Disclaimer: Anything relating to the Harry Potter stories belongs to J. K. Rowling. She can have my characters and ideas as well.

CHAPTER 4

Back at their dorm, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were unpacking their trunks, tossing the occasional smelly sock here and there.

"So, Padfoot," James began to say to Sirius while organizing his drawers, "what's got your tail in a knot?" Sirius looked at his friend with a confused look on his face.

"What do you mean?" he asked James.

"What he means," Remus interjected, "is that you were awfully quiet at the feast today."

"And you hardly ate anything." James added.

"What are you talking about? I had three helpings of everything!" he defended himself.

"Precisely." James said. "That's nothing for you. You usually have five at least."

"Oh." Sirius looked down into his trunk and started removing his books from it. "I dunno. Guess I wasn't that hungry or something." He knew his friends were still looking at him waiting for a more rational explanation, but he ignored them and continued unpacking. Knowing better than to bug Sirius when he was in a mood, James decided to change the subject.

"So," he began sounding very pleased with himself, "I went the whole day today without asking Lily out even once."

"Congratulations." Remus said dryly, "Here, have a cookie." He threw James an old biscuit that he had just found under his bed.

"Oh, yuck," James threw the cookie and Peter caught it, sniffed it, and ate it.

Sirius looked like the was going to throw up, "That was nasty, Wormtail." Peter just shrugged his shoulders and went into the washroom.


Back in the girl's dormitory, they were unpacking and discussing the latest gossip of the summer.

"So that's cool, Nina," Lily was saying while folding her clothes, "your sister got engaged this summer?"

"Yeah. The guy's from Canada. His family came over and we just had a little party at home. He seems nice and down-to-earth. He doesn't know about me being a witch though. I didn't want to cause any problems between them at this stage. She can tell him when she feels like it." Nina was explaining. There was much more to the story that Nina didn't tell her friends, but she didn't feel like she was ready to tell them just yet.

"Good thinking." Lily said thoughtfully, "My sister, Petunia, she got engaged last year and she didn't tell her fiancé, Vernon, that I was a witch. Actually, she didn't tell him about me at all."

"Well," Sara said huffily, "Petunia just doesn't want him to know that she has such a beautiful sister when she looks like a horse, because she's jealous!"

"Hmm, I'm sure that's not the case. But, speaking of beautiful, Nina you look so good! I swear I saw like at least ten guys checking you out." Lily said excitedly.

"Eww, gross," Nina said with a grimace. "Why would anyone do that? You're probably just imagining things, Lily." She started to change into her pajamas.

"No, Nina." Sara added, "I think I saw some guys looking at you, too."

"What?" she said with disbelief, "you guys are nuts."

"No really." Lily continued. "I even caught Black looking at you a couple of times."

"Oh please. I probably had something stuck in my teeth," Nina said dryly and went into the washroom. Lily and Sara just shook their heads.

"Nina will never believe this kinda stuff about her, you know." Sara said while getting into bed.

"Yup," Lily sighed, "someone has to hit her over the head before she'll even listen."

Nina came out of the washroom and climbed into her warm bed. She heard what Lily and Sara had said while she was in there. Well, she thought to herself, I did believe something like that before…just not at Hogwarts.

A/N: Feel free to send me a review!