Disclaimer: It's all JKR's...'cept for the stuff that's mine.

CHAPTER TEN

It was a few days before the Winter Break, and late one evening Nikki was trying to read a book as she sat comfortably on her bed, but the incessant chattering of her roommates didn't allow her to get past more than two lines.

"Don't call Amos a pompous ass!" Terri suddenly shrilled at Marcia. Nikki put her book down—she could tell that this was going to be more entertaining.

"Oh, so you're going to take his side over mine?" Marcia asked angrily, her chubby cheeks glowing hotly.

"I'm not taking any sides. I'm just saying that maybe you misunderstood him," Terri retorted.

"Right," Marcia said with sarcasm. "I suppose anyone can misunderstand the words 'she reminds me of the fat stubborn gnome in my parents' garden'"?

"He never said fat!" Terri said defensively, and then continued before Marcia could interrupt her, "Besides, you were being stubborn. You weren't listening to any of his suggestions."

"Yeah, because they were stupid!" Marcia yelled. Nikki knew this argument wasn't going to end any time soon. She was relieved when she saw Lanie stroll into the dorm.

"My goodness!" Lanie said with wide eyes. "What is going on in here? I could hear you two squabbling from outside."

"You don't want to know," Nikki said before any of the other girls could start complaining again.

"You're right," Lanie said with a smile. "I don't. I wanna stay in a good mood."

"Why what happened?" Nikki asked her.

Lanie went on the edge of Nikki's bed and then plopped back with a sigh. "I was just walking with Remus."

"Oh, God," Nikki said, rolling her eyes. "I should've known it had something to do with Remus." Lanie just sighed heavily again. Terri and Marcia had stopped speaking to each other and were now sulking in their own corners of the room.

"Remus looked a bit pale. Probably 'cause it's getting close to the full moon," Lanie said in her dreamy voice.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Nikki asked her with confusion.

"Oh, well obviously 'cause he's a werewolf," she said unaffectedly. The other three girls stared at each other for a second, and then burst out laughing.

"Man, Lanie, the things you come up with," Nikki said shaking her head.

"Fine, don't believe me. I don't care," Lanie said without sounding the least bit offended. She sighed dreamily again and said, "You know, we walked by Violet Brown, and she looked so jealous!"

"Really?" Nikki asked. "I didn't think she was the jealous type."

"Oh, please. You don't know her very well. Violet and Sirius were chatting outside the Gryffindor common room and as we walked by them, I saw Violet give Remus this look and then she moved closer to Sirius and started flirting with him and giggling."

"I see," Nikki said with a smile. Lanie got up and went to the washroom and Nikki opened her book again to read. It wasn't long before her mind started to wander off however, and she found herself thinking about Sirius. She could feel that familiar desire start to grow inside of her again. The same one that had been hitting her almost every day since the first time they kissed in the library a few weeks ago. She had been sneaking out late at night to see him a few times a week, meeting him in either an abandoned classroom or, their favorite, the restricted section of the library.

Nikki needed to find him, but before she could do that she needed to find an excuse to get out of her dorm without her roommates wondering where she was. She put her book down and thought of an idea.

"Hey, I think I'm gonna go for a run," she said to her roommates.

"A run?" Marcia asked. "Outside? It's freezing."

"It's not that cold. We're having a pretty mild winter. Anyways, if it's too cold, I'll come back inside," she said. And before anyone could suspect her of anything else she asked, "Anyone wanna come with?"

"Yeah right," Terri said sarcastically. "You can go freeze your bum off yourself."

"Alright," Nikki said as she tied up her running shoes. "I'll see you girls later."

She stepped out the door and headed out of the dorm, wondering how she was going to get a hold of Sirius. As she walked across the castle towards Gryffindor Tower, it suddenly occurred to her that this was the first time that she was taking any initiative with Sirius.

I feel weird, she thought to herself. Maybe I shouldn't be doing this. She was just walking past the portrait of the Fat Lady outside of the tower when a younger student came outside.

"Hey," Nikki said to her. "Do you know if Sirius Black is in there?"

"Um," the girl said with a bit of hesitation, "yeah he is."

"Do you think you can call him out here for a sec?" Nikki asked her.

"Er…" the girl stuttered, looking a bit scared.

"What's the matter?" Nikki asked her. "Is he doing something?"

"No, I think he was just with his friends. The older guys," the girl replied.

"So can you get him out here?"

"Um…okay fine," she replied, looking anxious.

"Thanks," Nikki said, and then looked at the girl a little skeptically. "What're you doing out here so late, anyways?"

"Nothing," she said quickly and went through the portrait hole.

"Strange kids," Nikki mumbled to herself as she waited outside.

"I'm bored," Sirius said as he was lounging around in the Gryffindor common room with James, Remus and Peter.

"You're always bored," Remus said dryly. He looked tired and his face was very pale.

"Can't wait for the winter break," said Sirius. He surveyed the room, trying to find something interesting to look at. I should've told Nikki to meet up with me tonight, he thought to himself glumly.

Sirius let out a bored sigh when James cleared his throat. Sirius looked up at him and James pointed next to him. Sirius looked to his side a saw a first year looking at him shyly, her face pink.

"May I help you?" he asked with an airy grin. He loved picking on the younger kids.

"There's someone calling you outside," she said quietly, her face turning redder by the second.

"Is there," he said and looked at her inquisitively. "Is it a male or a female?"

The girl looked at his grinning friends nervously and said, "A girl."

"Ah, I see," Sirius said. He smiled at the girl and said with a wink, "Is she as pretty as you?"

The girl's eyes went wide and her face turned scarlet. She quickly turned away and ran off to her friends as the boys started to laugh out loud.

"Well, I guess I'll catch you guys later," Sirius said, getting up happily, even though he had no idea who would be outside. As he exited through the portrait hole, he saw a long mane of black hair leaning against the wall and his heart skipped a beat.

"Oh, hey," he said looking surprised.

"Were you expecting someone else?" Nikki asked him wryly.

"Well…actually yeah," Sirius said truthfully.

"You busy?" she asked, stuffing her hands in her pockets. She was starting to feel a little awkward. What if he was going to meet someone else that night?

"Nope, I was just thinking about you," he said with a smile.

"Really," Nikki said disbelievingly.

"Yep," he said. "That's why I was surprised it was you calling me out here. So what's up?"

"Um…nothing," Nikki said, trying to choose her words carefully. "I was kinda…bored."

"Bored, eh?" Sirius said with a knowing grin.

"Yeah. Bored," Nikki replied, trying not to grin back.

"So," he said, taking her arm. "Let's go do something fun then."

As they made their way down the corridors, Sirius asked her, "Did you just go for a run or something?"

"No, that's what I told my roommates I was going out to do," Nikki said with a laugh.

"Ooh, nice excuse. They won't second guess why you'll be all sweaty and flushed."

Nikki smacked Sirius's arm. "I don't get that much of a work out, don't flatter yourself."

"We'll see," he replied.

The next morning Nikki found herself eating breakfast in the Great Hall with Lily, when the morning post owls came flying over them. A letter dropped onto Nikki's lap and she opened it up.

"Oh, man. Not again," she said shaking her head.

"What is it?" Lily asked her.

"I keep getting these strange notes," Nikki told her in a hushed voice. "I've gotten about five of them already. They all just say really creepy things. I thought I knew who they were from, but now I'm not so sure."

"What does that one say?" Lily asked her. Nikki handed the note to her. It read: I think I'm going crazy. I don't know why I still can't get you out of my head.

"Weird," Lily said, handing the note back to Nikki. "So you don't know who they're from?"

"Nope," replied Nikki. "It's just giving me the creeps, knowing that someone's out there…watching me all the time." She looked around the Great Hall, trying to figure out who it could be. Maybe it is Sirius, she thought to herself. He could just be pulling another one of his stupid pranks…

"Hello ladies," said a charming voice behind them. Nikki quickly stuffed the note in her pocket as Sirius put his arms around both of their shoulders. "You two are looking exceptionally beautiful this morning."

"Whatever it is the answer's no," Lily said, and then took a bite of her French toast.

"Lily, what makes you think I need a favor?" he asked her as he took a seat next to Nikki.

She looked at him skeptically and then shook her head.

"Hey, where's Remus?" Nikki asked him.

"Being accosted by Dana Abbott," Sirius said with a grin. "Why?"

"Dana Abbott? Poor guy," said Nikki. "No I just needed to ask him if he could switch Prefect duty shifts with me tonight."

"He has duty tonight?" Sirius asked her.

"No I do," Nikki replied. "I wanted to know if he could take mine and then I'd take his next time."

"Oh…" Sirius said slowly. "Actually…I don't think he's gonna be able to."

"Why not?" Nikki asked.

"I'm pretty sure he's busy," Sirius replied.

"Doing what?" Nikki inquired.

"Don't be so nosey, Nikki," he said as he elbowed her side. "It's rude."

"What the—" Nikki was saying when she saw Remus walk into the Great Hall with Dana holding his arm. Uh oh, she thought to herself. Lanie isn't going to like the sight of that.

Nikki took a peek up across the tables and saw her roommate glaring in Remus and Dana's direction. They came towards the table and sat directly across her and Sirius. Nikki noticed that Dana gave Sirius a bit of cut-eye before turning her attention back onto Remus.

"Remus," she cooed in his ear, "you look so pale today. You need to eat lots of breakfast." She started to pile food onto his plate and he gave Sirius a look. Nikki couldn't tell if Remus was angry or embarrassed.

James and Peter soon joined them and Nikki continued to eat her breakfast, noticing every now and then the glares Dana kept giving Sirius in between stuffing Remus's face with food.

"So what did you do to tick off Dana Abbott?" Nikki asked Sirius during Muggle Studies class that afternoon.

"What do you mean?" he asked her.

"Well she kept staring daggers at you during breakfast."

"Oh," Sirius said. "She's probably pissed 'cause I didn't meet up with her a few nights ago."

"Why didn't you?" Nikki asked.

"Because I was with someone else," he said meaningfully.

"Oh," Nikki said remembering the night they were in an abandoned classroom down in the dungeons.

"I'm not really into her anyways," Sirius said offhandedly. Come to think of it, he thought to himself, I'm not really into anyone these days. Except for Nikki. Uh oh. That can't be a good sign. He looked at her for a moment as she was writing something down in her notes. She caught his gaze and gave him a small smile and continued writing. Sirius looked down at his empty parchment and let out a breath. What was he going to do without her during the holidays? Ah, I'm sure I'll find some girls to keep me company, he said to himself reassuringly. But another voice in his head suggested that maybe he didn't want to be with anyone else. In truth, he hadn't spent time with any other girl besides Nikki since the night they first kissed. Of course, he had led everyone else to believe that he had…

"Oh, hey," he leaned close to her and said in a whisper, "before I forget, I'm gonna be busy tonight."

"Okay," Nikki said lightly. "That's fine. I've got Prefect duty and some assignments to do anyways." Nikki went back to her work, but for some reason she felt like there was something going on with him. Is going to see someone tonight? Not like I care, she thought to herself. He can tell me straight out if he does. There's no need to be secretive about it…

Nikki and Anthony were patrolling the area around the library that night during their Prefect duty, when Lily strolled by them.

"Hey guys," she said. Nikki noticed that she looked a bit tense.

"Everything okay?" Nikki asked her.

"What?" she said distractedly. "Oh, yeah. Fine. Just a bit tired. Anyways, I gotta go. See you later." She walked away, cracking her knuckles.

"She looked stressed about something," Anthony said, looking in her direction.

"Yeah, well she's got a lot to be stressed about," said Nikki. "Probably just got too much to do."

The rest of their duty went by uneventfully, and Nikki was relieved when it was time to go. Anthony headed back to the dorm, but Nikki decided to look for Lily instead. She had a feeling something wasn't right, but didn't want to say anything in front of Anthony before.

She decided to check out the Head's office first, and sure enough, Lily was sitting inside, with a book propped up in front of her, but she wasn't reading. Her eyes were focused over the book, obviously thinking about something that was troubling her.

"Hey, Lily," Nikki said and Lily turned to her.

"Done your rounds?" she asked with a weary smile.

"Yeah," Nikki replied. "Is everything okay? You don't look so good."

"Yeah, I'm alright," Lily said with a tired sigh. "Maybe just stressed out. Too much work to do."

"Hm," Nikki said, looking at the pile of books on the table. "Where's James?"

"I think he's with Sirius, Remus and Peter," Lily replied, looking through one of her books.

"Oh, they're all together?" Nikki asked. She didn't know why, but she suddenly felt a little more relaxed.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure," Lily said, still looking down at her book.

"Wonder what they're up to," Nikki said curiously. "Can't be anything good, eh?"

"Who knows," Lily said, sounding stressed again.

Nikki, who was trying to make light of the situation, felt that she was unintentionally making Lily more stressed out and decided to leave.

"Okay, well I'll see you tomorrow," Nikki said, feeling awkward. "Good night."

The next day, Remus didn't come down to any classes. When Nikki asked his friends where he was during lunch, they just replied that he wasn't feeling well and slept in.

"But it's the last day of school before the break!" she protested. "How can he miss it? He must be really sick."

"Why are you so concerned?" Sirius asked her.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Nikki asked him back. Then she smiled and said in a sarcastic tone, "Why are you being so defensive anyways? You guys aren't hiding the fact that Remus has lycanthropy are you?"

James who was drinking pumpkin juice, nearly choked and the boys and Lily all looked at Nikki.

"What?" she asked them, wondering why they were all staring at her. "I was just kidding. Lanie was trying to convince us the other day that Remus was a werewolf. That girl's got some crazy theories."

"Yeah, that's pretty crazy," James said in agreement.

"Nutso," Sirius said with a grin.

"Yeah," Nikki said, taking a bite of her food. "But why did you all look so bloody offended? It's not like I said Remus was some kind of ogre or something. Werewolves are people too you know. They're not all bad. You guys shouldn't be prejudiced against them. Sometimes you can't even tell if someone is one or not. There might be someone at this school who's a werewolf. I might be a werewolf—"

"Nikki," Sirius said, interrupting her tirade. "Can you please shut up? We're not prejudiced against werewolves, don't worry."

"Good," Nikki said. Sirius looked at her and felt something inside of him swell up. He wished he could just kiss her right then and there.

Everyone around them was involved in their own conversations so he said to her very quietly, "I found this neat room last night. You think I'd be able to show it to you tonight?"

"Mhm," she nodded her head.

"Ow," Sirius winced.

"What was that?" Nikki asked him. It was later that night and Sirius had taken Nikki to the special room he had wanted to show her. It wasn't as neat as Nikki thought it would be, but she didn't really care. It was well hidden, and she wasn't the least bit afraid of anyone else ever finding it. Nikki was sitting on the wide window ledge and Sirius was standing in front of her. They were doing what they always did every time they met at night, and Nikki had just felt something on the top of Sirius's stomach.

"It's nothing," Sirius replied. "Just a scratch."

"How'd you get it?" Nikki asked. She pulled his shirt up to take a look at it. "Ew. It's huge! What did you do?"

"Last night I was outside and I just scraped it against something," he said nonchalantly.

"Looks like a claw mark," Nikki said, inspecting his scratch.

"It's not," he said, pulling his shirt down abruptly.

"Does it hurt?"

"Not too much," he answered. "Only when I touch it."

"You should put something on it," she said.

"Yeah, don't worry it's fine," Sirius said waving it off.

"I'm not worried," said Nikki. "Just make sure it doesn't get infected or anything."

"Why, Nikki," Sirius said with a furtive grin as he leaned into her. "You actually seem concerned about my well-being."

"Not really," Nikki said with a smile. "It's more for my well-being. I'd be bored all the time if something happened to you."

Sirius walked Nikki to the Ravenclaw dormitory a little later that night. He knew that it was going to be a few weeks before he'd see her again, and it made him feel…something. He wasn't exactly sure.

"So, this is it I guess," he said when they arrived in front of the portrait hole.

"Yeah," Nikki said. "You doing anything for the holidays?"

"I'm going to be at the Potters'," he replied. "What about you?"

"Well, VJ's sister's getting married. So I think we're going to be super busy with that."

"Oh that sounds like fun," he said with a smile.

"Not really," Nikki said smiling back.

"Okay, then," he said. He took a quick look around the area to make sure no one was around, and he kissed Nikki one last time. He could feel his heart gently pounding in his chest, and he reluctantly let go of her.

"Take care of yourself, Nikki," he said. He gave her a small peck on the cheek and walked away, his heart feeling heavy.

Nikki walked into the common room, feeling a little odd. She wasn't expecting Sirius to say good-bye to her like that. He was actually…sweet.

"Hey, where've you been?" A voice said, breaking her thoughts about Sirius. VJ was standing in the middle of the common room, looking worried.

"Just walking around," Nikki replied. "Why?"

"I've been waiting here for you for so long," he said.

"What's up?" she asked him. She was standing in front of him now. Her hair was caught in her jacket zipper so she started to pull it out.

"Oh, nothing. I was just gonna remind you to—what is that?" he asked her looking at her as she was smoothing her hair out.

"What?" she asked, looking at him with confusion.

"That mark on your neck," he said, staring at it.

"What mark?" She tried to look down to where he was staring.

"It looks like…" he was saying, until his eyes widened. "Nikki, is that a hickey?"

"A what?" Nikki suddenly felt her hands go cold and her stomach plummet to the ground. She had to think fast.

"Why is there a hickey on your neck?" he asked her in a low voice.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Nikki asked angrily. The only way she knew she'd have a chance of covering this up was to get deeply offended and angry at VJ. "I don't have a hickey, you jackass."

"Where did you say you were again?" he asked her.

"Okay, I don't need to hear this from you," Nikki said, feeling scared out of her wits. "Just wait until we get home tomorrow. I'm going to tell your mum what you've been saying about me. And what you've been up to yourself!" She stormed off, heading up towards the girls' dormitory, her hands shaking.

"Oi!" VJ called behind her. "Nikki, I was just kidding! I know it's not a hickey. Come back for a second! I was joking...you probably don't even know what a hickey is!"

Nikki decided not to turn around, and kept going until she reached her dorm. It was better that VJ still thought that she was deeply upset about what he had said. When she walked through the door, she was glad to see that everyone was asleep. She went straight to the washroom and closed the door quietly. She looked at herself in the mirror and saw the dark mark on her neck.

"Damn, that was close," she said to herself, letting out a breath of relief. "But I don't know how much longer I can keep this up."

A/N: Enjoy.