Siriusly Deluded

Ch. 7: Flirtations

The following week actually passed pretty quickly, which surprised Lauren. But considering the horrific amount of homework she had been assigned, as well as her patrols of the school and a prefect meeting, it made sense that the time would go by fast.

Lauren was currently walking up the stairs to the top of the astronomy tower. She hadn't spent time with Sirius for over a week, and she had really missed the bloody idiot. She was definitely looking forward to tonight.

After what seemed like forever, she finally reached the door to the observation level of the tower.

She pushed open the door and stepped outside. It took a while for her eyes to adjust.

Sirius had been up in the tower for the past twenty minutes, making sure everything was prepared. Well, there wasn't really anything to prepare, except himself, that is. Now he was staring up at the sky as he waited for Lauren to arrive.

He turned quickly as he heard a noise behind him and froze when he saw what, or more exactly who, was stepping through the door.

It was Lauren, wearing an amazing black dress. His eyes slowly began to travel down the length of her body. It had thin straps and a low, v-shaped neckline. The dressed hugged all of her curves very...nicely. At her hips, many strips of gauzy black fabric, attached to the skirt of the dress, were floating softly in the breeze. The dress was perfect, and so was she.

Lauren could finally see what was outside. Her eyes fell upon Sirius, who was standing next to one of the telescopes by the wall.

He was wearing black slacks and a blue shirt that matched the color of his eyes perfectly. She couldn't have picked a better one herself. In fact, it highlighted his eyes so much that she could see them shining from where she was standing.

Once she was able to tear her eyes away from his, she noticed that his hair was messed up, as if he had ran his hand through it. 'Out of nervousness?' she wondered. The Sirius Black she knew wasn't prone to nervousness.

Then she saw the look on his face. He looked...well, his face was a strange combination of awe, happiness, and excitement. Probably because she was pretty sure he was currently looking her up and down.

Lauren approached Sirius slowly, a smile playing at her lips. His expression was so ridiculous.

When she reached him, she said, "Imagine this. Sirius Black, speechless. I never thought I'd live to see the day..."

Sirius swallowed hard, then managed, "Wow. You. Look. Amazing."

Lauren blushed, but looked right back at him and said, "You don't look half bad yourself." Inwardly, she thought, 'I really ought to thank Madame Divine for this dress.'

"Would you care to dance?" Sirius asked as he took out his wand and pointed it at a small black box sitting on the table next to him, muttering a spell.

"Definitely," said Lauren as she stepped closer to him.

Their hands met in midair, and Sirius placed his hand on her waist. Lauren was about to rest hers on his shoulder, but before she could stop herself, she softly touched his cheek with her fingertips. Lauren closed her eyes. She had really missed him.

Sirius closed his eyes at her touch. Then he grinned as he slid his hand down to her...erm, cheek as well.

He laughed as her eyes popped open. 'His hand is on my bum!' she thought furiously.

"What do you think you're doing? Remove your hand this instant!"

"You started it. I won't move it until you're in the proper dancing position," he teased.

Lauren narrowed her eyes, thinking about giving him a slap in the face. Then she decided against it, since he would probably consider that an invitation to do the same to the place where his hand was currently resting. She moved her hand quite quickly to his shoulder and looked up at Sirius expectantly.

Sirius hesitated, but moved his hand back up to her waist, fast as lightning, once Lauren glared at him and pressed the heel of her shoe into his foot.

They started dancing across the room, moving in perfect time with the music. It was as if they had been dancing together their whole lives, which was partly true.

Soon they started talking about the balls that had perturbed Sirius so much when they were children. As much as he hated to admit it, recalling the memories had very much changed his opinion of them. 'They weren't that bad,' he speculated.

Then he felt Lauren let go of his hand. He frowned, but then smiled when she wrapped both arms around his neck and rested her head on his chest. He put his other hand on her waist, holding her as closely as possible.

Suddenly, a particularly vivid memory came to his mind. He wondered if she remembered it.

"Remember that one time when we tried to imitate the couples doing the tango?" Sirius asked, laughing.

"Yeah, I remember. You were trying to be so debonair."

"And you were trying to be sexy..."

"Er, trying?" Lauren had stopped moving.

"That's what I said, isn't it?" Sirius' eyes were twinkling. He was quite amused by her reaction to his comment.

"Are you saying that I'm not sexy?" Lauren removed her arms from around his neck and placed them indignantly on her hips.

"Maybe," Sirius said, shrugging his shoulders and trying not to laugh at her. He wanted to see where this was going. Lauren was eyeing him warily, as if she was deciding something. He heard her mutter, "Challenge..."

Sirius' eyes popped open in shock as he felt her run her hands slowly down his chest. 'Whoa,' he thought, floored.

Then he watched as she turned around, placed her palms on the outside of his thighs, and slid her body down his, moving to the beat of the music. His jaw dropped open at the contact and her forwardness.

She turned back around to face him, a triumphant gleam in her eye as she brought her hand up to close his mouth, since it was still gaping open.

At her touch, he remembered that she had said that he was trying to be debonair. Feeling he had something to prove as well, he put his arms around her waist and dipped her as low as possible, capturing her lips in a passionate kiss.

Then he felt her sliding one of her legs along the back of his right leg. He'd had enough.

He raised her back to an upright position. With his hands firmly gripping her waist, he easily picked her up and sat her on one of the many tables that stood by the telescopes.

He smiled at Lauren. The tables were tall, so now they were the same height. He kissed her again, then trailed kisses across her cheek and down to her neck. She moaned in response.

Then she leaned forward and breathed into his ear, "You're cheating. How am I supposed to be sexy when you're distracting me?"

And then, he felt her nibble on his earlobe. A shiver ran down his spine. He wanted to kiss her...NOW.

He turned his head and gave her a crushing kiss. Then he felt her tongue running along his lower lip for a split second. He tried to use his tongue to force entry into her mouth, but she wouldn't let him.

He almost growled out of frustration. He knew she wasn't going to give in. She was determined to prove something to him, and Lauren Walker never did anything halfheartedly. So he decided to return to nuzzling her neck.

Meanwhile, Lauren had started to unbutton his shirt. Apparently it was easier said than done, because it seemed that it was taking her a while.

Sirius brought his head back up. He really wanted to rip off the damn shirt himself, but he fought the urge to do so and looked at her.

Lauren was biting her lip in concentration as she fumbled with the buttons. 'Now that's sexy,' he admitted silently. He decided to wait patiently, just watching her.

When she was finally done, she raised her head and looked him in the eyes, as if asking him if it was okay. He nodded. He didn't think he had ever been more okay with anything in his whole life.

Lauren brought her hands up to Sirius' neck, then slid her hands under his shirt. She slowly peeled it off of him as she ran her hands down his arms.

"You know, Black, Quidditch has really done you good," she murmured.

He laughed, and she watched as his taut abs danced in response. She gingerly ran her fingertips over the muscles.

Then he cupped her face in his hands, kissing her softly.

Lauren figured she had proved her point by now, so when she felt his tongue running across the seam between her lips, she opened her mouth. She reveled in the feeling as he explored her mouth, then decided to take her own tour...

Sirius suddenly snapped back to reality when he noticed that his hands, which had been roaming all over Lauren for the past several minutes, were currently sliding up her thighs, pulling her dress along with them. He didn't want to stop, but...

He pulled his lips away from hers. Lauren looked back at him, confused.

He took a deep breath. "If we don't stop now, I don't know if I'll be able to later," he explained.

Her eyes opened wide in understanding. She nodded and put her arms around his neck. He reluctantly moved his hands to her waist, and lowered her from the table.

They walked hand in hand down from the tower. Neither of them said a word, as both were recalling their romantic evening.

When they reached the entrance to the Ravenclaw dormitory, Sirius slowly let go of her hand, then kissed her on the forehead.

When he looked back down at her, she was looking up at him, a questioning look on her face. He wondered what she wanted to ask him.

"I was thinking," she said, "about what you said back there, about not be able to...stop. Does that mean you haven't..."

Sirius was slightly embarrassed by this question. He knew that she had heard the rumors. However, he looked her straight in the eyes as he stated, "No, I haven't." And despite the fact that he was a seventeen year old boy, he was happy about it.

Especially when her eyes lit up at his response.

He leaned down and murmured, "Just so you know, I think you're the sexiest, most incredible woman on the planet."

She blushed and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him lightly on the cheek. Then she whispered into his ear, "I know you do."

Then she turned around and gave the password. As she walked in the entrance, she looked over her shoulder at him. He swore he saw her wink as the door closed.

He walked dazedly to the Gryffindor common room, climbed the steps, walked into the room, and collapsed onto his bed without even looking at his roommates.

He heard James ask amusedly, "Have a nice time, Padfoot?"

"You have no idea."

A few minutes later, Sirius sat up, facing James. "I--I think I'm in love with her, mate." Sirius was expecting a large outburst of laughter. His friends disappointed him though.

"Really? We couldn't tell," Remus said sarcastically from across the room.

He faced his other friend. "That obvious, huh?"

"Almost as obvious as the fact that Prongs is madly in love with Evans," Remus said, glancing over at James, who opened his mouth to retort, but closed it again (Sirius noticed he'd been doing that a lot recently).

The look on James' face made Sirius crack up. Then they all started laughing hysterically.