Chapter Six

Her father was particularly violent that Friday. Somehow, Noemie didn't know how exactly, he'd found out about her visit to the Hospital Wing, and instead of asking her why she'd gone, he'd assumed she'd gone to seek help for some leftover injury. Noemie had pleaded with him to just listen to her, she promised she hadn't done anything like that, that she'd only gone to visit a friend, but the admission had actually only made things worse.

He grabbed her by the hair, his hot breath hitting her face as he pulled her head off the ground. "What are you trying to do?" he spat at her, liquid hitting her face unpleasantly. "Are you trying to get me caught? If anyone ever finds out, Noemie, it's not me that will be in trouble, it's you!"

He threw her back to the floor. "Everyone will see how horrible you are, how you make me do this. Is that what you want? Is that really what you want? You want Benjamin to endure that pain?"

Noemie let out a soft cry, panting into the stone floor. Her body ached, and she couldn't keep her father's story straight anymore. Sometimes he said she had to do this to protect Benji, and other times it was her own fault that it was happening. She didn't know how both could be true at once, but somehow it made sense to her father. "N-No," she stammered. "Father, please, I-I was just passing along notes, that's all!"

He placed a well-aimed kick at her stomach and Noemie whimpered as it landed.

"Please!" she pleaded, tears brimming in her eyes. "It-It was just one of James's friends, I was just being nice, I thought you wanted me to be nice!"

"If I want anything, it's for you to stop breathing," he replied, knocking the wind out of her with another kick.

She couldn't stop her tears then, which just infuriated her father more. The night was torture, and she didn't return to her own common room until well after midnight. She hugged herself around the middle as she began the slow walk back to the Gryffindor tower, feeling like if she let go of herself, her guts would spill out. She knew her father hadn't actually cut her open, but it felt that way.

"Is that a Gryffindor I see, out of bed?"

Noemie nearly jumped out of her skin. She caught sight of, thankfully, a Ravenclaw fifth year who was newly minted as a prefect. It would have been far worse if she'd been seen by a professor or someone from her own house.

"Yes," she said honestly. "I was practicing some Astronomy and lost track of time, I'm heading back to my common room now."

The prefect studied her, and Noemie offered what she hoped was a kind smile. In the dim light of the prefect's wand, she was sure he couldn't see the dried tears on her face or what she was sure would be a bruise on her temple. "Ten points from Gryffindor," he said. "Don't let me catch you out of bed again."

A small part of her wanted to roll her eyes at him, because Noemie was two years older and probably could have easily cast a charm to distract him if she'd been paying attention. But instead she simply nodded and kept walking back to the common room.

The fire was down to glowing embers, and Noemie collapsed onto the sofa across from the fireplace. She had the forethought to quickly heal her bruise and wipe her face to get rid of any remaining tears. But then the crackling embers lured her to sleep.

She was awoken only a few hours later when a small hand placed itself on her shoulder. "Miss," said a house elf. "Bed, Miss."

Noemie sat up groggily, rubbing her eyes. "Thank you," she said softly. "I'm sorry."

The house elf nodded, blinking her huge eyes but not saying anything else. Noemie knew that the house elves came at night to tidy up, but she rarely encountered them. Still, she pulled herself up the steps to her dormitory and fell into bed, immediately returning to sleep.

September quickly faded into October, which brought cooler weather and an earlier setting sun. She tried not to think too much about her father's increasing anger towards her or the mistakes she'd started making. If she thought about them too long, she became a mess of tears and stress, which would only increase suspicion.

Luckily, as the month turned, James seemed convinced that Noemie was doing alright, so he called off his own friends from checking on her. Remus did still approach her occasionally with Ancient Runes and Arithmancy work, and Noemie took solace in the quiet moments with no one demanding too much of her attention. They didn't talk about anything other than school work, though Noemie did still wonder occasionally about who was hurting Remus, and if his friends knew. Surely, like her he kept any friends at a distance.

The first weekend of October brought with it the first official Hogsmeade visit. Noemie generally went to Hogsmeade with Alice and Frank or not at all, but she knew there was no way she was staying behind this weekend. The thought of being alone in the castle, not a single friend around, while her father was also roaming, made her skin crawl. So, despite the fact that Alice and Frank were heading to Madam Puddifoot's, Noemie gingerly got ready to leave on Saturday morning. She wasn't sure how she wanted to spend her day, but she knew what time she had to leave to be with the large group of students.

She made it to the castle entrance, where excited students milled, waiting for the okay to start walking to the village. Noemie found a somewhat quiet spot to stand and wait, trying to decide if she wanted to go to Honeydukes first, or if going to Three Broomsticks was smarter. She knew she would need to spend a bit of time that day just sitting and waiting for the evening walk back to Hogwarts. But if she spent the entire day in the Three Broomsticks, she would be bored out of her mind. She hadn't had the sense to bring one of her muggle books with her, and just as she was calculating whether she had time to run back upstairs, someone tapped her shoulder.

Noemie turned, eyes widening immediately. "Benji?"

"Dad said you would buy me chocolate frogs," he said, sending her a small smile. Noemie knew it was risky for his social status to come up to her, but she couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Sure," she agreed, wanting to reach out and ruffle his hair but refraining. "How many?"

"Four," he replied, digging in his pockets for some sickles.

Noemie nodded, pushing his hands away. "No worries," she said. "I've got it."

His grin widened. "Does that mean you'll get me five?"

"As long as you promise not to eat all of them in one sitting," Noemie replied.

Benji laughed and nodded. "Okay, promise."

She smiled at him. "Alright. I'll see you this evening."

He nodded at her, trying to put up his normal cool facade again. Every now and then, she could see his previous, cheerful nature slip through.

Before too long, Professor McGonagall wrangled all the eager students and they started towards Hogsmeade.

Noemie went to Honeydukes first to secure her brother's chocolate frogs, and picked out a few small things for herself too. After, much of the day was spent wandering into different shops, trying to decide if she needed a nice, new quill or a new set of novels. She had a fixed amount of money to spend for Hogsmeade visits, but if she was spending most of her weekends later in the year studying instead of going to Hogsmeade, she might not need it there.

Finally, the afternoon brought her into the Three Broomsticks, which was crowded and filled with Hogwarts students. She couldn't immediately see anyone she knew, but then she heard Sirius Black's laughter and other Gryffindors started to come into view. Lily and Marlene, at one table, Alice and Frank at another, a few of her quidditch teammates laughing loudly in the corner. Noemie smiled slightly to see the happiness of those around her.

She found her way to a tiny, empty corner and sat down. Before too long she had a butterbeer ordered and the warm drink clutched in her hands and she was able to close her eyes and start drinking it slowly.

The noise from the tavern seemed to disappear, and Noemie relaxed both into the chair and into her drink. She got a solid ten minutes of peace.

And then someone was pulling on her chair. Noemie opened her eyes, startled, nearly spilling her drink on herself. She looked up and saw Peter Pettigrew standing above her, not saying much of anything and not looking even close to pleased. "Excu-"

"You're not supposed to knock her out of her chair, Wormtail," James said, walking over and shaking his head. "Plus I told you to ask her if she wanted to come sit with us, not just drag her over here!"

"But Moony said-"

"Moony schmoony," James replied, grinning at Noemie. "C'mon, you can't just sit here alone on a Hogsmeade weekend. It's depressing."

"James, I was peacefully-" Noemie started to say, but James immediately cut her off.

"Who's it gonna hurt if you come sit with us?" he replied.

Noemie thought, briefly, that if her father saw her hanging around with James and his friends, he would be furious. But it was her understanding that he was still in Hogwarts, and there really wasn't that much time left until they all had to head back to Hogwarts anyway…

"Fine," she said begrudgingly, standing up and bringing her butterbeer with her. Before too long she was led back to the table where Remus and Sirius were still sitting. Like Peter Pettigrew, Sirius did not look too happy to see her sitting there. Noemie didn't have any problems with Sirius Black and, as far as she was concerned, he didn't have any problems with her either. But she could understand being frustrated with someone interrupting her afternoon.

"Hey there," Remus said, smiling pleasantly.

Noemie nodded at him, crossing her legs and taking a sip of her drink. "We're taking in a stray for the next hour," James announced to his friends. "Otherwise she'll be too sad to play quidditch tomorrow and you know I need her practice-ready."

"Everything's about quidditch with you," Sirius said, his irritated expression slowly slipping off his face.

"He is the captain, after all," Noemie said, smiling slightly. "Plus, I imagine if he talks about quidditch, he's not talking about Lily Evans."

Sirius looked up sharply, a grin playing at his lips. "He does that with you too?"

"When Mulvaney was captain and barking orders at the beaters-"

"Poole, seriously? You're betraying me?" James asked, feigning hurt but unable to stop himself from smiling.

His friends laughed, surely having heard him drone on about Lily Evans before. He'd slowed down recently, having matured slightly over the summer, but Noemie wouldn't be surprised if he started up again soon.

Noemie smiled, and let herself fade into the background of the conversation, except for when Remus would break off from the rest of his friends and complain about their Ancient Runes homework. She was content to talk with him, bringing up the essay they had due the following week for that class as well as the practical skills tests for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Remus, she learned, was excited about that, because he and his friends had been practicing. Noemie, while still taking the course, wasn't as excited or interested in defense as the rest of them, so she was dreading it.

"Maybe you and I can practice Tuesday," Remus suggested as they paid their tabs and started gathering their jackets.

Noemie looked at Remus in surprise. "Really?" she asked.

"James said you won't have practice that night," he said. "Something about being busy."

"But don't you have something to do with Peter and Sirius?" Noemie replied.

"They'll survive without me for an hour or two," Remus said. "So, what do you say?"

Noemie thought about her father, and how he would probably hate to have her interacting with Remus like this. And then, for perhaps the first time in her life, she decided to willingly disobey him. "Alright," she said. "But let's keep it quiet."

Remus nodded and sent her a friendly smile before putting an arm around Peter's shoulders and teasing him gently.