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

CHAPTER 4

"Hey watch out, Nora!" James yelled as a Bludger went flying only inches away from her head. "Sirius! We all know you're a bloody good Beater, but would you mind not trying to kill our Seeker?"

"What?" Sirius said innocently as he flew over to where James and Nora were, bat in his hand. It was two days after the tryouts and the team had assembled together for a preliminary practice. Sirius gazed over at a very windswept-looking Nora and gave her a mischievous grin.

"I said," James answered him, "can you please not aim any of the Bludgers at Nora's head."

"What's the matter?" Sirius asked him, loud enough for Nora to hear, "Four-eyes can see the Snitch a mile away but can't see a Bludger two inches from her head?" Nora puffed up a little in indignation and Sirius flew up to her and said, squinting his eyes, "Are you far-sighted or something?"

James was trying to be stern with his friend but just ending up grinning instead. "Okay, okay. Stop bugging her. It's her first day." Sirius laughed and flew to the other side of the pitch. Nora scowled at his back as James flew next to her, hovering on his broomstick. "Don't mind him. He's just teasing you."

Nora nodded and said, "Yeah I figured that. I don't really mind the Bludgers coming at me. I guess it's good practice. I'm sure I'm going to be dodging them during the games against the other teams."

"Yeah, that's true." James agreed with her. "But I just wanted you to get used to everything first. I don't want you to get hurt already."

"Don't worry. You don't have to be over-protective with me just 'cause I'm a girl." Nora said, quickly dodging another Bludger that just whizzed by her head.

"Can't help it." James said with a smile. "It's going to take some time to get used to having a girl on the team."

An hour and five close-call Bludger dodges later, Nora was thoroughly pooped. Practice was finally over and the team made their way back to the castle.

"So, you didn't do too bad, Sammy." Sirius said to her as they all walked into the common room together. "I mean, I went a little easy on you, but I think you'll be okay."

"You don't have to go easy on me, you know." Nora said, feeling a little irritated. Nora was tired and Sirius was starting to get a little on her nerves.

"Oh, don't worry, I won't. This was just the first day." he called to her as she walked away in the other direction and up the stairs to the girls' dormitory to shower and change for bed.


The following evening, Nora had Prefect duty rounds. At first, she felt that she was too tired from classes during the day and still sore from the other night's Quidditch practice and wished she didn't have to go. But, as soon as she found out that she would be doing her rounds with Remus, she suddenly felt a new burst of energy. She tried to tame her curly mane before leaving, although without much success, and succumbed to just putting on a little lipgloss. When she met Remus down in the common room, she noticed that he looked a little pale.

"Hey." he smiled tiredly at her. "Ready to go?"

"Sure." said Nora as they exited the common room together, wondering if maybe he wasn't feeling too well. "Just lead the way."

"Patrolling gets a little boring sometimes." he said to her as they made their way down the corridors. "There usually isn't much action going on. I've caught a few people snogging in broom closets and some sneaking into the kitchens, but that's about it. Come to think of it, it's usually Sirius that I catch."

"Why am I not surprised." Nora said dryly. "You know, he kept trying to kill me during Quidditch practice last night."

"Really?" Remus asked her, looking very interested.

"Yeah." Nora replied, feeling annoyed at Sirius just thinking about it, "He kept aiming the Bludgers at my head."

"Well," Remus said, and Nora could tell he was trying not to smile, "I hope he missed."

Nora felt her chest swell up a little at his words and said, without even thinking about it, "You should come to our practice tomorrow." Once she said it, Nora felt surprised at her sudden boldness.

"Hmm…maybe next week." he said hesitantly. "I don't know if I'll get a chance to come tomorrow."

"Oh. Okay." said Nora, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice. I'm such an idiot. Why did I even suggest that? Remus quickly changed the subject and started to talk about their classes. They continued to chat for the rest of their round until they saw Michelle sauntering down the hall.

"Hey guys!" she said when she saw them.

"Hey, Michelle." Remus said in a friendly voice, and Nora nodded at her. Oh great. Why is she here? Man, can't I get any time alone with this guy?

"What're you doing out here so late?" Remus asked her.

"I just came back from the hospital wing." Michelle replied.

"Why? Is everything okay?" he asked her.

"Oh yeah, fine. Just had a slight headache." said Michelle, her face glowing at Remus's apparent concern. "Hmm, you look like you should visit the Hospital Wing too, Remus. You look a little peaky."

"Oh," Remus said looking down at the ground. "I'm just really tired." He looked at his watch and said, "Well, I guess it's time to go back, anyways." Nora noticed the change in Remus's countenance and felt, with a little selfish happiness, that maybe he was slightly annoyed at Michelle's comments. They all headed back to Gryffindor Tower, with Nora noticing that Remus was still quiet. She felt that maybe there wasn't something quite right with him, but unlike Michelle, refused to pry into other people's business.


"So, how was your patrolling with Remus last night?" Bert asked Nora during breakfast the following morning.

"Was okay," Nora said dully, "until Michelle showed up."

"Oh. Tough luck." Bert said through a mouthful of scrambled eggs.

Nora shrugged. "So are you going to come to our Quidditch practice today?"

"Oh yeah, I want to see how you play with those guys." Bert answered enthusiastically.

"Well, it's not very interesting at the moment." said Nora, "But just watch Black. I'm telling you, he's after my skull. He keeps aiming those Bludgers at my head."

"Now who's being the paranoid one?" Bert asked her.

"You'll see." said Nora as they got up to head to class. "Just count how many times he does it."

"Oi! Four-eyes!" said Sirius, flying over towards Nora, who was hovering on her broomstick in the middle of the Quidditch pitch later that evening. "Who said Ernie could come to the practice?"

"What do you mean?" she asked him, looking down at Bert who was sitting on the bleachers. "He's just watching."

"He's in Hufflepuff! He'll tell their team all our tactics." Sirius said with a raised eyebrow.

"Trust me, he won't do that. He doesn't talk to them." Nora said, trying to wave Sirius off.

"I see, got your boyfriend on a real leash, don't you?" he asked her with a grin.

"Boyfriend?" Nora exclaimed, looking at Sirius with surprise. "Bert's not my boyfriend!"

"He's not?" he asked her looking confused.

"No!" Nora confirmed sternly.

"Oh," he shrugged, "I figured you guys spent a lot of time together so I just assumed…"

"Yeah, it's nothing like that. We're just really good friends." she said resolutely.

"Hmm…that explains a lot." he said more to himself and then said to Nora with a raised eyebrow, "So I guess he won't mind so much when he sees me beating those Bludgers at you, eh?" He flew away before Nora could say anything to him.

"Ten times." Bert said as Nora flew down to meet him on the ground after the practice was called to an end. "I saw Sirius hit the Bludgers towards you ten times. I guess you were right. He really is after your skull."

"Ha! And I dodged all of them." Nora said triumphantly.

"Don't worry." Sirius's voice suddenly came from above. He was flying over their heads and heard their conversation. "I'll get you next time, Four-eyes."

"Sirius," James said as he caught up to the group, "just because Nora is the only girl on the team, doesn't mean you have to constantly flirt with her."

Sirius laughed out loud. "What can I say? Bad habits are hard to break." he said before speeding away from them on his broomstick.


Nora trudged along one morning to the only class she didn't have with Bert: Muggle Studies. She tried to convince him to take it with her, but him being a Muggle-born, wasn't very interested in learning stuff that he already knew. He was always fascinated by Divination and decided to take that class instead. Nora couldn't stand Divination, so she figured one class without Bert wouldn't be so bad. She walked into the classroom, eager to spot anyone she knew in the class. She spotted Sirius and James sitting in the back of the room. They were both busy chatting with a couple of Ravenclaw girls and didn't see her. She spotted Shelby sitting alone a few rows below them and took a seat next to her.

As soon as the class was full, the professor cleared her throat for silence and began lecturing. "The first unit in this course that we will be studying is Muggle Family Studies. But, instead of just reading through the book, we will be doing a simulation project. Students tend to get a more practical understanding of what goes on in Muggle families this way. So, to start us off, I'm going to be passing out a contract to all the boys in the class." She tapped her wand and the parchments went flying onto each of the boys' desks.

"This is a marriage contract." James said as he read the contract. "Oh boy."

"I knew we should've taken Ancient Runes instead with Remus." muttered Sirius. "Lucky Moony."

"Now, Muggles usually get to choose their own spouses, although arranged marriages still exist in some societies." the professor began to explain again. "The men traditionally propose to the women, so that's what we are going to do. Before you gentlemen start scoping out the most attractive person in the room to marry, think about who would make a good partner. Your grades depend on it. I would suggest, from previous experience, to choose someone either in your own house or someone that you are in contact with regularly. You'll understand later why this is important. You should also pick someone you know that you can trust and work with fairly well."

The students in the class started mumbling to each other and the professor asked, "Okay, before we start are there any questions?"

"Ooh!" Shelby raised her hand. "Can we refuse a proposal?"

"Yes, you can." She answered.

"Can we get divorced?" Someone from the back yelled out.

"Yes, if you really feel that you can't work well together, you can." replied the professor. "But it'll cost you. Two letter grades to be exact."

"What? That's crazy!" The students in the class all started to grumble with discontent.

"It's all part of the project. It'll become clearer as we go along." she concluded.

Oh great! Nora thought to herself. Why didn't stupid Bert take this class with me! What if nobody wants to work with me? Nora dropped her quill on the ground and bent down to get it.

"Dammit! Why didn't Lily take this class?" James lamented. "Is there anyone from our house in this class?" James and Sirius scanned the class and saw Shelby.

"Oh…there's Porter." Sirius said unenthusiastically.

"Er…fine. I'm going to just ask her." James said, getting up from his seat.

"What about me?" Sirius asked just as Nora sat back up from retrieving her quill. James stopped when he saw her and looked back at Sirius.

"No" Sirius mouthed silently but sternly to James. "You already picked Shelby" James shrugged in defeat and approached Shelby reluctantly.

Before James could change his mind about picking partners, Sirius yelled out, "Oi! Sammy!"

Nora, who was listening to an overjoyed Shelby talking to James and signing their contract, turned around to face Sirius. He leaned his chair back against the wall and had his signature cocky grin on his face. He ran his hands through his hair and clasped his hands over his head and said, "I know this is the day that you've been waiting for your whole life." Nora stared at Sirius with a very unaffected look on her face. He quickly clunked his seat back to the ground and jumped down towards her. Before she knew what he was doing he grabbed her hand and said with a fake earnestness, "Four-eyes, will you marry me?"


A/N: Hehehe...I didn't change too much in this chapter...next one will be up soon. Send me some reviews to let me know how you like it so far!