Nothing Like You and I
Chapter I – Sixth Year
Hello all! Here's another story, with a (hopefully) interesting plot!
Young and in love with his best friend since he was young, Sirius Black never realized the repercussions of these feelings and how far he would have to go for her. SBOC.
"James Potter, you disgusting prat! Get away from me!" came the screech from a compartment on the Hogwarts Express. A few seconds passed and a furious looking red-headed girl came bursting out of a compartment, storming down the hall. A blonde followed after her with a slightly bemused glance, not before she was stopped by a desperate James Potter.
"Nola, please! In all my five years at Hogwarts, I've never been so madly in love with a girl as I am with her! You have to plead my case!"
The blonde patted the messy-haired boy on the arm. "James. I cannot change her mind. It doesn't work like that. Only Lily Evans will change Lily Evans' mind."
"But-but Nola Wyndham is Lily Evans' best friend!" was James' last, final plea.
"But Nola Wyndham is not very persuasive in the matters involving James Potter. Sorry." Disappearing down the hall after her angry friend, a very frustrated James Potter sat back down in his seat, closing the compartment door.
"What better way to start off sixth year then pissing off your favorite prefect, Lily Evans," Remus commented, lowering his book to shoot an amused glance at his friend.
"I just tried to kiss her! She acts like I have some kind of incurable lip fungus!" His hazel eyes widened and he quickly jumped to the window, concentrating on his reflection in it. "I don't have some kind of lip fungus do I?"
"That's bloody disgusting!" Sirius exclaimed from where he was seated, his feet propped up on the seat across from him where Lily and Nola had previously been sitting. Nola. Sirius shook the thoughts out of his head. She was one of his closest and oldest friends and the sad fact of the matter was, she was the one girl who had absolutely no romantic interest in him. Sure they'd tried dating. They'd been five at the time and they'd gone out for three days before Nola had dumped him because he'd stolen the last cookie from her. And that was the sad tale of their relationship.
Their families were similar. The Wyndham lineage was ancient and completely pure, not a trace of Muggle blood in it. They came from old money, passed down through the centuries. And they were blood elitists. The Wyndhams looked down on Muggleborns the same way the Blacks did and the Black and Wyndham lines had run parallel together for many centuries, so it was only natural that Sirius Black and Nola Wyndham had grown up together.
Not only was she not interested in him (because if she was? She certainly didn't show it or hint at it), she was off limits. And that had Sirius Black completely and totally intrigued with her.
Nola followed after Lily until she found the Prefect compartment, which was thankfully empty. Sinking down in her seat, Lily adjusted the gold 'P' on her chest and sighed.
"I am completely over James Potter and his arrogance. Him and his stupid friends! Why can't they just leave me alone!" she complained to Nola.
Seated on the other side, Nola chuckled amusedly. "He loves you, Lily! What can I say?" She looked down at her own 'P' before flicking some lint off the silver and blue tie she wore around her neck. "Anyways, let's go find Janessa and Dori. I have to go meet Evan in a little while." Lily wrinkled her nose at the thought of Nola meeting up with Evan.
"I can't believe you're even civilized to him."
"He's my fiancé," Nola said with a shrug.
Sixteen-year old Nola Rosaline Wyndham had grown up with her life completely planned out for her. She'd been born into a family that had pure lineage that extended farther back then she could even remember. Her family tree was immensely long (18 volumes to be exact, and still unfinished) and as soon as she'd been born, her life had been pretty much predestined to follow in her mother's footsteps; become engaged at birth to a wealthy, pureblooded son and become a mindless trophy wife. They already had a son who would carry on the line, so what good would a daughter do for them?
They immediately had her engaged to Evan Maximillian Rosier. The Rosiers were a family that had values that suited the Wyndhams well and they thought their lines would mix well. And they made sure she talked to all the right people. From the start, she had an instant group of people her age to grow up with. The Blacks. The Lestranges. The Rosiers. The Carrows. The Notts. The Montagues. The Parkinsons. The Greengrasses. All the pureblood she could dabble in so that when the time came for her to go to school, she would know who her friends were and who weren't. She was told at a young age that at 17, she would be married. She was polite to her fiancé. She sat with him and talked to him and held his hand. But what normal three-year old had a betrothed? It wasn't right, but it was Nola's life.
She constantly attended and was required to be at functions hosted by her parents or someone else's. She met all of the young children her age that would become her future social group. Bella. Narcissa. Alecto. Amycus. But Nola found she didn't connect with any of them. Sure, she was polite. But she never let them bully her into anything and Bellatrix didn't like that at all. She liked people like her sister and Alecto who immediately gave her something when they wanted it, or took things from other people for her. And Nola wasn't like that. She was the type of girl who pushed back, who started physical fights in the middle of parties, and who always had some kind of good retort. And then that's when she met Sirius Black.
It had been a long time ago. She was 4-years old and sitting in the backyard of the Carrows while their parents were inside having tea. Bellatrix had come out and tried to make Nola give up her spot on the swing. Eyes flashing, Nola had impulsively kicked at Bellatrix, knocking her over. The angry dark-haired child had then decided to gang up on her and, recruiting her sister to help, knocked Nola off the swing and tried to kick her while she was down on the ground, furiously trying to get back up and retaliate, but she was outnumbered. And then, a little black-haired boy had come out of the woodworks and pushed Bellatrix away from Nola.
"Get away from her!" Nola remembered him shouting angrily at his cousin.
"You can't protect her forever, Sirius," Bellatrix had told him haughtily before leaving, while Narcissa had merely rolled her eyes and followed after her sister.
And they'd been friends ever since. He knew all about her engagement. He found it disgusting that she'd been forced to get her first kiss from Evan. He personally found Evan rather snotty and annoying. He actually found the whole arranged marriage thing rather disgusting, and made sure Nola knew this too.
Yet he never got why Nola let her parents do this to her. Even when she went away to Hogwarts, she'd just merely accepted the fact that she was going to be in a loveless marriage that was purely done for the purpose of continuing a pure bloodline. It was so completely unlike her. And it pissed him off to no end that the normal Nola became so reserved around him. She was so fiery and passionate and impulsive. Her and Sirius would get into some of the worst arguments and then five minutes later, they were over it. Sometimes she would say or do things without even thinking about repercussions. She would make decisions without thinking about the consequences and someone almost always had to save her, that someone usually being Sirius. She was sometimes even more reckless than himself, and that was saying a lot. Yet she was one of the most caring, motherly people he'd ever known. She was the one who throughout all the years, always took care of them, was always at someone's bedside when they were sick, tutored them when they were doing badly in a class, or was just a good shoulder to lean on. Nola was a complex, complicated girl.
"See you guys later," Nola said to the three girls as she left their compartment to go meet up with Evan.
"Take your wand!" Lily yelled after her. Nola smiled to herself. She was just glad she'd met them. She found she didn't really fit in with the whole Slytherin crew.
Moving down a few compartments, she knocked on one of them and the door opened for her. Inside was her fiancé, Evan Rosier, along with Edward Nott, and Sebastian Montague. Evan glanced up and a standard smile appeared on his face, before he turned to his friends and nodded to them. Taking that as their cue to leave, Nola sat down next to Evan and he automatically put an arm around her as she scooted closer to him.
"How's Lily?" he asked. He knew that was her best friend, but absolutely loathed the fact that Nola chose to be friends with that mudblood girl. Her parents had warned him that she was going through a phase. That she claimed that she only went along with this whole thing if they just let her keep her life at Hogwarts. Stay friends with her friends, Lily, the Marauders, and especially Sirius. Not force her into any of this Death Eater business.
"She's good. Still on the run from James Potter," she responded, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
"Ah, of course, everyone knows about Potty's obsession with Evans."
"Lily," Nola corrected.
"Evans is a pretty girl. I can understand why Potty likes her," he said, emphasizing the 'Evans' knowing it irked Nola when he called her Evans instead of Lily.
"I guess." Nola shrugged and leaned her head on his shoulder more out of habit then anything. With Evan, she felt like she was already married to him. They'd been like this for several years at least and to the whole of the Wizarding population, Nola Wyndham was off limits and had been as soon as she entered Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It hadn't meant that she hadn't tried to exercise her new found freedom of not being constantly watched by her parents or some relative. And she'd paid the consequences for that. She'd remembered in their fourth year, Evan had discovered Nola in a broom closet with a fifth year Ravenclaw. Angered and outraged, he'd dragged her out by the hair, nearly killing the boy she'd been with. He'd taken her to an empty corridor and slapped her, calling her a whore and wondering what the whole of the school would think about his fiancée sleeping with other men. She'd run off to the only person she could; Sirius Black.
Her relationship with Sirius Black was complicated to say the least. They'd been best friends since they were five. Evan hated their relationship. It was so much deeper than hers and his. They'd vowed to stick together through thick and thin. She could never desert him, especially when his parents had disowned him. She was there for him, despite her parent's displeasure at having the estranged Sirius Black at their house when he would leave to escape the wrath of his mother. But there was something else there besides deep caring and friendship. She was in love with him. There was no question about it. And eventually, she just learned to hide away those emotions because there was no way she could be with him. He knew about her engagement to Evan and that it couldn't be broken. He'd even wanted her to run away together when they were 12. She couldn't do that, as nice as that sounded, because logically, two 12-year olds couldn't really survive in the real world together.
So when her parents demanded that she cease this friendship with Sirius after he became an outcast in his own family, she couldn't do it. She was a Ravenclaw and the gears were just turning in her mind as she turned it around on her parents. She informed them that if they wanted her to marry Evan and go on with this little fantasy life they had planned for her, they would continue to allow her to keep her own friends and her own life. Otherwise, she would find the contracts and burn them and end this whole miserable engagement, run away, marry a Muggle and stain the Wyndham line with impure blood. That had hit a spot in her father. So he'd allowed her to continue on with this life and she'd stayed with Evan, just as they all wanted. But Sirius could never understand why she stayed with Evan and she could never tell him why, exactly. It had been for him. If she couldn't be with him, she could at least be his best friend still and it killed her a little but she sought solace in Evan so she wouldn't feel so lonely sometimes, especially the nights when she found Sirius flirting with some new witch, toying with her hair, whispering delicious, naughty things in her ear that had her giggling like a schoolgirl. She would sigh and wish that she was that girl he would whisper all those things to, and then she would snap back to reality. She didn't want to just be another notch on his bedpost. It occasionally made her glad she had Evan. It was just... nice to have a bed and a warm body that she could go to when she needed it. It was their arrangement. They weren't allowed to date around with other people, but they didn't have to act like a completely normal couple. They didn't take long walks by the lake holding hands. They didn't have to be at each other's side all the time. Evan didn't walk her to class and carry her books for her. They would even see each other around school and barely acknowledge the other. They did meet for meals and talk about how their life was going and Nola found herself often in Evan's room when she was feeling extra lonely. Or sometimes he would ask her to meet him in an empty classroom and she knew exactly why. They had a strange arrangement, but this was how it was going to be until they were married.
"Where's Nola?" Remus asked Sirius as he finally set down his book, getting ready to go to the prefect meeting.
"Oh I don't know, probably off with that old toerag, Rosier," Sirius said dismissively.
"Alright, well we're supposed to go to the prefect meeting together." Finding his own 'P', he pinned that on his robes and opened the door, finding Nola outside with Evan.
Sirius happened to glance outside of the compartment and looked away quickly as he saw Evan kiss Nola, then look in the compartment and glare at Sirius. Evan gave her another lingering kiss on the cheek, as if to stake his claim on Nola in a way Sirius could never do, before heading off and Nola flicked some imaginary lint off of her robe before looking up at Remus.
"Ready to go? Lily is already over there, I'm sure," she said, not looking at Sirius right away.
"Yeah, let's go," Remus said, casting a glance over his shoulder before heading out the door. Nola poked her head into the compartment and looked at Sirius.
"See you in a bit Sirius," she told him, then smiled at James and then Peter. "Bye, you two." Then the door shut.
"Mate, you have got it bad," James told him with a shake of his head.
"Shut up, Prongs," Sirius muttered, snatching up the book Remus had been reading and pretending to busy himself with it.
"That's upside down," Peter mentioned from his corner. Sirius glared at Peter, and then James, and then flipped it the right way, going back to reading.
"Is everyone alright with the patrolling assignments for this month?" The Head Girl, Melissa Waters asked as she stood in front of all the prefects as they all crammed into the prefect compartment.
This meant that all the prefects were practically sitting on each other's lap. That or they were on the floor. Nola was currently squished between Lily and the 6th year Hufflepuff prefect, Amos Diggory. Sighing, she pushed her bangs out of her face as she agreed with everyone about patrolling assignments. The meeting felt like it went on forever as the Head Boy and Girl droned on about prefect bathroom rules (a pointed glance landed on Remus Lupin, who had the sense to look embarrassed for his friends and their late nights) being out late, reporting people who were out late and all the normal drone of being a prefect. Nola yawned from where she was standing, glancing out the window and watching the scenery fly by. She could tell they were close to Hogwarts. She already recognized the Scottish landscape. It was rather gloomy and unique.
"And that's all, any questions?" The Head Boy, Christopher Warrington asked.
Eager to get this meeting over with, everyone shook their heads and Nola elbowed Lily, whose hand had been ready to shoot up to ask a question.
"Later!" She whispered fiercely to Lily. "If I have to stand here watching Diggory oogle my goodies for five more minutes, I will hex somebody."
"I just wanted to know if we can give detentions," Lily commented with a frown.
The prefects filed out and all headed back to their own compartments, Nola headed back to the Marauder's compartment with Remus. They opened the door, finding Peter and James asleep and Sirius still awake, reading Remus' book.
"Oi, Nola, Moony!" he said to them, greeting them before handing the book over to Remus, inviting Nola to sit down next to him. "How was the prefect meeting?" Sirius asked the two of them, leaning against Nola as she pulled the latest issue of Witch Weekly out of her book bag.
"Boring. Annoying. Cramped," Nola answered before Remus could, flipping the magazine open. Remus gave an amused nod.
"That about sums it up. Alice Walker was on my lap for most of the meeting."
"Frank would've killed you for that one!" Sirius told him, a grin lighting up his handsome features.
"It wasn't my fault!" Remus held up his hands in his own defense. Nola giggled at their little exchange, turning the pages in her magazine.
"Nono—" Nola interrupted him before he could finished that sentence.
"Sirius! What have I told you about that awful nickname?"
"Uh, it's cute?" He tried to give her an innocent grin. She glared at him.
"What did I say about Nono, and Lala or anything that shortens my name anymore then it already is?"
Sirius frowned. "But I like them." Another death glare was shot in his direction. "Okay Non— la."
"What was that?" Her hazel eyes danced playfully from behind her magazine.
"Nola, sorry! Geez!" Sirius cried out in an exasperated tone.
"That's better," she told him with a sassy grin. Sirius merely rolled his eyes and tugged on a lock of her long blonde hair. "Oh, real mature, Sirius."
"Children, shut up," James muttered from where he'd been attempting to sleep but awakened by Sirius and Nola's petty argument.
"Whatever!" Nola told him, aiming her magazine at him. It hit him precisely where she wanted it to go; right smack dab in the middle of his forehead.
"OW!" he flew up, which caused Peter to wake up with a start, rolling off the seat. Sirius and Nola were laughing so hard, tears were streaming down their faces, and Remus was shaking behind his book.
"You wankers!" James yelled, rubbing his forehead and tossing the magazine back at them, causing it to slap Sirius across the face. A whole new round of giggles erupted from Nola and Remus could no longer hide behind his book as he bent over, cracking up. Even Peter was laughing from the floor at the shocked look on Sirius' face.
"Why you little-" Nola pushed him down before he could get up and retaliate against James, still laughing. Brushing tears away from her eyes, she looked at Sirius and then at James.
"Sit you two. Calm down. Let's not get expelled before we've even arrived at school."
Peter chuckled as he sat back down in his seat and the boys all relaxed again.
An hour later, the compartment door flew open and Lily Evans stuck her head in. Glaring at a currently sleeping James, she turned to Nola, who was reading her magazine, Sirius and Remus fast asleep on either side of her.
"Nola," she said. Nola glanced up at her.
"Yeah?"
"C'mon, let's go, train's about to stop and we should get our stuff ready in the other compartment."
Nola put away her magazine and moved Sirius and Remus' heads, which had been leaned on her shoulders, leaning them against each other instead. Picking up her bookbag, she glanced at James, who was fast asleep again. She looked at Lily, who grinned.
"POTTER!" she barked in his face before heading out of the compartment quickly.
"WHERE'S THE FIRE!" he yelled, waking up the other three boys and startling Peter once again. The cycle started all over again.
Nola slammed the door shut and skipped merrily down the hall, as she heard shouts and yelling coming from their compartment, mostly shouts of "JAMES!"
A loud beep was heard throughout the train and an announcement blared loudly in each compartment.
"The train will be stopping in five minutes. Five minutes."
And this was the beginning of sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Alrightey guys, that's the first chapter! Reviews would be mucho appreciated : This is my first attempt at fanfiction in three years or so-ish so if you would let me know what you guys think :D