And I hate to say this, but I'm stuck on loving you.

The four poster bed shook violently as Marlene fell dramatically on top of it, bouncing slightly from the reverberations. She sighed loudly and threw her arms out, causing Lily to turn her head to pay attention to her. Her blonde hair was fanned out around her, giving her an angelic look that Lily wanted to laugh at; the girl lying down was anything but angelic.

"What's wrong, Marlene?"

"Everything." she groaned, slapping her hands over his face. After a minute of Lily staring at her, she finally decided to speak once more. "Sirius."

"What did he do now?"

"He's doing everything, Lily, that's the problem. He's doing everything right," she grumbled the last sentence.

"I can't quite follow you," Lily sat on the end of Marlene's bed, trying to uncover the enigma of a girl in front of her. After sighing loudly once more, Marlene finally began to explain herself.

"He's doing everything I want. He chased me, and I love to be chased. He did everything I wanted him to, became everything that I demanded simply because he wanted to be with me while I was gallivanting with other men. He waited, Lily, he waited while I was off being a bloody slag too stupid to realize it. And then I try to throw more shit at him - I flirted with his bloody brother, Lily - and he does the exact same thing with someone else it made me want him more. I didn't even think that was possible, but he made it happen. And now he keeps looking at me in this way and it makes me feel like I want to run and hide-"

"Do you love him?" Lily interrupted her rant and Marlene jerked her head towards Lily. They stared at each other, and Marlene began to laugh loudly. Lily waited for it to die down.

"Of course I don't-"

"Marlene." she cut her friend off on whatever ridiculous excuse she was going to bring into the picture and she groaned.

"I don't want to," she mumbled and Lily sighed at her friends obliviousness.

"But didn't you? You forced him to chase you, knowing that he would, you flirted with others in front of him because you knew that he would get jealous, and thus chase you more. You try your hardest to be exactly who he wants - don't look at me that way, yes you do - and now you complain because the bloke loves you. What do you want, Marlene?" Lily left her friend with that question and Marlene slapped her hands over her face again, laying in silence for what seemed like forever. After a long while, she jumped up and ran down the stairs.

"Where's Sirius?" she asked James in a hurry, and he could see the desperation on her face. He cocked an eyebrow at the expression - she typically didn't let anything other than flirtation and contempt show - and stared at her for a minute.

"Why?"

"James. Where. Is. Sirius." she practically growled and surprise coated his expression.

"Going to the kitchens. If you dump him, I will kill you," he threatened as she ran off, wondering what would happen but realizing that he would know later.

Marlene ran down the hallways towards the kitchen, ignoring the looks that she got. When she finally caught sight of him, she grabbed his arm and pushed him against the wall, blocking him with her small figure. He was surprised at the sight of his girlfriend, panting in front of him, but waited until she caught her breath to say anything.

"Mind explaining why you attacked me?" he joked and she glared at him.

"It's quite simple really, except it's not, for some reason. this entire thing was supposed to be simple," she had taken a step back and was waving her arms around as she talked. "You were supposed to realize that you didn't want to change to date me, I was supposed to carry on having meaningless shags, and we were supposed to live our lives separately. But you and your damned way of doing nothing halfway couldn't let me be. You had to do everything I asked you to, you had to make me fall for you and feel all of these bloody things I don't want to feel, and - why are you laughing at me?!" she stopped abruptly when Sirius began laughing at her, his laughter echoing along the hallways.

"You love me." it wasn't a question, it was a statement, and Marlene glared at him.

"No, I don't," she was very adamant about that fact, and he just smirked at her.

"Yes, you do, and you're angry about it."

"Of course I'm angry about it, haven't you been listening-"

"You didn't deny it," he pointed out teasingly. She continued her glare before sighing in defeat.

"I hate you."

"No, you don't," he spoke while stepping closer to her, grabbing her face before kissing her. "You love me."

"Don't you dare use that against me."

"Wouldn't dream of it, love." Marlene glared at him once more before kissing him to get him to shut up, causing him to laugh into the kiss.

Merlin, she did love that obnoxious man in front of her.

And he was stuck with the beautiful woman in front of him. Because she loved him. Finally.