Siriusly Deluded

Ch. 8: Distractions

Weeks later, Lauren was walking around the Hogwarts grounds very early in the morning. She had tried to sleep, but just kept on waking up every few hours. Even counting hippogriffs in her head didn't work. So she had pulled on a cloak over her light dressing robe and her pajamas and went outside, hoping to clear her head. She was quite lucky that it was a really warm day for late October.

Lauren's thoughts immediately concentrated on Sirius when she caught sight of the lake glimmering softly in the faint light.

He had been missing the whole weekend. For a second she wondered if he was with some girl, living up to his reputation. Then she shook her head. She knew he'd never do that to her.

She paced a little more, walking close to the Forbidden Forest. She was about to turn around to walk the other way when something caught her eye.

There, among the trees, two glittering eyes were staring back at her. She blinked, shaking her head. When she looked back at the trees, the eyes weren't there anymore.

Instead, a huge black creature was bounding straight towards her. Lauren froze on the spot. She scolded herself to move, but she couldn't. All she could do was squeeze her eyes shut, waiting to be mauled.

She was winded as she was knocked to the ground. Once she caught her breath, she opened her mouth to scream, but she stopped the sound when she realized that the animal wasn't attacking her. Rather, it was...licking her? She opened her eyes slowly. Instead of what she had assumed to be a large black dog, Sirius was staring back at her, grinning madly.

"Sirius, what the hell are you doing?" she asked loudly.

"What? Didn't I tell you I was an Animagus?" he asked with mock surprise. He looked down at her. 'She looks really cute when she's angry,' he noted.

"You're a what?" she practically yelled.

"It means I can--"

"I know what it means, you git. You scared me half to death," Lauren said, much softer this time.

Sirius gave a weak grin as he moved a stray strand of hair off of her face, supporting himself with one arm. The fact that he was on top of her was definitely not lost on him.

Lauren's angry expression faded away almost immediately. "I always knew you were a dog," she said finally.

Then he leaned down to kiss her.

From the second their lips touched, Sirius resolved to snog her until neither one of them remembered their names.

Let's just say that...Sirius Black (that was his name, right?) usually accomplished whatever he put his mind to.

This was no exception.

When they broke apart, Lauren moved to roll off of Sirius. However, he held onto her tightly. Instead, she wriggled down a little bit and rested her head on his chest. She finally felt like she might be able to get some sleep. She listened to Sirius' heartbeat return to a normal pace and reveled in the feeling of him drawing circles on her back with his fingertips until she drifted off.

Sirius was quite tired from his weekend adventures, and after a while, he fell asleep as well.

When Lauren woke up around noon, she lay there for a while, listening to steady rhythm of Sirius' heartbeat. Soon she started thinking about what had happened earlier that morning. She wondered what had made Sirius want to put in all the effort she knew it took to become an Animagus. She resolved to ask him, just once. If he didn't want to answer her, that was fine. She didn't need (and maybe didn't want) to know everything about his life.

After a couple minutes, Sirius stirred beneath her. "Good morning," Lauren said softly. He wrapped his arms around her, sitting up with Lauren in his lap.

"I missed you," he murmured sleepily.

Lauren smiled, but then looked at him resolutely as she said, "Sirius, could I ask you something?"

He nodded, too tired to joke around.

"Well, I was wondering why you became an Animagus. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," she added quickly.

Sirius looked at her, all signs of weariness gone from his eyes as he answered, "I do want to tell you, Lauren, but it involves more than just us. It's complicated."

Lauren nodded as she said firmly, "I understand. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"I knew you wouldn't."

Sirius smiled at her as he lifted her off of him and pulled himself up. He offered his hands to her, and she took them. He pulled her up from the ground and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

"So what do you want to do today?" he asked as they started walking back towards the school.

"Actually, I have quite a bit of studying to do," Lauren replied. "You want to come to the library with me?"

"Er, the library?" Sirius asked doubtfully.

"You do know where it is, right?" Lauren joked.

"Of course I do. It's..." Sirius trailed off as he decided he should stop pretending he knew where it was. Remus had been in charge of the library portion of the Marauder's Map. It wasn't exactly somewhere that Sirius found exciting.

Lauren laughed and said, "Come on."

After stopping at their respective dormitories to pick up their study materials (and a few times in the hallways for stolen kisses) the pair started towards the library. The closer they got to it, the more disoriented Sirius appeared.

When Lauren stopped in front of a large door, Sirius jumped in front of her, grabbing the handle to open it for her. She smiled as she walked through, leading the way to the flobberworm section.

Sirius looked around, impressed and overwhelmed at the size of the room. As it was a Saturday afternoon, few people were in the library. None of the people who were there bothered to look up as they passed by.

Lauren looked at him with amusement. "I can't believe you've never been here before. How do you get such high marks?" she marveled.

"I have my ways," Sirius replied with a smirk. Lauren raised an eyebrow.

"Actually, I just borrow the books from Remus," he said seriously.

Lauren laughed quietly, stopping in front of her table. Sirius put their bags down and sat, pulling a chair out for her.

Lauren took her seat, and started pulling her notes out of her bag. Sirius, however, wasn't making any attempt to take out his stuff, she noticed. She could feel his eyes watching her.

Sirius watched as Lauren settled herself, getting all of her papers and quills out. He didn't think it possible that a girl could be sexy while studying, but it was happening right before his very eyes. He reached his hand towards her chair.

Lauren felt his hand on her leg, sliding up and down her thigh. She gasped quietly, dropping the quill she had just picked up.

She turned to look at Sirius, planning on reminding him that they were in a library.

That thought flew out of her head immediately, because Sirius had already leaned forward in his chair. His lips brushed against hers gently.

It's needless to say that not much studying occurred in the library that day....