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

CHAPTER 12

"What the hell is going on?" Nina asked Sirius frantically.

"I'll tell you, just wait." he said running and dragging her down the empty corridor. They ran past a smaller door and Sirius suddenly stopped, looked behind him, and then ran back towards the door. He quickly opened the door and pulled Nina in with him and shut it. It was completely dark inside and it smelled of dust and wet towels; they were inside a broom closet.

"Sirius wha—," Nina was about to ask him when he put his hand over her mouth and whispered, "Shh. Be quiet for a second." His hand felt really warm on her face and Nina could smell the scent of his cologne on it. She could feel her heart beating in her chest. What is he dragging me into? A few seconds later, Nina started to feel claustrophobic and Sirius's warm hand still on her face was restricting her breathing even more. She raised her hand and felt his arm and pulled his hand off of her mouth. Her eyes were getting used to the dark now and she could make out his silhouette facing her. She started to get impatient.

"Why did you drag me in here? What are we doing?" she whispered to Sirius.

"Hiding." he whispered back.

"Hiding? From who?" she asked him.

"Filch." he answered.

"We're hiding from Filch? Wait…why am I hiding from Filch? I didn't do anything!" she whispered hoarsely.

"You're my alibi." he explained to her. "See, if he finds me in the broom closet with you, he'll know that it wasn't me."

"What wasn't you?" she asked him.

"Don't worry about it." Nina could tell from the tone in his voice that he must have had a cheeky grin on his face.

"And what are we supposed to be doing in the broom closet together if he finds us?" she asked him.

"What do most people here do in the broom closets?" he asked her back. Nina gasped at the thought of what people would say if she was caught alone with Sirius in there.

"Okay that's it. I'm getting out of here." Nina said and was about to move when Sirius grabbed her arms.

"No, wait!" he said holding her back. "I can hear him coming." Nina stopped struggling and listened. Along with the sound of Sirius breathing, she heard the sound of footsteps coming closer to them. She also heard a cat meowing.

"What is it Mrs. Norris?" came the caretaker's raspy voice from the other side of the closet door. "Is someone in there?"

"Bloody cat." Sirius murmured. By now, Nina could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Sirius was still grabbing her by the arms. She could hear Filch's footsteps getting louder, and feel Sirius's grip getting tighter. Nina could sense Filch right on the other side of the door. Just as he was about to reach out to turn the knob of the door, a loud scream came from the other side of the hall, followed by more screams and the sound of people running. Filch's attention was diverted, and Nina could hear him running away from the closet and towards the screams.

"Oh damn! I think it really worked!" Sirius said excitedly as he finally let go of Nina's arms.

"What worked? Why is everyone running and screaming? What the hell did you do?" Nina asked him worriedly.

"I've got to go check it out!" he said ignoring her questions. The sound of people running past the closet door made Nina feel even more panicky. Sirius reached out to open the door when Nina stopped him.

"Wait!" she said grabbing his arm. "We can't just walk out of here! There are people right outside the door. What are they going to think if we just both suddenly come out of a broom closet?"

"Who cares?" Sirius said hurriedly. "Nobody is going to pay attention to us."

"How do you know? What if somebody does? They'll think we're either hiding from Filch or doing something else!" she exclaimed.

"Well we're obviously not going to admit we were hiding from Filch." Sirius said matter-of-factly.

"Oh, hell no. I'm not admitting to doing anything else in this broom closet with you." Nina said sternly. "Do you realize what will happen to me? People here know my parents. If any type of information like this gets to them, they will not hesitate to pull me out of the school."

"Oh come off it. You're over-exaggerating." Sirius said disbelievingly.

"You don't know my parents." Nina said sounding very apprehensive. Sirius could tell by now that she really was worried.

"Lumos," Sirius muttered, lighting his wand. "Do you realize what I'm missing because of you?" he said disappointingly.

"Padfoot, are you there?" came James's voice from nowhere. Nina looked at Sirius confusedly. He fished around in his pocket and took out what looked like a mirror and opened it up.

"Yeah I'm here. What am I missing?" he said to the mirror.

"Where are you?" James said through the other side of the mirror.

"Stuck in a broom closet." Sirius answered.

"Again?" James asked with surprise.

Nina gave Sirius a reproachful look and he shifted uncomfortably, "Er—no it's not like that this time. So did it work?"

"Yes, it was bloody perfect! You should see everyone! They're going mad!" James sounded elated.

"Bugger, I can't believe I'm missing this!" Sirius complained. "You just couldn't have given me the invisibility cloak, could you?"

"Well, it was three against one, mate."

"Yeah, whatever." Sirius said quickly. "It sounds like most people are out of the hall now though. I'm going to get out of here. I'll meet you in front of the Great Hall."

"Okay see you there." James said and Sirius put the mirror back into his pocket and put his ear near the crack of the door.

"The coast sounds clear." Sirius said to Nina. "Let's go."

Sirius pushed the closet door open and as he and Nina stepped out of it, they came face to face with a very livid looking Professor McGonagall.

Oh shit, Nina and Sirius both thought at the same time.

"Mr. Black! Miss Aydin! What is the meaning of this? What were you two doing in the broom closet? Did you have something to do with what just happened?" Professor McGonagall scolded them as a few people were slowly walking by and listening.

"Why? What just happened, Professor?" Sirius asked, pretending to be concerned.

"Don't try to play dumb with me, Mr. Black." McGonagall said sternly. "I know you had something to do with it. Why else would you be hiding in the closet?"

"Ahem," Sirius cleared his throat, "well, I wasn't exactly alone."

"I see." McGonagall's attention diverted to Nina. "Miss Aydin, were you an accomplice to this prank?"

"No." Nina said nervously. She had never gotten in trouble with a professor before in her life. "I don't even know what happened."

"You didn't hear the people screaming outside in the corridor?" she said crossly.

Sirius butted into the conversation, trying to save Nina, who looked like she was going to throw up. "Well, we—er weren't really paying attention to what was happening outside, Professor. Were we, Nina?" he said while resting his arm on Nina's shoulder. The only thing going through Nina's mind at that point was, I am going to die.

"What?" Professor McGonagall's face turned slightly pink and she sputtered, "Why, I've never—Detention! Every night. For one week. My office. Both of you." She turned around and stormed off.

"Phew." Sirius breathed out, removing his arm from Nina's shoulder. "Well, that wasn't so bad, was it? Only a week!"

Nina couldn't believe what had just happened. She had never been so humiliated before in her life. She could sense that there were people around her staring and whispering, but she couldn't focus on anything. She just walked quickly down the hall, trying to get away from everybody. She reached an empty corridor and saw that Sirius had caught up to her.

"Hey wha--" he was about to ask her why she walked off when she cut him off.

"DETENTION?" she freaked out on him. "Holy shit! I've never gotten a detention before in my life!"

"They're not that bad once you get used to them." Sirius said trying to sound reasonable.

"I can't believe this! This is all your fault!" Nina yelled at him.

"My fault?" Sirius asked genuinely surprised.

"Obviously! Who else's fault can it be? Why did you drag me into this?" she yelled at him and then continued on without giving him a chance to respond, "You used me to try to save your own ass, and now we're both in trouble! I am so embarrassed! McGonagall thinks I'm a prank pulling ho! Oh God, what if my parents find out about this? I'll be screwed. I think I'm gonna be sick." Nina said bending forward a little, clutching her stomach, which at this point felt like there were a million butterflies fluttering around attacking each other inside.

Sirius came to her and touched her arm, "Why, are you okay?"

"Don't touch me." she said abruptly flicking his arm away.

For a moment Sirius was surprised at her rebuff, but then recovered. "Okay, you're seriously over-reacting."

"No, I'm not." Nina said firmly, leaning against the wall behind her, still holding her stomach.

"It's just a detention! It's not a big deal. We get detentions all the time! It won't be so bad, really." he tried to convince her. "Come on; let's go to the feast." Sirius said while taking her arm.

"I told you not to touch me." Nina said pulling her arm away from him.

"Well," Sirius said, really feeling offended this time, "you didn't seem to mind so much in the broom closet, did you?"

"What?" Nina exclaimed with anger.

"Don't "what" me! You were holding on to me the whole time we were in there." Sirius said, knowing he was really pushing her buttons now.

"Have you lost your mind? You were the one who grabbed me!" Nina defended herself, feeling angrier by the second.

"So why didn't you tell me to let go then?" he asked her fervently.

"Sirius," Nina said clenching her fists trying to surpress the anger bubbling inside, "can you just shut--"

"Oi! There you are!" James called coming down the hall. "What happened? We just heard someone talking saying you and Nina got detention from McGonagall! They all think you guys pulled the prank and then made out in the broom closet afterwards." Sirius stared at James in surprise for a second and then they both burst out laughing hysterically. Nina just stared at them with her mouth open, too shocked for any type of reaction. When the news finally sunk in, she felt her shock turn into murderous rage. The boys must have noticed her facial expression change because they both stopped laughing instantaneously.

"Oh shit!" Sirius exclaimed as Nina lunged at him.

"Let me at him!" Nina yelled as James struggled to hold her back.

"What is going on here? Nina!" The sound of Lily's voice snapped her out of her rage and she composed herself. "We've been looking for you everywhere! What happened?" Lily, Sara and Remus walked towards them.

"Yeah, we just heard people talking." Sara added with a hint of excitement. "They were saying that you and Sirius were the ones who pulled the prank!"

"Did McGonagall really catch you guys in the broom closet?" Remus asked Sirius.

"Wow, word here travels fast." Sirius muttered to him and then said to everyone, "Well, McGonagall doesn't really know if we had anything to do with the prank."

Sara pulled Nina close to her and whispered, "We heard some girls saying that you guys were doing something in the closet." Nina stared at Sara, looking too angry to speak. Sara noticed how livid her friend was."Er, but of course, its not true...is it?"

"So who really was responsible for it?" Lily asked seriously.

"Maybe you should ask Sirius and James." Nina said austerely.

"Potter? Was it you lot? What kind of a Head Boy are you? I should report you to the headmaster!" Lily started raving.

"Don't be daft, Lily." Sara said interrupting Lily's rant. "Nobody got hurt. There's no need for anyone to get into trouble. It was just a harmless prank."

"Right." Nina said dryly. "Completely harmless."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked Nina.

"Oh," Sirius said casually, "Nina's just ticked because we have detention."

"Detention?" Remus asked confusedly. "For what?"

"For making out in the broom closet while everyone else was running for their lives." Sirius said with a smirk.

Nina charged at Sirius again and this time, everyone had to hold her back.


A/N: Hehe...hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thanks for all the positive reviews, guys! Totally made my day! Tell me what you think about this one and I'll post the next chapter again very soon!