Natalie had always considered pacing an odd thing. Why tire yourself and hurt your feet when you could sit comfortably? She seriously doubted that walking around aimlessly helped people think any better than sitting. Though, as she paced around her dorm in the Ravenclaw tower, she noticed that it did indeed help her think better, as if her physical movement was helping the movement of her thoughts.

Love and relationships and feelings were all very fickle things. This thought danced around Natalie's head as she replayed the sequence of events from the broom closet not thirty minutes earlier. People want you, but only in certain ways and at certain times, but then change their minds at the drop of a hat, as if it was perfectly alright to toy with another's emotion at will.

Sirius had made up his mind that he no longer wanted his and Natalie's relationship to be a secret, and that he wanted her all to himself. She couldn't blame him, really. She had the same feelings about him as he did towards her but for some reason she wasn't able to bring herself to completely go along with what he wanted.

As if she was participating in a lecture class, Natalie made a mental pro's and con's list. Jason, for instance, had been in her life for years. He was familiar, he was normal. Yet, at the same time, he was plain, he was boring, he was rude, selfish, extremely controlling and overbearing.

Sirius was the complete opposite in every regard. He was new and knew next to nothing about Natalie. He was anything but normal, loved the idea of getting into trouble, had problems with authoritative figures, and didn't really care about school work. But he was so much fun and sweet and caring and just the way he looked at Natalie all the time, whether he knew she was watching or not, made her absolutely melt.

So why was this so difficult? As much as she wanted to deny it, wanting herself to be faithful to the person that she knew everyone else expected her to be with and wanting to be the good, normal girl, she knew that she had fallen completely for the shaggy, dark haired, troublesome, amazing boy that had given all of himself to her that night.

"I am such a fool," Natalie said to herself. Not only was she feeling idiotic for wasting such time realizing that she felt so strongly for Sirius, but she had hurt him tenfold in the process.

Scurrying to her desk, Natalie grabbed a spare piece of parchment and dipped a stray quill in an emptying jar of ink. She scribbled out a few lines hastily, not caring in the least bit of how Jason would judge her on her tidiness before he even ready any of the words.

Jason,

Terribly sorry I haven't been able to get back to you sooner. I regret to inform you

that what my mother told you was very true, I have been seeing someone else.

Unfortunately, I am going to have to end our relationship in the utmost urgency.

Sorry again,

Natalie

Taking the parchment and a note to her mother to please deliver the message to Jason, Natalie threw on a cardigan as she pounded down the stairs towards the exit of the Ravenclaw common room. Throwing the door open she ran as fast as she could to the top of the owlry tower. It took her only about five minutes to reach the top of the tower, and though she was out of breath and dying to grab a stitch in her side, she wrapped the letter around the first owl she saw and sent it on its way.

Without a moment hesitation, she turned on her heel and ran, dodging through hallways and skipping several steps at a time down the stair cases, being careful to avoid the moving ones, until she reached the Great Hall. There was a small crowd of people leaving, signifying that the late dinner rush was just ending. Natalie pushed her way through the crowd, heaving large breaths of air into her lungs to try and calm the panting. When she saw Sirius and the rest of the Marauders she hurried over to them as fast as her legs could go.

"Sirius!" she panted, brushing the hair out of her face as she finally reached him.

Sirius glanced back at the three boys behind him, silently telling them to stay just out of ear shot. They, of course, didn't, but did back up to give the couple their space.

"I thought about what you said," Natalie told him, lowering her voice after catching her breath.

"Oh yeah? How'd that go for you?" Sirius asked sarcastically, barely making eye contact before brushing past her towards the door.

Natalie furrowed her brow in confusion, but continued with her thoughts "Well, I just needed a bit of time for myself to make up my mind-"

"Make up your mind?" Sirius asked, turning around and facing her finally. "You shouldn't have had to make up your mind about anything."

"It was a big decision, Sirius," Natalie said, a note of pleading in her voice. Why was he acting so strange?

"Yeah, well you should have a lot of time to make all the decisions you need to from now on," Sirius said, starting to walk to opposite way again. "We're over."

Natalie's heart sank into her stomach. How could he say that if he was the one who made her decide between him and Jason? No, he didn't mean it. As soon as she told him that she broke up with Jason he'd take back what he said. She started to follow after him, saying, "Sirius, wait."

He turned around again and looked at her directly in her beautiful blue eyes. "Don't bother, he said, and left the Great Hall.

Natalie couldn't say anything. Her voice didn't seem to be working no matter how hard she tried. She turned around and looked at James, Remus and Peter, all of whom were staring at her in surprised confusion. What just happened?