fatal love

Chapter 26

On Sunday, Sirius took Marlene to the Great Lake, to make up for ditching her the other day. He found them a secluded spot, where they were mostly covered by trees.

"Your hair looks nice," Marlene smiled as she sat on the ground.

Sirius grinned. "I use like three potions on it every morning," he confessed.

She burst out laughing. "No way! How long does that take?"

"Like twenty minutes - I wake up early anyway though. You can't tell anyone!"

"I promise," she smiled. "I can't believe you spend longer getting ready in the morning than me."

"It's very believable when you compare us," Sirius smirked.

She slapped him on the arm playfully. "Wanker!"

"Do you think it's weird we don't act like other couples?" Sirius asked.

Marlene paused. "Maybe. I like how we act though."

"Me too! So we can carry on like we are, if we're happy?"

"I think so... we can add to it, I guess, if you want..." She trailed off, glancing up at him.

"What do you mean?"

Marlene hovered, and then leaned in decisively. Suddenly they were kissing again, but it was different from last time. There was more pressure, and Sirius opened his mouth a little, and she did too, and then their tongues were touching. Merlin that felt weird - but, like, a good weird? He wasn't really sure what he was supposed to be doing, so he just mimicked her, and she seemed to enjoy it. He hoped. She had her hands in his hair, tugging gently, and he held her shoulders.

She pulled back after a while. "Was that okay?"

"Yeah," Sirius breathed, "that was definitely okay."

It wasn't what he'd been expecting from his first real, proper, adult kiss. There weren't any fireworks, it wasn't earth-shattering, but it was nice. Yeah, if he had to pick one word to describe it, that's what it would be. It was nice.

Marlene grinned. "Good. Now, tell me about your hair care routine, I'm going to copy it."

When Sirius went back up to the dorm, he was feeling rather accomplished. When he entered however, the other three were all sitting in a huddle on the floor, crowded round a thick book they'd bought at Hogsmeade.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"We've found it!" James exclaimed, looking up at him. "It's all here!"

Sirius froze for a second. "Are you talking about what I think you're talking about?"

"We are," Remus breathed. "It's got everything... I think you lot might actually pull this off."

Sirius snatched the book up, reading the instructions quickly. It was certainly complicated. A potion, with about a million ingredients, that had to be brewed at a certain time, daily incantations, mandrake leaves. But none of it was impossible. They really could do this.

"Okay," he grinned, "so what's our first step?"

"We should get all the ingredients for the potion ready first," Remus said. "Some of these look really hard to find, and we don't want to get half-way through and then have to stop because we don't have...a chrysalis of a Death's-Head Hawk Moth, or something ridiculous."

James took the book back, examining it. "We should be able to steal most of this stuff from Slughorn," he said thoughtfully. "The tricky bit will be dew that hasn't been stepped on or seen sunlight for seven days. Where can we get that?"