Prankster

A/N: Written for the QLFC Season 3 Round 1: Getting to know your team mates

Team: Montrose Magpies

Position: Captain

Round prompt: Write about my Keeper's OTP, Sirius/Marlene

Thanks to firefly81 & Liza for checking this over!

October, 1971

First-year Gryffindor Marlene McKinnon looked in horror at her reflection in the mirror. Her blonde locks had turned neon green, explaining why people had been laughing at her throughout dinner.
"Sirius Black, you unbelievable jerk!" she screamed, for it was no secret the dark-haired Black scion was behind this. She knew she shouldn't have taken the drink he had offered her.

December, 1974

Marlene was rooted to the spot of the Gryffindor Common Room. There, in front of the fire and in straight view of everyone, stood her best friend Anna kissing that annoying Sirius Black! Marlene's eyes went wide as she realised Sirius even had his hand on Anna's bum. Just as she was working up the nerve to say something, the sixth year Prefect walked up to the kissing fourth year students: "That's quite enough you two! Time to say good night."

Sheepishly Anna broke away from Sirius, but not before Marlene could clearly see Sirius squeeze the brunette's behind.

"Isn't he dreamy?" Anna said, sighing dramatically as she walked towards the girls' stairs.

"Dreamy? Sirius? You must be insane," Marlene muttered.

March, 1975

Marlene wondered where Anna was. They had agreed to do their homework together, but Anna had excused herself directly after dinner, and she hadn't seen her since.

A little worried, Marlene went into the Common Room. To her relief there was only one of the four troublemakers some called the Marauders in sight: the most reasonable one, Remus. He was reading a book, as usual.

"Hey, Remus," she greeted him. "Have you seen Anna?"

"Anna?" Remus looked up, thinking. "I saw her head towards the lake with Sirius earlier..."

"Oh, Merlin... thanks!" Marlene rushed past him to the portrait of the Fat Lady. She hoped that her fears were unfounded, but as she neared the first floor girl's lavatory, aka Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom, she could hear sobbing from inside... and it was not Myrtle's cries she heard now.

Marlene opened the door and went inside. "Anna? It's me, Marlene," she announced herself.

"Go away," Anna answered, sobbing.

"No way, you're my friend. Tell me, what's wrong?" She opened the door to the middle stall, and saw Anna sitting there, looking miserable.

"He... he broke up with me," the brunette girl cried. "Just like that!"

"Oh, Anna..." Marlene hugged her friend. "I'm so sorry."

"After all I did for him! I... I even slept with him, just last week... he was my first..." Anna started crying again.

Marlene grimaced as she hugged her friend. Sirius was an arsehole.

November, 1975

"Come on, Marley! Just one date," Sirius said, putting his arm around her shoulder.

"Either remove that arm or lose it," she said icily.

Sirius quickly pulled back, saying, "Damn, no need to get snippy. One date, that's all. I can show you a real good time..."

"Just like you showed Anna? And Grace? And Harriet? And Susan?" Marlene glared at him. It had taken weeks for Anna to get over Sirius, and by that time he had shagged and dumped Grace, a Hufflepuff girl, and already moved on to the next unsuspecting victim.

"It's just fun, Marley," Sirius answered her, giving her that insufferable grin.

"It's Marlene, or Miss McKinnon for you. And I'll never date an arse like you, Sirius Black!" She fumbled for her wand to hex him, but unfortunately Sirius was smart enough to scamper away.

–-

After a while they all graduated Hogwarts, and Marlene soon forgot all about how much she disliked Sirius Black. There were more serious matters to worry about, like the war against You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters.

Then, a few years later, she accepted an invitation from her former headmaster to join a secret resistance group.

April, 1979

"Welcome, all, to this meeting of the Order. We have some new faces here today," Dumbledore said once the small group had gathered in the home of Frank and Alice Longbottom.

Marlene shared a smile with Lily. Her former year mate looked positively radiant, her wedding ring shining bright on her hand as she sat close to her husband James. And where James was, the others would be close by. Marlene looked past James and saw Peter Pettigrew sitting there. She felt he looked ill at ease, but she had heard from Lily that Peter's mother was in poor health and he spent a lot of time with her these days. And next to Peter sat Remus. Marlene smiled a little as the serious young man caught her gaze and raised his cup of tea to her in greeting. Remus was not exactly a friend, but they had had a mutual respect as two of the more studious students in the Lion House.

She looked past Remus and for a moment wondered who the man was sitting next to him, then she realised it was Sirius... but not a Sirius she had seen before. Where many in the room seemed to be more interested in chatting with their direct neighbours or the contents of their cups, Sirius seemed focused on every word of Dumbledore's.

Suddenly she heard her name and snapped back to attention.

"Marlene? Would you be willing to stake out the Jugson residence tomorrow?" Dumbledore repeated.

"Oh... yes, yes, I'm available," she said, blushing slightly at having been caught daydreaming.

"Excellent," Dumbledore continued, either not having noticed or not caring too much. "James, Lily, I know you're busy setting up the cottage, but perhaps you could find the time to watch the Malfoy residence at the same time?"

"Of course," Lily answered. She smiled at Marlene again and the Order meeting continued.

As the group prepared to leave, Marlene walked over to James and Lily. "I am so sorry for spacing out," she apologized to them. "Some of the people here caught me a little off guard."

Lily smiled back, "It's a strange crowd, isn't it? But we're all here to take the fight to the enemy. When Dumbledore asked James and I, we joined up immediately."

Marlene jumped a little as voice came from behind her: "James? Lils? I'll see you two later, okay?"
She turned to see Sirius, looking as... well... serious as before. He nodded at her, then he walked past them and left.

"He's changed, hasn't he?" Lily said. Marlene looked back, surprising herself as she realised her eyes had followed the dark-haired young man outside.

"I'll say. I hardly recognised him without a smile on his face," Marlene said softly. "What happened?"

James grimaced. "Bad news from his family... his younger brother has disappeared."

"Oh, Merlin." That was enough info. People were disappearing each day, with You-Know-Who murdering entire families.

–-

The next time they met was in the bushes outside the Jugson residence, both under borrowed invisibility cloaks. Fortunately Sirius had listened to Dumbledore's instructions, and he could inform her they were just there to find out if Jugson had any guests over.

They had been sitting in the cold for two hours when Marlene started to get bored. "Sirius? Can we talk?" she asked, softly.

"Sure," Sirius replied. "Doesn't look like old Juggie is out and about, so as long as we keep it quiet we should be fine."

"James told me about Regulus."

"Oh. He did."

Marlene grimaced. She wished she could see his face now, even if just to see how badly she had screwed up by opening up what had to be a fresh wound.

"Were you two... close? Is that why you are so serious now?" she asked, carefully.

He answered with a snort. "I'm always Sirius."

"There is the Sirius I know," Marlene said, smiling softly. "Tell me about him?"

"Regulus was my little brother, the runt of the litter... He used to look up to me. Back when it was just the two of us, and sometimes our cousins, against the adults. All locked up in that big stuffy house."

"The Black town house you mean?"

"Yeah, the Grim Old Place." Sirius laughed softly. "We got along about as well as brothers do, I guess. At least until I betrayed the family by being a decent person."

"How did you betray them?"

"I was sorted as Gryffindor, as the first Black in over two centuries, wasn't I? That... didn't go over well at home."

Marlene was thinking of a reply, when suddenly she saw Sirius' head appear from out under the cloak.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

"I need a drink. It's obvious no-one is home, we're just wasting time. Want to join me?" Sirius stood up, pushing the cloak off fully, and extended his hand in her direction.

"Might as well. You can buy me a warm drink and tell me more about being the Black sheep of the family."

"Was that a pun, Miss McKinnon?" Sirius shot her a grin as he saw her appear from under her cloak and accept his hand.

"Marlene, Sirius, and no... ladies don't pun. They quip," she answered, smiling back.

"Well then Marlene, let's find a warm place to sit and you can tell me about your family."

To her surprise, she actually enjoyed having a quiet drink with Sirius. Not enough to invite him over, she was after all not easy... but enough that she agreed to meet up for a chat the next day.

–-

At the next Order meeting, one week later, some people noticed that Marlene and Sirius were sitting side by side, and that Sirius looked a little happier again. When Dumbledore assigned them another mission together, Sirius actually smiled.

'A little happiness can be found even in the darkest times,' Dumbledore thought to himself as he saw the two leave hand-in-hand.