The last few days had really fucking sucked. His party hadn't been completely awful, really. Save for the whole run in with Potter which had lead into a huge fight with Katie. He understood that she'd gone out of her way to be pleasant at Warrington's wedding, and he completely appreciated the effort she'd put forth into doing so. And Marcus had been making efforts too. For instance, he hadn't said a bad word to Spinnet all night which was really quite impressive considering how easy of a target she was. But she was Katie's best friend and Marcus was trying. But he didn't view Harry Potter as Katie's friend. He viewed Harry Potter as the boy he was raised to hate. Harry Potter represented very few good things in his life and if Katie thought for a second that he could replace all of that with 'Harry Potter: Katie Bell's Friend', she was sorely mistaken.
Even more annoying was that she'd told him repeatedly when they first started getting involved that she didn't want him to change. At first that had been her way of saying he didn't have to be monogamous. But then she'd pretty much changed her mind about that and Marcus had stopped his involvement with other girls. Then when she said he didn't have to change, he'd assumed she meant he didn't have to turn into a fucking Hufflepuff around her friends, but clearly he either misunderstood her or she changed her mind about what she wanted yet again. Marcus knew he would never be what Katie wanted, what she deserved, and he should probably just call the whole thing off before either of them got anymore hurt than they already were. But Marcus couldn't make himself walk away from her. He knew they were bad for each other. He knew that they'd always have problems. But he wasn't prepared to let all of that destroy them just yet.
Katie had said some fairly hurtful things to him over the journals throughout the course of the evening, but he was making an attempt at just brushing them off. It wasn't anything he wasn't used to hearing at this point, but coming from her, it actually bothered him. But it wasn't like she'd said anything that wasn't at least a little true. Marcus was arrogant and sexist. He did look like a troll growing up. And he really wasn't the brightest of people, though that comment had hurt the most. But he'd be damned if he was about to let Katie fucking Bell actually hurt him with a few insults.
No matter how annoyed or hurt or angry he'd gotten, he still just wanted to be with her. At least, while she would still let him. So when she'd said he could come over, he did so in practically record time. Walking into her place, he couldn't help but pause midstep when she stood up and just...stared at him. He'd had all these plans of what to say or do when he got to her place, but looking at her just standing there like that? His mind completely blanked. He didn't know what he was going to do in the long run. This was, once again, just a tiny hurdle that they were getting past. If they made it past this, there would only be more in the future. But what he did know was that he'd do whatever he had to to keep her. Well, as long as it didn't involve being nice to Harry Potter.
He was relieved when she moved towards him and hugged him and his arms quickly wrapped around her to keep her tightly against him. He hadn't been sure what that look was she'd been giving him while she'd stared at him, but he supposed it couldn't have meant anything too awful if she was hugging him. "You know, I used to really enjoy fighting with you," he murmured against her hair before letting out a small laugh. "It's not really all that fun anymore." Sure, he still loved to bicker with her. But there was a huge difference between bickering and arguing and being in an actual fight. They always seemed to take their fights to the worst possible places.