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

CHAPTER 18

Nora couldn't move. She didn't know where to turn without being noticed by them and she wished she could just disapparate out of sight. As she stood there staring at them, she could feel her heart pounding in her chest and the blood in her veins start to boil. She couldn't remember a time where she wanted to hurt somebody more than when she wanted to hurt Dana at that moment. That stupid bimbo, she thought to herself with rage. What the hell does she think she's doing? Hang on a second. What the hell is he doing? How could he want someone like her? Who is he supposed to want then? Another voice in her head started to ask. Someone like you? Nora wanted to scream out a 'YES!', but instead, cleared her throat loudly enough for them to hear.

Sirius and Dana quickly moved apart from each other and away from the portrait hole. As soon as Sirius saw Nora looking at them with apparent disgust, he felt like something in his stomach had just dropped. Oh, good one, you jackass. Sirius scolded himself and then thought, Wait a second. Why do I care if she caught us snogging? I'm sure she's getting enough action from somewhere. Sirius's expression suddenly became very haughty as he crossed his arms over his chest and stared back at Nora with defiant arrogance. Nora opened her mouth slightly like she was going to say something, but she didn't. Her face went from looking disgusted to looking disappointed, and Sirius thought he could sense a bit of hurt in her eyes. She just shook her head slightly and walked through the portrait hole.

Sirius felt that same sinking sensation drop down in his stomach. Oh, shit. Now I really feel like a jackass.

Dana let out a giggle and said, "Did you see her face? It was as if she's never seen anyone kiss before! I guess her and Remus don't get around to doing much, do they? I wouldn't blame him though…she is a bit of a weirdo."

"Hey!" Sirius said disapprovingly. "She's not a weirdo."

"Oh. Well excuse me." Dana said sarcastically. "I didn't know that you cared so much about her."

"Well, she is my friend…sort of." Sirius said, starting to feel a little irritated.

"Really. It didn't seem like you two were on very friendly terms just now." Dana said a little heatedly.

"It's just…never mind." Sirius said exasperatedly. "Let's just get out of here." He led Dana away from Gryffindor Tower. Although she was started to get on his nerves, there was no way that Sirius was going to go into the Gryffindor common room right then. He knew that he had just behaved very rudely to Nora and felt ashamed of himself. I can't face her just yet. I'd rather wait it out with Dana for a while and go later when I know she's not there.


Nora walked into the common room briskly. She could feel her eyes starting to sting and she wanted to get up to her dorm as fast as she could.

She saw Peter playing a game of exploding snap by himself exclaiming, "Yes! I win again!" as she passed by the couches near the fireplace. If it weren't for the fact that she was hurting so badly, she would've found that scene very comical. Oh my God. She thought miserably as she made her way up to the stairs to her dorm. This cannot be happening to me. I feel like such a fool! I finally realize that I'm in love with the guy, and he goes off and starts snogging the biggest skank in the school, and then on top of that, he looks at me like I'm some worthless piece of nothing that just got into his way. And the worst part is that Dana saw how he was looking at me. How can you treat people you claim to be your friends like that? If it was James or Remus or even Lily that caught him and looked at him a little disgustedly, he would've just laughed. So how could he have looked at me like that? What kind of a jerk does that? I feel like an idiot. How could I have thought that I could actually be in love with such an arrogant bastard? Nora was in her dormitory now and could feel the tears streaming down her face. She didn't bother changing her clothes. She just climbed into her bed and pulled the covers over her completely. Forget that I was even thinking about being in love with him…I don't even think I could consider him a friend anymore.


Nora would've liked nothing more than to stay in bed the whole day, but she didn't want to give Sirius the satisfaction of him thinking that maybe she was that upset at him. Screw that. She thought to herself bitterly as she got ready to go down for breakfast. I have my dignity. I'm just going to act like I don't give a shit.


Shit! What do I do? What should I say to her? She's going to be mad at me. I know it. I could see it in her eyes last night when she walked away. Sirius thought anxiously as he paced around the boys' dormitory room, trying to figure out what to do. He waited about an hour after he left Dana before attempting to enter the common room again the night before, too scared that she would have still been in there. He was relieved to not find her there and headed straight up to the dorm. He couldn't sleep the whole night; he felt too guilty about how he behaved with Nora. He woke up late the next morning and decided that he would just go down to breakfast and apologize to her later when nobody else was around. When he made it to the Great Hall, he saw that everyone was already seated together at a table. Nora was sitting next to James and Lily, and across from her were Remus and Peter. Sirius looked apprehensively in Nora's direction and saw her smiling and talking to Lily.

Hmm…maybe she's not as mad as I thought, Sirius thought to himself as he sat down next to Peter. He spotted a basket of fresh chocolate chip muffins and groaned internally when he realized they were out of his reach, and right next to Nora.

"Hey, Moony, can you pass me a muffin?" Sirius asked Remus.

"Sure." Remus said lazily. He yawned, scratched his head and said, "Nora, pass Sirius a muffin." Without seeming to think twice or look in his direction, Nora grabbed a muffin from the basket and chucked in Sirius's direction. It bounced off his head and landed on his plate. Never mind. Sirius thought grimly as he stared at the muffin on his plate. She's mad.

Sirius piled some more food onto his plate until he realized that he was really thirsty. The juice jug, unfortunately, was also right next to Nora. Sirius tapped Peter on the arm and said, "Yo, Pete, pass me the juice."

"Oh." Peter said looking in the direction of the juice. "Hey, Nora pass Sirius the—"

"No!" Sirius interrupted him. "I'll get it myself." He got up from his seat and walked behind Remus. He was about to take the jug when Nora suddenly grabbed it and started to pour juice into her glass…very slowly. Sirius stood there waiting for her to finish filling up her glass. Once it was full, Nora, still holding on to the jug, and pretending to be completely oblivious to his presence, drank the juice that was in her glass, and then started to refill it again. Sirius let out an impatient breath. So is this how it's going to be then…. Nora finally finished filling her glass and put down the jug. Sirius grabbed the jug aggressively and stormed back to his seat. I don't think I'm ready to apologize just yet.

Nora stole a look in Sirius's direction. His brows were furrowed and he kept his gaze down on his plate.

"Jackass." Nora muttered with a scowl under breath.


Later that afternoon, Nora grudgingly made her way down to the Quidditch pitch for practice. She knew that Sirius was going to be there and it just made her mood for the sport turn sour. When she arrived at the pitch, she saw that James and Remus were already there. James mounted his broomstick and made his way to the centre. Remus took his usual spot on the bleachers and Nora walked up to him.

"Hey, Lupin," Nora started to say as she sat down on the bleachers, "so apparently, there's this rumor going around that we're dating."

"What?" Remus started to laugh. "Oh, damn. It's probably because of yesterday."

"I know." Nora said with a grin. "I think Shelby and Michelle started something up."

"Wouldn't be surprised." Remus said with a wry smile.

"Oh well, I don't care." Nora said with a shrug and she got up to join James on the pitch. The rest of the team arrived, except Sirius, and James started practice. Nora was flying around warming up her broom when she saw Sirius strolling towards them, with Dana at his side.

"Oh, God." Nora said out loud to herself. "What the heck is she doing here?"

Sirius mounted his broom and flew onto the pitch while Dana took a seat on the bleachers. Nora saw Dana look in her direction and could have sworn she saw her scowl at her. Nora could feel her blood start to boil again.

"Hey!" Nora flew up to Sirius and asked him heatedly. "Why do we have extra spectators here?"

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked, looking down at the bleachers. "Oh. Well what is Remus doing here then?"

"Uh…why would you compare her to Remus?" Nora said, glaring at Sirius like he was completely mad. "Remus comes to almost all of our practices. He's in Gryffindor…and not to mention one of your best friends."

"So what's your point?" Sirius asked her, started to feel riled up as well.

"My point is that Dana is in Hufflepuff." Nora said simply.

"Hey!" Sirius shouted defensively, "Ernie used to come here and watch us practice all the time and he was in Hufflepuff too!"

"But Bert always used to support our team. Even against Hufflepuff." Nora retorted.

"So what? We're playing against Slytherin next game anyways. So who cares?" said Sirius.

"I care, okay? I'm not going to stay here if she is." Nora sat hovering on her broomstick with her arms crossed over her chest. She knew that her argument wasn't really making much sense, but she was too mad to care.

James, who saw both of his teammates hovering on the broomsticks and glaring daggers at each other, flew over in between them. "Okay, guys. What's the problem here? You're holding up the whole practice."

"It's not me." Sirius said to James. "Four-eyes here has a problem with certain spectators."

"No I don't." Nora snapped at him. "Forget it, I don't care anymore. Let's just play." She flew back into her position, still fuming with anger. She could tell that Sirius was just as angry. Every time she looked in his direction, she saw him glowering at her. It wasn't long afterwards that Nora had to watch her head for Bludgers that kept coming in her direction. After she dodged about the tenth one, she could hear Dana laughing hysterically at her. Nora looked in Sirius's direction and saw he had that same smug look on his face and she could feel her face turn hot with rage.

James was flying very close to her when Nora yelled, "That's it! I swear I'm going to beat the shit out of him!" She started to fly towards Sirius when James came next to her and grabbed her arm.

"Whoa, hold on, Nora!" James said as Nora tried to wriggle free from his grip.

"He keeps aiming those goddamn Bludgers at my bloody head!" Nora yelped as Sirius came up to them.

"What?" Sirius said heatedly. "You never cared before when I used to do it. What's your problem now?"

"My problem," Nora spat, with tears starting to sting her eyes and James still keeping a hold on her, "is that you are an asshole!"

Sirius stared at her for a second, knowing what this was really about, and felt a tinge of guilt start to form inside him. "Look," Sirius started to say in a calmer voice, but Nora interrupted him.

"No, I don't want to listen to anything right now." She sounded tired and fed up. She turned to James, who had by then let go of her arm, and said quietly, "I'm not feeling so good. I don't think I can practice anymore." She flew down to the ground and started to walk away from the pitch slowly. James gave Sirius a questioning look but had to continue with his practice session before the other players all became too restless.

Sirius looked down at the bleachers and saw that Remus was looking in his direction with a slight frown on his face and then got up from his seat and headed towards Nora. Of course. Sirius thought grimly. Good ol' Remus to the rescue.

"Hey, Nora." Remus called out to her and then jogged to catch up to her. "What was that all about?"

"Nothing." Nora said moodily. "Your friend just happens to be the biggest jackass to have ever walked on this planet, that's all."

"Oh." Remus said and then asked uncertainly, "Because he invited Dana to practice?"

"No." she replied. "He's just not the person I thought he was." Remus didn't really know what to say after that and knowing that she was in a bad mood, didn't want to pry Nora for more information. They walked together in silence all the way to the Gryffindor common room and then Nora went upstairs to the girls' dormitory to shower and get ready for her group meeting.


When James and Sirius came up to their dorm room after practice was over, they found Remus sitting on his bed reading a book.

"Hey," Remus looked at Sirius with that same frown on his face that he had on the pitch, "what's up with you and Nora these days?"

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked him, feeling a little alarmed.

"You guys are always arguing with each other. And Nora said you were an asshole." Remus said bluntly.

"Hey, I didn't say anything to her." Sirius said defensively, which, technically was true.

"Well, you must have done something otherwise she wouldn't have called you that." James added.

"I have no idea." Sirius said, starting to feel the guilt rise up in him again.

"Well, whatever is going on between you two, you better fix it before the next game. I don't want you to start something up in the middle of it." James said.

"There's nothing going on between us." Sirius said quickly, afraid of arousing any more suspicions in Remus. He went into the washroom and shut the door, not wanting them to ask him any more questions. While he was in the shower, Sirius kept thinking about Nora. This is getting out of hand. I think I'm just going to apologize to her. I've just got to get her alone…


Nora made her way down to the library to meet Anthony and Lanie later that evening, and as usual, Anthony was already there waiting, and Lanie was nowhere in sight.

"Hey, Anthony." Nora said with a sigh as she plopped down onto a chair.

"Something wrong?" Anthony asked her, sensing she wasn't in a great mood.

"Just tired." Nora said, rubbing her eyes.

"Oh." Anthony said, moving his chair a little closer to hers. "Well, I don't think we should take very long on this assignment."

"Yeah, it's pretty simple." Nora said, resting her head on the table. "We should be done soon. That is, if Lanie ever gets here." Nora closed her eyes but all she could see was Sirius's stupid face. She opened them and saw Anthony was looking at her with a dazed expression.

"Are you wearing perfume?" he asked her in a quiet voice.

"Um…" Nora said, lifting her head and feeling a little uncomfortable. "Yes."

"Oh. It smells really nice." He said with a smile. Nora didn't know what to say. She just forced a small smile back to him. Hmm…interesting. She thought to herself. Well, he's a nice guy…kinda cute too.

A few minutes later Lanie came into the library, as usual bursting to tell them the latest gossip. Once her tirade of who was caught snogging with who was over, they got to work on their assignment. When they were done and heading out of the library, Lanie, who had found another gossip colleague, left Anthony and Nora alone.

Nora could sense that Anthony was a little fidgety and he started to talk to her a little nervously as they walked through a corridor.

"So…" he said. "Are you going to be busy this coming weekend at all?"

"Um…" Nora thought for a moment. "Isn't it a Hogsmeade weekend?"

"Yeah." he said. "Are you going to be doing anything…in particular…that day?"

"Oh." Nora said, comprehending where the conversation was leading to. "Well, not really. I haven't planned anything yet."

"Well," he cleared his throat, "If you're not busy, maybe we could—"

"Hey!" a voice from the other side of the corridor interrupted Anthony. Nora recognized it as Sirius's. What the hell does he want? Nora thought, her face starting to feel heated with anger again.

Sirius ran up to Nora and said, "I need to talk to you." He glanced at Anthony, barely giving him any recognition.

"Well, I don't feel like talking to you." Nora said and started to walk away.

"No, wait!" Sirius said, grabbing her arm. "Can you please just listen to me for one second?"

Nora felt her fists tighten up and she left out a frustrated breath. "Fine." she said shortly. Sirius looked over at Anthony who was just looking at them a little puzzled.

"Er…" Anthony said to Nora, realizing that Sirius wanted some privacy, "I guess I'll just see you tomorrow." Nora looked at him apologetically and he gave her a small smile and walked away.

Nora turned back to Sirius. "So what is it?" she asked dryly.

"Look," he started to say, "I just wanted to—"

"Sirius!" came a shrill whine from behind Nora.

"Oh shit." Sirius muttered under his breath. Nora shut her eyes for a second and clenched her jaw. The sound of Dana's voice to her was worse than nails on a chalkboard.

"One second's over. Bye." Nora said to Sirius in a low voice and marched away.

Sirius ran his fingers through his hair in frustration as Dana came bounding towards him. God, he thought, When am I ever going to get a chance to be with her alone? And Dana's starting to freak me out…she's like a bloody stalker! I've got to figure out a way to talk to Four-eyes…before I go completely mad.


A/N: Ooh, the tension is starting to rise! Okay so I changed the beginning of this chapter quite a bit...I think it flows a lot better now and I put a little more insight into it. I hope you guys liked it! I should be posting the next chapter soon. Send me some reviews and I'll post it sooner. haha! Ooh, by the way, I'm still not getting my messages in time so forgive me for replying to you guys so late. Anyhoos, have a great weekend and send me those reviews!