in the cards | marlene mckinnon - on hiatus

20. treacherous

Nora had had loads of crushes over the years, all from long lasting infatuations to fleeting enamoured glances. She had even had them on friends of hers before, though none as close as Marlene. As long as you didn't count the sweet puppy love she felt for Pandora back in third year.

What made Marlene different was... everything about her.

Quite literally the blonde Gryffindor's personality was what was causing such a twist in Nora's mind.

Nora's type in a nutshell, before the blonde at least, had always been the safe option. Always the good girls and the golden retriever boys who'd never dream of breaking your heart. The ones you were friends with first, went on dates with to Madam Puddifoot's and pretended to have a grand time whilst internally screaming.

She had never before liked someone like Marlene. Someone spontaneous and wild, invitingly rebellious. Nora wanted stability, yet a small, or obviously larger part of her than she'd originally thought, felt somehow compelled to leave that contentment.

Maybe she had to come to terms with wanting more out of life than just being happy. But that was a thought too deep for her to even give the time to acknowledge, other than pushing it as far down into her subconscious as humanly possible.

Still, thanks to the raging inner turmoil, Nora had been spending less and less time with the Gryffindor lot. Because where Lily, Dorcas and Mary were, Marlene was bound to be too. And where Marlene was, Nora couldn't be.

The Ravenclaw would like to say she'd be mature enough to not immediately decide to avoid someone just because she has feelings for them, but that would just be a blatant lie.

She also knew it was obvious; how could it not be? Even to someone as unobservant as Sirius Black, the sudden separation was apparent. Even James had asked if something happened, to which Nora only answered "No," and made some shitty excuse to leave the conversation.

For Nora, it turned out wanting to avoid one person meant avoiding them all.

She had even started to spend more time away from her own friends, as they started to ask questions or do homework with their new Gryffindor friends.

It only lasted four days, before James broke.

"What's wrong with Nora? Is she okay? Why is she ignoring me?"

"Calm down, Potter. I'm sure she's fine," Lily answered, not even looking up from her muggle romance book. "If it makes you feel any better, she's been staying away from all of us."

"Yeah, but why," he whined, pouting with his bottom lip pushed outward.

Lily finally gave in to meet his eyes, seeing him look like the personification of a deer in headlights, with how wide with worry his brown eyes were.

"I wish I knew, love. But she'll come to us if she's ready. When she's ready."

"Why can't that be now? I am going to jump off the astronomy tower if she doesn't show up within the next five minutes," James stated, a look of assertiveness on his tan face, a small line forming between his eyebrows as he tried to look as stoic as he could.

"No, you won't," Lily countered, a smile rising along with the ever increasing blush on her cheeks.

"No I won't," he folded, literally, as if he just gave up on posture all together.

"Hey, come on, I'm sure she's fine. She's probably just caught up with schoolwork or something," she soothed James, placing a hand on his upper arm in a comforting manner, rubbing for a short while before falling back again.