Holidate

Ch. 4 St Patrick's Day

I didn't want to think about Sirius Black. With his long curly hair and his weird stomach muscles and his stupid fucking leather jacket, but somehow he was constantly on my mind. It was just this whole situation that was stressing me out. The fact that I had to be in a fake relationship so I wouldn't be married off was honestly making me go crazy.

I never knew how to take Sirius Black and before all this we were in a comfortable place where our goal was to see who could annoy the other the most, but now? Now it was all unfamiliar because he still annoyed me, but he was showing a side I had never seen before and I wasn't sure what to do with it. He didn't kiss me when I asked him not to, he apologised for that stupid prank, he let me dress him and he even got me a gift which was half inappropriate and half thoughtful.

We hadn't spoken since Valentine's Day and I was starting to worry people might suspect something if we were only seen with each other on special occasions. On the other hand, my mother did not like Sirius Black and even though she didn't say anything, I'm sure she was glad that I wasn't spending a lot of time with him.

Besides, my mother was much happier spending her time trying to pair me up with someone more eligible than Sirius. But they were either too old, too boring or made me feel uncomfortable and I still couldn't bring myself to be entirely in it when I was still trying to convince everyone that Sirius and I were actually dating. When I was still trying to convince myself that Sirius had even agreed to fake date me in the first place.

I also began to fear Sirius would get sick of this charade and call it quits. How long would he want to keep this up? Tiberius was still single and I kept having nightmares that I was walking down the aisle and he was waiting for me. But Sirius hadn't said anything and I didn't want to make that dream a reality so I was stuck in this situation.

I was sitting on my bed one morning, going over all of this when a familiar owl landed on my windowsill.

URGENT! Are you free on March 17th? St. Patrick's Day? Tomorrow? I know we don't celebrate it, but I have an event and need a date. Please, I am begging you.

Yours forever,

Sirius xx

I found it humorous that he ended his notes with two kisses. I was happy because he had obviously rushed it and my handwriting was much neater on the note I sent back.

I am free. Where do I meet you?

It was true, the noble wizarding society did not celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Sure, they took any opportunity to eat good food and drink champagne until they couldn't see straight, but the drunk that was usually achieved on St. Patrick's Day was apparently not in their interests. Mainly the young children celebrated with their group of friends or went out to drink, but I wasn't planning on doing anything until now. I was more than intrigued considering Sirius was using me for image rather than money, as I was using him, and I wanted to know why this was so. That was the only reason I agreed.

THANK YOU. You're the best, I owe you one. xx

He had attached an address in Godric's Hollow and I tried to think of a landmark close by that I could apparate to and figured out the best way to tell my mother.

That night I asked her to sit with me and have a cup of tea and she was more than happy to, until I broke the news.

"I thought you were staying home." She was frowning at me, placing her cup of tea down. "They get disgustingly drunk at these things, you know?" We were sitting on the wooden dining table, a chandelier hanging low and illuminating the room. It would have looked like a nice chat between mother and daughter to anyone walking in, but I was too scared to drink my tea because I was sure I was going to shake and spill it if I tried to lift it up.