Courting Lily

-Us and Them-

Chapter 5: Broomsticks and Brews

Leigh had left Lily in the Great Hall shortly after Dumbledore's speech with Jo and Alice, trusting that nothing disastrous would happen in her absence. She could not be bothered with her friends right now--there was important business to be done.

For as long as anyone could remember, the Gryffindor girl's dormitories had been strictly off-limits to all male students at Hogwarts. To ensure the sanctity of the room, magical trip-alarms had been placed around it, set so that, upon detecting the presence of any adolescent male, colored fireworks would immediately start exploding outside the window, and an elaborate system of alarms and bells would go off. (This system would be gradually modified over the years, but was at its peak of perfection during the Marauders' time, and for a good reason, too.)

Leigh knew of this, as in past years, Black had repeatedly attempted to enter the girl's dormitories to set another seemingly foolproof Marauder plan into place. But she knew for a fact that there wasn't any such system on the boys' dormitory--she'd already gotten in a few months ago, switching Black's shampoo with blonde hair dye. It wouldn't be hard to break in again.

Because this time, she had a better plan. And poor Black... her inner demoness cackled with glee. He was going to love it...

~*~

Sirius was oblivious. Completely intent on his newest creation, he had no attention left to spend on friends, or even girls. He had exactly one hour before the Potions master would leave the teachers' meeting, and he had to finish the brew soon, before he could be caught.

It was masterful, really. Masterful, and with a good, healthy dash of school-boy whimsy. Still frazzled over the embarassing hair-dying incident (though, admitted Sirius to himself, it really was rewarding to know that his 'fans' would love him no matter what, blonde hair or no), Sirius was out for revenge. Cat whiskers just weren't cutting it.

However, an interesting shade of fuschia just might do...

~*~

Leigh was in and out of the boys' dormitory quick as a flash, carrying the large object she'd come for tucked under one arm. It wasn't very discreet, but one had to resort to rather peculiar measures when dealing with broomsticks.

This particular one was a Cirrus 170, a state-of-art racing broom and Sirius' pride and joy. She wasn't about to take it, of course--at least, not permanently. But it never hurt for guys to have their egos deflated a little, and she couldn't think of a better way to do it than to put a certain somewhat unique charm on Black's Cirrus.

At this thought, Leigh's eyes sparkled with anticipatory laughter. She wouldn't want to miss the next Quidditch game for the world... The inner demoness smiled and agreed--yes, a broom that spewed sparkles, confetti, and the words 'here passes the broom of a blonde ferret' would fit the bill very nicely indeed.

That was when Leigh, heading down the dormitory stairs, crashed headfirst into something solid. And tall. With hair like a raven's wing.

~*~

It was done. He was all set, and with a half hour to spare! Sirius grinned and mentally patted himself on the back. This was going to be good.

He walked back to his dormitory with a smirk on his face, ready to transfer his potion to a smaller, eyedrop-like bottle that could be easily carried around for a whole day. He never expected to see Delamere coming down from -his- dormitory just then...

"L--Delamere?!" For a moment, Sirius thought he was hallucinating. Delamere, leaving the Gryffindor boys' dormitory? What kind of fate is it that makes me run into the victim, caught red-handed with a large bottle of potion on me? And Delamere, too--whatever is she doing here, carrying a br--wait a moment! That's my broomstick! (AN: congratulations, Sirius... ^.^)

Sirius immediately realized that he had the upper hand, and wasn't about to let it slide. "So, Delamere, care to tell me what you were doing in the boys' dormitory?" He grinned languidly and put just enough inflection on the words to make the pretty blonde girl turn red. "Oh, and isn't that my broomstick you have there?" He feigned surprise, opening his black eyes wide, knowing that his expression alone could've melted almost every girl in the school.

But not Delamere. Embarassed though she was, Leigh wasn't going to be caught dead swooning at Sirius. She made a wild grab for her usual icy composure and, to her own surprise, found it. "Go to hell, Black. It's waiting for you, and I'm sure there's plenty of sluts who'd love to have you there too. And it's no business of yours what I was doing in the guy's dorm, though I'm quite disappointed that you haven't guessed yet," and she glanced indicatively at the broomstick.

"Oh. Oh," laughed Sirius, eyes dancing. "That. Huh. Never would've thought that of you, Delamere," he teased, pointedly ignoring her implications about the broomstick and instead choosing to create his own. "Just goes to show how well you can know someone, huh?"

Much to his surprise, Delamere managed to reply without hesitation or blush. "You have an active imagination, Black--I'll give you that. But no," she said haughtily, though Sirius thought he could detect a glint of something else in her ice-blue eyes.

"So, Delamere--how 'bout you go to the dance with me?" drawled Sirius, blissfully unaware of what he'd just said.

Leigh turned a critical eye at him, a definite flirtatious tone to her expression now. "I don't know. Maybe I will," she replied cooly, noncomittal but appraising all the same. Just as Sirius realized what he'd done.

"Bloody gods have mercy," he murmured, eyes wide with the implications of his latest actions, completely forgetting about Delamere next to him. He fled.

~*~

"So that's that," sighed Leigh, finishing her tale to her friends. "This is why I shouldn't flirt with people..." She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, Leigh," laughed Lily, who was practically rolling on the floor in fits of giggles, "you know it's not that... just... Black..." She couldn't finish.

"No, really, Leigh," grinned Jo, "you have to have some pity for the poor guy... stuck with his archenemy, who also happens to be drop-dead gorgeous, who also happens to have died his hair blonde a few months ago..."

"..."

"Oh, come now! You know it's all true," retorted Jo, at Leigh's accusing stare. "Now, you absolutely -have- to hold him to his word, no matter who's claimed you." She laughed, brown eyes sparkling with mirth. "Gods, I'd pay such good money to see you tw--" She stuck her tongue out at Leigh, who'd thrown a pillow at her.

~*~

Heya! hope you all liked this chapter ^.^ Yeah, I know, no mention of J/L, and Sirius and Leigh are rather OOC... sorry! but i was rushing to get this one done...

I know, I'm slightly unfair to Sirius, who I really do believe is an intelligent, charming guy (though the ego still applies ^.~), but it's so much more fun to write him this way... And besides, maybe Leigh has/will have a positive influence on him, you never know ^.^

Again, BIG thanks to my super-wonderful reviewers, especially the regular ones, like firewalker, B-a-b-i, galagirl, and SnowIris... Also thanks to new reviewers Tymeless-Moment and KawaiiRyu! You guys are totally the best ^.^ Pass on the word where you can, please--I swear, I write better when I have more reviews!!! Hugs, ~CD