As the Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff Quidditch match drew closer, Cameron made the whole team promise that they would never go anywhere by themselves. The Hufflepuff team was in no way known for hexing the opposing team, but the Slytherins would take any chance they could get to have a go at someone, especially since almost half the Ravenclaw team was either a half-blood or Muggleborn. The Slytherins had been getting bolder as they year wore on and even just walking down the corridor was cause enough for them to attack someone.

Of course, they were not the only ones who enjoyed hexing people in the halls. Cameron was still becoming increasingly annoyed with the barrage of jinxes and spells sent his way by James and Sirius, but he hadn't brought it up with Julianne since the night she had snapped at him for it. That is, he didn't say anything to her until about two days before the match when they were walking to dinner together from the library as per his request that no one go anywhere alone and his bag randomly split open, all of his books spilling out onto the floor.

"That is it," he said, stopping and turning around to look at whoever did it. Julianne turned too, a feeling of dread in her stomach. Just as she thought, Sirius and Remus were walking right behind them, the former with his wand out still. "What is your problem, Black?" he snarled. Sirius just glared down at him, being a good two or three inches taller.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Stewart," he said, an icy edge to his voice. "Just having a bit of fun."

"Fun?" Cameron growled and Julianne immediately placed her hand on his arm, her eyes locked onto his wand.

"Cameron," she cautioned, seeing that Sirius had also tightened his grip on his wand. Cameron may have been a year older, but she had no doubt in her mind that if it came down to a duel between him and Sirius, he would not come out the victor. Remus seemed to have come to the same conclusion as he moved closer to his friend, his eyes trained on his wand.

Cameron brushed off her hand and continued to glare at Sirius. "Well, whatever this is, I want it to stop. Now." A small crowd had now gathered around the four of them, but Cameron and Sirius seemed to pay no attention to it at all.

Sirius gave a short, humorless laugh before saying, "What, you can't take a little joke? Your girlfriend sure seemed to think you could." At that, Julianne's snapped around to look at him. Remus didn't seem to have any idea where he was going with that either, as his confused expression mirrored Julianne's.

Cameron's bravado faltered slightly at that as he glanced down at Julianne before looking back up at Sirius. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, she didn't tell you?" he said and looking at the smug expression on his face, Julianne suddenly realized what he was going to say. "She gave us permission to have a bit of fun with you. What was it she said, Remus?" Remus shrunk back and shook his head, obviously wanting no part of it. "Oh yeah, 'If I can't see it, I can't stop it.' Isn't that right, Julianne?"

If looks could kill, Sirius would have been dead ten times over with the murderous glare Julianne was giving him. Cameron's attitude completely fell apart then as he looked between Sirius and Julianne. "Cameron, wait," Julianne said as he pulled away. He ignored her, instead scooping his books off the floor and quickly making an exit, the crowd that had converged parting to make room for him.

Julianne turned back to face Sirius and Remus. Sirius's hostility from just moments before had already faded away as it seemed to register what he had just said when he saw furious look on Julianne's face. "Wait, Julianne," he started, but she cut him off.

"Fuck you, Black," she said quietly, immediately heading off in the same direction that Cameron had gone.

The tears didn't start falling until she was well out of sight of everyone.

They managed to completely destroy Hufflepuff in the match, which was not much of a surprise, since almost the entire school would admit that Bishop Stebbins was the best Keeper the school had, no exception. Their win put them in first place for the Quidditch Cup, just one goal ahead of Slytherin. Cameron liked to remind them of that fact every chance he got and was now strictly enforcing the buddy rule, especially for Nettie, Fitz, and Scott, the half-bloods and Muggleborn on the team.

"Julianne…Julianne!" She tore her eyes away from where Cameron was sitting discussing something with Mara and a couple other sixth years and turned to look at Ivory.

"Hmm?" she said, still not entirely focused on what her friend had been saying. Ivory looked at her with a concerned expression, glancing over at Cameron for a second.

"You need to talk to him," she said, abandoning her essay in favor of a pep talk. "Try and fix things-"

"He made it pretty clear that that was the last thing he wanted to do," Julianne said bitterly, looking down at her half-finished mess of a Transfiguration essay.

Cameron had broken up with her almost as soon as she had caught up to him after his little fight with Sirius. He had said that he really did like her, but even she wasn't worth dealing with James and Sirius's games. His exact words were that he "would be her captain and that's all he would be." Luckily, it hadn't affected their ability to play Quidditch together, but it was certainly taking its toll on her ability to complete her homework thoroughly.

"I don't even think I liked him, though," she said, abandoning hope of being able to concentrate on her homework. Ivory had suggested that they go down to the library, but Julianne had quickly shot that down, saying they ran the risk of running into Sirius. "I'm pretty sure I just liked that he was hot and was nice to me. Why am I so upset about this?" She put her head down on the table.

"Maybe…maybe you aren't upset about Cameron," Ivory offered, her voice even quieter than normal. Julianne picked her head up and gave her a look. "I'm serious," she defended. "You said it yourself, you really didn't care about him and you two weren't exactly the model couple."

"Get to the point, Ivory," Julianne said, already not liking the turn the conversation was taking.

Ivory hesitated and glanced at Julianne before taking a deep breath. "Maybe you're actually upset that Sirius would do that to you," she said in a rush, like she expected Julianne to come after her for it.

"Upset?" Julianne asked, her voice dripping with doubt. "Upset? Definitely not. Angry? Pissed as hell? Furious beyond all reason? Those sound a bit more accurate."

Ivory just gave her an exasperated look, but didn't press the issue further. They both went back to their homework, but were interrupted not a minute later by Alice busting into the common room and, once she located them, making a beeline straight for them.

"Alice, what's wrong?" Ivory asked, a note of alarm in her voice when she saw the panicked look on their roommate's face.

It took her a second to catch her breath from her apparent sprint to the common room before she was able to say, "Nettie's in the hospital wing," she managed to get out. "Avery and Rosier attacked her."

They had all the eyes of the common room on them as they instantly leapt up from the table and were out the door on their way to the hospital wing, all thoughts of their previous discussion gone. They reached their destination in record time, Julianne shoving the doors open with a bit more force than was absolutely necessary.

"Ms. Meyers, what is the meaning of this?" Madame Pomfrey chastised as she hurried over to the three of them. Professor Dumbledore looked up from next to one of the beds where he was standing with Professors Sprout and Flitwick. "This is none-"

"What happened?" Julianne demanded, trying to look around the matron to get a glimpse of where Nettie was. "Is she okay? What did they do to her?"

"Ms. Meyers, this is none of your concern," Madame Pomfrey repeated, placing her hands on Julianne's shoulders to try and gently steer her out of the hospital wing. Julianne took a step back, brushing off her hands.

"She's my friend, I think it is my concern," she argued back. Ivory then put her hand firmly on Julianne's shoulder and Alice grabbed her arm.

"Julianne, we'll just come back tomorrow," Ivory said, tightening her grip. "Come on." After a few seconds, Julianne finally relented and let Alice and Ivory lead her out of the hospital wing, much to the relief of Madame Pomfrey.

"I'm going to kill them," Julianne growled as soon as the doors had closed behind them. She clenched her fists and looked about ready to attack someone, even with her lack of wand. "I will fucking hex them into oblivion."

"Julianne, you don't even know what they did to her," Ivory said soothingly, trying to get her to calm down before she did anything rash.

"Does it matter what they did to her?" Julianne hissed through clenched teeth. "They did it and that's enough for me."

"The Cruciatus Curse," Alice said, so quietly that it was almost impossible to hear over Julianne's ranting. The other two girls turned to look at her in shock. "They cornered her and Cardoc Dearborn and knocked him out cold. Frank and I were walking back from the library when we saw them." She faltered for a second and had to take a deep breath to steady herself. "They had put a Silencing Charm on her and they were using the Cruciatus Cure on her." She broke off again before continuing, "Frank stunned them when they weren't looking and then cast the body bind curse on them so they couldn't get away while we tried to find someone." As she finished, tears sprung up in her eyes. "It was awful seeing her like that, in so much pain."

Ivory put a comforting arm around Alice's shoulder as she tried to keep from crying, wiping away the few tears that had escaped. Julianne turned away, almost shaking from anger at that point. "What gives them the right to think they can do that to someone," she said, her mind already flashing through all the hexes and jinxes she knew. "They are going to pay for this."

"Julianne, no," Ivory warned, a tone of authority in her voice.

"Why not?" Julianne said, turning to face her friend. Her voice was even, but her eyes flashed with anger. "Why not give those scumbags what they deserve?"

"It'll make it worse," Alice said, seeming to have collected herself after telling her story. "Just let the teachers handle it, you'll just get yourself into trouble."

Julianne turned away, saying, "Fine, but if they happen to be in the way when I'm practicing spells for Defense, I will not be responsible for what happens to them."

By lunch the next day, the whole school had heard about Nettie's attack. Cardoc Dearborn, who had been cleared by Madame Pomfrey to leave the hospital wing that morning, was not left alone the whole day, everyone wanting to know what happened. Once they realized that he really didn't know much, seeing as he was unconscious for a good part of it, they immediately turned to Frank and Alice for the whole story. Frank steadfastly refused to say anything more than the bare minimum (that Avery and Rosier had attacked Nettie and used an Unforgivable on her) and Alice simply refused to talk about it at all. Whenever she wasn't with Frank, Julianne, Ivory, and even Samara stayed with her, a quick glare from Julianne enough to send the younger students packing without asking anything.

"I don't even think I have words to describe how utterly infuriating this whole thing is," Julianne growled, stabbing at her plate with more force than was really necessary. For some insane reason that no one could understand, Avery and Rosier hadn't been expelled. Since Nettie hadn't been seriously injured by the curse, all they had gotten was detentions every day for the next five months and they were being chaperoned by a teacher everywhere they went. "They need to be locked up in Azkaban."

"Well, you know Dumbledore, he's big into second chances," Ivory said. She cast a dark look over to the Slytherin table over Julianne's shoulder.

"I'm done, do you want to go to the library before History of Magic?" Julianne said, leaving most of her lunch untouched. Ivory threw a glance over to the Gryffindor table to make sure Alice was still okay with Frank before nodding.

They got up and made their way out of the Great Hall and were on their way to the library when they heard two girls talking behind them. It was just whispers at first, but then their voices started to get louder, almost like they realized who was in front of them.

"If you ask me, she got off too easy," one of them whispered.

"Probably cause that Longbottom got to them first. How come he didn't get detention for stunning them?" the other said back.

Julianne's hands clenched into fists and Ivory put a cautionary hand on her arm. "Don't," she said quietly so the two girls, who they could tell were Slytherins by the way they were talking, couldn't hear them. "Ignore it." Julianne knew that Ivory was right, but her hands stayed clenched in fists and she was acutely aware of exactly where her wand sat tucked inside her robes.

"She deserved it, parading around the school like she was something just because she could fly a broom, the filthy half-blood."

Without a second thought, Julianne snatched her wand out of her robes and spun around, casting a spell before Ivory could stop her. Instantly, Ursula Pritchard's face started to swell as though she had been stung by a swarm of bees. She dropped her bag and her hands instantly shot to her face as her friend, Matilda Montague, started panicking.

"What is going on here?"

Julianne and Ivory turned to see who was behind them, belatedly recognizing the voice as belonging to Professor Pratt and Julianne attempted to hide her wand, even though the professor had already seen it. Pratt took in the scene for a brief moment before saying, "Ms. Montague, I think it would be best if you took Ms. Pritchard to the hospital wing." Matilda grabbed Ursula's arm and started steering her towards the hospital wing, shooting a nasty look at Julianne as they hurried by. "Ms. Meyers," she continued, causing Julianne to focus her attention on the professor, cursing internally that she had been caught. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you a detention for that little bit of spell work." She gestured to the space where Ursula and Matilda had been standing just moments before. Julianne bit her lip and nodded, groaning inwardly.

A bit of smile played across Pratt's face as she started to walk away and just as she passed them, Julianne was sure she heard her whisper, "But it certainly was an excellent Stinging Jinx."

"Hey, Julianne!"

She stopped and turned, seeing Andrea Cauldwell hurrying to catch up to her. Once she got there, she handed her a piece of rolled up parchment, saying, "Pratt asked me to give this to you."

"Thanks," Julianne said, unrolling it as Andrea walked away.

"What is it?" Ivory asked, leaning over to see if she could try and read it. Julianne was quiet as she skimmed through it.

"Are you kidding me?" she complained when she got to the end. "Polishing the trophy room at seven? But we have practice at six!" Ivory snatched the paper out of her friend's hand.

"Guess you aren't going, then," Ivory said as they continued on their waya to the common room.

Julianne shot her a glare. "Thank you, Ivory. Hadn't figured that out."

Ivory just gave her a patronizing look before handing her back the parchment. "Sorry." Julianne snatched it back, stuffing it in her bag. She glared the whole way up to the common room and once they got there, she threw her bag down beside a chair.

"Hey, Fitz!" she called, seeing the third year hurrying down the steps in his Quidditch gear. He paused and looked around, then walked over to her after realizing who had called him. "Can you tell Cameron that I got detention so I won't be able to make it to practice?" Fitz nodded and continued on his way to the pitch.

Julianne sank down into the chair and sighed, pulling her homework out of her bag. She sat there sulking, pretending to actually get some work done until a little bit before seven when she started making her way down to the trophy room for her detention. As she got to where the detention was going to be held, she saw there were already four other people waiting. A couple of fourth year Hufflepuff girls she vaguely recognized, Jeremiah Bell, a sixth year Ravenclaw, and-

"Well, it's nice to see a familiar face," Sirius said as she reached the group. Before Julianne could do more than give him an unfriendly look, Argus Filch, the caretaker, showed up to let them all in.

"No magic," he grumbled as he handed each of them a rag and polish.

"Like we could forget," Julianne muttered as she walked past him. She glanced around at the other four who were stuck with her. She had no desire to spend an entire night with the two Hufflepuffs and they looked like they were perfectly content spending the night together, though they were throwing quite a few glances in Jeremiah and Sirius's direction. Jeremiah was in her House and she did know him slightly, but he was one of Cameron's friends and judging by the nasty looks he was giving her, she figured spending detention with him would not be a very pleasant experience.

"So it looks like we're stuck with each other," Sirius said, appearing at her side.

"Unfortunately," she grumbled a she walked off to find somewhere to start the polishing. Sirius followed her and she did her best to ignore him as she set to work on some random person's award.

"Are you still upset with me?" Sirius asked after about five minutes of polishing in silence. Julianne continued to try and ignore him, but Sirius knew how to be annoying when he wanted to be. Every few minutes, he would ask her again in some form the first question and she was able to ignore it for about twenty minutes before. "You know I didn't think he-"

"Please shut up," she finally snapped, turning to look at him. "If I wasn't annoyed with you before, I sure as hell am now."

Sirius pushed on, ignoring her little outburst. "I just wanted you to know that I wasn't trying to break you and Cameron up," he said earnestly.

"Really? Because it sure looked like it from where I was standing," she said bitterly, going back to scrubbing the award she was on. "You and James and Peter hexing him every chance you got, Remus not doing anything to stop you. You had no right to treat him like that."

Sirius hesitated, like he was trying to think of something to say that wouldn't set her off again. He had been on the receiving end of Julianne's hexes before and it was not something that he cared to make a habit of. "We just wanted to protect you-"

"Protect me?" she said, rounding on him again. "What on earth would I need protecting from?"

Again, Sirius hesitated like he was trying to find the right words. "You were too good for him," he finally said, not meeting her eyes. "He didn't deserve you."

"And why is that your decision to make?" she asked, ignoring the fact that his response in no way answered her question. Her knuckles were white with how hard she was gripping the award. "That isn't your choice, it's mine and I happened to think-"

"Look, if I could take it back, I would," Sirius cut in, having completely abandoned polishing. "But I can't and I'm sorry. I really am."

Julianne continued to polish the award, putting it back and picking up another one when she was done. She could see Sirius shifting out of the corner of her eye, but he kept his mouth shut, waiting for her response. "I know," she finally said, so quietly that he could barely hear it. "I know. But you and James really need to find a better way to show you care."

Sirius smiled and went back to polishing, obviously sensing that the worst was over. "Yeah, it's a work in progress." Julianne smiled and continued her own polishing as they settled into a much more comfortable silence. They continued on like that for a while before Sirius broke the silence.

"So what are you in for?" he asked.

Julianne replied, "Hit Pritchard with a Stinging Jinx and Pratt caught me. She was talking shit about Nettie." Sirius nodded, seeming unsurprised as her response. While Julianne was not in detention as much as Sirius and James, her short temper did get her into trouble more often than was really necessary. Mostly it was for hexing Slytherins or other people who she thought deserved it. She was just a little bit better at being subtle about it. But only a little bit.

"What did you guys do this time?" she asked Sirius. "I'm assuming they saw fit to split you all up again?"

Sirius nodded, a grin on his face. "Yeah, they don't seem to trust us together," he admitted. The grin slipped off his face as he continued. "We had a bit of a run in with Rosier and Avery during Care of Magical Creatures. Made sure they got what they deserved." Julianne smiled despite herself. She was pretty sure the whole school had heard how they dealt with the two Slytherins, taking turns hexing the two until Professor Kettleburn put a stop to it.

"Thank you," she said quietly and Sirius nodded in response, not needing to ask what she meant by it. The two of them fell back into silence, one of them saying something every now and then, but for the most part, the rest of detention passed without any further conversation.

As they headed out of the trophy room, Julianne and Sirius fell into step together as they made their way back to their respective dormitories. Just before they reached the spot where they would have to break off, Sirius turned to her, asking, "So are we good then?" She glanced over at him, seeing the hopeful expression on his face.

She looked back down, smiling. "Yeah, I think we are."

The Christmas spirit was almost infectious by the second to last day of term. The decorations had been up for week now and with the war going on almost everyone was eager to get home to see their families. Not many of the students were extremely focused on their classes, except of course, everyone trying to finish their last minute homework.

Julianne sat in the library, desperately trying to finish her History of Magic assignment before class the next day. Cameron hadn't let up on the intensity of their practices, even with the holidays coming up, so she was constantly exhausted when she got back to finish her homework. She kept blinking, trying to stay awake as she wrote. It wasn't even that late, but the long hours were starting to catch up with her.

"You still here?"

She looked up from her essay to see Sirius standing there holding a book. He came over and sat down across from her. "Do you enjoy following me around?" Julianne asked as he got comfortable. "Because there is no way you of all people need to be in the library this much."

He held up the book he had been carrying and she saw it was on whatever they had been learning in Herbology. "Last minute studying," he said with a smile. "Much like you seem to be doing."

"Yeah, don't remind me," she grumbled, looking back down at her homework. "I'm so close to being done, I only have about six inches left." Unfortunately, right as she finished talking, Madame Prince came around the corner on her mission to kick any stragglers left out of her library. Julianne quickly packed everything up as she and Sirius were rather unceremoniously shooed out.

"Always so kind that one," Julianne muttered, still trying to straighten out everything in her bag.

"At least she's consistent," Sirius commented. Julianne just looked over at him, completely unamused. "Sorry," he said, looking ahead at where he was going, occasionally glancing up.

"What are you looking for?" Julianne asked around the fifth time it happened.

"Mistletoe," he explained, glancing down at her. "Don't fancy getting caught under it with just anyone."

Julianne raised her eyebrow, intrigued by his choice of words. "You mean there's someone you would want to get caught under it with?" Sirius faltered at her question and Julianne couldn't help but smile. It usually took a lot to crack Sirius's carefree attitude, but lately, she found that she could do it quite easily and she may have been enjoying it a bit too much.

"No, I didn't mean that," he backtracked, ignoring her smirk. "I just meant I don't really want to get stuck having to snog some third year Hufflepuff because I didn't notice some mistletoe."

Julianne held up her hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. I get it," she relented. "Calm down, it was just a joke."

Sirius lapsed into silence and Julianne looked down at as they continued to walk towards the Ravenclaw common room. She hadn't asked him, but she knew that he was planning on making sure she made it back okay. Nettie had been let out of the hospital wing a little over a week ago, but everyone was still a little on edge about it.

"So what about you?" Sirius asked after a brief silence. "I'm guessing you'd have the same issue."

"Why?' she asked somewhat suspiciously. Sirius hesitated again before answering.

"Well…because," he fumbled. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw him a deep breath like he needed to steady himself before blurting out, "Because you're gorgeous and any guy would be lucky to have you."

It was Julianne's turn to falter and she could feel her face start to heat up as it flushed. She had been told she was pretty before and, even though she never flaunted it in everyone's face, she definitely had embraced it. But for some reason, hearing it from Sirius of all people made her instantly self-conscious. "Thank you," she said quietly as they turned another corner. Almost involuntarily, she started rambling. "But being basically a sister to James Potter is a bit of a deterrent. Most guys don't willingly put themselves through that kind of torture."

Sirius turned to look at her again. She glanced over, noticing the strange look on his face as he opened his mouth like he was going to say something. Before he could get anything out, the two of them were stopped in their tracks when they found their way blocked what seemed like an invisible wall.

"What the…," Julianne said, reaching out and trying to find out what was in their way. Sirius reached out too and when he hit resistance, he immediately looked up.

"Uh, Julianne," he said. She looked over at him and he pointed up in response. Following his gesture, she looked up, already having a sinking feeling about what she might see.

Sure enough, a sprig of mistletoe hung right above where they were standing. It had obviously been enchanted so that it prevented the people underneath from getting away without a kiss. Julianne looked back down and met Sirius's eyes. In that brief second, she could see he was thinking the same thing as her.

"No," she said, immediately moving away from him. "No, I'm not doing it."

"It's just one kiss, Julianne," Sirius prodded, not making a move to get closer to her.

Julianne shook her head. "No, I'm not going to kiss you."

Sirius turned away from her so she couldn't see his face. "It's just one kiss," he repeated. "I'm pretty sure that's much more preferable than sitting in this corridor and waiting for someone else to come along." Julianne stayed quiet and Sirius turned around, a look of desperation on his face. "Please, Julianne," he said much quieter than before. She looked up and met his gaze, trying to ignore the nagging voice in the back of her head saying that this was what she had been dreaming of for over two years before she convinced herself she was over him. And let's face it, she thought. That was a losing battle from the start.

Eventually, she looked away, focusing on her hands. "Fine," she said. "One kiss."

She looked back up at him. That was all the prompting he needed as he started to walk over to her, stopping when he had gotten close enough. She could feel her heart pounding and her eyes were locked onto his. Sirius slowly lifted his hands and put them on either side of her face. He leaned down, pausing when he was just a few inches away from her face. Almost involuntarily, she put her hands on his chest. Her head was spinning and despite her best efforts, her breath had started coming quicker and shallower. Without looking, Sirius closed the gap between their lips. Julianne closed her eyes at the last second.

It was nothing like kissing Cameron, not that there was really any competition between the two. She couldn't explain how, but this was definitely better. Without even thinking, her hands slid up and around his neck, her fingers burying themselves in his hair. She pulled herself closer to him and she could feel his hands slip down from her face to her shoulders and then even lower. She deepened the kiss and could feel him respond rather enthusiastically. It had changed from one little innocent kiss between friends to something much different, but neither one of them were complaining. His hands had made it to her hips and he pulled her even closer, if that was even possible at that point. The next thing Julianne knew, they had made it from the middle of the corridor over to the side and she felt her back press up against the wall. The hallway could have exploded and it was doubtful that they would have noticed.

Just as soon as it had started, Julianne pulled back. The rational part of her brain had just seemed to register that she was kissing Sirius Black, a guy she had known since they were eleven, the same Sirius Black that she had had a crush on since she was twelve. She pushed away from him, her eyes still locked onto his. She was sure her own expression mirrored his: shocked, but excited, like Christmas had come a week early that year. She slowly moved back and picked up her bag from where it had been dropped and began to walk away, no longer restricted by the mistletoe. Sirius still hadn't moved from where she had left him and he hadn't taken his eyes off of her. She paused and she saw a hopeful expression flicker across his face.

"Don't tell anyone," she said, just loud enough for him to hear before turning and taking off towards her common room.

So from here on out, the plot should move a bit faster (at least that is my hope), so I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Just a quick heads up, I am participating in NaNoWriMo with this story, so the updates might be put on hold until I finish. I do have up through Chapter Six written and ready to submit, so I will send those in and then once NaNo is over and I have time to clean it up a bit, updates will start back up again. Thank you for being understanding!