Siriusly Deluded

Chapter 15: Decorations

Sirius woke up the next morning feeling very stiff. He blinked, trying to remember why he was lying on the hard floor instead of a nice, soft bed. When his gaze focused on Lauren next to him, however, he smiled. His stomach growled, but he didn't want to wake her. Instead, he just lay there, playing with her hair and tracing invisible patterns on her skin with his fingers.

Lauren shivered in her sleep and burrowed her face into his shoulder. He breathed in the scent of her hair and sighed.

The door swung open, causing Sirius to raise himself up on one arm. Mr. Walker was standing in the doorway, looking none too happy.

"I think it's about time you two woke up. We have a lot of work to do today," he said quietly, but firmly.

Sirius nodded and sat up once Lauren's father turned to leave. As Edward walked into the dining room, which would serve as the main location of the Christmas Ball, he couldn't help but smile. He didn't want to like Sirius, but the way the boy had been looking at his daughter...

Sirius glanced down at Lauren, who had curled up into a ball to compensate for the lack of his warmth. He leaned down and brushed his lips against hers lightly.

She opened her eyes slowly and gazed up at him while she stretched her arms above her head.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Sirius teased softly, trying to not concentrate on how her body was...writhing.

Lauren smiled lazily and pulled herself up.

"Good morning," she finally said.

"Did you sleep well?" Sirius asked, rubbing a crick in his neck.

"Yeah, I had a good dream," Lauren replied with a small smile.

"A dream about me?" he questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Nah, that would be called a nightmare," she answered, smirking.

"Hey!" Sirius cried, giving her a hurt look.

"Of course it was about you, you prat," Lauren said as she stood up.

Sirius grabbed the blanket off the floor and stepped behind Lauren, wrapping it around her shoulders. He leaned down and whispered seductively in her ear, "And just what happened in this dream?"

Lauren felt very lucky Sirius was standing behind her and couldn't see the blush rising up her cheeks. "Maybe you can help me recreate it later," she managed to say after clearing her throat. Then she walked away, leaving a gaping Sirius in her wake.

After eating breakfast in the kitchen, Lauren and Sirius moved into the dining room where Lauren's parents and several house-elves were setting up for the ball. Instead of one huge table, there were many small round ones around the perimeter of the room. The middle of the room was empty except for a gigantic Christmas tree that towered to the ceiling.

An hour later, Sirius was standing next to Lauren, hanging ornaments on the tree as he hummed random Christmas carols. Lauren smiled as she recalled the memory of decorating the Great Hall.

Suddenly Sirius nearly shouted, "Deck the halls with boughs of--oops, sorry." He looked over at Lauren, rather embarrassed. Then he quickly bent down and started digging rather enthusiastically through a box of ornaments.

Lauren smiled, biting her lip to keep from laughing. She glanced around quickly. The house elves were shaking their heads at Sirius, slowly returning to their tasks. Lauren's parents were laughing silently. Lauren caught their eyes and gave them a look of disapproval. Edward immediately straightened, his mouth set in a firm line as he hung some tinsel. Lauren rolled her eyes exaggeratedly at her mother, who gave her husband a playful slap on the arm.

After several hours of decorating, they were finally done. They admired their work for a few minutes, relieved to be finished.

The four of them ate lunch at one of the small tables in the dining room. The Walkers thought of it as their Christmas meal, so there was plenty of food (even for Sirius). Their conversation mainly focused on school.

When Edward and Sirius were discussing flying, Lauren glanced over at her mother, gesturing at her father when she caught her eye. Maria gave a slight nod and mouthed back, "He's coming around." Lauren grinned in response.

Lauren's parents excused themselves from the table around two o'clock to get ready for their "special night." Lauren and Sirius headed upstairs together, wondering what they should do. Suddenly Sirius stopped as he thought of something. He turned to Lauren and asked her, "How did you get in my room yesterday?"

"I don't know...it just opened," she said slowly as she recalled the morning before.

"Try to open it now," he said, pulling her down the hall to the guest room he was staying in.

She took a deep breath and turned the handle, but the door wouldn't budge. She looked up at Sirius, her eyebrows knitted in confusion.

"Maybe the spell wore off overnight and my dad hadn't renewed it yet?" Lauren guessed.

Sirius shrugged his shoulders. He doubted that was the reason. There was something they weren't considering...

"I should probably do some studying," Lauren said softly.

"You want to study now?" Sirius stared incredulously.

"We do have our NEWTs in six months, you know," she reminded him.

"Six months is a long time from now," he replied. He could think of a few things he'd rather do at the moment. One in particular...

"Well, I'm having a little trouble with the last lesson in Transfiguration," she said.

"I could help you," Sirius offered with a grin. James might have top marks in that class, but Sirius wasn't that far behind.

"I'd like that," Lauren said, smiling. Then she turned and walked to her room to get her materials.

They sat on the couch in the living room as they studied, Lauren's back against the arm of the sofa and her legs draped sideways over his lap. He rested his Potions book on her legs, more to keep them from distracting him than to prevent his arms from getting tired.

"Is it dinner-time yet?" Sirius asked after a while, breaking the silence in the room.

Lauren looked at her watch. "We ate three hours ago!" she said exasperatedly.

"I have a fast metabolism," Sirius explained with a shrug.

Lauren rolled her eyes and returned to her book.

Fifteen minutes later...

"Is it dinner-time yet?"

"This is getting old. Fast."

"Fine," Sirius huffed resignedly, glancing down at his book. He grinned, an idea forming in his head.

Lauren shivered as she felt Sirius' finger lightly trace a line down her leg.

"What?" she questioned softly as she put her book on the table behind her. There was no way she could concentrate if he was going to do that.

"Well if I can't have dinner..." Sirius said slowly, lifting her legs off of him, "Can I at least have a snack?"

"I guess so," Lauren replied haltingly. For some reason she didn't think he was asking for a treacle tart...or a bone for that matter.

Sirius carefully readjusted himself on the couch, placing one knee on either side of Lauren's hips.

Lauren looked up at him and bit her lip, then closed her eyes as his face approached hers. The instant his lips touched hers, she felt herself sinking downwards, sliding off of the arm of the sofa and onto the cushion.

"So...dinner..." Lauren said after coming up for air, completely unable to form a coherent sentence.

"What's on the menu? I already know about the special," Sirius commented with an evil grin.

She ignored his comment for her sanity's sake. "Well, since my parents go out, I give the house-elves the evening off. They work really hard to get ready for the ball, and I'm not that horrible at cooking," Lauren said.

"What do you mean, 'not that horrible'?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh come off it," she said with a laugh. "You'd eat bundimun if someone told you it tasted good."

"Does it?" Sirius asked.

"Does it what?"

"Taste good."

Lauren made a face. He was hopeless. "Just like chicken," she said sarcastically, sitting up.

"Mmm, chicken," Sirius replied, his eyes closed in apparent reminiscence.

"Okay, we are eating now. I don't think I can stand anymore of your food comments." Lauren stood up and started walking out of the room.

"Fine by me," Sirius said, following behind her. It was all so easy...

"So, what do you want to eat?" Lauren asked once they were inside the huge deserted kitchen."

"Pancakes," Sirius replied immediately.

"Pancakes again?" Lauren repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day," Sirius quoted with a grin.

"Pancakes it is," Lauren said as she began to gather the ingredients.

"It's a little lumpy, don't you think?" Lauren noted, tilting her head and watching the batter they concocted drip off of a spoon.

"Er..." Sirius said, "Let's just cook them." This was definitely not going to be a Hogwarts-quality meal.

"Okay," Lauren said as she reluctantly poured some of the batter onto a hot griddle. Then she turned her attention to Sirius. He looked up from where he was drawing on the flour-coated counter, a grin forming on his face.

"What?" Lauren asked softly.

"You," Sirius replied, stepping closer to her, "have something on your face."

"I do? Where?" Lauren asked, trying to look at her reflection on a shiny pot.

He turned her face towards his. "Right here," he said, depositing a streak of flour on her cheek.

"I see," Lauren said, grabbing an egg off the counter.

"If you do that--" Sirius threatened, stopping when she smashed the egg into his chest.

"What are you gonna do about it?" Lauren asked innocently.

"You are in big trouble," Sirius replied.

"I'm scared."

"You should be."

Then he took a fistful of flour and chased her around the kitchen. Soon they were both coated in a gelatinous mixture of egg and flour.

Sirius stopped abruptly, sniffing the air. "Do you smell that?" he asked.

"Oh, no, the pancakes!" Lauren said, glancing over at the now smoking griddle.

They rushed over to the stove. Sirius picked up the handle and tilted the pan. The undersides of the pancakes were completely black.

"Even I won't eat these," he commented as he leaned over to inspect them, wrinkling his nose disapprovingly. "At least we still have more--"

He spoke too soon. Lauren had taken the bowl of batter and turned it upside down over his head.

"Oh. My. God. You did not just do that," he sputtered.

Lauren bit her lip and looked up at him, smiling guiltily. Then she decided it would be best for her to make a run for it.

He seized her waist before she could move and set her on the counter. Then he grabbed a bottle of honey. Without saying a word, he squeezed some onto his fingertips.

"That was a very naughty thing for you to do," he said huskily as he ran a finger over her lips, coating them with honey.

"Yes, yes it was," Lauren whispered before his lips were sliding across hers. She brought her hands up into his batter-covered hair, running her fingers through it.

He soon deposited the rest of the honey elsewhere: her cheek, her jaw line, her neck. And of course he took it upon himself to remove it with his mouth.

Meanwhile, Lauren was using the batter rather like gel, absentmindedly styling his hair. First she slicked it back, next she formed a Mohawk, then she settled on spiking it up.

In his enthusiasm to join her on the counter, Sirius knocked the bowl that had previously held the pancake batter onto the floor. The metallic clatter echoed through the room, snapping both of them back to reality.

"I--sticky--shower," Lauren blurted out, earning a raised eyebrow from Sirius.

He lowered her back onto the ground. They both looked around at the disaster area formerly known as the Walkers' kitchen. Lauren grimaced and reached for her wand.

"I'll take care of it," Sirius replied, his wand in-hand already, due to dueling practices, no doubt.

"Okay," Lauren said appreciatively.

"Aren't you going to eat something?" Sirius asked as she made her way out of the kitchen.

"No, I'm not really hungry. The house-elves probably left some snacks you can have," she replied from the doorway.

"Alright," Sirius said as he watched the door swing closed. Then he exhaled loudly, reaching a hand up to run it through his hair. He drew it back in disgust, however, once his fingers touched the pasty mass on top of his head.

After hurriedly making three sandwiches (two for him) and performing more than a few scouring charms, he headed upstairs. He was definitely in greater need of a shower than she had been.