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

CHAPTER 14

It was cold the morning that Nora was supposed to visit Bert at St. Mungo's Hospital. As she trudged along the icy road, stuffing her cold hands in her pockets, Nora secretly hoped that maybe Remus was somehow able to make it after all and come to the hospital with her as well. Nora felt a little disappointed when she could see Sirius in the distance as she made her way to their meeting spot. His dark silhouette contrasted starkly with the white, snow-covered field behind him. He was leaning lazily against a crooked fence and Nora wondered if he had been waiting for her for a long time. She looked at her watch just to make sure she wasn't late.

"How long have you been out here?" Nora said to Sirius as she walked up to him, her dark curly locks blowing in the wind and her cheeks pink from the cold.

"Not too long." Sirius replied. But that was a lie. Sirius had actually been outside for more than an hour. He, James, and Remus had been up the whole night, and Sirius decided not to sleep at all that day. He wouldn't be able to even if he tried; he was too anxious about meeting Nora that morning.

"So what's up, Norie?" Sirius said to Nora with a grin as they started to walk down the road together.

"Hey!" she exclaimed with playful smack on his arm. "Nobody calls me that but my mother, okay?"

Sirius laughed and said, "How is your mother doing, anyways? She couldn't come with you today?"

"Well, she's little busy…with my dad." Nora said sternly, but still smiling. "But she's totally in love with you."

"Oh yeah?" Sirius asked with interest as they made their way to St. Mungo's.

"Yeah, she kept going on and on about how handsome and charming you were." Nora said rolling her eyes.

"Well, at least somebody thinks so." he said as they started to make their way to the hospital.

"What do you mean, Sirius?" Nora asked him looking at him like he was stupid. "Who doesn't think you are?"

"I dunno." he shrugged. "You?"

"Oh please." Nora said rolling her eyes. "Of course I think you are. Well, I dunno about the charming part…"

"You do?" he asked, genuinely surprised.

"Well yeah." Nora said matter-of-factly. "But I'm not going to come up to you and say 'Ooh, Sirius, you are soooooooo handsome.'. You already have a big enough head."

"I see." Sirius said with a smile he couldn't suppress. They continued to talk amicably the rest of the way about what they had been doing during their holidays. Nora was starting to feel glad that Sirius came with her; she would've been too self-conscious to enjoy herself if Remus was there instead.

They had finally reached the hospital and were at the reception desk, when they were asked about which patient they were there to see.

"Last name?" The receptionist asked.

"Ernie." Sirius said confidently, and without any hesitation.

"Uh…Bert's last name is Aubrey." Nora said with a puzzled look on her face.

"Aubrey?" Sirius asked, looking very confused. "Then why the hell have I been calling him 'Ernie' this whole time?" Sirius asked her. Nora had a completely blank look on her face and turned back to the receptionist. They found out Bert was on the fourth floor in the Spell Damage ward and made their way to his room.

Nora and Sirius walked through his door and made their way to Bert, who was lying down peacefully in a bed. He looked exactly like he had when she last saw him in the hospital wing at Hogwarts. Sirius and Nora stood next to him, just staring at him with pity.

"He looks the same, doesn't he?" Sirius said quietly.

"Yeah." Nora replied, gazing at Bert's face. It looked like he was just sleeping. She wished she could just shake him to wake him up. Sirius looked at Nora and could tell what she was thinking.

"Listen," Sirius said in soft voice, "I'm just going to go outside for a bit, I'll leave you here with him. I'll be back soon."

"Okay, sure." Nora said as he left the room. She sat down in a chair that she pulled up to his bed.

"So." she said to the sleeping boy. "I don't know if you can hear me or not, but I'm going to talk to you anyways just 'cause I miss it. And I'm going to talk as much as I want without you telling me to shut up." She smiled at him sadly and then breathed out.

"So school's not so bad I guess. Well the first couple of days were, but these guys have all been really nice to me. Remus of course, James, Lily…and Sirius. Yes, believe it or not, Sirius too. Even though he does bug me half the time…but I know he's just kidding around so I don't really mind." Nora smiled at herself just remembering some of the antics Sirius had tried to pull during the semester.

"Oh some good news for you." Nora continued talking to Bert. "Lily is still single. But I think that's going to change really quickly. Sorry, mate. I'm pretty sure she's warming up to James. I think they'd be better for each other anyways. Nothing's changed with me and Remus. Surprise, surprise. He still thinks I like Sirius and I'm pretty sure Sirius knows that I like Remus, but I don't think he'd say anything so I'm not worried about it. My mother has some crazy notion that Sirius likes me or something. She said that Remus's mind was somewhere else…whatever that means. Anyways, I know he doesn't…or at least I hope he doesn't. That would be really awkward…" She paused for a moment.

"Hmm…where is Sirius anyways? He said he'd be back soon. I should go out and find him, it's getting late." Nora stayed with Bert for another minute, said good-bye and then left Bert's room. She walked down the ward's corridors, gazing around to see if she could see Sirius anywhere. When she walked through the whole ward, she decided to go back down to the first floor. When she reached it, she realized she was in the Creature-Induced Injuries ward and was supposed to go down one more floor to the ground level. She walked down the hall a bit and looked down and saw that her shoelace was undone so she bent down to tie it. Two Healers were near her and she could hear their conversation.

"Looks like we got another one, eh?" A short, stocky Healer said as a patient was ushered into the room he was standing next to.

"Yeah. He looks a little better than the last, though." said a wheezy, older looking witch. "That was a nasty bite. I was afraid he wasn't going to make it."

"Yeah he got lucky, that one." said the stocky one.

"Well, I don't know how lucky he really is. I mean, life isn't going to be easy for him anymore." the wheezy one said, shaking her head in pity.

"I know what you mean." the stocky Healer agreed with her. "He's lucky he's out of school. Can you imagine having to go to school? Getting ill every month with the transformations? How can you hide something like that?" Nora finished tying her shoelace and stood up. The two Healers were standing by the same door, still talking to each other about the patients inside the room.

"Well, the full moon was last night so he won't have to worry for another month." Nora heard the stocky one say as she walked past him. Full moon? She thought to herself. Damn, they're talking about lycanthropy. Poor guys.

"He still looks very pale and peaky." Those words suddenly struck a chord with Nora. Pale and peaky? That sounds oddly familiar… She walked a little further down the hall until she heard a voice that sounded distinctively like Sirius's. She looked to into the room on her right and saw his back. She walked into the room and saw him talking to someone.

"Sirius, I've been looking for you everywhere I—" Nora stopped talking suddenly when she saw that Sirius had turned around suddenly and that Remus was lying in the bed he was standing in front of. "Remus! What are you doing here? Are you okay?"

"Oh." Remus said exchanging an uncomfortable look with Sirius. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Then why are you in here?" Nora asked him with concern. "Did you get bit by something?"

"Er…no..." Remus said, choosing his words carefully, "well, not recently." Nora looked at Remus with a frown of complete confusion and then looked at Sirius, who was nervously scratching the top of his head, and avoiding her eye. He sat down into a nearby chair, not looking in anyone's direction.

Nora was completely dumbfounded but then slowly, it all became very clear to her. Not bitten recently...pale and peaky…sick once a month…oh, no. Don't tell me Remus is a werewolf!

"Oh!" She gave a little gasp of shock with the revelation, but then suddenly became very flustered and embarrassed for barging in on is privacy. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to just come in here and start asking...I'll just um…go out and leave you guys alone…"

"No, it's okay, Nora." Remus said as she was about to leave the room. "Don't go."

"You probably need to rest or something…I'll wait outside." Nora said, her cheeks feeling like they were on fire. Oh my God! I've never been so embarrassed before in my life!

"Don't be silly." Remus said with his characteristic warm smile. "It's okay. Just sit down. I'm bored anyways." Nora reluctantly sat down next to Sirius, still feeling embarrassed and now very nervous.

"So how long do you have to stay here?" Nora asked, trying to break the uncomfortable silence resonating in the room.

"Just a few more hours and then I'll go home." Remus replied. Nora looked at Sirius from the corner of her eye. He was leaning back in his chair, being oddly quiet. She wished he'd say something to lighten the atmosphere, but he didn't.

"So at school you're normally in the hospital wing at this time?" she asked him.

"Yeah." Remus replied.

The room became quiet again so Nora asked, "You've been doing that since first year?"

"Yep." Remus nodded his head.

"So I guess all the professors and stuff know, right?"

Remus nodded his head again.

"And these guys?" she asked nodding to Sirius.

"Yeah they figured it out pretty quickly." Remus said with a smile.

They sat around in silence for a few more moments until Sirius looked at the time and said what Nora was dying to hear, "It's getting late. We should probably get going."

As soon as Nora and Sirius were out of his room and into the hallway, out of Remus's earshot, Nora whacked Sirius hard on his upper arm and exclaimed, "You jackass!"

"Ow!" Sirius yelled rubbing his arm and looking at Nora like she was mad.

"Why didn't you tell me where you were going?" she asked him angrily.

"I didn't—" Sirius was about to say something when Nora interrupted him.

"And why didn't you come back to Bert's room where I was?" she asked him again.

"But I—" Sirius was going to say something again but Nora cut him off, again.

"Ugh, I'm so embarrassed!" Nora said burying her face in her hands. "I can't believe I just barged in like that. He probably thinks I'm like the nosiest rudest person in the whole world!"

"No he doesn't." Sirius said, looking at her perplexedly.

"I feel terrible. He probably didn't want anyone else to know." Nora said, still feeling embarrassed about what happened. "You should have told me you were going to see someone and that you'd take a while. I would've just waited in Bert's room for you!"

"But I wasn't planning on taking that long." Sirius said. "I was just about to leave him when you came in."

"Great timing." Nora said sarcastically. She kept replaying what had just happened in her mind as they made their way out of the hospital. The air outside was crisp, but cold. Nora could feel her cheeks start to cool off already.

A few minutes later, as they walked down a busy downtown street Nora said to Sirius, "Can you tell Remus when you see him next time not to worry about me telling anyone about his...problem?"

"He knows you won't. Don't worry." Sirius said, feeling a little goaded. He knew that she was upset about Remus, but the extent of her concern was starting to make the jealousy he was trying to suppress, bubble out of him.

Nora could sense that Sirius wasn't very happy and she started to feel bad about yelling at him. She cleared her throat and said, "Sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you before. I was just really embarrassed. I hope I didn't hit you too hard."

Sirius mumbled an "it's okay" and they traveled in silence most of the way home. They were soon approaching their neighborhood when all of a sudden Sirius felt something jump on his leg. He stopped abruptly and looked down.

"What the hell is that?" he said, trying to shake a furry grey animal off of his leg.

"Oh!" Nora exclaimed with surprise. "Bogey!"

"What's a bogey?" Sirius asked looking at his leg with worry.

"It's my cat!" she said bending down to the ground and prying it off of Sirius's leg. "How'd you get out here?"

"Damn, your mother was right." Sirius said looking at the creature with aversion as Nora stood back up with it in her arms. "That's one hell of an ugly cat."

"Hey!" Nora said protectively, stroking the cat's grey head.

"He's ugly and you named him Bogey? I'd have committed suicide a long time ago if I were him." Sirius said shaking his head.

"What's wrong with Bogey?" Nora asked, looking offended.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at her and said, "And you thought Yolk was a stupid name."

Nora shrugged with her cat purring comfortably in her arms. "I got used to Yolkie."

They walked in silence for a minute and then Nora sighed, "Man, I can't stop thinking about him. Poor Remus. I feel so bad for him. He's such a nice guy too. Why do bad things always happen to good people?"

"Well he's probably a good person because of what happened." Sirius said. She's not going to get over him, is she?

"You're right." Nora said sadly as she stroked Bogey's fur.

Well, that's it. Sirius thought to himself dismally. If her mother's pity theory about her is right, then she's almost completely in love with Remus now. I might as well just not even think about her in any other way than a friend from now on…

"So I guess I'll see you in school next week then." Nora said as they reached their turning points.

"Yeah." Sirius said feeling thoroughly depressed.

"Thanks a lot for coming with me today. I really appreciate it." Nora said, really meaning it.

"It wasn't a big deal." Sirius said crossing his arms over his chest, starting to feel a little cold.

"No but still…" Nora said and pressed her hand on his arm warmly. "I was really glad you came."

Sirius saw how earnestly Nora was looking at him and couldn't think of a time where she looked prettier than she did just then. Damn it! He cursed to himself. Why do I always find myself more attracted to people I know I can't have? Great. Just look at her. Her crazy hair, her crazy eyes, even her stupid crazy cat…they're just crazy beautiful to me now.


A/N: phew! I had to do a lot of work on this chapter. I fixed it up quite a bit...I hope it's better now! Tell me what you thought of it!