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

CHAPTER 8

"Oh, no." Nora sighed, resting her head on the table. This was the last thing she wanted to hear. She was exhausted from the night before. After Sirius and James had left her, she stayed up until very late in the night in the common room, waiting for them to come back. When the clock had struck two, she decided to give up and turn herself into her bed. She woke up late and missed breakfast, and had just barely made to class on time.

She took the first seat she could find and had just heard the professor of her Muggle Studies class say, "Congratulations! You are all going to be parents!" Nora kept her head on the table, listening to what the professor had to say. She explained that each couple would be given a magical egg, which would be representing a baby. They were going to have to feed it, change its diapers, and above all, make sure that no harm came to it.

"Oi!" Nora felt a tap on her arm and lifted her head up to see a grinning Sirius, "Who you been messing around with, woman? I know it's not my baby!" Nora gave him a quick scowl and rested her head back down.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked her, taking the empty seat next to her. "Didn't get any sleep last night?"

"Not really." she answered in a muffled voice.

"Why not?" he asked her.

"Because I…" Wait a minute, Nora thought before saying anything else, I can't tell him what I was doing. "I just couldn't fall asleep, that's all."

"Oh, here come the babies." Sirius said as the magical eggs were being passed around the room. He picked up theirs and said affectionately, "Aww, it looks just like you."

"Very funny." Nora said sarcastically with her head still down.

"Let's give it a name." Sirius said thoughtfully. "Hmm…how about Yolk?"

"Yolk?" Nora asked, finally lifting her head up. "You've got to be kidding me. Why would you name the baby Yolk?"

"Well, 'cause its an egg. And the yolk is the best part." Sirius said matter-of-factly.

"Ew, no," Nora argued, "the white part is the best."

"Well, we can't call it White Black now can we?" Sirius retorted.

"Wait a minute. Who says it gets to have your last name?" Nora asked Sirius, her lack of sleep crankiness starting to get the best of her.

"I do! I'm the man, so he gets my last name!" he answered firmly.

"He? So it's a boy now too?" she asked incredulously.

"Ooh, it looks like you guys aren't going to get anywhere." Shelby said as she and James walked over to where they were sitting. "James and I have already named our baby."

"Really? What did you guys name it?" Nora asked them.

"Well, first of all we decided to make it a girl." James said.

"And we named her Millie." Shelby said proudly.

"Millie?" Nora repeated and muttered. "Interesting name."

"Millie." Sirius said looking deep in thought. "Hey! That rhymes with—"

James suddenly cleared his throat violently and said, "So! You guys don't know what to name yours yet?"

"We don't even know the sex yet." Nora said sullenly.

"I thought we agreed on a boy!" Sirius exclaimed.

"No we didn't!" Nora said and took a deep breath, "But, okay fine. It can be a boy. But we're not naming him Yolk!"

"Aw, come on. It would've been cool." Sirius said, tenderly stroking his egg. "Yolk Black."

"Hmm," said James, looking at Sirius's egg. "It does have a nice ring to it."

"You guys are mental." Nora said, shaking her head in disapproval.

"Don't you have a sense of humour?" Sirius asked her.

"Yes I do. That's just not funny." Nora replied dryly.

"It is!" Sirius said defensively.

"Okay, you know what?" Nora said exasperatedly. "Name the damn thing Yolk. I don't care."

"Hey!" Sirius said covering the egg's nonexistent ears. "Watch your language in front of the baby!" James and Shelby laughed at Sirius and then got up to return to their desks.

"Alright." Nora said, ignoring him and reading the assignment instructions. "So we have to split the babysitting times."

"How about we just split up so you get it in the morning, I'll get it in the afternoon, and then you get it in the night, and then I'll take it in the morning and so on." Sirius suggested.

"Yeah whatever that's fine." Nora said distractedly and put down the instructions.

"You don't seem very interested in this." Sirius said, frowning at her.

Nora shrugged. "Just got a lot on my mind. Wait, so how are we going to watch it during Quidditch practice tonight?"

"Um…" Sirius thought for a moment, "We'll get a babysitter."

"Okay, we can ask Remus." Nora said, remembering that Remus usually watched their practices.

"Er…no he's not going to be able to baby-sit." Sirius said quickly.

"Why not?" Nora asked, feeling alarmed again.

"He's…got something else to do. He won't be at practice." Sirius said vaguely.

"Okay." Nora said, getting very curious and worried at the same time. "What is going—"

"Hey!" Sirius interrupted her. "We can ask Ernie to watch him."

"Oh." Nora said, realizing that was a better idea. "Yeah sure, Bert was going to come to practice anyways." Before Nora could bring up the subject of Remus again, Sirius suddenly remembered he had to ask James something and got up to walk over to his desk, leaving Nora full of conjectures.


Later that evening before they had to leave for Quidditch practice, Nora, Sirius, James, and Shelby were sitting in the common room, discussing their new assignment. Nora, who still didn't get a chance to confront Sirius about Remus, had plopped herself on the ground near the fireplace and was working on another assignment for her Potions class. Sirius was lounging lazily in a chair close to her, and Shelby and James were sitting quite comfortably together on a nearby sofa. Shelby was just talking about how many other children she wanted to have when Lily walked into the common room.

"Oh, hey Lily!" Shelby squealed in delight. "Did you hear the good news? James and I are parents!"

"You guys didn't waste any time, did you?" Lily said not bothering to stop.

"Hey! Where are you going? Don't you want to know what we named our baby?" James asked her. Lily stopped walking and came closer to them.

"What?" she asked in a bored tone, noticing how close Shelby was sitting next to James.

"Millie." Shelby said smugly.

"Millie Potter." Lily said out loud. She looked at James and saw that he had a smirk on his face.

She tried to control the tugging feeling creeping up her lips and then Sirius said, "You know James, I think the name that I came up with for you guys was better."

"Oh shut up, Black." Shelby said angrily. "It was a stupid name."

"Well, I just mashed up your last names together. I thought it was ingeniously clever." Sirius said with a grin.

"Yeah, like Yolk, right?" James asked.

"Yolk?" Lily asked with a smile and looked at Nora who gave her a "don't ask" shake of the head.

"Yup. Yolk Black. Kinda cool isn't it?" Sirius said proudly.

"Very." Lily said amusedly. "So what name did you come up with for James and Shelby's baby?"

Sirius looked at Lily with a wicked grin and said, "Port-a-Potty."


More than a week had gone by and Nora was feeling pretty good. They had creamed the Slytherin Quidditch team the night before and were now the highest ranking team. Her classes were all going well and Remus was finally acting like himself again during their Prefect rounds together, making her temporarily forget about his frequent absences.The days were getting colder but the prospect of a Hogsmeade weekend kept everyone feeling warm inside, and Nora was no exception. She couldn't wait to stroll the streets of the magical village with Bert, loading up on sweet goodies from Honeydukes and browsing the new inventions at Zonko's Joke Shop.

The girls were in their dorm, getting ready to leave for Hogsmeade when Nora's attention was caught on a conversation Michelle and Shelby were having with each other.

"So are you gonna tell him?" Shelby asked Michelle while furiously applying large amounts of blush to her cheeks. Him? Nora thought to herself while folding up her pyjamas.

"I dunno." Michelle said, brushing her hair. "Should I?"

"Why not?" Shelby asked her. "Go for it. What's the worst that can happen?"

"Uh…well, let's see. He can freak out and never talk to me again?" Michelle answered in a sarcastic tone. Shit. Nora thought, pretending not to listen to their conversation. They're talking about Remus. What does she want to say to him?

"No, he wouldn't do that. He's too nice." Shelby said.

"Yeah that's true." Michelle agreed.

"So do you think he feels the same way?" Shelby asked her curiously.

"I think so." Michelle said in a hopeful manner. What? Nora felt terrible. How could he like her? Is he crazy? She's so…ugh.

"So do it." Shelby said firmly.

"Okay, I'll see." Michelle said and they both left the dorm.

Nora felt sick to her stomach. Oh no. Why today? Why do they have to ruin my trip?

She sat down on her bed for a minute and tried to recollect herself. Bert's going to be waiting for me. I better just go. Nora grabbed her wallet and headed down the stairs into the common room.

"Hey, Four-eyes." Sirius, who was leaning against the back of a chair said as she walked by. "Why so glum? Today is supposed to be a good day!"

"Yeah right." Nora mumbled walking towards the portrait hole.

"Oh, and don't worry about little Yolk! Never mind that you were supposed to have him this morning." he called out from behind her. "I'll keep him now but you have to take him in the afternoon!"

"Yeah, yeah." She waved him off, too distracted to care, and left the common room.

Bert was waiting for her on the school grounds and they started their trek towards the village. Nora told Bert everything she had heard in her dorm.

"Well," Bert tried to reason with her after she finished telling him. "We don't know for sure if she was talking about Remus."

"Please, Bert." Nora said rolling her eyes. "It's Michelle we're talking about. Who else can it be?"

"Okay, okay." Bert agreed with her quickly. "But we don't know if Remus would actually like her back."

"Who knows? She seems to think he does." Nora said glumly.

"Yeah but he's a nice guy. Maybe he gives every girl that impression." Bert suggested.

"Hmm." Nora frowned thoughtfully. "Maybe he does."

"Anyways don't let it ruin our day. We finally get to hang out together. She'll probably chicken out and not say anything."

"Yeah. That's true." Nora said, feeling lighter already. "She said she'd see anyways. Hey! Let's go check out Honeydukes. I'm starving!"

Nora and Bert spent the next few hours at Honeydukes, Zonko's, and a Quidditch supplies store. They finally settled down on a comfortable patch of grass and sorted through their booty.

"Hey guys!" a cheerful voice coming towards them said. Nora looked up and saw Lily, smiling with her own bag of pleasurable delights. Bert quickly put down the chocolate fudge he was eating and started fixing up his hair, getting bits of fudge into it. Lily sat down on the grass with them.

"Ooh," she said, looking at their pile, "looks like you guys got those new sugary sour sticks too. I got the blue ones. I couldn't decide on purple or red. They're supposed to fizz up in your mouth or something. Did you try one yet, Bert?"

Bert, who was just staring at Lily the whole time she was speaking could only utter an unintelligible, "Mbmpf."

Nora, who knew that Bert's brain tended to suddenly turn off every time Lily was around, came to his rescue and said to Lily, "So have you seen Sirius or any of those guys around?"

"Yeah." Lily said, her cheerful expression suddenly turning cold. "I saw them at Zonko's. They were goofing around, as usual. Showing off in front of a bunch of giggly girls."

"Oh, I see." Nora said, wondering why she was so annoyed. "I have to take Yolk from Sirius soon."

"Well, I'm sure Shelby has to take their baby away from James soon too." Lily said, her face still very cool.

"Oh, yeah, probably. Oh look there she is over there." Nora said looking up. Shelby was running down a street.

"What is she doing?" Lily asked, looking at Shelby confusedly.

"It looks like she's running after someone." Nora said standing up to get a better look. "Is that Michelle?" She could see a very distraught-looking Michelle running away and Shelby chasing her, calling her name and telling her to stop.

"Looks like it." Lily said, getting up as well. "She looks like she's crying or something."

A promising thought had just crossed Nora's mind when she saw Sirius and James coming up towards them.

"Hey!" James said, "Have you guys seen Remus?"

"No." Lily said, looking very indifferent again.

"Oh, he just disappeared." James said, looking a little puzzled. Nora, who was putting together the fact that Remus was missing and Michelle was crying, started to feel a little hopeful.

"Oi, Four-eyes!" Sirius said, getting Nora's attention. "It's your turn now to watch over little Yolkie."

"Oh, yeah." Nora said. "Give him to me."

"Yeah he's right—" Sirius's face suddenly looked pale. He looked in his bags and then turned out his pockets. He looked up at Nora and said, "Oh, shit."


A/N: Hehehehehe...I didn't change much with this chapter so I'm gonna just post it up. Two chapters in one day. Yey! Send me a review if you're not busy. Hehe...