author's note:

I am absolute college!au trash that it's not even funny anymore. Also #blackinnon af.

15 September 2015. Word count: 2,977

I'm really not missing out on anything when I stay home and watch Netflix, am I?

i'll spend forever wondering if you knew (i was enchanted to meet you)

[-]

Marlene knew that coming to the party was a bad idea. But she had promised her parents that she would make more of an effort to be social this year, and so here she is standing by the potted plant in the corner and trying to blend in with the outdated wallpaper.

Her roommates are around here somewhere. Lily and Dorcas were the ones to tell her about the party in the first place. The get-together isn't anything special, just something to do on campus on a Friday night if getting drunk in downtown Hogsmeade wasn't your thing. The honest simplicity of this party in Gryffindor Towers appealed to Marlene; she'd heard about the themed ragers thrown in the Dungeons Quad and had no desire to be in a place so out-of-control. Tonight is Marlene's first party in all of her six years at Hogwarts, and she had wanted it to be a low-key one. Sixty people crammed into a Towers suite and overflowing into the hallway isn't exactly what she had in mind, though, she muses as she glances around with a critical eye.

She takes a sip of clear liquid from her red Solo cup - water, of course, but there's no harm in letting everyone else think that it's vodka - and wraps her left arm around her middle in a self-hug. She wishes she hadn't split with Lily and Dorcas. She hadn't meant to but the crowd was really thick when they arrived and they had gotten separated immediately after the traffic jam in the dorm room's entryway. Anyway, the two girls are used to only looking out for each other when they go out and not worrying about a third-wheel. Marlene figures it would have happened at some point during the night, despite all of their best intentions to stick together. She just didn't think that it would happen so soon, though.

A terribly catchy Top 40 song is blaring throughout the room, competing with the garble of sixty voices making small talk. Marlene sighs. She knows that the chorus will be stuck in her head for the rest of the night. Her foot taps out the beat and she bobs her head along just to at least be doing something. During this, she makes unintentional eye contact with a scruffy dark-haired guy across the room right about when Ke$ha demands that she better move, she better dance. The guy is in the middle of a conversation with a smaller guy who is waving his hands in wild, excited gestures as he speaks, but Mr. Bright Eyes is looking straight at her and not his partner. His lips turn up in a smirky smile. Surprised that someone is actually noticing her, Marlene looks away quickly. But her eyes flit back to his face because hot damn does he have a nice smile.

A body steps directly in her line of sight, effectively blocking Mr. Bright Eyes and any other subsequent eye conversation they might've had. "Hi!" the newcomer chirps. "You're Marlene, right?"

Marlene blinks and focuses on the tiny blonde girl in front of her. She has absolutely no clue who the person is. "Er, yes, that's me."

"I thought so, but I never expected to see you here!" the girl says in such a cheerful voice that Marlene decides not to take offense at the words because there doesn't seem to be a mean bone in the other girl's body. "Because I didn't think parties were your scene?"

Marlene shrugs noncommittally.

"I'm Emmeline," the girl introduces herself and sticks out her hand for Marlene to shake. Marlene does so, and the dozen friendship bracelets in varying stages of faded colors on Emmeline's wrist shift about with the motion. "We had Art Appreciation together Fourth Year. I sat behind you."

"Right, I remember," Marlene says politely. Of course she doesn't, though. The class was filled to capacity with a hundred students wanting to take a bullshit class to boost their GPA. And Marlene sat near the front of the lecture hall, so most of the time she had no clue who or what was going on behind her during class.

The conversation kind of fizzles out after that. Marlene and Emmeline take sips of their respective drinks but an awkward silence has settled around them now that they've exhausted their meager link of mutual topics.

"Well, it was nice seeing you!" Emmeline chirps during the brief pause while the songs changed. "We should get lunch together sometime or something." She slips into the crowd of bodies and is gone before Marlene has time to reply.

Marlene sighs at the whole incident and gives up on trying to look approachable. All it has gotten her is a few hours of failed conversations and being lonely in a crowded room. It's starting to wear on her. Her forced friendly expression fades and adopts her natural resting bitch face instead. It's a relief to be able to stop pretending to be someone she's not. Marlene decides then and there that parties are overrated. She daydreams about her bed waiting for her back in her dorm and the season of Mr. Robot that she needs to make a sizeable dent in before professors coordinate together and overload her with schoolwork. Not for the first time does she wish that she had stayed in the dorm instead of coming to Towers tonight. She estimates that she can put in another half hour or so of time to have enough of an experience to appease her parents the next time they talk. After that half hour, though, she is out of here.

A sharp burst of laughter punctuates the bubble of thoughts in Marlene's head. She, along with most of the other party-goers, look in the direction of the noise. It's that guy again. Mr. Bright Eyes. Except, now two other guys have joined him and the hand talker. The four of them together are blinding to look at. There is a magnetism about them that draws everyone's attention in their direction. Their faces are transparent enough as they laugh and joke about but the words are secrets that only they are privy to. Looking around the room, Marlene sees identical expressions of yearning on people's faces as they wish that they could be part of the group of four.

Slowly, the party resumes its earlier atmosphere as people return to their conversations. But Marlene is aware of the undercurrent of tension in the air as eyes continue to dart back to the four guys as if all the ongoings in the room are a show put on for their entertainment and approval.

Marlene decides now that maybe she'll only stay until quarter past the hour, which is a full twenty minutes ahead of her self-imposed thirty-minute limit.

She crumples her empty Solo cup in her hand and leaves the comfort of her spot next to the wall as she goes in search for a trash can. Her journey is interrupted by peers who pretend to be interested in who she is but are actually in want of more names to add to their Facebook friend list to boost their popularity; she fends them off with the same rehearsed spiel of her name, year, and what she's studying before giving them the slip.

It takes her the better part of ten minutes to circuit the room, what with the mass of bodies blocking her way to the kitchen. By this time, Marlene is tempted to 'accidentally' drop her cup onto the floor and ditch the place. Rule-breaking is not something she's comfortable with, however, and littering falls into that rebellious category in her mind. She takes a moment to stick the cup into her mouth and bites down onto the plastic to free her hands so she can tie up her straightened hair into a ponytail. Marlene wipes away some sweat off of the back of her neck - God, hasn't anyone thought to crack open a window? - and resumes pushing her way through the hot mess.

"Great party, Black!" the bleached blonde in front of her squeals to someone further in the crowd.

Marlene rolls her eyes. She could not be in more disagreement. Marlene is trapped and forced to stay stationary, though, now that the overly spray tanned girl, who had been parting the crowd for her, has stopped moving forward.

"Yeah, man, how about a round of shots in thanks?" another voice agrees.

"Body shots!" someone else amends. The crowd cheers wildly.

That's her cue to leave. Not that she really needed a cue to begin with, but Marlene figures now is as good of time as any before some asshole decides to get fresh with her. She shoulders her way through - the kitchen is so close yet so far away! - and prays for a trash can to appear so she can finally dump her trash and just go already. Marlene is bumped around as much as she is bumping others purposefully, and is unlucky to encounter a rather forceful push from an animated talker. It's that hand-waving guy, she recognizes right before she stumbles hard into someone's back.

The person jerks forward, and the girl whose wrist he was licking shrieks in surprise. The guy issues an indignant "Hey!" as he straightens up from his stooped position and turns to face Marlene. His dark eyes widen in recognition before he does that smirky smile thing she's quickly becoming to associate as uniquely his.

"Sorry!" she apologizes quickly before fleeing in the direction of the kitchen. Safe amongst the pots and pans, though, Marlene swears she can still feel his gaze upon her.

In the kitchen, she spies a trash can and is finally able to dispose her cup. Marlene then notices a familiar redhead standing by the refrigerator. She goes up to her roommate and asks, "Where have you been?"

Lily eyes her but replies pleasantly, "Playing Flip Cup. Remus came to collect a rematch after I crushed him at the last party Black threw."

"Oh."

Lily shrugs without shame. "No worries. I won again. Remus is out there recovering his pride in body shots. He's the one with the brunette in pink." She points to the sandy-haired guy Marlene remembered seeing earlier with Mr. Bright Eyes's group of four.

"Who's Black? I keep hearing his name mentioned but I don't think I've ever seen him," Marlene says casually.

Based on Lily's arched eyebrow, Marlene figures she must not have done as good of a job disguising her interest as she thought. "Black? Oh, he's the one right over there. Just look for the biggest crowd. He'll always be in the center of it."

Marlene follows Lily's advice as she searches the room. When she finds Black, she snorts at the peculiar sight of him upside down and two guys - the hand waver and some other specky guy - holding his feet. There is a rather sizeable crowd around them making a ton of noise as they chant his name and repeat a word Marlene can't quite make out.

"Are they saying… chug?" she says in disbelief.

"Kegstand," Lily explains with a laugh. "Black's famous for them. It isn't a party unless he does at least one."

"You're kidding me," Marlene murmurs in fascinated disgust at the display of frat behavior in front of her. She watches as Black imbibes a considerable amount of alcohol while upside down, much to the glee of his onlookers. Suddenly, he makes a frantic gesture with one of his hands - Marlene is mildly impressed by the outline of his bicep straining against his right arm's shirt sleeve. Handstands are hard to do, at least for her, and she can only imagine the amount of skill it takes to do a one-handed arm stand while drunk - and the two guys holding him help Black regain his balance right-side up.

"Yeah!" he roars triumphantly as he pounds his chest in a display of manliness.

"Yeah!" the crowd yells back. Soon, he disappears into a sea of back-slapping, hand-fiving, and unintelligible grunts they bestow upon their king.

"I'm really not missing out on anything when I stay home and watch Netflix, am I?" Marlene says dryly.

Lily laughs again. "I don't know, maybe. But you have to admit that it's fun to relax and let loose, you know?"

Black's head suddenly pops free of his adoring fans. And again, his and Marlene's eyes meet. He opens his mouth like he's going to say something, but the hand waver guy makes a big gesture that distracts Black's attention and he nearly takes out the unsuspecting girl on his right in his startled state.

"CHRIST, PETER!" he bellows, slurring ever-so-slightly. "I WANT TO TALK TO MARLENE, AND NONE OF YOU COCK-BLOCKING FUCKERS ARE GONNA STOP ME!"

The room falls silent. Even the person DJ'ing for the night cuts off the Top 40 shit that had been blaring the whole time. There are catty murmurs of "Who's Marlene, anyway? Ew." from Black's groupies, much to her embarrassment.

He pushes aside the people surrounding him and stumbles his way into the kitchen. Marlene stares at him with wide eyes, confused and blushing at all of the attention on her. She's dimly aware of Lily snickering beside her, but her roommate doesn't do anything to save Marlene from what's going on.

"Hi, I'm Sirius. I don't think we've met," he says in a slightly louder than normal tone of voice but one that is markedly quieter than his earlier outburst. "We have Chemistry together."

She blinks. "What?" That is the worst line a guy has ever used on her, not going to lie.

"Chemistry," Black repeats. "Professor Slughorn. Tuesdays and Thursdays. I asked you what the date was on October 3rd and you told me it was October 3rd."

Lily is most definitely full-on cackling now.

"All right," Marlene says slowly, still not understanding why this warrants such a scene. She's also still not sure if he is trying to flirt or is seriously this invested in school to be talking about their shared schedule at a party. "Erm. I'm Marlene. Nice to meet you?" She sticks out her hand rather stupidly.

He grins dopily and shakes her hand. And he keeps shaking it. And shaking it.

"Um," she says as she tries to retract her hand. "You can let go now."

Black doesn't seem to hear her. "I think I'm in love with you," he announces.

At this point, Lily is incoherent with giggles. "Potter!" she shouts when she manages to catch her breath. "Where the hell are you? We need damage control, stat!"

Marlene, however, is wishing the floor would swallow her up. She's burning bright red with mortification. A quick glance around informs her that this - and her by extension - is the highlight of tonight's activities. Black's fangirls are staring daggers at her and Marlene knows that she'll never be invisible to any of them ever again.

"Okay," she says, figuring that she has no other choice but to play along with this charade. "Yeah, sure. Love you too, babe."

Black and his fangirls seem to miss the sarcasm saturating her voice. His eyes brighten while the other girls in the room spit venom at Marlene. "I knew it!" he cries triumphantly. Then, without so much as a warning, he bends down and plants a kiss smack on her lips.

"Wha-" Marlene tries to say but Black takes her open mouth as invitation to stick his tongue down her throat.

Once the initial shock dies off, Marlene finds it rather hard to disengage from the kiss that is quickly becoming a full-on make-out session. Yes, it's wet. And a lot more sloppy than Marlene prefers. But he's a really good kisser even when he's drunk. So sue her for becoming a willing participant and not stopping.

"Come on, Padfoot, quit molesting the poor girl," a new voice says and pries Black off of Marlene.

Marlene opens her eyes to see the guy with glasses who was helping Black do the kegstand. Now, he's supporting his friend who looks like a lot of deadweight now. Deadweight with a dreamy look on his face, that is.

"I'm going to marry you, one day," Black promises Marlene. At least two of his groupies faint upon hearing this.

"That must've been some hell of a kiss," Lily remarks helpfully.

"Shut up," Marlene mumbles and blushes even more.

"Peter? Remus? Code Evanesco," the guy tells them as he props Black up against the counter. The two guys nod and soon the crowd starts to disperse, though with much complaint and grumbles as they lose their prime viewing of the gossip of the semester.

"Is he normally like this?" Marlene asks the guy curiously. Despite Black's popularity with the rest of the student body, Marlene can't really admit to have noticed him before tonight.

"Um," the guy says with a look at Black who has since passed out. "Why don't you get coffee with him tomorrow and see for yourself?"

She laughs at the sheer nerve of him playing wingman to his best friend even in his current condition. "Only if you double with Lily."

Lily makes a croaking noise in the back of her throat while Marlene smirks. She's heard a lot about Fuck-Hot Potter with the glasses and the three crazy best friends from her roommate over the years but had never had a face to put to the name - and reputation - until tonight. Two can play at this matchmaking game.

Potter narrows his hazel eyes but nods. "Deal."

Marlene steals one more glance over at Black and his drooling face. She sighs, though it's one of reluctant affection. She knew coming to the party was a bad idea.

(And that's how it works. That's how you get the girl.)

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based on the tumblr prompt"So you're the wallflower and I'm the life of the party and I have a giant crush on you but whenever I try to go talk to you someone blocks me and finally I just shouted, "I WANT TO TALK TO _, AND NONE OF YOU ARE GONNA STOP ME" and maybe that was a bad idea because now everyone is looking at me and you're confused and I'm blushing."

Written for the Bridesmaids prompt on the Cinema Competition II: funny, dorky, and so sweet. Inspired by Taylor Swift's song "Enchanted."