"Remus?" Loralei asked, opening the door to the boy's room.
"Sirius isn't here." He told her, standing in front of a mirror as he tied his tie.
"I know, I watched him leave." Loralei told him, raising up the invisibility cloak. "I needed to talk to you."
"What about?" He asked.
"Siri's birthday is next month." Loralei said. "So, I was wondering if you had any copies of pictures?"
"Pictures?" He asked. "Why?"
"I know you and Peter take pictures, you have been from first year. I owled my mum, and she's going to send me some, but I need some from school, I only have a few."
Remus nodded. "I'll get you some this weekend. What are you going to do with them?"
"Photo album, of all our happy memories." Loralei said. "I'm going to start taking pictures now on our dates and stuff, and I hope by November that I'll have a good enough collection for him."
Remus nodded. "That's a good idea."
"Thank you." Loralei said brightly. "I needed something that's special enough."
"I think he's going to be surprised that you thought this much about it." Remus replied, smiling. "You have him wrapped around your finger, you could do anything and he'd love it."
"Well this will be a nice surprise then, won't it?" Loralei smiled. "Promise not to tell?"
"Promise. I'll get you the pictures later." He told her.
She hugged him. "Thanks, Remmy."
"How is that going by the way?" He asked.
"Great," Loralei said, biting her lip. "I-it's great."
"What's wrong?" Remus asked.
"I'm a little nervous about Hogsmeade this weekend. What if reporters are there?" Loralei asked, scrunching up her nose in distaste.
"What do you usually do?" Remus asked.
"Ignore them, or tell them off." Loralei told him. "But this is different, this might actually last more than three months, and I don't want the headline to be, 'Loralei Dating Family Friend Sirius Black: How Long With They Last?' You know?"
"Have you told him about this?" Remus asked her.
She shook her head.
"Then you need to, because James and I aren't going to be the go between for you guys." He told her gently.
"I know." She nodded. "I'm just so used to warning guys about it, not being worried about the article."
"I know. I remember in Third year when you and James were always under that cloak." Remus smiled.
"It was our first time without someone watching over us, we've kind of gotten used to it since then." She told him.
"I know, I counted the asterisks in the last article about you." He told her.
"How many were there?" She asked, honestly curious.
"I think there was eleven." He told her. "I was a little surprised there weren't more."
"You should be." She told him. "They should have something better to do than follow a teenage girl around."
"Couldn't you ask for an Auror to go with you places?" Remus asked.
"Dad's actually been threatening to do that since the war's getting bad." Loralei told him, clearly not liking the idea. "He seems to think the Deatheaters are going to take interest in his kids."
"It's one way to get him to do what they say." Remus commented.
Loralei nodded. "I guess." She ran her hand through her hair. "Have you heard the plan for next week?" She asked, hoping he would get she was talking about the full moon next week.
"Yeah, you're going too?" He asked.
She nodded. "I'm making the awakening potion this weekend."
He nodded slowly, chewing on the inside of his cheek. "What if something goes wrong and I bite you?"
"You won't." She told him. "And if you do it's our own faults. We'll be in our forms, we'll be fine. They only way you can turn us is if we're human."
"I was watching when you were practicing yesterday, you kept slipping."
"I have a week to get better." Loralei told him. "If I can't hold it, I won't go, but I know I can."
"If I asked you not to go, would you?" He asked.
"I have to go, Remmy, we're family, I want to be there for you." He said. "Just don't go this month, let James, Peter, and Sirius try it out first. It gives you more time for practice and we can see how things go."
She pauses, opening her mouth and closing it before looking down and answering. "Is this because I'm a girl? I can fight better than either of them."
"No," he told her.
"Why don't you want me to go?" She asked.
"Because I know people have been giving you shit for dating Sirius, if you're not found in your bed the next morning, that's going to cause a whole lot more than rumors." He told her.
She nodded. "Fine, I won't go this time, but you can't keep me away forever, I want to be there for you."
"You are." He told her. "I know you are."
She looked at the watch on his wrist and sighed. "I have to get to class, Remmy, I'll see you later." She smiled sadly, and turned to walk to the door.
"Oh, Lore?" Remus asked, when she opened the door.
"Yeah?" Loralei asked, looking over her shoulder.
"We both know you could beat anyone with or without a wand." He told her.
She laughed lightly. "At least you're the only one who's honest." She teased, before bouncing down the stairs, giggling as she went.
Loralei was not a happy girl by the time it was Friday night. She just wanted to get away from everyone, and if one more person had something nasty to say to her, she couldn't be held responsible for her reaction.
"Hey, Gryffinwhore." Said a jealous mousey brown haired Ravenclaw, who thought she was so clever.
When Loralei opened her mouth to respond, Melanie beat her to it.
"Piss off Clara." She told the girl, linking arms with Loralei. "You're just pissed that you're not bright or beautiful."
The girl jutted out her jaw stubbornly. "Oh, so you're like, all three together? That's like, so sweet."
"Says the girl no one loves." Loralei's lips twitched into a sickly sweet false smile. "Maybe if you had a life you'd leave mine alone."
"Do you want to know what I find funny, Loralei?" Melanie asked.
"What, Mel?" Loralei asked, playing along.
"I find it funny that girls like that-" she gestured to the Ravenclaw in front of them. "-Thinks you care about what they think."
Loralei laughed. "That is a good question!" She turned to the girl in front of them. "Why do you think I care? Wait-I don't even care about why you think I do!" She stared walking away.
"Bitch!" The Ravenclaw called after her.
"Proud of it, babe." Loralei replied.
Melanie laughed beside her, as they walked, and when they were out of earshot of the jealous girl, Melanie spoke.
"Crappy day?" She asked.
"Yeah. I have to say Gryffinwhore isn't the worst thing I've been called. A Slytherin sixth year asked if I was open for business, if you know what I mean." Loralei rolled her eyes. "Believe it or not I'm still a virgin."
"I believe it." Melanie said. "It's the other bitches that need to get lives and stop chasing a dream of being with some guy, that's not even as perfect as everyone thinks."
"I just want to hex them sometimes." Loralei agreed.
"Maybe after a few weeks they'll forget about it." Melanie said, hopefully.
"I doubt it." Loralei replied unhappily. "I just think it's so stupid how I'm getting so much crap and he isn't."
"Welcome to the village of catty teenage girls." Melanie rolled her eyes. "It'll get better."
"There's no way it can get worse." Loralei replied. "I should not have said that." She pressed her hand to her forehead. "It's going to get worse."
Melanie rubbed Loralei's shoulder. "It's going to be all right, you still have your friends, it'll all be okay."
Loralei nodded, sighing as she let her hand fall back to her side. "Want to go to the library with me? I'm going to get my homework done tonight since it's a Hogsmeade weekend and I have quidditch practice on Sunday."
"Sure, I think I'll do the same, but I'll be sleeping all Sunday." Melanie replied.
Loralei laughed. "What I would do for a day of sleep..."
Melanie smiled. "They're rare in OWL year. My brother looked like he had black eyes all year when he was in his fifth, sixth, and seventh year."
"He was captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, two years ago, right?" Loralei asked.
She nodded. "So I'm guessing you're going to have the same."
"I'll use makeup to cover up mine, though." Loralei's voice got quieter as they went into the library.
"Of course, I almost got him to." Melanie agreed.
Loralei giggled. "Why didn't he?"
"He didn't want the other guys to tear the mickey out of him." Melanie whispered, as they went to a table, and got their homework out. "If you help me with Divination, I'll help you with Herbology."
"Deal." Loralei told her. "How'd you know I was good at Divination?"
"You always answer her questions, and you're the only one that got an O." Melanie said. "You're good at Divination, I'm good at Herbology, perfect match, baby."
Loralei laughed quietly. "I forgot about that."
"Yeah, well all us barely passing people know who to go to for answers." Melanie teased. "I'm sure you give Sirius loads of help, even when we were dating he'd say he was busy with you studying."
Loralei sat down. "Yeah, and we were actually studying, I got him to pass last year's final." Loralei said proudly, before groaning. "I'm going to have to help him to pass his OWL in it now." She hit her forehead on the book she put in front of her.
Melanie laughed quietly, and patted Loralei's shoulder. "It's going to be okay."
Loralei sighed, sitting up and flipping her hair over her shoulders, and taking a quill and inkwell out of her bag. "Come on, let's get to work."
"All right."
A/N Sorry for the short chapter! It's mostly a filler so there isn't one date a chapter. The next one will be their Hogsmeade weekend.
Please review!
Kat