CHERRY // marlene mckinnon

-forty five

The library. That's where Aurora currently was, her class books long abandoned and a copy of Wuthering Heights propped open. She was immersed in the book for, well, not long before she was interrupted.

"Funny seeing you here." Marlene chuckled, sitting next to Aurora.

"Darling, this is the library. I would live here if I could." Aurora, closed her book, putting all of her attention on Marlene.

"Yes, I can tell. You're always here." Marlene grinned, resting her head on her arms. "So, what're you reading?"

Aurora raised he copy of Wuthering Heights, the spine broken from being read hundreds of times and the margins scribbled with annotations.

"Hm, interesting. Is that the one where he locks his wife in the attic or something?" Marlene hummed.

Aurora was taken aback by this, until she realized that Marlene was talking about Jane Eyre. Written by another Brontë sister. A small smile crept up to her cheeks as she explained, "Marlene, that's—that's Charlotte Brontë. This is Emily."

"Oh—so, you're telling me that they're not the same person?! I've spent my whole life thinking they were—" Marlene looked quite astonished at this new revelation. She sighed before continuing, "As you can see, I'm not really the book type. Ask me about music on the other hand, and that I can talk about for hours."

"Right...so what exactly is an ABBA?" Aurora asked genuinely, hearing that word thrown around by some of the muggleborn students around Hogwarts.

"ABBA—well they're a popular muggle band. I don't really listen to them, not as much as my friend Mary does. She's obsessed." Marlene noticed how fascinated Aurora looked as she talked about muggle music. "Y'know, I'm more of a Runaways and Queen kind of girl."

"I don't know what any of those things are but they seem interesting. I've heard of Bowie though. All because of Sirius." She laughed. "He came home during the holiday break a few years back and went on a whole rant about this muggle artist his friend had told him about."

"Oh that was definitely Remus. If anyone knows a anything about muggle culture, it's Remus." Marlene recalled how fascinated Sirius was upon being introduced to certain muggle music and inventions. Now, he was practically an expert himself.

And then, an idea popped into Marlene's head. "I have an idea." With a mischievous smile, she got up from her seat and grabbed Aurora's hand.

"What—where are you taking me exactly?"
Aurora had no choice but to follow Marlene's lead as they walked through the halls, hand in hand.

"You'll see." Marlene glimpsed back at her for a brief second with a smirk on her face.

They walked for what felt like hours, even though it was only a few minutes. Hogwarts was a huge castle, and getting from one destination to another could be quite a tiresome task at times. They received some suspicious looks from the other students, especially the Pureblood. Aurora tried her best to not let it get to her. And before they knew it, the two soon arrived outside the Gryffindor common room.

"Wait, I don't think this is a good idea—me going in there." Aurora hesitated as she looked at the door and back at Marlene. Her reputation as a pureblooded Slytherin probably wouldn't exactly allow her to be welcomed with open arms into the Gryffindor common room.

"Its fine. I promise. And look, if anyone does give you shit for it, they'll have to deal with me and then with Lily, who is quite literally Head Girl. So, there's really nothing anyone can say or do." Marlene reassured Aurora, gently taking her hand and rubbing in soothingly. "Also, it's the weekend and I doubt anybody is staying in their dorms."