101 Ways to ditch the Date | SIRIUS BLACK

No. 41

"Relax, Ora," whispered Ora to herself in the mirror, "It's just a date, you've been on dates before... not without a contract but you've been on dates before."

Usually, she had more time to prepare than this but for as there was a high chance that Sirius would change his mind, she'd made the rash decision to schedule it for the next day. Planning ahead was essential for these kind of things but with this, she didn't even know where they were going. Although she was glad that Emmeline had other friends (kind of), in this particular moment she couldn't help but feel a pang of irritation that Emmeline wasn't there to help her prep for the date. Still, she knew this was selfish and after their fight, she was trying to work it on as much as she could.

Choosing an outfit turned out to be weirdly easy: a black turtle neck with flared jeans, for two reasons: one, they were her go to outfit when she didn't have uniform to wear and two, she'd worn them on their first date and felt oddly sentimental. Turned out the worst part before the date was not the getting ready but the waiting, time seemed to pass so slowly.

Sirius was already in the court by the time she arrived, and she wasn't sure if this was better or worse. On one hand, less waiting but on the other hand, she would have to think of things to say and unlike usual, her mind had gone unusually blank.

They'd been kind of a thing for several weeks now, the nerves should be gone and yet she had butterflies in her stomach like it was the first date again. Judging from his leisurely pose, hands tucked into his leather jacket with a confident smile on his face, he wasn't feeling the same way and she quickly forced an equally cocky smile.

"I'm here," She said, giving him a small wave, "Sorry, I'm a little late."

"No rush," He replied, "Perks of being a seventh year, we can stay out until ten on weekends and it's only half seven."

"True," She replied, leaning in to give him a quick kiss, "Do you like my shirt?"

"I do, not as colourful as usual," She smiled as she noticed a hint of realisation in his eye, "Black for Sirius Black. Smart, I get it."

"Yep," She replied, linking his hand with hers as they began to walk, "So, where shall we go? I heard Madam Puddifoots is popular."

"Urgh, no thank you," He replied, "Too many bad memories."

"It's hard to feel sorry for you on that one," She admitted, "I mean you did kind of cause that. We've had good times at the Three Broomsticks but I don't want to go there particularly, that brings back bad memories of the date that you brought friends on. I'm curious, did you do that on purpose or did you just not realise?"

He was silent for a few moments before shrugging, "Whichever makes me sound better."

"They both make you sound bad."

"Then neither."

"That's not an option."

"The point is we're going on a date now just the two of us," He said quickly, clearly a little embarrassed by his obvious mistake, "Merlin's beard, we're actually doing this. You know, after our first date, I genuinely thought there wouldn't be a second one. I usually don't go on second dates with girls who tell me to suck it up and sign."

"And yet here we are, three months later going on our second one," She turned to him with mock horror, "Do you think we're rushing into this?"

"Most definitely."

Although she hoped it was sarcasm, Sirius's sarcastic voice was so close to his regular voice that she genuinely didn't know anymore, "Well, either way, we still need to decide where we're actually going."