Disclaimer : Me having the ownership of Harry Potter has as much possibility as Sirius falling in love with Snape.
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Chapter 35
"It's been going on for months and you're telling me now?" Marlene asked, unbelieving.
Lily nodded meekly, sinking in her chair as Marlene stared at her. Marlene wasn't exactly pissed at her, just disappointed that she found out something so important about her best friend so long after it started.
She was about to let go of the subject and continue when she remembered something that caught her attention in Lily's description of the hallucination she had.
Guitar. It couldn't be....
"Did you say guitar music?" Marlene asked, brows furrowed in thought. She was desperately hoping her assumption would be true.
"Yeah." Lily started, "But I'm not exactly-"
She was cut off as the door of the library opened, showing a very exhausted Peter. He was bent over, trying to catch his breath.
"Marlene." he called out weakly and both Marlene and Lily stood up, rushing to his side.
"Is something wrong?" Marlene asked immediately, "Is anyone hurt? Where's Sirius?"
Peter held up one finger, gesturing for a minute to calm down then stood up, taking a deep breath. "Sirius is alright. It's Fabian."
"What?" Lily asked, taking notes of Marlene's immediate panic, "What happened to Fabian?"
"He was hexed." Peter replied, "It's the Slytherins."
"What do you mean hexed?" Marlene asked loudly, quickly shushed by Madam Pince. Marlene mumbled a clearly insincere apology and turned back to him. "We have the next game this Saturday and he's our only seeker. Who hexed him? What happened?"
"I think it's better if you see for yourself." Peter said, "He's in the hospital wing."
~~~~~
"Do you know who did this?"
From the way his jaw was locked and the pulsing vein in his temple, Marlene could tell that James was trying his hardest to keep his composure. She couldn't blame him either. He had every right to be angry after the clearly unfair stunt that Slytherins pulled.
"No." Fabian said, his right hand was in a cast, "But I'm pretty sure it was one of the Slytherins. I saw his robe."
James turned away, eyes closed in annoyance.
"What did Madam Pomfrey say?" Lily, who was much more calm and collected than James, asked.
"She said she can't do anything until the curse is identified. Which only Dumbledore can do." Fabian said, looking dejectedly down at his injured arm, "And Dumbledore won't be coming back from Beauxbatons until next week."
Everyone gathered around was at various levels of disappointment and distress. All except one.
Sirius Black was fuming, his face turning red with anger. "I know. I just know Snape did this."
Remus, the ever sensible one, quickly analyzed the situation and moved next to Sirius, ready to hold him back if necessary. "Padfoot, I don't think you should jump to conclusions like that."
"I'm not jumping to any conclusions, Moony. I know it's him." Sirius said, "He's had it against the whole team since forever. Especially James. Now he grabbed the perfect opportunity and hexed our only seeker just so we would lose the final match against Slytherins. I'm going to show that absolute greaseball what fairplay is."
Sirius had already whipped out his wand, ready to find Snape right at the moment and hex him when, surprisingly, it was James who stopped him. "Not now, Padfoot. We need to sort out this situation first. Dealing with whoever did this can wait. The match is priority right now."
Sirius listened begrudgingly and they left the hospital wing one by one as Madam Pomfrey informed them that visiting hours are over.
~~~~~
Lily sat staring at the plate in front of her, so did Marlene.
"Why didn't Gryffindor have a backup seeker?" Lily asked, after moments of contemplation.
"We do." Peter who was sitting across the two girls answered, "But it's James."
"So?" Lily asked again, "He can be the seeker for one game. He joined the team as seeker after all so he has to be good at it. And Gryffindor has Frank as backup chaser. I don't see the problem here."
"James not being good enough is not the problem here, Lils." Marlene spoke up at last, "He is a good seeker, no doubt. But he's our star chaser too. Our other two chasers are new to the team. Frank isn't as experienced either. James is our strong point in chasing and we can't afford to not have him."
Peter nodded along. "Also because we have to cover up for all the points we lost after the last match against Ravenclaw so the chasers have to be strong."
Lily fell silent again, at loss for words. She couldn't possibly think of a way out of this. Marlene looked over to where James, Sirius and Gideon were trying to sort out the crisis. Judging from the looks on their faces, the discussion didn't seem to be going good.
Marlene was about to go over and join them when Peter dropped his fork onto the plate with a loud clink, staring at Marlene with his small eyes widened.
"What?" Lily and Marlene asked in unison, seeing his dumbstruck expression.
Peter didn't reply, his gaze moving from Marlene to Sirius and back to Marlene.
"Peter, what's wrong?" Lily asked again.
"We might not have a backup seeker but we do have a backup beater." Peter said, finally snapping out of whatever sudden epiphany he had.
Marlene frowned in confusion. "And that helps because?"
"Isn't Emmeline the backup beater?" Peter asked, suddenly excited.
"Yeah, but she can't be a seeker because she doesn't have the built for it. Seekers have to be lean because they have to be fast. Neither does she have the fast reflexes for seeking."
"She doesn't." Peter agreed, "But you do. And you're small too."
Marlene was so surprised that she forgot to be offended at being called small which she generally hated. "So you're saying I should be the seeker?"
"Yes." Peter said, relieved that she finally understood his point, "And Emmeline can take your place as beater. She doesn't have to be really good at it because we have Sirius."
Marlene sat thinking over it for a moment before she informed James and the others about it.
"Are you sure you can do this, Marly?" James asked.
"I'm not sure. But I can try. We have a week to practice." Marlene replied, "And this is the best plan we have at the moment."
James nodded in understanding then turned to Sirius. "What do you think?"
Sirius shrugged. "I'm okay with anything. And Mckinnon is the best option we have for a seeker right now. We'll just have to train her and Vance. And hope for the best. That's all we can do."
James pulled out a snitch from one of his robe pockets and extended it to Marlene. She saw Lily look at the snitch curiously. Apparently, James saw it too because he smiled, showing the snitch to Lily, turning it upside down. "It's not that one, Evans."
Marlene didn't understand what it meant but James gave the snitch to her. "You can practice with this whenever you have time. Try practicing any time you're free because we don't have much time. You can keep it with you. It's not mine. I nicked it from Mcgonagall."
"Okay." Marlene said shakily, taking the snitch from him, "I'll try. We can't lose to Slytherin."
"Great. Now we'll have to talk to Emmeline."
Sirius looked up, suddenly cautious. "It'd be better if you don't do that, mate."
"Oh, right." James rubbed the back of his neck and Marlene snickered which earned her a glare, "We'll meet up for practice at six then."
~~~~~
"Marlene." Lily called, tapping Marlene on the shoulder, who turned around towards Lily with a questioning look. "I wanted to ask you something."
"Yeah?" Marlene said, placing the snitch down on the small coffee table.
"When Peter came to the library," Lily began and Marlene tensed slightly, "Your first instinct was to ask him about Sirius. Why?"
Marlene gaze shifted unsteadily, falling on Sirius at the other end of the room who was explaining something to Emmeline. Everything she had been trying to ignore was brought right back by Lily's question. Everything she wasn't yet ready to face.
"It's nothing." Marlene replied when she saw that Lily was still waiting for her to answer, "Sirius just happens to be the one who gets into trouble the most. I thought he had got himself into some mess again. You saw how he reacted earlier."
Lily nodded, though Marlene wasn't exactly sure if she was convinced. She looked away, trying to focus on something other than the Marauder in question.
Her efforts weren't the slight bit successful as after a moment, she felt Sirius sit down on the floor next to her. He leaned back, resting his head on the couch but she could feel his eyes on her.
"Why are you looking at me?" she asked, twirling around the snitch between her fingers. The question gave her flashbacks to a night at the Potter's manor during the last summer but she was determined not to ever think of that particular incident. It was better off forgotten.
"Why? I can't look at you?"
Marlene rolled her eyes before turning to look at him. "You look exhausted."
Sirius sighed, running his fingers through his shoulder length hair that was now soaked with sweat. "And equally frustrated."
"Why? Emmeline is a pretty good beater. I saw her playing at the try outs."
"Yes, but she's not you."
There was a moment of silence as Marlene stared in shock and Sirius realized what he had said.
"I mean we've been on the team together all these years." he corrected immediately, stuttering a bit and stumbling over his words, "I'm used to you and the way you play so it's difficult adjusting to another person. We were in perfect sync."
"Right, yeah." Marlene said, slightly disappointed. Why was she disappointed? She didn't know what she had expected when she had asked him that. Of course he was talking about their coordination while playing, what else could it be?
He wasn't looking at her anymore but she couldn't look away from him. She forgot when it was that she admitted to herself that Sirius Black was the most good looking guy she had ever met in her life, that he had the right to be proud of his appearance. Maybe it was in fourth year when he started growing his hair out and she noticed the way his sleek black hair curled inwards slightly at the end. Or maybe it was way before that when she saw that his eyes resembled little storm clouds. She couldn't recollect exactly when, all she knew was that she shouldn't have noticed this about someone who was nothing more than her cousin's best friend.
"Now you're the one staring, Mckinnon." he said smirking at her. He had started playing with her hair like the other day. She tried not to flinch away.
She didn't think it was a good thing that every time he touched her she was reminded of what had happened all those months ago. They had a silent agreement that neither of them would speak of it. It was locked away in her mind as a memory that was the result of impulsiveness and stupidity of two sixteen year olds, a spur of the moment. She wasn't even sure if he remembered any of it.
No, Marlene, at the moment, wasn't sure of anything at all. She wasn't sure when all this happened, when everything changed, when the way she looked at Sirius Black changed.
Maybe it was after that day or maybe it was after she found him in the second floor bathroom with a gash on his arm and she had told him way more than she intended to. Neither did she know if this change was good or bad.
Well, it certainly can't be good when he's not even bothered by my presence.
"Go get some sleep, Black." she said trying to appear nonchalant and unaffected by whatever it was he was doing to her.
Sirius nodded, pulling himself up to stand. "Good night, Mckinnon."
"Night, Black."
And then he was gone and she was left again with just herself and her thoughts. If she could pretend all this while that it hadn't happened, she decided that she could hold on a bit longer. Right now, all she needed to focus was on winning the game for Gryffindor.
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A/N : I'm so sorry about the long wait but since the first part of the book is coming to its end, I didn't want to rush it and compromise with the quality.
Comparatively shorter author's note because it's really cold here and I just wanna curl up and go into hibernation.
Votes and comments to me are like mushrooms to Mario.
Have a nice day/night!
~Lianna