Bedlam and Broomsticks
A/N: Sorry this took forever, I had to unpack and finish homework. But you don't care, so I'll just let you get on with it, Enjoy!
Fall Backs and Friends Forever
Izzy woke drowsily, eyes fluttering open as she surveyed a room that was most certainly not her bedroom. She let go of her tight grip on the warm metal of a dirty fork, red crumbs indicating that she had fallen asleep over her cherry pie last night. She was right, as she turned her head, her hair sliding off her face, and saw an empty pie dish on the couch next to her. The room was on an angle, and her eyes felt blurry as they always did when she had a late night.
Even in her haze, she managed to wish, please let Sirius have gotten up and gone to bed before I fell asleep. But she knew it was a pipe dream as she became aware of a heartbeat thrumming beneath her ear. Sure enough, as she splayed her hand out, she realised they had both stretched out on the couch last night, and fallen asleep, Izzy draped across Sirius' chest.
Dear God.
Izzy slowly lifted her head and looked up at Sirius. He was awake, hair mussed, eyes surveying her with something akin to…care, in his eyes?
Sirius was caught out. They'd both fallen asleep last night, yet he had woken up much earlier than Izzy, yet been content to let her snooze on his chest as he watched her sleep. She wasn't particularly cute in her sleep; she talked, dribbled a little bit, and her hair kept whacking him in the face, but he kind of liked it. It was Izzy, after all, no matter what she did or looked like. And that's when he almost had heart failure.
Sirius Black, liking a girl not because of what she looked like? Sirius Black, too afraid to tell said girl the truth? What was this? Being in Muggle London had clearly shifted them to some sort of parallel universe or dimension? Because Sirius didn't get scared. And, he didn't fancy one girl at any time, he fancied all girls, all the time. That was what made him such a stud.
Yet as Izzy eyes searched his, he knew that she had realised something was up. "Hi," He croaked, voice a bit shaky. "I was, well, I just woke up … and I wanted to let you sleep for a while longer."
Izzy quickly jumped to a sitting position, realising that she was still spread all over Sirius like Marlene the Slag. "Sorry." She said quietly, her hair a curtain between them as she stared fixedly at the coffee table. She twisted her fork between her hands and looked back at Sirius.
He smiled shyly, and they both decided that when they weren't making fun of each other, they really didn't have much to say that wasn't off limits to the supposed One Girl Who Wasn't Going To Date Sirius, and Sirius: The More Than One Girl Stud.
"It's fine," Sirius said awkwardly, rubbing his hands together as he leant forward on the threadbare lumpy couch.
Izzy looked over at him and sighed. "Oh God."
"What?"
She began to pat at his white T-shirt,. Which had a massive red stain on it. "Sorry, I did that." She held up her fork.
"It's alright," Sirius said laughingly. "My wife's amazing at washing laundry."
Izzy smiled but beckoned for him to take the shirt off. Surprisingly, Sirius made no comment about the whole taking the shirt off thing. In fact, both were rather quiet.
Izzy walked around the corner and dropped the shirt into the washing machine and shrugged as she looked at all the different washing powders or bottles there were sitting on the shelf. She shrugged, grabbed one and squirted a copious amount of liquid into the washer.
She poked her head back into the kitchen after she was done, seeing a shirtless Sirius scraping the last skerricks of cherry pie out of the dish. "Sirius?"
He looked back guiltily. "Yeah?"
"It's noon. We slept really late and we're meeting the others at 1 p.m."
"Sure. I'll get ready, and you know … shirt up." He laughed awkwardly as he headed into the spare bedroom and shut the door softly behind him.
Izzy put her head into her hands before finger combing her hair out. Oh God. They'd just slept together on the couch, she told herself. It didn't mean anything. It shouldn't mean anything. But then why did she feel so awkward?
She pulled on a black dress with a floral pattern, struggled into her tights, spread her hair over her shoulders, and shoved some money into her bra before grabbing her lace up boots and skipping out into the kitchen where the telephone trilled shrilly throughout the house. When Izzy entered the kitchen, Sirius held the phone out to her. "For you."
Izzy jumped up to it on the bench and cautiously took the phone. "Hello?"
"Izzy!"
"Hey Lily, what's up?" Izzy motioned to Sirius to hand her the cherry pie dish as she scraped her finger around and licked the crumbs off delicately.
Sirius almost growled. Dear Lord did the girl have no idea what she was doing to him? She was so ignorant.
Lily sighed over the phone. "The good news is, I'm not with Alan Green anymore."
"Yayface, who are you with?"
A voice in the background sounded excited. "Is that Is-A-Bella?"
"James," Izzy burst out laughing when she heard her name pronounced in three distinct syllables. "Your husband is James?"
"Not funny!"
Izzy could almost picture Lily stamping her foot. "It is a little," Izzy giggled.
"No it's not. Marlene complained to Tubby so we got swapped." Izzy sighed at the injustice of it all. When Sirius had wanted to swap he'd said no, why Marlene? Maybe because he knew they'd just shag the entire three weeks, Izzy thought spitefully.
"Poor thing." Izzy held in her laughter and mouthed, James and Lily to Sirius, who was leaning on the bench next to her.
Sirius quietly laughed himself silly and Izzy held her hand over her ear to hear Lily speak. "...Hyde Park?" Lily finished, from what she could hear.
"Sure." Izzy agreed. "Do you want us to bring anything?"
Lily sighed. "I have lunch worked out but maybe …"
"Cherry pie?" Izzy asked excitedly.
"If you want." Lily said. "I'm going to kill him," she added in an undertone.
"Don't kill him Lil, we need him to win us the cup."
"Goodbye Isabella."
"Love ya!"
Izzy grabbed the keys and motioned for Sirius to go out the door before her. "We need to buy cherry pie," she told him.
"And use the lifts!" He said excitedly, bouncing over to push the button.
Izzy bought the cherry pie, and a quaint little basket for it to sit in as they rode the underground all the way to Hyde Park.
When they walked through the grass to where their group was sitting Izzy sighed deeply as she saw Remus and Mary sitting in each other's' arms. "What?" Sirius asked, lopping his arm through her's as she carried the basket on her arm.
"I want, this is going to sound so stupid."
"What?"
"I want to have what Remus and Mary have," She blurted out quickly, mentally kicking herself.
"What do they have?"
Izzy whacked him on the arm. "You know, look at them!"
Remus fed Mary a piece of apple, and they laughed, leaning in close, resting on the picnic blanket. Sirius saw what she meant. "You'll get it." He told her softly.
"I won't," Izzy said with clarity. "My only boyfriend has been Alan. I just, I just know that I won't." Because I'm in love with you, Izzy silently added to herself.
Sirius patted her gently on the arm.
"And what if I grow up and never get married?"
Sirius had no idea what had brought on this crisis, but he smiled and said firmly, "Alright, how about, if neither of us is married by the time we're 40, we get married?"
"A fall back marriage?" Izzy asked lightly.
"Yeah, sorta."
"Well, Sirius, I'm honoured, though your proposal needs a little work."
He chuckled as they reached the group. "Where have you been?" Alice asked as she hugged Izzy and waved at Sirius.
"Organising our fall back marriage plans," Sirius said without missing a beat.
"Think of this as a trial period," Izzy told him, winking as she sat on the picnic blanket. "Look, we brought cherry pie!"
Sirius shared a look with her as they handed around cherry pie and they settled in with the people they wanted to know forever. Lily immediately freaked. "No, no, I have sandwiches, pie is for after!"
Alice just grinned and dug into her pie, laughing at something Frank whispered to her. Remus and Mary were still being cutesy, and Peter and James were sitting together in the corner.
After the group had stuffed themselves, Izzy looked around at them. "I know we're not perfect," she started. "Sirius is a slut, James and Lily hate each other, and Alice is just weird."
"Hey!" Alice protested.
"But," Izzy sighed, "I want to know you guys forever."
"Aw," James and Sirius hugged her from either side.
Izzy surveyed the nine of them. "No, I'm serious. When we live in the city when we're older I want us to get together and do things like this all the time. We have to stay friends."
"Group hug!" James announced, his eyes mysteriously misty.
The nine teenagers huddled in, laughing as Sirius sighed, "Aw. Perfect snuggle moment."
Izzy poked him in the side. "Shush, don't ruin it."
"Sorry."
"It works better if you're silent."
"It works better if you're silent."
"Guys, shut up." Mary sighed.
After they stayed and chatted until it was nearly dark, Izzy and Sirius headed back to their apartment. Sirius fidgeted awkwardly in the lift, unable to enjoy it. "So, Iz, I was thinking, can I ask you something?"
"Sure," Izzy answered as they left the lift and entered their apartment, flipping lights on as they went.
Sirius fidgeted as he stood in the lounge as Izzy shed her coat. "So, I was thinking, even though we're each other's fall back marriages and all…?"
"Yeah," Izzy said as she left the room to go and check on Sirius' stained shirt.
"Maybe we could …" Sirius raised his voice until Izzy came back into the room and his voice trailed off into oblivion as he looked at her standing in the doorway, eyes wide.
She was covered in soap suds, hair wet, hands held up, almost as if in surrender. "We have a problem."
He nearly asked her out! *gasp* Reviews please!