ARTY'S POV

It was a slow paced Saturday, everyone recovering from hangovers. We all hadn't moved much from our positions in our dorm until it hit midday and stomachs started to grumble.

Lily was the first one out of the door, panicking about the possibility of the alcohol in her system completely dehydrating her and as a result killing her before she could even gasp out a goodbye message to her parents; something we all confirmed was over-dramatic and ridiculous.

We all lumbered out of our slumbered positions and practically left our dorms half suitably dressed and half in pyjamas.

Marlene was silent throughout our entire walk to the hall to get lunch (Something that was incredibly rare for her). As we stepped into the hall and sat down, I glanced over in her direction, as Alice was trying to communicate with her to pass an odd purple coloured drink down, but Marlene seemed to be completely zoned out.

"You alright, Marl?" I mumbled and stretched myself out to reach the heavy jug of juice for Alice.

"Huh?" She seemed to suddenly be shook out of her dreamlike state.

"I asked if you were okay? Your energy levels have plummeted since walking out of the common room!" I smiled concerned at her, she laughed lightly and shook her head.

"Just remembering a conversation from last night, thats all" She nonchalantly replied.

"Oh really? Like what?" Alice said through a muffled mouth of sponge cake.

"No worries its...Private" She said in a tone that was confusingly secretive yet suggestive as she looked directly into my eyes for a split second.

"We don't have secrets in this group!" Lily pouted as she struggled to take a big bite out of an apple almost as big as her head. Marlene hesitated and slightly narrowed her eyes at Lily, her posture slouching and her head bowing down in a secretive manor.

"We have plenty of secrets in this group, Lily" Marlene hushed almost like she was trying to send her a message with her eyes. Lily sighed and seemed a little uncomfortable as the tension between us all increased with Marlene's odd behaviour.

"You'll tell me later though, yeah?" She almost demanded instead of asking. Marlene shrugged her shoulders and returned to gathering food.

Alice and I looked momentarily at each other and I could tell she knew something that they all so obviously didn't want me to know, and yet she still seemed completely clueless too. Marlene stopped abruptly eating as her head snapped to her side causing us all to look up from our uncomfortable silence to the great hall doors.

Sirius, Remus, James and Peter all were making their way over. Looking equally as rough themselves. They all mumbled a scratchy sounding 'Hello' before taking an available seat between us all and the silence returned, with only more people to experience it.

"Oh-" Peter spoke up and lightly grabbed Alice's arm, causing her to jump with fright "Frank's waiting for you in the greenhouses. He said you had planned a herbology catch-up lunch or something, I dunno" Peter shrugged and Alice's eyes almost bulged out of her skull as she gathered her food and rushed off out of the Hall.

Suddenly Peter's eyes widened also "Shit, I've got a catch up lesson too. Minerva's going to poison me, I'm telling you!" He scattered from his position and sprinted past Alice before she even made it completely out of the hall, disappearing from sight.

"It's always Frank who's the forgetful one, what's going on?" Lily giggled, watching Alice's dark hair whip around the corner of the large door, finally disappearing. Lily straighten out her light blue cardigan and tucked her hair behind her ears.

"I saved you the last Chocolate frog, James. I know how you like to eat them the morning after every party so," Lily lightly smiled and shrugged the kind gesture off as no big deal, as we all looked in shock at her not adjusted to her kind and non sarcastic gesture towards James Potter.

James smiled brightly and quickly flattened his messy looking hair as he reached over to accept the sweet treat. His cheeks were slightly speckling with a soft pink colour and he couldn't hide the delight that shone in his eyes.

"Oh, Thanks Lily!" He said bashfully and almost bounced back from his stretched position. His posture instantly improving with pride.

"You alright, Marl?" Remus spoke up as he noticed Marlene's avoiding eyes and negatively silent energy. Marlene flashed a wild look at him and smiled.

"I'm fine" She almost spat. Remus looked uneasy.

"You're not still annoyed from last night are you? surely you're still not angry with me sleeping on the floor?" He said in a playful tone but avoided eye contact with me whilst mentioning his clingy antics from last night.

"No Remus, it's not that." She rolled her eyes, starting to get frustrated with his presence.

"Well it must be something, you haven't been able to even breathe in my direction?" Remus laughed, not picking up on the fact that perhaps he shouldn't be pushing her. Marlene cocked her head to one side and eyed him up cautiously, leaving Remus to slightly stiffen in his seat with confused nerves.

"Sirius, I need to speak to you" Marlene said still staring at an uncomfortable looking Remus, who was now awkwardly laughing at me for some form of reassurance. Sirius sighed.

"Not now, love" He rolled his eyes at her and she grimaced at his nickname.

"Yes now, love" She pressured him, her fierce eyes melting and the look of a concerned little girl overtook her features and she grabbed his arm to make him look up at her.

"It's nothing, forget about it!" He said sternly and wide eyed like a father being pestered by his child.

"I can't just forget about it, you need to tell h-" She hushed as if it suddenly clicked that everyone was listening "Please!" She pleaded and Sirius sighed loudly and looked up from his position dramatically, towards James.

"If I haven't returned within the next hour, inform Dumbledore that Marlene is the dark lord and she's got me" He said so seriously we all started to erupt with laughter as Marlene practically pulled him out of the hall by his tiny pony tail.

"That was..." Remus trailed.

"Odd?" I said.

"Strange!" Lily nodded.

"Marlene." James Laughed and Lily jabbed his side.

"I'm sure it's nothing though, right?" I questioned, trying to take in all of their facial expressions.

"Maybe her and Sirius are going to finally have the talk" James smugly smiled.

"The talk?" Lily questioned "I think I would know if my best friend had a thing for Sirius, James" She said as if he was completely stupid.

"No, it was something to do with me-" Remus looked concerned towards Lily "I could feel it, you know" He started playing with the hems of his arm sleeves, bunching them around the tip of his fingers nervously.

"Honestly Rem, you haven't done anything. Try not to overthink. Anyway she hasn't dragged you away, she would have if you were the problem!" She sweetly smiled at him and he shook himself out of his cowering position.

"No, I'm sure you're right. After all, you know Marlene best!" He hummed back at her, his voice still laced with paranoia but his body language switching to a confident demeanour. I reached my hand out slowly to place it on top of his gently and his eyes glanced down upon my hand and stared at it for a while before glancing back up towards me.

"You're alright." I smiled reassuringly and let my hand casually rest on his.

A silence, again, fell upon the now smaller group "Lily, I was wondering whether you could teach me to skip stones on the lake. I've forgotten how to do it, and I wanna learn now before it's too late!" James said as his eyes darted towards my hand resting on Remus'. I quickly pulled it away but Lily quickly caught on and smiled at James, catching onto what he was doing.

"Now James? Sounds like a great plan! The sky isn't too grey, so I say okay!" They both laughed and scattered out of the hall leaving both Remus and I, alone.

Remus was smiling down at his lap at their childish reactions and I could feel a heat rising up through my neck and into my face.

"How are you from last night? Head not hurting too bad?" Remus smiled, a cheeky glint in his eyes. I physically cringed.

"I'm so sorry, I became a mess so fast!" I covered my face with shame as Remus laughed "You shouldn't of taken care of me like a little baby, it's so embarrassing" I admitted.

"It's not embarrassing, though you were slightly childlike I agree with you on that one-" He chuckled "There's nothing to be embarrassed about, I'll happily take care of you whenever you can't take care of yourself" He hummed and smiled so softly at me that it would had been missed if I hadn't been so intensely watching every muscle in his face move. I didn't know how to reply to the sweet comment so just mimicked his smiled in return.

"I dont know how Marlene explained the situation to you this morning, seeing as she's still upset over it but you asked me to stay, so that's why I'm suffering with awful back ache today" He joked and I lightly bit on my bottom lip.

"I asked you to stay?" I whispered, not looking into his eyes that I felt were looking at me almost too warmly that every time our pupils met my skin would start bubbling with a tingly heat.

"Almost begged, actually" He softened his voice too.

"I'm sorry" I apologised feeling as if I had completely let go of all self control, considering I couldn't remember any of this.

"Again, there's no need to apologise" He laughed keeping his voice still at a soft level "In fact, I'm glad you asked me to stay" He mumbled.

My eyes locked with his for a second, a smile slightly curling at the edge of my lips at his comment. He had a small smirk painted across his face too; but not one that was smug or flirtatious.

It was a smile that had seemed to softly rest upon his face, like even his resting expression couldn't contain the warmth that was inside of him. His teeth slightly showed through the tiny gap that formed between his parted pink lips that looked like they had recently been licked over, giving a layer of shine to them. His eyes seemed to be scanning slowly over my features as mine scanned over his. They were bright and inviting, yet I cowered at every shared glance for fear that I'd verbally deeply exhale with every shared second. His hair messily drooped over his forehead and flicked out by the sides of his ears, small waves forming and fluttering around his eyes with every blink from his eyelashes and a warm glow had appeared on his face making his unique looking scares flare up a deep pink colour. It contrasted beautifully against the paleness of his complexion.

"I'm glad we're talking again, I missed you" His once parted lips pressed together tightly and was played with between his teeth.

"We haven't known each other for long, how could you miss me?" I laughed trying to remove the unknown tension in the air and replace it with humour.

"How could I not?"