—slay your demons, lionheart

"Should’ve jinxed the awful stuff in his trousers, frankly. Regretting that a bit now, if I’m honest. You know, after two years as a prefect, I’m fairly sure that isn’t how rounds work. Though, I’d be willing to bet a few people would argue I’m doing it wrong, so who knows? Besides, it’s not all about dodging detentions. Perhaps I’m just wittingly charming enough to do that on my own."

"I suppose it's a bit too unfeasible to demand a time turner in order to return to this moment and hex the idiot's junk and expect the Ministry to actually go for it, isn't it? Bugger. Though, I mean, we could always steal one. I have connections. Or we could just track down the boy. Really. I'm itching to do something, and I think improving the male species is a worthy use of my time. Detention would even be worth it—and honestly, maybe that's how rounds should work. I'd be a great addition, Lil, just think—I have no prerogative to be remotely responsible nor polite to nonsense humans, because I don't have a badge—or the kind of personality, really—but because I'd be on patrol with Hogwarts' future Head Girl, they'd all be too confused to argue! Bloody brilliant, really. And please, I'm charming—apparently, professors just don't like it when your charm is infused with some cheeky wit. No accounting for taste. You are quite charming, though—still, so are me and James and, well, all the Marauders, really, and we still get detention. I mean, we deserve it, but still."

Moira watched the girl with a curious glance as she searched about. Who carried more sugar quills than actual quills? Honestly. However, when they girl handed her over a - blessedly - actually quill, Moira offered her a smile. “Thank you. I really should start carrying extras. I usually don’t break them, however, which is why I currently don’t.”

If Marlene had ever been particularly fussed about schoolwork, or decorum, or the opinion's of others, or her reputation outside of the face that she was an extraordinarily kickass chaser with brilliant friends, she'd quite possibly have been vaguely mortified that she had a ration of roughly 9:1 sugar quills to actual quills, but as Marlene didn't put much stock into any of those things, she simply returned the girl's smile and picked up one of the sugar quills, examining it—you never knew when the Marauders had been messing with your stuff, after all, and she had been fairly sure that the ratio had been closer to 6:1 this morning.

Goblins and House Elves || James + OPEN

"Maybe goblins are their dreadful cousins? Y'know, the ones to avoid at the wedding and keep out of the kitchen because they'll try steal the silverware and alcohol?"

When she looked down, letting the sudden interruption sink in and her mind to start working, she recognized the girl as Marlene McKinnon. Sirius had spoken about her enough times that she knew the girl wasn’t a threat, combined with the sound of Doe’s voice calling her “Marly” in her head she let her guard falter slight. Andromeda gave a small smile as she huffed, looking over her shoulder at the fruit that she was desperately wanting to get a hold of before lift the front of her robes and bending over to sit on the branch. She gave a quick look around the thicket before her at the same moment the Gryffindor did, her eyes scanning for people who could be hiding around trees and looking far off for the possibility of someone walking over rather than just anyone who could be walking about.

Marlene made a face without realising it at the sound of Potions talk. It was just not her thing, and she tended to react negatively to it on instinct. Still, collecting ingredients wouldn't be so bad—especially compared to the nonsense essays Slughorn had them doing. She had broken something like six quills on the last essay alone; not on actually penning the essay—she remained at a woeful three feet, though she maintained that those three feet had greatly weakened her quills—but on throwing them in frustration, having broken three on Sirius' back alone, much to Remus' amusement. "That's pretty dedicated," Marlene acknowledged, before allowing, "unless you just prefer trees to the Alley—honestly, I wouldn't blame you." Marlene really wouldn't; she liked the Alley well enough—Diagon, that was, not Knockturn; she and James exploring it for a dare when they were younger had been an atrocious idea—but anything that involved the wind in her hair was better, which was why Marlene had always loved flying and climbing trees so much.

“Second years are usually huge gits, hence the textbook defense. First years are the ones who drop their jaws to the floor if I acknowledge them," she said, giving a smirk with that. The smirk grew bigger when Marly admitted she had no idea what a muppet was. "For all you know it’s like the biggest compliment in the world. Or something extremely negative!" she exclaimed with a laugh. "Then, as a prefect, no matter how poor, I would have to be angry at you for being rude to a fellow student!" she said, her voice teasing. Marly knew as well as Doe that the Slytherin girl would never actually get Marly in any trouble. As they came upon the pitch, Doe grinned at Marly. "Now, enough about my obvious dereliction of duties. I’m going to go to the Slytherin locker room and get changed," she said, before slipping away. 

Marlene grinned. "I'm so pleased that you've classified all the boys," she said with a wink. "Tell me, what are the Seventh and Sixth Years?" They were, after all, the most relevant to the two girls; their fellow Sixth Years, and those in the year above them. "It's probably extremely negative," she teased, "but there may be a lesson to be learned in using words without knowing their meanings." Marlene paused before she burst into giggles. "But it's probably not a lesson I'm going to learn," she admitted with a wry grin.

Andromeda had one arm sloppily holding the trunk next to her, the other reaching out as she grabbed at the small fruits hanging from the branch above. Her fingers were only an inch away, but as she started to lean closer, a voice drove her attention away. Spinning on her heels, stumbling slightly on the thick branch below her as she prepared a whirlwind of excuses, “I need them for potology- I mean potions. And herbology. Both classes.”

Marlene had been heading down to the grounds, not really in the mood for breakfast. She supposed if she had been up somewhat earlier, she could have both wandered and had breakfast, but she had been otherwise occupied: sleeping. Marlene had been heading over to some large trees—what, they reminded her of childhood with James—and had let out an exclamation when she saw feet. "What the—" she said, cutting herself off when she saw Sirius' pretty brunette cousin in the tree. Marlene closed her mouth as Andromeda promptly explained, sounding a little flustered.

"Well, you can tell Sirius that if he wants to talk about what he did then he can stop hiding behind your skirt." He chewed at the inside of his lip with a huff, "He left me alone with our psycho family, I don’t care about that coward."

Marlene paused, her heart twisting in her chest. She knew what she'd told Sirius wasn't wrong—if leaving had shown Regulus something, it was that leaving was possible—but it wasn't that simple, because unlike Sirius, Regulus didn't really have anywhere to go.

"It was truly amorous, I can’t think of anything more charming and alluring than my hair turning green and questionable Potions ingredients soaking my skivvies. I nearly hexed him for her, honestly. It took a great deal out of me not to laugh at the absurdity of it all.”

"I reckon I would have hexed him—Merlin, I hope he's not still getting any, after a date like that. One of these days, Lil, I ought to come on rounds with you—that way, I can do all the things you prefects aren't meant to do, like hex students and laugh at them, and who knows? Maybe it'll keep me out of detention for a little bit."

"Honest to Merlin, I think my eyesight has gone numb to seeing my peers in indecent positions. Just this week I witnessed some Hufflepuff push his girlfriend behind a pile of cauldrons as if I hadn’t seen. Poor thing was covered in green goo and petroleum jelly. Come to think, I should probably get someone to clean that up."

"How charming—if being caught snogging by a prefect wasn't romantic enough, why not just up the ante and shove her into goo and cauldrons? Wait—were they snogging in the dungeons? Who looks at cauldrons and thinks, oh, how romantic, instead of that looks like hell?"

Prefect Duties || Lily + Marlene

"Godric, was it Smith and Fawcett again? Is that cupboard overflowing with some sort of libido charm or what?"

Sirius shook his head. “You never give up, do you?” he looked over at her. He liked that she was stubborn, even if she was just joking at the moment. He let his eyes trail over her body when she wasn’t noticing, and then he looked back at the ceiling. “I’m sure that would be an acceptable answer, my star.” he chuckled, wishing life would always be this simple. Laying on a floor, talking about stars, and not worrying about death or what would be around the bend. 

Marlene smirked. "You've known me for six years now," she reminded him, "and I don't think you've ever seen me give up on anything, except Potions—which I still take, Merlin knows why—I think you should know that I don't intend to start now," she said, with the conclusive air of a promise. Something warm spread through her chest when he said my star, and she could not help the wide smile that was all over her face.

“Women find me charming and rather handsome. I would allow you a moment to admire, but I don’t want you to begin drooling before we’ve even begun.” He gives her an expectant round of cachinnation, feeling some bile rise up in his throat. He found her nothing close to attractive, although she needn’t know the truth behind his words. Which was also a remarkable trait he possessed; blatant lies. “How are you a virgin with legs that immaculate and defined?” he mirrored back, raising an eyebrow with a sinister smirk.

Marlene was borderline revolted. "How?" she demanded without thinking. The second the word passed her lips, she knew that it was probably a bad idea, but she'd never been one for curbing her impulses; that would require registering them before she acted upon them, which wasn't her greatest strength. "Don't worry yourself—I won't need it," she returned coolly. She supposed, aesthetically, he had features that looked good together, but she felt no flicker of attraction. She associated those features with arrogance and cruelty, not beauty. Besides, she wasn't much of a girl for blondes.

Innocent Request || Moira & Marlene

Marlene threw around a cursory glance, and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, these are all sug—oh, wait!" she cut herself off, spying a feather peeping out the side of her essay. "Here," she said triumphantly, brandishing the quill to the blonde.

"Sure— He’s actually a natural blonde, and you have my blessing for whatever it is you want to ask. Satisfied?"

Godric, he really was like Sirius. "Ha, ha," she said dryly, lips twisting into a smirk. "I mainly wanted to tell you that your brother didn't leave to abandon you, so if that's got your blessing..." Marlene trailed off. In all honesty, she felt gutted for Regulus. It just didn't mean it was Sirius' fault, or that he didn't love his brother.