scars || sirius black

13 - the lindy hop

After a tip off from Dorcas, Emmy was able to pick up a birthday present for Marlene from Hogsmeade that weekend. And on Monday the twenty-seventh of October, the Astrals woke up at 6am so they could fit in some festivities before class.

The cold-blooded glare Emmy received for daring to wake up the birthday girl was swiftly transformed into a radiant smile as she caught sight of the three-tiered creation Fabian and Gideon had managed to smuggle from the kitchens. There was one thing that Marlene loved more than sleep, and that was cake.

They dug in as Marlene opened her gifts; new make up, a couple of party dresses, vinyl and a denim jacket with the words 'troublemaker' in red thread on the back which she slung on over her school uniform before they headed to the Great Hall for breakfast.

To everyone's surprise, she made it until lunchtime before a teacher made her take it off, and after the day's classes they ran down to the Black Loch and spent the evening splashing around in the water, radio turned up to the highest volume and finishing off the birthday cake.

They eventually returned to the castle as the sun began to set and the temperature dropped. It was a day sincerely well spent.

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Two weeks later, the quidditch match against Ravenclaw was upon them. James Potter had beaten the record for the amount of team practises in a fortnight: sixteen in total. But the day had arrived, and the players hoped they'd win for more than one reason: to simply not have to put up with the extra practises if they lost.

Emmy and Marlene were under strict orders to have a full ten hours of sleep the night before, and to be in the common room at 7am the next morning.

No one else was awake at that time, but as soon as the two girls realised they had only nine minutes until they had to be downstairs, the entire tower was woken by the noise.

Plenty of yelping and thudding ensued as they each had a shower and riffled through piles of clothes to find their quidditch uniforms.

At 6.59am, they hurtled down the staircase to find an unamused James Potter standing in front of the rest of the Quidditch team with equally tired expressions.

"We made it!" shrieked Marlene, giving Emmy an enthusiastic high-five as she leant against a wall to catch her breath who was leaning against the wall to catch her breath.

"Only just," responded James with a roll of his eyes.

They were the first ones to arrive in the Great Hall so had first pick at the scrumptious breakfast laid out by the house elves. Sitting down for the first time that morning, butterflies rose in her stomach and her gut twisted with nauseating nervousness.

Months of preparation had come down to this. They had one match to show everyone what they were truly made of and if they won it would set the bar for the rest of the year, show the other teams that they were the ones to beat.

She stared at the plate of food in front of her and felt vomit surging from her stomach. She looked away and took a deep breath.

"Emmy, will you eat something please?" called James from across the table. "I'm not having you fainting today."

She'd only been playing quidditch for three months, she knew she was good, but what if she just wasn't that good?

"Sorry," she muttered, picking at a fried egg. To her dismay, her stomach twisted at the thought of taking a bite.

It was only when Marlene handed her a plate of pancakes, her one weakness, with a pointed look on her face that she took one and ate it slowly.

With one down, she was able to eat a rasher of bacon, and then finally her cup of tea.