Black Blood
A/N: I know… it's been over a year-and-a-half since I've updated this. All I can say is I'm sorry. You can all thank a vampire named Edward for getting me to write again. After I heard Cedric Diggory would now be Edward Cullen, I felt like watching Goblet of Fire, then I wanted to read Prisoner of Azkaban, and then I started to miss Sirius. But I need you to know that I can't make ANY promises. I don't know when I'll be able to update again. Hopefully, it will be soon.
By the way, just to clear something up, nowhere in the books does it say that Sirius's middle name is Lee OR that he named his motorbike Yolanda. I was teasing you. (I was looking through some of my old reviews to decide whether I should even bother updating this or not, and a lot of people were asking "Where in the books does it say that?!" So, it doesn't say that. It was completely fabricated by me for humorous purposes.)
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Chapter 10 – Plenus Maturus
"Sirius, I have to say, you seem suspiciously cheerful today. What's the deal?" asked Lily.
She was reclining opposite Sirius on the most comfortable couch in the meeting room at Order Headquarters with both hands folded over her stomach. James sat beside her, handing his pregnant wife a heaping bowl of black cherry ice cream drenched in what looked like mayonnaise.
"No, I don't. Eat your ice cream," Sirius answered her, smirking.
Lily took the bowl from James and grinned. "Mmm, thank you, sweetheart."
James and Sirius both answered her, "You're welcome," and Sirius received a glare.
"Lily's right. You do seem rather…optimistic," James conveyed as Lily began to eat her ice cream with a spoon. "You're not even making fun of her food cravings today."
Sirius shrugged. "Well, it doesn't stop her from eating, does it?"
"No, but that hasn't stopped you from doing it the past eight months, Padfoot," James said.
"It never really bothered me. I just thought it was amusing, that's all."
"And now you don't?" Lily asked. "I'm not amusing anymore?" She pretended to pout.
He shrugged again. "Ice cream with mayo sounds pretty good to me. Maybe some barbecue sauce?"
James laughed. "Liar."
"You want some?" Lily asked, offering him a spoonful.
Sirius smirked. "Thanks, I'm good."
The door opened and a few other Order members entered. Some nodded at Sirius, James, and Lily, taking seats at various places around the room. They were all waiting for Dumbledore to arrive and the meeting to begin. Raven was fifth to enter, following Alastor Moody. She smiled as she made her way over to them and sat next to Sirius. He smirked sideways at her.
"Hello, Black," she said without looking at him.
He grinned without taking his eyes off her. "Ashe."
"How's it going today, Lily?" Raven asked, indicating the baby.
Lily sighed, but smiled. "We're hanging in there, I suppose. You?"
"I'm good," she answered.
Peter, Remus and Jordan then entered the room and sat together. Raven immediately struck up a conversation with the latter while five more minutes passed with everyone making small talk and awaiting Dumbledore's arrival.
"Peter ended up tagging along, but we had fun," Jordan was telling her when Dumbledore finally arrived, but then began conversing with Mad-Eye.
Raven smiled, then noticing that Sirius had not taken his eyes off her since she walked in, added, "Black, stop your staring at me."
"Well look at me then."
"Why?" she asked.
"Why not? Afraid you might like it too much?" Sirius teased.
She turned her head and locked eyes with him and they both slowly started to grin at one another, although Raven seemed to be trying to fight the urge.
James smirked at Lily as he noticed this and asked, "So that's why you're so disgustingly happy today? You two finally admitted you're retarded for each other?"
"Hey, I was always retarded!" Sirius exclaimed.
Raven giggled. "No argument there."
He smirked. "You know, you're a bit easier to take when I know you'd much rather be snogging me."
"Don't be so sure, Black. I might just be trying to get you in bed and see if the rumors are true," she teased.
Sirius leaned forward to answer her. "They are." He rose his eyebrows twice.
"Sure they are," she answered, looking away from him again.
"Anyhow, if I'm a retard and you're dating me, what does that make you?" Sirius asked.
Raven sighed. "An idiot."
Sirius tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear. "You think we'd be the perfect match: a retard…and an idiot."
"You'd think so," she agreed, smirking.
Dumbledore spoke before Sirius' lips could meet Raven's and the meeting began.
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Once the meeting was over and people started filing out of the room, Sirius looked to Raven once again.
"Hungry?"
"Yes, but I'm meeting Josh for lunch," Raven answered.
"Who in the bloody hell is Josh?!" demanded Sirius, suddenly outraged.
Raven giggled and kissed his cheek. "Relax, Black. I'm not cheating on you yet. He's my ex-step-cousin."
Sirius blinked. "Your… ex…step…cousin?"
"Well, my uncle married his mother and they got divorced two-and-a-half months later," explained Raven. "But Josh is more of a big brother to me since I was living with my uncle at the time."
Sirius thought for a minute before speaking. "So…you think of this Josh as a brother and you're sort of related to him so he's definitely not a threat to me?"
"…Definitely not."
Sirius grinned. "I think I'll go buy you something ridiculously expensive."
"You don't need to do that, Black."
"Well I'm going to because the last time I bought flowers, they were for a man."
"What?" Raven asked, furrowing her brow.
"Yeah, I sent flowers to the Slytherin Quidditch captain with a note that said, 'Had a great time last night. Love, Sandy,' so his girlfriend, Bree would think he was cheating on her. And then Bree dumped him very publicly right before the Quidditch final that year and we beat the shit out of the Slytherin team." Sirius sighed and forced his tone to sound disapproving of himself, although he was grinning. "I'm a bad person."
Raven laughed. "Well yeah, but at least it was a Slytherin."
"So can I come by later then?" Sirius asked.
"Okay."
Sirius kissed her goodbye and went along to Diagon Alley. The front of the Herbology shop was dense with every type of plant imaginable, from red roses that sang the latest Wizard Rock love tune to ficus trees that watered and clipped themselves. However, among all the elaborate displays of flowers and garden plants, there was no shopkeeper. Sirius browsed a few displays on his own, then, like the mischief-maker he still was, wandered into the back room marked, 'DO NOT ENTER – EXPERIMENTATION WITH UNSTABLE PLANT SUBSTANCES IN PROGRESS,' in search of the shopkeeper. This back room was much more dubious and Sirius liked it better. Low lighting made him have to squint to see where he was walking, past plants and flowers kept in glass cases, some of which were emitting colorful bursts of mist or ooze.
At the far end of the room, encased in a large, glass cube, there was a beautiful, vibrantly-colored flower. It had a purple stem coming up out of a pot of soil and supporting bright purple, orange, and red flowers. The plant seemed to be pulsating like it was drawing slow, deep breaths. Sirius stood before it, transfixed by it. The nameplate in front of the case read, Plenus Maturus. He was peering into the glass at it as he heard a noise above him; the shopkeeper lived above his store. As Sirius started at the noise, he whipped around, his robes snagging across the table, and knocked over the case, shattering it. The plant fell to its side and shivered. Sirius heard loud footsteps above him and swore. He quickly picked up the plant and placed it back on the table, but as he was so close to it, it emitted a bright yellow puff of smoke. Sirius sneezed and shook his head as he inhaled the vile smelling substance. As footsteps echoed down a set of stairs, Sirius quickly repaired the glass case, put it over the flower again, and ran from the shop, chuckling.
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"Hi."
Raven smiled after opening the door.
Sirius was leaning on the door frame and ran a hand through his hair nonchalantly as he answered her. "Sweet Merlin…" he began, looking her up and down, his eyes bugging out of his head, slightly, "you're mindbogglingly hot."
Raven blushed a little and crossed her arms in front of her. "I thought you were gonna bring me flowers."
Sirius scoffed. "Me bring a girl flowers? Please. I've never had to resort to something as desperate as that. Why start now?" He gave a fake laugh that he meant to be charming.
Raven furrowed her eyebrows. "Okay… I didn't say you had to; it was your idea, remember? But since you said you were going to, I was sort of looking forward to them, that's all."
She smiled and leaned up to peck him on the lips. Then she stepped back to let him into her house.
Sirius gave her an annoyed look and scoffed once more. "What am I, your brother?"
Stepping toward her in one fluid movement, he wrapped his arms around her waist tightly and pulled her against him. He covered her mouth with his own and wasted no time at all without the use of his tongue, placing one hand behind Raven's neck to kiss her deeply. Raven was understandably taken aback, but let out a soft moan after a few seconds and wrapped her arms around his neck. He kicked the door shut with his foot as he backed her against the wall and leaned into her, then moved his kisses down her jawline and neck. His other hand found its way under her shirt and started to creep up her side.
"I…" Raven started, then swallowed hard. "Sirius…"
"That's my name..." was his response before he moved his lips back up to hers and began kissing her now more deeply than he ever had before.
"Mmm!" Raven's hands found his chest and she pushed him back to stare at him, her lips tingling. "Black…" she had to gulp in some hair and steady herself before she continued. "I'm confused…"
Sirius smirked. "Well, allow me to un-confuse you then." He pointed to her mouth. "Those are your lips, and these are mine," he said as he leaned toward her again, but she held him back before he could do anything more than brush his lips back against hers.
"What are you doing?"
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair again, then grew a smirk. "It's called sex, Raven, remember? It's fun. We should try it." And he leaned toward her again.
"But—"
He cut her off with another fervent kiss, returning his hand to grope under her shirt, but quickly jumped back, groaning as Raven had purposefully stood on his foot and then with a few steps put her kitchen table between them.
"Okay..." She needed a few seconds to catch her breath and then continued, "so I don't know if this is like some game to you, but I expect you to mean what you say to me."
"Come on, Ashe. I've been after you for over two years and you can't even give me one decent shag?" Sirius asked, leaning against her countertop and beginning to rub his foot. "How can you tease people this way?"
She scoffed. "Why did you tell me you wanted to take things slow if you were expecting us to shag before we've even been together a week?"
Sirius laughed again. "Maybe I thought you wouldn't give it up if you knew that's all I wanted."
"Is it all you want?"
He shrugged.
"Black…" Raven sighed, "you're acting even worse than you did in school. I finally gave you a chance because I thought you were honestly different now. Two days ago you told me you weren't ready for a physical relationship yet. You said you 'don't want to fuck this one up.' You can't tell me one thing and then do the opposite!"
She sighed again as Sirius reached for her hand and pulled her back toward him. "You're so unbelievably sexy when you're angry…" he said as he brought her hand up and started to kiss her fingertips.
Raven wrenched her fingers out of his grasp. "Black, I'm not gonna have sex with you right now or anywhere in the near future, so are you gonna back off or do I have to tie you up?"
Sirius smirked suggestively, "Ooh, bondage fun!" and then started to giggle rather boyishly.
"…All right, have it your way," she replied, raising her wand.
He immediately put up his hands in surrender. "No, no, Sirius'll be a good boy!" Raven surveyed him skeptically, and then dropped her wand, although she kept a firm grip on it. "But then…what are we gonna do? I'm bored…"
"I don't know, maybe we could somehow figure out why you're acting like a sixteen year-old boy…" Raven muttered under her breath.
"Ooh!" Sirius exclaimed. "We could pull a prank on someone! Let's get Jamesy over here and Moony and—Oh, blast! He won't be any fun, it's not the full moon till next week, right?"
"Um…yeah, maybe we should get Remus to come over here…" said Raven distractedly.
Twenty minutes later, Remus walked in the door and Sirius exclaimed, "Moony! Moony, Moony, Moony, Moony, Mooooooooonyyyyyyy!"as he bounded over to him, jumping up and down.
Remus took a few steps back as Sirius charged at him in excitement and began to leap in a circle around him. Remus rose an eyebrow at him and was forced backward. He looked over Sirius and found Raven's bewildered face.
"…Has he ingested several tons of sugar recently?"
"I have no idea what he's on; he was like that when he got here…" Raven responded, looking at Remus with worry etched clearly on her face.
"Hey Moonpie!" shouted Sirius, "how far have you gotten with Jordi?"
Completely ignoring Sirius and stepping around him, Remus addressed Raven. "What kinds of things has he been doing?"
"Well, he basically just came on to me really strong after we'd just discussed the other day that it'd be best if we waited awhile before we did anything like that…"
As Remus began pacing the room, Sirius followed behind him, keeping up a constant chorus of "Mooner, did you get her in bed yet?", "Come ooooooon, you can tell your old buddy Padfoot!", and "Moooonyyyyy, was she any good?"
Remus continued as though he could not hear what Sirius was saying, although he couldn't help catching certain phrases with the way Sirius was growing louder and louder. "Where did you go after the meeting?"
"Well, I went out to lunch with Josh; he said he was going to meet me here later."
Remus turned to face Sirius. "Padfoot, where'd you go after the Order meeting today?"
Sirius grinned. "She was rubbish, wasn't she?"
"Dammit, Sirius, would you please stay out of my love life!" said Remus, his jaw tensing. "It's none of your business! Where did you go after the meeting?"
Sirius smirked. "Answer the question and I'll tell you."
Remus looked suddenly quite angry, so Raven stepped forward. "Sirius, do you remember what happened to you or not? We're trying to help you!"
"Help me?!" exclaimed Sirius, glaring at Raven. "YOU won't help me; YOU refused to help me."
"I refused to sleep with you! That wouldn't help you right now, trust me!"
He was by her side in less than a second, caressing her cheek with his hand. His voice was velvety when he spoke. "Yes it would... You have no idea how much I want you…" His face inched down, closer to hers as he ran his thumb along her bottom lip.
Raven turned crimson and met eyes unwillingly with Remus, who looked away out of courtesy. Sirius quickly took hold of her face with his other hand and turned it back towards him.
"Don't worry about him, this is your house. He can leave..." Sirius shot Remus a nasty glare.
"Not until we find out what's wrong with you," Remus answered.
"THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH ME, REMUS!" yelled Sirius
"Sirius," Raven now turned his face back to hers, struck with a sudden inspiration, "if you tell us what we need to know, you can…I don't know, go through my skivvy drawer or something?"
The corners of his mouth began to turn upward into a mischievous grin. "Deal. What do you want to know?"
Remus answered him. "What did you do right after the meeting?"
Sirius sighed. "I went to that Herbologist shop in Diagon Alley, I guess."
"Did you buy anything?"
He started to laugh, "No, I had to run out 'cause I tipped over this plant thing and the glass broke!" More bark-like laughter filled the room as Remus and Raven exchanged looks.
"What happened after that?" Raven asked.
"If I brought you flowers, would you have slept with me?" Sirius asked, smirking sexily at her.
"No. What happened after that?" Sirius made an exasperated moan, like he was tired of answering pointless questions. Raven rose her eyebrows at him. "Answer the question or the knicker-viewing party will be cancelled."
Sirius's grin fell off his face and he crooned, "Nooooo."
"Then tell us."
He sighed impatiently again. "Then I went over to see if Prongs wanted to put a hex on Snivelly's house or something, but he wasn't home, so I came over here."
"Anything else?" Raven asked.
He hesitated and then lowered his voice so it was barely audible. "Yeah, I gotta tell you something… Come here…" Raven furrowed her brows and leaned in toward him. Sirius leaned down, too, like he was going to whisper something to her and then his arms were around her, and he was kissing her deeply again.
"Mmm!" was all Raven could get out again until she could push him away. "Sirius, this is serious…"
Sirius immediately began to giggle uncontrollably and fell onto the couch as his hysterical laughter grew in volume.
Raven and Remus met eyes across the room, and Remus voiced what Raven was thinking. "So, I'll head over to the Herbologist's and ask if there would be any sort of plant…substance that'd make Sirius act like a fifteen-year-old girl?"
"Basically," Raven agreed.
"You think you'll be able to handle him while I'm gone?"
"If all else fails, I'll tie him up. He seemed quite excited by that idea before you got here." Raven rolled her eyes.
Remus held up a hand. "I don't want to know. I would suggest getting his wand away from him and hiding it, though."
She nodded. "Good idea. Hurry back."
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A/N: I was originally planning on resolving in the same chapter, but I decided it was getting long enough and I was eager to update. So I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I hope I will be able to update again soon. If you find it in your heart to leave me a review, it'll help to know that there are still people interested in this story after such a long time. Thanks.