A Marauder's Guide to Falling Together

Chapter Eighteen

"There's still a lot to talk about," Lily had been respectful enough to wait until Marlene and Sirius had pulled apart before speaking. When they had, Marlene observed James and Lily with amusement; they were both cuddled into the chair that Lily had been occupying, Lily was half sitting on his lap with her head resting against his shoulder and his arm slung around her.

"I don't know if I can believe what I'm seeing," she said with enjoyment. Despite the pink shade of Lily's cheeks James merely shrugged; it was almost as if he had heard this one too many times.

"They're pretty disgusting to watch," Sirius chuckled from beside her. They settled back into the couch and even though they weren't sitting atop one another like James and Lily, Sirius had grabbed her hand to keep their bodies connected.

"Says the two who just had their tongues jammed down each other's throats," James wiggled his eyebrows suggestively but was rewarded with a light punch in the arm from Lily. "Ouch, Evans, what was that for? You know I'm right."

"Doesn't mean I go around bugging people about it," she replied, "plus you and I both know that they've been waiting awhile to do – er – that." She seemed uncomfortable with the last part of her sentence and her face flushed red again. "Anyways, that's not important right now. I told Marlene that I'd fill her in on everything and students are going to be arriving back from supper soon."

"You didn't tell her anything yet?" James sounded astounded. "Don't you two tell each other everything?"

"Apparently not," Marlene said skeptically and Sirius squeezed her hand.

"Well she knows about what happened after she passed out in Hogsmeade and about Sirius's unprecedented adventures –"

"If I recall correctly, Evans, you accompanied me on the first adventure to St. Mungos," Sirius interjected. His eyebrows were raised but he looked amused.

"Yes well," Lily flashed him a look, "I'm referring to the other times."

"Wanted to see me that badly, did you?" Marlene looked at him from the corner of her eyes and smiled cheekily at him. Despite her obvious attempt at making light of the situation Sirius did not smile back.

"Yes," he said simply. Marlene could have got caught in the intensity of his gaze but she pulled her eyes away from him for fear that she might throw herself at him again; another public display of affection was probably not her best option at the moment, especially with James and Lily watching them so carefully.

"How much privacy do we have?" Lily turned to James and was speaking in a hushed tone.

"Marlene already knows about the map," Sirius chimed in quickly.

"The only two dots displaying were the two of you," James nodded his head at Sirius to agree with his addition. "And Marlene has known about it for awhile so don't worry about spilling that secret."

"Of course you knew," Lily laughed. "I shouldn't have assumed otherwise." She offered a small smile at Marlene before turning her attention back to James "I didn't want to tell her about – you know? At least until you could be here to share it with me and ensure that we have complete privacy. After all, that's the way we intended for it to happen in Hogsmeade, despite the fact that you felt otherwise."

Marlene did not miss the hard look that she gave James but instead of understanding what she meant by it she was left with even more questions. It appeared that Lily was annoyed with him over something and the guilty expression on his face indicated that this was true.

"This is far too vague for me," Marlene finally huffed. She recalled the odd interaction of when Lily had pulled her into the alleyway to cryptically ask her to meet her and James at the Hogs head. She'd be lying to herself if she didn't admit that she wasn't growing more impatient to know why. "Lily, you mentioned that this was all your fault. Let's start there?"