Chaos in my Bones

“I thought it was rather romantic,” Mary teased her friend, a grin crossing her lips as she approached the other. “You know, most people actually practise on the pitch, not have a nap.” A laugh escaped her lips, before she shook her head. “You don’t bite? That’s a shame. I figured I’d find you here, though. Guess I was right.”

“I don’t know what kind of weird romance you and Sirius are into, but the rest of the world calls that creepy.” She teased back, looking up as Mary approached. “Well, most people are missin’ out. Look at the sky, this is the perfect place to watch the sunrise.” Marlene pointed out, waving her hand to gesture to the sky above her before patting the grass. “Take a seat, kick back a bit. The grass feels nice.” Despite the fact it was soaking through the back of her shirt. “I can bite you if you want, but honestly mate, we might get some looks for that.”

Sun laughed, moving closer to help her brush the grass off. “Hey, hey, I know you don’t mess when it comes to Quidditch, I’ve seen it full force. I know you well.” She stood up straighter, setting her hands on her hips before she looked up at the pitch towering around them. “Which is why I know your usual M.O. isn’t working out at the ass-crack of dawn. But, then again, neither is mine. Feel like a cool-down lap?” She took a few steps backwards, jogging in place as she watched Marlene. “Let’s talk more about getting rid of all the terrible players until it’s just us left.”

“That’s fair. It’s nicer runnin’ around at night anyway. Pisses off the professors, y’know?” She asked, shaking out her hair before her grin turned into a pout. “A cooldown? You’re really working me to the bone today, Sun. My legs are going to fall off.” There was a petulant tone to her voice, but it was light and teasing. Despite the complaint, she inclined her head in a nod and huffed out a breath before starting to jog around the pitch. “James? So slow and can’t catch to save his life. A chasers job is to catch the damn ball, I don’t know how we’re supposed to score when he constantly fumbles.” She started, her grin widening as she began to rag on her own team. None of it was true, but it was amusing to pretend. “Mary? A queen, love her, she can stay. Y’know, the more I think about it, maybe James is the problem.”

Chloe has been on a morning run when she saw someone practicing in the Qudditich pitch. She thought she recognized the person as Marlene, so she decided to go check it out. As she approached, she smiled when she was right. “It’s hard not to stare at perfection, my dear McKinnon,” Chloe called out in response, laughing, walking over to her friend and dropping down on the grass beside her. “You’re not usually one to be up this early,” she commented.

Marlene practically preened at the compliment, her smile growing into a grin and she laughed as Chloe fell down into the grass next to her. “Damn right, everyone knows I’m the only reason the Gryffindor team is still in one piece.” She retorted. It was a blatant joke, they were all more than capable players, but poking fun just came with the territory. Rolling onto her side so she could look at Chloe, she shrugged. “Not usually, but when you don’t sleep it just feels like it’s really late instead of really early. Weird.” Glancing around the pitch as a few more people showed up, she quirked an eyebrow at Chloe. “Do you always run this early? I thought the pitch was going to be empty when I came out here.”

“Actually, I just thought it was best not to disturb you.” Blaise admitted and walked over to her with a smile on his lips. “I was hoping to get in some practice actually. Do you want to join in?” he offered. “I can summon you a spare broom.” 

“Oh, please. I can’t be disturbed.” Marlene replied with a wave of her hand. Talking to people was far more interesting than running around the pitch alone. Despite the growing soreness in her legs, she nodded in agreement. “I’m always game for some flying practice. Sun would be so proud of me.” She said, grinning. “Just don’t judge me too harshly if I’m tired. I didn’t see you doin’ any running.”

He didn’t usually run at this time. In fact, he didn’t usually bother to even be awake at this time. But from the time he had been back from azkaban, he was having trouble sleeping ( among other things ) and one way to tire himself into sleeping was excessive exercise. When he woke up on his bed in the early hours of morning with a start and was unable to go back to sleep, he got down to the quidditch pitch to run alone, in the silence of the night. He didn’t know how long he had been down there but it didn’t seem like long after that he heard Marlene’s voice. “Well, I was here to run, not to talk.” he said as he jogged towards the gryffindor, stopping near her to get his bottle and sip some water. “And is it really me creeping when I didn’t even notice you?” 

“Oh, c’mon Stefan, don’t be like that.” Marlene said from her position on the ground, looking up at Stefan with a small smile. She hadn’t noticed him until then, but that wasn’t too surprising. It was easy to get caught up in her own head when she was running. “Y’know, we can always do both.” She pointed out, rocking herself onto her feet and starting to walk backwards so she could keep her eyes on him. “I think it still counts. It’s more of a vibe thing, y’know? If you’ve got a creepy vibe, you don’t have to intend it.” Her words were light and teasing, she didn’t genuinely find him to be a creep. Quite the opposite, really, she enjoyed roping him into a drink every now and then. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. Your secret is safe with me.” Changing her pace from a walk to a jog, she twisted around to face forward and continued down the track, yelling after her. “Besides,” She yelled behind her, “You could be in worse company than me. I’m just a treat to talk to and have yet to hear anything about what you did over your vacation.”  

Sun had the same idea as Marlene–wanting to train off her lack of sleep. It could’ve been worse if she was being honest, she could be nursing a hangover instead. Before she could even start her work out, she spotted the blonde on the ground and watched her, seeing if she was truly challenging herself. When Marlene called her out, she laughed and started toward her. “Just wanted to see if one of my star players wasn’t skimping out on her workout.” Sun stopped just next to her, staring down with an amused smirk. “I think I’m pleasantly surprised to see you’re actually working up a sweat.”

“Oh, c’mon Cap,” Marlene started, pushing herself to her feet and attempting to brush the grass from the back of her shirt. “You know I don’t slack when it comes to Quidditch.” Really, she tended to use Quidditch as an excuse to slack off on everything else in her life. But Sun’s surprise was fair, usually, Marlene was hungover in bed and whining about not wanting to get up when it was this early. “Well, I live to please.” Giving a dramatic bow to Sun, she straightened up with a beaming smile, pushing her hair away from her face. “Besides, they say that if you want to be the best you need to learn from the best and what kind of player would leave their captain to work out alone? A terrible one. Terrible players.” She said, fixing her expression into mock-seriousness. “Everyone else is terrible except for me and it’s time we got rid of them.”

Selene knew the Slytherin practice schedule like the back of her hand, after all, her house team had some great eye candy and she was a fan of the sport. She got there early to sit nice and close in the stands when she saw the blonde running around. “Thought it would be best for both of us if I pretend this didn’t happen. You know the Slytherin team should be here in half an hour, right? I wouldn’t want to be the one keeping them from getting practice started if I were you.” 

Raising an eyebrow as she woman spoke, Marlene shifted up onto her elbows, pursing her lips slightly. “And why’s that? Don’t want to be known as the girl who oggles people on the Quidditch pitch?” Her words were light and teasing as her lips curled up into a smile. Then, she shrugged, falling back into the grass again and taking a deep breath before standing up. “I don’t really keep tabs on the other teams’ practice schedules, y’know? That’s not really my job.” And even if she had known they were coming, she really didn’t care. Rocking back onto her heels, she shoved her hands into her pockets, smile widening into a grin. “I don’t know, that kind of sounds like exactly who I want to be. Make the mornin’ a little more interesting.”

“I’M NOT CREEPING!!” James yelled from across the pitch. He had just gotten there, trying to take advantage of the quiet morning and decent weather to practice for quidditch. Had Marlene not spoken he would have probably missed her, so he put his stuff down and walked over to her. “If your current position is how your performance will be during the next few games you should probably quit.” He teased with a grin before offering her a hand. “Didn’t think you’d be a morning person.”

“You’re definitely creeping.” Marlene replied, still grinning as she watched James walk over to her. Rolling back on her shoulder blades, she tried to flip herself up onto her feet, only to teeter and fall back into the grass. “Oh please, the team would be doomed without me and you know it.” She teased back, accepting his hand and pulling herself to her feet. “Does it count as bein’ a morning person if you didn’t sleep in the first place?” Mornings were nice, but she certainly preferred the night. “Didn’t think you’d be a morning person either, but here we are. Good thing too, it’s about time you started gettin’ back into shape. It’s a miracle Sun hasn’t kicked you off yet.” She teased, poking at his biceps. 

|| @finestra-starters·

“I-” Remus paused, rubbing at his temples as a sigh escaped his lips. “You know that made no sense whatsoever, right? I can’t even begin to tell you how flawed that logic is. Besides, it’s far too early for this.” A yawn escaped his lips as he rubbed at his eyes. He was seriously considering ditching and going back to his dorm at this current point at time.

“No, really, it makes total sense if you just open your mind a little bit.” Marlene insisted, planting her hands on the table and leaning forward. “There’s a giant squid in the lake. The giant squid has been there for ages. Like, ages, right? So, either the squid is a fuckin’ immortal or there’s more than one squid and they just keep poppin’ out babies, which seems to make more sense.” Watching him yawn, she frowned slightly and waved a hand in front of her face. “Listen, listen! So there’s a ton of giant squids. Meanin’ that this lake has to be like...insanely deep. Meaning it’s the deepest lake in the world. Prove me wrong.” She ended, sitting back and crossing her arms with a smug smile. 

“Whatever do you mean by I should look at the other guy, Mr. Black?” Madam Pomfrey sounded unnecessarily hysterical as she patched him up, sending one of the students who was working at the hospital wing to find the boy Sirius had dueled with. He didn’t wait for the other to bring back the boy and instead slipped away the first chance he got. He had been getting into a lot of fights lately, more so than usual so his visits to the hospital wing had grown in number but it wan’t that he was planning them. Most of the times his anger just got the better of him, the knowledge that everything he had done to be free of his family had backfired on him was not something he was coping well with. “How hard is it to watch where you are going? Really?” he snapped as he almost bumped into another student, his anger coming back to the surface with no warning whatsoever. 

Sprinting down the hallway with her head thrown back, laughter bubbled from Marlene’s mouth while she listened to the shrieks from the women’s bathroom she’d just loosed a spider-conjuring spell in. Her laughter was cut off abruptly when she slammed into someone else, staggering a few steps before catching herself. “Sor-,” Beginning to apologize, she stopped herself when she heard the questions, her lips curling down in distaste. “Yeah? Clearly difficult for both of us since you didn’t move.” She snapped back, turning to look at the man she’d bumped into. Almost immediately, Marlene’s demeanor shifted back to her bubbly self when she recognized Sirius. “Siri!” Taking a closer look at him, Marlene grinned, planting her hands on her hips. “You look like shit, mate. Who’d you get into it with this time?” It was a shame she’d missed it. Watching Sirius fight would’ve been way more interesting than fucking with some random fifth years. Then, she pressed her tongue against her cheek and raised an eyebrow, fully taking in his vexed demeanor. “Do you want to get into it with me?” The question was slightly teasing, but genuine. “Y’know I’m always ready to throw hands.”