Noelle checked her watch.
"We need to make this train in 10 minutes!" she called to her friends as they hurried down the King's Cross platform.
Lily awkwardly pushed her trolley and simultaneously tried to keep her bag on her shoulder.
At the barrier, Noelle simply walked into it, followed closely by the others. Sirius lifted both of their trunks onto the train while Noelle hunted for a free compartment. She found one in the middle and immediately claimed it. Sirius joined her, then Lily, James and Remus.
James sighed loudly as he pushed his sweaty hair off his forehead.
"It is so hot today. I'm melting!"
Lily fanned him dramatically with her magazine. Noelle laughed at the two, so obviously enamored of each other. Sirius turned at the sound of her laughter and smiled at her. He touched her face lightly.
"You look a little peaked. Feeling okay?"
Noelle groaned. "Oui, Sirius, for the tenth time, I feel fine!" she said irritably.
The train crossed through the green fields, and she felt overwhelming sense of dread. She dug her nails into her palms and clenched her teeth. It passed just as suddenly as it had come. She opened her eyes, and again Remus was giving her an odd look. She smiled weakly at him.
The food trolley came by and the boys ordered a bunch of snacks. To escape Remus' inquisitive gaze, Noelle stood to take a short walk down the corridors. She gazed out the window and breathed deeply. The damp air was permeated with the acrid smell of the coal burning engine, and she coughed slightly. Someone patted her on the back, and she spun in fright.
"Easy, it's just me."
Colin said, still rubbing her back. Noelle winced when she saw him; she hadn't spoken to him since the night she had fled from the ball. She nervously smiled at him.
"How have you been?" he asked her, shifting his eyes away.
Suspiciously, she answered. "I am fine, thank you."
Colin shuffled his feet. "Well, I should get back to the prefects." He puffed out his chest. "Did you hear? I'm Head Boy this year." He stated proudly.
Noelle smiled. "Congratulations. I'm sure your father is very proud."
Colin's face turned to stone. "You could say that." He peered down the corridor and smiled quickly at her. "I've got to run. I'll see you at school." He hurried away before she could say anything.
"Well...bye."
Down the train, Laura Armstrong was regaling her Hufflepuff friends with tales of her summer with Sirius Black. As Noelle strolled the corridor, she heard Laura's voice. She stiffened when she heard her mention Sirius.
"We went for walks on the beach every day...he brought me flowers. We even spent the first week of July together."
Noelle smiled incredulously. Sirius had been in France with them that week, she was sure of it.
She almost laughed out loud. Laura was lying to her friends! She crept back down to her own compartment to tell Lily what she had heard. Lily gasped when Noelle whispered into her ear.
"What?" Sirius finally said.
Lily cleared her throat. "Um...where were you the first week of July?"
Sirius gave her an odd look. "Lily, have you lost it? I was in France...with you guys."
Lily smiled wickedly. "Oh, ok...just checking."
He wouldn't drop it.
"Oh for crying out loud. Noelle overheard Laura lying to her friends about spending time with you."
Sirius turned red, with anger or embarrassment, Noelle couldn't tell. Finally he spoke.
"I never saw her this summer." He looked at Noelle. "I thought only of you." He murmured.
They kissed softly while James pretended to retch. Lily smacked him in the arm and he feigned being hurt. Sleepily, Noelle yawned. Sirius stretched out on the bench and Noelle rested her head on Sirius' lap and drifted off while he played with her hair.
As the train ground to a halt in the Hogsmeade station, Noelle fought to keep her eyes shut, but eventually pried them open. She sat up and rubbed at her eyes. Blinking rapidly, she saw Sirius hauling both their trunks. Smiling at him in thanks, she hopped down the stairs of the train onto the platform. Lily followed her to a carriage, and said,
"It's nice to have the boys around to do the heavy lifting, right?"
Sirius shot a withering look at Lily, who was the picture of innocence. He growled as he heaved the trunks onto the back of the carriage, then climbed in behind James.
Once at the castle, Sirius held a hand out to help Noelle out of the carriage. They walked through the large front doors holding hands. Laura didn't miss this for a second and her face crumpled. Noelle looked away briefly and caught the leers of some older students, mostly Ravenclaws.
She wondered why they were all whispering and began feeling slightly self conscious. She leaned over to Sirius.
"What are they staring at?"
Sirius had also noticed. "I'm not sure. But I'll find out."
He strode over to the group of Ravenclaws.
"What's so funny?" he asked casually.
"Oh nothing. We were just wondering about your, um, your friend."
The boy inclined his head toward Noelle, who paled. Sirius narrowed his eyes.
"What about her?"
The boy opened his mouth to speak, but he was interrupted by the Head Boy and the Head Girl.
"Students! This way into the Great Hall!" Colin called out over the heads of the younger students.
Slowly they all shuffled their way into the enormous room, where the professors sat waiting for them. Noelle still felt uneasy, like everyone's eyes were on her. She listened to Dumbledore welcome the new students and the Sorting of the first years vaguely, wanting to eat and escape to her room. Finally the first years all took their places with their new houses and the feast began.
Throughout dinner, Noelle felt as though her ears were burning. Everytime she glanced at the Ravenclaw or the Slytherin table, there were people snickering and nudging each other. She caught Colin's eye briefly before he leaned over to whisper something that caused gales of hysterical laughter to erupt from his friends. Desperately, Noelle sought out Severus. He shook his head and shrugged; he had no idea what was going on. Sirius had noticed it too, and he was getting angrier each minute.
Without warning, he stood and walked to the junction of the two tables.
"I would like to know what is so amusing."
Colin raised a dark eyebrow. "Are you sure Black? You weren't amused enough in the garden in Cannes?"
Sirius' face contorted in rage. "What did you just say to me MacDonald?"
His fists were clenched at his sides. Colin smoothly stood from his table and faced him.
"Come on. You can't tell me that you didn't know?"
The blank look from Sirius encouraged Colin to continue.
"I mean, I would think that you wouldn't be surprised." Colin shot a lascivious look at Noelle. "It seems she was quite the little temptress at Beauxbatons."
At this Noelle turned even paler. Sirius shot a nervous glance at her.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sirius spat out.
Colin laughed. "It seems our new friend is not nearly as innocent as she pretends to be."
As the fury began to rise in Sirius, Colin kept speaking.
"She's been around...if you catch my drift."
Sirius clenched his fists. "What did you say?" he spit out.
Colin stared him right in the eye. "You heard me."
Over at the Gryffindor table, Noelle was frozen to her seat. This is not happening....this is not happening!, she told herself. Sirius swallowed.
"You apologize to Noelle."
Colin laughed, a heartless cruel laugh. "Take it back? No, thankfully, I never gave it to her."
Sirius drew his fist back and rammed it into Colin's cheek. Colin retaliated and struck Sirius in the mouth. The two boys fell to the floor, wrestling in a tangle while the Hall erupted in noise. All Noelle could hear was the sounds of fists on skin, and she prayed that Sirius was alright.
Hagrid made his way through the crowd and grabbed each boy by his robes. Colin's face was slightly swollen, his cheek abraised. Sirius however, had a broken nose and a chipped tooth. Blood poured in rivers down his robes and he looked slightly dazed. Hagrid shook them.
"MacDonald? What do you think you're doing, fighting? You're head boy!"
Colin looked away. Sirius groaned from the other side of Hagrid's huge body.
"Someone want to bring him to the hospital wing?"
Quickly, James and Remus supported Sirius between them and hobbled to the infirmary.
Noelle was staring at Colin, not believing what he had just said. Colin arrogantly smeared the blood of Sirius on his pant leg. As he brushed by her, he whispered,
"You can thank Olivier for that."
Noelle felt her stomach sink. Olivier had told. Never had she had more regret over that particular night with him. Olivier, who had sworn he would rather die than hurt her. She looked around the room hysterically. It seemed that everyone was whispering about her. Why was is that when people claimed to love her, she ended up betrayed?
She stared at Lily, who returned her gaze reassuringly.
"Noelle...sit down and finish your dinner." Lily hissed at her.
As if in a daze, Noelle sat and methodically raised her fork to her mouth. Her mind was racing too fast to keep up.
Sirius came to in the hospital wing. He vaguely remembered the argument leading up to the brawl. Colin mentioning something about Noelle, and parts of her life that should have been private. It hit him like a freight train. Colin was eluding to the possibility that Noelle had been promiscuous. Even thinking of someone other than himself touching Noelle made him ill. He didn't want to believe it, but even as he tried to deny it, something inside reminded him of the night in Cannes, when she had aggressively pursued him. He had felt in full force the power of Noelle's passion, and he couldn't believe he had been able to fool himself into thinking that she had never acted that way with anyone ever before.
As he mulled these disturbing thoughts over in his head, the door to the hospital wing was pushed open slowly. Noelle met his eye and quickly looked down. She made her way to his bedside and stood silently.
"How are you feeling?" she finally questioned.
He cracked a half smile. "My lip is killing me." He spoke tightly; the split lip made him sound odd. He met her eye. "We need to talk, Noelle."
Noelle feigned ignorance. "About what?"
Sirius raised a dark eyebrow. "I think you know. Is it true, Noelle? About you and Olivier?"
Noelle looked at her shoe. She thought long and carefully before she spoke.
"D'abord, you need to understand. Olivier was my rock at Beauxbatons. He was everything to me."
Sirius stared at her unflinchingly. She swung her eyes away, heavy with tears. She swallowed them back and kept going.
"Oui. It is true." She whispered, staring at her hands.
Sirius felt his heart plummet to his feet, and then slowly climb back into his chest. There was a lump in his throat that was so large, he didn't think he could speak around it. Finally, he was able to look at her. She was sitting there silently, her head bowed.
"Did you love him?" he asked her quietly.
She quickly looked up. "Oui, I loved him. At least, I thought I loved him."
Sirius snorted. "Noelle, how naïve could you get?"
Anger flashed in her navy eyes, but he continued recklessly.
"Didn't you realize what a mistake it was?"
She stared at him and pulled her shoulders back. When she spoke, there was anger as well as pride in her usually lyric voice.
"Oui, Sirius, it was a mistake, but it was my mistake! No one elses! I will not make excuses for things I have done, not to you, not to anyone anymore."
She took a deep breath before she spoke again.
"Sirius, I never wanted you to find out. I tried to forget it, and he promised me that he would never tell. He promised! It was one night! One very foolish, very thoughtless night. I will not make excuses. I will leave it up to you."
Even though she tried to sound confident, she was trembling inside at the thought of Sirius telling her to walk out of his life. Sirius reached for her hand.
"Are you crazy? I was just jealous."
He couldn't believe he had just admitted that to her. She smiled slightly, so he continued.
"I'll get over it, Noelle."
Even as he said it, he knew it might take him awhile, but Noelle looked so relieved.
She smiled at him and then glanced at the clock on the table. It read nearly midnight.
"I should probably get back to the tower."
She rose slowly on unsteady feet. He smiled thinly at her and she brushed his cheek with her lips.
"I will see you in the morning, non?" He nodded and she left.
In the hallway, she mentally ran the conversation through her head again. Something wasn't right. Sirius had a tendency to hold grudges, why was he forgiving her so quickly? She arrived at the entrance to Gryffindor tower and froze. She didn't know the new password. She swore to herself, and lowered her body to the cold stone floor to wait for morning.
She was shaken out of sleep by the sound of rustling robes coming down the hallway. She rubbed her eyes and squinted to see who it was. Professor Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey were rushing toward her. She scrambled to her feet and Dumbledore gave a start.
"Miss Lemieux! What are you doing out here?" he said nervously.
"I do not know the new password."
He sighed, visibly relieved. "It is 'codswallop'."
The portrait swung open to reveal Remus hovering in the doorway.
"Remus! What are you doing up so late?"
Remus swallowed thickly and his brown eyes swung from side to side.
"I..ah...I...I.." he fumbled.
Professor Dumbledore interrupted. "Remus needs to come with us. His mother is ill."
Noelle sympathetically smiled and hugged him.
"I hope everything works out well. See you soon, Remus."
Noelle swept off to her dorm, not believing a word she had been told. She quietly undressed for bed, musing over exactly how she was going to face her disapproving classmates the next day.