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

CHAPTER 3

Nora woke up in the morning feeling nervous. She took a long hot shower to try to stifle her nerves, but it didn't help. She met Bert down in the Great Hall for breakfast, and he kept urging her eat something. She looked at the food laid out before her and it only made her feel more nauseous than she already was.

"What was I thinking?" she asked Bert helplessly. "I can't do this. I'll make a fool of myself, I know it."

"Don't be ridiculous." said Bert, piling his plate with muffins. "I've seen you play and I've seen how other kids in this school play. You're just as good as they are. Even better."

"You're just trying to make me feel better." said Nora sullenly.

"Why would I even sign you up for it if I didn't think you were good?" he asked her.

Nora shrugged. She took a bite out of a piece of toast that Bert had put on her plate and put it back down. It tasted like cardboard. "Yuck. I can't eat this." She waited until Bert was done eating his breakfast and they headed to their History of Magic class. It was Nora's least favourite class; she always fell asleep. Professor Binns' monotonous voice never failed to drown into a distinctive buzz. By the end of her next class, Arithmancy, she was thoroughly famished and headed eagerly to lunch with Bert. When they were finished eating, Nora got up from her seat quickly, turned around, and bumped right into Sirius, who was making his way through the tables.

"Ooh, watch where you're going, Four-eyes." said Sirius with a smirk. "You don't wanna get hurt right before tryouts, do you?" Nora adjusted her glasses that had gone askew and then scowled at him as he walked away laughing.

"Arrogant berk." Nora muttered to herself as she and Bert walked to their final classes. By dinner time, Nora was so nervous about tryouts that she didn't even bother going into the Great Hall. She took her broomstick and just strolled through the halls, trying to calm herself down. She soon saw Bert running down the hall to catch up with her, looking out of breath. Well, it's a good thing he's not trying out. I swear he gets more out of shape every year! Nora thought to herself as they headed out to the Quidditch pitch where the tryouts were being held. When they reached it, Nora felt her mouth go a little dry. The field was packed with boys. Most of them looked like second to fourth years.

"Shit." she said to Bert. "What if one of these little guys is better than me? Do you know how embarrassing it'll be?"

"Don't worry." Bert tried to reassure her. "Just wait until most of them are already done. If you don't think you can beat them, we'll just head back inside."

"Fine." Nora agreed with him. They walked to the bleachers and Nora's spirits sank even lower when she spotted Remus and Sirius sitting down on them. Oh man. This is just getting worse. I can't do this.

"Oi!" Sirius called out and waved to them. Nora and Bert walked towards them. Remus had his usual friendly smile on his face, and Sirius had his usual cocky grin on his. "So, you decided to come after all, eh Sammy?"

"Yeah, I just came to check it out. I'm not sure if I'm still gonna try out or not." Nora replied, trying very hard to avoid Remus's eye.

Sirius looked at Bert and acknowledged him. "Ernie." he said with a nod of his head.

"It's Bert." said Bert, clearly not amused.

Sirius looked confused for a moment and then turned his attention back to Nora. "Listen, these kids have been out here for a while practicing, and believe me, if you've ever even flown on a broomstick before, you'll be better off than these guys."

"He's right, Nora." Remus agreed. Nora felt a flutter in her stomach at the sound of her name coming from him. "Here, just sit down and watch them first." He moved the books that were next to him and she sat down, feeling a little luckier already. Bert took a seat next to her just as they saw James fly down to the pitch on his broomstick.

"Show-off." Bert mumbled quietly to Nora. Sirius got up from the bleachers and went to join James, who was now addressing the hopeful players.

"Okay now, we need one Chaser, one Keeper and the Seeker. So let's just form three groups. One for each position." said James as he looked down at the tryouts list. To Nora's horror, she saw a bunch of giggly girls make their way down to the pitch, with Michelle and Shelby being part of the group. What are they doing here?

"Nora! What're you doing here?" Shelby asked her as they reached the bleachers.

"She's trying out for the team." Remus answered for her.

"Really? I didn't know you could fly." said Michelle, eyeing Nora and Remus suspiciously. "We just came to watch."

Shelby and Michelle sat down in front of Nora, Bert and Remus.

"So Remus, why aren't you on the team? I bet you're a really good player." Michelle gushed at Remus.

"Er…I'm not bad, I guess. I just don't have…time." said Remus carefully. "Plus, I just like playing for fun. I don't think I'm the competitive type."

"Yeah. You're too nice and polite." Michelle said sweetly to Remus, much to Nora's disgust.

"Damn those guys look hot down there." said Shelby who was gawking at James and Sirius. Nora looked down at the pitch and noticed that they really did look good. She could see Sirius's tall figure with the wind blowing his perfect black hair away from his face. He was always laughing or smiling when he was with his friends. Hmm, Nora began to think to herself, I wonder what he looks like without a shirt on….Wait a minute. Nora suddenly shook herself. What the hell am I thinking? She looked to her right at Remus and saw that he was still chatting with Michelle. Nora growled internally and looked back at the pitch.

There were only a few boys trying out for the Keeper position, and James quickly picked out a fifth year, clearly better than the rest, Kingsley Shacklebolt. James then played around with the Chaser candidates, seeing who would make the best partner for him. When he finally picked another fifth year, Kingsley's friend Sam Jordan, James called all the people trying for the Seeker position to come forward.

"Aren't you going to go down there?" Bert asked Nora.

"No, I'll just wait here for a bit and see…" she replied.

James split the group in two sides and made each half line up on either side of the pitch. He stood in the middle and then released the Golden Snitch that they were to all try and capture at his signal. As soon as he moved out of the way and gave it, all of the boys zoomed to the middle of the pitch to try and catch it. Nora had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Half of the younger-looking boys had already fallen off their broomsticks, and the other half all crashed into each other. The Snitch, Nora could see, was already on the far right side of the pitch. She looked over at James, who had his hands covering his face in disbelief, and Sirius, who was rolling on the floor laughing in hysterics.

"Nora," she heard Bert whisper to her from the side, "Come on, now. You know you can get it. This is a joke!" Nora looked over at the pitch again and saw that the boys that were still flying around were clueless as to where the Snitch was. Nora scanned the pitch and saw it now over on the left side of the pitch, next to a fourth-year kid's ear, who had no idea it was there.

"See, I told you there was nothing to worry about." Remus said to her.

"Yeah, I guess." Nora felt that she should relieve James of his apparent misery. She stood up and grabbed her broomstick, and kicked off straight into the air with it. She could still see where the Snitch was on the other side of the pitch. She hadn't flown in a few days, and the cool air brushing against her face was very refreshing. She felt a sudden rush of adrenaline, knowing that she was better than anyone on the pitch and that Remus would be watching her, and zoomed past the struggling boys, knocking one of them off to the ground. She saw the Snitch was still buzzing around the same clueless boy's head and flew towards it.

"Hey." Nora said to him. "The Seeker is supposed to catch the Snitch." She easily grabbed it and flew down to where James and Sirius were; their mouths were slightly open with very stunned expressions on their faces. She stretched her arm out to give James the Snitch back and was caught off guard when James pulled her into a desperate hug.

"Oh, thank Merlin!" he said with relief as he released her. "I thought we were really screwed this year." Nora stood there awkwardly, Snitch still in her hand when Sirius took it from her.

"So," he began to say, eyeing her, "you think you'll be able to handle playing with us boys? You know, we play a little dirty…and rough."

"Sirius, why are you trying to scare away our only chance of winning a game this year?" James asked quickly before Nora could answer Sirius back. "Don't listen to him, he's just teasing you. You'll be fine." He then turned to the boys on the pitch and yelled out, "Okay you girls can get out of here; we're done!"

"Well," Sirius said sticking his hand out to Nora, "Welcome to the team." Nora hesitated for a moment, but then gave him her hand and he shook it, roughly. The bones in her hand felt like they were being crushed and she looked up at Sirius. He had a very innocent, but obviously fake looking grin on his face. She struggled to pull her hand away and Sirius finally let go of it. Nora stared at Sirius like he was mad and then walked away from him quickly, rubbing her hand to try and relieve the pain. Bloody hell! She thought to herself as she went to meet Bert. I have a feeling this isn't going to very fun.

"Hmm." Sirius muttered to himself, looking at Nora as she walked ahead of him, "This is going to be fun."

A/N: So I fixed this chapter up a bit...next one will be up shortly. Let me know what you thought of it!