Sorry for the wait - school is so annoying. It always gets in the way of the more entertaining pastimes. Anyway, here's the next one. Sorry we're now behind in the events. I was planning on following our real timeline, but now everything may be late in coming. Hopefully not - I'll try.

Dedicated to: lori (who said this was "one of the better siriusoc stories" she's read. Thanks!)

Disclaimed.

On Tuesday, Laurie still felt like she was covered in food and muck, even after at least five showers. She could swear that there was a nasty invisible covering of food was still on her.

Of course, it didn't help that in herbology they were inspecting and gutting pumpkins. To Laurie, the insides of a pumpkin were disgusting and should stay inside the vegetable. But apparently they had their uses beyond food. They were apparently used in various potions, mostly to counteract another ingredient. Of course, they'd never used pumpkins in any of their potions classes so Laurie was unsure if she should believe Professor Sprout or not.

By now the professor had learned not to allow Laurie near any plants. They seemed to either wilt or attack when she touched them. So Laurie was forced to be the recorder during every assignment though she really didn't mind at all as she thought it was a silly subject anyway.

"Did you write that down?" Amber asked Laurie who was idly doodling a jack-o-lantern.

"Of course," she replied, quickly jotting down the note. "How much longer will it take you guys to disembowel the pumpkin?"

Sirius smirked from the group next to her. "Ten minutes."

"Thank goodness."

Laurie leaned against the table and drew a black cat next to her grinning pumpkin.

"Do you want to visit Hagrid to see how his giant pumpkins are doing?" Amber asked after a few minutes.

"As long as I don't have to touch them, sure," Laurie replied as the rest of the two groups agreed.

By the time class was over Laurie had scribbled all the notes and completed her Halloween scene, adding a vampire and a ghost.

They stopped by Hagrid's Hut on their way back to the castle.

"Hagrid? Are you here?" Laurie called after Amber knocked on the door. There was no reply so they made their way to the back where the pumpkin patch was.

Hagrid was bent over looking at something when the group came around.

"Goodness!" Laurie exclaimed when she saw the gigantic vegetables.

Hagrid looked up and saw the rather large group huddled around the wooden fence that surrounded his garden. "Well, 'ello! Great aren' they?"

"Quite the crop," Sirius complimented as Hagrid stood back and smiled at his patch of monstrous vegetables.

"They're amazing, Hagrid. Are they bigger than last year?" Lily asked.

"Yep!" Hagrid puffed out his chest proudly.

"When are they going to the Great Hall?" Amber asked.

"Thursday night. Should be a little bigger by then."

Laurie shook her head and gauged the pumpkins. They could probably fit three to four people inside no problem.

"It's almost like Cinderella," Laurie murmered and pictured the largest pumpkin with wheels and a door being led by four horses.

They left Hagrid to tend his prize pumpkins a few minutes later. Everyone looking forward to Halloween on Friday.

It was amazing how quickly Friday arrived. Laurie came down to the Great Hall to see the giant pumpkins glowing with candles and streamers hanging from pillars.

"Neat, huh?" Holly asked when they sat down to breakfast.

"Amazing. We don't have near the decorations Hogwarts has at the Academy."

"Just wait until the feast tonight. It will be absolutely delicious."

Laurie was looking forward to the feast but something was going on with her friends. They were obviously planning something behind her back. They were talking in whispers and abruptly stopped whenever she appeared. They looked beyond conspicuous.

However, they did get Sirius to distract her, which was a good move on their part. He was adept at distracting her. He didn't even really have to do anything. His presence was distracting enough.

Laurie couldn't think of anything useful to try and avoid him and wasn't sure she wanted to. He was always by her side, even more than usual, to prevent her from interrupting their plot.

"Who's older, you or your sister?" Sirius asked after lunch in History of Magic. when Laurie eyed Amber, Lily, and Cynthia talking quickly in whispers at another desk.

"Hmmm?" She turned to look at him, which in hindsight was a bad idea. "My sister."

Sirius's silver gaze caught her and she suddenly forgot what she was looking at before.

"By how much?"

"Two minutes?"

"Hardly anything at all," he commented as he brushed her hair back.

Laurie's eyes grew wide. "Well, um, that depends on your perspective."

"Does it?" Sirius' voice was absolutely seductive and Laurie forgot to breathe for a minute or more.

"Um, yes," she said after remembering to breathe. "If it's painful, as I'm sure childbirth is, it can last forever, but if it's enjoyable then it seems to be merely seconds."

"And what would you classify as 'enjoyable'?" Sirius leaned closer to her and his voice got deeper.

Laurie's breath hitched and her elbow slid off the edge of the table. Her heart raced at an ungodly speed. She tried to gloss over the whole elbow thing but Sirius took her hand and rubbed her arm. She wished she didn't react like that. And what was worse, Sirius knew exactly what kind of power he held over her.

"Um, I-I find a lot of things to be e-enjoyable."

Sirius smirked. "Was Sunday enjoyable?"

"Yes."

Sirius's smile grew wider. He leaned closer to her ear. "Is this enjoyable?"

"Y-yes." Laurie was becoming exceedingly wary.

Sirius continued to hold her hand and started to stroke her palm with his thumb.

"This?" he whispered.

Laurie didn't have enough air to speak, so she just gave a quick nod and looked to Professor Binns who was droning on oblivious to everything.

Sirius continued to stroke her palm throughout class. Despite half of her brain being focused on the repetitive circles of Sirius's thumb, Laurie noted that James and Remus were involved in her friends' nefarious plot as well. She was sure that Peter was helping too, but she never saw him talking to the others.

"You still with me?" Sirius asked tugging on her scarf when Laurie was still sitting in her seat.

"Yeah, of course," Laurie said and focused back on his face, which had an amused smirk.

She gave a self-deprecating smile. "I'm just curious what everyone's planning for my birthday. She raised her empty hand to stop him from interrupting. "I know it's for my birthday because they wouldn't care if I heard otherwise."

Sirius looked at her for a minute as they walked out of the classroom. "True."

Laurie smiled at his reluctant tone. "And you were recruited to keep me away from everything they're planning."

"I'll have you know I volunteered."

"Did you?" Laurie asked, extremely delighted, yet trying to hide it. She tried her hardest to suppress her smile.

"Have you gotten any presents yet?" he asked, getting off that subject.

"No, not yet."

"Did you ask for anything particular?"

"No, I mean, I asked for books, but nothing you would normally think of, like a pony."

"A pony?" Sirius asked disbelievingly.

"Yeah. A lot of kids ask for ponies for their birthday."

"Must be a muggle thing. I asked my parents for a griffin.

"Did you get it?" Laurie asked as they walked toward the Great Hall.

"No," Sirius said as he gripped her elbow to help her down the stairs. "And it wasn't because they couldn't afford it – not even close. They refused on the pretense that I would use it to run away."

"Really?"

"Mmhmm. They were right too. I would have left at the first possibility."

Laurie noticed that his facial features got sharper and his eyes harder. He apparently had a lot of family problems. She decided to take his mind off of it.

"Did you get me a present?" she asked, doing her best to be sickeningly sweet and charming; fluttering her eyelashes. This caused him to laugh at her tactic.

"Did you want me to?" he sidestepped, all darkness fleeing from his face.

"I never say no to gifts – my mom always says 'never look a gift horse in the mouth'."

"And I'll pretend to know what you're talking about."

Laurie turned to him and rolled her eyes. "You are so pathetic. Have you never even looked at a muggle?"

"I've seen them, of course," he said slightly defensive. "My family looks down upon them so I was forbidden to interact with them. Of course, I do have my few muggle objects just to annoy them."

"Have you ever been to a movie?" Laurie knew the answer but wanted to make sure she was right.

"A movie?"

Answer enough.

"You are so deprived. Someone has to remedy your total lack of understanding of muggle entertainment."

Sirius looked at her as he handed her to the floor in front of the Great Hall. He walked closer than usual by her side as they entered, keeping silent on the muggle subject.

Laurie's face was lit when she walked through the doors to the Great Hall. The floating candles were dimmed and the candles in the giant pumpkins were blazing. There were cobwebs up and the House ghosts floated through the crowd. There were also hundreds of live bats fluttering above the candles and through them.

The two made it to the Gryffindor table and sat down.

"You know, I've never met Gryffindor's ghost," Laurie remarked.

"Nearly Headless Nick? You should have met him ages ago," Holly said as she sat down on Laurie's other side.

"Yeah, I should have, but I never did," she said and then looked at the food presented on the table. "Wow."

There were loads of stuff that wasn't usually served and candy in little bowls along the table.

"I'll call Nick down so you can meet him after the feast," Sirius said as he helped himself to a baked potato.

Laurie nodded and ate a piece of perfectly cooked steak. She almost sighed at the perfection of it.

"Should I be worried about what they're planning?" Laurie asked Sirius as the meal was ending.

"No, I don't think so."

"You're not sure?"

"Should I be?"

"Will I like it?"

"Perhaps."

"You are less than helpful."

"I've fulfilled my duty then."

Laurie glared at him before he looked down the table as the food disappeared from the golden plates.

"Hey, Nick!" he yelled and then watched as the ghost floated toward him.

"Yes?" the pearlescent ghost asked causing Laurie to giggle at his tone.

"I'd like you to meet someone. This, is Laurie. Laurie, Nick."

Laurie shook her head at Sirius and stood.

Nick looked over at her and smiled. "Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, my dear, at your service." He bowed.

"Laurynce Thomas," Laurie replied and did her best curtsy. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Ah, someone with manners!" Sir Nick exclaimed. "I've found my soulmate almost three hundred years too late."

Sirius laughed. "So you're not having a death day party this year, Nick?"

"No, not this year," Sir Nick said arrogantly, giving Sirius a run for his money.

"A death day party?" Laurie asked, not sure whether or not to laugh.

"It was almost three hundred years ago today that my head was chopped almost off."

"Almost off?" Laurie was definitely confused.

"Those blackguards couldn't do anything right then. They could swing an axe, but couldn't aim. They were unsuccessful in my beheading, but quite successful in killing me."

"Oh , how awful."

"Indeed."

"Why did they kill you?"

"It was purely accident, I assure you. It was a mis-said spell or a mistake with the wand waving, but somehow I planted a tusk on a woman's face."

"Oh!" Laurie exclaimed trying not to laugh. "How horrible for you."

"Quite." Sir Nick adjusted his overly large ruff. "Well, you two best be off."

Laurie looked around and saw that the Hall was almost empty. "Well, it was a pleasure to meet you, Sir Mimsy-Porpington."

"The pleasure was all mine, my dear. And do call me Nick, I insist." He bowed again.

"Well, thank you. And you must call me Laurie, everyone does." Laurie smiled. "I'll see you later then."

She waved to Nick and walked off with Sirius looking at her strangely.

"What?" she asked when they were almost to Gryffindor Tower and he still hadn't said anything.

"I think you could charm even You-Know-Who."

Laurie looked at him.

"It's true. You're incredibly charming."

Laurie felt her blush rise again.

"Especially when you blush."

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