101 Ways to ditch the Date | SIRIUS BLACK

No. 1

"I'm sorry all the tables are full - "

"Don't be sorry," Ora replied from behind her pile of papers, "I'm with someone so one of those chairs belongs to me. They may be 'full' but one of them is filled by me."

The owner of the restaurant glanced around to see an elegant figure with dark hair sitting alone and figured that must be where the girl was sitting given the fact that everyone else was at least fourty. The Red Cauldron was a fine establishment and the hostess was clearly not happy at the idea of letting a girl with jeans and poorly done makeup in. Still, as long as Ora had a reservation, she had the upper hand and the hostess couldn't refuse.

"I'm with the guy with the dark hair," Ora said, "He's just over there." She pointed her free hand towards Sirius and the owner nodded.

"I figured, you're the only two teenagers in here," She said dryly, "A little reminder for next time, we don't usually allow people with jeans in here but I'll let you in just this once."

"Actually you have no official dress code, I checked. Write one up and I'll follow it but until then I'm going to carry on wearing jeans," Ora said and the owner gave her a dry smile before seating her across the table from Sirius.

"Enjoy your meal, the waiter will be over soon," She said, rolling her eyes at the two teenagers who, in her eyes, had lowered the class of the restaurant by half just by sitting down. As she walked past the waiter, she sneakily whispered, "Give them the expensive wine list, I want them out of here as soon as possible."

"Sorry I'm late, Sirius," Ora said, unaware of the owner's schemes. She slipped her bag off her shoulder, letting it collapse into a heap on the floor before sitting down and plonking the pile of parchment on the table. Sirius looked at her with an odd expression, standing up slightly to read what the top parchment said.

"Terms and conditions of dating Ora Dakota." He looked up at Ora who was slumped back in her chair before giving her a cocky grin, "What is this?"

"Wow, my arms hurt from carrying that," She said, "And it's exactly what it looks like."

Ora was already quite different to his last date, a pretty girl who's dark hair was always perfectly styled. He regarded Ora with slight wariness. Her outfit was very casual for the setting and her platinum blonde hair was incredible tousled and messy, parts of it sticking out at odd angles that defied the laws of physics. The hastily done makeup wasn't enough to hide the clear signs of sleep deprivation; something had been keeping her up at night and he guessed it was the massive pile of parchment in from of him.

"You know, when most girls go on a date with me, they don't bring a -" He flicked through the pages as she watched with vague amusement, " - twenty page terms and conditions book with them."

She gave an indifferent shrug, "Well, this girl does so suck it up and sign so we can get on with this date. Don't worry, it's all fairly standard although I'd recommend you read the truth clause..."

If Sirius was suspicious before, he was even more so now, "Fairly standard, huh? So you do this on all your dates?"

"You can't ask me that," She replied, "Read the first page."

He flicked to the first page, not taking his eyes off of her, "I haven't signed it yet so I still can. What happens when I sign?"

"We can get on with the date," She replied simply, "If you glance over page twelve, I'm sure you'll want to..."

He couldn't help feeling like he was being incredibly manipulated but was intrigued by page twelve so followed her orders, "Oh... really?"

She nodded, "I've signed too so I'll keep up my end of the bargain too. Feel like signing now?"