Talking with Sirius

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters. They are the property of JK Rowling. I only own the new OC's which appear in the following chapters.

Monday evening Harry, intent on visiting Hagrid, asked Hermione, Lorena and Ron if they would go. After all, Hermione and Ron were just as good friends with Hagrid as Harry himself was.

'Ah, I think I'll give it a miss.' Lorena said, 'I have that Potions essay and I still have to go find Vector to get my Arithmancy homework… And possibly punishment for skiving class.'

'Well, I told you I wouldn't be able to make it sound convincing.' Hermione said as Lorena smiled, honestly not minding what Vector would do, after all, her conversation with Harry had put her in a very good mood. Despite what she said to him, she had to admit that maybe there was the slightest possibility that she did fancy him. He did have the rebellious thing about him that she liked.

Harry, Ron and Hermione took this opportunity without Lorena to talk about her. Well, mainly Ron did. On their walk down Hermione informed them that Lorena was very clever, she just seemed to not bother too much about school… The only subject she badly need help in was Arithmancy. Ron insisted that the cleverer she was, the more dangerous she could possibly be.

'What do you think Harry?' Hermione asked, hoping for some back up.

'I asked her to go out with me.'

'What in the name of Merlins pants is wrong with you?' Ron growled. 'First of all, would it kill you to not have a girlfriend for a while? And secondly, maybe she will kill you if you go out with her. I bet she's dangerous…' But even Harry could tell that Ron no longer believed his death eater theory.

'Will you please not go off her in a few days?' Hermione pleaded, 'I love having a girl to talk to. If you mess things up with her she won't hang around anymore.'

'Of course I won't. Its not like we're going out now even. She's trying to make me wait as long as possible.'

The evening was mild. So mild that they left the castle without cloaks. All they wore were their uniforms. A familiar voice greeted them at the door of Hagrid's hut.

'I'm comin'. 'Old yer 'orses.' Hagrid opened the door and looked down at the trio, slightly surprised, but happy. 'You three! Didn't think you'd ever be around again!'

He stepped back to let them in. Fang, Hagrid's huge dog, bounded forward and jumped on Ron, slobbering all down his front. Harry and Hermione sat down at Hagrid's table, closely followed by Ron who had finally got away from Fang. Hagrid filled out four large mugs of tea.

'I heard Sirius' niece is here. Met her yet?'

'Yea, that was the blonde girl you saw with me on the first night.'

'A blonde girl? Blimey.' Hagrid murmured, 'Not what I expected. Half Spanish, didn't think her mothers hair would be something she'd inherit.'

'Apparently it's a pureblood thing.' Hermione said, 'Like the Malfoy's.'

'Aye, that'd be right so it would.'

Hagrid let out a grunt of a laugh, which startled Ron so much that he spilled some of his tea, hastily mopping it up with his sleeve.

'Knew her mother.' Hagrid chuckled, 'She tagged after Sirius and your parents all the time. The two were inseparable really. Sirius loved Sophie…'

'Ron reckons she's dodgy.' Hermione piped up.

Again Hagrid let out a chuckle, 'Nah, she's her mothers daughter. A Gryffindor. No need to fear her. Heard that brother of hers went to Slytherin. If you have to hunt anyone, hunt him. The other girl went to Ravenclaw, right?'

'Yea… Pretty messed up family.' Ron said quietly.

'Well, they're half Black Ron. There'd be a good few black sheep in that family. Sirius, Sophie, Andromeda, There was another uncle of Sirius'… What's her name?'

'Lorena.'

'Thought she'd be named after Sophie.'

'She looks just like her.' Harry said.

'How would you know?' Ron asked sharply.

'We looked at a photo album belonging to Sirius during the summer.' Harry explained, 'They're exactly alike.'

'Never did like that husband of hers. Heard bad things about him. Diego Valdez Flores. Big shot, with a big fancy name to match.' Hagrid said gruffly, 'Ruined her life. So Sirius was always raving… Bring her down to see me sometime. I'd love to chat.'

'Oh, Harry will,' Ron said with an indignant tone, 'He fancies her. And Hermione is her new best friend. So she'll be with us all the time.'

'Ron you really need to get over Lorena.' Harry said, 'And she has me passing Potions.'

They kept silent for a few moments, until Hagrid made another loud outburst which startled all three this time.

'An' listen 'ere you two.' He nodded to Harry and Hermione, 'Why 'avn't you been to my classes?'

'Oh…' Hermione looked to Harry with a guilty look on her face, 'We have Potions instead, We're really sorry Hagrid.'

'Couldn't believe it so I couldn't. My first class after the summer, and Ron was the only one there.'

'Surely there are other people-'

'Yer, yer there are o' course. But you two. I thought you'd be there.' Hagrid raised himself from his seat and went over to get the teapot again, 'Ah well, never mind.'

'How's Madame Maxime, Hagrid?' Hermione asked, trying to steer the conversation away from how they didn't keep on Care Of Magical Creatures.

'Ah, she's fine. We're not seeing as much of each other as we used to. She's a busy lady you know,' Hagrid sighed, 'She is running one of the best schools in Europe… And I have things to be doing too.'

The three made it back to the Gryffindor common room while it was still bright out, and found a large group of people to still be in the common room, Lorena still by the fire, writing feverishly.

'I thought you said the deadline for that was next week?' Ron asked, looking over her potions essay.

She looked up at him like he was slightly mad, 'Yea… I did. So?'

'So… Why are you writing so fast?'

'Some people are naturally able to write… Fast, sorry.' Lorena turned from Ron and looked at Harry, 'Sirius wrote. It's there on the table. He'll be in the fire tonight, if you want to wait around for him.

'Sure.'

Harry told Lorena of Hagrid after Ron and Hermione had bade them goodnight. Lorena was seated in the armchair left of the fire with her legs up on the coffee table. As Harry was lying down on his stomach on the couch, he got a clear view of her shoes. She was wearing black converse and they were ripped in many places. He noticed a bit of writing on the inside of her left one. She was still reading over her potions essay, and Harry thought she looked so cute when she was concentrating. She hummed a song to herself, which Harry recognised as the Metallica song Orion.

'Hagrid was talking about your mother.'

'Hmm.'

'You don't care?'

'Sorry Harry, but not really. I'm not in the mood to talk about my mother…' She was no longer reading over her essay. Her eyes just remained stationary, fixed on the page.

'Do you miss Spain? Or Durmstrang?'

Lorena let out a chuckle. 'Yea… I do.' She shrugged and threw her essay on the ground on top of her Potions books, 'I always wanted to be here… But, it's not as easy to get used to as I thought.'

'Just ignore Ron, okay? He's acting like a dick.'

'Yea, I know. I don't care about him.' She looked up at Harry and grinned, with a tear trailing down her cheek, 'It's just… This place. Just imagine, my mum could have sat in this chair.'

Harry had never thought of that before. And to do so now was kind of strange. He had been here for five years, and never once thought of his parents and these chairs.

'And I know it's worse for you. You never knew your parents. At least I knew my mother.'

'And you have more to miss…' Harry didn't know what else to say.

'I'm okay now,' She hastily wiped tears from her eyes, 'Occasionally I get very emotional about Mum. Taina is too young to remember and Carlos… I don't think he cares too much.'

Harry couldn't think of anything to do but pity her. After all, she wasn't in a position any better than he was. They kept their conversation as innocent as they possibly could for the next few minutes. And soon, Lorena's eyes were no longer red and puffy.

'When did Sirius say he'd be here?'

'At half one in the morning. Just in case there were any people left.'

'I hope it works… If the Ministry finds out, this could be bad.'

'Hmm… He better not do anything stupid. I just thought this was foolproof…'

At exactly half one in the morning, on the dot, Sirius' face appeared in the fire. His hair was scruffy as Harry had remembered it from the days of appearing in the fire when Umbridge was in control of the school. He looked relieved to see the two of them in front of him.

'Hey.' He said, 'Didn't think you'd still be up… Where are Ron and Hermione?'

'Went to bed ages ago… Absolutely no regard for homework.' Harry shook his head at Lorena and she laughed.

'Yea, Sirius you should be proud.' She held up her Potions essay, 'Three rolls of parchment, and half finished.'

'Snapes homework?' Sirius raised an eyebrow.

Lorena nodded. 'How did you know?'

'Oh, just sounds like something Snape would do… How has school been otherwise?'

'Ron's a shithead.'

'Still not warming up to you?' Sirius truly looked sorry for his niece, 'How's school apart from all the Ron business?'

Lorena shrugged, and then the thought suddenly hit Harry. Lorena didn't like it here. It took a few moments for Sirius to persuade Lorena to tell him what was on her mind. She stood up and walked around in a circle by the fire.

'The girls are way too bitchy for me.' She whined, 'Just there today Harry's girlfriend… Oh, ex, sorry.' She added as Harry glared at her, 'Anyway, She grabbed my hair! I was lucky she didn't know how to use her wand… And the guys are all so pervy. Everywhere I go there is some asshole wanting to walk me somewhere.' Sirius grinned slightly as this, 'And then of course, the teachers are all so cold. Snape hates me. McGonagall is our house head and she never acts friendly to us at all. And just there Professor Vector gave me a detention for being sick during her class.'

Lorena finished dramatically by falling back into her chair by the fire. Sirius looked up at her, slightly concerned, but also finding an amusing side to all this.

'Lorena, girls will be girls. Just stay away from them if needs be. That's what we always did.' Lorena rolled her eyes, Sirius clearly didn't understand that she was a girl, 'And about the guys… Guys will be guys too.' Lorena made a noise at Harry to show how useless Sirius' advice was, 'Harry, keep guys away from her. And about the teachers, I'm sure you did something to deserve that detention. If you were skiving off then stop complaining about the results. McGonagall is always kind of cold, but she is a lot nicer to Gryffindors and finally, piss Snape off as much as you can. Make your mother proud.'

Lorena still didn't look convinced. She looked at Sirius as if she was contemplating what he was saying.

'You're bad at giving advice.'

'Yea… I know. Sorry Lori.' Now it was time for Sirius to turn his attention to Harry, 'So you have another ex-girlfriend already? What was wrong with her?'

'She was a psycho… Oh, and the next time you see her Harry, she'll have a black eye.'

'It's not my fault she was a weirdo.' Harry began explaining to Sirius what happened, 'She wouldn't leave me alone, no matter where I went she always had to be there. It was really annoying.'

'You don't have much luck with girlfriends do you?'

'No, that's not it. It's them that don't have any luck with me.' Harry grinned.

'Yea everyone is crying over you…' Lorena began sarcastically, 'Actually, that's true. I heard she hasn't stopped crying yet. Parvati and Lavender were saying so anyway.'

It happened very fast, Sirius was grinning and then suddenly his expression changed. He quickly whispered, 'Got to go.' as he looked down as if he could see something that Harry and Lorena couldn't. They both looked at each other as Sirius' head disappeared.

'What do you reckon happened?' Lorena asked uncertainly.

'Maybe Mrs Weasley caught him…' Harry said trying to think of a reasonable explanation. 'Would the secret keeper thing be broken if the Ministry found out where we were in contact with Grimmauld Place?'

Lorena shrugged, staring into the headless fire. 'Possibly… They'd know where the house is. But…' She broke off, staring at the fire for a few moments longer, then bending down to pick up her books.

'Hey, do you want to go for a walk outside?'

Lorena looked back at him, thoughtfully, 'Eh… I don't think so Harry. I'm not into playing any of your games-'

'What games?'

'Those games you play with girls… I'm not into that stuff.' Lorena headed for the stairwell, 'Don't expect me to fall at your feet just because you asked me out.'

Harry watched her walk up the stairs and distinctly heard the door shut. He looked after her wistfully, honestly he wasn't trying to play a game. He was just planning to kiss her and see if she'd go out with him then. And how dare she! Did she really think he expected her to swoon over the fact he asked her out. He wasn't that big-headed.