In a fit of end of the term spirits, the twins and I set off a long string of dung bombs in the corridor and then I walked them to the Hogwarts express for their trip home.
"You know, Mum's been begging us to get you to come home with us," George hugged me.
"Says it's not good for you to stay cooped up at Hogwarts all the time." Fred hugged me. I enjoyed the smell of his jacket and the warmth of his arms around me.
"You know I have to stay with Harry."
"Yeah, we know, but maybe you should do something for yourself for a change." I waved them goodbye and Neville bumped into me.
"S-sorry Nora, I was just late for the train." I hugged him.
"Have a happy holiday, Neville." I kissed him in a friendly way on the cheek and he turned red. He grinned awkwardly and ran off to the train.
Andi squawked and landed on my shoulder, she was wearing a scarf and a knit hat. It would have been funnier if it was a prank but she genuinely liked wearing the little clothes Mrs. Weasley made for her.
I was cocooned in my blankets. Andi was curled up against my stomach and then Hermione was shaking me awake.
"Nora! It's Christmas!" I sighed and pulled my blankets over my face.
"Go open your presents with Ron and Harry. Let me sleep." I had stayed out too late with Sirius last night spending Christmas Eve with him in the Shrieking Shack and drinking butterbeer.
"No, come on, we agreed that we'd do it together in the common room." I saw at the foot of my bed was a pile of presents. I tossed them into the center of my quilt and hauled them out the door. Hermione had left before me and Andi swooped down the steps. Ron had his mouth stuffed full of candy and Harry was holding the long box that had the broom Sirius had bought for him.
Harry was so excited when he opened the box. It was worth not telling him who his godfather was… almost.
Christmas dinner was small, and the fact that Professor Trelawney had predicted that either Ron or Harry would die first out of the group at the table. Hermione didn't do anyone any favors when, against my warning not to, she told McGonagall about the Firebolt Harry got for Christmas with no tag. I told Sirius he should let me sign it or put some cryptic message on it, he was such a drama queen. I thought he'd like that cryptic thing, but he went for the mystery gift. Bad idea. The lovely broom was now being combed over for hexes and jinxes and all the other non-existent bad things Sirius didn't do to the broom. He would have considered it a grave offense to do anything to that broom.
Thatch and I went for a chilly walk to work off some of the food we had gorged ourselves with. "So Fred told you that he's mad for you, yet?" I coughed on my warm hot chocolate and stopped walking.
"You're bloody crazy, mate."
"No, you're blind," Thatch looked at me like I was an idiot. "Haven't you seen the way he acts around you? George has to practically drag him away to give you and another boy some time alone."
"He's just being protective." I rolled my eyes.
"Keep telling yourself that and when you believe it, tell me again." I shoved my hands in my pockets and my friend wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "He's a very good guy. You'd be very lucky to get a man like him." I blushed and he squeezed me. "Oh Nora, this year you've gone above and beyond in the love area, dear." I pressed my face against his robe and groaned.
"But I don't really want a boy right now."
"Well you've got your pick of them when you come to your senses."
It was starting to snow hard and we slipped into the hall. An owl slammed into my chest and I grabbed Errol. He was breathing heavily and holding a thick letter. I sat him on a warm hearth and tore open the envelope. I pulled out a folded sheet of paper and a necklace that had a medallion of the laughing wizard that the boys were using for Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. Thatch smirked and pointed at the letter.
Dear Nora,
I know I've been a sod lately but I wanted to tell you that I- the writing was disappearing and I hadn't read it fast enough to even see who it was from, I could only assume Fred.
"Bloody hell." Thatch grumbled and took the blank sheet and pointed his wand at it, trying to get the writing to show up.
"It's no use, I made that invisible ink, and it's not going to come back."
I took the paper back and folded it to shove in my backpack. Errol was snoring and I'd let him sleep.
Thatch walked me back to my common room bemoaning the horrible crime that was Fred writing me a letter in disappearing ink. I didn't tell him again that it was just invisible ink. He wished me a Happy Christmas again and went back to the Slytherin common room.
I sat on my bed and held the empty paper, twirling the magic glasses in my fingers that were needed to read the letter. I hadn't read it… yet. I didn't know if I would.
Why did boys have to go a ruin everything by writing sensitive letters in invisible ink?
The twins came back the day before classes resumed and were their normal mischievous selves. Harry was still sullen about his broom and when I told Oliver, you would have thought it was his broom that had been taken.
One thing that brightened up my day was the lessons Harry had with Professor Lupin about dementors. I helped him catch the boggarts but never practiced the Patronus he was showing Harry. I sat and watched from somewhere in his office so Harry couldn't see me and get nervous.
I listened while Lupin talked to Harry about how horrible the dementors' kiss would be and how existence would be bleak for anyone whom it happened to. I shuddered to think of that happening to my dad.
Sirius and I had been spending as much time as we could together and he was excited to sneak back onto school grounds to watch Harry practice and play Quidditch again. He was appalled that I did not know how to fly a broom and had offered to buy me one. I declined.
Fred acted the way he always had, maybe even a little less protective than usual so I just shrugged and figured he decided that he didn't like me the way Thatch thought and went along pranking with him.
Everything was good until Ron's rat disappeared. He kept being really mean to Hermione and finally the day of the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw I yelled at him in front of everyone to stop being such a foul git over a rat that wasn't even a good pet. Scabbers had been sickly and probably ran off to die. The twins were in agreement with me which made Ron even madder.
The morning of the Quidditch match, everyone walked with Harry down to breakfast and their eyes were on the Firebolt. Cedric Diggory came up and winked at me. The twins bristled behind me and I smiled. He congratulated Harry of having such a good replacement for his Nimbus and he wished the team good luck.
"What was that about?" Hermione giggled as she sat beside me.
"I help him with his potions homework sometimes. He's a real charmer."
"Ooooooh." Hermione teased and I smiled.
"Not like that, Hermione, he's just a friend." Fred tossed Ced a dark look and George jibbed him in the ribs, whispering something. I went back to eating my oats and eggs.
I was watching Harry zip around on his Firebolt during the match but three shifting black figures caught my attention down by the entrance to the pitch. I was almost there when I heard a blood curdling scream. I burst out to get a face full of black fabric which I batted away. I grabbed Goyle and punched him in the nose. He touched it and howled when he felt the blood gushing from his face. I kicked his arse out of the way and hooked Crabbe with a quick punch to the jaw. Malfoy was quivering, still draped in his black fabric to make him look like a dementor. Marcus Flint was running away. I snarled at him and he flinched. My inner wolf hound was becoming more of my personality. That scared me. I straightened my back and took a step backwards. I had just bloodied a boy's face and was about to tear that little ferret Malfoy to shreds. That wasn't me, was it? That smug look on Draco's face rekindled my fury and I lunged at him.
"NORA!" Remus yelled at me. I had Malfoy by the collar and was tearing him a new one about dressing up like a dementor when he didn't realize what they did to people.
Crabbe and Goyle were too busy nursing their injuries to help their 'superior' out. All the Quidditch players landed and some were cheering.
The teachers all filed out onto the grass. Lupin grabbed me by my jacket and I shoved Malfoy so he almost fell. Dumbledore looked very angry. I stopped fighting and Lupin kept a tight hold on my clothes. The twins looked at me, giving me a thumbs up sign and Madame Pomfrey ushered the two bumbling buffoons off the field. Malfoy pleaded that he also was injured and needed to go to the infirmary but Pomfrey shrugged and said he hadn't been hurt.
"Professor Lupin, please see that Miss Black is taken to my office. I will be along shortly after I have a discussion with Mr. Malfoy here. We do not need any more blood spilt today." Dumbledore said with a half-joking tone. Lupin briskly escorted me out of the pitch and up to the castle.
"Do you understand how stupid what you just did was?" He said in the low calm tone parents get when they have passed the point of yelling.
"I believe what I did was right." Remus had stopped me right inside the main doors to yell at me like he was my father.
"Nora! Do you think that beating people to a bloody pulp is the way to rectify the situation?" I adverted my eyes.
"All they understand is violence, and even then, they'll go back to being mindless troll guards in a few days. No offense." I said to the ogre stationed at the door to keep Sirius Black away. He made a confused noise and I shook my head. "Never mind." Lupin and I continued walking.
"You are an incredibly intelligent young lady and yet you make brash, hot-headed decisions that someday could get you killed."
"I did what my father and James Potter would have done." I said ignorantly. Lupin's face turned red.
"Don't you understand? They were my best friends in the world and they were bullies. Sirius and James made fun of everyone. Severus Snape was embarrassed in front of the whole school and that was what set him on the dark path he went down. You used to say that bullies were horrible people for doing what they do and yet now you fight violence with violence instead of outsmarting them to make the world better."
"Remus." I said quietly, my face burned with embarrassment.
"I'm ashamed of you, Renora." I couldn't say anything and he marched me up to Dumbledore's office. "Don't beat anyone up while you wait." He walked back out the door and I sat down.
"I did what should have been done, right?" I looked up at the paintings of past headmasters who all looked sternly at me and shook their heads.
"Troublemaker, that one." One of them mumbled.
"Daughter of the murderer Sirius Black, knew she'd be trouble." Another agreed. I stood up and walked to where I couldn't hear them. I wiped the tears of anger and embarrassment off my cheeks.
"Nora, please, sit down." Dumbledore was standing behind his desk.
I did and he frowned at me.
"It has occurred to me that maybe I am to blame for your outbursts of anger." I raised my eyebrows.
"Why's that, headmaster?" He sighed and folded his hands.
"Because I have made you Harry's personal bodyguard and that has made you a very violent person."
"Professor I-"
"Please, let me finish speaking." I closed my mouth and looked down. "It must not be easy defending everyone who never had anyone stand up for them." I twisted the hem of the Quidditch jersey Wood had given me. "I know about all the people you defend. Maybe you should teach them how to defend themselves so you do not always have to be the brunt of punishment." He walked around his desk and put a hand on my shoulder. "I know you think that this is the way your father would have handled situations, but really he would not have stood up for a Slytherin if his life depended on it and, in that respect, you act like your father did but defend people like your mother did." I sighed. "I'm going to have to take ten points from Gryffindor, and give you a weeks' worth of detentions with Professor Snape." I nodded. "You may go, but please, I want you to apologize to Crabbe and Goyle, even Malfoy. You gave him a right good scare. Didn't you break his nose last year?" I grinned, looking at my lap.
"I'll go apologize, am I dismissed, professor?" He nodded slowly and I walked out. Madame Pomfrey watched me warily as I said through gritted teeth that I was sorry for pounding them bloody. Crabbe and Goyle scoffed and acted like they didn't care. I walked out without letting it bother me right now.
The twins chewed me out about fighting but then they clapped me on the back and wanted me to know that they would have done the same thing. A few people shied away from me. I understood why. I had stopped trying to be everyone's friend and started being an attack dog.
In the middle of the night I heard someone scream bloody murder and I rolled out of bed. Hermione was practically sprinting out of the room after I heard her mumble something about Ron. I grabbed a sweater to pull on over my pajamas and everyone ran into the common room where Ron was yelling about Sirius Black. They watched me as I walked to him. They even did that really horrible thing where they parted and let me through. I quietly asked Ron what happened and he looked scared to death to tell me.
"Sirius Black just threatened me with a knife." I looked around the room and Percy said he'd go get the headmaster. He looked at me with a mix of disgust and fear. I backed away from the crowd. Harry met my eyes and looked at me like I had just threatened his life. Ron wouldn't even look at me.
"I… I-"
"Did you let him in here?!" Someone yelled. I shook my head.
"No! Of course I didn't! Why would you think that?"
"Because you're his ruddy daughter now ain't you? Me mum knew anyone with the last name Black would be bad news, I guess she's right." I bumped into Neville who was as pale as a sheet.
"I would never help someone hurt my friends, Ron, you know that right?"
He didn't answer and the twins stayed back away from me.
"Traitor." Someone whispered and the room was silent. I ran out and looked at Sir Cadagon.
"Did you let Sirius Black into the common room?" The ditzy knight nodded vehemently.
"I did, fair lady, for he had the passwords, a whole list of them for the entire week." I remembered that I wrote down the passwords for Neville and he must have dropped them. I turned to go confront Sirius when the teachers and Dumbledore came running up. A few of them gave me dirty looks when I stepped away and the Gryffindors all spilled out so our tower could be searched.
I pressed myself up against the wall and when McGonagall became irate about there being a list of passwords that Sirius Black used. Neville came forward and I pushed my way through to say that I was the one who had made the list for him so I was just as guilty. We were both stripped of our rights to go on the Hogsmead trips for the rest of the year and also Neville's grandmother would be receiving a letter about what happened. I squeezed his hand and promised I'd be there when the Howler came because the howlers always came. The castle was searched and I sat in my room while everyone except Hermione whispered about me. A few girls had openly called me a criminal. I walked out. I wouldn't be able to hold my tongue for much longer.
"Nora." Someone said softly from one of the over-stuffed chairs. I looked and Neville was sitting there. His eyes were red and puffy.
"Did they kick you out of your dormitory?" He nodded.
"I'm worthless, aren't I? I can't do anything right." I pulled him out of his chair and hugged him.
"No you're not. I'll sort this out. People will forgive and forget and we have to prove ourselves all over again."
"Are you sure?"
"Neville, people think I let my father come into the house and try and kill my best friends, so I can't afford to think anything else."
"They're just scared, they really don't think you'd do that. They just want someone to blame when things go sour." I squeezed him once more before I stepped away.
"Come on, we're going somewhere better than this stuffy old common room." We walked out and I took him up to my secret hideaway I split up my pillows and blankets for each of us and enchanted the ceiling to look like the universe with swirling galaxies and innumerable stars.
"Thank you, Nora, for being such a good friend. I don't know what I would do without you."
"You're welcome, sleep well."
