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

CHAPTER 2

"Bert!" Nora exclaimed, taking her wand out and pointing it at the black-clad stranger as he turned around in surprise.

It was Severus Snape, a fellow seventh-year student from the house of Slytherin. His long greasy hair covered most of his face, only to reveal a long, pointy nose and dark, conniving eyes.

"What's going on here?" Nora asked bravely, still pointing her wand at him. She glanced at Bert and saw that he looked a bit stunned.

"Nothing that concerns you." Snape replied. "Although I don't know why a pure-blood witch like you would even bother wasting time with half-wit mudbloods who don't know their ass from their face."

"You better watch what you say, Snape." replied Nora coldly. "I'm a Prefect."

"And I'm scared." he replied in a bored manner.

"Get out of here." Nora said sternly, sliding the door open, and keeping her wand pointed at him.

"I was just leaving anyways." Snape said walking towards the door. He turned his head towards Bert and said right before disappearing, "Don't forget my warning, mudblood."

Nora slammed the door shut and sat next to Bert.

"What the hell just happened?" she asked him with concern.

"I dunno." Bert said, still sounding shaken up. "He just came in here and started telling me that things were starting to change and that people like me were going to be the first to know what was coming to them."

"What a creepy asshole." Nora said angrily. "Don't listen to him. He's just a greasy git who doesn't have any friends and picks on people who he thinks are weaker than him to make himself feel more important."

"I guess so." Bert said quietly. Nora tried to change the subject quickly, suspecting her friend was a little more afraid than he was letting on. He didn't talk much the rest of journey. He just listened to what Nora had to say about the meeting and then pretended to read a book. When they finally arrived at Hogwarts Station, and made their way to the school castle, Bert and Nora separated their ways to join their house members for the Welcoming Feast. Nora walked into the Great Hall where the feast was being held and walked towards the Gryffindor table. She noticed an empty seat next to Remus, but didn't dare sit next to him. He was sitting with James and Sirius, who were laughing hysterically at something that their other friend, Peter Pettigrew, had just said. Nora caught Lily's eye and Lily waved at her to sit next to her. She met her other roommates, Shelby Porter and Michelle Lee, who were sitting close by as well. The headmaster gave his yearly opening speech and the hungry students were finally granted permission to dig into their dinners.

"We heard you made Prefect." Michelle said to Nora, with a little resentment in her voice.

"Yeah. I dunno why Dumbledore chose me." said Nora indifferently.

"Hmm. Well, you're certainly lucky, aren't you? You'll get to work with James." Shelby said enviously looking towards James while twirling long strands of her strawberry blonde hair.

"And Remus." Michelle added dreamily. "He is so sweet. And cute."

"Right." Nora said, feeling an odd mixture of jealousy and self-satisfaction as she took a bite into her pot pie. She looked at Lily and noticed that she didn't look very amused either.

Just as she was reaching for some mashed potatoes, Shelby said, "At least Sirius isn't going to be pre-occupied with all this Prefect and Head Boy business."

"Why, are you going to be occupying his time for him?" Lily asked with a sly smile.

"Oh, I wish." Shelby said looking in Sirius's direction with hungry eyes. "Man, what I wouldn't do to just—"

"Well!" Michelle interrupted her. "He's not going to want to do anything with you if you keep eating all these mashed potatoes!"

"Listen, I wasn't blessed with a crazy Asian metabolism like you were, okay?" Shelby said defensively.

Lily and Nora were trying very hard not to choke on their food as they were stuffing their mouths to avoid laughing. Shelby and Michelle were best friends, but you wouldn't be able to tell if you were to overhear one of their conversations. Brutal truth would be a word to describe their relationship. Nora thought that Shelby was quite attractive, but she was just a bit overweight. Her personality was a little too overbearing for her taste, but Nora liked her a little more than Michelle. Michelle was a rake-thin girl with very short, straight black hair. She was extremely competitive and only really went out of her way to help Shelby. Michelle and Shelby tended to stick to themselves so Nora never really bothered to become close to them. Lily, Nora felt, was friendly with everyone, but a little too pre-occupied with school work and extra-curricular activities to have any really close friends.

When the feast was over, Lily reminded Nora that she and Remus had to escort the first years to Gryffindor Tower. Nora felt a jolt in her stomach, and a tap on her shoulder.

"Let's take these midgets up." Remus said to her with a warm smile. Nora, who was beginning to feel that Dumbledore perhaps made a good decision when he chose her to be a Prefect, got up to join him.


Later that night when Nora was changed into her pyjamas and sitting up in her bed, Lily came into the dormitory, looking a little perturbed.

"I don't get it." she started to tell Nora. "He is just unbelievable. I really don't know if he's serious or just trying to pull one over me."

"Who are you talking about?" Nora asked her in confusion.

"Potter!" Lily exclaimed as she pulled out her pyjamas from her trunk. "He's still acting all strange and polite. He's driving me mad. I don't know if he's being sincere or making fun of me behind my back." Before Nora could say anything to Lily, the dorm room burst open and in marched Shelby and Michelle, both ranting about Sirius Black.

"I can't believe it! I mean what does he see in her?" Shelby was asking Michelle in frustration.

"I don't know. Guys are dogs." Michelle said, trying to soothe her friend as they went on to tell Lily and Nora about how they saw Sirius flirting with a sixth year Hufflepuff, who, according to Shelby, resembled a cow with caked on makeup.

"You know, Shelby. I don't think Sirius is your type." Lily said thoughtfully. "You should go for someone more like Amos Diggory or Anthony Chang. Or even Remus." Nora shot her head up at the sound of his name. Remus?

"Remus?" Michelle exclaimed Nora's sentiments exactly. "No, no. I don't think he's your type either, Shelby." Michelle looked almost livid at Lily for making the suggestion, and Nora didn't blame her. Nora slid down into her bed and pulled the covers over her head before she took off her glasses and slid them onto the table next to her. She did this every night before going falling asleep, making sure that no one would ever see her without her glasses.

She closed her eyes and could still hear Shelby talking as the rest of the girls made their way into their beds. "That's it. I'm done with boys at this place. They make me sick."


"Oooh, doesn't James just look extra good this morning?" Shelby said the next morning at the breakfast table in the Great Hall. Nora looked up from her food at Shelby with skeptical smile and shook her head slightly in amusement. Nora was sitting with Lily that morning, helping her go over a few of her plans for the Prefect meeting they had that night.

"Sounds good, Lily." Nora said pleasantly, although feeling a little impatient on the inside. She was eager to leave the hall because she wanted to meet up with Bert so that they could go to their first class together. Nora was about to finally get up from her seat when Remus suddenly came up to them and sat up on the now clean table, right next to her. Nora could feel her heart beat a little harder and tried to act disinterested of his looming presence over her.

"Hey," Remus said with a smile, and then asked very casually, "What time is that meeting again, tonight?"

"Eight." Lily replied and then looked at him with an arched eyebrow. "Why didn't you just ask James what time it was?"

"Oh." Remus looked behind his shoulder for a second and then said quietly, "Well, actually James forgot what time it was at so he wanted me to ask you. But don't tell him I told you. He didn't want to look irresponsible."

"Did he really." Lily said, not sounding very amused. Nora couldn't help but crack a smile; Remus noticed it and smirked back. Nora, who felt a fluttering sensation in her stomach, looked up and saw Bert standing near the exit of the Great Hall, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed impatiently. She didn't feel like leaving just yet now that Remus was sitting so close to her, but she knew that Bert would be upset if they were late so she reluctantly had to take her leave from Remus and Lily, and got up to join him.

While walking down the corridor towards their class, Nora saw the tall figure of Sirius Black strolling lazily in the opposite direction. Bert quickly put his head down to avoid being noticed, but Nora looked up towards Sirius and met his cool gray eyes. He gave her a slight nod of acknowledgement and glanced at Bert. He squinted his eyes at him, as if trying to remember something. A small smile crept to his lips and he looked back at Nora, who had a slight frown on her face. He winked at her with the smile still plastered onto his face, ran his hand through his perfectly-set jet black hair and kept on walking his way.

"That guy is so weird." Nora said once he was out of earshot, although her face felt a little warm. And so good-looking too, she added secretly to herself.

"I think he remembers about the detention." said Bert sounding a little frightened. "I just know he's plotting something. I don't feel so good."

"Oh please, Bert." Nora said, feeling annoyed. "You're too damn paranoid. He's just…Sirius."

"Well, I'm glad you seem to like him so much," Bert started to say in a slightly resentful tone, "because I signed your name up for Quidditch tryouts."

"WHAT?" Nora yelled in the middle of the hall.

"Shh!" said Bert.

"Why the hell would you do something like that?" Nora asked him angrily, as she pulled him over to the side of the corridor.

"Well I saw the sign next to the Fat Lady's portrait outside of your common room and I noticed there were a few open positions from people who had left last year, and one of them was a Seeker. So I just wrote your name down." explained Bert.

"Ugh. Why would you do that? I don't want to be part of the Quidditch team. I don't think there are any girls on it. I don't want to be the only one." Nora said irritatedly. They started walking again and entered their classroom. "I'm going to go and scratch my name off the list after class."

"Oh, it's too late to do that." said Bert. "James already took the sign down. There were too many people signing up so they're just going to have the tryouts tomorrow evening."

"Well then I just won't show up." Nora shrugged.

"Don't be daft, Nora." Bert said. "You're really good and you know it. What's the harm in trying out? Who cares if you're the only girl?" Nora was about to reply as they were taking a seat when she noticed Sirius, James, Peter and Remus were in the same class, sitting a few rows behind them.

She could see that they were perusing over the Quidditch tryouts list, reading the names off. Shit, Nora thought to herself. They're gonna see my name. Stupid Bert. I'm gonna get him back for this.

Soon enough, she heard James exclaim. "Hey! A girl!"

"Where?" Sirius snatched the list from him and read it. "Nora Sammy. Position: Seeker." Nora could feel her cheeks get a little warm. She quickly opened her book and pretended to read. She felt Bert nudge her and she nudged him back harder in irritation.

"Hey, Nora!" It was Remus. Oh, great, she thought as she turned around in her chair to face him. "You're trying out for the team?"

"Well, I'm not really—" she was saying when she felt another hard nudge from Bert. "Yeah, I guess I might try out."

"Well, I hope you make it. It'll be cool to have a girl on our team." he said happily.

"Yeah, cool for you guys watching." Sirius interrupted. He looked at Nora archly and said to his friends, "What if she slows down the whole team? You know girls…they're just not made for sports." James and Remus tried to stifle their laughs; they knew that he was just playing around.

"What?" Nora said indignantly. "Girls can play sports!"

"Well," Sirius said, leaning back into his chair and folding his hands behind his head, "You're gonna have to prove it."

A/N: Just to reiterate what I said last chapter: I decided to delete all the chapters of this story because I re-read them and realized that they need a LOT of editing. So, I'll be fixing them up and re-posting them as often as I can (probaby every couple of days). I know there are quite a few people on my alert list from when I was first posting, so if you don't want to recieve the edited chapters, I'd suggest taking myself off of the list. Otherwise, enjoy the new editions! If you are reading this story for the first time, I'd probably refrain from reading any of the reviews since there will no doubt be a lot of spoilers.

Anyhoos, I don't mind getting reviews...so send me some!