Marauders Sister

Unlikely allies

Marlene was actually very pleasant, Lily thought. She was funny, as James had said; she would never admit that to him out of fear of inflating his already oversized head. Marlene wasn't just an airheaded bimbo, as Lily had assumed previously. She radiated exuberance and her quick witted remarks were perfect in the presence of the astute boys. She was always at the center of the conversation as if Lily was merely a planet orbiting her.

Lily almost felt jealous of the way she held the boys' attention but she also loved that the attention wasn't on her; where Marlene was an extrovert, Lily was an introvert. Like Yin and Yang, balancing each other.

Marlene ended up staying the night at James', in one of the many spare rooms. Lily had planned to talk to James that night and thank him for pushing her to befriend Marlene. When she had a knock on her door at eleven o'clock.

"Come in" Lily called out.
"Hey, it's only me, I couldn't sleep so I thought that maybe I could bunk with you? If that's okay?" Marlene's head floated in the doorway, her body concealed by the door.
"Yeah of course, come In!" Lily had never had a sleepover before, besides at Hogwarts, but that didn't count as she never spoke to her roommates.
"Your room is a lot nicer than mine! Obviously James has a soft spot for you" Lily pretended to look around the room in order to hide her reddening cheeks.
"It reminds me of my childhood room, it's the same colour scheme"
"I think we need snacks! You can't have a sleepover without snacks!" Marlene changed the subject subtly.

After sneaking down to the kitchen and picking out enough sweets, biscuits and chocolate for a family of six; they creeped back upstairs.

"And what do you two think you're doing" a voice called out behind them

They whipped around dropping a chocolate frog and some liquorice wands in the process. James stood there with a grin on his face.

"We're having a sleepover so we obviously needed some snacks" Marlene said defensively
"Obviously" James replied, his grin grew wider
"Wait, what are you doing down here?" Marlene questioned
"Uh... I was... getting a drink!" He replied suspiciously, his grin only faltering for a second.

James' cheekbones shone in the moonlight; he was quite attractive, Lily thought. She looked out of the window and saw a luminous waning gibbous. The full moon would be in a few days. Lily thought of Remus; she knew that he was a werewolf. She had guessed in second year and was pretty convinced by now. Remus was always ill around this time of the month and he recovered only when the full moon had passed. Lily would never admit this to Remus however, she wanted him to tell her himself, when he was ready.

"Lily?" James asked, snapping Lily out of her reverie
"Er, yeah, sorry, daydreaming, what's up? She realized that she had been staring at James this entire time!
"Marlene said that you better get going"

With that they turned back around and continued to climb the many stairs up to their room. Not before Lily turned back around mouthing that she was sorry for not being able to talk to him tonight.

"What do you think that was about?" Marlene asked when they were back in Lily's room and comfortably in her bed.
"I honestly have no idea. Those boys are so weird sometimes, you just have to let them do their thing" Marlene laughed at this

They laughed and joked about the boys for hours; they spoke about school and their fellow students;  their parents and families; their likes and dislikes. By the time they went to sleep, the sun was already rising. Lily had had such a good night, she was ecstatic. Her and Marlene had clicked so quickly it was like the universe had intended it. They were like the opposite ends of two magnets.

Just as they were falling asleep, Lily called out to see if Marlene was still awake.

"Mar? Are you awake?" Lily asked
"I think so" Marlene replied
"Do you remember that night before the summer holidays when you found me in the common room?"
"You don't have to talk about it Lil, not if you don't want to"
"I want to. I need to"

And so she did. They spoke about what had happened that night and what she remembered and didn't remember. The names of the people responsible. She told her about the reason why she had been staying at James' all summer. And the fact that her and James had been talking every night to help her sleep. Marlene was in shock but pulled herself together for the sake of Lily. She was seething though, she hated all slytherins.

Lily felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She hadn't been as open and honest with James as she had been with Marlene. When she spoke about it with James, she could see the anger in his eyes. Anger at the slytherins and she didn't want to fuel the fire in fear of him confronting them. Marlene was better at concealing her own feelings. Lily knew that she wouldn't do anything that Lily didn't want her to do, because that was the sort of person Marlene was.

When they finally woke up the next day, Sirius bought them breakfast in bed. Lily thought that he had a thing for Marlene previously, but they were just as close as James and her were.

Wow, she thought, things had really changed in such a short space of time. She had a female best friend and her closest male friend was James Potter of all people! As she ate her eggs, she relished in the thought of how lucky she was to have the people she did around her.