having fun yet? }{ [open]

[marlene edith mckinnon]

Marlene really needed the toilet. Desperately needed the toilet. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, eyes on the clock at the front of the room and silently willed the hands to move faster. She was vaguely aware of Gracie Davies staring at her curiously, but Marlene couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge it in any way, shape, or form. Perhaps if the clock was wielded to Grace’s forehead, Marlene would pay attention. But alas, it was not.

Come on, come on! She silently chanted with the second hand. She tapped her quill to her chant, splattering her parchment and notes with ink. In this moment, she really couldn’t care less. She was too involved in leaning forward in her seat; still doing the universal, “I REALLY NEED TO URINATE,” dance. The minute hand inched forward and Marlene, deciding to take a risk, quietly slid her splattered parchment across the desk and into the waiting rucksack. She was really regretting that third cup of pumpkin juice right about now.

Finally. FINALLY. Mere minutes later, but hours in Marlene’s mind, Flitwick dismissed the class.

The poor professor had barely spoken the words before Marlene was off like a snitch. She was the first one out of the classroom, and before anyone else had managed to make it to the door she was out of sight. The closest bathrooms were on the second floor. Not a place Marlene would ever normally visit, but this was an emergency.

“Slow down!” Professor Barnes hollered as Mar flew down the staircase between the third and second floors, but Marlene didn’t even acknowledge him. Instead, she disappeared into the second floor bathroom and into a stall.

Moaning Myrtle could be heard sniffing in her stall, briefly increasing her pitch by a few octaves as Marlene slammed the stall door shut with her foot. Luckily, the ghost didn’t seem inclined to come out for a chat today.

Feeling very relieved, as only someone who just missed wetting her pants and managed to catch Moaning Myrtle on a shy day, could, Marlene turned her attention to other things. The stall door was littered with graffiti, but surely all the stalls looked similar. Mar scanned it casually, reading bits and pieces as the brain tends to do.

SNITCH SKEETER

Not even the least bit original...

LONGBOTTOM IS A SEXY BEAST
ARE YOU MAD?

Marlene laughed, surely that had to be Alice? Maybe not, but hopefully! Unfortunately, the laughter died in her throat when she spotted her own name.

MARLENE + IVAN
MARLENE IS A BITCH
MCKINNON LOVES IVAN
NO, IVAN LOVES MCKINNON
MARLENE AND IVAN ARE DATING
RITA’S HEAD’S GONNA EXPLODE!

Wait, what? Who were these people and why were they having a conversation about her on a toilet stall’s door?! Complete with a crude and amusing drawing of Rita’s head on fire, no less!

Marlene was certainly not dating Ivan. They hadn’t even been out on a date! Perhaps those library encounters counted using a very loose definition, but there certainly hadn’t been anything serious. Not yet anyway.

Scowling at the door, Marlene thumped out of the stall, washed her hands, and then thumped back into the stall. She wasn't thinking at all, beyond removing the graffiti. It wasn't awful or slanderous, but it was there, and it wasn't truthful. Of course Marlene knew that magic in the corridors and loos was prohibited, but, really, she wasn't exactly known for thinking before leaping. The Gryffindor pulled out her wand and took aim. “FLAGRATE!” The already struck out Marlene disappeared, replaced by a dark scorch mark.

“Flagrate! Flagrate! Flagrate!” Soon a good chunk of the door had been burned away. Unfortunately, part of the message had been carved in deep. Annoyed, and without thinking, Marlene took aim, “BOMBARDA!” The door splintered outwards, and Marlene shielded her eyes with her wand arm as rogue wood chunks went everywhere.

Moaning Myrtle’s soft wailing turned into outright shrieks. Opening her eyes and lowering her wand hand, the hot headed Gryffindor surveyed the damage. The door... Well, it wasn’t entirely unsalvageable. It could probably be put back together easily enough. Where the messages had been, there was now a ragged hole. Marlene could spot herself in the mirror, but it wasn’t that big. Not really anyway... But Filch would have a litter of kneezles over the wood chips and dust on the floor.

“Shit...”

This had to be fixed, immediately.

hey it’s, finished!
cause you’re awesome, open
they’re all, 690
i love them, template @ + stockholm syndrome / lyrics @ the script *live like we’re dying
just letting you know, “destruction of school property ftl!”

[elaine veronica easterly]

Let me explain houses to you quickly before I explain what Elaine happened to be doing at the time of the explosion. Gryffindors, at the sound of an explosion, will run to it and help the good guy and/or fight the bad guy. Hufflepuffs will probably follow dumbly and think that some magical plant has just sprung to life. Slytherins will run away at the sound because they either caused it or assume professors will assume they caused it. Ravenclaws will just run away because loud noises hurt their ears. Really, anything above a whisper usually shocks them. Quidditch is known to have caused heart attacks among some quieter Ravenclaws. It’s true. There’s a study about to published including all of this information and more in the next Monthly Magic. It’s by Brent Daniels. Read it. It’s great.

Back to the present, Elaine innocently walked by Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. She would never go in it. No urination caused that much desperation. Being a sixth year felt completely fantastic because she currently had free period that would let her catch up on some homework. She deliberated between the library and the common room. The library provided more books that could be useful to write her Transfiguration essay. The common room provided comfier chairs. Sitting in the library for too long hurt her back. Sometimes she felt like she missed important information by sitting in the common room. Decisions, decisions. With this thought in mind, Elaine barely focused on which direction her feet took her. She did this quite often. After living in a castle for six years, one just knows where one is going without paying attention.

All of a sudden, Elaine heard a scream, “BOMBARDA!” Instinctively, Elaine covered her heard with her arms. Since she carried her wand in her right hand, as she always did, this sent a wave of pink sparks over her head. Searching around for safety, her mind reminded her of Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. No girl ever used that toilet, ever, and Myrtle couldn’t cast a spell (though no one reminded her of this because then she became even more weepy than usual), so there would be safe. Arms still protecting the top of her head, she ran to the bathroom. Surprisingly, she heard Marlene swear. Ravenclaws have excellent deduction skills (Brent Daniels also wrote about that, too!), so she figured out that the girl had blown up the door. It took another moment to consider why she did it. Everyone knew catty girls wrote on bathroom stall doors. They were never any nice things either. Either someone wrote something mean about Marlene or the girl was dumber than Grace and could not figure out how to open the door. Or maybe in a rush to get away from Moaning Myrtle, Marlene had no alternative but to blow open the door. Elaine still would stick with someone wrote something mean.

“I never took you to be the destructive type,” Elaine said, drawing out her words. She never associated with Severus, but the way she spoke her words almost sounded like him, “You know, I heard there’s a vampire roaming the third floor. We should grab some of these pieces of woods. Ever put a stake through the heart of a vampire? I have no clue how to do it, but you have enough pieces that we should be able to get a couple of tries until we figure it out. To be truthful, I never imagined myself as a vampire. I think it would just be so boring. Blah, blah, blah. I want to suck your blood. I have better hobbies than that.”

Elaine wandered closer to Marlene, taking in the bathroom she had visited once on a dare back in her first year. One dormmate had convinced her that if you snuck into the bathroom in the middle of the night and tried to scare Moaning Myrtle, the person that murdered her would come to get you. She lasted until the famous annoying ghost appeared. After just a few minutes of talking to her, Elaine realized that this was just boring, not scary, and left. Her friends were impressed with her bravery and started calling her a Gryffindor, teasing her. That seemed so long ago.

“So why are you suddenly breaking down doors and scaring people out of their wits? You know, some people here don’t have their wits about them as it is. Try to think of the less fortunate.”
Elaine smiled, waiting to hear if her theory was correct.

[/justify][/blockquote][/blockquote]

TAGGING MARLENE !
WORDS 759. !
NOTES I HOPE YOU UNDERSTAND WHY ELAINE’S TALKING ABOUT BEING A VAMPIRE. !
LYRICS BAD REPUTATION BY JOAN JETT !
CREDIT R A W R IT’S E M M A ! OF CAUTION ![/COLOR][/FONT]

[marlene edith mckinnon]

“Get a hold of yourself, woman. You’re a McKinnon for Merlin’s sake!” Marlene chided her reflection angrily. She shoved out of the stall to better survey the damage. Typical Marlene, never thinking a single thing through. It wasn’t like her at all to get wound up so tightly over what was, in the grand scheme of things, pretty harmless gossip. No one was calling her a slag, no one was saying she was a talentless hack on the pitch. No one was saying anything nasty about Olivia, which was good because Marlene’s threshold for nasty comments towards her family was significantly lower than it was for comments towards her person.

Marlene was a McKinnon. Things like this didn’t bother them! They were used to it, being blood traitors and all. And Marlene was Marlene. She had thicker skin than that. She was quite an arrogant person, though she would insist that it was just a healthy dose of self-esteem. Most criticism rolled off her back because she was pretty convinced that she was alright, better than alright even. She had many friends, good grades, was involved in activities. Though she would reluctantly admit that some of the complaints about her personality were valid, being an honest person and all, most complaints of gossip was dismissed as beneath her.

So, what was the problem? Why was this particular strain of gossip getting under Marlene’s skin? Why did this comment bother Marlene more than the one in the third floor toilets calling her a ho? Well, honestly, Marlene was just extremely frustrated about the situation. It was all around school. Ivan Kendell wanted to date Marlene, and he was going to do so within the next couple of weeks. First of all, why was he discussing this with everyone but Marlene? Where was Marlene’s agency in this situation? Where was her choice? Why was he telling everyone and his owl, including some dreaded Slytherins, that he was going to ask Marlene out, before asking Marlene herself? A couple of notes in the library, and all of a sudden their relationship was all around school. On one hand it was flattering. On the other hand, Marlene was turned off by the constant attention. It was too much. All she could think about was how he was this persistent before they were dating, so what would he be like after? Marlene liked to think of herself as a free agent. Truthfully, she was terrible at dating relationships. She ditched dates, she forgot anniversaries. Marlene was better with hook ups, with non-relationships. With things that were undefined until both parties got bored and moved on. That was why she was attracted to boys who had their own life to live, boys who were just as busy as Marlene, boys who knew how to do the single thing. Boys who were extremely forgiving were hard to find, of course, which definitely explained Marlene’s spotty dating record. Ivan was sabotaging himself by talking to the whole school about their relationship before one existed. And it certainly didn’t help that some of those people were Slytherins, Marlene’s sworn enemies.

Of course Marlene didn’t want to be known as the girl who overreacted to some gossip and destroyed the second floor toilets. She could only imagine the jeers that would come her way for this one. But, since Elaine Easterly had just showed up to survey the damage [and others were sure to follow], Marlene was going to just have to take the repercussions with her head held high. “I just lost it, I guess,” Marlene shrugged a non-answer to the Ravenclaw’s inquiry. All the mental pep talk in the world couldn’t stop the blush from creeping across Marlene’s pale features.

“I’m such an idiot, McGonagall is going to murder me,” though she aimed for casual, Marlene’s voice had taken on a decidedly defeated tone. She didn’t even bother to try to blame anyone else. There was no one around to blame, and besides, that was cowardly. She could hear the mocking tone of Elaine’s voice, which wasn’t helping that blush the least bit. Not content to leave the mocking to a concise comment, Elaine launched into a speech, somehow tying vampires into this mess. Typical Ravenclaw.

“Don’t! You know I hate vampires,” Marlene cringed, looking everywhere but her sometimes friend. She kicked door fragments out the way so she could stand on something other than splinters. “You don’t get more than one try!” Fear winning out over Marlene’s desire to avoid eye contact, she finally looked in Elaine’s direction to school her on vampires. “If you miss, they’ll kill you! Or worse! Make you one of them! We’d have to take the biggest pieces, and just stab as fast and as hard as we can. If we miss, you better hope you can run faster than me. I’m taller, so you’ll have to be pretty fast!” Marlene’s fear of vampires forced her to forget about the mess she has caused for a few moments. She was convinced that she was faster than Elaine, but the mere thought of what would happen if she tripped made her shudder. Elaine was so mean, mentioning the third floor as a possible vampire refuge when she knew Marlene would have to pass that floor to get to her common room.

But then, as quick as the distraction came, it had ended. There was sarcastic Elaine, bringing up the shattered door again. Marlene eyed the door and then Elaine, smiling half-heartedly at what was very probably a jab at Hufflepuff. “Oh, you know,” again aiming for casual and falling somewhere very close to sheepish and embarrassed, “I didn’t like what it said, so I got rid of it. Flagrate was taking too long.”

hey it’s, finished!
cause you’re awesome, elaine easterly
they’re all, 960
i love them, template @ + stockholm syndrome / lyrics @ the script *live like we’re dying
just letting you know, “please don't kill me! i know it's crazy long! i was just trying to get the character right...”

[elaine veronica easterly]

“Lost it?” Elaine repeated back like an annoying bird with bright plumage in a cage. She wondered if Marlene would offer a cracker. She hoped not. Elaine could not believe how calm Marlene seemed. It was if damaging school property was a daily occurrence for her. Typical Gryffindors. Not that Elaine would ever say that to Marlene because, well, Elaine knew that Marlene would probably challenge her to a duel if she did. Elaine did not want to get into a duel with someone who just broke a bathroom stall door. She probably would try all sorts of wild and crazy spells. Elaine had a lot of classes with Marlene. The two girls were probably equal in their magical abilities, but if Marlene went crazy, then she would probably win the duel. Not safe.

Then Elaine noticed the blush creeping along Marlene’s cheeks. Oh, good. She had not gone crazy. Well, if she did, it was only temporarily. Elaine recalled the moments last year when she was a fifth year student with impending O.W.L.’s. Everyone in their year went a bit loopy. There was a day when Elaine could only speak phrases from her Transfiguration notes. It was a good thing that everyone was too busy studying and no one really talked to her that day, but those who did, gave her a sympathetic look. O.W.L.’s were the worst. Luckily, now in their sixth year, with neither O.W.L.’s nor N.E.W.T.’s approaching, they could have a normal year. That is if Marlene stayed away from bathrooms, but that seemed a little unlikely. Everyone needed a loo once in a while.

Elaine decided to be nice to her sometimes friend. She gave her a small smile, “I’m not going to tell McGonagall.” Her green eyes maneuvered around the bathroom until she heard the quiet moans of Myrtle, and then she shrugged. She wanted to say Myrtle might, but if she said it, then the ghost probably would. Well, if their professor ever came into this awful bathroom, which hopefully she didn’t. Although Elaine had it on good authority that Myrtle occasionally snuck into the prefect’s bathroom. That was the one good thing about Elaine not being chosen to be prefect. The only good thing. It also gave her time to practice her Quidditch skills, but still, she would have preferred to be a prefect. However, she never told anyone that anymore. She mourned for a while, but all of the other female Ravenclaws were just as qualified as her. It must be tough to pick prefects out of the Ravenclaw house.

Oops. Elaine had completely forgotten about Marlene’s fear of vampires. It was justifiable. Vampires were extremely terrifying. Marlene really must have been upset because she refused to even look at Elaine. Now the Ravenclaw felt bad. She had never intended to actually upset her sometimes friend. Rather, she just wanted to see what had happened and then maybe tease her a little bit for going around the bend. Sure, it was a bit odd for that to happen to a sixth year, but maybe it was more effective that way. Maybe that was Marlene had intended. Why go bonkers when you have a super huge rather large mega important test weeks away? Why not make the stress wait until you have more time to react and respond, such as the year between the tests. Wow, that Marlene was a genius. Elaine wished they had her in Ravenclaw, even though it already felt a little crowded. Oh well, there were people in the room who obviously did not belong. They could kick one of those kids out, or heck, maybe even a couple of them. All they were doing was bringing down the average grade of the true Ravenclaws.

More than one try? Was Marlene serious? Elaine must have really messed with her brain. She let her finish her doomsday rant, before speaking, “Marlene, we’re witches, if you had forgotten. We’ve been trained to do magic since before we found out boys didn’t have cooties. If there was a vampire in this school, we could easily take it down. Sure, we’ve had no experience, but we’d be fine. Just aim the stake with your wand. You know, the Banishing Charm? I would never get that close to a vampire. My neck is way too pretty to be bitten.” She rubbed her neck, wondering why she never learned more about vampires. Maybe she should. Marlene seemed to be fine, perhaps Elaine could run to the library to research about vampires. Could one even send a Banishing Charm to hurt vampires? She thought that she may have learned this in her earlier years at Hogwarts, but she must have forgotten. Who knew she would ever need to know how to kill a vampire? Obviously, she should have, “I’m not that fast of a runner,” Elaine said, still rubbing her neck, “I’m better on a broom…”

Elaine really, really wanted to say that impatience was the mark of a Gryffindor, but she figured that would probably anger Marlene. Elaine would be offended if someone told her the mark of a Ravenclaw is to be pale and have a nose in book. Sure, both were true, but that didn’t make them sting less. Still, destroying a door because someone wrote a bit of gossip about you? It really did not seem like Marlene at all. Elaine had gossip written about her before, you just brush it off and keep going, “Did it say that Ravenclaws were going to win the Quidditch cup this year? Cause that’s true, Marlene. We’re an awesome team.” She smiled cheekily. She did not know how to respond, so she figured teasing about Quidditch could be safe. At the very least, hopefully Marlene would not be offended.

[/justify][/blockquote][/blockquote]

TAGGING MARLENE !
WORDS 759. !
NOTES POSTING WAR. !
LYRICS BAD REPUTATION BY JOAN JETT !
CREDIT R A W R IT’S E M M A ! OF CAUTION ![/COLOR][/FONT]

[marlene edith mckinnon]

No cracker, just a deepening blush. It sounded so stupid as Elaine repeated Marlene’s words back to her. To Marlene’s ears, Elaine sounded incredulous, almost as if she couldn’t believe it. Letting her gaze slide back to the ruined stall door, Marlene had to admit that she was also having trouble believing what had just happened. Yet, the evidence was there. With a little sigh, Marlene turned back to Elaine, brightening considerably when Elaine said she wasn’t going to tell Marlene’s head of house. Well that was a relief. Ravenclaws could be so unpredictable. Sometimes even the ones who regularly broke rules could be so stuff at inopportune times.

Briefly, Marlene wondered what was going through Elaine’s head. What would Marlene think if she had came across someone destroying school property? To be honest, she’d probably laugh. And mercilessly mock the other person. Oh, that story would be told over and over again, perhaps with the person’s name left out, definitely with great exaggeration and perhaps even some acting involved. Marlene knew she deserved the same sort of treatment she was certain she would dish out. But, for some reason, Elaine didn’t seem too inclined to outright mock her. It was obviously there was some mocking, that slow drawl, and painfully sarcastic words. But it was so subtle, it was easy to ignore.

Sure, Elaine wouldn’t tell McGonagall, but she was sure to tell the rest of Ravenclaw. Right? Marlene exhaled and ran her fingers through her hair, her usual nervous gesture. She offered a small smile in return. It was perhaps too much to hope that Elaine would be a partner in crime here, but Marlene would take whatever small victories she could take, and not telling any professors was most definitely a victory. Often Marlene found herself ruminating on why she had ever counted Elaine amongst her friends, she wasn’t purist herself, but she sure loved her Slytherins and hated the Order. Well, now Marlene had a quick and easy reminder why. She really wasn’t so bad when the snakes that hovered around her were off hiding in their lair.

The tentative smile grew larger when Elaine mentioned quidditch. “You wish... You’d have to put Rita in the hospital wing first,” Marlene let out a short bark of laughter that quickly died in her throat at the very thought of Rita. “Ohhhh”, Marlene shot a glare at the destroyed door, then another more assessing look towards Elaine. To be honest, in this moment Marlene really didn’t care if Elaine ran out and told every person she spotted. She really needed to confide in someone, preferably before a professor showed up to cart her off to permanent detention.

“Speaking of Rita... Do you know Ivan Kendall? He’s a fifth year in your house. Rita’s friend? The guy with the camera,” Marlene motioned briefly, “about this high.” Height was very important in Marlene’s books. She was tall, and finding a bloke of similar or taller height was terribly difficult sometimes. “Okay, well, I destroyed the door because someone, Rita probably, wrote all over it about us. I’m not even dating him, Elaine, I swear, but somehow it got all over the school that we are, or that he wants to, and I don’t even know. I’ve literally spoken to him in the library a handful of times and now it’s this scandal, and I’m just so frustrated. It had to come out. I couldn’t just leave it.” Once she had made the decision to spill her guts to Elaine, the words had come out in a fast spoken jumble, getting louder the more Marlene shared, until eventually her voice reached a fever pitch. Moaning Myrtle was forgotten, and even though she was looking right at Elaine, she was also forgotten as Marlene shared her troubles on the subject.

“They’re friends, and I guess Kenny told her that he wanted to date me, and she’s absolutely lost her mind. You should have seen what she did to me in the toilets the other day. She got it in her head that she should give me a makeover. Do you know what a Barbie is? Of course not, you don’t have any muggles in your family, but I’ve seen one, and they’re all blue eye shadow and awful pink lipstick and enough blush to make someone think they’ve got a fever. I don’t know why I agreed to it, but I looked awful, and it was absolutely ridiculous and I don’t even know what the point of that was. I’m sure it will be funny one day, but it’s not especially funny now. And anyway, it’s all over the stall, and I just can’t have it there. I can’t.” Marlene finally stopped the verbal vomit. She drew in a deep, steadying gasp of air. Her rush to tell her story had resulted in far too many verbal run on sentences.

“I looked like a hooker. I’m sure it would have been appropriate for a night club or something, but for Ancient Runes? Definitely not.” Marlene felt the urge to reiterate the point about the makeover. So far she hadn’t confided that to anyone, the only people who knew it happened were any individuals that spotted her dashing back to her common room after the incident had occurred.

hey it’s, finished!
cause you’re awesome, elaine easterly
they’re all, 885
i love them, template @ + stockholm syndrome / lyrics @ the script *live like we’re dying
just letting you know, “I WILL WIN THIS.”

[elaine veronica easterly]

Why was Elaine being so kind? Well, as a Ravenclaw, she liked to overanalyze everything, so she made a list of why she should be nice to Marlene. The first was that Marlene was a sometimes friend, when it suited them. As long as they steered clear of any topics that involved the impending war that threatened to kill every single last one of them and no one brought up that Slytherins obviously will be the ones that will kill every single last one of them, the two girls could get along. Sometimes Quidditch could be difficult, too. For the most part though, they were pretty much friends. Kind of. Luckily, friendships don’t need titles like relationships do, otherwise Elaine would never know what to tell people Marlene is to her. Since neither of them brought up the forbidden topics, Elaine would be nice to Marlene. After all, what else were occasional sometimes kind of sort of but not always friends for?

The second reason was Elaine remembered the craziness of fifth year. If she ever decided she did not want to become a spellmaker, Elaine would write a book about the experiences people go through during the times of O.W.L.’s and of N.E.W.T.’s. Sure, everyone knew that fifth and seventh years went a bit loopy, but writing about the individual stories would be a classic. Elaine heard a rumor that Bobby Mahler actually went out during a crescent moon, completely stark naked, and ran around shouting History of Magic facts. Apparently someone told him that crescent moons were insanely lucky and that being naked and shouting helps you remember better. If someone told Elaine that, she probably would have tried, too. Professor Binns is and forever will be the most boring professor ever. He makes it difficult to do well in his class. Regardless, Elaine had a plethora of those stories she could write about. Back to the point, perhaps some of the wackiness still wandered around Marlene’s brain and she just needed to get it out.

Finally, what if happened to Elaine? She probably would never destroy school property because a boy went around saying they dated or snogged or whatever he went around saying, but perhaps she would. Would she not want someone to be nice to her? Yes, of course she would. This reason she listed last because it seemed highly unlikely she would ever do anything so extreme, but Elaine kind of feared karma. It seemed to work whenever she said or did something to mean to Elizabeth or Evan, so maybe she might just want to be kind. It couldn’t hurt, could it? Well, not unless someone stamped on her forehead that Naked Bobby Mahler recited naked poetry to Marlene by the waning moon.

Sometimes it was hard to be Rita’s friend. People tended not to trust Elaine, not because she could be kind of bitchy or because she had a hard time filtering her thoughts, but because people thought she would go running to Rita at the chance to share some gossip. Elaine was not a gossiper. Her time was spent better elsewhere, like reading a book. Really, if all of Hogwarts decided to spend half of the time gossiping just reading a book, their school might not need so many dunce caps, “I’m not going to tell Rita, you know.” Elaine tried to say it lighthearted, hoping Marlene would drop it and stop thinking she was about to tell the first person she ran into, “Rita has enough to worry about for our match than who you’re snogging.” She paused, realizing her statement seemed like she was putting down her team, “We’ll still win though.” There. Now Elaine surely struck fear into Marlene’s heart. As if she didn’t do that enough with the vampires already.

Elaine nodded as Marlene described Ivan. Really, there were roughly 280 students at their school. Elaine learned all of the names of the students in the year above her during her first few months at Hogwarts, trying to be a suck up. The students in her year she learned even faster. Then she just tried to learn the new students as they came in. The older she got, the less she cared about the pink-cheeked, doey-eyed first year, but she still made an effort. First years liked hearing their names called by older students. First years also liked not getting caught in the trick steps though. They’re like dogs; they’re easily pleased. Elaine inwardly winced when Marlene automatically assumed Rita wrote on the door. Everyone always assumed Rita did all the gossipy things in the school. Stand around in a loo for twenty minutes and you’ll hear strangers mention what a slag you are. That’s what all girls do. However, after hearing the same comments from other people over the years, Elaine ignored the slight to her friend. It took too long to defend Rita. Half of the time, she deserved the assumption anyway. Besides, Marlene kept sounding more hysterical as she talked. Elaine worried that maybe she would start crying. Elaine did not hate when people cried, she just felt awkward and out of place and at a loss as to what to say. It was okay when her sister Elizabeth cried because Elaine knew what to say, but to other people, especially your sometimes friend, it felt especially difficult to find the right words. Luckily, Marlene wouldn’t shut up long enough for Elaine to get a word in edgewise. If she had, Elaine probably would have said something that would have made it worse.

Usually girls get excited when boys want to date them, but Marlene never fit into that category. She never really wanted to date guys for long. Elaine could only shake her head when Marlene asked her what a Barbie doll was. From Marlene’s explanation and from Elaine’s stereotypical picture of a doll, she had a pretty good idea what one was, obviously not something to be emulated and even more obviously not something to be turned into during a makeover. Still, the makeover made Elaine interrupt Marlene’s rant, “A makeover? Really?” The nice girl thing would be to gush about how pretty Marlene looked and why would she think that she ever needed a makeover? Elaine never thought things like that though, which sometimes got her into trouble. Finally Marlene breathed, which Elaine considered a good sign because she figured the Gryffindor soon would pass out from not breathing, “That makes sense…” Elaine said awkwardly, not sure what else to say to that little rant. No it doesn’t, Elaine thought to herself. It sounded crazy.

“It would have made class more interesting to see Marlene the Hooker,” Elaine said. She really was crap at cheering people up, “Maybe if you did, guys would be so interested in you that they all would be telling their friends how they want to date you, then the walls would be so covered with the slander that you could just ignore it. When you see something common enough, you just ignore it. Like girls who roll up their skirts to get the boys to notice. You see it so many times that you don’t even register it anymore. Too bad they don’t get noticed or else maybe their names would have replaced yours.” Yeah, Elaine had no idea how to help people. Maybe she should just stick to a few snarky comments and run out the door to tell everyone that Marlene lost it.

[/justify][/blockquote][/blockquote]

TAGGING MARLENE !
WORDS 1250 !
NOTES POSTING WAR !
LYRICS BAD REPUTATION BY JOAN JETT !
CREDIT R A W R IT’S E M M A ! OF CAUTION ![/COLOR][/FONT]