They talked in the boat on the way up to the castle. She was Marlene McKinnon, muggle-born. He was Sirius Black, pure-blood. She liked her family. He loathed his. She smiled a lot, and laughed loudly. She was loose, relaxed. He was tense and nervous, terrified as to what house he would be in. They found out a lot about each other in those ten minutes. By any law, they should have immediately hated each other, been sworn enemies. But they weren't. They liked each other immensely.

But halfway through the boat ride, another boy spoke to Sirius, with a shock of black hair, and glasses. Sirius left Marlene to her own devices on the rest of the trip, and the two boys became fast friends. Marlene was left sitting at the helm of the boat, staring out at the black, lifeless water.

They weren't in the same house. She was in Ravenclaw, and he in Gryffindor. But it was only to be expected. He was the brawny one, with the confident, cocky attitude, popular, and handsome beyond belief. She was the one with the issues. The one with the brains, but perhaps too many. The clumsy one. The one who everyone avoided, not noticeably, but just so that they wouldn't have to brush up against her in the corridor. The one, her house decided, would end up alone.

They watched each other over the heads of their classmates, over the bustle. His calm, grey eyes, and her bright, dancing black ones. A fire lit in each one. People were scared it would get out of control. Yet his were like the water to extinguish it, keep it under control. All through the meals in the Great Hall, they would watch each other, their gaze never broken. They weren't talked to by others. After all, they were only first-years. And Sirius' friends knew not to disturb him during mealtimes. They were, he informed them, his favourite part of the day.

That was how the rest of the year went on. They never talked, only stared. And slowly, a connection grew between them. An understanding.

Neither of them would admit to it being friendship. Nobody would believe Marlene if she said it, and James Potter had told Sirius he wasn't to be friends with her. She was strange, and his popularity would go way down if he was seen talking to her, much less being friends.

So they stuck to their mealtimes when they had contact, and stayed, gazing at each other.

There was only one mealtime missed by each of them that year. For Marlene, it was dinner in January. Last lesson was potions, and she had mixed the Essence of Drowsiness incorrectly. When testing, she fell fast asleep, and didn't awaken for all of the afternoon or that night. She finally came back to consciousness at five o'clock the next morning, but nobody knew except for Professor Slughorn and Madam Pomfrey. For Sirius, that was the worst night of the year. He didn't eat anything. His friends were worried about him. For the first time all year, he turned and talked to them during the meal, rather than their conceived notions of him staring into space. They questioned him, but he ignored them, and brought up Quidditch.

For Sirius, the mealtime he missed was breakfast in August. He had stayed up late with some of the others in his dormitory to celebrate the Quidditch match they had one that afternoon. Somebody brought in some of Rosmerta from the pub's mulled mead, and all the boys had drunk more than their fair share. However, it was the brazen Sirius who suggested drinking games, and it was the brazen Sirius who continued to lose. As a result, it was he who had the worst hangover he would ever have in his life the next morning, and it was he who spent his time from eight o'clock in the morning to one o'clock in the afternoon emptying his dinner from last night, as well as the cockroach clusters from the party, into the toilet. Contrary to Marlene's reason for absence, everyone in first year, second year, most of third year, and half of the senior years knew about his reason for not being at breakfast, and when he finally came down for lunch, his face gaunt and tinged with green, he was regarded as a hero. The only first-year to date to get such an impressive hangover.

Marlene chose not to disclose her opinion on his reason as to why he wasn't there. However, as Sirius seated himself, and turned to look for Marlene, her eyes were reproachful. They still stared at each other, but this time there was more meaning conveyed. Her eyes were saying, 'How could you do this to me?' , and his were saying, 'I'm sorry.'

The rest of the year went on without any hiccups. They continued to watch each other, and never talked. But each could see the other changing, as they observed them during their day.

Sirius became more and more cocksure, and began to act up in the corridors, taking students' belongings as a joke, insulting teachers as they passed, hexing people left and right. Marlene became more and more withdrawn. She certainly had no friends, and nobody ever talked to her. Eyes seemed to pass over her wherever she walked. People either refused to make eye contact, or didn't see her at all. Those that did see her only laughed, the sound filled with cruel, scornful contempt for the girl who nobody loved.