Siriusly Deluded

Ch. 2: Research

An hour later, Lauren accompanied Karen, another seventh year Ravenclaw and her best friend at Hogwarts, to the library. Karen, who was still taking History of Magic (exactly why the girl would want to put herself through the torture, Lauren couldn't begin to fathom), had been assigned a particularly nasty essay about the goblin rebellions. Lauren decided to start researching for the written portion of the dreaded Muggle Studies project.

Lauren was about to complain about being partnered with Sirius Black for about the fiftieth time since they had met in the dorm, but Karen gave her a withering look, and stated sharply, "If you say another word about your project, I am going to hex you into next week."

Lauren stopped in the hallway, contemplating. 'At least I wouldn't have to go fishing tomorrow morning with him.' Then she shook her head, knowing she'd have to do it eventually. 'Yes,' she decided, 'it's definitely better to get it over with.'

Karen had stopped as well, and was staring as Lauren deliberated in her mind. There was a gleam in her eyes, and a slight smirk on her face.

"Sorry," Lauren mumbled and started down the hallway again. Soon they reached the library, and Lauren pulled the door open and let herself in, holding it open with her arm to allow her friend through.

They chose their usual table in the far right corner of the library. It was perfect for studying, since very few people ever wanted to check out anything from the nearby flobberworm section.

Lauren walked slowly to the muggle section of the library. She glanced over the titles, then a book titled "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Fishing" caught her eye. She gingerly picked it up, not wanting to admit she knew absolutely nothing about fishing, especially as the term "idiot" was so insulting. 'But,' she thought wickedly, 'it does describe one of us' as she gathered it into her arms along with a few nearby volumes and carried it back to the table.

Lauren had been bent over the books reading for about an hour when she realized she was getting a crick in the back of her neck. Suddenly her thoughts jumped to Sirius. She angrily wondered why she was in the library on a Friday night, researching for their project, while he was probably in a broom closet with that Hufflepuff girl, researching her tonsils.

She shook her head, trying to remove that searing image from her mind. She really didn't want to ponder why she was so affected by it.

Lauren decided it was best to keep her mind on the project. Basically, she had read a lot of information about equipment she didn't even know if Hogwart's had. And she really didn't feel like buying any for the stupid project anyway. She did, however, learn that fish usually came to the surface in the early morning, so that would probably be the best chance to try to catch one.

Lauren rolled her eyes, still not believing the ridiculous assignment. It was bad enough that muggles thought that this activity was enjoyable. Now she had to endure it with Sirius.

She looked over at her friend, who was chewing the end of her sugar quill thoughtfully. "Hey, Karen," Lauren whispered, "I have to go to the owlery. You wanna come with me?"

Karen looked back at Lauren, looking a little more than slightly annoyed. Then her expression changed. "What, sending an owl to your new boyfriend?" she teased.

Lauren was surprised to feel her face flush at the question. "Of course not," she stammered. "I just have to inform him about when we are going to fulfill the requirements of our project," she finished, trying to make the whole ordeal seem as professional as possible.

"You go ahead. I still have a couple centimeters left," Karen said. Lauren frowned, wishing that Karen would wipe the smirk off her face already.

She sighed, picked up the books to place on the reshelving cart, then walked out of the library, heading for the owlery.

It took her a little longer than usual, considering she had to break up a duel in the hallway between some third year Gryffindors and Slytherins and an overly-friendly couple she found hiding behind some drapes.

Nevertheless, Lauren finally reached the owlery. "Sugar," she called out. A beautiful brown barn owl flew down from a high perch and landed on her arm. She petted the owl for a while, then gave it a bit of cracker she had saved from lunch.

Lauren sighed again, not wanting to write a letter to Sirius. Merlin, she didn't even know how to start it! What was she going to say, "Dear Sirius?" Please! Frustrated, she thought about it a few minutes more, then decided what to write (thinking that omitting the greeting was probably the best way to go):

I did a little research in the library this afternoon.

She didn't want him to think that she had absolutely no life, even if it was true.

I know that we were supposed to meet later in the day, but the books said that the
fish bite early in the morning. I have a lot of other assignments coming up, so I'd
really like to get this over with. So, could you meet me at 6 a.m. by the lake tomorrow?

-Lauren

She wrote "Sirius Black" on the outside of it, and reluctantly tied the letter to Sugar's leg, then watched as he flew into the air, climbing higher and higher until he was a tiny speck in the sky.

Then she headed down to dinner in the Great Hall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later that night, Sirius sighed as he approached the entrance hall to meet Sara Barnes for the date they had arranged while the rest of the members of their Muggle Studies class were drawing numbers. But he felt like something was wrong, monumentally wrong. What was he doing going on a date with Barnes for?

'Besides the fact that she's hot, not to mention crazy about you?' he reminded himself. After all, she was perfectly fine until he had been partnered with none other than Lauren Walker for their little project.

Of all the girls in the school, she was the only one who could ever, ever make him regret the way he had been acting during his magical "education." Sure, he had three of the best friends in the world, he would never deny that. Considering the fact that he had kind of been thrown into a friendship with his three fellow seventh year Gryffindors, they were better friends than he could have ever asked for.

But sometimes he thought that they humored him a little (or a lot) more than was good for him. For instance, playing pranks on his favorite greasy-haired Slytherin or dating a new girl every week (or day).

Then again, he couldn't help it if Snivellus was annoying, and he certainly couldn't help it if every girl in the school threw themselves at him, could he?

Well, every girl except Lauren Walker. 'As if I want her to.' Wait a minute! Was he kidding? Of course he wanted her to. She was the most perfect girl he had ever known, and that was why he knew he didn't have a snowball's chance in hell with her. A girl like her would never go for a guy who had snogged every somewhat attractive girl in the school. A girl like her would never admire a guy who made fun of others at every possible opportunity just to make him feel better about himself.

He maybe, just maybe had a chance with her before they went to Hogwarts. Before that, she was easily his best friend. That probably explained the immense change in his behavior once he befriended the rest of the Marauders, but that was another story. He vividly remembered the dreadful experiences of attending those stupid balls. Well, dreadful except for one thing, the presence of Lauren Walker.

She knew he hated it, and he knew that she liked that he hated it. Therefore, he liked teasing her by stepping on her feet. She had shot him venomous glares every time, but looking back on it now, she had never agreed to dance with any other boy. That meant something, didn't it?! He was caught in a whirlwind of thought about a girl he had avoided thinking about for the past seven years and frankly, he wasn't all that happy when he was interrupted by a painfully wannabe-seductive voice saying,

"Hello, gorgeous."

"Oh, hey, Sara," he replied distractedly. She frowned. He noticed. 'Oh, nice one, Sirius,' he thought to himself. He instantly turned his trademark charm up a notch. "Well, darling, shall we be going," he asked as he held out his arm to her. He grimaced as she latched herself onto his arm, a little too eagerly, it seemed to him.

A few hours later, Sirius and Sara were having a major snog session in a broom closet near the entrance to the Quidditch pitch. Not surprisingly, he was distracted. Nor was it surprising just what (or rather, who) it was that was so distracting. Sara, like every other girl he had dated, had thrown herself at him in the middle of the hallway. Half out of embarrassment, and half scared that a particular Ravenclaw prefect would catch them, he had led her to this closet. Sara seemed impressed by his actions, as if it was a romantic setting or something. He rather agreed with the other Marauders, who were constantly calling him a "dog." 'Well, that's for more than one reason,' he told himself as he felt Sara's fingers entwining into his hair.

He tried to put other thoughts out of his mind, but he was completely unsuccessful. Sara noticed of course, and pouted as he led her back to the entrance of the Hufflepuff common room. "You could have come in, you know...if things had gone better..." she said, apparently still trying to grab his attention with her offer. He knew better, though. He had never slept with a girl at Hogwarts. He, of all people, didn't mind having a little fun with the girls, but he'd never done that. He was sure that most of the people at the school thought differently though. That was his reputation after all, and he hadn't done anything to stop the rumors from flying. It just seemed...wrong. Not that he didn't want to sleep with a girl; he was a teenager with raging hormones. But that was just the problem, he realized at that very instant. He wanted to sleep with a girl, a certain girl in particular.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled to the blonde, who looked severely offended and stood there with her mouth hanging open as he turned and walked down the corridor, through the portrait to the Gryffindor common room, up the stairs, into his dormitory, and collapsed onto his bed, deep in thought.

The other Marauders raised their eyebrows at each other, but decided that it probably wasn't the best time to interrupt their uncharacteristically pensive friend.

Suddenly, there was a tap on the window. A small brown barn owl was standing on the narrow ledge, a letter tied to its leg.

James suggested that Peter go retrieve it, and the boy seemed all too eager to do so. He opened the window and removed the piece of parchment.

"Who's it for?" James called lazily.

"Well, I think it's for Padfoot," Peter said slowly and meekly. He didn't think that Sirius was in a good mood right now, and didn't exactly want to be the bearer of bad news.

Sirius, however, bolted up at the mention of his nickname. He grabbed the letter out of Peter's hands rather roughly. He read it quickly, then let out a sharp breath before he dropped back down onto his bed. Sirius wasn't exactly someone you could call a morning person.

James, who was always quite fond of reading Sirius' fan-mail (the stupid poems and gushy love letters were usually very entertaining), came over and grabbed the letter from his hands.

Sirius didn't even try to prevent him from taking it and running to the center of the room. He grimaced as James read it aloud to the Remus and Peter.

Peter was looking oddly excited by the whole ordeal, but Remus was looking disapprovingly at James, who was less and less animatedly reading the contents.

When James finished reading, he looked rather disappointed. He was hoping for a good laugh to cheer him up. He wasn't feeling so good since Lily Evans had yet again turned him down for a date.

He did decide, however, to point out the line about "getting it over with." It was pretty amusing, considering the way girls normally acted around his best friend.

"So, Sirius, finally found a girl who could resist your charms?" James asked, half-laughing.

Sirius didn't look very happy about the comment, and didn't bother answering James. The immaturity of his friends, which usually didn't surpass his own, was really annoying him at the moment.

James decided to shut his mouth. He and the other Marauders left the room, muttering something about wizard's chess that Sirius vaguely heard.

Sirius finally had the room all to himself, but it didn't feel as good as he had hoped it would.