marleneonfire:
Every step is monumental, colossal. Because every step brings them closer and closer to Sirius. Really, this time. Sirius – entirely in the flesh, completely unencumbered. Not bound by the clock with a deadline to return. Not weighed over with the knowledge that he would be returning to his charade. Just Sirius – wholly and utterly their Sirius. All of their Sirius, back from behind enemy lines and Marlene can hardly breathe as they move through the corridors of Hogwarts. They’re trying to look normal, casual, rather than rushed and excited, but not trying very hard. After all, it’s Christmas and they’re in Scotland and Sirius is back.
Remus’s note was all that it needed to be and it was still crumbled in the bottom of Marlene’s coat pocket, a little torn where their fingers gripped it too tightly. He’s safe, get here ASAP. At first they thought they misread. For one horrifying moment after, they thought it was a joke sent from someone else. But then the reality settled in and they allowed themself the relief and the joy of it. Sirius was safe. Sirius was at Hogwarts, safe, with Remus, in the flesh. Safe. And there.
They don’t knock, don’t even consider it. Just push through the door and is immediately in tears. Because there he is. It was months since they last saw him and even if it wasn’t, the fear that gripped them since they first got news of his capture, the spine-bending, heart-breaking fear of it was enough. “Sirius,” they gasp out and then do as he says, get over there.
In an instant, they’re perched carefully on his lap, face buried into his neck, hands carding through his hair. And they’re sobbing, full-bodied, unabashed and so fucking happy, so relieved. “You’re back,” they babble nonsensically, pulling away to kiss his cheeks, his eyelids, the bridge of his nose. “You’re really back.” Marlene never was able to let themself believe that they wouldn’t, at the end of the day, find him and retrieve him, somehow. But their concern was growing in those last months, coalescing. None of it mattered, though, because he’s back.
“We were gonna come for you,” they assure him, suddenly finding it important that he know that. Their eyes meet his, serious and intent, hands gripping at his shoulders. “We just needed to know where you were. You have to know that, Sirius, we were going to come for you. I was gonna storm the fucking Ministry myself.”
His arms wrap around them like a second nature. Glad that he can cover the wince at the pain that sparks, but he holds them closer fiercely and doesn’t let them go, hides his face in their neck and their hair and breathes until they pull back. The kisses, familiar, and he tries for a smile, something bright and fond.
Sirius finds himself nodding. Of course they were going to come for him. Of course they’d try. They were his friends, and for the most part they all shared the common flaw he knew best in James: they would have thought it the height of dishonour to abandon a friend. If Sirius was in danger, it must have plagued them all. The guilt eats at him with the thought of it, the prospect that it would have been kinder to die quietly and quickly. He pushes the thought aside.
“I know, Marls.” A smile, trying it on for size, “I know.” There’s a beat of quiet, and he pets through their hair. “If anyone could have, it would have been you. I’d like to see them try to keep you out.”
Marlene was a fierce thing. A warrior. Beautiful and terrible. Sirius would fall at their feet gladly, pledge allegiance here, let them order him wherever they needed him to go. He revels in their grip on his shoulders, lays steady hands on their waist.
He loves them. And he doesn’t want them to hurt because of this, not anymore.
“I really am alright.” He promises, his voice turning gentle and quiet. “Really. Good as new, safe and sound.” Half lies, hidden truths and shaded hurts. He doesn’t want his pain to be their pain too, but knows that they’d take it on in a heartbeat if he told them where all the hurts lay. “You don’t have to worry, anymore.”











