Paper Rings || R. Lupin¹

Chapter 3

The next morning after Nova had gotten ready for the day, she raced to the boy's dorm. She got to the door right as Remus opened it, he yelped in shock as she barreled into him, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

"Oh my Merlin," said Nova, picking herself up. "I am so sorry."

"It's fine," said Remus, chuckling a bit as he let Nova help him off the floor.

"Nova, what are you doing here?" Sirius questioned.

"Well," replied Nova, "I wanted to walk to breakfast with you guys, is that ok?"

"Of course," said James happily. "The last one down to the Great Hall is a Mountain Troll!"

They were off, scrambling out of the door and down the stairs, almost knocking down a small cluster of girls in their heist. Sirius was the first to make it to the Great Hall, with James right on his heels, closely followed by Remus and Nova who arrived at the same time, and after about 30 seconds Peter appeared, panting and out of breath. The group teased him for a minute, before heading to the Gryffindor table where they sat down laughing.

Nova sat down in between Sirius and Lily, who was already at the table with Marlene. James took the seat next to Sirius, and Remus and Peter went to the other side of the table and sat across from them.

While they were eating, James started a conversation about siblings. Because he had none of his own, he was very curious to know if his friends did. Remus and Peter were also only children it seemed and loved hearing the stories about Nova and Sirius had to tell about their little brother, whose name they had come to know was Regulus.

When Nova asked Lily if she had any siblings, Lily just nodded and looked away, as though it hurt her to think about, so Nova let it drop. Their conversation soon turned to a different topic, magical creatures.

Everyone took their turn saying what their favorite creature was, and when it got to Nova, Sirius groaned loudly, and his friends looked at him in confusion.

"Don't get her started." He begged, "please, she'll talk for all of breakfast."

"Come on, Siri, I'm not that bad." Started Nova, "I'm just a very strong believer that Werewolves are not something to be feared. They are people just like us, who just happen to turn into animals every month, it's not their fault an—." Nova trailed off when she saw that Remus was staring at her in admiration.

When Remus realized that he had been caught staring he tried to explain himself.

"I just—well I—." Luckily for him, he was spared anymore embarrassment because at that very moment a very large owl flew over to their table and dropped a red envelope in front of Sirius and Nova. Sirius looked at his sister in fear.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, mum sent us a Howler, what do we do?" He practically screamed at Nova.

"You open it, you moron, if we don't it will just be louder when we eventually do."

"Fine then, you do it, I don't want to."

"Fine, give it here, Scaredy Cat." Nova took the letter from Sirius and started to gently pry it open, she had barely lifted the seal before their mother's voice started shouting from it.

"SIRIUS ORION AND NOVA WALBURGA BLACK! YOU TWO ARE DISGRACES TO THE BLACK FAMILY! HOW DARE YOU GET SORTED INTO GRYFFINDOR WHEN THE REST OF YOUR FAMILY ARE SLYTHERINS I AM HORRIFIED TO CALL YOU MY CHILDREN! DON'T BOTHER COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY!"

With that the massage was over, Nova stood up from her seat with tears in her eyes and ran from the Great Hall. Sirius looked at his friends before getting up and following after her, knowing that she needed him because he sure as hell needed her.

A/N I'm sorry about the short chapter I have been so busy lately and this is the most I could get I will be writing a longer chapter next time.

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