"Where have you been?" Lily demanded when Loralei got to their room that night.
"Sirius took me out for butterbeer, then we got dinner. We kinda lost track of time." She told her, as if nothing was wrong, like she didn't sneak out and break a dozen school rules.
"I'm a prefect!" Lily said. "I'm supposed to catch people who sneak out!"
"You didn't catch me." Loralei noted, shrugging off Sirius' jacket which he gave her when she got cold earlier. "You didn't catch us."
Lily groaned. "Everyone was worried!"
"Would you keep it down?" Alice asked from her bed. "I have an early class in the morning, unlike you two."
"Sorry, Lily's being a hard ass." Loralei told her.
"Lay off her until the morning." Alice groaned, before disappearing behind her curtains again.
"The Alice has spoken." Loralei whispered loudly, sitting on her bed and pulling off her boots.
Lily shook her head and frowned at Loralei before getting back into her bed.
"That would be a lot more menacing if you weren't in pajamas with smiley faces covering them." Loralei whispered to her, before getting shushed by the three sleeping girls.
Loralei fell asleep quickly that night, replaying the date over and over in her dreams. Her favorite part was when he gave her his jacket and told her to keep it. She would have stolen it anyway, but it was good to hear he was okay with it.
The next morning, Loralei was dead to the world. Every time she blinked she would have to force herself to open her eyes again. When it was announced Potions was canceled today since they still couldn't used the classroom that NEWT students all but blew up the day before, Loralei let out a sigh and finished her coffee.
"I'm going back to bed." Loralei said, standing up.
"I wouldn't." Alice told her. "Lily put a charm on it if someone falls asleep there before eight at night something happens."
Loralei groaned. "She's really mad at me, isn't she?"
"She's only jealous." Alice told her. "No guy would do for her what he's doing for you."
"I would!" Said James from a few people down the table, but Alice nor Loralei gave him any attention.
Loralei looked like if she wasn't so tired she would go find her redheaded friend and kill her.
"I think I'll go to bed too." Sirius said. "Come on, our dorm isn't charmed."
"Nothing funny, got it?" James told him.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "You're the one that went there."
Loralei just nodded, her eyes half open and looking as if she would fall asleep any second.
Sirius took her hand, carefully leading her up to the dormitory like she was a breakable as a china doll. He knew that if she remembered any of this, she would tell him off for it, but from her state of tripping over stairs, and him being the only thing holding her up, he doubted it.
He ended up carrying her up the stairs to the his dormitory, and put her on his bed, when he was turning to go to one of the other beds, she grabbed his hand and pulled on it.
"It's big enough for two." She said sleepily, moving to make room for him.
He paused, before laying down next to her, hoping that if James came in he would realize that they were both wearing clothes before he was awoken with a punch to the face.
She snuggled into his side, and he put his arm around her. She was asleep in seconds, but he wasn't. He just realized what he had gotten himself into.
Sirius was never the "boyfriend" type; or wasn't, until recently. The small blonde girl in his arms made him that way, there's no other girl in the world he would do this for.
When he came up with this deal there was a small part of him that thought she would say no, and she still could at any time. He didn't want to, but he knew that she's going to be the one to break up with him if they broke up at all. He hated that she thought that he's going to cheat on her or lose interest, he's been in love with her for a year and he has a chance now. He'd rather die than screw it up.
Unlike so many of the girls he had dated, she was real. She didn't wear so much makeup she looked like plastic, she wasn't afraid to break a nail or get her hair wet, she didn't try to be perfect, which only made her more perfect to him. She always had something to say even if she said something no one else agreed with.
She had her faults too. Not knowing when to be quiet, she also couldn't focus on anything for too long because she would get bored. When she was studying or training for quidditch she would get into a zone that no one but herself could wake her up from. She also had a habit for telling off the paparazzi when she caught them taking pictures of her and her friends, which only would make the situation worse.
He knew all about her faults, but he couldn't help but think they were cute. Cute! Sirius Black, the womanizer of Hogwarts was head over heels for his best friend's little sister that never even meant to flirt with him if she ever did. The only girl who openly stood up to him about everything he did wrong. She challenged him on everything, when he hexed a third year last year, she didn't just tell him off, no, that would be too easy to get off with, she used the same hex on him that he did on the third year Hufflepuff, only stronger since she was better with spells and hexes than him. He learned quickly that Loralei wasn't not only was for equality, but she was a philanthropist too. She was only safe from the ridicule that others would face if they did the same thing as her, because she was not only the Minister's daughter, a Potter, on the quidditch team, and above all, one of the best spell casters in the school. Seventh years would duel her and lose.
Lily would just walk away from confrontation, unless it was one of her friends, then she would help them out, but Loralei didn't need help, she would stand up for anyone, if it was a Slytherin, or someone who she hated, even if after she would use what she did to guilt them into being a nicer person.
He was genuinely sorry for what he put her through in their first year, he just didn't know how to deal with their first crush at eleven years old. He got better with it as he aged. He didn't lie when he said he loved her last year, it was the year he realized that he loved her.
Sirius fell asleep a half hour into the two hours they had off, until he was being shaken by Loralei.
"Wake up!" She said frantically. "We're gonna be late!"
"Who cares?" He asked. "It's Herbology, I'll help you with it later."
The offer was tempting; she knew she would barely keep up with the lesson and have to have someone explain it to her later.
"Remus will give us the homework. What else do you have today?"
"Muggle Studies." Loralei told him.
"We'll go to that class, okay?" He said, rubbing his eyes.
"Real studying?" She asked in a childlike way. "Not snogging around books?"
"Real studying." He promised. "Go back to sleep." He turned to his side, pinning her to the bed, her back to him, and making her giggle.
"If my grade goes down I'm blaming you." She told him.
"Do you really want to go to class?" He asked.
"No..." She muttered, intwining his fingers with hers.
"So don't. They won't miss us." He whispered into her hair.
"The boys and Lily will." She told him.
"Evans is already pissed at you, and they won't care. They've skipped more classes than you, they have no room to talk." He told her.
"You win," she decided, before closing her eyes. "I like sleeping with you."
He chuckled. "Really?" He asked sarcastically.
"That didn't sound so dirty in my head." She giggled, taking off her tie. "How did I sleep in that?"
"You like being choked to death in your sleep." He muttered.
She giggled. "Wow, I'm a masochist then..."
"I won't hold it against you." He told her quietly. "Go to sleep."
"Why weren't you in class today?" Lily demanded, crossing her arms in front of Loralei, who was sitting on the couch.
Loralei shrugged as she did her homework that Remus had gotten for her during Herbology, filling out a chart for uses of mandrake root. "I forgot to wake up."
"You didn't sleep in our room, otherwise your hair would be purple." Lily told her. "Where were you?"
Loralei rolled her eyes. "I slept in the boy's room."
"That's against the rules!" Lily said, shocked.
"So is jinxing someone's bed, but you did that Miss Prefect." Loralei said, writing down something on her chart.
"You're not taking me seriously!" Lily growled, getting more annoyed. "If you fail your OWL's this year, that's it! You'll live off your parents money for the rest of your life."
Loralei opened her mouth, her tongue going over the inside of her lower lip; not a good sign, she only did this when she was severely mad at someone. "Well, I'm sorry, Miss Lily Perfect Evans, not all of us know that. What new information!" She said sarcastically, putting her homework carefully next to her on the couch, and standing up to face her friend head on. "I had no idea that if I fail my OWL's I'll never get into any program. How daft of me!" She slapped her palm to her forehead, when she pulled it away her face was murderous. "Lily, not everyone's a fun sucker like you. I already know I'm going to get an A at most on my Herbology OWL, so I figured I could save my energy for something that could help me. Thank you so much for your concern."
Lily opened and closed her mouth twice before replying to her. "You need to-"
"Oh, shouldn't you be taking dungbombs from first years or something?" Loralei asked nastily, before turning around and grabbing her half-finished chart and walking away.
"Where are you going?" Lily yelled.
"Quidditch practice, unlike you I have better things to do than get in a fight!" She said, stomping up the stairs to get dressed.
Lily noticed the people who was watching the little fight. "Who wants detention?"
Everyone went quickly back to what they were doing, not wanting to get the brunt of the Prefect's anger.
"Loralei..." Lily said that night while Loralei was getting ready for bed.
"Save it, I don't feel like being reprimanded." Loralei told her as she pulled on her pajamas, her long hair was wet from her shower and in a braid down her back, she wore a black tank top and red and black plaid pajama pants.
"You never used to act like this." Lily told her. "Black's changing you."
"He's not." Loralei replied. "I'm just different, it's been a long time coming too. I used to sneak out with the boys all the time, it's just you never noticed."
Lily paused. "Why are you showing it now?"
"Maybe because everyone is telling me who I am, you're telling me I'm a good girl, most of the Hogwarts female population is calling me a slut, I'm just done with it. This is me, this is who I am, if you don't like it, fine." Loralei said, angrily folding her clothes.
"Why didn't you show me sooner?" Lily asked.
"A lot happens in a summer, especially when you're with Remus a lot, he should be a therapist, I swear." Loralei gave Lily a small smile. "Sorry about earlier."
"Me too, I just rarely see you skip a class so early in the year." Lily said, returning the smile.
"It's Herbology, I'll skip it any day of the year." Loralei told her.
Lily laughed softly. "I know. I don't like it either, but I need it to become a healer."
Loralei nodded. "That's why I'm either going to be an Auror or a teacher."
"You'd be a good teacher." Lily said. "If you can get Black to pass tests, you can teach anyone."
Loralei laughed. "It's not hard when someone hangs on your every word."
"So all the boys will be easy to teach." Lily raised an eyebrow.
"I guess." Loralei laughed. "If I stay beautiful."
Lily leaned close to Loralei. "You're half veela, you'll be beautiful for the rest of your life."
"Have you ever seen a veela age?" Loralei asked.
"No," Lily said.
"I haven't either, maybe we get really ugly at fifty." Loralei laughed, laying down in her bed. "Come here, we shouldn't keep the other girls up."
Lily jumped over to Loralei's bed, and laid next to her, closing the curtains, and only keeping a candle on the nightstand.
"So what were you really doing during class?" Lily whispered.
"Sirius and I were sleeping." Loralei murmured back. "Nothing funny, we just fell asleep."
"And you always sleep better next to someone." Lily added.
"Of course." Loralei replied.
"Why is that? Do you feel safer not being alone or something?" She asked.
"It's more like I know that someone I love is safe. Plus, when it's cold-"
"You're always cold." Lily interrupted.
"-They're warm." Loralei finished, laughing quietly.
"That's cute." Lily said. "He didn't try anything?"
"Perfect gentleman." Loralei told her quietly, and a little proudly.
"That's good." Lily said quietly. "I'm happy he's changing, he seems sweet when you talk to him, hasn't hexed someone yet."
"Because he knows I don't approve." Loralei whispered. "He doesn't want to screw up with me."
"If it counts for anything, I don't think he will." Lily said. "I wish I could find a guy that would change for me."
"You will." Loralei told her. "Everyone has to have a love story of some sort. I just hope neither of ours ends in tragedy."
"Of course not, why would you say that?" Lily asked quietly.
"There's a war going on, Lily." Loralei said. "I don't know about you, but given the chance I'm fighting. If I have kids I want them to be safe."
"I bet your mother loved it when you told her that." Lily whispered sarcastically.
"Oh, she did. She told me that if I got killed she'd bring me back just to kill me again." Loralei giggled.
"Only you would laugh at death." Lily replied.
"What's there to fear?" Loralei asked. "It's just a new phase. I was taught death is peaceful, and where everyone you love is waiting for you. If that is what's after this world, why should I be scared of it."
"You're too brave for you're own good, Loralei Potter." Lily said, playfully poking her stomach. "What are you going to do for Black's birthday?" She asked, changing the subject.
"No idea yet."Loralei frowned. "I've been trying to find things that he would like, but I keep coming up empty, I'm hoping I get some inspiration when we go to Hogsmeade this weekend."
"You will, you notice things." Lily told her. "I know you have a list of things to get for everyone."
"But I want to get him something that's special." Loralei said, a whining note entering her voice. "He can buy anything he wants, and will. You, James, and Remus are all too easy, James will have anything to do with quidditch, you and Remus love books and chocolate, and if I turn you on to a new book you both are so happy."
Lily smiled. "Because you don't over think it with us. What's the most romantic gift that you can think of for him? You have until November." Lily sat up. "I'm going to go to sleep now. Think about what I said, something will come to you."
Loralei nodded as Lily went to her bed, and snuggled under her covers. "Night Lil."
"Night Lore," Lily replied.
Loralei leaned to blow out the candle, before laying down.
It wasn't until early the next morning that she sat straight up in bed, saying triumphantly. "Lily, I've got it!" But all she got in return was groans from her sleeping dorm mates.