Nox (The Marauders, Wolfstar, Jily)

12: britains left the eu but at least we have this chapter

"It's alright for you. You're pretty." Marlene rolled her eyes at Narcissa, watching her pace up and down next to the wall in the courtyard that Marlene was sat on. They were rather out in the open, which seemed to go directly against everything they had stood for, with being so insistent to do things in secret, but they found that maybe that didn't quite matter so much anymore.

It was an early Saturday afternoon, with the sun shining high up in the sky, and everything just about seemed perfect, despite the fact that they'd found themselves having managed to underestimate Malfoy severely. It was that, which had landed them in a rather uncomfortable situation, although Marlene did seem to be dealing with it just that little bit better.

Narcissa stopped in her tracks, turning to Marlene, with her eyes blown wide: growing red at the edges as the the very same shade of red filled her cheeks. "What are you...?" She trailed off, shaking her head. "What does that have to do with it? That literally has nothing to do with it- and hey, it's not like you aren't pretty too."

Marlene shrugged, watching as Narcissa sat down beside her on the wall. "He likes you more than he likes me, anyway, that's my point. He's got a motive not to completely destroy your entire life." She paused for a moment, finding herself in thought. "Really, he has nothing but motive to destroy my entire life. I mean, I'm a Gryffindor, for a start."

"The only 'motive' he has is my family." Narcissa shot her a blank kind of stare. "That doesn't really mean much anymore. I do wonder how my family reputation might change the very moment everything does finally come out. I wonder how they'd handle that. It's all... bullshit, really."

Marlene's face gave way to a half smile. "They'd probably be in a rush to marry you off. Get someone else's name, save the family that way." She added, jokingly, although Narcissa had to admit that there might be more truth to that than Marlene had originally imagined. "Imagine if you got married off to Malfoy."

"Don't." Narcissa groaned, shaking her head in disgust at the prospect. "He's repulsive. I'm never letting that happen. I'm not getting married off to any kind of rich dickhead of a wizard."

Marlene smiled, finding that the way she'd managed to change some of Narcissa's opinions, over the course of their friendship, was nice to see. "Me neither. Not even married off. I'm not getting married end of."

Narcissa raised her eyebrows. "Not even a nice rich wizard? Or a poor one. Middle class. Nice guy? Maybe even a muggle? Someone you love? I mean, you'll meet someone eventually, won't you?"

Marlene shook her head. "No. That's the thing. Not going to meet and fall for any kind of guy. Because that's thing... I'm kind of like... really gay." She came to wonder if maybe she might regret coming to say that so offhandedly once Narcissa really came to take it in and react to just what it meant, but there was no way around the fact that there was very little she could do about that now.

"Oh..." Narcissa raised her eyebrows, finding that she wasn't entirely sure what to make of... well... Marlene being really gay. She'd always felt that it was something her family and the people she'd found herself surrounded by had looked down on - kind of like poor people, kind of like muggles, maybe kind of even like Gryffindors, maybe Hufflepuffs, really. Despite that however, she really didn't feel the need to turn her back on Marlene at all, because she was still one of her closest friends, and this really didn't change anything at all.

"Yeah." Marlene found herself speaking just to fill the silence eventually, a few minutes having passed by. Those minutes were spent by the two girls, sharing each other's silence, and watching the small group of first years sat at the other end of the courtyard, and besides that, the general quiet and peaceful nature of it all. "I'm gay."