A Marauder's Guide to Falling in Love

Chapter Seventeen

Mary was waiting for her when she arrived back to the castle. She had flung her arms around Marlene in a warm embrace almost before she had had a chance to catch a glimpse of her. The gesture was appreciated but Marlene felt inclined to pull away a little quicker than she originally would have. The thought of too much attention on her still made her feel uneasy.

"I'm so glad to see you," Mary breathed and offered a sympathetic smile. Marlene realized that this was this first time they had seen each other in quite a few weeks. "Lily is doing prefect duties otherwise she would have been here too," Mary offered an explanation before Marlene had even registered that their red-headed friend was not among them.

"That's alright," Marlene said truthfully. She didn't mind Lily's commitment to her prefect obligations, as she knew how proud Lily had been when she had received her badge back before fifth year. It also provided her with a sense of normalcy; the more things that continued on ordinarily, the less attention Marlene felt was focused on feeling sorry for herself.

The girls began walking back towards the common room. It was apparent that it was nearly curfew and Marlene realized that she hadn't even bothered to check the time when leaving her uncle's house in Godric's Hollow. They walked past a large window and the grounds were illuminated by a prominent moon. She was happy to discover that it was, for once, not snowing.

"Bert's been looking for you, you know," Mary said quietly. She seemed apprehensive about bringing up the subject but Marlene was surprisingly glad for the distraction for once.

"I suppose I've been putting it off long enough," Marlene replied. She had regretted not doing it sooner but had tried hard not to dwell on it too much while she had been away. "He wrote to me while I was gone, I suppose it would have been politically correct of me to do it then but it just didn't seem right to do it by owl, you know?"

Mary laughed bitterly and Marlene got the sense that she had touched a nerve.

"Whatever did happen between you and Davey?" The subject had been long avoided and Marlene was surprised at herself for bringing it up.

Mary looked startled at the question.

Marlene didn't feel guilty asking; they had been friends long enough that she felt comfortable to ask prying questions into her personal life. Out of respect – and dislike of the Ravenclaw boy in question – she and Lily had dropped the subject, expecting that Mary would eventually share. However, as the months had passed and Mary's lips had remained sealed, Marlene became genuinely curious. It did help as a distraction from her problems and she was shameless to admit to herself that, at the cost of her friends comfort, she was going to enquire.

"He broke up with me by owl," she grinned at the irony. Marlene couldn't help but laugh a little.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly, "I shouldn't laugh."

"It's fine." Mary continued, waving her hand out to dismiss her friend's apology. "You and I both know that the relationship was a joke after the third time we broke up. I should have seen it coming. I've seen him with Bertha Jorkins again, you know. I don't doubt that they started seeing each other long before he sent me that letter."

"Coward," Marlene shook her head. It put a bit of her cowardice into perspective and she knew that putting off her imminent breakup any longer was just doing more harm than good.

"Have you talked to Sirius lately?" Mary asked suddenly. Marlene instantly recalled the letters he had written to her but did not divulge the information to her friend.

"Not really," she chose her words carefully. Even though he had written to her, she had not actually written back. Mary seemed to accept the answer though and did not challenge her.