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

CHAPTER 17

It took her all winter break, but Nina finally convinced herself that she had done the right thing. As she walked through the train corridors looking for her friends, she kept thinking about how exactly she was going to tell them what happened. They're gonna think I'm crazy, she thought to herself nervously while peeping through compartment windows. After she had passed a few more doors, she saw a flash of vibrant red hair through one of the windows. She reached out to slide the door open and noticed that her hand was shaking slightly.

"Hey!" Lily exclaimed as she walked into the compartment. Sara and Remus were sitting across Lily and they got up to greet Nina.

"So how were your holidays?" Sara asked her.

"Well, actually," Nina said tensely, "you won't believe what happened if I told you."

"Why?" Lily asked looking a little concerned. "What happened?" Well, here goes, Nina thought, her heart really racing now. She took off her gloves and stuck her left hand out, breathing out slowly.

"Oh. My. Goodness." Was all that Lily could say as she gawked at the diamond ring on Nina's finger.

"Holy shit, Nina! You got engaged?" Sara freaked out. Nina nodded slowly with an uneasy smile.

Remus, looking a little confused, asked her, "Who's the guy?"

"Oh, well you guys don't know him. He doesn't go to Hogwarts." Nina replied.

"Oh." Remus said looking less confused, but then his face looked a little anxious again as another thought seemed to cross his mind.

"So when did this happen? How did it happen? Oh my God, I'm so shocked!" Sara said excitedly.

"So, are you happy?" Lily interjected giving Nina a questioning smile.

"I think so…" Nina said cautiously as she took a seat next to Sara, "It all really happened so fast. I'm still trying to digest everything."

"So…tell us all about him! Where did you guys meet?" Sara asked curiously.

"Well, I actually met him last summer at my sister's engagement. You know her fiancé? Well, he's his cousin. His name is Sean. He's in law school."

"Ooh! A lawyer!" Lily exclaimed.

"Wait," Sara interjected, "He's a muggle?"

"Yeah." Nina answered.

"Does he know you're a witch?" she asked.

"Er—" Nina looked a little anxious and was about to answer when the compartment door started to slide open and James and Sirius's voices could be heard. Oh damn! Nina suddenly had an urge to pull the ring off of her finger and stick it in her pocket, but she couldn't move. Remus quickly got up from his seat and went to the door before the other boys could come in, and stepped outside with them. The girls exchanged glances of confusion and wondered what that was all about.

Meanwhile, outside, Sirius and James were wondering why Remus came outside the compartment door as well.

"Hey, Moony. What's up?" James asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh I just er…needed to ask Sirius something real quick." Remus looked a little worried about something.

"What is it?" Sirius asked feeling concerned.

"Um…okay I know this might be an odd question, but, did anything ever happen between you and um…Nina…last semester?" Remus said cautiously.

"Nina?" Sirius asked his heart started to beat a little faster; he looked confused and said, "No. Why?"

"Oh…okay." Remus said looking relieved. "I dunno I got the impression that maybe you liked her or something."

"You did?" Sirius asked, his face feeling a little warm.

"Hey I thought so too." James said. "You did act a bit odd at times, especially when she was around."

"I did?" Sirius didn't realize his friends had suspected anything, and didn't tell either of them anything. The truth was that during the holidays, he had tried to convince himself that he and Nina were fine just being friends, and that he shouldn't ruin things by telling her how he really felt. He didn't really understand why he was holding back so much. He wanted to find out if maybe she liked him too before saying anything to her. "But, we're just friends..."

"Well, I hope so." Remus muttered.

"Why?" Sirius asked feeling really uneasy, when the door slid open and Sara was standing at the door.

"What are you guys doing out here? Come inside, you won't believe what happened!" Sara told James and Sirius excitedly. Back inside the compartment, Nina felt like disappearing. She was so nervous about seeing Sirius again that she wanted to throw up. Why am I so messed up? I don't care about him anymore. At least not like that. You got over him during the break, remember? It's all about Sean now. Yes. That's it. You like him. Not Sirius. He's got everything. He's sweet, smart, really good-looking, rich, and he likes you a lot. He doesn't get moody or tease you so much, like Sirius does. Why am I comparing him to Sirius? Sirius never liked you like Sean does. So forget about him. Sara ushered the boys back into the compartment, Sirius and James looking a little confused.

"So tell them, Nina!" Sara told her.

"Tell them what?" she asked nervously, covering up her left hand.

"Don't be stupid." Sara said grabbing her hand and showing them her ring. "Nina got engaged." Nina could feel her face turning hot. She didn't want to look at them.

"Oh…wow…" James looked very surprised. "Congratulations."

"Thanks." Nina muttered quietly looking up at him. They both sat down across her next to Lily. Nina stole a quick glace at Sirius; she thought he would say some smart-ass remark or get mad at her for not telling him before, but instead he looked like he had been stupefied. I can't believe this. I am so stupid. No, wait. She is so stupid. How could she do that? Doesn't she know how I feel about her? Of course she doesn't, you idiot. You never told her. How was she supposed to know? And anyways, even if she did know, what makes you so damn sure she liked you back? She obviously didn't so get over it! Sirius wished he could just run out of the room and hit something, but he knew he couldn't let anyone know his feelings, especially now. It was too humiliating. The room suddenly became very tense; nobody was quite sure what to think. Sirius noticed the silent tension and quickly snapped out of his shock.

He looked at Nina with a raised eyebrow and said with a bit of a sneer, "So...who in their right mind agreed to marry you, Nina?"

"Sirius!" Lily scolded him, looking at Nina's hurt reaction to what he said. "What do you mean? Who wouldn't want to?"

Sirius shrugged and said lazily, "Who should I start with?"

"Okay, okay." Remus interjected when Lily was about to say something back."Sirius, there's no need to argue over something so pointless."

"Oh, it's okay, Remus." Nina said in a steady voice, glaring at Sirius, "I expected this out of him. I'm used to it."

"Used to what?" Sirius said glaring right back at her.

"At you, being mean to me. I don't really care." She shrugged and crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat.

"Yeah." Sirius said glaring right back at her. "I know you don't."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nina asked irritated.

"Nothing." he said and muttered. "You're too stupid to know anything." Nina felt a sudden surge of anger. I knew you'd be like this. I had a feeling. I don't know why the heck I ever liked you. You mean, arrogant, aaaaaaaah! She rolled her gloves into a ball and threw it right into Sirius's face. Sirius caught the gloves and looked up at her with a shocked expression. Nina was still glowering at him. Everyone else wasn't sure what to do; they kept looking back and forth between Nina and Sirius. Sirius felt his grip on the gloves tighten; he wanted to throw it right back at her. The only thing that stopped him from doing it was James prying the gloves out of his hands. Nina and Sirius were still looking at each other angrily as James threw the gloves across to Sara.

"So…" James cleared his throat, "how was everyone's holidays?"

Lily started to answer him in extra cheery voice. Nina finally looked away from Sirius. She didn't look at him again even once the rest of the ride back to Hogwarts, although she was sure she could feel his stormy grey eyes on her every now and then.

When they were unpacking their trunks in the dorm, Sara and Lily started to ask Nina details about what happened over the break that they couldn't ask in front of the boys.

"So are you going to tell us the whole story or what?" Sara asked her curiously. "Did you know this was going to happen or did it just happen out of the blue?"

Nina sighed. She wasn't in the mood to talk about anything right now but she figured that she did owe her friends an explanation for not telling them anything before. "Well, okay see, over the summer I met him at my sister's engagement. I thought maybe he was interested in me but I just ignored it. But I guess somehow my mother found out that he was and she started telling me about how he would be perfect for me and about how his family was really nice and all this stuff. Then he actually went and told my parents that he was seriously interested in me and that was it. My parents were all for it and I was really unsure. My sister got really excited because she figured we'd be part of the same family, so she tried to further convince my parents. Anyways, I didn't really care. I told them I would think about it during the semester. But then in September, my mother sent me a letter, she dropped this bomb on me telling me that I couldn't tell him about me going to Hogwarts and that his family wanted a decision by December. They said they'd let me have my fun for seven years and once I graduated, that was it. I had to go on living like 'normal' people and live a 'normal' life."

"What?" Sara interrupted incredulously.

"Yeah, I know, it sounds bad. But, I mean, they don't understand any of this. They're really conservative. I'm lucky they let me even come here. So it's almost like I owe them or something. Anyways, I didn't really have an excuse to say no, did I? There's nothing wrong with Sean, there was nothing I could say against him. He's practically perfect. And I didn't have anyone else that I could tell my parents that I would rather be with. So that was it. I didn't really have a choice. But whatever happened, I think it's for the best. I think I'm okay with it now." Nina concluded.

"You're okay with it now?" Lily asked her uncertainly.

"Yes." she answered.

"Nina, don't you think you should be more than okay with someone in order to think about marrying them?" Sara questioned her.

"Well, what am I supposed to do?" Nina retorted. "I don't have anyone else besides my family that I can depend on. They've supported me my whole life, I can't just turn my back on them now."

"But, Nina, what if you liked someone else? Couldn't you tell your parents that?" Lily asked her.

"So what?" Nina answered. "Just because you like someone doesn't mean that they like you back."

"Wait a minute," Sara interrupted, "do you like someone else?"

"No." Nina said without any hesitation, while pulling the covers off of her bed. Maybe I did, but I don't anymore. Especially at this moment. "If anyone liked me, they should have told me before the holidays. Now it's too late. Anyways. I'm tired. I think I'm going to sleep. Good night."

Lily and Sara exchanged significant looks with each other and went downstairs to meet up with Remus and James. When they reached the fireplace in the common room, they noticed that Sirius wasn't with them.

"He went to bed. Said he was tired or something." James answered after Lily asked where he was.

"Hmm. Nina went to sleep too. I think she's really angry at him." she told him.

"Yeah, I think he's pretty pissed off too. Although I don't know why he'd be so angry about her being angry. He always bugs her…" James looked a little perplexed.

"Well, you guys are his friends," Sara said frankly, "do you think maybe…now, I'm just speculating, I could be wrong…do you think Sirius likes Nina or something?"

"Well," Remus said thoughtfully, "I thought maybe he did, but I asked him and he said they were just friends."

"Yeah." James agreed with him. "Unless he was lying, or doesn't know it himself."

"So can't you guys just ask him straight out?" Lily asked them.

"Er…well, I don't think so. Not right now anyways. He won't say anything when he's in a bad mood. We'll have to wait until he's not so angry." James said.

If that were the case, then they would have to wait for a much longer time than they thought, because Sirius's bad mood didn't seem to be going away. When he woke up the next morning, all he could think about was Nina. He couldn't figure out if he still liked her or if he hated her guts. He was the first person down to breakfast that morning. He started to eat, but everything tasted like cardboard. He wasn't in the mood to eat. He was just eating to stave off the hunger pangs in his stomach.

He was only by himself for ten minutes before he saw Nina coming down the hall. He felt his stomach tighten up in a knot and put down his fork. Sirius thought she looked prettier than ever walking down towards him, not even noticing he was there. As soon as she caught his eye, her face turned a little cold. She looked like she was hesitating a little, trying to figure out where she should sit. She decided to sit a few seats away from him on the other side of the table. She looked up at him and noticed he was still looking at her. She frowned at him and turned her head away.

She started to butter some toast when she heard Sara and Lily's voices behind her. They came and sat down next to her. Nina reached over to grab a pitcher of pumpkin juice when Sara exclaimed, "Nina! Where's your ring?"

"What?" Nina said putting down the pitcher and then looking at her hand. "Oh, I guess I forgot to put it on." They heard a scoff come from Sirius and turned to look at him.

"What?" Nina asked him sounding annoyed. He just chuckled to himself and continued eating his breakfast. Nina glowered at him for a second and then finished eating her breakfast.


Muggle Studies was the first class of the day. When they all sat down to listen to their professor, she handed them leaflets for a new term assignment.

"Excuse me, Professor!" Sirius raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Black?" she questioned.

"Are we going to be working in the same groups as last term or can we change them now?" he asked. Nina looked behind at him and he narrowed his eyes at her with a haughty smirk.

"I'm sorry." The professor said, "I would actually prefer if you stayed in the same groups, it's just easier for me to mark this way. Besides, I think everyone worked remarkably well together. You all did very a very good job on your assignments last term." Sirius looked a little disappointed and Nina could feel her face get hot with anger. What a bastard.

Sara looked at Nina and mouthed to her, "Ignore him." Nina just rolled her eyes and continued to listen to the professor explain the project. It turned out that they had to meet in the library that night to do some preliminary research. Sara and Nina waited for half an hour before Sirius decided to show up.

"You're late." Sara said curtly, looking up from a pile of books on one of the tables in the library. Nina refused to notice his presence and continued to take some notes down.

"Aren't I always." Sirius slumped down onto a chair. "So what do we have to do? I want to get out of here as fast as I can." Nina gripped her quill tighter.

Everything that Sirius said somehow sounded so arrogant and it made her cringe with irritation.

"You know what we have to do. We discussed it in class, remember? You have to do number three and four on the outline." Sara told him.

"Oh okay. In that case, here you go." he said handing her a sheet of parchment. "I already did it."

"Oh." Sara looked over his work. "Okay."

"So is there anything else I need to do? Or can I leave?" He sounded bored.

"Why do you want to leave so badly?" Sara asked him curiously.

"Let him go, Sara. It's better. Maybe we'll actually get some work done." Nina said while not looking up from her work.

"Yeah. That is, if you don't screw up your part, like you usually do." Sirius said to Nina.

Nina turned her head to Sara, still not looking in his direction, "When did Sirius start talking to himself, Sara?"

"Oh, when did Nina become such a bitch, Sara?" Sirius retorted still looking at Nina.

"Okay you guys, this is getting ridiculous. I don't understand why you two are fighting." Sara started to get annoyed.

"Not like I know." Nina mumbled looking back down at her notes.

"Of course you wouldn't. You wouldn't know even if it hit you on the head. You're too bloody thick." Sirius said through clenched teeth.

"Okay I'm gonna go." Nina said moving her seat back a little. "I don't have patience for this right now."

"No, don't go." Sirius said standing up. "I was just leaving." He stormed out of the library.

"What is wrong with him?" Sara said shaking her head.

"You know what? I really don't give a crap." Nina and Sara worked the rest of the evening in silence.


Nina and Sirius completely ignored each other for a whole week until one day; Nina was walking towards the Great Hall for dinner carrying a bunch of books that she had just checked out of the library. Sirius and Peter were running down the hall when Sirius slammed right into Nina, knocking her down with all the books.

"Oh, sor—," He bent down to quickly to pick up the books when he realized it was Nina. He immediately got back up again and said reproachfully, "Why don't you watch where you're going?"

Nina got up and muttered, "Why don't you shove these books up your ass?"

Sirius was a little surprised by what she said and then felt anger boil up in him again. He stood there for a second and then flung the books back out of Nina's hands and walked away with Peter, leaving her stunned.

Nina slammed the books onto a seat at the table in the Great Hall. Sara, Lily, Remus and James were already eating. They all looked up at her and she said to James and Remus, "Your friend is an asshole."

They both looked at each other a little uncomfortably and James said, "Oh…why? What did he do?"

Nina was about to say what he did when she heard a roar of laughter behind her. She turned around and saw Sirius and Peter coming to the table. Nina immediately got up and grabbed her books and said, "I'm not hungry. I'll see you guys later."

"Oh, Nina. What's the matter?" Sirius said in a condescending voice coming next to her. "You too chicken to sit at a table with me now?"

"You know what? I'm just gonna—," Nina was about to retort.

"You're gonna what? Ooh, are you going to get your fiancé to come after me or something?" He was patronizing her. Nina was so angry now she just grabbed the first thing she could get her hands on. Everyone at the table stood up in surprise as Nina flung a whole pitcher of cranberry juice onto his face. Sirius stood there staring at her and blinking out juice from his eyes…and then he sprang forward.

"Oh shit!" Nina yelped and she ran around the table and hid behind James and Remus as Sirius lunged after her. "Get him away from me!"

"Alright!" Sirius said as James and Remus were holding him back away from Nina. "I'm not going to do anything, okay." They relaxed their grip and Sirius suddenly took out his wand and flew a curse right at Nina that hit her square in the stomach. She doubled over in pain and felt a wave of nausea sweep over her.

Sara and Lily ran to her and Remus said angrily, "What the hell did you do?"

Sirius rolled his eyes and said, "Relax, it's the same hex I use on you guys all the time."

"Sirius! That hurts, you idiot! You can't use it on girls!" James said looking horrified.

"Oh damn, she looks green." Remus bent down to her.

"Oh." Sirius said feeling a little guilty. "I didn't know it hurt that much." He looked at Nina. She had to blink back the tears that were stinging her eyes. "Uh…okay I'll take her to Madam Pomfrey's." He took a few steps towards her.

"No!" Nina said frantically clutching her stomach and getting up. "Don't come near me!" I think I'm going to die… She only walked a few steps before she passed out cold onto the ground.


A/N: Haha! So now you all know what the big secret was. Not so exciting, I know... I had fun writing this chapter though. I hope it was fun to read. I know Sirius was a real jerk in this chapter...he's very emotionally unstable at the moment. Hehehe! Thanks for all the reviews from the last chapters! Tell me what you thought of this one...