#blackinnonsecrertsummer

“There’s always next year,” James said shakily.

“Come on, Potter. Just let us have a minuet before you start coaching us again,” complained Caradoc. 

“I just. I don’t know how we lost that bad,” James said again, face palming. “It had to be the weather. If it weren’t for that rain-“

“Or the bludger to my head,” added Caradoc.

“Or the 90 points they scored on us in the first hour,” said Nina.

“Or even that amazing dive Travers made for the snitch when it was above me,” Heather finished. 

James swung his broom to rest over his shoulders as he threatened to replace them all with better, ‘more respectful,’ players next year.

Behind the group, Marlene and Sirius were planning something. Their heads were close together and Marlene was visibly bubbling with excitement. 

“Okay, okay, okay… but how do we keep James from finding out?” Marlene spoke quickly, occasionally stumbling over words in her rush to get them out.

“He’s going to be facedown in bed for the rest of the weekend at least,” Sirius said with a wave of his hand. “The real problem will be getting firewhiskey. I’ve gotten kicked out of the Hogs Head ‘for good’ this time, according to Aberforth. He’s not really one to forgive and forget, either.”

“Leave that to me, he adores me.”

Sirius rolled his eyes, “no idea why…”

  “We also need to sneak into the laundry so I can get some sheets for a banner,” Marlene plowed on, ignoring him.

“And I bet I can get the house elves to whip up a little food. But it all seems easy enough.”

There was a moment of silence, as they grinned at each other. Sirius calm and collected, and Marlene bouncing from foot to foot. 

“Oh, this is going to be brilliant,” she said.

By the time the rest of the team noticed their absence, they were half way down the secret passage to Hogsmeade. 

Marlene took care of the alcohol by giving Aberforth her cute, scrunch-nosed grin, and telling him stories of how all her older brothers had been doing since he’d last served them a drink. 

Sirius mostly bought candy. By the time Marlene caught up with him his arms were nearly overflowing with sweets.

“I figured this was a big enough emergency,” he said with a shrug, causing some of the licorice wands to fall to the floor. 

  Back at the castle, things got a little harder. 

“Okay, I’ll nip down to the laundry and you go to the kitchens?” Marlene said, peaking down the corridor for teachers or patrolling prefects. 

“Sound like a plan,” Sirius put his hand out towards her like James did after a huddle. 

Marlene put her hand over his, squeezing it for a second while they smiled like idiots at one another. 

“Break!” they shouted, probably too loudly, before running off wildly into opposite directions.

Marlene only had a general idea of where the laundry was located, so she opened doors at random for some time. Once she finally found it, she was distressed to find Filch inside, singing tunelessly as he scrubbed a grubbily looking set of robes. Marlene had had enough run-ins with this still relatively new caretaker to know he did not mess around. So Marlene took her wand out and oh-so-carefully levitated a sheet from a nearby bin. How he didn’t see her, Marlene had no idea, though she suspected he was having far too much fun with his rendition of his sad little song about a wizard and his wand. 

Sirius was not feeling as lucky down in the kitchens. Most of the house elves we’re eager and excited to serve, except for one. Her name was Lady, and Sirius was convinced that she had been at Hogwarts since it’s founding. Her ears drooped almost to her knees, which were bent with age like her back. She was always waving her tiny little cane at him, reprimanding him for being out of bed after hours. As she yelled at him, the other house elves went into a flurry of action that escaped her notice, preparing a small feast for the grieving Gryffindors.

They raced back up to Gryffindor tower, well past curfew. They were on such a high that they didn’t bother taking the corners carefully, or worrying about how much noise they were making, or even listening for a familiar Prefects voice saying “oh Merlin, here they come.” 

Lily didn’t expect to completely collide with her classmates when they came barreling around the corner, but she found herself on the ground with candy, sheets, and Marlene McKinnon on top of her. 

“Oh, hullo Lily, dear.” Marlene said looking down at her with an apologetic expression on her face.

“Erg- get off of me Marlene,” Lily groaned in response. 

Sirius helped Marlene up, and Lily was helped up by her Ravenclaw patrol partner.

“D’you think you can tell me what you’re doing out here after curfew?” He asked. 

“Well, you see-“ Marlene said, gathering the fallen loot up in her sheet.

“We just lost a Quidditch game,” Sirius continued, joining Marlene in picking after the collision.

“So I heard. It couldn’t have been that bad, could it?” Lily teased.

“Thanks Lily, always so kind” Marlene rolled her eyes. 

“Anyways, I figured-“ Sirius continued with a dramatic flourish.

“I think it was me, Sirius” 

“Okay, we figured that the team could use a little pick-me-up.”

“Spirit-lifter if you will.” 

Lily bent down to help the two of them with their mess.

“Okay, everyone back in the common room is acting like someone died. Even though I think they’re over-reacting a little bit, maybe they could use… whatever it is you two are cooking up. ” Lily said casually. 

“Might be that we could wait up for you,” said Sirius with a smile at the redhead. 

“I wouldn’t want to start the festivities without my friend- er, I mean without Prefect supervision of course,” Marlene added.

Lily stood up, “I might take you up on that offer then.”

She turned to her patrol partner, adjusting her robes. 

“I don’t think there’s anything to see here, right Jacob?” 

“Well-“ he hesitated, “…okay. If you say so, Lily.” 

“Just hurry up there, James looked like he was ready to jump off the Astronomy tower” 

Sirius saluted her, then grabbed Marlene’s hand and continued down the corridor. 

The mood of the Gryffindor common room was somber. The Quidditch team was sitting dejectedly by the fire, not saying a word. The only one missing was James, who had gone up to the dorm to sulk. Marlene immediately went into action getting everyone on board with the plan. Every one of the Gryffindors, the Quidditch team especially, enthusiastically attached themselves to the idea of a party to lift the mood that had surrounded the tower. 

Trying to work as quietly as possible so James wouldn’t hear, the Gryffindors prepared for ‘celebration’. Lily and Marlene were in the corner, laughing hysterically as they painted the banner. Sirius ushered all underaged students out of the room by bribing them with candy. Remus helped set up the food, Peter got the drinks ready, and Dorcas took care of music. All they needed now was the Captain to come and join them in their now dubbed ‘Loser Party.’ Lily volunteered to get him, earning her a wink from Sirius before she disappeared up the stairs. 

James face broke into a lopsided grin at the banner Marlene and Lily had lovingly made. It hung over the entire common room and read ‘CONGRATULATIONS, LOSERS’ in red and gold paint. On the bottom corner, Lily had painted a bruised and bandaged lion with a snake biting it’s tail. 

Nearly everyone got completely sloshed. Lily was listening to some story James was animatedly telling with a goofy grin plastered on her face, Peter and Remus were having a rather unimpressive arm wrestling match, and Sirius had hooked Marlene around the waist as she passed to pulled her in for a dance. 

They leaned against each other heavily, drinks in hand. Marlene snaked her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek against his chest. They drunkenly swayed in place for quite some time.

“I think I might have drank a lil’ too much, Sir-ius” Marlene slurred.

“Nonsense, you are the picture of sobriety, McKinnon.”

Marlene tilted her head up so her chin now rested on his chest, looking up at him with their faces inches apart. He could see the freckles that appeared on her face in the summer, and she could see the small scar on his upper lip. Her breath smelt like sweets and his like firewhiskey. 

“We did good.” She said, closing her eyes and smiling like she had said something profound.

“We did.” Sirius agreed. “Though I think we might have messed up a little on the Quidditch playing part.”

“We played!” Marlene said stumbling slightly. “We just forgot to play well.” 

“Oh yeah, if only James had remembered to tell us that we were supposed towin the game. Big mistake on his part.” 

Marlene laughed her boisterous belly laugh, pressing her face back into his chest and pulling him closer.

At some point she disappeared off into the crowded room, after which found her with her arm around Caradoc Dearborn, flirting shamelessly. Caradoc was looking a little worse for ware, plainly still feeling the effects of the concussion. He was ‘hmming’ noncommittally at what she was chatting about, looking rather dazed. Sirius untangled the blonde from him and helped her to her feet. 

“He is concussed Marlene, lets leave the poor boy alone.” 

They ended up falling into an unoccupied armchair in the corner of the common room, Marlene splayed across his lap comfortably. She hooked her arms around his neck and settled into him. He was surprised to find himself completely serene. Her blonde hair was in his face, her boney butt was digging into his thigh, and she still stunk from the game, but he was completely happy to have her there with him. 

“You know what I think we did wrong, Mar?” he said, taking mother swig of his drink. 

“What’s that Sirius?”

“We split up too much. I feel like we didn’t get enough time to share in the adventure.”

She turned to him again, eyebrow quirked up and a smirk playing on her lips.

“Well then next adventure we’ll do differently,” she said.

They stared at each other, minds cloudy with firewhiskey and victory. He suddenly found himself leaning down, inching closer and closer to her face. It took her a while to process what was happening, and when she did her eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“Wait- really?” she blurted out, thickly. 

Sirius paused, a bemused expression on his face. 

“Uh, yeah.” He said. 

“Oh…Right. Okay then.” she said, before leaning in to the kiss. 

The memories of the party were only remembered in bits and pieces the next morning. When Marlene finally crawled her way out of bed that afternoon, she found Sirius down in the common room, smirking at her when she shielded her eyes from the light. 

“Afternoon, Marlene,” he teased. 

“How are you not hungover?” she grumbled, falling into the spot next to him. 

“Just drink a bunch of water before you go to bed and you’ll be fine.”

“I know that, but how do you get ‘drunk you’ to listen to ‘future hungover you.” Marlene slumped over, placing her head between her knees. 

“I feel something happened last night,” she said in a muffled voice. 

“Something pretty damn great, right?”

Marlene snorted, “I don’t know about great, seeing how drunk we both were.”

“I take offense, Marlene.” Sirius said placing a hand over his heart. “I’m a great kisser, drunk or sober.”

“Well, I can’t remember anyways, so I’ll take your word for it.”

“No need for that. I could always give you a refresher.”

Marlene sat up, laughing at his smirk and raised eyebrows.

“I might need one, yeah. But Merlin I need something to eat first, I just vommed so much. My stomach is empty.”

Sirius let out a bark of laughter at that.

“Ooo, sexy Marlene. Careful, you won’t be able to get rid of me if you keep talking that way.”

Marlene took his hand and stood up.