wrong

Eight: black eye

'Potter!' Draco called as Marlene walked into the common room. 'Matt's full of shit, no way you gave him this black eye,' Marlene raised an eyebrow at this, her eyes flicking to Mattheo, who was sporting a rather impressive black eye. 
'No, i did. Do you want one as well?' she smirked as she sat on the arm of the couch. 
'Why would you hit him? What did you do?' Pansy turned to glare at Mattheo, who held his hands up defensively.
'He snuck up on me,' Marlene shrugged. 
'Hardly. I actually had knocked and you were too caught up in your own world to realise i was there.'

It was the first Hogsmeade trip of the year and Marlene already needed to buy more ink to replace what she had broken in her dorm. Pansy was waiting impatiently by the door while Marlene put her jacket on. 
'I'm coming, I'm coming,' she muttered as Pansy started down the stairs. 
'We're meeting the boys at the Three Broomsticks once we've got what we need. I was talking to Draco before and-" there was Marlene's cue to zone out. She walked with her arm interlinked with Pansy's trying to step on the crunchiest leaves. As she stood on a particularly crunchy leaf, she heard a different voice say her name. 
'and Marlene, well i don't even know what's going on with her. It's a good thing she doesn't know about it all.' It was Harry's voice from a way ahead of her and Pansy. 
'She's more likely to be a traitor than Snape.' Ron sneered in that same judging tone he always used when Marlene was topic of conversation. Marlene slipped her arm out of Pansy's and caught up to her brother and his two friends. She slipped in between Harry and Ron, Hermione giving her a wide eyed look. 
'Hey gits, having a good gossip?' she spat, giving them a false smile. Ron sputtered, his ears going red. 
'Stop eavesdropping.' Harry muttered. Marlene scoffed. 
'Didn't even need to. Do you know how loud you idiots talk?' 
'It's none of your business anyway-'
'You're literally talking shit about me. It is my business.' she pointed towards herself dramatically. Harry frowned, looking down at her hand. 
'What happened to your-'
'- that is seriously none of your business.' Marlene sped up then, leaving Pansy to jog to overtake her brother and catch up. 
'What was all that about?' Pansy asked. Marlene shrugged. She couldn't help but wonder if Harry would like her if she had been placed in any other house. Thankfully, Pansy didn't resume her latest gushing about Draco and the two of them walked in silence the rest of the way to Hogsmeade. Marlene couldn't even be bothered with Hogsmeade anymore, she just wanted to turn around and go back to her dorm but she didn't want to walk past her brother again. 

Marlene slid into a booth at the Three Broomsticks, folding her arms and resting her head on them. Pansy slid in next to her, a glass of butterbeer in each hand. 
'Tired?' she asked as she took a sip. 
'Of everyone's bullshit.' Marlene muttered, rolling her eyes as she saw her brother sit down at the table next to them.
'Someone's a ray of sunshine today,' Mattheo remarked as he took in Marlene's scowl. 
'Do you want me to give you another black eye?' she muttered, not sure why that made him smirk. She moved closer to the wall as the whole group slid into the seats, Mattheo sitting across from her, his eyes trying to ask her a question silently. She knew it was What's wrong? She nodded her head towards her brother and his friends. Mattheo looked over, his jaw hardening as he glared. Marlene watched as her brother and Ron looked at him before kicking Mattheo under the table. 'Stop making that face at them,' she hissed. He looked back towards her, his face now soft and innocent. 
'What face?' Marlene rolled her eyes. 
'Dick.' she muttered under her breath, resting her head on her arms again. 

Marlene sat, doodling on the cover of her textbook as Umbridge read out the chapter aloud. Not once had they done a spell in this class yet, which was pointless considering it was defense against the dark arts. How you were supposed to defend yourself based only on theory Marlene had no idea. 
'Miss Potter. Would you care to summarise what i just said?' Shit. Marlene looked up to see Umbridge's tiny eyes fixed on her. 
'Uh, not really,' she muttered. 
'Why not?' Umbridge's eyes narrowed. Marlene rolled her eyes. 
'Because it's bullshit. What are we supposed to learn by sitting here reading about spells. We've got O.W.L.S that need us to prove that we can cast the spells but you're not letting us cast shit!' Marlene exclaimed, dropping her quill on her desk. 
'Marlene.' Theo muttered. 
'Have you forgotten what i taught you in detention? Perhaps you should come see me again tonight.' Umbridge gave her a sickly sweet smile before turning back to the textbook. 
'Marlene...' Theo sighed, looking down at her hand. 
'I know.' she muttered. Her hand hadn't healed from her last detention with Umbridge and now she had sighed herself up to open the skin again.

When Marlene sat in Umbridge's office later that evening, she waiting until the professor was focused on marking homework before she started writing. Lines and lines, four words long. 
Umbridge is a bitch. It was the only thing that made the pain worth it, especially since she noticed she was still writing long before she had been allowed to stop last time.
'I think you've learned your lesson this time, don't you?' Umbridge smiled sweetly as Marlene put down the quill. 
'Oh, yes, i think i did.' Marlene was out the door before Umbridge had collected her parchment, running as soon as she was in the hallway in case she decided to come after her. She almost tripped down the stairs, taking them two at a time. She wanted to laugh out loud as she ran. Sure, her hand hurt like hell, but there was something so sweet about defying her professor like that. She ran into the common room, a grin on her face as she sat down beside her waiting friends, all of whom were confused at her joyful mood. 
'Did you do lines again?' Enzo asked slowly as he took in her joyous demeanor.
'Oh, i did.' Marlene grinned before holding up her hand, showing her friends the four words engraved into the back of her hand, deeper than the last time. 
'Oh my god, you're such an idiot.' Mattheo shook his head, sighing as he stretched back on the couch, his arms behind his head.