Brett looked at the clock over her shoulder, five-thirty. It was Monday so normally he would be up, going to the separate bathroom while James took the one connected to their bedrooms. He didn't hear the shower so he figured James was still asleep. He moved to get out of the bed trying to not disturb her. Gently he pulled his arm out from under. She started to stir; he had forgotten how light of a sleeper she was.

"Brett?" she whispered as she groggily opened her eyes.

"Go back to sleep, I'm just going to get ready for class," he whispered as he took her left arm off his body.

"But the Professors said that cuz it's the day after the game, we don't have to." She was more awake now as she pulled herself onto her elbow.

"Right, sorry. I forgot." She smiled at him before she knocked his arm out so he fell back onto the bed before she crawled back into his arms, letting him wash away her pain. As she fell back into her slumber she whispered, "Please don't hurt Sirius, he didn't know." Brett sighed before he too fell back asleep, letting her touch cool his body, letting her stop the burning she didn't know she caused.

Josi was sitting next to Brett at the Gryffindor table when she saw Sirius come in. the second he spotted her, he went to sit somewhere else, hoping she hadn't seen him. But when he looked at her, she was motioning for him to come sit by her. Slowly he walked towards her, not knowing what else to do, and he sat beside her. She gently placed a kiss on his cheek.

"Good morning," she said happily, as if nothing happened. He was going to say something until he saw the look on Brett's face. It told him to not say a thing, pretend as she was, otherwise Sirius Black would only be a memory.

"Morning," he said sweetly before kissing her cheek as well. It was really quiet for the three people sitting at the table. None of them really knew what to say, or had anything to say at all, in Josi's case. Nothing else was said until their other friends finally woke up and came down for lunch. Brett called a good morning to Lily, letting everyone know he had forgiven her. Josi just nodded to her, an unspoken sign of acceptance. David and Colin were chatting with Ashley, Bryan and Alex were both sitting with their girlfriends, leaving Remus and Peter to chat while James talked with Sirius. Everyone noticed that Josi was oddly silent as she picked at her food, but no one said a thing as Brett would shush them with a look. Tired of everyone paying attention to Josi, Brett said, "So Lily, how's it going with your boyfriend?" everyone was instantly paying rapt attention. She didn't seem to notice as she replied, "Really well, better than I ever thought possible. He isn't like I thought, he's a lot nicer and gentle than one would think a Slytherin could be." Josi started choking on her Dr. Pepper, completely surprised that Lily would be with a Slytherin.

James angrily asked who he was. When she answered, Josi felt Sirius stiffen beside her. She reached her right hand for his hand underneath the table, and gave it a gentle squeeze. She didn't notice Brett's right hand tighten against his pumpkin juice.

"My brother?!?" Sirius asked through clenched teeth, "You're dating my BROTHER?" He was furious; Lily gulped in fear as she nodded. Quickly she explained how it happened, trying to get her friends to understand

"See, before the start of term he was begging for Ashley to help him. He wanted to get me to like him, that's what we were talking about when James came into the Head's compartment on the train. He had taken the trip to Italy with us and some other kids in school over the summer. So when Ashley told me what he asked I had laughed but when she left I realized it was kind of sweet so when he asked me out while we weren't talking I said yes." she finished, looking at the faces around her guiltily. The only people who really seemed to mind were James and Sirius.

Josi couldn't understand why Sirius was so upset. She knew he had run away a few years ago, cuz that's what he told her last night, but the boy couldn't have been the reason, could he? James was allowed to be angry cuz they all knew he was in love with Lily, but really, this was far enough. She said confused, "What's so wrong with your brother? Sure he's a Slytherin but they can't all be all that bad." Sirius turned to look at her before he answered.

"Most of those Slytherins are Death Eaters, or they will be soon. And the few that aren't are pureblooded gits. Full of prejudice, so if Regulus 'likes' Lily, then he's either using her or he's doing something for Voldemort," she saw Peter flinch at his name, "Either way, it's still bad. Very bad. Lily just needs to see that. If she doesn't fine, just don't bring him around me." He looked at her once more, briefly as he finished his rant before standing up and departing. James quickly followed him, not even looking at Lily.

"Eh, they'll get over it," Josi said watching their backs, "And if they don't, well than screw 'em." Lily looked at her, astonished.

"So you don't hate me?" Josi laughed before she said, "We've been through this before: I don't hate people. Sure I still don't like you but that has nothing to do with those jackasses. They just need to learn to be men and suck it up." She smiled at Lily before she looked to Brett, "That was not very nice you know." Brett spluttered before he said, "I didn't know they were listening, I was just trying to be nice and talk to her. I'm not mad at her and I actually do still like her so why would I intentionally be mean to her?" he was very convincing. Josi wanted to call him out on his lie but decided to wait until they were alone.

"Sorry," she said with a smile before she turned to talk with Ashley, Colin and David.

*

James and Sirius hardly spoke to Lily for the rest of the week. She didn't ask Regulus to join them at all, but she did leave a few times to go see him. No one brought him up; no one brought Lily up when she was gone.

Sirius was jogging off the field, his helmet in his hand, grasped by the facemask. He smiled brightly as he saw his girlfriend healing his teammates with the touch of her hand. He waited patiently until she finished, a few feet away. When she turned around, she smiled. For the first time in a week he smiled back. Slowly she meandered towards him, stopping a few inches away from him, taunting him. Everyone was to busy cheering and celebrating a spectacular shut out (56-0) to notice the couple sneaking away.

"So have you decided you're going to smile now?" she asked laughing as he dragged her away.

"Why of course silly goose," he was grinning mischievously as he suddenly stopped and her body collided with his. She laughed brightly as he wrapped his arms around her waist and hers wandered around his neck. Slowly he brought his lips to hers, gently pressing, before his tongue flicked across her lips, asking her permission. Her lips parted but when his tongue met hers, the fire works she expected, the high she was supposed to feel, everything anyone had told her should happen, didn't. She felt wrong, dirty. She felt empty, hollow. Her heart wasn't beating faster, her blood not pounding through her veins.

Sirius gently pulled away from her when she didn't respond to him. She shook her head at his questioning look. No, nothing was wrong. To prove it she kissed him again, hoping to feel something, anything. But there was nothing. She smiled a fake smile when she broke off, he didn't seem to notice as he smiled brightly back at her, it had been the first time she had let him kiss her fully, not just a soft peck, he was happy. He didn't sense her confusion, her troubledness. Quickly they walked hand in hand to the bus, hoping no one had noticed their absence. Blending into the crowd of people, she let go of his hand, searching for Ashley, hoping she could help. Josi had never really had a friend that was a girl; she was always one of the guys. It never bothered her since she never had any guy problems. But now she needed one.

*

Brett had felt his body burn, his chest, his waist, his hands, but mostly his lips, his mouth. He looked around, knowing she wouldn't be there, and neither would he. He tried to push away the burning, and for a moment it stopped, only to come back stronger. He gasped in surprise. Ashley gave him a weird look, wondering why he had. He pretended nothing had happened and returned her look of confusion. She stepped closer to him, seemingly to say something before she pushed herself against him and pressed her lips to his.

"What the hell?" he yelled as he sprang away in pain.

"Do you love her?" she asked, thinking.

"Who?" he asked angrily.

"Josi, do you love her?"

"No, I don't love her."

"I thought she was your best friend?" denial, she thought.

"Well, like that yeah I do." She had him cornered, no matter what he said she could twist it. He was stupid to have said anything at all. He felt her grab his hand and then the squeezing of his lungs, his body as she turned away. He collapsed onto the filthy floor, trying to gain his breath, but it helped that the burning wasn't as prominent.

Josi was worried; she couldn't find Brett. She had turned down going out to celebrate with the Marauders and David, Ashley and Colin, Alex and Bryan were 'celebrating' with their girlfriends, and Lily was with Regulus. But she couldn't find Brett. She tried to figure where he could possibly have gone if he wasn't in the castle, places he liked on the grounds.

She went to the lake first, nothing. She stood silently staring at the waves for a moment, watching them chase each other before slipping into the vast water beneath them. Sighing she went to the football field, even though she knew he would never be there, it was too obvious. Standing in the middle of the green grass, between the stands that would sit thousands, she tried hard to think of a place he would go, maybe to think. She walked away towards the forest, and then it hit her, literally. Flying across the grounds she realized that that would be the perfect place. Grabbing her wand, she shot a stunning spell at the knot that would stop the tree. The moment it froze she ran towards the hole. She slid into the tunnel and collided with something other than the ground.

***

"Where the hell are we?" he asked as he finally stood and took in his surroundings.

"Top floor of the Shrieking Shack in England." She looked around at the covered furniture; there were a few scratches on the walls but nothing else. Brett assumed this was where James and Sirius brought Remus at the end, right before sunrise. He moved to sit on the bed, before looking at her expectantly.

"What?"

"Well I was sort of hoping you could, oh I don't know, tell me why you brought me her?"

"Oh, well, see I've been noticing stuff these past few months and well, I think you have a blood curse."

"Why?" he was dumbfounded. No one but Josi knew he was a pureblood, not a Muggle-born, not even Lily. Only those who knew magical people could have a blood curse, only pure anger, pure hatred could cause a blood curse that would last through the generations.

"Well, you flinch every time someone touches her, where ever they touched her."

"Touches who?" Maybe playing dumb would help him. He couldn't Appaperate yet so he was stuck here, with her, seeing as she was blocking the door way.

"Don't be stupid, please. Josi. Like when James gave her a high five at the game last week, you dropped the water bottle you were holding. And they both just happened to be the right hand. At breakfast last week, Josi was holding Sirius' hand underneath the table, her right and you, with your right hand, started squeezing so hard your knuckles turned white." Brett was amazed, seeing as she never seemed to pay attention to anything but Colin and David. He didn't say anything, allowing her to continue.

"And when I kissed you, you jumped away from me,"

"I jumped away because I thought you were with Colin or David and I don't like you like that, but I should probably tell them you're a whore."

"I am not. Look, I don't have to go into more detail, because obviously I'm right. But I don't understand," she looked at him, desperate for an explanation.

He chuckled darkly before saying, "You don't choose who you fall in love with," he knew that wasn't what she meant but he didn't care. He couldn't tell her, he hadn't even told his better friends that he had known for years.

"That's not what I mean. I know that for you to have a blood curse, than it had to have been passed to you through your parents. You can't be a Muggle-born, unless your 21. So your parents had to have some magical blood and the curse was passed to you. Please, I just want to help."

"Help with what?" he growled at her.

"I want to help you get rid of it," and that's when he knew. This was not Ashley, it couldn't be. There were few ways to get rid of a blood curse. The person who cast it could reverse it, which was painless. If it was one that had to be fulfilled, it would go away when it was, but it could be painful. The only other way he knew of was, very painful and no one had ever survived it

"I don't have a blood curse, I just don't like people touching her." he paused, "Who are you? You might have her memories but your not Ashley, she isn't stupid. I'm a Muggle-born and she knows it. And I've read about blood curses, she would have to kill me to do that. She wouldn't kill anyone." He was standing staring directly into this imposter's eyes. A moment later there was resounding crack as whomever it was disappeared. He stood still for a few moments before he walked downstairs, and into the tunnel that would take him back to the school grounds.

As he walked, he wondered who could the imposter be, and how had they retrieved her memories? Or maybe it was someone they considered a friend, using polyjuice potion, who was secretly working for Voldemort. He shook his head at the paranoid thoughts; none of his friends would betray him would they? As he went to reassure himself, to tell himself why none of them could be, something collided with his body, knocking him down to the ground.

"Ow," said a voice he instantly recognized as she pushed herself off of him.

"Josi?" he asked, stunned as to why she wasn't out with her boyfriend, "Why are you here?"

"Looking for you, I didn't see you after the game, no one has. I couldn't find you in the castle or on the grounds, so I figured why not check here? Okay so it was after the stupid thing attacked me but, whatever." Worry instantly flooded him. As he asked, "Are you alright?" he moved closer to her to check for anything broken.

"Fine, yeah, but what the hell are you doing? Ashley said she saw you after the game but then you disappeared. What happened?" Brett stood frozen for a second; he knew it wasn't Ashley, right?

"Lumos," he whispered so they could see around them, "I thought Ashley was with me. Okay well at first, but it's probably something I should tell everyone together. Come on," he moved to go up out of the tunnel, intending to pull himself up, when he suddenly screamed and fell back on to the ground. Worried she bent down next to him, shinning her light to the right of his face, so as not to blind him.

"What happened?" she asked as he blinked, sitting up. He hadn't had a physical reaction to a vision since the school was going to start a dueling club.

His answer was nearly a whisper as he looked directly into her eyes, confusion and pain the main painting, dribbled with anger….