CHERRY // marlene mckinnon

-thirty

Aurora just stood there, motionless. And so did Marlene. They were both quite shocked to each other outside of Hogwarts. Especially considering the circumstances they're in.

"So.....I'll uh just look at the shoes over there." Lily said quietly leaving the two to catch up, but not before winking at Marlene.

"Uhm— so how have you been?" Marlene asked. The conversation was clearly awkward for the both of them, seeing as they haven't spoken in months.

"I've been good. Although my summer is quite boring." Aurora let out a slight laugh. Aurora and Marlene were now across from each other, looking through the same rack of clothes. "I actually haven't gotten out of the house up until now."

"Wow, that sounds quite lonely. What happened?" Marlene asked, but also choosing her words carefully because she didn't want to mess anything up.

"My parents. They're basically grounding and punishing me for life because of— well, what happened between us. But, it's fine, it's nothing i'm not used to." Aurora explained and Marlene gave her a sympathetic look. "Anyways, enough about me, what've you been up to?"

"Well, as you can see, I've just mostly been hanging out with Lily and Alice. But Alice has mostly been quite busy helping her uncle with his ice cream shop." Marlene replied as they both walked, looking through the racks for no particular reason. "But Lily's been quite busy too. With the one and only James Potter."

"Aren't they together already? I mean, they seemed really close with one another back at Hogwarts. If you don't count the times that James has 'annoyed' her."

"Well, she tells me that they're 'taking things slow', whatever that's supposed to mean. But me and the others know that they're closer than they seem. Lily doesn't want to admit this but they write to each other. Like a lot." Marlene chuckled, throwing a few tops into her shopping basket. "I feel like I've been blabbering on too much, anyways, how are things with your friends?"

"Narcissa's currently in Italy and Veronica recently came back from visiting her family in France. That's part of the reason why I'm here since her birthday's next week." Aurora explained as they both reached the end of the rack. "You know, I've actually never been to any muggle shops before. They're quite nice." Just then, they heard the click of a camera coming from somewhere.

"Lily! What the-"

"Aw. Look how cute you two look in this!" Lily exclaimed, interrupting Marlene and holding up the polaroid photo. She was definitely rooting for the two girls.

Although Marlene looked flustered, which was pretty rare seeing as the girl wasn't usually this soft, Aurora found her reaction cute and amusing. But her eyes soon landed on a clock above one of the shelves and she had stayed for longer than she expected. Walburga and Orion were definitely not going to be happy about that.

"Well, this has a been a lovely chat. But I'd better get back to my house, or else my parents will give me a whole lecture about how I've been out too long." Aurora quickly said.

"Oh alright. See you around I guess." Marlene said as Aurora made her way to the front to pay for her things.

Aurora payed for her items and as she was about to come up to the door, Lily came up to her.

"It was nice seeing you, Aurora. You know, you can always write to me if you need a friend to talk to." Lily said with a kind smile.

"Thanks Lily. It was nice to see you too." Aurora replied and then opened the door and went out into the sunny street. But what she didn't notice was that Lily had slipped the photo into one of Aurora's bags.