Chapter 36

"Adria, can you hand me that piece of wood?" asked Nora, a grin on her lips as she climbed over a tree branch. It was now the middle of March, and everyone was helping out with their new tree house, much deeper into the forest, and well, much more extravagant.

It was safe to say that both Nora and Lily where feeling much better without the presence of Caden, Lily's reaction to his death was slightly surprising, Nora thought that maybe she would be at least a little upset, maybe shed a few tears or at least frown at the thought, but instead with no emotion, on the day that Nora and James told her did Lily take a breath, and speak, "good."

They started the tree house two weeks ago, right at the start of march, thinking it would be a good time seeing as O.W.Ls weren't around the corner, and the weather was starting to pick up, which of course lead to the boys going out into the woods at all hours to find as much wood as they possibly could whilst Nora, Aubrey, Blair and Arden designed it and Adria and Lily searched for the best charms that they could use.

Nora couldn't deny that with the added help, progress was happening quickly, they already had the structure of the tree house balancing on the tree, even going as far as to nail it to the tree for extra support, seeing as they had built it over two trees instead of one to make it much bigger.

They had all planned a new tradition, but instead of gathering on Thursdays to chill about, do homework and speak of their week, the gang decided Friday so that they could sleep over, and get as much sweets from the house elves as they possibly could.

"You're going to hurt yourself, love," James scoffed, using the ladder from the old tree house to climb up to the current one, seeing as the stairs weren't finished yet, and well, that was what Nora was doing now.

"I am not, you have no faith in me!" Nora exclaimed, throwing him a glare whilst his laugh filled the forest.

"Oh, trouble in paradise, huh?" Milo teased, nudging Nora on his way by whilst she pushed him gently, pretending to hit him over the head with the hammer that Remus had transfigured from a tea pot he had stolen from the kitchens with Blair.

"Oh shush," James chuckled, leaning down - rather dangerously - to kiss Nora's lips, winking at her when the rest of them groaned.

"I'm not going to hurt myself-" she cut herself off, gasping when she slipped on a piece of wood, ultimately scrapping her ankle off the side of the tree branch, "I wouldn't have done that if you didn't say that!"

James climbed down quickly from the structure when he noticed her gripping her leg, mumbling various curse words under her breath as she stared at the bleeding scrape that now decorated her ankle, "so it's my fault?" asked James, an amused smile playing on his lips as he helped her over to a tree stump, sitting down and pulling her onto his lap.

"Yes, it is," she grumbled, lifting up her leg to see the blood trailing down to her socks, "look what you've done, I loved these socks!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," James laughed, ignoring the stares the two were getting from their friends as he pulled his wand out, mumbling an incantation as he pointed it at her ankle, and soon did the blood clear and a bandage find the small wound. A smirk floated to James lips as he kissed her cheek, moving to her ear and whispering, "all better."

"Still your fault," she pouted, turning to him as he leaned forward, attacking her lips once more.

"That's enough!" Remus called, "merlin, we're not going to get this finished if you two keep snogging every two seconds!"

"Looks like over protective cousin mode has been turned on," Nora scoffed, patting Remus' back as she passed him, and taking the wood from Adria's hand, "thank you!"

"If this is over protective cousin mode, then I must be his cousin too," Adria joked, earning a glare from Remus when she looked up from the charms book she had taken from the restricted section.

"Oh, shut up, Addy," Remus grumbled, rolling his eyes, "it's not my fault that you and Sirius are basically baby making in the bed across from mine!"

"Ha!" Nora exclaimed, covering her mouth to stop her muffled giggles whilst Adria's cheeks heated considerably.

"Oh, shut up, that's a lie!" Adria huffed, rolling her eyes as Sirius moved behind her, wrapping his arms around her with a smirk.

"Yeah, leave us alone!" he pouted jokingly, placing a sloppy kiss on Adria's cheek whilst she scrunched her nose up.

"I don't think the stairs are going to work that way," Peter piped in as he stood beside Nora, handing her a nail every time she turned to him, "it's a bit squished."

"No, no, no," Nora protested, furiously shaking her head as she grabbed Peter's arm, "alright, so, it starts from here, and the steps go around the tree like a spiral stair case, it's fancy!"

"But how are you going to do that without hurting yourself, Nora?" Peter laughed, his eyebrow raised when she glared at him, pushing herself onto the first step, and then the second.

"See, I'm perfectly safe!" she grinned, patting the boy's head as she climbed up another, "and not at all clumsy, I won't hurt myself again, I promis-" she cut herself off as she stumbled forward, a sheepish grin on her lips when James jumped up from where he sat, shaking his head with a sigh.

"Come on, love, get down," James sighed, shaking his head as he reached for her hand, guiding her off of the stairs carefully, "I swear you're going to kill me."

"Oh, shush, I wasn't going to fall," she grinned, patting his cheek as she grabbed another piece of wood, "these stairs will be finished in no time!"

"I really don't know how you did this all by yourself," Lily giggled as she looked up from the book in her hand, previously she was helping with the roof on the second tree where Arden, Blair, and Aubrey where, but decided that magic was much better suited for her to do.

"Can I ask," Finn piped in from the structure of the tree house, leaning slightly over the ledge with Isaac beside him, "how are we going to furnish this full thing? I mean it's bloody massive!"

"Heard that before," James joked as he passed Nora, earning a punch to his arm whilst his laugh filled the air, "me and Nora are going to find more furniture during summer but until then we thought we could use what's in the old tree house."

"Nora and I," Nora corrected as she leaned on him, rolling her eyes when he nudged her, "we also thought we could all take a trip to Hogsmeade to see if they have any shops that could help us."

"Oh, sounds good," Finn grinned.

"We should paint the walls inside," Isaac suggested, leaning his chin on his hand, "maybe yellow or something."

"Why yellow?"

"Because you're a hufflepuff and without you, we wouldn't be doing this," Isaac smiled, earning a wide grin from Nora who couldn't help but nod, "this is the most fun I've had in a while!"

A string of 'agreed' broke out amongst the friends, earning a laugh from Nora, whose smile couldn't have possibly got any wider. She felt happier, she had to admit, with friends like the ones she had, it was odd, and unexpected that talking to James Potter one day could result in her having a wonderful group of friends that she couldn't help but love.

"Do you know that no one knows about Caden?" Lily spoke as Nora took a seat beside her, her voice low and a frown decorating her lips, "that he's dead?"

"Wait, really?!" Nora gasped, wide eyed as she turned to the red head girl, the girl she could safely say was like her best friend, "are you serious?"

"Well-"

"Don't you dare Lily Evans," Nora warned, watching the small smile twitch at her lip, "how do you know? Did something happen?"

"Some girl came up to me a few days ago and she asked if I was alright because of Caden, and I said I was fine," Lily nodded, "so she asked if I'm going to see him during summer, saying that his expulsion was terrible, I didn't know what to say, I just told her I had to leave!"

"Oh merlin," Nora whispered, wide eyed, "I thought everyone would have found out!"

"Me too!" Lily exclaimed, nodding all the same.

"Hey, lazy!" James exclaimed, throwing a stick at Nora who turned to glare at him, "get to work!"

"Oh, shut up you big pest," she grumbled, rolling her eyes whilst Lily couldn't help but laugh, as much as she still wasn't so keen on James and the boys - especially when she figured out that they had once again pranked Severus not too long ago - she had to admit that their company was alright, especially with Nora and Adria there, as well as Thea who couldn't make it, she couldn't deny that she was having fun.

"I swear I have never met two people who are so obsessed with each other and still fight over everything," Adria scoffed, a grin on her lips when James threw his arm around Nora, a smile wide on his own lips when he pressed his lips to her forehead.

"We don't fight over everything," Nora laughed, shaking her head whilst James scoffed.

"Yes, we do, if you think about it," he trailed off, watching with an amused smirk when Nora turned to him with a look of disbelief.

"We do not!"

"Nora-"

"Are you two seriously fighting over fighting about everything?" asked Finn, his eyebrow raised whilst the others laughed.

"The best couples argue," Nora shrugged, winking at James, "a sign of a healthy relationship!"

"That must be true because Sirius and Adria argue over the oddest things," Remus scoffed, picking up the wood used for the steps and continuing the job that Nora had yet to finish. It was close to the full moon, a week left, and Remus was already starting to get crankier than usual, he felt terribly guilty though, this morning when Blair was sent to retrieve him from the library did he snap at her when she nudged him softly.

Of course, that resulted him to apologising profusely and her laughing her head off whenever the word sorry left his lips, which happened to be every time he saw her, so much to the point that to stop him from saying it, and to stop him from feeling guilty, Blair took the job on the roof so he wouldn't have to face her.

"We argue over completely logical things, thank you very much," Adria tutted, a pointed look at Remus whilst Sirius leaned over the ledge, a grin on his lips.

"Yes, because how many marshmallows make a perfect hot chocolate is completely logical," Remus muttered.

"That is completely logical actually, a perfect hot chocolate is made with five marshmallows-"

"What?!" James cut Nora off, turning to her with raised eyebrows, "no, it's three, if you have five then it's all completely squashed in the goblet, you can't do that!"

"What? No!" Nora's eyes widened, "are you kidding? If you only have three then there's not much marshmallow, what is the point?"

"The point is-"

"I can't believe this," Remus shook his head, grumbling some words under his breath whilst a loud laugh escaping his lips, "if I ever get a girlfriend, we will be the calmest couple in the world."

"Can't argue with that, Blair is very laid back," Nora teased, winking at Remus who threw her a glare.