Educating Marlene (Dorlene, Marauders Era)

"I heard you like me. Is that why the whole thing with the autograph and the lessons?"

A wave of heat spread from my forehead down to my subtly exposed neckline. At least it made me look like an idiot caught in a convoluted attempt at flirting, rather than an idiot coating her life in an ever-thickening layer of lies.

"Where did you hear that?" I mumbled to Sirius, burying my nails into my forearms. According to "Witch Weekly," this was supposed to prevent blushing. It worked for everyone, except me.

"Mandy told me... or maybe her name was Mindy? A Hufflepuff girl who's been trailing me for a while. So, she wasn't lying? I considered the possibility that she made it up just to start a conversation."

Who the heck is Mindy from Hufflepuff, and how does she know this?

"She wasn't lying," I said resignedly because what choice did I have? Since those disastrous Christmas holidays, when I told my mother I was finally acting like a normal daughter and had my first crush, I had to follow through.

Sirius didn't seem particularly surprised or offended. After rearranging the furniture in the empty Transfiguration classroom, he sat casually on one of the desks. Everything was set up for the Patronus practice he promised me in exchange for Clive Owens' autograph, but I couldn't imagine switching to spell training immediately after that introduction.

"Is this... okay with you?" I blurted, desperate to say something.

Black laughed nonchalantly, not at all fazed. He should teach me that, not just defense against the dark arts. It would be difficult for anything to throw him off balance.

"Listen, Marlene, however it sounds, this happens to me all the time. I'm used to it and don't mind, but I like clarity, so I asked."

"So, what now? You don't want to teach me anymore?"

"Not at all!" he immediately denied. "I really need Clive's autograph. Besides..."

He smiled unexpectedly, and I wished it stirred something in me—a string I discovered only recently, unfortunately not in the company of any promising young men.

"In fact, I appreciate your initiative," he finished, drawing his wand and positioning himself beside me as if nothing had happened. "Your creativity too."

He seamlessly transitioned to instructions on the spell, giving me no time to respond. Not that I felt the need to—I understood that I had just been given my chance, a green light to get to know Sirius better. And while it didn't excite me, it certainly boosted my confidence.

The first exercises with Sirius boosted my confidence also because the spell itself didn't go too badly. Unlike our defense professor, Black shared the difficulties he had initially, especially in choosing the right memory. It was refreshing—teachers should definitely mention their failures more often instead of acting like they were born with knowledge of the "Standard Book of Spells", at least at level six.

Riding the wave of success, I decided to go to the seventh-year girls' dormitory to finally tell Chloe to stop spreading rumors about me and Sirius. Though the holiday break had ended two weeks earlier, we still hadn't spent much time together. The start of the new year made the prospect of exams loom large, especially for fifth- and seventh-year students. I was starting to get a little nervous, even though I'd always had good grades because I genuinely enjoyed learning, earning points, and being praised by professors. They mentioned OWLs so many times that they had grown into some mythical showdown, something that even ten years at Hogwarts couldn't prepare us for. Lily, of course, was the most frantic. Though she tried hard to maintain the dignified calm expected of a prefect, she kept talking about the exams non-stop. Twice, I saw Remus stop her from heading straight to the library after patrol.