while some of his friends stayed at hogwarts throughout the winter holidays, marlon almost always came back home; not his step-father's house, that wasn't home to him, he went to his three younger cousins at his dad's place near broadstairs. where they had a small tree, barely reaching marlon's hip, and an even smaller pile of gifts, but that was what made it so lovely. no expensive, big presents, only personal items, given with love and thought

around that time there were a lot of music events in his area, and marlon was an absolute fanatic when it came to anything even remotely musical. whether it be ballets, operas or simple concerts, he would walk dogs and clean cars to afford a ticket and spend an evening in the opera house, all dressed up, treating himself to a good, enjoyable evening

the snowflakes slowly melted into his dreads, his golden rimmed glasses fogged by his breath. in the marble entrance hall of the theatre he took them off to wipe them on his yellow and black hufflepuff scarf, pushing them back up onto his nose with his ring finger and briefly dusting off his shoes. his shoes' heels were oddly loud against the floor when he made his way up the stairs and through the familiar halls to his seat amidst the crowd

soft, dark purple velvet brushed against his cold hands while sitting down in his assigned spot, leaning back to watch the jazz band slowly assemble on stage. he was glad that he was alone, really, and he breathed out in contentment, watching the lights dim and hearing the shuffle of feet and whispering of voices fade with them.

just as the curtain of the stage officially opened all the way, the door to his left cracked open just a tiny bit and in slipped a dark silhouette, hurrying over to him with an utterly miserable attempt to be quiet. such blasphemy, not arriving on time and disturbing the beginning of a concert, marlon thought, before you fell down next to him and the faint stage lights illuminated your beautiful features

"evening," marlon mumbled briefly yet politely