Playing Ophelia
Chapter 1: Springs
"James, I need help with your sister," Sirius said as he entered the dormitory, but he was too restless to even look up at his friends.
"I'm not helping you get laid, Pads. Especially not with my sister," James replied, a little incredulous that Sirius would even ask.
"No, not like that. I want her to go out with me. For real, this time," Sirius replied, sitting himself down on his bed facing James.
"Bullshit," James replied, staring at the Snitch in his hand as it flapped its wings wildly.
"I mean it," Sirius protested. His foot was tapping on the ground like he'd caught a nerve; his neck was tense. James looked over with a furrowed brow, waiting for his friend to elaborate. "I fucked it up, Prongs, I know. I know I did. But I've grown up, and I want her back. I need your help."
"Sirius, I can't help you. I've known her as long as you have, and you've known her better. You know how she works," James replied, sighing in resignation.
"Yeah," Sirius snorted. "She doesn't. She doesn't do feelings. She runs away from them. Oh, fuck I need a smoke." He stood with his final words, pacing the room with firm steps.
"I thought you'd given up?" Remus piped up, looking up at his friend with concern in his eyes.
"I have. That's why I fucking need one," Sirius replied, not breaking his step.
Remus just quirked an eyebrow and went back to his textbook. He knew better than to push Sirius's buttons when he was so wound up. Every spring reaches a point where the tension is too much.
Sirius stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out a ring, but he didn't put it on. Instead, he turned it over and over in his fingers, silver and green occasionally flashing through his knuckles.
Not many people knew he kept it, but his dorm mates did. They'd seen him turn it over time and time again, every time he was stressed. James thought he understood. It was a reminder. A reminder Sirius always had with him of what he got away from, the pain and the anger of a childhood stolen. A reminder of what Sirius could have been, but fought against. He took it out when he was stressed because he didn't want to end up like them, even now at seventeen, so he focused on the reminder.
"Okay, I'll try to help," James said with a sigh. Sirius immediately jumped around and sat back down, looking at James with hope. "Jesus, you remind me of me."
"Yeah, well you got the girl now, so it's my turn," Sirius replied.
"Okay, we know you wear your heart on your sleeve, and she's… the opposite. She protects herself. And you hurt her, yeah?" James began, and Sirius nodded. "So, we need to convince her you're still an option, you're still here, without saying it directly. You say it straight to her and she'll run a mile. We need to remind her gently. I think."
"No, that makes sense. You're pretty good at this, Prongs," Sirius said, flashing a smile. "Suppose you got a lot of practice in with Evans."
"Yeah, something like that."
.o0o.
"Hey, Lauren," Sirius said as the Gryffindors headed out of Transfiguration. He pushed past James and Lily to catch up at her, but she just quirked an eyebrow under her messy blonde hair.
"What do you want?" she asked, but her eyes were kind. She was starting to come back around to him, at least.
"To talk," he sighed, knowing that in itself might push her away. He looked at her hopefully before pulling his eyebrows together in confusion. "Did you wake up to late to straighten your hair or something?" he asked, noticing how closely it resembled James's when it was usually sleeker.
"Of course I did, but it's the middle of the afternoon. How on earth did you only just notice?" she asked, laughing a little.
Sirius just shrugged. "I basically only just woke up."
She shook her head and carried on walking, but she let him walk beside her.
"So, can we talk?"
"We are talking."
"Fine," he sighed, stuffing his hands in his trouser pockets. "I wanted to apologise. For… for what I did. I know it's not enough, you don't need to tell me that. But it's a start, I think. I just wanted you to know that it was shitty of me, and I know that now."
"Okay," she said, drawing the word out in her confusion. She couldn't work out where it was coming from.
"Is that an 'okay, I accept your apology', or an 'okay, it's a start'?" he asked.
"Neither. Both. Maybe," she said, grinning up at him before speeding up and walking away.
Sirius drew in a deep breath and muttered to himself, "Girls."
.o0o.
Lauren sat on her bed and sighed, knowing she should be asleep. She'd always struggled to fall asleep when everyone else did, but it didn't bother her anymore. Tonight, it was more than nature. Something was tugging at the strings in the back of her mind, jarring her thoughts and making her restless.
She peered out through her curtains, listening for the sounds of sleep, before reaching into her trunk beside her bed, digging down to the bottom. She pulled out a bottle of Ogden's finest Firewhiskey and pulled it into bed with her, drawing the curtains again. Twisting the cap, she pulled it straight to her lips and took a swig, letting the liquid burn its way down her throat with barely a grimace.
Now, she thought, now she could think about Sirius.
Something was off, she knew. It wasn't just his out-of-the-blue apology this afternoon, although that only added to her confusion. He'd been strange around her for a while now. Nice. Anyone who knew Sirius knew that nice was not a word generally applied to him, but recently he had been. He hadn't made any jokes about her bad decisions or quick temper; he hadn't compared her to James once; and he hadn't even grown unnecessarily angry or aloof with her. And this was not Sirius.
She couldn't help but wonder what sort of game he was playing, if he was even playing one. She knew she shouldn't let her heart have a say on the matter, but she knew she might not really have a choice.
It was Sirius after all.
No, she decided. She would just observe. She'd make like a Ravenclaw, for the time being, collecting statistics and readings until she came to a logical conclusion.
Besides, she had other worries. She checked her watch and noticed it was almost one o'clock. She checked the lid was on the Firewhiskey tightly and hid it under the pillow before standing and heading over to the window. She opened it a little, looking out into the night air, letting the wind catch her hair. The October chill gave her a sudden shiver, but she didn't mind it all that much.
Right on time, an owl arrived and flew softly into the window, knowing not to make a sound. The owl held its leg out dutifully for Lauren to take the note.
"Why is an owl here in the middle of the night?" a voice asked, groggy with sleep, and for a moment, Lauren's face showed sheer panic. When she turned to face Lily, she was smiling.
"They're nocturnal," she said.
Lily gave her a deadpan look. "Seriously."
Lauren sighed, heading softly back to her bed, note in hand. "Simon's got some stuff going on. He needs his little sister," she shrugged, not daring to look at her friend.
There was silence for a while, while Lily processed this.
"That wasn't Simon's owl," Lily eventually said.
Lauren turned to face her, fixing her with a friendly stare. "He got a new one."
Lily raised an eyebrow and rolled over, going back to sleep.
Lauren worried at her lip, knowing that had been a very close call. She opened the note and took the words in quickly, before placing it underneath her and attempting to sleep.
A/N: Written for the Quidditch Through The Ages Multi-Chapter Challenge at Diagon Alley. The prompt I chose for this chapter was the word, firewhiskey. At the moment, I have thirteen chapters planned, but we'll see how that goes when I actually get around to the writing side of things.
This whole collection was influenced by Emelie Autumn's song Opheliac, so I thought I should mention that.
I should also mention that I know. You get literally no back story on Lauren at all here. It's coming, I promise. Just get to know her a little bit first, and the facts will come out. It's a little difficult to include back story and information when in medias res without completely ruining the flow of the chapter, but you'll get the big stuff in chapter two :)