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

CHAPTER 21

"Oh," was all Nora could say when Anthony moved away from her. She cleared her throat quietly and said, "Well, that was...unexpected."

"I like you a lot, Nora." Anthony said and leaned towards her again.

"Wait." Nora said quickly, dodging out of his way. "I don't think we should rush into anything."

"What do you mean?" Anthony asked with a slight frown.

"I mean, that I...it's just…I dunno." Nora said incoherently, feeling very frustrated. "I'm a little confused right now about…something."

"Something?" Anthony asked and then raised his eye skeptically at her, "Or someone?"

"Some…one." Nora answered hesitantly.

"Oh." said Anthony quietly. "I see." Nora could tell that he looked a little upset and she started to feel really guilty.

"I'm sorry Anthony." she said earnestly to him. "But I really don't want to lead you on when I'm in this state. It wouldn't be fair to you. I think you're a really nice guy and if it weren't for all this confusion, I would have no hesitations." Anthony didn't say anything. He just looked at the ground, still frowning.

Just as Nora was wishing he'd say something to break the uncomfortable silence, Anthony kicked a pebble that was near his foot and said grimly, "Well, I guess we should just head back to school then."


"What happened?" James asked.

"What're you doing in here?" Remus inquired.

"Oi," James said, waving a hand in front of Sirius's face. "Padfoot?" Remus and James had just entered their dormitory after coming back from Hogsmeade later that evening.

"What." Sirius said dourly. He was sitting on his bed with his arms crossed over his chest and a dangerous scowl on his face.

"Er…I take it things didn't go too well then?" James asked cautiously.

"Not really." Sirius replied dryly.

"Why not? What did she say?" asked Remus.

"Nothing." Sirius replied.

"You told her and she said nothing?" James asked confusedly.

"I didn't tell her anything." said Sirius through clenched teeth.

"Oh…so what did you do then?" Remus asked.

"Nothing." Sirius replied again.

"Er…okay." James said, exchanging puzzled looks with Remus.

Sirius abruptly got up from his bed and headed towards the door. He muttered, "I'm going out," and left, leaving James and Remus to wonder what could have gone wrong.


Nora walked down to the Great Hall on Monday morning, knowing that there would be no way that she could miss crossing paths with Sirius. She didn't see him even once the day before and felt sure that he was trying to avoid her. As she entered it, she saw him, sitting across James and Remus, facing her direction. She was looking right at him when he looked up towards her. His face was expressionless and Nora started to feel nervous. Just go sit with them, she told herself.

'Hey." She heard a voice next to her say suddenly. She turned to face Anthony, who was standing very close to her. Nora looked up in Sirius's direction again and saw that his attention as back on his food, with his eyebrows creased.

"Hi." Nora said, looking at Anthony again, wondering why he was standing so near to her.

"So…is he here?" he asked her, in a tone that was very un-Anthony-like. His voice was low and it sounded jealous.

"No." Nora lied, feeling very uncomfortable, and started to walk away from him slowly.

"Hold on a second." he said, grabbing a hold of her arm. Nora looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he quickly let go of her and said in a lighter tone, "We still have to meet tonight to finish our project."

"Oh. Yeah that's fine." Nora said distractedly. "We'll do that."

Anthony walked away from Nora and she headed towards the table where Sirius, Remus and James were sitting. Just as she was about to sit down a couple of spaces away from Sirius, he got up abruptly from his seat. James and Remus both looked up at Sirius with surprise.

Sirius muttered, "I'll see you guys later." As he left the table and headed out, Nora could feel her face turn hot. Oh my God. She thought to herself, not knowing what to do. He's totally disgusted by me. Is that why he ran away from me after he kissed me or why he's been avoiding me these past couple of days? Am I that hideous that he doesn't even want to look at me?

Remus and James exchanged a look, noticing how distraught Nora was looking.

James cleared his throat and said, "Oh, don't worry, Nora. He didn't leave because of you, if that's what you're thinking."

"Yeah," Remus added to the lie. "He was just saying that he had to go before you came here." Nora stared at the boys disbelievingly.

"Please, guys." she said in a sarcastic tone. "I'm not that stupid." She felt so upset that she quickly got up from her seat and left the Great Hall. Holy crap. Nora was still contemplating to herself, as she made her way to her first class. Now that I think about it, Sirius looked horrified after he kissed me. That's probably because he realized it was me he was kissing. Oh my gosh. What if I'm a terrible kisser?

Nora was too busy obsessing over what it was that Sirius was so disgusted by her about that she didn't pay any attention to her first two classes. She was already late for her Muggle Studies class, when she knocked into Dana Abbott in the hallway.

"Oh, sorry." Nora said, bending down to pick her book that had fallen to the ground.

"Watch where you're going." Dana replied rudely.

"I said I was sorry." Nora said defensively.

"Well you should be." Dana said, flicking her hair. Nora, who thought it would be best to just ignore Dana, was about to turn around and leave when she heard Dana mutter, "Slut."

"Excuse me?" Nora asked with surprise.

"What?" Dana asked innocently.

"I heard what you just called me." Nora replied heatedly.

Dana narrowed her eyes at Nora, clicked her tongue and said, "So. First Remus, then Sirius, and now Anthony. Three guys in two weeks. You're a real piece of work. Don't tell me you're going to be dating James next week."

"Uh…" Nora looked at Dana like she was crazy. "I never went out with Remus or Sirius. And I only went on one date with Anthony."

"Right." Dana said rolling her eyes. "That's why I caught you snogging Sirius."

"I wasn't snogging him." Nora said in a dangerously low voice. "He kissed me. And he only did it to get rid of you." Dana's eye twitched a little at Nora's words. She looked like she wanted nothing more than to hit Nora, but she just let out a huff, flicked her hair again and stormed away.

"Mental." Nora muttered under her breath as she started to walk again.

By then, Nora was very late for class. When she walked into the room, it was already full and the professor was well into the lesson. Nora looked around the room apprehensively, trying to find an empty seat. She saw James wave at her and point to the seat next to him. Sirius was on the other side of James, apparently taking notes very diligently. Nora walked up to the empty seat and sat down, taking her books out.

"What did I miss?" Nora whispered to James.

"Nothing much." he replied and then added, "Oh, the Professor gave back the egg babies."

"She did?" Nora asked with surprise. She peered over to Sirius's table and saw that Sirius had put his quill down and was holding their egg.

"How did we do on the project?" Nora asked James.

"We both got Outstandings, of course." James said with a grin. "Shelby's got Millie right now."

"I wanna see Yolk." Nora said to James, stealing another envious look at her egg baby.

James nudged Sirius and said, "Hey, Nora wants to see Yolk."

Sirius held the egg in his hand, contemplating something for a moment. "Tell her you can't always get what you want in life." he then said in a cold voice, loud enough for Nora to hear. Nora glared at Sirius, wishing she wasn't in class so that she could hex Sirius into the next century.

"Jackass." she muttered to him, still glaring.

"Tart." he muttered back, keeping his eyes on Yolk.

Nora's jaw dropped slightly in surprise and she asked James, "Did he just call me a tart?"

"Er…" James said, feeling a little uncomfortable being in the middle of them while they argued.

"Is there a problem back there?" The professor suddenly asked, looking in their direction. James and Nora shook their heads. "Then I'd appreciate it if you'd stop the incessant whispering." Nora sat the rest of the class, in an angry sulk, grinding her teeth and thinking of ways she could get back at Sirius.

The class was finally dismissed and the students were filing out of the class for their lunch break. Nora walked out without saying anything to Sirius and headed to the Great Hall. When she arrived she saw Lily already seated at the table with Remus so she sat with them and a few minutes later, James and Sirius also joined them. Sirius kept the egg out onto the table, with his hand protectively covering it up. Nora knew that he was just keeping Yolk in her view and out of her reach to make her jealous, but she refused to let him think that she cared and ignored him throughout the whole of lunch. When done eating, they all decided to sit outside for a while and mill around. It was an unusually warm March afternoon and almost all of the students were out on the grounds.

Lily, Nora, Remus, James, Peter, and Sirius sat around a big oak tree basking in the warm sun. Sirius, to Nora's annoyance, was still playing around with Yolk.

"Are you ever going to let me see that egg?" she finally asked him exasperatedly.

Sirius, who looked surprised for a moment that Nora was speaking to him, shrugged indifferently and said. "I dunno. Maybe. Maybe not."

"You can't decide who gets to keep it." Nora said, feeling more and more agitated. The wind was blowing Nora's curly hair in all directions, making her look even angrier. "It's not only yours."

"Well I took care of him more than you did." Sirius retorted, looking away from her. The image of Anthony kissing Nora kept popping into his head every time he looked at her and it drove him crazy. "You were a pretty lousy mother." Everyone else around them started to stare at Sirius and Nora in suspense.

"Really?" Nora asked in a raised voice. "And this is coming from the person who lost him in the middle of Hogsmeade?"

"Hey, that wasn't my fault!" he replied, feeling angry himself. "And I found him in the end, didn't I?"

"Yeah!" Nora scoffed. "After he nearly got killed!"

"Oh…shut up, Four-eyes." Sirius said abuptly.

Nora rolled her eyes. Everything Sirius said was starting to irritate her. "When are you going to stop calling me that? I don't wear glasses anymore, if you haven't noticed. And I do have a name. Why don't you ever use it?"

"Why don't you go and…kiss Chang or something." Sirius said, feeling the heat starting to really get to him.

"What?" Nora asked with surprise.

"Yeah." Sirius replied with a bit of attitude. He looked past her and said dryly, "Oh, there he is now."

"Hey, Nora!" It really was Anthony's voice coming from behind her.

Nora turned to face Anthony and could hear Sirius say sarcastically, "Ooh, he called you by your name."

Nora ignored Sirius and asked Anthony what he wanted.

"I was just wondering where we were going to meet tonight." he said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Sirius scoffed and muttered, "Try the Womping Willow. You guys like trees so damn much."

Anthony looked puzzled for a moment and asked Nora, "What did he say?"

Nora shook her head and rolled her eyes in annoyance, "Ignore him."

"Yeah I'm sure that won't be difficult for you." Nora heard Sirius say.

Anthony looked at Sirius with perplexity and Sirius said to him, "What? Something jerkin' your gherkin?" James, Remus, and Lily all tried to stifle a laugh.

"Er…" Anthony said, not knowing what to think and Nora quickly pulled him away.

"Look, why don't we just do it in the library? We'll get the most stuff done there." Nora said in what she thought was a low voice.

"The library?" she heard Sirius say loudly. "Is that where people are doing it these days?" Nora closed her eyes for a second in frustration, her fists clenching up. Anthony took that as his cue to leave and just as Nora was approaching her friends again, Sirius said to his egg, "Well, Yolkie. We're not very surprised are we? After all, she is a tart."

"That's it!" Nora yelled angrily, and started to charge at Sirius.

"Uh oh!" he yelped, getting up from his spot and running away from her.

"Get back here, you jackass! And gimme that damn egg!" Nora pulled her wand out while chasing him and muttered a spell that tripped him to the ground. She bent down and tried to grab Yolk that was still in his hand, but Sirius quickly moved his hand out of her reach. She tried to get up but he ended up putting Yolk in his pocket and pinning her flat onto the ground.

"OW!" Nora yelled as he straddled her down and clasped his hands with hers forcefully. "That hurts, you stupid jerk!"

"Aw, well isn't that just too bad." Sirius said, still holding her down. "Why doesn't your boyfriend come and rescue you?"

"Yeah maybe if I had one, he would." Nora said, struggling to get Sirius off of her. She lifted her knee up and made him lose his balance and fall. He had to let go of Nora's hands to catch himself, so Nora quickly pushed him off and then pinned him to the ground beneath her.

"Oh," Sirius said, a little out of breath but continuing their conversation, "so I suppose I just imagined that I saw you and Chang snogging that day at Hogsmeade."

Nora quickly let go of Sirius's hands. "What are you talking about?"

"What? Don't act all innocent. I saw it." Sirius said, looking at her a little sulkily, and not bothering to try to get Nora off of him.

"You did?" Nora asked him, feeling embarrassed.

"Yeah." he said with a frown. "You could've at least told me you were going out with him."

"It was just one stupid date." Nora said, and Sirius looked at her a little disbelievingly. "And I was going to tell you the day before, but you ran away from me and then disappeared, remember?"

"Yeah." he said, feeling stupid remembering the kiss. Sirius was starting to become more aware of the fact that Nora was right on top of him, and he wanted nothing more than to pull her down towards him, but he just muttered, "Not like you'd ever understand why."

"Well, maybe if you told me, I would." Nora said.

Sirius raised himself up a little, resting on his elbows. Nora could see the sun reflecting in his eyes and wished she had the guts to just kiss him right then. Sirius looked at her and said, "Are you that stupid that I have to spell it out for you?"

"Well," Nora said grimly, her previous thoughts quickly brushed away, "I don't like to make assumptions all the time. Unlike some people."

Sirius looked like he was about to say something when Nora suddenly heard her name coming from across the grass.

"What the—" she said, springing off of Sirius speedily and looking across the grounds, her eyes wide with surprise.

"Nora!" The familiar voice she hadn't heard in months said.

"Oh my God." Nora gasped, clapping her hands over her mouth. Sirius got up to see what was going on. He was wiping the grass off of his school robes as he watched Nora rush away.

"Oh my God!" Nora yelled again and ran to the boy that she had, until then, been only seeing in her dreams. "BERT!"


A/N: Ooh, Bert's back! hehehehe. Okay guys, one more chapter left! I hope you liked this chapter. These last two chapters were originally supposed to be one but I ended up splitting them into two parts. So the next chapter should be up very soon. Thanks for all the reviews from the last chapters...I appreciate all the feedback. Tell me what you thought of this one!