Siriusly Deluded

Ch. 11: Dispositions

Lauren let out a huge breath of relief as she shoved her trunk closed and locked it. She had been packing her belongings for Christmas Break for the past hour. It was weird. She made a checklist of all the things she needed to bring a week in advance, but waited until the last minute to actually gather it. 'Well,' she thought, 'I still have forty-five minutes until I'm supposed to meet Sirius.'

She turned around and observed her roommates. Robin, their resident gossiper and fan-girl, was staying over the holidays. She was currently perusing a teen fashion magazine. 'Big surprise there,' Lauren thought. Alison, a bookish girl with long mousy brown hair, was also staying. She was reading too, but something much more substantial than the latest issue of "Young and Magical"--Hogwarts, A History, in fact. Rowan was going home, but she lived in Edinburgh, so she couldn't go to the Walker's ball. She was unsuccessfully trying to close the lid of her trunk. Lauren walked over to her. "Need some help?" she asked, smiling up at the girl. "Sure," Rowan said, shaking her head regretfully. "I always seem to pack too much." Lauren and Rowan struggled with the overstuffed trunk for a few minutes, but finally managed to cram it shut.

"You ready Lauren?" Karen called from the doorway. "Have a good holiday," Lauren said as she hugged Rowan goodbye before turning to face her friend. She pulled out her wand and, pointing it at her trunk, said, "Locomotor Trunk." Then the two of them headed down the stairs, trunks in tow as they talked about their plans for the holidays. As they were boarding the train, Lauren asked Karen, "You're still coming to the ball, right?" Her friend wasn't exactly the girly-girl type. Karen rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'm coming," she said with a sigh of resignation. "But, you don't mind if I sit in a different compartment, do you? You and Sirius are bad enough, but watching Potter and Evans, too? I'd hate to ruin the romantic mood by retching all over everyone," she said with a smirk. Lauren slapped her playfully on the arm, but said "Were not that bad, are we?" "Oh, no. Not at all," Karen replied as she walked away.

Up in the seventh year boys' dormitory in Gryffindor tower, all hell was breaking loose. Peter, who was not going home over the break, was sleeping, his loud snores muffled by the pile of clothes that were covering him. Remus was amusedly watching James and Sirius chase each other around the...space that they had the nerves to call a bedroom. Clothes were strewn about. Pillows were on the floor. A picture of Lily Evans was stuck to the ceiling...

"Sirius, I told you to get it off!" James said menacingly as he lunged towards his friend.

"Come on, Prongs. It was distracting you from packing. Besides, it's not my fault that you can't remember the counter-spell," Sirius gasped out as he dodged James' catapulting body. Luckily James had jumped over a bed to get to Sirius. He landed on it forcefully, letting out a large "oof" as he hit the mattress.

"I am gonna kill you for this!" James bellowed as he pulled himself up and straightened his more than slightly askew glasses.

Meanwhile, Sirius had run towards Remus' bed, hoping for some protection. Remus wasn't very keen on getting hit with one of James' nasty hexes. He was still tired out from the full moon last week, too.

"I don't think so, Padfoot," he said as he pushed Sirius off his bed. He had already packed, unlike his unnaturally energetic friends. He glanced down at his watch. They only had fifteen minutes until the Hogwarts Express departed. However, he knew that James and Sirius wouldn't care about time limitations, so Remus used a different approach. "Besides, aren't you supposed to be meeting Lauren soon? You too, James. Lily is waiting," he said with a teasing tone.

He choked back a laugh at his friends' reactions. They had both frozen mid-step, eyes wide in realization.

Sirius rushed over to his trunk, hurling it open. He started picking up the mass of stuff surrounding his bed, not really bothering to see what he was throwing in his trunk. He picked up a shirt and shoved it in, sniffing before he closed the trunk. He made a face. It was definitely not clean. But he didn't really have the time to care.

Meanwhile, James was doing the same, not even realizing what he was doing until he nearly tried to stuff Peter into his trunk.

Five minutes later, the boys were heading out the door, James and Sirius leading the way. Suddenly James stopped, causing Sirius to run into him. Luckily, Remus was able to halt in time. Otherwise, the two boys in front of him, who were already threatening to topple down the staircase, would have suffered a nasty and embarrassing fall into the very public Gryffindor common room. "What is it, James?" he asked patiently from behind. They really needed to hurry if they were going to board the train on time. "My picture!" he whined. "Oh, Merlin," Sirius said as he pushed past Remus to get back into the room and perform the counter-spell. "You'd swear that it was the real thing, the way he acts," he muttered under his breath as he walked down the stairs to hand it to a huffy James. Remus just shook his head.

The boys practically ran through the hallways of the school. Fortunately, they knew all the necessary shortcuts, and were able to make it to the last carriage to Hogsmeade. They arrived at the train mere seconds before the doors shut, the whistle blew, and it sped off towards London.

Sirius stopped in front of the door to the compartment the Marauders had claimed since their first year attending Hogwarts. He smiled as he noticed Lauren reading the Daily Prophet, sitting in his usual seat. He was about to grasp the door handle when James shoved right past him, clamoring to sit next to Lily. "Merlin, Prongs! You trying to kill me or what?" he said exasperatedly, remembering the threat his friend had yelled at him as he had so gracefully slammed into the mattress of Sirius' bed. James acted as if he didn't even hear his comment... and maybe he really didn't, since he seemed much too wrapped up in Lily to notice anything else.

Sirius smiled as he walked over to sit next to Lauren, who was still raptly reading the front page of the newspaper. He leaned over her shoulder to see what she was reading. Judging by the look on her face, it was neither trivial nor good news. The headline read, "More Mysterious Disappearances Baffle the Wizarding World."

Lauren tried not to pay attention to Sirius' warm breath rushing past her ear. He was making it so difficult to concentrate. She sighed as she hurried to finish the disconcerting article.

Sirius scanned over the paper. He was slightly surprised. These disappearances were certainly news to him. He was not one to keep up with current affairs. He had enough to keep him busy at school. Between Lauren, classes, pranking, Lauren, full moons, Quidditch, maybe a little homework, did he mention Lauren? he had his plate quite full. Not that that was unusual, either. He was definitely known for consuming unnatural amounts of food. Remus swore he had a hollow leg...or had he said head? Ah, well.

Lauren carefully folded the newspaper before tucking it in between the wall and the seat. She looked out the window at the snow covered country-side. It was quite beautiful, she admitted. She hated the bitter cold of winter, but the scenery was nice. She shivered at the mere thought of the temperature outside.

Sirius noticed her shiver. He hoped she wasn't scared by that article. He instinctively put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him.

Lauren turned to look up at him. She smiled. "Well, hello," she said softly.

"Hey...sexymuffin," he replied. Lauren gaped in disbelief. Did he really just say that to her? Sirius was supposed to have a way with the ladies, not the, er...pastries.

Remus snorted from beside Sirius. "Nice one, Padfoot. Sorry, Lauren, but I think he's a little preoccupied from missing out on the mountain of food he likes to call breakfast."

Lauren tried her hardest not to laugh, but tears were collected in the corner of her eyes. Sirius shot her an embarrassed look. He could not believe he'd just said that to her. She just couldn't hold it in anymore. She burst out laughing. Remus quickly joined in.

After a while, they both settled down. Sirius was staring at the floor, apparently very interested in a little piece of thread on the carpet. He didn't know why he was embarrassed. Everyone knew he ate a lot. And Sirius Black knew no shame. But with Lauren...He could have died when his stomach emitted a very audible growl, redeeming another fit of laughter from Remus.

Lauren reached up her hand from where it had been clutching her side and lifted up his chin. "It's okay," she said soothingly, "When they bring the cart around, I'll understand if you want to leave me for some delicious baked goods."

Remus started laughing on the other side of Sirius once again. 'Here we go again,' Sirius thought. Was he ever going to hear the end of this? He was delighted when Remus quickly shut up.

He leaned over and murmured in Lauren's ear, "Actually, I think you look quite scrumptious yourself." Then he moved in to kiss her.

This time Remus made a gagging noise beside him. 'Damn Moony and his stupid werewolf senses!' Sirius fumed inwardly as he pulled back.

Lauren sighed. She had never seen them so riled up. But then, she had never ridden on the train home with them, either. She leaned her head against Sirius' shoulder, her eyelids already drooping shut.

Lauren hadn't even realized she was asleep when she felt someone stroking her cheek lightly. She quickly opened her eyes. When everything came into focus, she was staring at Sirius, who was smiling down at her.

"You ready?" he said.

"Of course," she replied happily. She turned to James, Lily, and Remus.

"See you on Christmas Day," she said cheerfully. They were all invited to the ball. This was going to be the best Christmas ever.

Sirius tried to hide the fact that he was insanely nervous about staying at the Walkers'. Yeah, he had known her parents back before attending Hogwarts. They had seemed to like him enough. But still, it didn't make the whole meet-the-parents ordeal any less daunting. He'd never been in a serious relationship before, so this would be a whole new experience.

Lauren noticed that Sirius was unusually quiet as they disembarked from the train. She had a pretty good idea what he was thinking about. She placed her hand in his, squeezing it gently as she said, "Don't worry. They already love you."

Sirius smiled. Maybe it wasn't going to be that bad...