"We need to talk before we go today." Loralei said quietly, sitting next to Sirius at breakfast, placing a kiss on his cheek.
He paused, his fork halfway to his mouth. "What about?"
"Reporters." She told him, grabbing a handful of strawberries. "What happens if we are found together?"
"You tell me." He said. "It's you they'd be following, tell me what you want and I'll do it."
She nodded. "I want to handle it. It's not like they're going to catch us doing anything too bad. I think we should ignore them unless they get too annoying, and be ready to find one of the few Aurors that will probably be there, I know what they all look like." She said, taking a bite of a strawberry.
"All right." He replied. "But this doesn't change our plans, right?"
"Of course not, it's just so you know what you're getting into." Loralei told him. "I should've told you yesterday, but I got busy."
"Yeah I heard." He smiled. "I didn't know you could be a bitch, I like it."
Loralei laughed. "Good, because I'm not changing."
"I know better than to expect that." Sirius scoffed.
"Smart boy."
"Where are we going?" Loralei asked, they were out of the main part of Hogsmeade, where Loralei rarely went, she knew most of the village by heart, but not the outskirts.
"You'll see," he replied, smiling.
She pouted. "At some point I'm going to be disappointed with one of your surprises."
"Doubt it, I'm very imaginative." Sirius told her.
"Someday your imagination will run out." Loralei warned.
"That will be the day I die." He replied.
She grabbed his arm, and stopped him from walking, putting her hand on his shoulders and shaking him. "Don't die on me!" She cried.
He laughed, and she joined in.
"You're ridiculous." He told her.
"You love me." She replied, taking his hand as they started walking again.
He rolled his eyes. "Okay, we're here." He said, stopping them in front of a playground.
"A playground?" She asked, smiling. "Are you going to pull on my pigtails and say I have cooties?"
"You don't have pig tails." He told her.
She took two elastic bands off her wrist and put her hair in pigtails quickly. "Now I do."
He turned so they were facing each other head on, and let his right hand slide down her left pigtail. "You have cooties." He kissed her lightly on her lips.
She laughed. "Back to the good ol' days of my childhood."
"Of course, it's all a part of the Sirius Black package." He told her, playfully.
"Really? What else is a part of the package?" She asked, playing along, before he leaned down to kiss her again.
"SMILE!"
They both jumped, looking over to where a mousey man stood, holding a large professional camera, and looked an awful lot like a guy from the Daily Prophet.
"Who are you?" Loralei asked, angrily. "What the bleeding hell are you doing here?"
"Daily Prophet ma'am, can I get a quote?" He asked.
"No, you can give me your film though." Loralei said, stalking towards him, and holding out her hand for it, though she didn't expect him to give it to her.
"Who's this gentleman?" He asked, pointing the camera at Sirius, Loralei stepped in front of it, learning not to break the camera from an earlier experience.
"None of anyone's business, don't you have something better to do than follow me around?" Loralei cried. "No one cares about me or my life."
"I think they do, anything else to say? Miss Potter?"
"Yeah, Siri cover your ears." She opened her mouth, letting out a blood curdling scream.
Within seconds an Auror came to them.
"He's stalking me, Auror Williams," Loralei told him.
The Auror rolled his brown eyes. He was always Loralei's favorite guard, and he knew it, he was in his mid thirties with dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes, skin tanned from the sun.
"This is a warning, come around Miss Potter again, and you will be arrested." The Auror told the short man. "Scram."
The reporter took out his wand, snapping one last picture and Apparating away.
"YOU'RE DATING SIRIUS? YOU DIDN'T EVEN TELL ME! YOUR OWN MOTHER! I HAD TO FIND OUT FROM YOUR FATHER THIS MORNING WHEN HE WAS READING THE DAILY PROPHET THIS MORNING!" A scarlet howler bellowed, making Loralei cringe every time her mother hit a high octave. "THIS IS NOT OKAY. WHEN I SEE YOU THIS CHRISTMAS WE WILL HAVE A TALK, UNLESS I WALK INTO YOUR SCHOOL TODAY." Her mother's voice calmed down. "I was sent word by Walgura Black this morning. She's sending her son congratulations on finally choosing a 'suitable' girl. I just hope that he is treating you well, both of you will be forced to go to the Ministy Ball this Christmas. Merlin, you two better still be together." With that the letter set itself aflame.
Loralei was still frowning, and clutching her pillow like it was a shield from the loud voice of her mother. She was just happy that her mother didn't make her get it in the great hall, though she was sure it would only inflate this problem instead of deflating it.
Loralei stopped crying over being the headline a while ago. The first time...it was terrible. Headmaster Dumbledore gave her parents permission to take her away from school for a weekend to help her shake it off. She was thirteen at the time.
Now, at Fifteen, she didn't have somewhere to hide, she just had to deal with it, she couldn't mope in bed today, she had quidditch practice in an hour, thought she hoped James would let her off the hook after yesterday, and the headline today.
She curled up on her side, hugging her pillow, and staring straight ahead of her. The worst part was this morning. As soon as one person got the paper; everyone did. She was the news of the day, outshining anyone who had any sort of good news or any rumor that could've taken up the day instead of her.
Could everyone just leave her alone? Couldn't she just date like a normal person? It wasn't this big when she dated anyone else, just with Sirius. Sure, when she was caught kissing Fabian their faces were everywhere, but they had already come officially out with their relationship, telling their families, and no one made it a big deal. Cool, they were dating, nothing more. Even the Paparazzi's pictures didn't really stir anything up. They were just them.
But with Sirius, he'd dated most of the girls in their year, apart from Slytherins, Alice, Lily and-until this year-Loralei. That's where most of the drama was coming from, his dating past. Loralei knew that some of the other students were taking bets on how long they would last, or when he would cheat on her. They didn't even try to hide it from Loralei, and she wishes they did.
After the Prophet decided to ruin their date, she just asked him to take her back to Hogwarts, and they just sat on the couch in the empty common room, both not saying a word.
Loralei knew Sirius thought she was having second thoughts, but she was wondering if he was too. She's high maintenance, she needed someone who could stand up with her, and to her, so far he was able to fill the part, what about when they have to go to the ball this Christmas.
She swore to herself when she was thirteen never to cry again, it didn't do anything, just made her eyes red and puffy.
Lily came in about an hour later, and sat next to her on her bed, putting Loralei's hair behind her ear.
"Are you okay?" She asked softly.
Loralei shook her head, not trusting her voice to speak.
"Everyone's worried. your brother said you don't have to go to practice today. Sirius has been trying to get up here since you left breakfast." Lily told her, running her fingers through her hair in a comforting way. "He's worried."
"I g-got a howler." Loralei told her softly. "Everyone knows now. Everyone."
"You weren't exactly trying to hide it." Lily told her. "But I take it you forgot to tell your parents."
"Yeah," Loralei muttered. "Who do you think the howler was from?"
"I'm sorry, Lore. I wish I could help." Lily told her. "It's not going to blow over any time soon, is it?"
"We have to go to this Ministry ball thing together." Loralei told her. "That's Christmas time, and we're going to be the talk of the party. Loralei Potter, daughter of Minister of Magic Charles Potter and Cordelia Potter dating friend of the family, Sirius Black son of Orion and Walgura Black." She groaned, smothering her face in her pillow.
"You should've seen this coming." Lily told her.
"I expected it to be more like me dating Fab, where after a few weeks no one cared." Her voice was muffled through the pillow.
"Well you weren't dating someone from the Noble Most Ancient House of Black." Lily mocked, proud when she got a quiet chuckle from Loralei.
"I hate his parents." Loralei groaned.
"He does too." Lily reminded her carefully. "I remember the first time you made headlines." She mused. "You cried."
"I'm done crying, it doesn't help at all." Loralei muttered into the pillow, Lily wasn't sure she heard right.
"You don't have to be strong all the time." Lily told her.
"If I'm not, who will be?" Loralei asked, moving so her face wasn't covered by the pillow anymore.
"We can take turns." Lily told her. "I can be the strong one, or Remus, or your brother, or...Sirius."
Loralei sighed. "I don't like counting on other people." She admitted.
"I know you don't, but sometimes you need to." Lily, said, pulling Loralei's hair behind her shoulder. "It helps lighten the load. Your brother lightened it by taking you off practice today, Remus corrected your charts, that lightens the load a bit. Professor Dumbledore is keeping reporters off the grounds, I'm sure that helps."
"It does, but it's the other three hundred people here that are making this hell." Loralei muttered, moodily. "They're all sending what they think of me to the Prophet just like last time."
"Fuck them." Lily told her, causing Loralei to look at her for the first time in surprise.
"You don't swear." Loralei said.
"I do when someone's hurting my friend." Lily told her. "No one in Gryffindor is selling you out-or at least not the ones that know you. The first year girls adore you since you braided their hair last weekend, and you're the Seeker for the team! When they realize that without you they'll lose the cup they'll be behind you. Even Melanie is. She came up to me after you left, she's worried."
"I'll talk to her in Divination tomorrow." Loralei told her.
Lily paused. "Is it weird being friends with your boyfriend's ex?"
Loralei shook her head. "She's not vindictive or bitter or anything. She's just looking out for other girls that were like her, I think that's why I like her, she has a good heart."
Lily nodded slowly. "That makes sense, but I take it you won't be having any double dates."
"For our boyfriend's sanity, no." Loralei smiled. A real smile, not one of the fake ones she can put on easily, but a real one that almost always comes with a small laugh escaping her lips, which this time, one did.
"Yes, no one would want to see Sirius go crazy, who's she dating?"
"Amos Diggory." Loralei told her. "I don't know him, but he's a Hufflepuff seventh year."
"That's good." Lily said.
"Yeah, and she's happy, so that's good." Loralei added.
Lily nodded. "Yeah, that really is."