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Sirius propped himself up on his elbow at the sound of faint tapping on a window pane. Had the owl delivering the Daily Prophet arrived any earlier, they’d have been too preoccupied to notice it.
“I’ll go. I need to use the loo, anyway.” Marlene said, swinging her legs out of bed and getting up to hunt for the t-shirt that he’d been wearing yesterday.
“You don’t have to put that on.” He protested, he’d been rather enjoying the view.
“You want me to go to the living room window naked? I’m sure the bloke in the flat opposite won’t mind…” Marlene challenged, cocking an eyebrow ever so slightly. “Do you want a cup of tea while I’m up?”
“Can Hippogriffs fly?” He grinned, flopping back against his pillows and closing his eyes. He never imagined that he would ever feel this happy – he shouldn’t feel this happy; there was a war raging outside, and all he could think about was how wonderful it was to wake up next to Marlene McKinnon.
She’d started staying at his flat after Lily had needed Marlene’s bed at her parents, (he thought he had bad luck in the sibling department, but for Lily’s sister to just dump all her belongings at Kings Cross like that with no warning that she’s sold their family home from right under her feet…)
Even with Lily and James now living together, Marlene seemed to spend most of her nights here with him.
It was nice, and he certainly wasn’t going to complain about her warm body curled up against his own… but he was forgetting how to sleep without her next to him and now he slept terribly when she wasn’t there.
“You ordered tea.” Marlene said, returning to the room, a mug in each hand and the paper tucked under her arm. Sirius grinned, and took his drink from her.
“Thanks. Anyone we know been killed?” He asked in a bored voice as she got back into bed and opened the paper on her lap. The tone was just for show, his heart had sped up as he’d asked the question.
If it was any of their loved ones, they’d have been told. Surely the would have been told.
“No, but there was close call for the Minister.” Marlene said, skimming over the story on the front page. “She escaped alright, and the Prophet aren’t saying Death Eaters… but who else would it be.”
“Probably don’t want to scare the public.” Sirius muttered, leaning over her shoulder to read. They should be scared.
“I’ll ask Moody about it later.” She said, and Sirius frowned. “The Order meeting? Ring any bells?”
“Oh yeah.” He chuckled, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear. After a couple of close calls of their own, they’d had a quiet mission-free weekend and he was finding it easy to loose track after a couple of days of being normal with Marlene.
Marlene fished out the puzzle page and handed him the rest of the paper. “You could do with having a go at the crossword if your memory is getting this bad.” She teased, using a book to rest the page on and tapping the feather of her quill against the paper.
“Piece of piss.” Sirius said, leaning forward again to look at the clues. “Alright, eight letter Polyjuice ingredient: Fluxweed.” Sirius said.
“Not unless you can get fake gold from a Flobberworm.” Marlene said. “It has to be Lacewing.”
Sirius shrugged and slumped back against the pillows to watch her, it was a far better use of his time anyway. He wanted to spend every morning like this, just sitting quietly in her company… of course the morning activities before the arrival of the paper had also been an excellent way to start the day.
They loved each other, he knew that… even if they didn’t say it very often.
There were things about him that she didn’t understand, that she would never be able to understand.
He was glad about that, her upbringing had been far too happy to really know what he’d been through. It boded well if they ever had a child of their own. At least one of them’d had the opportunity to learn from the example of decent parents.
He loved her so much. But he’d never expected to feel like this. Like they were part of each other.
He couldn’t imagine spending his life with anyone else.