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

CHAPTER 8

That night when Nina went to bed, she thought about what had happened that day. By the time she and Sara returned to their Muggle Studies class, the professor had already dismissed it. Lily was waiting inside the classroom with their books getting very worried about her friends. When she saw them come in together smiling, she let out a sigh of relief.

"Well, it's about time you guys came back!" she exclaimed.

"Sorry, Lily. We didn't realize we took so long." Nina said while gathering her things together.

"Man, I'm starving!" Sara said while picking up her bag.

"Really," Lily said giving Sara a cynical smile, "so I'm guessing everything is okay now?"

"Yes, yes." Nina said smiling. "Everything is ancient history. Right, Sara?"

"Of course." Sara told her while they walked out of the classroom and towards the Great Hall for dinner. "I don't even know what you're talking about."

When they entered the hall, they went to sit at their usual table. Remus, and Peter were sitting with their backs towards the girls, and Sirius and James were across them. Sitting next to James and talking very animatedly with him was an attractive blonde. Sirius looked up from his plate and saw the three girls smiling and walking together, and he said something to Remus across the table. Nina saw Remus turn his head slightly around to glance at them, and then quickly turned back around.

"Can we please sit away from those guys tonight?" Sara whispered exasperatedly. They found some empty spots on the other side of the long table and sat down.

"Man, how do you eat so much and stay so thin?" Nina asked Sara, who was filling her plate with food.

"High metabolism." she said matter-of-factly as she stuck a fork full of mashed potatoes into her mouth. Nina looked across at Lily, who was glaring at something at the other end of the table. She looked at Nina and Sara and asked, "Who is that girl talking to James?"

"Oh," Sara said gazing at the blonde girl, "I think she's some sixth year from Hufflepuff. Apparently, she's got all these guys after her asking her out, but she says she only dates Quidditch players."

"Hmm," Nina said, "Looks like she's got her eye on a particular Quidditch player."

"I see." Lily said curtly and started piling mashed potatoes on her plate. Nina and Sara both exchanged significant glances and continued eating.

When they returned to Gryffindor Tower, the girls went up to their dorm to change out of their robes and into some more comfortable attire.

"I feel like going for a walk." Sara said while putting on her jeans. "You guys wanna come?"

"Sure, I'll come." Nina said while slipping on a t-shirt and grabbing a black zipped hoodie.

"I can't." said Lily distractedly as she grabbed her bag. "I've got that Prefect meeting in about ten minutes. You girls go ahead, I've got to go. I'll see you later." Lily left to her meeting and Sara went into the washroom. Nina told her that she would meet her in the common room and headed down the stairs.

When she reached the bottom, Nina instinctively put on the sweatshirt that she was holding. Her hair got stuck underneath the back of her hoodie so she put her hands behind her neck and flicked her hair out. She was fixing her hair to side the when she heard her name being called in a squeaky voice from across the room.

She looked up and Leena was waving at her enthusiastically, with Sirius and Peter sitting on the couches next to her playing wizard's chess. Leena got up and ran towards her and asked, "Did you give Sara her package?"

Nina replied that she did and Leena went on excitedly saying, "I'm hanging out with these guys. You know, I asked Sirius who he thought the prettiest girl in the whole school was and he told me to tell him who I thought was the prettiest first, so I told him that I thought you were."

"Me?" Nina exclaimed in a surprised voice and then said resolutely, "Don't be silly. You need to get your eyes checked, kid. Sara and Lily are much prettier than I am."

Leena looked at Nina intently and said in a slightly whiney voice, "No, but I like your hair. It's sooo pretty. I wish my hair was like yours. I even saw Sirius looking at you just now. He was looking at something for a while and he wasn't paying attention to the game and I looked over to what he was looking at and that's when I saw you."

"Don't be ridiculous." Nina scolded her, her face feeling a little warm, "I'm sure he was looking at something else. And anyways, I would die to have your perfect curly locks."

Leena frowned for a second and then her face lit up again after she remembered that she had to finish telling the rest of her story. "So yeah, then I asked Sirius who he thought the prettiest girl was, and guess who he said?"

"You?" Nina asked.

"Hey! How did you know?" Leena said with wide eyes and then continued, "So I told him 'no, it has to be an older person', and guess who he said?" Leena looked like she was going to burst if she couldn't say the answer right then so Nina shook her head saying she didn't know and Leena screamed, "Professor McGonagall!"

"What about that old bat?" came Sara's voice bouncing down the stairs, and Leena yelled loud enough for everyone in the common room to hear, "Sirius thinks Professor McGonagall is hot!"

"Hey!" Sirius yelled at Leena from across the room, although still focusing on his chessboard, "I thought the conversation we had was private!"

Sara laughed out loud, "Nothing with Leena is ever private, Sirius. Remember that next time you confess your deepest darkest secrets to her." She turned to Leena and told her that they were going for a walk and asked her if she wanted to come.

"No, thanks." Leena said, "I'm playing next round of chess with Sirius."

Sara looked at Leena skeptically and said, "Don't you have any friends your own age?"

"Yeah," Leena replied and said with a grimace, "but, I got bored of them. All they do is talk about boys. Eww." Sara rolled her eyes and grabbed Nina's arm and they left to go for their walk.

When Sara and Nina returned from their walk and went up to their dorm, Lily was already up there, reading a book.

"How was the walk?" Lily asked them closing her book.

"Oh, it was really nice outside. You missed it." Nina said while taking off her sweatshirt.

"How was the meeting?" Sara asked Lily.

Lily shrugged. "It was okay, I guess. We decided on having the dance. But, unfortunately, we lost the vote on the whole girls asking the guys to it thing."

"What?" Sara exclaimed with disappointment. Nina let out a sigh of relief.

"I think most of the girls at the meeting were too intimidated to do it so there was a big argument. We finally voted and lost by one vote," Lily explained, "but we decided on having a muggle dress code. So, no dress robes." Sara still looked disgruntled.

"I see." Nina said, cheering up at prospect, "So what else happened?"

"Nothing." Lily said in a slightly dejected manner.

"Are you sure?" Sara added. "You look kinda bummed out, Lily."

Lily shrugged. "Maybe I'm just tired."

"So where did everyone go after the meeting? The common room was pretty empty when we came up." Nina said.

Lily let out an annoyed breath and said, "Well, when the meeting was over and we left the room, that blonde skank was waiting outside. She came up to James and told him she needed to talk to him in private, and took him away to an empty classroom. Man, you should've seen what she was wearing. You'd think we were in the Bahamas or something. Anyways, so he left and then Remus said he had to meet Sirius and Peter in the kitchens or something. So I just came here on my own."

"So what are you so annoyed about?" Sara asked her.

"What do you mean?" Lily asked her back. "I'm not annoyed."

"Oh please, Lily." Nina said abruptly. "We've been living with you for more than six years. We know when you're pissed off at something."

"I am not pissed off." Lily said pointedly. "Just tired. And irritated for some reason. Maybe I'm stressed out or something." She let out a sigh and jumped out of bed and went into the washroom, shutting the door behind her.

"Whoa." Sara said and then a mischievous smile spread on her face. "She is so jealous!"


A/N: Next chapter coming soon! The more reviews I get, the faster I'll post! Heh heh heh...