Sirius
"Right, Lily. Where the hell are we supposed to see her?" Sirius asked impatiently. He craned his neck, looking through several groups of people in his attempt to find a dark-haired woman on her own.
"We're almost there. Calm yourself," Lily answered, with annoying serenity. "You must really fancy her, Siri."
"Nah. She just seems slightly interesting, is all," he retorted. "Maybe I shouldn't bother, though." Though he was typically confident around members of the opposite sex, to the point of appearing arrogant at times, Sirius was now struck with uncertainty. Regardless of their original meeting, where he had already inflicted an imperius curse on her, and obliviated her, Sirius had never tried to chat up a muggle before, and she was American, after all. He'd met plenty of those already, in the guise of foreign witches on holiday. Mostly they seemed really … noisy, he thought, and too forward for his taste. Though, he allowed, they had been traveling together, practically in packs, and perhaps they might not be quite so obnoxious if he'd gotten to know any on an individual basis. But perhaps meeting this muggle Laura person properly wasn't such a good idea, after all. There were plenty of things he would never be able to tell her, if they even made it past a first date.
Just then, James put an arm around Lily, and kissed her cheek while they walked. Sirius shot him an envious glance, and decided he was being a ninny. What could it hurt to ask her out? Assuming she actually showed up.
As soon as the trio had found and claimed an empty park bench, James pulled a quaffle out of Lily's handbag, which he had enchanted to be shrunken during storage. He motioned for Sirius to be on the receiving end of a game of catch. They tossed it a few times, though Sirius was so distracted, craning his neck to see if Laura had arrived, that he almost got whacked in the head twice. Finally they took a break and returned to Lily.
"Okay, I don't see her anywhere. Are you sure you told her the right place?" James asked, while Sirius silently wondered the same thing.
"There she is," Lily said, in reply. She put a book down and pointed toward a woman wearing large aviator sunglasses, who had just settled herself down on the grass, close to the water. The three of them watched her organize her things around her; a notebook and biro, and a few loose sheets. She mostly seemed to be looking around at her surroundings, though it was hard to tell exactly what she watched behind the dark glasses.
"Go on, then, Siri. Talk to her."
James almost blindsided Sirius with a quaffle, though he managed to catch it in time. "I'm betting Padfoot won't do it, Lils. He just wasted half our day and will chicken out, I predict." He grinned at his wife. "What do you think, Sirius? Is she not pretty enough?"
Sirius threw the quaffle back with such force that it knocked James down. "What's predictable is your goading. I think she's exceedingly pretty, for your information. What's it worth to you, Prongs?"
"Please," James said, groaning as he stood back up. "If you can summon up enough courage to ask our little Muggle friend over there out, I'll buy your next two pints. Hurry it up, though. I'm only giving you five more minutes to act." He returned the quaffle with enough force to make Sirius wince when it slapped his palm.
"It's a deal, if you'll stop trying to kill me with this thing."
#
"Hello! Mind if I join you for a minute?" Sirius, having re-gathered his nerve, towered over Laura. She was chewing on the end of the biro, and looked up in surprise to see the tall, handsome young man in a t-shirt and jeans she had just been admiring, standing right in front of her. She noticed, fleetingly, that a large gold phoenix decorated the otherwise plain heather gray shirt.
"Yeah, sure." She rearranged the loose items, which he noticed were staff paper with musical notes written on them longhand, and shoved them back in her bag. Then, taking her glasses off, she smiled at him.
"What are you studying?" he asked. He took the opportunity to examine her while she was distracted for a moment, looking down at her notebook. She was the same as he remembered from Diagon Alley, only now she was dressed a bit more casually, in faded jeans and a gauzy top, with leather thong sandals on her feet. Large gold hoop earrings were visible, and her goldy-brown hair was tucked behind her ears and slung up on the back of her head in a loose bun.
She noticed him watching. "Working on my thesis in musicology … in other words, really boring stuff." She wanted to tell him that any thoughts of an actual doctorate were flying out the window these days, but she hated to appear such a deadbeat to a handsome guy who had dropped out of the heavens, practically right in her lap.
Sirius sat down beside her and glanced at a page of handwritten notes. "Nah. That sounds interesting! What, in particular?"
"Keith Emerson. Keyboardist for Emerson, Lake and Palmer, y'know?"
He nodded. "Really! How cool. I never was a huge fan of theirs, but he's an amazing musician. I take it you play the piano?"
"I do, for several years now. I'm really suffering, though. Not a piano in sight around here, and my place is too small to buy one. And yourself?" She propped herself up on an elbow, apparently encouraged by the continuation of small talk.
"My, er, mum made me take lessons for a while. Then I suppose she realized I was a lost cause and had mercy on me. I leave that to the professionals like Emerson … and yourself," he added politely. It might be a cold day in Hades before he would tell her more about his mother. "By the way, my name is Sirius Black. And you?"
She considered that. "Like the star?"
"Got it in one! Most people think I'm telling them I have no sense of humor," he said, with a lopsided grin. He glanced over at James and Lily, who had been watching them both. The pair quickly averted their eyes, and his smile grew broader. He was glad he had come over here, after all.
"I like it," she said, and Sirius looked back to study her some more. "It's a beautiful name … very unusual. Mine is much more mundane. Laura Ketron."
"Well, I think it's very pretty. What kind of name is Ketron?"
She wrinkled her nose, trying to figure out an explanation. "It's a bastardization of a German name, Kettenring. I guess my ancestors got too lazy to spell it the long way after they went over to America."
"Well, I had noticed the accent," he said. He stretched out on the grass, belly side down, and rested his head on his hands. "So where are you from?"
"Just west of here. Tennessee," Laura said, smiling once more. "That's where the majority of them settled."
"Ah. Elvis-land?"
"Actually, no. The other side of the state. And you are from London?"
He nodded, making his chin slide against his wrist. "Yes. I have a house here, but I keep thinking I'd like to move somewhere more … quiet. Be nice to live closer to my mate James and his wife," he added with a nod in their direction. "So … are you dating anyone?"
Laura had wondered if he might ask her that question, but she was secretly thrilled at the words anyway. "No, I'm not."
"I might not be so blunt, but my friends and I have a meeting this afternoon, unfortunately, so I'll have to leave in a few." Sirius had all but forgotten the Order meeting scheduled at Marlene McKinnon's flat, and wished he had already made an excuse not to come. But James evidently realized the conflict at the same time. He held up his watch and tapped it, looking apologetic. "I suppose I've interrupted your work enough for now."
She sat up straight. "Not at all. I've enjoyed talking to you!"
"Would you like to have dinner with me?" Now Sirius sat up. He hoped he wasn't too forward, but Lily had assured him at the restaurant the previous night that he couldn't possibly be.
"Yeah!" Laura answered quickly, and then she flushed at her rapid response. "That would be lovely. When did you have in mind?"
"Well, I know it's a weeknight, but how about tomorrow?"
She beamed. "Sounds like a good way to start the week. Did you want to meet somewhere?"
"Well, we could meet, or I could pick you up if you like." Since I already know where you live. "It's up to you." He didn't want her to feel uncomfortable.
She considered that briefly, but said, "You can pick me up if you want."
"Brilliant! Oh, where do you live?"
She told him, with a curious look when he didn't copy the directions down.
"I'll remember it," Sirius assured her. "See you tomorrow evening."
He rejoined his friends and, with a wave back in Laura's direction, they walked off. She watched them leave, wondering how on earth she had managed such good fortune.
#
The next evening, Laura and Sirius lounged on blankets in Hyde Park, sipping wine and talking about their favorite bands. A small fire blazed close by, keeping them warm.
"Aren't you worried about getting in trouble, setting a fire here?" Laura asked. She looked around nervously, as if a policeman was going to burst onto the scene with handcuffs and haul them off.
"Aw, no. Nobody's going to bother us. So, tell me something else about yourself, since we've got music covered? What made you want to come to England?"
Laura dipped a piece of bread in olive oil and took a bite. "Well," she said, after some consideration, "I really just wanted to get away. I'll probably never finish the doctorate. I don't really care, though. Is that horrible or what?" She gave him a lopsided grin.
"Not at all. What do you want to do?"
"Travel, for now. My grandmother left me some money, and, well, I hate to blow it all, but I should be able to do that for a while, before having to deal with a full time job and everything."
Sirius poured some more wine. "What about your family?"
"That's a big reason I left." Laura hadn't planned on telling him anything about that situation, but she had a feeling he wouldn't judge her. As long as she left off the mind stuff, of course. "I didn't get along with my parents. I was very close to my grandmother, but then she died. My mother does whatever my father wants. And he's … hard to deal with. Probably more information than you wanted." She laughed.
Sirius surprised her by putting his glass down and taking her hand. "I'm sorry. I seem to have the same problem, only it's my mum who's so unbearable. Dad does whatever she says. I moved out ages ago, actually." There. He would go into no more detail about those two, though.
Laura sat up, keeping her hand in his. It was warm, and his fingers curled around hers. "When did you move out?" she asked.
"I was sixteen."
"Sixteen? How old are you now?"
"Seventeen."
"What?"
Sirius burst into laughter at her expression. "No, I'm twenty," he said, once he had recovered enough.
"Oh. I'm twenty-one. So did you have a place to go?"
He smiled. "Oh, yeah. My mate James has a great family. I lived with them during summers, when we weren't in school. They were better parents than my own ever were. And, like you, I had a family member, an uncle, who died and left me quite a bit of gold."
"Gold? Wow."
"I mean, um, money. Gold is, y'know, slang for British pounds." He mentally smacked himself on the head for that faux-pas.
"Oh. Hadn't heard that one."
Sirius quickly changed the subject. "So Laura, where have you been in England? Traveling, I mean."
She shrugged. "Oh, just wherever I can take a train. I don't have a car here. I miss it, a little. But it's not like America. Trains run everywhere here, seems like, so it's not a big deal. Anyway, I went up to Scotland, to the Highlands. And I've probably seen every tourist site in London. Haven't been to too many other places in England yet."
"Well, maybe I'll just show you some before long. How does that sound?" He gave her a sly grin, the one that females always ate up.
"I would like that very much." Laura looked down, suddenly shy. She wasn't any kind of expert at flirting, and consequently never seemed to land the guys she was attracted to. Sirius seemed different, though. He still held her hand, and she grew bold enough to move her thumb in lazy circles on his palm. He looked into her eyes, and Laura had the curious urge to peek inside him, just for a second. He would never suspect anything. She stared into the gray depths, entranced by the reflection of firelight that danced within them.
Sirius was rather hypnotized by the same thing. Her eyes were golden, and seemed to spark, as if the flames had ignited them.
"What are you doing?" he whispered. He felt something stir, as if she were probing inside his head. It felt good, in an odd way. No one had used legilimency on him in ages. Wait, how did she do that? Could muggles do it?
"Nothing!" she exclaimed, too hastily. "I was just looking at you. Sorry." Fuck, she had gone and ruined everything.
But Sirius seemed to be angry at himself for destroying the moment. She could do that to him all day, if she liked. "Please, don't be. I didn't mean for you to stop."
The moment had passed, however, but at least Laura had thought of something else to say. "Oh yeah. So what was the deal you made with your friend yesterday?"
Friend? He had completely forgotten about James and Lily. "Hmmm … oh, I just told James I thought you were …" Exceedingly pretty, was that what he had said? " … the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, and he dared me to ask you on a date. He seemed to think I might chicken out. Proved him wrong, though!" He stopped for a moment. "Okay, I really told him you were exceedingly pretty. But I was really thinking the other thing. And I already knew I was going to ask you out. But there's nothing wrong with wringing a couple of free pints out of the little skinflint in the process."
She laughed at that, and they began to talk about school, and Sirius's friends, the married couple. By now, the fire had almost extinguished itself, and Laura watched the dying embers, wishing she had the nerve to make it start up once more. Sirius saw her looking down at it, and watched her more closely. He wanted to feel the heat of her gaze on him again, feel her inside him, meandering through his mind. If she really were a legilimens, he would let her look wherever she wanted.
Laura wouldn't quite meet his eyes, though; only fleetingly did she flicker her own in his direction with a polite smile. She was too afraid he would realize what she had done, and how strange she really was. No way would she ever appear anything other than an ordinary woman. Well hopefully, extraordinary enough that he would want to keep going out. But aside from that….
"Ready to go?" Sirius's voice cut into her thoughts.
"Sure."
"Just leave all this stuff. I'll come back for it," he said.
Laura laughed. "No way. I'll help you clear it up."
"Okay. Thanks." Sirius had every intention of making it all disappear, once she was far enough away and couldn't see, but he probably ought to do things the muggle way, for her. "Bike didn't bother you on the way over, did it?"
"Absolutely not." Wrapping her arms around his waist had been a real high point, actually. She couldn't wait to do it again.
They left and wound their way through London side streets, with Laura holding on tightly, resting her cheek against his back. Even though she suspected he had taken a more circuitous route than he needed to, they still arrived at her flat too quickly for her taste.
"Come inside?" she asked.
"I'd love to." Sirius walked her to the door, leaning against the wall and watching her as she unlocked it. She opened it and they walked in.
"Would you like something to drink? I can make some tea, though I won't guarantee it'll taste good." She pulled a face, but didn't say more. He didn't need to know about her lack of culinary skills this early on.
Sirius grinned. "Well, thank you, but it's late, and I should be going. I had a wonderful time with you, though."
Laura nodded. "Me, too."
"Think you could stand to do it again?"
"Absolutely. I'd love to."
Sirius pulled her closer, forcing her to look into his eyes. He searched them, as if he might find the same spark he had seen earlier. "Is it all right if I give you a chaste goodnight kiss?"
"Does it have to be chaste?" she whispered, and he laughed.
"Not at all." He brushed his lips to hers, slowly exploring the feel of them before letting it deepen. Laura pressed herself against him when he encircled her with his arms, and wound her fingers through his hair. Once they broke apart, she looked into his eyes again. Something about the deep gray irises made plumbing their depths very easy – perhaps it was only because they were nearly black in the dim light – and she caught a glimpse of a few things before pulling away. It wasn't right to do that to him, even if he seemed turned on by it.
"I guess I'd better go," he said. "How would Friday night be, say, six-ish?"
"Perfect."
Sirius smiled. "I'll pick you up then. Goodnight." And with another kiss that threatened to be even more passionate than the last, he reluctantly drew away from her and walked to the door. Laura followed him.
"Goodnight, Sirius."
He left, and she closed the door, leaning against it for a minute until she heard him drive off. She had seen a few things, all right, but she wasn't sure they made sense. There was an image of him, sitting in front of her in a dim, smelly bar, asking her questions. And another … he was worried about someone. Maybe not worried, actually. More like anxious, distrustful, maybe sad. Then, still another thing. He had met someone he could really care for.
#
The next morning, Laura woke up to the memory of their kisses. She rolled over, clutching a down pillow to her chest in an attempt to recreate how it felt to hold on to Sirius on the motorcycle. Four days until Friday. She thought about calling him, and then realized she didn't have a phone number. In fact, she had no way of getting in touch with him, whatsoever. Doubt began to seep into the spaces that had only just been so confident last night. What if he didn't show up? Would he be one of those guys who pretended interest, and just moved on with no further word?
She pushed the pillow away and got up, determined not to ruin the beautiful date with silly worries. Padding into the kitchen to make coffee, she thought she heard a small noise at the door. Probably the neighbor's cat. She ignored it, but it kept on; a soft scratching, as if one little claw was doing the job all by itself. Laura went to the door and opened it. Nobody was there. But something at the bottom moved, and she looked down. A small brown owl sat on her welcome mat, holding a rose in its beak.
"What the hell?" She laughed out loud at such an anomaly, but knelt down to it. The owl's eyes didn't blink as it set the flower down on the ground. Then it promptly flew off, leaving another gift of owl droppings. Wrinkling her nose, Laura watched it go, feeling stunned that any owl might be tame enough to let a person that close. Much less holding a large red rose in its mouth.
She picked it up, carefully avoiding the owl poop. A small sheet of thick yellow paper was wrapped around the stem, held by a ribbon. Unraveling it, Laura loosened the note and read it in the doorway.
You are exceedingly pretty, Ms. Ketron, and I like you. Or, if I may be so bold, you are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. To paraphrase the Beatles, you are going to be in my dreams tonight (Ten points if you can tell me which song that's from). I have a feeling you'll get it. I'm looking forward to seeing you again Friday night.
Sirius
Laura closed the door and sniffed the rose, inhaling its delicate scent. Friday couldn't come fast enough now. She set it in a small vase, filled it with water, and turned toward the tiny kitchen table. Salt and pepper shakers were the only thing on its surface, and she decided to replace them with the rose. Holding her hand out, she waited on the salt to come to her. It did, and she set it down. She repeated the motion, catching the pepper shaker as it slapped her palm. Then, taking the vase in her hand, she put it down in the middle of the table and stood back, admiring it. Watching the flower, in full sweet bloom, made the decision for her. That crazy part of her, the unexplained weirdness that made her an outcast, was finished for good.