Soon Sirius' birthday was upon them, and Loralei did as he said, something small, but she still made sure she got a cake from the kitchens, (his favorite was chocolate). She had the perfect photo album, that was red and gold with pictures from first year to just the night before when she got one of the first years to take a picture of them studying together. She hoped that he would like it.

It was just James, Peter, Remus, Loralei and Sirius in the Come and Go Room that they made look like the Gryffindor common room, since it wouldn't be empty enough for them to have it, they were on the floor, the arm chairs and couch pushed away from the soft rug, empty cake plates were discarded on a table that was next to the couch, as they made Sirius open the presents that they got him. Loralei asked for hers to be last.

James got him some different prank things from Zonko's, Peter a book of jinxes, and Remus a book that they wouldn't let Loralei see, at first she thought it was porn, but when she asked they denied it in such a way that she had to believe. They probably would have told her if it was anyway.

She handed him the box, and watched his face as he opened it.

"What is it?" He asked, as he took it out.

"Open it," she told him, biting her thumbnail.

"This is from first year," he said, looking at the first page.

Loralei nodded, not looking at the book, but knowing where he was. "At Christmas."

"You had those bangs!" He said, laughing. "I like you better without them."

"I'm happy I got rid of them." Loralei smiled. "My hair's much easier to pull back."

"Prongs, your hair was combed down." He smiled. "Moony, you're so short!" Sirius looked up at Loralei. "Where'd you get this?"

"I got the pictures, and an album." She told him. "Mum had most of these, but all the ones here are from Remus or those rare occurrences when I brought my camera."

"How'd you come up with this?" He asked.

"It popped into my head one night." She told him honestly. "Finding pictures were a little harder though. But I figure it's your first through forth, and some of fifth year. Something to remember for when you're old and frail." She teased.

"Old? Maybe. Frail? Definitely not." He told her.

"Don't worry, old man, I'll take care of you." She teased. "Being young and all."

"Oh, yes, little girl, respect your elders!" He replied.

She smiled. "Do you know me at all? I tease everyone. Young or old."

"Stop your flirting." James groaned. "It's so annoying, you're my sister!"

"If you don't like it leave." Loralei told him.

James smiled. "Not a half bad idea." He stood up. "Night, gents." He went towards the door, laughing.

"I think I'll go." Remus muttered, getting up himself. "Come on, Pete."

"I love their way of giving us alone time." Loralei said, laughing when she heard Remus snicker as he closed the door behind them.

Loralei crawled over to Sirius, giving him a peck on the lips. "Happy Birthday."

"Thanks," he smiled, pushing her hair away from her face. "This is great." He told her, looking back at the photo album.

"You needed something special." She told him. "Having a rich boyfriend isn't always the nicest thing."

He laughed. "I'd love whatever you give me."

"But I wanted to get you something that you'd genuinely like, not because I gave it to you." She said, sitting beside him.

"Well I'd love this if my parents gave it to me,-"

"Which they wouldn't." They said together, before laughing.

"I'm glad you like it." She told him.

"How long did it take you to do?" He asked.

"Two months, I think." She told him. "Maybe a little more."

"Thank you," he told her, turning to her and kissing her.

They spent the next few hours going through it, making fun of what they looked like when they were younger, or when James, Remus, or Peter had a bad haircut, all teasing, all fun. There was only one picture of Lily in it, and that was when she forced her and the Marauders to get a picture at the end of last year, when they were all saying their goodbyes for the summer. Sirius' favorite was the one she had taken a few weeks ago when they were in Hogsmeade, not being followed by tabloids unlike their first Hogsmeade weekend and she had pinned him to the grass with her legs, you could only see her knees and one arm as she kept him down long enough to take the picture.

"At least now I know why you went photo crazy whenever we'd do anything." He laughed when they got to the pictures she took recently.

They kept looking through them, talking about how they happened, or why one of them were missing from a picture. They laughed, and talked until they fell asleep in their private Gryffindor common room, on the thick, soft carpet.

Lily wasn't surprised when Loralei drug herself into their dormitory the next morning. Tired and her hair in a messy ponytail, her makeup was faded and a little smudged. She collapsed on her bed with a groan.

"Have a good night?" Lily asked conversationally, trying to hide her smile.

"Yeah," she yawned, either not noticing or ignoring the humor on her friend's face. "We had fun, but I'm going to sleep now."

"Why were you out so late?" Lily asked, trying to keep Loralei up for as long as she could.

"We talked about when we were young and innocent." Loralei told her, pulling off her shoes, and pants before snuggling into bed. "Reminiscing, you know."

"Ah, of course." Lily nodded. "So-"

"If you try to keep me awake one more time, a hex is coming your way." Loralei told her.

Lily laughed. "Goodnight, sweetheart."

"Night, Lil." Loralei yawned again, before falling asleep.

Loralei felt like this year was passing her by, she was either studying, at quidditch practice, sleeping, or eating. On rare occurrences she was actually having fun with nothing productive going on. She missed sleeping all day on Saturdays, or doing all her studying on Sundays. She hated that she was getting dark circles under her eyes that makeup barely covered up, she hated that when she was on a Hogemeade weekend she had to meet with a designer for the dress for the Ministry Ball in less than a month. But above all, she hated that when she was with Sirius, they were either never alone, or studying when they were.

Everyone else was run down too. When they would do all their homework or studying early so they could hang out at night, they would just end up falling asleep, Lily suggested that they get time turners and maybe get more than five hours sleep every night.

The good news in all of this was that Lily and James didn't argue as much when Loralei forced them to be within ten feet of each other. Not only did they act civil, but they were also too tired to argue. A sliver lining in their busy OWL year.

Loralei was counting the days down to Christmas break. Making plans to visit Lily on boxing day, and having no doubt on finding Sirius in their house on Christmas, if not the whole holiday.

When she was going through the sketches that the designer for her dress had sent her, Lily came up and sat next to her on her bed.

"Whatcha doing?" She asked, before looking at the drawing. "Pretty, id that your dress?"

"Yep, I think it looks like Little Red Riding Hood." Loralei told her. "I like it though. There's black fur in the hood of the cloak," she said, tracing it with her finger. "Then underneath the cloak there's a black corset and skirt, with red flowers stitched at the base and on the bodice."

"It looks like a fairytale." Lily told her. "You're going to look great."

"I hope so." Loralei said, putting the sketch down. "Gustav took my measurements last week, he wants to make sure that it shows off my curves, he told me to prepare not to breathe."

"What kind of corset is it?" Lily asked.

"Ties, he's going to lace me up as tight as he can when I get dressed. The final fitting is the day I get home, then the hair and makeup artists come for my mother and I. It's going to take all day for us to get ready, since we're at their disposal from ten until we have to leave for it."

"You're sounding like you're not going to have any fun." Lily said.

"You it's hard to explain, but it's just really polite, and stuffy old-timey stuff." Loralei told her. "Usually Sirius has to go since his dad works high up at the ministry, so it's kind of fun, but now since we're dating...it's not all going to seem so innocent." She sighed. "If you find a sick person, tell them to sneeze of cough on me."

"You're really not looking forward to this." Lily observed. "Think about it this way, you get to complain about it on boxing day to me."

Loralei laughed. "Yeah, I guess I can. I'll bring a picture of the dress too. And who knows, I might be able to get out before eleven."

"See? You're thinking on the bright side, plus you get a gorgeous new dress and cloak." Lily told her. "Much better than this Herbology essay due tomorrow." She said, pointing at the finished essay sitting on Loralei's bag.

Loralei smiled. "Anything was better than that, it was so dull."

"Just think of that essay when you're there." Lily told her. "It'll all feel better."

"God I hope so." Loralei groaned. "I'm making it out to be worse than it is, anyway." She shook her head. "I just want to catch up on my sleep!"

Lily laughed. "We all do, that's what I'm going to be doing all break."

Loralei smiled. "Me too, they're not getting me up before ten for those three weeks."

"Me too, I'll lock my door." Lily agreed.

"Wear earplugs."

"Ignore them."

"Kill them if they wake you up."

"Torture them first."

"Slowly."

"Sounds good."

A/N This is just a warning, but I'm not going to update as often as I have been, school's kinda taking over right now. I'm going to at least update once a week, maybe more depending on the week and what my mind comes up with to write. I have a brief outline for this story, but nothing especially big will happen until they take their OWL's.

Please review!

Kat