marlene closed her eyes, and her face crumpled like a little kid not getting her way, and she said, "Why's he never been there when I needed him? Even when we were dating, he was never - never there... Nobody's never there." She started crying.
Peter looked bewildered. "I - I - um. What about - what about Emmaline? Maybe she would like to talk to you about - whatever it is you need to talk to Sirius about?"
"Nooo, Peter! That's the point isn't it? Emma doesn't want to talk to me unless we get married and I don't want to get married because it's not the right time and I want to die because now she doesn't want me at all!" Marlene sobbed.
Peter licked his lips, unsure what to do. He looked around the empty flat a moment, then said, "Would you like to stay a little while here? You can sit on the couch."
Marlene stepped around him and fell onto the couch, grabbing her favorite throw pillow and hugging it to her chest. "Oh Peter, why do I have to be so stupid? I'm always so stupid."
He was making sure the door was locked, and then he came over hesitantly toward the couch. "I don't think you're stupid," Peter said, then added, stupidly, "You're a Ravenclaw!"
Marlene shook her head, "I'm sooo stupid." She buried her face in the throw pillow. "Why couldn't I just say yes?"
"She really asked you to marry her?"
"Yes, it was so precious, too, and I had to ruin it."
"What happened?"
"We were out to dinner and everything, at our favorite place, and she was holding my hand at the table, and she let me have the last breadstick --" Marlene paused. "I love the breadsticks and they always bring you this basket with three in them and it's like there's two people, you idiots, why would you only bring three? Bring two or four but not three, that's just asking to start a fight at your bloody tables!"
"That was nice of her, to give you the third."
"I would've fought her for it anyways," Marlene admitted.
"Still," Peter said, shrugging.
"Yeah. She's always so thoughtful about things like that." And Marlene set herself off again.
Peter said, "So she - she proposed when she gave you the bread, then?"
"No, she waited until after and we had dessert and we were sharing and she did that stupid thing with a ring in the cake, so I find it all covered with cheesecake and I clean it off and while I'm realizing what's on, she's suddenly on her knee and there's loads of people looking at us from all the other tables and she doesn't even care that some of them are whispering stuff and I thought I was going to die."
"Whispering stuff?"
"You know, because we're -- both girls."
"Oh that sort of stuff."
"Yeah." Marlene nodded. "Em doesn't even notice. She just goes on asking and she looked so pretty. But I scolded her and I was so embarrassed and she didn't know how to react gracefully so the next thing I know I'm running after her out of the restaurant and the waiter's screaming we didn't pay our check and Em's got all the bloody muggle money in her purse but she's already out in the street and I'm throwing galleons at the man because I don't bloody know what else to do and he's cursing me and threatening to call the policeymen, so finally I just said, CALL THEM THEN CHAP and I ran out the door after Em...
"Oh no," Peter muttered.
"She's halfway down the street and it's raining and there's all these bars 'round there so the street's crowded and she's walking so bloody fast and I had on heels and I'm tripping because the ground's wet and I'm trying to run and finally I took my shoes off and just -- I don't know where they are, probably on the street somewhere, I ran after her in my stockings and my feet were soaked and it was so bloody cold -- and I finally catch up and she scolds me for running after her without my shoes! She says they were expensive shoes and I shouldn't have just thrown them down," Marlene shook her head. "Can you imagine? All that and she's pissed off over my shoes! My shoes. They weren't even --" she paused. Then, "Oh shit they WERE her shoes! We borrow each others shoes so often, I - shit."
Peter raised an eyebrow.
Marlene covered her face with her palms.
"So you had a fight over the shoes?"
"Well no, we disapparated home and then the real fight broke out. We were screaming at each other like nobody's business, and she was actually mad I didn't say yes. She kept ... kept asking me why I didn't want to and didn't I think we were in love and all that. She didn't even care that there's a war on and that everyone's busy fighting and there's so much happening everyday... I told her that I wasn't sure what was happening in the future and I didn't much want to plan for it yet, that I wasn't ready and I wasn't comfortable with any lifelong commitment when I didn't bloody know what was going to happen next day."
"I'm sorry," Peter said.
"She actually pointed out about the Potters getting married and Sirius and Remus and I said they were different -- and they are different, you know? You know that, you're closer to them than any of us are. You know."
Peter nodded.
"It was just so unfair," Marlene said. "Then she said we might as well break it off if we weren't going to get married and -- I told Sirius not long ago that I was thinking of it, but fuck I never would've DONE it."
"Yeah," Peter said because he didn't know what else to say.
"I wouldn't have done it." Marlene cried into the pillow. "But she did. She did. We made a pros and cons list and there were more reasons to break up than there were not to break up, numerically speaking."
"That's a very diplomatic way to solve things," Peter said.
"But Peter -- the pros to stay together were more weighty than the cons... but she's never seen things that way..."
Peter didn't know what to say.
Marlene's face stayed buried in the pillow.
He bit on his lower lip, thinking, trying to come up with something smart, but he didn't really know, so then he said, "It'll be all right, Marlene. Eventually."
She didn't answer.
Peter looked closer.
Marlene was asleep in the pillow. Or perhaps passed out. He wasn't sure which. Either way, he gently pushed her back so she was laying down properly and he put a blanket over her, then tiptoed out of the living room and into the hallway to the bedroom, leaving her there to rest.
Later, when it was 'round time for Remus and Sirius to get home, Peter went back out to the living room to find she was still asleep, though she'd rolled over and pulled the blanket tighter 'round her shoulders by then. When Remus came through the floo from uni, Peter was there to gesture the moment he stepped in to be quiet and pointed at Marlene's form on the couch.
"What's Marlene doing here?" Remus asked, curious and putting his book bag on the table in the kitchen a moment later. He unbuttoned his wool coat and hung it over the back of one of the chairs, magicking himself a cup of tea.
"She and Emmaline had a row," Peter explained. "They broke up."
"Oh no," Remus murmured. He frowned.
The hearth flashed green and Peter hurried to go intercept Sirius. Remus stood waving his fingers at the spoon in his teacup so that it stirred a bit of honey into his earl grey, the spoon clicking quietly against his royal blue and gold lined cup. Sirius was ushered into the kitchen by Peter, then, who was already explaining, yet again, that Emmaline and Marlene had broken up.
Sirius shook his head, "Oh bloody hell no."
"Yes, that's what Marlene's told me," and Peter whispered the whole story about the restaurant and the shoes on the street and the pros and cons list and everything.
"Oh that ain't right," Sirius murmured, shaking his head, "I hate that! I hate every bit of that story!"
Remus frowned into his tea.
"She was drunk as could be when she showed up, screaming your name out in the alley like there was nobody else in the world," Peter said, shaking his head, "Nearly broke down the door."
Sirius sighed.
Remus and Peter set to work at dinner and Sirius, who was the only one who dared to go try at waking Marlene up, went out to the living room and sat down on the couch, pushing Marlene's legs aside. Her make up had smeared even more now than it had been when Peter let her in. She looked a great fright, Sirius thought, and he reached down and tapped her shoulder. "Oi, Marlene." he said. "Wake up sunshine."
Marlene winced as she stirred, looking at him from under the bush of her fringe. "Oh my gods my head hurts like a sonuvabitch."
"Waking up to see my magnificent beauty certainly must not help," Sirius said. "Am I blinding you with my radiance?"
"It's about bloody time you're home - did you degnome all of Britain?"
"Only a few rich bastard's houses," he answered. Then, "I heard you stole breadsticks and cheesecake and lost Emma's expensive shoes."
"Ughhhhh," Marlene groaned.
"Sounds like you might've had a few teacups of firewhiskey while you were at it?"
"Right out of the bottle. I stole that, too. It was my dad's."
"He'll be right disappointed next time he goes to drink some of it himself."
"He won't know it was me," Marlene said. "They think I'm a right proper little girl don't they? They've no idea what a mess I am."
"The best people are messes. Just look at me." He grinned.
Marlene stared up at him. "Sirius, Emma and I broke up."
"Yeah, I heard that, too."
Marlene's lower lip jutted out. "I'm sad."
"I know, darling." He held out a hand and she took it and he pulled her upright and wrapped his arms around her tight, patting her back. She sank against him, her face in Sirius's neck and she shook with silent cries as he held her like that. "It's alright, darling," he murmured. "Its going to be alright."