Hello all! Bet you're surprised to see me start something new. I'm writing these to see if I can get back into the workings of fanfiction…obviously I've been gone for a very long time, and it's inexcusable to those of you who actually take time to read my stories. You guys are wonderful! For those of you in want of explanation: Basically I practically failed out of high school (not really, but), my long term boyfriend broke up with me (although, long term in high school? Plus we're back together? Lamee), and my family went crazy because of various divorces, deaths, and disownings that went down in my extended family. Anyway. A Month of Shipping will be my "She's back!" series of one shots, so that way if it doesn't work out, no one's too disappointed(; Some will be short. Some will be long. Some may extend more than two chapters if I like the ship enough. One or two might become a new WIP. Probably not. Some will be drabbles. The important thing is that I will be publishing each and every day of the month. I hope you enjoy A Month of Shipping.

Currently inspiring me: Sirius Black & Marlene McKinnon

Because Who Doesn't Love a Little Tragedy

or

When They Were Young

When they were young, they didn't know each other.

Well, that wasn't necessarily true, they knew of each other. But that's not the same thing, now is it?

To him, she was 'Evans's friend.'

To her, he was 'Potter's friend.' And that was that.

In their fourth year, they both made the Quidditch team, and they found out small things about each other that year. Things you might observe in a casual acquaintanceship over the course of a year.

She was average in classes. Slightly above average on the Quidditch pitch. Slightly above average in the looks department, with her cornsilk straight blonde hair and dark green eyes. (Not as green as Lily's, James always pointed out). Well fine, Sirius could give that to him. If Lily's eyes were emeralds, then hers were an endless forest. Not that he spent that much time looking into them. She was just a teammate, and to a fourteen-year old boy, the only thing that he cared about when it came to her was her fit body (well he was a fourteen year old boy, was he not?) and that it was in top form to catch the snitch at the right time.

He was brilliant, though he hid it from the world. Slightly above average on the field (not better than she was, though). Slightly more than above average in the eyes of any teenage girl, with his dark hair and dark gray eyes. It looked as if a storm was constantly brewing behind his eyes, and perhaps there was because where else would all that energy and passion and exuberance come from if not from his mind? Not that any of it mattered much; his mind, his eyes, his brains. All that mattered was that he kept those bloody(sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally) bludgers away from her so she could catch that snitch.

In their fifth year, hormones raged, because at fifteen, can you really help it? Slightly above average, with her glowing blonde hair and foresty eyes and that bright white smile and perfectly developed body that she grew into over the summer and suddenly his friend, and maybe he felt a little bit more than purely platonic feelings towards her?

In their fifth year, she thought that perhaps, even for all his arrogance and prank-playing, maybe there was something to him because all her classmates and dorm mates and female house mates fawned over him and how much taller and fitter he'd become over the summer. They were suddenly friends and at this pivotal point in time, her fifteen year old self wanted to be more than friends with this enigma of a boy (Man. Almost a man). They flirted and complimented as fifteen year olds are want to do, all in the name of purely platonic physical attraction, of course.

For all their pretty thoughts and pretty words towards each other, Sirius Black and Marlene McKinnon fell in lust. Not love, not yet.

Perhaps it was because for the last five years the only thing they'd known of each other was their physical aspects. Perhaps it was because he didn't want to be tied down and she had commitment issues. Perhaps it was because it never became an issue because in between kisses-and-touches-and-no-don't-stop, the no, don't leave, never became an issue. And so Black and McKinnon continued this game of lust, and when they were left wanting for emotional things, they found someone else to pour into. But they always returned to each other. Marlene knew it wasn't normal. She saw the looks she got in the hall, the whispers that jealous, poisonous girls spread in class. What a tart!—That slag!—Tarty Marly! (not their most creative). Look at that tramp, she cheated on Connor Fraises last week, did you know? And the list went on. Her friends told her to ignore it. Easier said than done. Sirius knew it was wrong. Luckily, the world is chauvinistic, as much as we hate to admit it. Nice work with McKinnon, Black—Send her over to my bed next time then?— Congrats on having Marly and Katia this week, true to form Black. The other Marauders shook their heads, but said nothing. He was hurting her, she was helping him, and he was fine to continue this intricate dance so long as she was willing. They spent the year like this. The next as well, significant others or not, though significant probably wasn't the word. Neither one admitting that maybe just maybe they might need something more than a fuck buddy.

But then she stopped coming back to him in their seventh year. He didn't know why (He pretended not to know why), and he didn't know why he cared. She still smiled at him when she walked by, hand in hand with Will Shales, but that was all he received now. He tried not to care, and for a while, he succeeded. He pretended that he didn't see her sit with him at the Hufflepuff table, smiling and laughing and throwing her head back just so in a way that her hair caught the light and looked like liquid gold. He pretended that seeing them run drills on the Quidditch pitch together and steal kisses in between didn't bother him even a little bit. She pretended that she didn't care that he would disappear from classes and come back an hour later with messed up hair and hastily done up buttons. She pretended that if she just tried hard enough then Will would somehow be what she was looking for. If he didn't want her and only her, well she had found someone that did, slaggish past or not. He didn't know that the empty feeling he got as he stared at the ceiling of his dorm was love. She didn't know that the clawing in her heart when she realized that Will was not him was love. They had been playing this game of lust for so long that love was foreign to them.

When they were young, they realized that they were deeply in love. When they were young, Sirius walked up to Shales in the Great Hall at breakfast one fine morning and poured his bowl of oatmeal on him. Marlene slapped him before grabbing the back of his neck and kissing him fervently, because after all it had been months and she'd missed this more than anything. When they were young and in love and not caring about the war outside the walls of the castle they laid out on the grass in the sun like the couple they should have been for all those years.

When they joined the Order, they were young.

When his brother died ("died"), who was there to comfort him but the girl that had been there all along?

They had fallen in lust when they were young and fallen in love during the same.

But suddenly, they had become he, and Sirius Black wished more than anything that he could go back to that time before the Dark Mark was glowing over her otherwise perfect house, back to that perfect, too short time, when they were young.

So, what do you think? I think you should review to make sure that I come back tomorrow (: -ifsh