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

CHAPTER 10

Nora glanced at Sirius and saw his face turn a little cold as he was looked at his little brother. Regulus and his friends, who were munching on Shelby's sweets that she had bought and left with the eggs, stopped in their tracks as soon as they saw the three older students. Regulus, who Nora thought looked like a younger version of his brother, stared back at Sirius, with disgust written all over his face.

Their apparent staring contest was only broken when a voice from behind Nora said, "Hey, what's going on back here?"

Sirius turned around to face Remus, who said, "I just remembered that I saw Shelby leave her bags outside of Zonko's so I came to tell you guys, but didn't see you. Some old woman told me you guys came this way. Did you find your eggs?"

Sirius moved over slightly to his left to reveal Regulus, holding the eggs.

"Oh." Remus said, now comprehending the situation.

"So these are your eggs." Regulus said with a cool smile.

"No, one of them is mine." Shelby said, looking very defiant.

"Shut up, Mudblood." Regulus said, looking at her with repugnance.

Sirius, Remus, and Nora all instinctively pulled out their wands and pointed them at the younger boys. They dropped the sweets they were holding and pulled their wands out as well.

"Hey." Sirius said sternly to his brother. "Watch your filthy mouth. Just give me the damn eggs, and get the hell out of here."

"You can't tell me what to do." Regulus said insolently, juggling Yolk and Millie carelessly, while his friends sniggered behind him. Nora held her breath every time Regulus caught the eggs. Please don't drop them.

"If you give me the eggs right now, we won't hurt you." Sirius said, stepping closer to Regulus, his wand still in his hand.

"Oh, please," Regulus said in a bored tone, and stuck the eggs in his pocket. "I don't think a couple of blood traitors, a Mudblood and a freak are going to be able to hurt me."

"What freak?" Nora said, thinking that he was talking about her and feeling deeply offended.

"Him." Regulus sneered, looking at Remus. "Snape told us to watch out for him. He's some kind of half-breed."

"Well Snape's a greasy, lying piece of crap that you shouldn't listen to!" Nora said heatedly, her wand still pointed at them.

Sirius, who felt just as angry at Regulus's words, stole Nora a quick glance. He didn't turn to look at Remus, knowing that if he did, they would know there was some bit of truth in what Regulus had said. Sirius focused back on his brother, his eyes dangerously stormy, and walked up to him swiftly. Regulus, who was now looking up to face his big brother, looked pathetically small. Sirius suddenly yanked Regulus by the collar, over to the side of the alley, and pushed him against the wall.

"I'm not afraid of you." Regulus said quietly, his eyes full of fear.

"Shut up." Sirius said coolly, still pinning him against the wall. "I don't ever want to hear you talking shit about my friends again. Do you understand me?"

Regulus kept his gaze down, not answering him and Sirius shook him, "Hey! I said do you understand me?"

Regulus looked up at his brother and said quietly, "Mother was right about you. You are a disappointment."

"I don't care what that miserable old hag has to say about me, so quit changing the subject." Sirius said indifferently.

Regulus looked back down to the ground and Sirius sighed. "One of these days, you're going to find out that our family and the rest of these Pureblood maniacs are completed screwed in the head. I just hope it won't be too late by then." Regulus looked up again at his brother, frowning in confusion. "Now gimme those eggs before I hurt you trying to get them myself."

Regulus, who knew he wouldn't be able to beat Sirius in a fight or duel, reluctantly fished out the eggs from his pocket and gave them to his brother. "That's a good boy." Sirius said, cracking a small smile and ruffling his brother's hair a little, knowing it would embarrass him in front of his friends. Regulus scowled at Sirius and walked to his friends, who were still standing with their wands out in front of Nora, Remus, and Shelby. He jerked his head in a way to tell them "let's go" and they walked away.

Nora didn't lower her wand until they were out of sight. She looked over at Sirius, who just gave Shelby Millie, and saw that he looked a little upset. Remus who hadn't said anything since he first saw them in the alley, patted Sirius's arm and said quietly, "Come on. Let's get out of here."

Nora glanced at Shelby and saw her cooing her egg. "Do you think they hurt them?" she asked Nora.

"Doesn't look like it. They should be okay." Nora replied quietly as they all headed back to the spot where James, Lily and Bert were sitting. She kept looking up at Sirius and Remus, knowing that there was something bothering the both of them. Why would Snape tell those boys lies about Remus? What does he have against him? Sirius must be so mad at his brother...I kinda feel sorry for him. It must be tough having to hate your own family so much.

Nora was relieved to see everyone still sitting in the same spot when they reached it. The awkward silence was really starting to bother her.

"Oh, there you guys are!" James said to them. "Did you find your eggs?"

"Yep." Shelby said and went on to relate the whole story of what happened to Lily and James. Nora went and sat next to Bert, who was listening intently to Shelby speak. When Shelby told them about what Regulus said about Remus, James became livid.

"What did that greasy git Snape tell them? I'm going to go find him right now and give him a piece of my mind…or my foot in his ass." he said angrily getting up from the ground.

"No, James. Forget it." Remus said, holding him back. "It's not worth it."

"Yeah, James." Lily said gently. "Nobody is going to believe any silly rumors Snape has to say. Especially about Remus." She smiled warmly at Remus. Nora looked up at Remus and thought she could see his face turn slightly pink.

"Fine." James said, and reluctantly sat back down. "But if I hear anything else about this coming from him, nobody is going to stop me."

Remus sat himself down next to Sirius, who Nora was surprised to find, was staring right at her. She looked right back at him, furrowing her brows a little, and he narrowed his eyes at her, as if he was trying to find something out.

Nora was a little curious to know what he could possibly be thinking while staring at her with that odd knowing look, but because everyone was around them she resorted to just asking, "How's Yolkie?"

Sirius blinked, finally looking away from her and pulled their egg out of his pocket. He moved across the grass to sit next to her and said quietly, examining the egg, "He looks okay. I don't think they did anything." He put Yolk in her hand, touching the tips of her fingers as he released it. He felt an odd shiver go through him and he shuddered a little.

"What was that?" Nora asked him, noticing it.

"Oh, just cold." Sirius said quickly. What the hell was that? He asked himself.

"Yeah it is getting colder now." Nora agreed with him. "It's starting to get dark too. We should probably head back to school." Nora looked up at Remus and saw that he had a very far away look on his face. He looked in her direction for a second and caught her gaze. He looked over at Sirius for a moment and then back at Nora and gave her a tiny smile. Nora felt very puzzled at first, and then felt her face go instantly hot when she realized what he was thinking. NO! She left like screaming to him. Don't think anything like that! I don't like him. I like you!

Nora was too flustered to face either Remus or Sirius, so she turned to Bert and said, "Hey, let's go. I'm getting really cold."

They all got up to head back to the castle when Shelby suddenly gasped, "Oh my God! Michelle! I completely forgot about her!" She was about to run off when James suddenly stopped her.

"Oi!" He said. "Gimme back my baby before you go! I don't want to lose her again." Shelby gave Millie back to James, her face in a slight pout, and ran off to find her forgotten friend by the lake.


After all the commotion that had happened the day before, Nora was glad to finally be alone with Bert. They hadn't gotten a chance to sit together and talk about what occurred, and Nora was just bursting to tell him everything in detail. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and most of the Hogwarts students were too tired from their Hogsmeade trip to do anything productive. Nora and Bert were no exception. They sat in the library with books spread out before them, trying to "study", but all they really wanted to do was talk. Nora told Bert everything, from what Regulus said about Remus down to the furtive look that Remus had given her and Sirius.

"So," Bert started to say, "you think Remus suspects something going on between you and Sirius?"

"I think so." Nora said dejectedly.

"Well, does Sirius know that you like Remus?" he asked her.

"Oh, blast." Nora said, looking worried. "I really hope not. What if he tells Remus? That would be so embarrassing."

"Why didn't you just say anything then when Remus looked at you like that?" asked Bert.

"I don't know. It was just so weird. And I was totally caught off guard. And everyone was there." Nora said, trying to organize her jumbled thoughts.

"Hmm." Bert said, "So how is Michelle doing?"

"Not so good." Nora replied. "She isn't talking to anybody except Shelby. I think she's really embarrassed. She hasn't even come out of her bed today." Nora and Bert continued talking about the latest school gossip for the next couple of hours. It wasn't until later in the evening that Bert noticed that Nora kept looking at her watch.

"Do you have to go somewhere?" Bert asked her.

"Oh, no I don't." Nora said casually. "I was just supposed to meet Sirius soon to work on our assignment."

"You seem to be a little anxious about it." Bert said curiously.

"Oh, shut up, Bert." Nora said with a laugh. "I told him to just come here. I've got Prefect duty later on with Remus so I want to make sure we're done early."

"Ooh, that's why." Bert said understandingly.

"Yeah, don't worry." said Nora. "I'm not going to drop Remus for Sirius."

"You're not gonna what?" Nora froze as she heard Sirius's voice right behind her. Shit! What if he heard me?

"What were you saying, Four-eyes? I thought I heard my name." Sirius came towards her and plunked himself on the seat next to her.

"Oh…uh…no I wasn't talking about you." Nora lied a little nervously. "I was just telling Bert that um…sometimes he acts really serious." Bert grimaced at the terrible lie, and Nora looked at Sirius, hoping he would buy it.

Sirius peered across at Bert and said, "Hmm. Yeah, she's right, Ernie. I think you are a bit too serious sometimes." Nora let out a breath of relief and looked at Bert who at that moment did look rather…serious.

"Well, I better get going." Bert said to Nora with a sigh as he gathered his books. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow in class then." He got up and left the library, muttering something about "stupid" and "Ernie".

"Why do I get the feeling that he doesn't like me very much?" Sirius asked Nora with a grin.

Nora laughed and said, "No he doesn't mind you. He's just Bert. He's different."

"Yeah, he sure is." Sirius agreed with her. He looked around the library and said with a grimace, "I can't believe I'm in the library on a Sunday night. I dunno how you dragged me in here."

"Well, we can't stay for long anyways." Nora said looking at her watch. "I've got to leave in an hour."

"Where do you have to go?" Sirius asked her.

"I have Prefect duty tonight." She replied.

"With Remus?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah." Nora said, raising her eyebrow back at him.

"I see." Sirius said and then added in an almost resentful tone, "So, you seem pretty keen on making sure you're not late."

"Obviously." Nora said. "Why would I want to be late for Prefect duty?"

"Well, you don't make such an effort to be on time when you have to meet up with me." he replied.

"When have I ever been late?" Nora asked him indignantly.

"Aren't you always late?" he asked her, sounding a little annoyed.

"Uh, Sirius," Nora said looking at him like he was mental. "You're the one who's always late."

Sirius opened his mouth like he was going to say something back to her but then thought for a moment and said, "Oh. Yeah, I think you're right." He grinned at her and then opened his books and said, "Okay so what're we doin'?" Nora took out her books and they both worked for almost forty-five minutes on their assignment.

When they were just about done, Nora took off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose; a habit that was becoming hard to break. She put her glasses down on the table and leafed through her book. Sirius found himself getting bored of what he was reading so he moved his eyes away from his books and onto Nora. He noticed that her glasses were off, and just stared at her while she read. He tried not to look at her directly in the eyes, but was strangely mesmerized by them and his eyes kept shifting slowly from one to the other. In his mind, he was trying to figure out which one he liked best.

He didn't get a chance to decide because Nora looked up at him suddenly and asked, in a very casual tone, "So how is Remus doing, anyways? Is he still upset from yesterday?"

"About Michelle?" Sirius asked looking away from her eyes and feeling embarrassed for a reason he could not understand at that moment.

"Well, about everything." Nora said. "That and what your brother said about him."

"Oh, that." Sirius said looking up at her again. "No, he's okay, I guess."

"So what was Regulus talking about?" Nora inquired quietly, moving a little closer to Sirius. "Why do you think Snape would say something like that about Remus?"

Sirius looked at Nora and asked inquisitively, "Why are you so curious about Remus all of a sudden?"

"I'm not." Nora said defensively, although she could feel her cheeks getting a little warm.

"Right." Sirius said, still looking skeptically at her. "By the way, you're five minutes late for Prefect duty."

"What?" Nora exclaimed and looked at her watch. "Oh, crap! I better run."

"Yeah, run as fast as you can." Sirius muttered sarcastically to himself. "You don't want to keep Remus waiting."

"What was that?" Nora asked as she quickly put her glasses on and gathered her things together.

"Nothing." he said abruptly and opened one of his books. Nora looked at him with a frown but then just shrugged her shoulders and left the library.

Sirius peeked from behind his book, watching her leave and he suddenly felt very annoyed. What is wrong with me? He asked himself. Why do I feel so damn irritated? And can somebody PLEASE tell me what the hell I'm still doing in this bloody library?


A/N: Well, here's the next chapter...all edited out! Hope you guys like it! Send me a review to tell me what you thought. Thanks!