Tap, tap, tap [ open ]

[James Potter]

James needed entertainment, and he needed it fast. He sat in one of the best seats in the Gryffindor Common Room (as if he would settle for less), a squishy armchair by the fire. He had his wand in his right hand, suspended in the air for no reason. His left hand rested on the arm of the chair and he tapped his fingers. He let out a loud sigh and when no one paid attention to him, he adjusted so that his left hand rested in his lap and he started tapping his right hand. He did not realize the mistake until it started shooting silver stars out of it. He stopped a moment later and watched the stars fade away.

He groaned and wondered where everyone was. James was not used to being this bored without someone to whine to, but his friends were elsewhere. He was not worried about them. Peter and Remus were probably at the library and Sirius was probably in detention. It was rare that Sirius was in detention without his bestest buddy, but it did occasionally happen. Whenever it did, it made James ridiculously bored. He knew he could do homework. It would be an excellent use of his free time, but that would make him like Remus and he refused to do that. Homework was best left until breakfast the day it was due or the minutes before the class started. It was when he was most focused because he knew had no more time to put it off. Now he had plenty of time to do nothing. Still, the longer he sat staring at the fire trying to see something in the flames, the more appealing the homework sounded. How very un-James like. He sighed again. It was going to be a very long night.

Word count: 304
Tag: Open

[hellbourne]

Marlene was not having such a great night herself. She'd had her nose buried in her Arithmancy book - which, on most nights, wouldn't have been a pain at all. Putting her love for the class aside, this essay was going to be a tough one to crack. They were already two weeks into the school year and Marlene already had three essays to write! She guessed it was all in preparation for NEWTs next year, or something.

She snapped her book shut out of frustration and turned to look at the fire in front of her. Without her noticing, someone else had joined her at the fireside. Marley knew the boy from around the common room. James Potter. Her eyes shifted from the fire, to quietly observing him and the wand that was suspended above his hand, occasionally shooting out sparks. She chuckled slightly, but hoped that it wouldn't draw too much attention to herself.

She watched as he began to look around the common room - which, now, to say the least, was becoming very empty. It must have been late, but Marley had no way of telling the time.

"We're the only ones here," she piped up after a while of silence, twirling a bit of her straw-like blonde hair between her fingers. Her eyes didn't quiet meet his, but a small smile formed on her lips.

[/justify]

[James Potter]

James had not noticed the common room clear out until he heard Marlene say something. At first, he was not sure she was talking to him, for he had not heard her chuckle. Surprised by the sound, James looked up from staring at his wand. He had been contemplating if there was a way to tell the difference between a twig and a wand. Marlene interrupted his concentration before he could decide upon an answer, other than it would take further investigation by going outside and finding a stick to compare his wand to. Yes, James was entirely too bored. He gladly welcomed Marlene breaking him from his utterly boring thoughts.

Before he responded to her, he looked around to confirm her statement which was surprisingly true, “It does seem that way, yes.” He grinned at her, running a hand through his hair as he often did whenever he talked to an attractive girl. He knew of Marlene, even knew her name, but he did not know much more than that since they were in different years. Still, if this pretty woman wanted to talk to him and distract him from his boredom, he was more than appreciative. At this point, he would probably talk to Moaning Myrtle if it meant he would not have to wonder if there is a different in appearance from a piece of wood and a magical wand. At least teasing Myrtle was fun. Not that James had done that, of course not. Well, maybe not more than five times.

“You’re still here though. Are you a night owl?” James asked, still with the grin on his face, “Hoo hoo.” He said quietly, trying to imitate an owl to be cute, but it sounded like anything but. The good thing about being popular is that he could make a complete idiot of himself and most people laughed like he was funny. James had noticed this on several occasions when he did something stupid and it made him realize how much people just wanted to be liked by the popular people, even fellow popular people did it.

[hellbourne]

Marlene couldn't help but smile at James. There was something about his grin that made her want to smile back; he seemed like a really happy kind of guy, and if the infectious smile was anything to go by, she was going to feel very welcome sitting here by the fire.

"You're still here though. Are you a night owl?" Marlene pressed her lips together in another tight smile. "Hoo hoo." Marlene couldn't help but laugh. Was he trying to be cute? It was hard to tell if it had worked or not, but Marlene had laughed just the same. "Maybe I am," she said back, composing herself and shifting in her chair to face him a bit more. "But doesn't that technically make you one, as well?" she raised her eyebrows in a comical manner. "Hoo hoo."

Her eyes turned to the wand situated by James' side, which, thankfully, was no longer producing sparks out of the end. "You're not surrounded by your usual crowd," she noted. James was definitely one of the more popular Gryffindors and could usually be seen with at least three others around him. Most notably, his three best friends.

[ ooc: it's so crap. sorry. ]

[/justify]

[James Potter]

When Marlene hooted right back to him, well, James grinned with surprise. It was rare for a girl to actually make an idiot of herself because they were too afraid to be judged, unless they were not interested in the guy and did not care about his perception of them, but that was clearly not the case. He was James freaking Potter. Every girl, and a lot of guys, cared about James’ opinion, especially regarding the individual in question. This girl had nerve. She had daring. She was a true Gryffindor, that much was for sure.

“Am I night owl?” James repeated the question to himself to give him a few more moments to think of a clever answer. He supposed he was, if only for all of his nights spent wandering the grounds as a stag to accompany Remus. They also spent a lot of time under his dad’s Invisibility Cloak that was passed down from generation to generation so they could find all of the hidden passages in the school. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. But I’m not an owl. I don’t carry messages for people.” To James, that line signed remarkably suave, showing his independence, but it missed its mark and probably just sounded stupid and overused.

James looked around, as if surprised that he was not, in fact, surrounded by his usual crowd. Talking to Marlene made him forget for about 20 seconds that he did not know where his best friends were, but he still was not worried about them. They probably were just off having loads of fun without James. It was tragic, “It does appear that way. I guess I have been abandoned by my friends, left alone to twiddle my thumbs and stare for cryptic messages in the fire.” He paused, “Well, I suppose I could also do my homework, but what am I? A Ravenclaw? I think I would shock some of our professors into early retirement if I did my work early.”

Notes: I hope it’s OK I ignored where she introduced herself. I just realized they are both Chasers and should definitely know each other. Sirius made me realize that. Whoops!

[hellbourne]

[ ooc: OMG I am the world's biggest derp. Of course!! Forgive my memory lapse. -goes to edit last post- ]

Marlene laughed rather loudly, putting her hand over her mouth to try and stifle it. Who knew how many people were asleep right now! "So, if you don't carry messages like an owl, what does that make you?"

She watched, silently, as James came to realise that the two of them were the only two people still sitting in the common room. Either the room was empty because everyone had decided that the Library was the place to be tonight, or they had decided to go to bed early. Either way, Marlene was glad of the company she had as they sat by the fire.

She bit down on her bottom lip and smiled, trying to stop the oncoming chuckle. James had a very good way of making people feel welcome around him. "They'll be back soon enough," she started, sinking down slightly into her chair, "you're never without each other for long." It was a very rare occasion to see any of the four without the other three.

She laughed at his comment about the homework. "Yes, I suppose," she started, sitting up a bit straighter and brushing a small bit of hair behind her ear. "Except for Binns, I should think. He'll never retire. I'll wager you ten galleons that he'll still be here in thirty years time, teaching our grandchildren about the first Goblin war." She almost made it sound like a challenge.

"So, have you been out on the pitch much?" she asked, wondering if James knew anything about the upcoming Quidditch season. Marley barely knew anything herself, but was keen for some news, even if was only a couple of weeks into the school year.

[James Potter]

James paused for a moment, considering the correct response before finally settling on, “Very lazy.” James laughed, not at all caring about the sleeping students who he might awaken. “Or at least, that’s what McGonagall is always telling me.” He put on a very high voice that rivaled the one he had when his voice cracked those years ago and started wagging his finger at Marlene, “Mr. Potter, I don’t understand how you can sit around the entire lesson, do absolutely no work and then get it right the moment you finally do try. Do you know what you would be capable of if you actually applied yourself and stopped being so lazy?” He laughed some more, knowing she probably was right and not caring enough to find out.

“Aw, who needs them when I’m in the presence of such a gorgeous lady?” James winked at her, putting on the Potter charm, knowing it would go no further. James had rules about who he would date and at the top of the list of women to not get involved with were fellow Quidditch players. There were very few things that were more important than a good snog, but at the top of that list was Quidditch. There were countless stores of teammates dating, breaking up and destroying the team. James would not let his dream of playing professional Quidditch be shattered because he wanted to mess around with a girl. There were plenty of other girls available for that sort of thing.

James wondered if that was how everyone saw him, as just a boy who could not be alone for too long. He certainly preferred being with other people than being by himself, but he could certainly be alone for an hour or two. Well, tonight proved otherwise, but that was only because he had been alone for so long. In that sense, he hoped Marlene was right, but he would not admit to the insecurity, “Yeah, probably, unless the guys got locked in a broom closet somewhere trying to hide from Filch. Then they might be hiding for a while.”

Raising an eyebrow, James looked at Marlene’s stomach as if he was trying to detect something, “I’m not going to have grandkids going here in 30 years, Marlene, I don’t know about you. In 30 years, I’ll probably still be a bachelor, causing trouble.” Still, despite her math skills, James had to agree that Binns never would leave the castle, “I’m pretty sure Binns was here with the original founders. You know, one time Remus actually tried figuring out the year he died based on his clothes.” James rolled his eyes, “Classic Ravenclaw that one.”

Quidditch! Clearly James could be friends with any woman who could talk about Quidditch all day. In response to her question, he nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah, I’ve been out a couple of times already. I try to take advantage of the time before the professors start trying to stress me out about assignments. It doesn’t work, of course, but they do their best. But yeah, I go for flies around the pitch, trying new maneuvers. You?”

[hellbourne]

Marlene threw her head back and laughed at James' impersonation of McGonnagall. It sounded very much like something she would say. Marlene glanced over at James, unable to wipe the big grin off her face. She always seemed to forget just how funny he was, as most of their time spent together was up in the air or at Quidditch practices, under a hard training regime. She chuckled again as both of their laughter died down.

Her cheeks flushed a bright red as she buried herself behind her hair. She was barely used to getting such compliments as 'gorgeous lady' from anyone, let alone James - although, Sirius did seem to be saying things like that to her more than usual. She adverted her eyes, a big smile still on her face, as he winked at her. Not only was he funny, but he was rather charming. Perhaps it was a trait that ran through James and most of his friends - Peter excepted. Remus had also become rather charming and polite all of a sudden. "Well, here's hoping they come back alive. Filch seems to be getting a bit lazier, though, from what I hear," she twirled a bit of hair around her finger absent mindedly. "Tilden Toots managed to escape Filch last week after throwing off those dung bombs - and he's not the spriteliest of people. So I reckon they'll all be alright."

Marlene blushed again. "I meant fifty years," she said under her breath, slightly embarassed. Perhaps it was just James' charm that was making her head go all wonky tonight. Thirty; hah, as if anyone in their year would be that procreative. "So, did Remus actually manage to figure it out?" She was curious now; nobody had really taken the time to ask Binns when he was actually born. Was that just because nobody was interested, or he just wouldn't tell? Marley made a mental note to ask him next time she had History of Magic.

The atmosphere changed with the topic of conversation from simply friendly to buzzing and excited. Quidditch was definitely a popular conversation starter, especially amongst the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. "Ah!" Marley said, slumping down in her chair slightly. "Aren't you good." She smiled a warm smile at her teammate. He was a natural at Quidditch and was probably the best on the team. Gryffindor was lucky to have him. "I wish I was able to get out onto the pitch. My Comet is in for repairs, sadly."

She decided not to tell him that her older brother had flown straight into a tree over the summer holidays. She'd probably have to use a school broom for the first match of the season.

[James Potter]

James laughed and shook his head, “Oh, believe me, if they don’t want to get caught, they won’t get caught.” He leaned in closer to Marlene with his hand covering the side of his nose and mouth like he was going to tell her a secret. “If we wanted to, we would never get in trouble. We let ourselves get caught sometimes so people know it was the Marauders who did everything. We don’t want someone getting the credit for our master plans.” He leaned back and winked at her again, “Although many people have tried saying they were behind some of our best pranks. Jealous, that’s what they are. Besides, we’re also trying to go for the record of most detentions while at Hogwarts. We’re not there yet, but we still have a few years to go. So they could just be causing havoc for the simple reason of wanting to achieve our personal goal.” He shrugged, still not concerned even if it meant Filch could be hanging them by their toes as he so desperately desired. That man certainly hated the Marauders for whatever reason.

Deciding to be nice, James chose not to comment on her correct. She seemed embarrassed enough already, but he thought she looked quite pretty when she blushed. There was something about girls blushing that James liked. Maybe it was because it was proof the girl cared what James thought about her. Maybe he just liked seeing a little bit of extra colour in the skin tones of the predominately pale population of pupils. Still, he would not tease her about it. She was a Gryffindor, a girl and a teammate. That reduced the amount of teasing James would give to a normal person.

With a shrug, James responded, “I don’t know. I didn’t care enough to listen to him the entire time. Sometimes Remus goes on and on about his ideas. Sometimes Sirius goes on about girls though. Me, I never ramble. I don’t see the point. I say what I want to say and then I’m done. Why should I keep talking long after people stop caring? Some people just don’t have that filter that says ‘James, stop talking.’ I wish they did though. It’d be nice for the professors,” He laughed, a little awkwardly as he realized that he was rambling. How very ironic.

James gave a sympathetic look to Marlene, a rare look for him, but it showed how much he cared about Quidditch, “Well,” He paused, as if what he was about to say was very hard, “If you want to take my broom for a spin so you can get some practice in, you can.” James was very protective of his broom, but at least he knew he could trust Marlene. She was a fellow Quidditch player. She wasn’t going to fly it into the castle or anything. Although, it was quite suspicious that hers was in repairs. Maybe he shouldn’t trust her…

[hellbourne]

Marlene had to laugh. It was a typical Marauder thing to do - pull a prank and tell everyone that they had done it, just for the attention and applause. It was probably one of the reasons it made them so popular. "Well," she said, her eyes bright, "I'm sure you'll get there in a couple of years. I'm sure plenty of opportunities will present themselves..." she thought ahead to some of the school events that were coming up, and wondered whether the Marauders would pull some kind of prank there.

Marlene's gut dropped slightly when James mentioned Sirius. She certainly had been seeing a lot more of him lately, and there was always that feeling that something was going to happen between them - but Sirius probably made every girl feel like that. He sure was good at it, too. There were plenty of girls before Marlene came along, and as much as she didn't want to think about it, there would be many more girls after Marlene, as well.

Marlene barely heard the rest of James' sentence after the mention of Sirius. She snapped out of it as he laughed, and so, she laughed too. "Yeah," she said absent-mindedly, smiling over at him.

"Oh really?" Marlene sat up straighter in her chair and had a look of pure excitement on her face. "Oh James, that would be wonderful. I haven't flown in over a month and wow, to use your broom!" She started to ramble on aimlessly with thanks and gratitude at James' kind offer. It was good for her to know that they were good enough friends for him to trust her with her broom.

"My brother broke mine," she said after a slight pause, looking almost ashamed. "He didn't mean to, but he still hasn't bought me one in replacement for my old one." Well, at least he would know that he could trust her with his broom. Afterall, it was not she who broke it.

Marlene let out a big yawn and wondered what the time was. She still had a bit of homework to do, but it could probably wait until morning. Either way, it had been nice to catch up with James after spending the holidays apart. Soon enough, Quidditch would start and the both of them would get a chance to fly - which, in Marlene's opinion, was the best feeling in the world. "It must be getting late, huh," she said again, stifling another yawn.

[/justify]

[James Potter]

James laughed and nodded, “And if nothing comes up, we’ll make our own reasons to get detentions.” He grinned at her devilishly. There was a glint in his eye that would be most familiar to his closest friends. It was the look he had whenever he was planning a good prank. Sirius, most of all, recognized that look. “After all, there are a lot of upcoming events that could be awfully boring if the Marauders didn’t do something to make it more interesting.” He winked at her, not knowing he was essentially confirming what Marlene thought already about the boys’ plans.

When James saw how excited Marlene was at the idea of using his broom, he felt his nerves disappear slightly. Many people considered James to be selfish, but in fact, he was quite the opposite. He liked sharing what he had with his friends. In this instance though, James was quite possessive of his broom. In fact, it was much like having a child. His broom was everything to him. It was his joy and his future. If it broke, well… Oh sure, his parents could easily buy him a new one, but he loved the one he had very much.

Still, Marlene’s excitement made him feel safer. Clearly if she wanted to fly on a broom so badly, she would not crash his broom into a tree, “It’s no problem at all,” he said, feeling a bit embarrassed by how grateful she was. He was used to his friends just taking what they wanted of his without a second thought. Remus always was grateful and thanked him once or twice, but Marlene seemed ready to thank him right up until she got on his broom and flew around the pitch. That would be a bit too much for him. His pale cheeks were already red by the rare embarrassment.

“Oh good,” James said, letting out a sigh of relief, even though he had not meant to. “I mean, clearly, it’s not a good thing that your brother broke your broom. That’s awful, but I feel much better knowing you didn’t break it.” He laughed a bit awkwardly, realizing he was showing how possessive he was of his broom. “I mean, I trust you, of course. You’re a teammate. I would have let you borrow it even if you had broken yours, but now I’m not worried you’re going to crash it in to the Whomping Willow or something.”

James nodded when she mentioned how late it must be. He did not wear a watch because that was very uncool. He was a scrawny boy and watches never remained comfortably on his wrist, so he always just assumed his friends would make sure he got to class on time or wherever he needed to be. They would make sure he was not late for anything, so then why would he need a watch? “Yeah, might be late, but that’s why we have History of Magic that we can sleep through.” He shrugged. It made perfect sense to him.

[hellbourne]

She grinned back at him. Of course the Marauders would do something at a school event - it was just who they were. In a way, Marlene was grateful that the four boys were how they were. With the world outside the walls at Hogwarts falling apart, it was always nice to have a laugh. Thankfully, the Marauders provided that kind of amusement. And, lucky for them, most of the teachers enjoyed it, too. But there were always those few who were just a bit too serious; two of them already being mentioned in James and Marlene's conversation: Binns and Filch.

Marlene didn't really notice how embarrassed she had made James by gushing her gratitude at him. His cheeks went slightly pink, but Marlene hardly noticed, as she was far off, thinking about how good it was going to feel once she got back onto the Quidditch Pitch. It wasn't too far off from the Quidditch season and the Gryffindor team needed to get as much practice in as they possibly could. Both Ravenclaw and Slytherin had already begun their trainings twice a week!

She flashed a bright smile at James. "You know me better than that, James!" she laughed. "I could never break a broom. But, my brother, on the other hand..." That hardly needed any explanation. Her brother, Angus, who was only a year older than Marlene, was notorious for being awful at Quidditch and anything that involved taking his feet off the ground. But, during the holidays, Marlene was just a bit too keen to race someone, and so when she leant her brother her broom for some practice, things ended up for the worse. Marlene didn't feel the need to finish her sentence, as most people knew of Angus' misfortune on any broomstick.

Marlene's face was starting to hurt from all the grinning she had done all night. But, when talking to James Potter, it was mostly just a given. "Unfortunately for me, I don't have History of Magic tomorrow." Being a year older than most of her other friends wasn't fun. They all had classes together, while Marlene was stuck on the other side of the school with no means of contacting them. "So, I hate to be a party-pooper, but I should probably go to bed soon."

Her eyes wandered to the back of the Fat Lady's portrait. "But I'm sure Sirius, Remus and Peter will all be back soon enough to keep you entertained," she smiled warmly. But, thankfully for Marley, she had Ancient Runes up first, which required no such homework. She wondered whether it would be wise to go to bed now, as she was starting to feel tired, or wait for when Sirius, Remus and Peter got back, as not to leave James alone in the common room for too long. Who knows - he would probably get bored again and accidentally set the couch on fire from playing around with his wand.

[ ooc: okay it's crap. I do apologise. My head's just not with it today heh ]

[James Potter]

James laughed, almost feeling guilty that he suspected Marlene of wrongdoing. Of course she would never do that. She probably loved her broom as much as James loved his, which meant that she probably was very upset over the loss of it. He nodded in agreement as she mentioned her brother. James had heard enough stories to understand what she meant about him, “Makes me glad I’m an only child.” In the case of not having a sibling to wreck his broom, it was a good thing, but normally, James would have given anything for a sibling. Not that he would ever admit it, but whenever he really wanted a sibling, he thought about how he had Sirius, Remus and Peter. It was like having brothers, except they didn’t have to pretend to put up with each other. In fact, they all really liked each other.

“Party-pooper?” James asked, with an eyebrow raised, “Marlene McKinnon, a party-pooper? I refuse to believe it.” In James’ eyes, if a person was a Quidditch star, that meant the person was a party animal. Boring people did not play sports. They sat around reading and studying and watching grass grow. Quidditch was too dangerous for boring people. He shook his head, “Nah, you could go to bed and still not be a party-pooper. Look around, everyone else has given up and gone to bed, too. At least you lasted longer than them.” For it was true, James could not see anyone else in the common room except for the two of them. It made him think he should go to bed, too, but he was too awake. He knew he would regret it in the morning.

James nodded, “Yeah, they’ll probably be back soon, or heck, I might have missed them and they could already be in bed.” He shrugged, “Don’t worry about me. I promise not to cause too much destruction by myself.” James hardly ever did anything by himself that would get him in trouble because doing it solo was boring. It was more fun if he had a friend to encourage him to do the wrongdoing and a crowd to witness it. By himself in the common room, he was more likely to fall asleep than prank a Slytherin.

[hellbourne]

It was kind of nice spending time with James outside of the Quidditch Pitch. For one, Marlene was learning so much about him that she didn't already know. "You're an only child?" She probably did know it, somewhere deep at the back of her mind, or she had probably already heard it before. But, sitting where she was, next to a good friend and a warm fire, for some reason, her memory just wasn't serving itself right.

Marlene had to laugh. "Thanks for the reassurance." Either way, whenever there was a party happening in the Gryffindor Common Room, Marlene was the one closest to the food table, stuffing her face with every such snack that came in her direction. James, on the other hand, was usually seen chatting and making jokes; generally being the centre of attention. But, not that that was a bad thing. She yawned once again, stretching out like a cat in her chair.

She smiled warmly over at James. Well, at least he'd be safe up in the Common Room. He didn't look particularly tired; but, it was still early days. Nobody really had a good sleeping pattern when school started up, anyway. "Alright. Well, it was lovely talking to you." Marlene edged herself out of her warm and cosy chair and stood up. "I'll see you around sometime, then." She grinned over at James before taking her leave towards the staircase that would lead her to the Girls Dormitory. "Hoo hoo!" she said quietly as she walked up the stairs, hoping James would hear it.

[ ooc: shall we leave it there? <3 ]

[/justify]