AN: Just as a warning, this story is turning rather omnipotent, it kind of jumps from character POV to whoever has the most convenient thought process for the plot :P

By the way, this takes place about a week or so after the Halloween incident, so the wounds are not all that fresh but are still kinda there. Here Kate and Sirius are just pretending it didn't happen, but obviously it'll come back to haunt them later in later chapters.


Chapter 8


James precariously laid down on the hospital wing bed, careful not to stress any of the injuries currently pulsing through his body. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea, he thought to himself. Then he glanced around the hospital, in search of a certain redhead.

"Run this by me again, Prongs," said Sirius's voice, and James sighed in annoyance. "Why did you intentionally fly yourself and your broomstick into a tree again?"

"I already told you," muttered James, "because I heard Lily was in here for some reason, and I needed an excuse to be here as well, didn't I?"

His hazel eyes roved over the wing, still searching for Lily. It occurred to James that Lily could possibly be hiding behind one of the bed curtains just to avoid the likes of James.

Finally, James noticed Sirius's disbelieving stare. Sirius had been staring at James as though he had happened to have the biggest idiot for a best friend in the whole world.

"Don't give me that," James snapped. "I really wanted to check on Evans, make sure she was alright-"

"Interesting," cut in a female's voice.

Black hair, blue eyes and her usual deadpan expression accompanying, Kate strode up to James's bed.

"Your attempts at getting close to Lily really are getting more and more desperate as time goes on. Running into trees to intentionally hurt yourself for a pity vote? For shame."

As though Sirius had already grown exhausted at the sight of Kate, he barked, "Are you stalking me now, Nolan? Because I swear you're there at every corner I turn."

"Yes, because that's exactly the kind of thing I'd do, stalk Sirius Black. That would be right after my sessions of falling in love with You-Know-Who and creating shrines to him."

Sirius smirked. "I knew deep down inside that you were a dark one."

Kate eyed James, who was stiffly lying in the bed and occasionally wincing at the pains he felt in his arms and chest. She almost looked sympathetic, but more piteous that James would be so foolhardy as to fly into a tree for Lily.

"She's here, by the way," said Kate as though trying to mend James's writhing. "But you won't talk to her - she somehow managed to fall asleep in one of wing's beds while waiting for Pomfrey. Which I really can't comprehend, seeing as how these hospital beds are unbearably stiff to sit on, let alone fall asleep in."

"You're telling me," muttered James, shifting uncomfortably in his own hospital bed. "So you came to visit her? What's she doing here anyway? I heard she was hexed by some Slytherin for mocking him about Voldemort."

Kate tried to hide the visible flinch that had overcome her. She knew the Marauders were pretty much fearless in the face of danger, so it didn't surprise her that they would dare say Lord Voldemort's name aloud, even though it was widely discouraged by the wizarding world.

After seeing her flinch, Sirius opened his mouth as though about to reprimand her for being so cowardly, but she spoke before he could.

"You heard right, Potter. Lily got a really hasty hex by that Slytherin Mulciber. He managed to carve the word 'Mudblood' on her forehead. Such a pleasant boy, really."

Anger overcome both James and Sirius. Of course James was the first to implode, yelling, "I'm going to kill Mulciber!"

Kate sighed. She didn't really feel like telling James that he would do no such thing, seeing as she partially felt that Mulciber deserved some kind of punishment for what he had done to Lily. Still, she had to keep up appearances.

"I hope you mean you'll slaughter him on the Quidditch pitch, and not anywhere in the corridors," she said exhaustedly. "I'd rather like to think I take my job as prefect seriously - " she threw Sirius a warning look before he made any jabs - "but it would degrade my own ethics if I put you into detention for giving Mulciber what he deserves."

Surprised at this, James and Sirius gave each other sidelong smirks. They never thought Kate would be for any cause of theirs.

James confidently leaned back with his elbows over his head, then said, "I rather think you're getting soft on us, Nolan. I wonder how much we could get away with now, Padfoot, now that we happen to know about Miss Katie's grudge against Slytherins."

Kate looked like she wanted to reprimand herself for opening her mouth.

"Don't," she warned. "Obviously, I don't think it's right that you'll hex just about anyone because they're in Slytherin. They can't all be evil... But," she added against her will, "from personal experience, I find that at least a small portion of Slytherin house grows up without a conscience. I wouldn't be inclined to tell you off if something mysteriously happened to Mulciber or Avery or whoever. Just don't make it obvious, whatever you do, alright?" she asked, sounding resigned to the fact that James and Sirius would never cease fire in pranking people.

Sirius smirked at James and pointed his thumb at Kate in astonishment. "She's egging us on!"

"No, I'm not," she said, frustrated. "I'm just saying... Oh, forget it!"

Kate swiftly turned and left the hospital without a word to James or Sirius, apparently her visit with Lily was over. Before she could fully get out of earshot, though, she heard Sirius call after her.

"No worries, Nolan, we'll carry out your oh-so covert opts mission of avenging Evans!"

James turned toward Sirius, giving him a funny sort of expression. Sirius didn't notice at first, still watching Kate's retreating back, like he was secretly amused about something. A slow grin then crept on James's face, as he stared at Sirius in a new light.

"Talk about getting soft," commented James airily. "Since when do you agree to do unsaid favors for Kate Nolan?"

Sirius shrugged. "Since she started being not such a pain in the arse. I mean, she's till a bit of one, but in times like these, when she wavers in her pain-in-the-arse crusades, she's not bad." He nodded, mock wisely.

James tried to contain the shit-eating grin that now spread over his face. Unable to help himself, he finally burst, "You know I have a theory."

"Yeah, and what would that be?"

"You like her."

Sirius froze, then slowly turned to give James a look that said he belonged in St. Mungo's.

"Who?" he said slowly, to confirm whether James was really talking about Kate.

"We were previously talking about Nolan, were we not?" sighed James exasperatedly. "Or is you attention span that abysmally short?"

"I have a theory too," countered Sirius. "And that's that you lost some of your smarts when you flew into that tree, because otherwise there is no way you'd come up with such a ridiculous notion."

"She's growing on you," said James confident about his theory now. "You probably thought that little, er, adventure on Halloween was a bit of fun, especially since Nolan was acting so - not Nolan. And now she's grown on you." At the affronted look Sirius was giving him, James added, "Come on, mate. For someone who could care less for Nolan, her name gets mentioned in a lot of your conversations. A lot. Just yesterday, you were going on about how worthless your house-elf was, then it somehow led to how anal Kate is."

Sirius paused, realizing James had a point. It wasn't as though he sought to bring up Kate on a regular basis, it just happened for some reason. He couldn't help it if the most minuscule things just happened to somehow remind him of Kate.

But was that normal?

Sirius shook his head.

"Sorry Prongs, but seeing as your own love life isn't exactly ideal, as you pine over someone who clearly despises you, I don't think you're really allowed to give me advise-"

"I'm not advising you," said James, sounding annoyed. "I'm telling you, I can read you inside out. And I think I can determine when my best mate fancies a girl. Whether you like it or not, you constantly badger on about Kate...

"And just so you know, I think Nolan's alright once you get her to loosen up, so I don't mind if you want to date her or whatever. Us Marauders wouldn't make fun... Well, except perhaps Wormtail, who's still seeking revenge for when you ruined his big date with Sally Meadowes. Poor Peter is still very emotional about that. But I do admit, that leprechaun was brilliant."

"You're an idiot."

"Gee, thanks," said James dejectedly. "Now I've learned not to compliment my friend -"

"No, now you've learned not to accuse me of liking someone who I clearly. Do. Not. Like. End of story."


Sat on the common room couch in front of the fire, Kate had a textbook and parchment sprawled in her lap and was currently scribbling. If Sirius Black hadn't been off gallivanting around the castle all day, then Kate wouldn't be forced to finish the second half of their potions essay, and would be allowed to go to bed. But he wasn't there, so she had to finish the essay because it was due tomorrow.

"Stupid Sirius," she grumbled by herself. It only confirmed her suspicion that Sirius was under the impression that the world revolved around him and nobody else.

Trying to rid thoughts of the reckless Gryffindor boy out of her head, Kate concentrated on finishing the concluding paragraph. She probably would've finished if her train of thought hadn't been interrupted by Lily, who had suddenly swept into the common room. With surprising energy, Lily climbed over the couch and plopped down next to Lily, breathless and windswept.

"What happened to you?"

"Sirius Black likes you."

Kate's head snapped up, to confirm that Lily wasn't playing some kind of sick joke on her. The mere idea of Sirius liking her was preposterous, seeing as he would have to get over the fact that he found Kate incredibly annoying (and the feeling was mutual).

She told Lily in a cold voice. "Funny, Lily. Really witty."

"When you're done giving me the assonance lesson," said Lily, rolling her green eyes, though she was still grinning. "I happen to know Sirius likes you because I was eavesdropping."

"Ah yes," said Kate, as though Lily had just confirmed it was all a joke. "The Hogwarts gossip vine, such a reliable source filled with trusting toadies such as Bertha Jorkins and Narcissa Black. Tell me, this wouldn't have anything to do with my little Arthurian escapade with Black on Halloween-?"

"It's got nothing to do with that! Well, it was mentioned, but that's not the point. It didn't come from Jorkins or Narcissa, but the original source themselves. James Potter and Sirius Black."

Kate's back grew stiff; she didn't like where this conversation was going at all. Slowly, she asked, "What do you mean?"

"You know how Black and Potter are practically brothers. Therefore they know more about each other than themselves, so Potter was somehow able to tell, and so he reckoned that Black had a crush on you and was beginning to soften-"

"You're joking."

"Would I kid about something so severely entertaining?"

"Probably."

"Well, I'm not. Anyway, Black of course denied everything-"

"Good!" burst Kate, relieved that the entire accusation was without proof. "Thats a good sign, thats-very good!" she said for lack of anything else to say. "You know, Potter isn't the all-knowing being he'd like to think he is, so he's probably just severely mistaken. I never did think Potter was very stable - all those bludgers to the head - the boy isn't even able to properly comb his hair."

Lily grinned at the way Kate was rambling. It was Kate's tactic to distract her mind from unpleasant or disruptive thoughts.

"Because he doesn't like me!" snapped Kate, suddenly stern and uneasy about the way Lily kept smiling. "Thats just absurd! Sirius Black does not like me!"

"What?" asked Merle, who had swept down from the girls staircase. "Sirius Black likes you?"

"He doesn't like me!" said Kate, feeling the heat in her face grow hotter. "I mean, really, what's gotten into everyone! Just because I fall for - one measly night, I fall under something thats more like a love potion, and everyone jumps to a conclusion - he doesn't like me!"

"You're not talking about Sirius, are you?" asked Remus calmly, who was accompanied by Peter. The two had seemingly materialized out of nowhere to join the girls in the common room.

"What gives you that idea?" demanded Kate.

"Well," reasoned Remus. "If it had been anybody else who liked you, you wouldn't be this flustered. But clearly-"

"You're wrong!" lied Kate, seeming almost desperate now. "Because we weren't talking about Black at all, we were, we were talking about Mulciber!"

Peter did a double take at the revelation, but Remus was less than convinced that Kate was telling the truth.

"Mulciber likes you?" said Peter, looking scared. "Maybe he was imperioed."

"Don't you mean imperiused?" asked Lily, but she was cut off by Kate, who abruptly stood and faced Peter.

"Contrary to what you think, Pettigrew, I am not that repulsive so as people have to be coerced with unforgivable means just to fancy me! So you can just shove it up your arse!"

With that, Kate grabbed her essay and textbook and marched upstairs.

Merle immediately broke the silence, letting out a great bark of laughter and pointing at Peter. "She told you off, didn't she!"

"Whatever," grumbled Peter, slinking out the Fat Lady portrait. "I still think Mulciber would have to be imperioed. Imperiused."

"Merlin, I love it when she loses her temper like that," said Merle, wiping a tear of mirth from her eye. "Her minds tends to go out the window as well."

"I personally think she's taking it well," said Lily. "Considering it's Black who likes her."

Remus raised his eyebrows at this.


"I hate to ask," said Remus. "Especially since I feel like I'm back in primary school when I do ask, but... you don't fancy Kate Nolan, do you?"

Sirius, who had been calmly lying on his bed with a Quidditch magazine sprawled on his face, suddenly snatched the magazine and threw it aside. Sitting up, he sent James a withering glare.

"Do you see the monster you've created!"

"I didn't tell anyone," shrugged James.

"Then who did?"

"I got wind of it in the common room," said Remus, slightly surprised.

"What?!" Sirius abruptly stood up. "Are you telling me the entirety of the Gryffindor house seem to believe the very false accusation that I fancy Nolan?"

Remus sighed. "No, I think it's just all the sixth year Gryffindors who know. Except for Peter, who thinks Mulciber likes her. Anyway, it was Lily Evans and Merle Lucas who were talking to Nolan about it-"

Sirius blanched, looking very taut and beyond rage. "Nolan knows?" he said very quietly.

"What's the big deal?" James cut in smugly. "After all, you've never cared about false rumors before. Remember Marlene McKinnon and Autumn Clearwater, how everyone kept saying you were dating both at once, but you didn't care that the rumors were entirely fake? Why is it suddenly important now?"

"Because it's Nolan! At least McKinnon and Clearwater flourished my reputation a bit, but Nolan-"

"Or maybe you're only jumpy because this one is actually true," said James with finality. "Mate, really, just fess up to it. You fancy Nolan. We won't laugh... Well, I might laugh, just a bit, but you know perfectly well Moony won't."

"Actually, I might," admitted Remus with a small smile on his face. "At the irony of Sirius fancying a girl who he spent most of his time trying to prove how much he disliked-"

"Sorry to cut in on your little imaginary joke," said Sirius, again terse. "But there's no such feelings. So when will you lot get it through your thick skulls that I don't like Kate Nolan! Believe me, if I did, then you would definitely be in on the secret."

James grinned, "Believe me, Padfoot, we're already in on the secret. You're the only one who isn't."