Chapter 15:

I know I have a fickle heart and a bitterness,
And a wandering eye, and heaviness in my head.
-Adele

The last week of winter break was quite monotonous. Most of the family stayed in trying to cope and adjust to the tragic loss. Most days, friends or family came by to see how everyone was doing and making sure nothing was needed.

Two months had gone by since they had returned to Hogwarts. Nora was fully invested in studying and would spend all of her free time in the library under a pile of books. Cedric would spend some time studying with her but she could rarely be seen in the common room with her friends seeing as whenever Angelina was around Nora took it as a cue to leave. She kept to her studying hoping to forget about the loss she had experienced over the holidays but all she could do was suppress her feelings which she had become an expert at. Even if she had always been study oriented Nora was now almost obsessed with her studies and would barely speak to anyone. She had loss a fair amount of weight and constantly seemed exhausted. Everyone could see she had changed but no one could seem to get her to say anything or deal with her loss seeing as whenever her friends would talk to her about anything serious she would accidentally blow something up or freeze them.

As their transfiguration class ended Nora shot up from her seat next to Fred before he could say anything which had become a routine. As she passed in front of McGonagall, the teacher stopped her.

"Norabel could I have a word?" She asked with a concerned tone.

"Of course Professor." Nora said as she followed the teacher into her office.

They took a seat and McGonagall looked intently at Nora for a moment.

"A few of your friends are worried about you. So are some of your teachers." McGonagall said with a compassionate tone.

"Have my grades suffered?" Nora asked taken by a panic.

"Not at all. We're simply worried about your well-being Norabel."

"My well-being is perfectly fine Professor. And my friends shouldn't have consulted you. They should have come to me. I'm sorry if they made you lose your time."

"You're not well Nora." McGonagall would never use her diminutive. "It's apparent to all of us. Everyone wants to help you. We understand you've suffered a terrible loss and we simply want to make sure you're alright."

"I'm perfectly fine. I'm sorry if you lost your time." Nora said as she got up and exited leaving McGonagall sighing in defeat.

Nora was headed towards the Great Hall for lunch but did not feel like dealing with her friends or Cedric so she headed towards the library and studied for a while before heading towards the common room to get her potions books and made her way to the dungeons. She heard a voice call out her name and sighed.

"What do you want Niko?" She asked dryly as she turned around.

"Does a guy need a reason to talk to his twin sister?" He asked with a smirk.

"Sadly you do." Nora answered. "So?"

"Nat's worried about you." He said carefully looking at her.

"It's gotta be pretty bad for her to talk to you." She said sarcastically.

"It is pretty bad isn't it?" He said as his smirk turned into a concerned expression.

"Don't pity me Niko. I'm perfectly fine." Nora spat icily.

"I'm writing to Mum then." He said knowing he was going too far.

"Don't you dare." Nora spat. "She has more than enough to deal with herself and I'm fine!" She shouted as Niko's bag blew up.

"You think blowing my head up will help?" He shouted after her.

"Mr and Miss DeBordeaux if you could please refrain from letting the entire school hear your family fights and head into class." Snape said coldly from the door frame.

"Yes professor." Nora said politely as she went to take her seat next to Fred.

She took out her books without saying a word. He looked at her but did not say anything. After Snape's instruction on brewing Draught of Peace, they all started on their potions.

"You didn't come for lunch." Fred stated as he returned with the ingredients.

"Not that it's any of your business but I was at the library." She said harshly.

"Oh alright." He said as he rubbed the back of his neck and they started to brew the potions without much conversation other than 'pass the snake's skin'.

They finished early as they always did and Snape dismissed them.

"At least we're done early." Fred said rubbing the back of his neck attempting to make small talk.

"You know we don't have to do the awkward small talk." She said coldly.

"Fine. I get it. You're going through a lot but we're just worried about you. You don't need to take it out on me." Fred said blocking her way.

"What should I do then?" She asked looking up at him. "Oh, I know! I should simply not say a word and then act as if nothing happened. That's what you do." She glared at him as she made her way passed a gobsmacked Fred.

The rest of the day went by rather uneventfully as Nora avoided her friends which had been easy since she was partnered with Cedric in Herbology. Professor Sprout let the class out early after they finished up with their plants.

"How was your day?" Cedric asked putting his arm around her waist.

"Not so great." She sighed. "What about you?"

"It was alright. What are you doing right now?" He asked.

"I was thinking about heading to the library before Quidditch practice." She said with a yawn.

"You won't" He said with a grin.

"And why not?" Nora asked looking up at him with a light smile.

"Because I said so." Cedric teased as he kissed her sweetly.

"Alright then." She smiled as he led her to the kitchens. He tickled the pear and the door opened.

"Aren't you supposed to be a prefect?" Nora teased.

"It never stopped you." He grinned as they went to sit at a table and house-elves started to ask them a thousand questions. They ate while talking about anything and everything. Nora even found herself smiling and even laughing a few times. After months of feeling numb this was a nice change.

"What time do you have Quidditch?" Cedric asked.

"In half an hour. Oliver is probably going to kill us." She laughed.

"Don't worry I'm doing the same to my team. We're playing whoever loses the next match." He answered.

"I'm sorry Slytherin beat you." She smiled.

"It's fine. Now you can win." He said with a grin.

"Yes we will." She said.

"And we'll beat Ravenclaw." He said as they kept talking about Quidditch for about fifteen minutes.

"I've gotta go." Nora frowned as she got up. "Thank you. For getting my mind off of everything."

"Anytime." He smiled as he brushed a strand of hair from her face and kissed her softly. She sighed into the kiss before pulling back. Something seemed different about everything with Cedric. Whenever they spent time together, Nora's mind went back to Fred.

"I've really got to get going. I'll see you tomorrow." She said as she pecked him quickly on the lips.

"See you tomorrow." He repeated with a smile.

Nora arrived in the locker room slightly soaked seeing as it was raining lightly and found Alicia pulling her hair back into a ponytail.

"Hey Nora." Alicia said with a smile.

"Hey Leesh." She answered as she put her bag in her locker and got her broom.

"It's been a while since you've hung out with us." Alicia said after a moment. "She's not that bad you know. Angelina."

"I know. It's not all about her. It's complicated." Nora said awkwardly.

"Sure. You ready to kick ass at Quidditch?" Alicia laughed.

"Always." She smiled.

After a two hours of ruthless practice, Wood let them head back to the locker room. After showering and getting changed everyone ran back to the castle.

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" Fred asked as he caught up with her near the doors.

"It's raining Fred." Nora rolled her eyes.

"Yeah but when we get back you're going to run up to your dorm and start ignoring me again." He said with a hint of anger.

"Fine. What?" She shouted turning to face him. "What is so important that we have to talk about it in the pouring rain? Because you're not one to talk much."

"Are you done throwing that in my face?" He said throwing his hands up in despair. "I wasn't expecting...And I froze. I admit it..."

"Well then everything is perfect isn't it? And we're probably going to catch pneumonia seeing as we're drenched in water." She said bitterly.

"Damn it Nora!" He yelled as he passed his hand through his damp hair. "Will you let me form a sentence before getting defensive?"

"It's not my fault it takes you over two month to come up with a sentence! You only had to say something! Anything!" She yelled as she threw down her bags in frustration.

"You didn't even give me five minutes!" He shouted. "How long did it take you to get back with Diggory? An hour?"

"Don't you dare bring him into this. You're the one who's been in love with a daft bimbo for the past five years! I mean seriously what do you see in Angelina?"

"This is getting ridiculous." He sighed shaking his head desperately.

"What's ridiculous is that for the past few months I actually wanted to be with you! I'm supposed to be with Cedric but I can't stop thinking about you!" She shouted.

"Maybe if you had been paying attention for the past five years you would have noticed Angelina isn't the one I liked. Everyone else knew." He yelled as Nora kept glaring at him. "For some reason crazy reason I love you! Even if you have crazy mood swings and you've been treating me like shit for the past months. I still love you!"

They both fell silent for a moment as they caught their breaths. Rain was pouring even more but neither seemed to notice anymore.

"I'm sorry." Nora finally said with regretful eyes.

"So am I." Fred said as he turned around and left Nora standing there for a few minutes. She sighed as she picked up her bag which was completely soaked and made her way back to their common room. She went directly to her dorm and got changed. As she headed to bed Aveline entered the room.

"What happened? Fred just flew by us and you didn't even look at us." She asked.

"We fought." Nora answered vaguely.

"You guys don't fight. You ignore him and he keeps trying to make you feel better."

"Oh we do now. Screaming from both sides and everything." Nora said.

"You'll get over it. You two never stay mad at each other." Aveline said as she sat down next to her friend.

"It was pretty bad." Nora sighed. "I called myself a daft bimbo." She chuckled.

"Well I call you that all the time and you still love me." Aveline teased. "But are you alright?"

"I'm dealing." She said looking at her feet.

"I'm here if you need anything you know that right."

"Right." Nora answered with a slight smile. "How are you and George doing?" She added.

"Great." Aveline said as a large grin spread across her face at the mention of George.

"I'm really happy for you two."Nora said with a smile.

"I know. Now get some rest. You'll see what happens tomorrow. And you have the Quidditch match against Ravenclaw in two days so think about that."

"I will. Night Ava."

"Goodnight Nora." She answered.

A/N : So bear with me. Everything is flying by during this chapter but I didn't feel like writing five chapters of Nora being depressed and telling Fred off. Also, things will finally start happening in the next few chapters and who knows maybe they'll get together sooner rather than later! I hope you guys still enjoy the story. It should get better. I hope...Anyways, I'd really appreciate it if you reviewed because I'm wondering if you want Fred and Nora to get together sooner or later. So I'd really appreciate your opinion on it! I love you all! And thank you so much for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and putting this story on alert! XOXO

To KellyLupin : I'm really glad you enjoyed the chapter because I didn't really love it. And I'm from Montreal too so I understand. I did three years at Bois de Boulogne and two at McGill. Are you doing internships yet? It's the best part :)