Just as she had feared, rumors about her were flying through the castle. She did her best to sail by her tormentors with her head held high, but some days she could not wait to hide behind her bed curtains and cry. Her suspicions about Sirius also proved to be true. He did treat her slightly differently than before, but if she tried to question him about it, he vehemently denied it.

So she sucked it up and forced herself to go to each class, and ignore each snide remark. Lily proved to be a shelter from the hurricane that now swirled around her. Sometimes Noelle could almost laugh at it. In the matter of a month, she had been on her death bed, been disowned, and been completely betrayed and then humiliated by people that had claimed to care about her. She could feel Sirius pulling away from her, a little further each day, and it made her sick to think that he could leave her completely alone.

One day, late in October, Noelle hurried to the Great Hall to eat quickly before she started her Potions essay. As she took her usual seat next to Lily, she heard gales of hysterical laughter erupting from the Slytherin table. She gripped her fork tightly and tried to keep eating, forcing herself not to turn around. Finally, she just could not take it any longer. With steel in her spine and fire in her eyes, she spun to face them.

"What is so damn funny?" she spit out.

One of the Slytherin fifth years, whom Noelle did not know, gazed at her with mocking brown eyes.

"Oh, Noelle, there's nothing funny about you. In fact, we've heard that you are quite sad." He nudged the student next to him, who choked on his laughter.

Noelle looked puzzled, so he continued.

"I thought it was supposed to make you happy, not bawl your eyes out."

Slowly, comprehension dawned on Noelle. Obviously there was little that Olivier had not told Colin. She felt the steel in her spine melt and something inside her snapped.

Silently, she turned away from the Slytherin table and very carefully walked toward the door of the Great Hall. She felt someone tugging on the sleeve of her robes, and urgently whispering in her ear, but she brushed them away. Concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, she walked through the entrance hall, not caring whether she bumped into anyone. She pushed the large oak doors open and felt the cool night air whip against her face. She proceeded to keep walking outside, until the darkness completely swallowed her.

Back inside Lily was panicking. She had tried to stop Noelle, but the French girl had moved as if in a trance. Her eyes had a strange blank look and no matter how much Lily pulled on her arm, Noelle managed to pry it out of Lily's grip. She raced up the stairs and burst through the portrait hole.

James and Sirius were lounging on the couch nearest the fire, discussing something. As Lily skidded to a halt next to them, they abruptly stopped.

"What are you guys talking about?" Lily questioned, seeing the nervous glances they exchanged.

"Nothing. What's up?" James covered quickly.

Lily sighed and pushed her dark red hair out of her face. "It's Noelle. Some Slytherins said something to her at dinner a little while ago, and she left. She just got up and walked out of the hall. She didn't even stop when I grabbed her arm. It was like she didn't even hear me!"

Lily was near tears and James put his arm around her in comfort. She turned her emerald eyes to Sirius, pleading with him.

"You know where she goes when she's upset, right? You need to find her Sirius!"

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck and swung his eyes away from Lily. "Aw, Lily, I don't know. Maybe she doesn't want to be found right now."

Lily stared at him, her eyes wide and her mouth agape. "Sirius, you have to be joking. You need to find her!" Lily's voice was going shrill with panic.

James held her tightly while she cried and looked up at his friend. "Padfoot, come on...at least try to find her."

Sirius sighed heavily. "Fine. I'll find her." He got to his feet and slowly made his way to the portrait hole. The only thing that kept him moving was the sniffles coming from Lily.

Once outside, he sniffed the fall air. It was heavy with the scent of wood burning fires and the spiciness of the leaves that had fallen to the ground from the trees. The deep navy sky glittered with stars scattered above his head with only a few wisps of silvery clouds floating over the crescent moon. He peered over the lawns, not seeing anything at all.

Oh, this is ridiculous! He thought, whipping his wand out and muttering, "Lumos."

The tip of his wand flared a bright white and illuminated the grounds in front of him. He rapidly headed to the lakeshore, thinking that Noelle was in her usual hiding spot. Quick thinking told him to extinguish his wand, knowing that Noelle would see it and retreat further from him. The only problem with that was now he couldn't see anything. He quickly glanced around, making sure he was alone.

"Canus majoris." He whispered, pointing his wand at himself.

Immediately, he was transformed into a large black dog. His eyesight instantly improved, helping him to see through the darkness. He bounded over the sharp rocks easily, thanks to his large paws. As he clambered around them, he spotted her crouched down between two enormous boulders.

Her knees were pulled up to her chest and her head rested on them. The wind blew her hair around her face wildly. She wearily lifted her head off her knees and gazed out at the lake. As her eyes traveled over the boulders, she spotted an enormous shaggy black dog perched on the top of one. She gasped and rubbed her eyes roughly. It was gone. Then she heard the sound of someone picking their way through the maze of boulders that led to her hiding place.

It was Sirius. She sighed.

"What are you doing here?"

He picked his way over the rocks to her side and searched for one that wasn't damp with the spray from the lake. Resigning himself to having wet robes, he sat on a cold rock. Noelle turned back to the lake and kept staring. After letting her gaze out over the lake for a few minutes, he lightly touched her shoulder. Surprised, she looked at him.

"What are you doing here?" she repeated.

Sirius glanced at her oddly. "You already asked me that."

She looked confused. "I did?"

Sirius nodded and Noelle shrugged.

"Oh...sorry."

Sirius was still looking at her funny. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Noelle questioned.

He shook his head. "I'm just looking at you. What happened?"

Noelle's navy eyes glazed over. She looked down. "I really do not want to talk about it."

Sirius sighed heavily and she looked up sharply. "Why do you care? You have been acting strangely toward me ever since we talked the first night we were back."

Her eyes searched his face, and then comprehension dawned on hers.

"You cannot let it go. You are thinking badly of me, because of an incident that happened far before I even met you."

She pushed herself to her feet and crossed her arms over her chest. "Am I to believe that you are completely innocent? Sirius, you may think I am naïve, but I am not stupid."

The guilty way that Sirius swung his eyes from hers told her all she needed to know.

She laughed bitterly. "How dare you judge me?" she spit out.

Although she was only 5'5", the way she seemed to tower over him was frightening. He felt like a little boy being scolded. He turned his shoulders in and wrapped his arms around his knees. She laughed again, this time crazily.

"You were right about one thing, Sirius. I was a fool. I was a fool to believe that you actually cared about me. I was a fool to think anyone ever cared about me."

At this he leapt to his feet and reached out to stop her from leaving.

"Don't touch me! Don't ever touch me again!" she screamed. She pulled the sleeve of her robes out of his fingers and scurried over the boulders back to the castle.

She hurried to the doors of the castle, surreptitiously wiping the tears off her cheeks. She reached for the handle just as it was flung open from the inside. She gasped, placing a hand over her heart. Severus stood on the other side.

"Oh, Noelle. I didn't know you were outside." He peered at her closely. "Is everything alright?"

She smiled quickly. "Of course. You just gave me a fright."

He grinned. "Sorry about that. I was just going to the greenhouse to get some asphodel for my Potions project. Want to come along?"

Noelle nodded gratefully and followed him to Greenhouse 4. He unlocked the door and pointed his wand at the lantern on the wall. He hurried to a vile looking dark red plant and began to pull seed pods off of it. Noelle wandered around the greenhouse. She had never been in this particular one; it housed the most poisonous plants.

"Don't touch any of them, especially if you're not wearing gloves." Severus warned. "The oils from most of these are enough to make you violently ill, just from touching them."

Noelle snatched her hand away from the plant she had been about to touch. He smiled at the disgust on her face.

"I'm all set, if you're ready to go." She nodded and followed him out of the greenhouse.

Once inside the castle, Severus studied her carefully. "Are you sure everything is alright, Noelle?" he asked, looking worried.

She smiled at him. "I am fine. Just very tired."

He nodded gravely. "Noelle, I'm really sorry about the way my housemates have been treating you."

Her eyes misted, but she quickly hid it. "It is not like I am not used to it. They can think what they want."

She tried to sound flip, but he heard the pain in her voice. Impulsively, Severus reached out and grabbed her in a tight hug.

"I'm here if you need to talk...anytime...you know that, right?"

Noelle returned his hug gratefully. "Thank you Severus. You do not know how much that means to me."

They broke apart and headed their separate ways, Noelle to the tower, and Severus to the dungeons.

"Keep your chin up, don't let the Gryffies get you down!" he called as he headed to his house.

Laughing loudly, she scampered up the staircase.

The common room was abandoned when she came through the portrait hole. Taking advantage of the chance to be alone, she grabbed a book off of the shelves and curled up on a couch near the fire. About 30 minutes later, she heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs. She hunkered down until she was nearly hidden by the high back of the couch and listened carefully. Whoever it was definitely didn't want to be heard. They weren't walking; they were creeping. And there was more than one of them.

"Ouch!" She heard someone exclaim.

"Shh!" another person hissed.

"I stubbed my toe!"

"Be quiet!"

Noelle peered over the top of the couch. James and Sirius were tiptoeing through the common room. Near the portrait hole, James reached into a bag and pulled out a silvery piece of fabric. Noelle silently gasped. James had an invisibility cloak. She stared on in shock as he shook it out and swung it over himself and Sirius. They disappeared, but Noelle still heard their voices.

"Hope we can control Moony tonight." She heard Sirius whisper.

James sighed, "Well, we'll find out soon."

The door creaked open, and she heard their footsteps shuffling out to the corridor.

She straightened her body until her feet hit the floor. What did they mean, control Moony? Who was Moony? She vaguely remembered hearing the name before, but for the life of her could not think of where and when she had heard it. And where were they going with an invisibility cloak this late at night? Her face twisted into an ironic smile. Seems like she wasn't the only one keeping secrets, she thought as she carefully placed a marker in her book and climbed the stairs to her dorm.