Wasting Time

11

Sirius and I were happy. At least I thought we were. Things had gone back to normal. That's what I thought. Until I saw him kissing Charity Burbage.

It was almost Christmas break, so we were throwing a party in the room of requirement to end the term with a bang. That's where I saw it. Charity Burbage, a younger Ravenclaw girl. Kissing my boyfriend. I filled with rage. And I did the only logical thing. I turned on my heal and stormed away from them before they saw me.

I found a quiet corner in the party, which was quite the feat in itself, and I sat down. I pulled the picture lily had taken of us mere hours earlier out of my pocket and looked at it. Sirius and I were laying on the cobblestone streets of Hogsmeade and kissing. Tears welled in my eyes before I was overcome with rage again. I stood up and stuffed the picture back into my pocket.

I marched away from my corner and found Remus. He opened his mouth to speak to me but I grabbed his shirt and kissed him. He pulled away from me looking horrified.

"What the bloody hell are you doing Marlene?"

"Saw Sirius kissing Charity Burbage."

"And you thought the best thing to do was go kiss me?" I nodded.

"Yup. Wasn't gonna kiss James. That'd be disgusting. He's like my brother."

"Why did you have to kiss any of his friends? There has to be a better way to deal with this. Remember when Rookwood kissed you and it looked like something that it wasn't?" The words enraged me even further.

"You mean when he left me hanging for days on end and didn't let me explain myself? Is that  the right way to deal with this?"

"No. I'm saying that you two need to find a better way to communicate. That's all."

Just then, Sirius stormed over to us. I rolled my eyes as he approached.

"What's this Benji Fenwick is telling me about you two kissing?" He roared when he reached us. Remus sighed and rubbed his temples.

"I want no part in this. You two need to deal with your issues on your own."

"No, this is your issue. You were kissing my girlfriend Moony! What the fuck!"

He pushed Remus. He was about to hit him. I always knew when Sirius was about to hit someone. And he was about to hit one of his best friends because of me. I pushed myself in between them. I turned my back to Remus and looked up at Sirius.

"Come on, hit me! You want to hit someone? Hit me! I'm the one you're mad at!"

"Get out of the way Marlene! I'm not going to hit you!"

"Guys, come on. Let's all calm down.  No one is hitting anyone!" James tried to break us up.

"Stay out of this James! You're not hitting him either, Sirius! If you want to hit someone, hit me!" His body relaxed and he back away. "That's what I thought."

"Trust me Pads, it wasn't like that. Talk to your girlfriend for the love of Christ," Remus said tiredly and walked away.

"What the fuck is going on Marlene?"

"You kissed Charity Burbage, that's what's going on!"

"So you decided to kiss one of my best friends? Why didn't you let me explain myself?"

"Like you let me explain myself when Rookwood kissed me?" I said nastily. We were screaming at each other, and people were starting to notice. But neither of us cared. We were wrapped in a bubble of anger.

"At least I didn't kiss your friend!"

"Go do it now then! Go kiss Mary or Emmeline, see if I care!"

"You know damn well that you're the only person I want to kiss Marlene! And I would never stoop so low as to kiss your friends!"

"That's not what it looked like ten minutes ago! And of course not, you'd only stoop as low as ignoring me for days and not telling me if we were broken up or not. I see, you're such a better person than I am!"

"She kissed me Marlene! I stopped it! Which you would've seen, if you hung around for a second instead of storming off like a crazy person! God, you know me Marlene! I would never cheat on you!"

"I can't do this right now! God, this doesn't work! Don't you see that? This doesn't work and I can't keep doing this!"

I stormed out and headed to the astronomy tour. I don't know how long I was there before Sirius came and found me. He sat down beside me and lit a cigarette before speaking.

"Do you really think we don't work?" I shrugged.

"I don't know. I'm just tired of fighting with you. It feels like that's all we do sometimes. I'm tired." He hesitated for a minute.

"We could try...just being friends for a while." I smiled at him sadly.

"We're not friends, Sirius. We've never been friends. I think we have to be together or not together, I don't think friends is an option."

"Well then I pick together. I'll always pick together."

"Do you think we can do it? I don't want us to end up hating each other."

"That will never happen. Look at me McKinnon." He took my face in his hands. "We are meant to be together. Everyone knows that. We're just a little rough around the edges. But I could never hate you."

"No more fighting," I said. He let out a bark like laugh.

"We've been saying that for a year. I think we'll always fight. But no more fights like that. And no more kissing my friends please." I let out a soft chuckle.

"I'll do my best to control myself."