Chapter Twenty-nine

Revenge

There's no better way to start out in school again then to be sitting in the Great Hall, surrounded by your friends, eating a wonderful dinner made by the house-elves that Sirius and I would have to clean up later. But I didn't care about that right now. I'd come to enjoy the house-elves' and Sirius' company. Despite the kiss, things hadn't changed between us, and we were still our old, normal selves. I thanked the gods that the others hadn't found out about it…I never would've been able to live that down.

I could think of nothing that could ruin this moment, and the feeling that came with it.

But as every good thing does, it came to an end.

Professor Vera stood up from his chair and waited expectantly. But the students either didn't notice him, or, like me, they were ignoring him, and everyone was still carrying on with their conversations. The Headmaster's patience level plummeted, and his face turned extremely red.

"Silence!" he bellowed. "That's enough!" Everyone shut-up while James shot me an amused grin and Sirius made a face at the Headmaster.

"I hope you all had an enjoyable break, but you must realize that break is over and it's time to get back to business."

"He doesn't hope we enjoyed our break," Tonks told our group as the Headmaster went over the rules and regulations. "I bet he wishes all of us suffered and at least half of us died."

"Ah, but see, he wishes his precious Slytherins had an 'enjoyable break'," Remus said.

"Remus is right," James agreed, "but so is Tonks."

"Yep," Sirius said. "I bet he wishes all us Gryffindors were wiped off the face of this planet."

"Along with all the muggle-borns and half-and-half's," I added.

"Ssh you guys!" Lily hushed. "He's announcing who's in the lead for House Points!" That shut us up real quick. One thing I'd come to learn was that Gryffindor had to win the House Cup; Slytherin had won for the past five years, and their streak had to be ended. Now. As in, this year. As in, by us.

"As you all know, the end of the school year is nearing…" Professor Vera was saying.

"Go ahead and say it Wormtail," James said. Smiling, the we all (except for Peter who turned red and hid his face) at once said, "We've got this in Merlin's Purse!"

"In second place, as of right now, is Ravenclaw," the Headmaster said. All of the Houses except for Slytherin clapped and cheered for them.

"And, as of right now, Slytherin is in first place." There was cheering from the Slytherins, but that was it. Everyone else was stunned, including the teachers. The students began to murmur confusedly. My group was frozen, shocked.

"That's not right!" a Ravenclaw girl cried.

"Yeah! Gryffindor should be in first!" a Hufflepuff boy agreed.

"They've won all the Quidditch games so far!" Gary yelled, glancing over at me, giving me a 'What the hell?' look. The Gryffindors were now starting to shout their agreement.

"SHUT-UP!" Professor Vera yelled. "Quidditch isn't everything—"

"Quidditch is almost everything!" James yelled, enraged, jumping up and shaking his fist at him.

"Sit down Mr. Potter!" the Headmaster snapped. Lily pulled him down next to her before he could get in trouble, but he still had his fist in the air, shooting daggers at him.

"You seem to forget that the way you act will both earn and lose your House Points. Ever since Gryffindor's new edition has arrived, they've been losing their points faster than they can earn them." The Hall went completely silent. Then I realized what he'd said, or rather, who he'd put the blame on.

"I didn't do this!" I exclaimed, jumping to my feet.

"If anything she's brought our house points!" Sirius yelled.

"That's not what I've—"

"Where's the proof?" I interrupted Professor Vera. "Just who have I ticked off?" Professor Damant stood, smiling cruelly.

"What?" Remus shouted. "But he never took our House Points away! And if he did, he didn't say he was!"

"That's against the rules!" Lily growled, her anger starting to double. Mess with her friends, don't worry, you'll never forget it. Mess with her friends and the rules; oh, you're going down, sucker!

Weasley intervened here. "Miss Evans is correct. And, if I do recall, Gryffindor has received other points from all the teachers at some point during this school year." The look in Weasley's eyes was dangerous. He was daring the Headmaster to fight against him. And he knew it, so he backed down, but his expression was as cold as ice when he looked at me and my group.

"I will look into this misunderstanding then—"

"There's nothing to look into!" Tonks yelled. "Gryffindor is in first…"

"…and Slytherin, because of the house points they lost, are in last," Professor McGonagall said, looking at a piece of parchment. "Here is your proof, Headmaster."

The Headmaster's expression, if possible, got even colder as he said, "Very well. As of this moment Gryffindor is in the lead."

Since we had arrived back at school on Friday, we had the next two days off. And first thing Saturday morning, during breakfast, Sirius had something planned. Something that he had told only me about. And the only thing I could say was this: Lily was going to kill him. And I told him such, but he laughed it off.

"She wouldn't dare. James wouldn't let her," he told me as we made our to the Great Hall.

"You sure? He seems to let Lily do whatever she wants. I think he doesn't want to lose her or something…and she knows his weakness, so she uses it to her advantage," I said, smiling. That was just like Lily, using her head.

"I can agree with you there." He led us over to Lily, James, Remus, Tonks, and Peter. He sat next to James, and I sat next to him and across from Remus.

"Mornin' you happy people!" he said cheerily. Remus looked at him confused, but I kicked him to keep him quiet.

"You're certainly in a good mood considering it's…" Lily looked at her watch. "Oh, seven forty-five. In the morning."

"What'd Nike do to wake you up this morning? You're happy, so did she kiss—" I'm pretty sure Sirius stomped on James' foot for that because he yelled out in pain. I'm not sure me kissing him would do anything anyways. Well, other than freak him out. Besides, I wasn't sure it was a good idea…

"Ow! Okay, okay! I'm sorry!" James said. "Just thought I'd check…"

"How many people do you think are in here right now?" I asked.

Peter looked around. "Umm…about the whole school…give or take a few that are sleeping."

"Why?" Remus asked suspiciously.

"Oh, no reason," I said, taking a bite of some toast. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sirius grin.

He stood up and cleared his throat loudly. Of course, all the girls noticed him first…and then the guys soon followed. When he had everyone's attention, he said,

"How many of you know James Potter, Gryffindor Quidditch captain?" The girls yelled out answers and expressions of what they thought of him, which made Lily narrow her eyes, while some of the guys that James would talk to muttered answers, if not a bit jealously.

"Okay, good. That's everyone. Well, how many of you know the girl he fancies; Lily Evans?" Now here's where the guys yelled out, James got envious, and the girls stayed broody and silent (except for Lily's friends). Sirius' grin got even wider.

"Even better. Well, after about…how long has it been? Oh, right. After two and a half years of begging her and making a complete idiot of himself…James has finally gotten Lily to say yes to him, and now these two are officially going out! They're together, so back off all you James-lovers. He's taken. Alright. That's all. Thank you." He sat back down to silence. Lily, who was shell-shocked, broke out of it and jumped up.

"Sirius Black, you SOB, I'm gonna murder you!" she yelled, and she chased him out of the Great Hall, yelling the whole way. That left James to face it alone as all the eyes in the room returned to him after Lily and Sirius disappeared. He turned to me slowly after waving at everybody with a big, goofy grin.

"You knew about this, didn't you?"

"Yup," I said, taking a drink of pumpkin juice.

"And you didn't care to tell me?"

"Nope."

"I'm very—"

"Come on James. You can't be mad at me," I said, giving him a small smile.

"Mad at you?" He laughed. "No, I was going to say I'm proud, but, uh, if I'm supposed to be mad, I can try that too." He frowned at me and glared. I poked and winked at him, and he cracked up. "You are so hard to be mad at Nik! I see what Padfoot means."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Uh-huh. So…anything else that Sirius says about me that I should know about?"

He smirked at me. "Oh yeah, loads of it. But none of it that you're going to hear."

"Jaaammeeesss…" I warned.

"Nope, still not telling!" he said stubbornly. I reached over to grab a hold of him, but he'd been expecting that. He jumped up and took off. And, like Lily had with Sirius, I chased after him.

"Regulus? You want to go talk to Regulus?" I demanded, blocking Sirius' path out of the Common Room.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Come on Nik. Move. I've just got to sort something out with him."

"And what would that be…?" I pressed.

"Nothing," he snapped.

"Oh, I don't think so. Take James and Remus with you that way you don't end up murdering him just yet. I doubt this 'sorting things out' with him is actually gonna turn out as just an exchange of words."

"They're busy. James is hanging out with Lily and Remus, Peter, and Tonks are somewhere."

"Then I'm coming."

"No. You're not."

"And just why not?" I demanded, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Because…because…" He took in my expression, and then ran an agitated hand through his hair. "Oh for the love of Merlin! Why must you be so difficult?"
I smirked. "Me? Difficult? Nope! That's you."

"Fine. But stay out of it. It's none of your business." He walked out of the common room, not bothering to wait for me.
I skipped after him and said, "As you wish Snuffles!"

"Snuffles?" He shot me a confused look.

"Sure. Why not?" Sirius just rolled his eyes at me. "Where are we going?" I asked when we seemed to be going lower and the stone walls seemed darker and prison-like. Was it just me, or was it even colder?

"Slytherin's house," Sirius replied, looking around uneasily.

"Are you okay?" I asked, once again taken aback by this not-so-confident/comfortable side of him.

"Yeah…I'm fine. It's just strange to think that I should be here and not in Gryffindor."

"Don't talk like that!" I chided. "If anyone should be in Gryffindor, it's you. And I think we all can agree that you've proven it."

"Stop trying to make me feel better. I need to get through this mess alone." By 'this mess', he meant his family. It was strange how I understood him so easily and clearly.

"You really think that?" I asked quietly. "Or is there more to it?" He was silent. "Just know that we're here for you, no matter what happens."

"You say that now, but you don't know what will happen in the future. I might do something that you, everyone, and even myself won't be able to forgive." So that's what he was scared of: losing the only people he had in this world.

"I'm not a Seer, and I'm not going to pretend that might not happen," I said slowly. "Times are going to become extremely difficult, and all of us are going to have decisions to make. Yours will probably be bigger and the choice will be more consequential than the rest of ours. But let me assure you of one thing that I'm almost completely sure of: no matter what you may choose, you'll eventually see what is right. And because of that, and because we care about you a lot, we'll forgive you."

"That's probably the most serious and thoughtful thing I've ever heard come out of your mouth," he said finally, smiling. But I knew he'd listened and believed me.

"Don't get used to it," I said. "You were desperate."

"Me? Desperate? Ha! Never," he scoffed.

Five minutes later we had snuck into the Slytherin common room (which I would rather not describe) and made our way to the boys' dormitory.

"You want me to wait out here?" I asked him as we came to a stop at a black door.

"There is absolutely no way I am leaving you alone in the Slytherin house on the floor with the boys' dorms. I don't care if you can take care of yourself. It's just too dangerous and I'm not taking that risk," Sirius said.

"Why are you so concerned for my safety?" I asked.

"You know why, you evil woman," he snapped.

"Oh. Well. Thank you. But I still think you're a bastard," I teased. He laughed and rolled his eyes at me, then opened the door, and we saw Regulus snogging a Slytherin girl that looked way too old for him, considering he was only twelve and the girl looked seventeen.

"Oh gross," I gagged. The two pulled apart, Regulus glaring and the girl becoming extremely red in the face when she saw the legendary Sirius Black.

"Get a room," Sirius scoffed.
Regulus overcame his embarrassment and sneered at his brother. "I happen to have one, only problem is you are intruding."
Sirius' eyes narrowed, and he took a step forward, but I placed a hand on his arm and stopped him. I looked at the girl and said, "Get out." She nodded and ran. Hmm…she wasn't very Slytherin-like. Sirius must have that effect on everyone…

"Tell me one thing Regulus, if that won't kill you," Sirius growled. "What in the bloody hell is wrong with you?"
Regulus laughed coldly. "Oh don't pretend like you don't do it. I've heard about your status among them, even after she," he jerked his head in my direction. "came along. I must say I'm impressed with the way you work. Not to mention how hard—"

"Huh? What are we talking about here?" I demanded.

"Don't listen to him Nik," Sirius said.

"Why? Because it's the truth?" Regulus asked. "One thing you'll learn about my brother Nike is that he's a coward and is afraid of the truth."

"If he's a coward I'd hate to see what you are," I replied stonily.
He chuckled. "My my. His 'charm' has certainly messed with your mind. Just like all the others. And here I thought you were different."

"Well at least he has charm and doesn't try to doom people to him with a cursed rock," I shot back.

"So what? We play differently," he said, shrugging.

"Play? You think this is all just a game? A contest between you two and nothing more?" I asked in disbelief.

"Something like that."

"You—you—" I couldn't think of a bad enough word to describe him. Instead, my wand was out and pointed at him.

"Nike, let me," Sirius said softly. He took my wand from my hand and turned to Regulus. "Stay away from her. If I ever find out you pulled another stunt like that, I won't go so easy on you." And then Sirius hexed Regulus, and we left his room.

A/N: Well, what did ya think? Let me know, because I wanna hear both the good AND the bad! :)

Now, I know, I know, I'm probably making Regulus out to be more of a bastard than he really is, but I promise you it's all for a reason. You never know; he might be changing later on. I just haven't decided yet, but even if I had, I wouldn't tell you guys! Aren't I a stinker?

Now my thank-you's:

Di: Well thanks! I'm SOO happy you like it! And who doesn't love Sirius? Nobody in their right mind, that's for sure! Thanks for the review!

Alrighty, so I'm putting up ONE more chappy because I feel like I owe it to you guys since I haven't been keeping my deal of how many reviews is how many chapters you get. So, if you don't review this one, you BETTER review the next one! Thanks! So, R&R, guys!

Nike