Siriusly Deluded

Ch. 13: Reservations

After changing, Lauren and Sirius met at the top of the stairs once again and began to descend them side by side. He only had to reach out an arm to prevent her from falling once.

"You'd think I'd learn how to walk down the stairs at my own house without tripping," she commented with a small smile.

He grinned back at her. "Maybe someone else might...but after seventeen years, I try not to expect the impossible," he said, putting his arm loosely around her waist.

She glared up at him, but leaned into his side anyway.

They reached the door to the dining room. Lauren squeezed his hand and walked through. He paused, taking a deep breath in preparation for the inevitable questioning he was about to endure. Then he stepped inside himself, following Lauren to the other side of the room.

The Walkers were seated at the end of a ridiculously long formal dining table. A table so long, in fact, that it would probably seat all of Hogwarts, if only the houses could get along well enough to actually sit down and eat a meal at the same table. Civilly, that is. Although the resulting food-fight would probably be fun...

A house elf pulled out two chairs across from Lauren's parents. Sirius waited for Lauren to sit, and was planning on pushing her chair in for her, but he was forced into his own chair by the house elf, which was rather stronger than it looked.

Lauren nearly choked as she tried to contain her laughter. He had practically fallen on his arse in surprise.

Two more house elves entered the room. One poured ice-water into their glasses, the other brought in their food.

"How is your room?" Lauren's mother asked Sirius once everything was settled.

"Oh, it's...great," Sirius replied after receiving a kick in the foot from Lauren. What did she think he was going to say? That it was nice, but much too far away and rather inconvenient for him to be sneaking into her room in the middle of the night?

"Good," Mr. Walker said, giving Sirius an almost challenging look.

"So, Sirius what have you been up to?" Mrs. Walker asked carefully.

"Well, classes and Quidditch practices keep me pretty busy. NEWTs are coming up, so all us seventh years are getting a little nervous," he responded, glancing over at Lauren.

"And what are your plans after school? Graduation is coming up faster than you think, you know," Mr. Walker said.

"Well...uh," Sirius stammered. He really didn't know what he was going to do after graduating. He wasn't aware of any professional pranking service he could join. He was intelligent, yes, but he was more than a little on the lazy side when it came to schoolwork. He got bored easily, too...Wow, he was sounding more and more impressive by the second.

The whole time the thoughts were buzzing in Sirius' head, Mr. Walker had been eyeing him warily.

"Dad," Lauren interjected, trying to remove some of the attention from Sirius, "we still have a lot of time before we have to start working. I for one don't know what I want to do yet. It all depends on our exam results."

Sirius smiled at Lauren appreciatively. It was good to know that he wasn't the only procrastinator around. He chanced a glance at Lauren's father, who seemed to be a bit more relaxed now.

"What are you two planning on doing tomorrow?" Mrs. Walker finally asked in a bright tone.

"Well," Lauren started, glancing at Sirius. "We hadn't really discussed it yet. I have a bit more shopping to do..." she trailed off, still gazing at Sirius questioningly. She was well aware that he was not a fan of shopping.

Sirius nodded as he answered, "Sounds good to me." He needed to get a few things as well.

"Alright," Mrs. Walker said. "Tomorrow you two can shop downtown. You can take the car--"

"It's okay, mum. We can just walk," Lauren said, lightly placing a hand on Sirius knee. He nodded, a bit more emphatically than he should have...at least that's what Mr. Walker's narrowed gaze implied.

"Okay, then you can walk. Edward will be working all day. I will be in and out, doing some errands. On Christmas Eve--" Mrs. Walker stopped talking suddenly again, this time cut off by her own accord.

"Sirius, do you normally do anything special for Christmas?" she asked gently.

"Er, not really. My family isn't big on celebrating Christmas. A bit too joyous for them, I think. The Blacks rather prefer Halloween," he said, trying to joke as he stared into his lap. He was pretty sure it hadn't come out as lighthearted as he wanted. Why couldn't his family be normal?

"Okay," Mrs. Walker said slowly. "Well, on Christmas Eve, we usually spend the morning decorating the house for the ball. Then we have lunch as a family. After that, Mr. Walker and I--" she paused, smiling at her husband lovingly, "--have plans. You two are on your own. Christmas morning, we open presents, have brunch, and get ready for the ball. I trust you brought your dress robes?" she asked Sirius.

"Yes, of course," Sirius replied.

With all the business settled, and Mr. Walker's inquisition seemingly over, everyone relaxed. Lauren observed (commenting and laughing here and there, of course) the way Sirius interacted with her parents. He quickly began to joke around with them, making even the stupidest topics interesting. She loved that about him. He was extremely charming, he always knew what to do and say, but not haughtily so. She definitely had the tendency to be more than a bit uptight, and he helped her with that. Occasionally he would cover her hand with his, caressing it as Lauren's parents conversed. She tried not to smile too much when he did, but it was quite hard. Hopefully her parents thought she was thinking of one of the many funny things Sirius had said that night.

The door to the dining room swung open, and the butler appeared in the doorway. "Urgent message from the Ministry, sir," he announced, bowing low as Mr. Walker excused himself from the table.

"I'm sorry, but I have to take this," Mr. Walker said apologetically as he stood up and moved towards Lauren and Sirius.

"Goodnight, Lauren," he said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Sirius," he added with a nod as he turned to walk out the door.

"Love you, dad," Lauren called after him.

The meal practically over before Mr. Walker's departure anyway, the three remaining diners rose from their seats.

Lauren's mom looked over at Sirius. She smiled, then said, "It's good to see you again, Sirius." He knew that she was being completely genuine.

Maria tilted her head to the side, pondering something. Then she commented, "You know, Lauren never brings boys home. Actually...you were the last one."

Sirius tried not to smile in response. That was very good to know.

Lauren, meanwhile, was smiling at her mother, but her eyes flashed warningly.

That made Sirius want to smile even more.

"Well, goodnight, loves," Mrs. Walker said, pulling both Lauren and Sirius into a hug. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay, mum," Lauren replied, torn between smiling and sighing. 'Yeah, mum, tell him that I had no life while he wasn't around...'

Sirius had been watching Lauren the whole time. He was still looking down at her amusedly when she met his gaze.

"What?" she asked tersely.

"You," he said simply, "are adorable."

Lauren softened, lifting a hand to rest it on his chest.

"You," she began, "are impossible."

Sirius tilted her face towards his with one hand as he drew her body closer with the other. He nearly snatched his hands away when he heard the door swish open, but held onto her instead. He cringed, waiting for Mr. Walker to walk back in the room and catch him red-handed.

Luckily, it was just the butler, who stammered as he looked away, apologizing profusely to "Miss Walker."

"It's okay Geoffrey," Lauren said soothingly. "We were just leaving," she said, glancing quickly at Sirius, who arched a brow and bit back a smirk.

He placed a hand on Lauren's lower back, guiding her out the door and into the foyer.

Lauren immediately turned in his arms, wrapping hers around his neck and standing on her tip-toes to give him a soft kiss on the cheek.

"Goodnight," she murmured into his ear before she detached herself from him and started walking up the staircase.

'You have got to be kidding me,' Sirius thought exasperatedly before he started after her.

Thinking it best to walk up the stairs normally (even though he wanted to take them two at a time), he didn't catch up with her until they were both standing on the landing.

He looked at her, slightly out of breath. Gazing downwards out of the corner of his eye, he realized that it was quite a long set of stairs.

Lauren, almost involuntarily and certainly not gently, suddenly grabbed his sweater, pulling him along as she backed up into the hallway leading to her room. She never took her eyes off his.

Sirius didn't even realize when his pushing overcame her pulling, but it obviously had, since Lauren was currently sandwiched between him and the door to her room.

He leaned down to kiss her, but stopped as he remembered something Mrs. Walker had said.

Lauren closed her eyes as his face approached hers. She waited, then furrowed her eyebrows as she opened her eyes and looked up at him questioningly, her lips still slightly parted.

Sirius raised a hand to her face, running his thumb over her bottom lip as he asked huskily, "Couldn't find a playmate as good as me, could you?"

Lauren sucked in a deep breath once his rough fingertip touched her lips; she could only shake her head in response.

Satisfied with her answer, Sirius finally kissed her, pressing his body against hers. Suddenly realizing that it probably wasn't the most comfortable position for her, he placed a hand on the doorknob, twisting it sharply.

The door, however, did not move. He pulled away, frustrated. "Is your room locked?" he asked breathlessly.

"No," Lauren replied slowly after taking a few seconds to recover. As her brain defogged, she began to determine what was going on. Edward: 1, Sirius: 0.

"You...can't come in," she said haltingly.

Sirius pouted in response, but he knew that she wasn't the one making this particular decision.

"Okay," he said softly, giving her a deep, searching kiss before pulling away and padding down the impossibly long corridor.

Leaning her back against her door, Lauren watched his receding figure, sighing as she grabbed the handle and backed into her room.

She got ready for bed quickly. And she fell asleep in what felt like record time.

Sirius took a cold shower before pulling on a pair of flannel pajama pants and a t-shirt. Then he climbed into bed, thinking a long time about his family. But his final thought was about Lauren before he drifted off to sleep.