Disclaimer: Anything relating to the Harry Potter stories belongs to J. K. Rowling. She can have my characters and ideas as well.
CHAPTER 17
When Nora headed to the Great hall for breakfast the next morning, she felt like a million butterflies were buzzing around her in stomach. She kept telling herself that it was just school stress that was making her feel that way, but she knew deep down it was something else. Ever since she realized the night before that she wasn't in love with Remus, Nora had the sinking sensation that her feelings were being directed at someone else. No, they're not! Nora scolded herself. Don't be stupid. Of all the guys in the school, he is the last person you would ever fall for. You can't be another one of those girls that fawn and swoon over him. Yuck.
Nora walked into the hall, anxiously looking around to see if anyone was sitting inside yet. She was relieved to find Remus sitting alone at a table and took a seat across from him.
"You're up early for a Saturday." he said to her.
"I couldn't sleep." she said and then asked with a frown. "Why are you up so early?"
"I'm always up this early." Remus said with a smile. "I like to come down here before everyone else does."
"Yeah, it's nice and peaceful." Nora said while buttering some toast. She perused the Great Hall and then casually asked, "So...I guess all of your roommates are still asleep?"
"No." Remus said. "I think Peter was up and Sirius was in the shower when I left." Nora suddenly got a mental image of Sirius in the shower and shook her head a little. Stop it!
"But James was still asleep." Remus continued. "I think he came up really late last night."
"Hey!" Nora exclaimed suddenly remembering something. "Lily wasn't upstairs either when I went up to bed. I fell asleep before I saw her come in."
"Interesting." Remus said curiously, rubbing his chin. Nora looked up and saw Michelle and Shelby pass behind Remus. Michelle eyed Nora and Remus stealthily, and then whispered something to Shelby.
"Oh my God." Nora said rolling her eyes.
"What?" Remus asked her.
"This is why I'm not friends with any girls." Nora said shaking her head with irritation. "All they do is gossip."
"Why?" Remus asked and looked over in Michelle and Shelby's direction. They were sitting on the other side of the long table, still whispering and eyeing Nora and Remus.
Remus chuckled to himself and then said with a mischievous smile, "Here, give me your hand for a second." Nora gave it to him and he held it in his.
"You think they're looking at us now?" he asked her with a grin. Nora turned her head slightly and saw that Michelle's eyes were wider than Shelby's open gawking mouth.
Nora and Remus looked at each other and burst out laughing. They were both still holding hands and laughing hysterically when Nora suddenly saw Sirius standing right next to Remus.
Sirius looked at both of them with a puzzled look and asked, "What the heck are you two so happy about?" Nora and Remus looked at each other for a second and then burst out laughing again. Nora had to finally let go of Remus's hand so that she could clutch her stomach, which was now full of an odd mixture of laughing cramps and nervousness.
Nora cleared her throat when her laughter died out and continued to eat her breakfast, her face now feeling a little warm. Her cramps were gone now but the nervousness in her stomach was still there.
The toast she was eating started to taste like cardboard and just as she put it down she heard someone say, "Hey Four-eyes, can you pass me the pumpkin juice?"
Nora's head shot up in Sirius's direction. He was looking at her expectantly, but she just stared at him, too surprised at the fact that he had just addressed her to do anything.
"Hello!" Sirius said, waving his hand in front of her.
"What?" Nora said, snapping out of her state of astonishment.
"Pumpkin juice?" Sirius asked.
"Oh, right." Nora said picking up the jug and passing it to him. As the jug exchanged their hands, Nora felt her fingers touch his and a shiver went through her body like a current.
Shit, I knew this wasn't going to be easy. Sirius thought to himself, feeling the same shivery sensation pass through him as he took the jug of juice from Nora. Well, they seem pretty happy together, don't they. He decided last night, after he had seen Nora and Remus together, that he would put any non-platonic feelings or thoughts he had for her out of his head forever. That meant that he had to act like he always did with her before; he didn't want to arouse any suspicions in Remus. As he ate his breakfast, Sirius kept stealing glances at Nora. She was oddly quiet, and her eyebrows were furrowed as if her mind was preoccupied. Every once in a while she'd twirl a strand of her curls. Damn, why does she have to be so cute? Sirius thought remorsefully as he continued to eat.
Nora was concentrating very hard on not trying to eye Sirius so much. She hoped he would say something else to her, but he seemed to be rather engrossed in eating his breakfast. Oh no. Nora thought to herself miserably as she twirled her hair. He looks so damn good. This isn't fair. He's prettier than I am! Even his hair is nicer than mine. Look at how it just falls gracefully onto his face. And then there's mine, she thought looking at the curly strand in her hand, it's like a bloody bird's nest! She tossed her hair to the side and was about to get up when James strolled tiredly towards their table.
"'Morning." he said with a yawn and slumped down next to Nora. His eyes were drooping as he put some cereal in a bowl and then poured pumpkin juice into it. Nora, Sirius and Remus all stared at James with their mouths slightly open. Before James put a spoonful into his mouth, Lily came rushing into the Great Hall, holding her books and wearing her school robes.
"I can't believe I overslept!" she exclaimed as she took the other seat next to Nora and started to stuff a cranberry muffin into her mouth.
"Uh…Lily…" Nora began to say, "Today is Saturday."
"What?" Lily said looking confused at the same time that James suddenly spit out the spoonful of cereal he had just put into his mouth right across on Sirius.
Sirius sat there looking at James disgustedly with his hands in the air as James made a face of distaste and said, "God damn! What the hell was that?"
Sirius, still looking grossed-out, started flicking off specks of cereal from his shirt. James grabbed a muffin and some toast and piled some eggs onto his plate, oblivious to the fact that he had just spayed his friend with the contents that were previously in his mouth.
"So, Lily," James said, looking past Nora towards her, "Did you want to work on those reports for Dumbledore right after we're done eating or later on in the afternoon?"
"Reports?" Lily asked James looking confused, but then suddenly said with realization. "Oh! Right…well we can work on them in the afternoon."
"Oh." James said looking a little disappointed. "Are you sure you don't want to start early? What if we need more time?"
Nora turned her head slightly to the right towards Lily and saw her biting her nail, trying to cover up a smile. "Um…" Lily said looking like she was contemplating something, "Okay I guess we could do it earlier."
Nora turned her eyes to her left now to look at James and saw him looking very pleased with himself. She looked across at Remus and saw that he looked just as suspicious as she felt.
"So what exactly do you have to put in these reports?" Sirius asked James as he flicked another piece of cereal off of his arm.
"Er…" James stuttered, evidently taken by surprise by Sirius's question, "You know…just Head stuff." Nora could tell that Lily was starting to squirm a little in her seat.
"Head stuff." Sirius repeated, with his eyebrow raised in disbelief. His eyes automatically shifted from James to Nora, and saw that she was looking right at him. His eyebrow dropped back down slowly and he just gazed into her eyes for a second and then looked away.
Oh my God. Nora felt like she was in serious trouble. This might be worse than I thought. Okay just relax. It's nothing. It's just physical attraction. So what if I'm suddenly finding him excruciatingly irresistible in every way? It'll pass…as long as he never looks at me like that again…I'll be fine.
But Nora knew she wasn't fine. She purposely tried to avoid bumping into Sirius the whole day, afraid that her attraction for him would only grow stronger. Every time she heard his voice coming from a certain direction or caught a glimpse of him from afar, she would walk the other way. She purposely skipped lunch so that she could avoid seeing him. It didn't matter to her anyways, she couldn't eat. Her stomach was still so full of butterflies and she found her heart start to race every time she thought of him. God, I think I'm going crazy! Nora thought as she headed towards the library that evening for a group meeting with Anthony and Lanie. She had just walked through the common room where James, Sirius and Peter were lounging around. Nora could have sworn she saw Sirius look at her on her way out and it made her heart skip a beat and left her with a tingly feeling. I've got to get my mind off of him.
Damn, Sirius thought as he watched Nora walk out of the common room, her curly hair bouncing a little with every step that she took. I'd like to bounce on her—oh for Merlin's sake, I'm doing it again! Sirius shook his head to clear it out. I gotta stop thinking about her like that. I think I'm going to go mad. I need a distraction. Hmm…I told Dana I'd meet her now anyways. Sirius got up and left his friends in the common room, heading to where he was supposed to meet up with Dana. On his way there, he thought about the conversation he had with her earlier in the afternoon...
She bumped into him after lunch and asked him with curiosity, "Is it true that Nora and Remus are going out?"
"What do you mean?" Sirius had asked her, his heart racing from the fact that he was about to hear his biggest fear confirmed.
"Well, Shelby and Michelle told me that they were holding hands or something at breakfast." Dana said, looking at Sirius expectantly.
"Oh." Sirius said, relieved that that was the only information she had. "Yeah, I saw that."
"So it is true then!" Dana exclaimed.
"Well, it might be true." Sirius said reluctantly and then added. "I wouldn't be surprised."
Wouldn't be surprised at all. Sirius thought to himself glumly as he turned into corridor that led to the Hufflepuff common room entrance.
Nora entered the library and found Anthony already sitting down at a table and joined him.
"Lanie's not here yet?" Nora asked as she took a seat next to him.
"Nope." Anthony replied and moved his seat a little closer to hers.
"Well, I guess we can just start without her." Nora said as she took out her notes.
"Hey, can I ask you some—" Anthony was saying to Nora just as Lanie came bustling towards them.
"Nora!" she exclaimed excitedly, not bothering to keep her voice down. "Is it true that you're going out with Remus Lupin?"
"You are?" Anthony asked Nora with surprise.
"No, I'm not!" Nora said defensively and then asked Lanie. "Where'd you hear that?"
"Oh, I ran into someone who heard it from Dana, who overheard Shelby saying something to Michelle." Lanie said, her big blue eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.
"Oh." Nora said, remembering what had happened during breakfast. "Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but, it's not true. We're just friends."
"But," Lanie started to argue, "Dana said she talked to Sirius today and he said it was true."
"What?" Nora asked Lanie.
"He's one of Remus's best friends. He would know about something like that." Lanie said authoritatively.
"Uh…" Nora said feeling angrier by the minute. "Well, since it's me that's supposed to be going out with Remus, I think I'd have a little more authority on the subject than Sirius!"
"So you are going out with Remus!" Lanie exclaimed again.
"Ugh." Nora said putting her head on the table.
"No, Lanie." Anthony said sternly. "She said she wasn't."
Nora lifted her head off of the table. "Thank you, Anthony."
"No problem." Anthony said with a grin and they started to work on their assignment. The whole time they were working, Nora kept thinking about why Sirius would tell Dana that she was going out with Remus. I don't get it. She contemplated to herself. He doesn't really think that I'm with Remus, does he? Wait a minute. A thought suddenly occurred to her. Maybe he still thinks that I like Remus. So now he's just assuming that we're together. Is that why he's been acting strange these days? But why would he act strange? Unless he was….jealous? No, no. That's just stupid. Why would he be jealous? It's not like he'd be interested in me. I'm not his type at all. Didn't Lanie say that he was talking to Dana today? Damn, it looks like he's been spending a lot of time with her lately. Oh my goodness…what if he's seriously interested in her? Nah…I don't think he would be. He can't be that shallow. I mean she's pretty…but that's it. No personality or brains. But anyways, why would I care if he really was interested in Dana? It's not like I want to be with him. Right?
When they were done and packing up to leave, Anthony came up to Nora and asked her quietly so that Lanie couldn't hear him, "Hey, there really isn't anything going on with you and Lupin, right?"
"Nope." Nora replied, looking at him a little strangely. "We're just friends. Nothing else."
"Oh." he said looking pleased with her answer. "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow night then. If you want to meet up a little earlier or something then let me know."
"Uh…okay sure." Nora said a little uncertainly. Why the heck would we meet earlier? Wait a minute…
"And if you're not doing anything during the day—" he was saying a little nervously before Nora interrupted him.
"Oh! I have Quidditch practice during the day tomorrow." she said quickly. Holy shit. I think Chang is getting sweet on me!
"Oh, right." Anthony said, looking a little disappointed.
"Okay, well…good night!" Nora said and hurried out of the library. She was on her way to Gryffindor Tower when she thought she heard some whispering and giggling coming from around the corner. Oh gosh. Nora said to herself rolling her eyes. Can't these people get a room?
She turned into the corner and stopped dead in her tracks.
"Oh my God!" Nora exclaimed and covered her mouth in surprise as a very embarrassed Lily suddenly pushed James away from her. Nora couldn't move. Her hand was still over her mouth, and that was because she was trying to hide the extremely big smile that was plastered onto her face.
"It's not what it looks like." Lily said nervously.
But James, who could tell that Nora was smiling, grinned at Nora and said, "Oh yes it is."
Nora finally removed her hand from her mouth and Lily looked at the both of them smiling at each other and couldn't help but feel her own mouth twitch.
"So." Nora said to them. "I suppose you two were just working really hard on that report, eh?"
Lily, who was now smiling, cleared her throat and said, "Yeah…we got a lot done."
"I'm sure you did." Nora said as she gave James a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Well, you guys better finish it up. I'll see you later." She left them and continued on her way, feeling very elated. Aw, I'm so happy for James and Lily! They both looked so happy together. Man, I'm in such a good mood…I don't think anything is going to dampen—and that's when it finally hit her. Right in the middle of that thought, Nora saw him, next to the portrait hole outside of the Gryffindor common room. He was with Dana...and they were kissing. It made Nora sick to her stomach; she was jealous. That's when Nora finally realized that it wasn't just a passing phase of physical attraction that she was feeling.
She was completely in love with Sirius Black.
But she realized it too late.
A/N: Muhahaha! And that's the end of the story.
Just kidding! I didn't have to change much to this chapter so, I posted it pretty quickly. By the way, there is something wrong with my account...I can't seem to recieve any messages/chapter updates/reviews via e-mail. I hope they'll come soon, but until then, if anyone has sent me something, I'm not purposely ignoring you! I just didn't get them yet. Anyhoos, hope you like the chapter! Send me some reviews!
