It was the week before Christmas break, and Marlene wasn't sure it was totally worth it to begin her tutoring sessions. But, she had finally received a note from him after over a month of waiting and she was not prepared to turn him down. What if he changed his mind?
True, Gideon had told Marlene that he was not feeling up to working with anyone. And, whenever she saw him in the hallways, Marlene did note he looked awfully peaky. In fact, she had wondered if it was catching; a number of upper years looked under the weather in the weeks after Hallowe'en. (A few weeks ago, Remus Lupin had looked absolutely dreadful, but he seemed to be the last one to get it.) Still, after everyone was beginning to seem normal, Gideon still had not replied with a date to start their work on History of Magic together. She had, in fact, been wondering if he was deliberately avoiding her. When she did finally get the note suggesting they meet this Wednesday, she was chuffed, but puzzled. Wouldn't it be better to begin in January, if they needed to wait so long?
No matter what, though, Marlene would not put him off. She really was determined to get excellent grades on her OWLs this year, and in history she needed all the help she could get. After Transfiguration, she nipped back to the Hufflepuff house to switch out her text books. In the common room, she was temporarily way-laid by Rita Skeeter, who was asking if she'd be free to do her hair for her after dinner. This was something Marlene was, admittedly, very good at. Marlene spent a fair few minutes every morning on her own hair and was well known for it among the fifth year girls. When Mar reported that she could not help Rita with her hair, something happened that anyone other than a 15 year old girl might easily overlook.
It could be argued it was Mar's own fault. She was the one who casually left out the word "study" for her "study date" with Gideon. But as soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them. Rita's face clouded over for the briefest of seconds, but it was enough of a warning that Marlene had upset her.
"Well, Marlene," Rita said rather louder than was necessary (a few people turned to listen), "if I were you I would be more careful about going to see all these upper year boys. People might begin to get the wrong idea." And she gave Marlene a sickly sweet smile as the few mutters, which sounded like a chorus of gossip to Mar, began behind her. She saw Charlotte DeLuca raise her eyebrows at the pair of them. The last thing Marlene wanted was a reputation that matched Charlotte's, but it looked as though Rita had single-handedly started the rumor to fuel exactly that. This was hardly fair, as the only upper years she ever hung round with were either girls, Cinder, who could hardly be counted as "all these upper years", or Gilderoy, and Rita spent as much time with him as Marlene did. With her cheeks burning and her pride stung, Marlene dashed out of the corridor to meet with Gideon up in the library.
Gideon jumped when Marlene unceremoniously dumped her books on the table and sat down with a huffing noise. Rather than being put off by her attitude, Gideon gave her a knowing smile. There wasn't much the blonde could have done to put him off. He was (or at least, had been) best friends with two of the schools most hot-headed ladies. Who had a strong dislike for one another. He wasn't worried about a bit of book thumping. Instead, he asked her to let him know what they were on in History of Magic. This recalled her to herself, and while her cheeks burnt a bright red she didn't tell him off for being insensitive. He knew, therefore, that he had chosen the correct reaction.
An hour later they had reviewed most of their newer material. Gideon knew there wasn't much point in getting heavier into other topics likely to be on the OWL. With Christmas around the bend, beginning anything too new (or too old) would likely get lost in the coming weeks. And so he closed their book with finality. Marlene gave him a smile and blew out a sigh, moving her bangs, which made them both laugh. Gid knew his long silence was likely to have made Marlene nervous, if not outright upset (teenage girls could be very sensitive) and so in order to further the goodwill, he asked, "Any plans for Christmas hols?"
She shrugged and began to pack away her things. "Not sure, but we never really sway from tradition. We'll go and visit my Mum's parents over in Ireland for a week or so, have your basic Christmas festivities. My mum and da are very keen on making sure I get as Muggle an upbringing as I can, because my mother's muggle. She wants me to stick to my roots. How about you?" She leaned her chin on her hand, attention fully on the conversation now that she was all packed up. Ready to leave, but not running away. That was always good. Inwardly, Gideon was surprised and proud of Marlene. It was not often you found a student at Hogwarts that was completely comfortable telling people that their parentage was anything but pure, let alone that they were being raised in a Muggle fashion. Of course, if there was anyone in school that could have been more excited to learn that someone was very muggle, Gideon had not met them yet. He beamed at her for a moment.
To answer her question, Gideon mimicked her nonchalant attitude. "My brother Fabian and I are off to stay with our sister and her husband. We've spent the last few years with them. We don't, as such, get along with our parents. Plus, Fab would leave Hogwarts permanently for Molly's cooking, I think." Gideon gave Mar a cheeky grin, but that grin faltered when he saw the look on her face. Her cheeks were glowing pink again, but her expression was very different from earlier. "What?"
"Fabian is your brother?" It burst out of Marlene, and earned her a glare from the librarian. She clapped a hand to her mouth, and then whispered again, "Fabian's your brother? I can't believe it!" Then, after a quick appraisal of Gideon's overall looks, Marlene amended, "Well, I can believe it, you're quite similar looking, aren't you? But I never made the connection!"
Her eyes were shining in a completely new way; a way that made Gideon cock an eyebrow in a knowing way. His little brother was a known flirt - he was born flirting, it seemed some times. Lily (he thought of her with a slight pang) often reported to Gideon when Fabian had been a bit too flirtatious. She had thought it was hilarious. Pushing aside his regret vis a vis Lily for the moment, he turned his full attention to Marlene. "So you know him then, hmm?"
"Oh, yeah," Mar responded a bit too quickly. Gideon raised both his eyebrows at that, and she spluttered, "We danced at Hallowe'en! Nothing else! I'm not like that." Her voice gave a desperate hitch, and suddenly Gid knew they had hit sensitive territory. He'd never heard any sort of rumors about Marlene McKinnon, but... Well, if there was anything at all Gideon prided himself on (well, once prided himself on) it was getting girls to relieve their feelings on him. He liked being a help, and was very good at being a shoulder to cry on. So he prompted.
"Who says you are?"
Marlene gave him a look like a wounded dog. And suddenly the story of what Rita had said poured out. "It's stupid, really," she finished, scraping tears out from under her lashes to preserve her makeup charms, "after all, anyone with brains can work out that I'm not going steady with anyone. I've barely even spent time with Cinna." Gideon bit down on the urge to ask after Cinna, and instead gave her a pat on the shoulder.
"It is stupid. Sometimes, girls say things out of jealousy that they really don't mean, that they know isn't true. And it sounds to me like this Rita is jealous." Marlene gave him a watery, skeptical look. Gideon persisted. "After all, it must be hard when your friend ditches you for a boy. In the future, if you'd like, you can reschedule with me. I'm really not all that busy," Gid did his best to keep the weariness out of his voice for the last part.
Mar's skepticism turned into a sniffly smile. "I'd far rather spend it with you, believe me." Gideon nodded with a mock-serious look on his face, then gave Marlene a hug. "You'll come 'round when you remember just how boring a Ravenclaw can be," he told her jokingly. She gave a small hiccough of a laugh and returned his hug shyly. "Alright, off you get. I've got some of my own homework to attend to now." Marlene smiled, and slid her bookbag from where it on on the back of her chair.
"Thank you," she told him. Then, determination building in her steely eyes, she leaned over and pecked him on the cheek before striding out of the library. Gideon turned his head back to the books in front of him, but before ten seconds was up, he had a hand to his cheek and was shaking his head. There was something he had to do that was far more important than homework. Something he had been putting off for far too long.
He needed to find Lily Evans.
