"Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile."
-Franklin P. Jones

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The hot shower felt good on Joey's sore body. Her headache was gone, but there was still a nagging sensation at the back of her mind. What was she going to do about Amos? Joey was trying desperately to organize her thoughts but was having trouble. The more she thought about it, the more confused she felt.

Joey was starting to get that headache again. She tried to relax and just let the hot shower water run down her face. Slow breathing. She tried to clear her thoughts once again. She knew what she had to do. . . talk to Amos.

Joey got out of the shower and threw on her robes. She patiently waited for Lily to take her shower, and spent the time wisely by getting all of her school things ready. She looked down at her schedule for that day and groaned. Advanced potions first period? Great. This day was just getting better and better. Professor McShailty was not friendly. In fact, she hated his guts, and he hated hers. Joey was just praying that she got in the same class that Remus did. He was the only person she could count on taking such an advanced potion class. All of her other friends either didn't have the grades or they were just too damn intimidated by McShailty to take the class.

Once Lily was ready, Joey grabbed Flam, who had been sleeping peacefully on her bed post, and the two girls hurried out of the Gryffindor tower and down to breakfast before the dining hall closed and first period started. They hurried into the dining hall, and rushed over to the Gryffindor table.

Joey just managed to get a glimpse over at the Hufflepuff table and her eyes easily found Amos. Damn. He looked terrible this morning. He had one black eye, scratches all over his body, and a rather puffy, black and blue jaw. His hair looked a complete mess, and when Diggory turned his head to talk to the person who was sitting next to him, Joey could see a rather large bald spot that had clearly developed from someone forcefully ripping it out during a fight. Joey could only imagine what else her friends had done to him. She found herself feeling pretty bad for him.

Lily and her made their way over to their saved seats and sat down with the boys. Joey looked over at Remus and practically begged him to give her some good news. "Remus. . .PLEASE tell me that you have advanced potions first period!" Remus looked up from his food and smiled brightly at her.

"Advanced potions, first period," he said happily. Joey felt a load of relief.

"Thank God!" she laughed. "We can suffer together."

"You know, I never understood why you guys put yourself through torture like that!" Sirius interrupted.

"You just don't understand our love of potions, that's all! You guys only hate it because of the teacher!" Joey said defensively.

"Well. . .that's a good reason, isn't it? How can you learn anything when the teacher is punishing you constantly?"

"You have to take potions with McShailty anyways, whether you have it advanced or not! It just depends on the level of learning you receive. You'll get your share of detentions no matter what you do!" Remus said laughing.

"Yes, that may be so. But along with advanced classes comes advanced punishment. I like to keep with the difficult, nicely taught classes." Sirius explained. Everybody rolled their eyes and continued eating. Sirius was probably one of the smartest people in the group, aside from Remus. He just had a habit of pretending like he didn't care about school.

Before they knew it, breakfast was over and everyone began clearing out of the dining hall, on their way to first period. Suddenly, Amos glanced up and saw Joey walking out of the Dining hall, accompanied by Remus. He shot out of his chair and hurried over to her.

"Jeeze, Amos! You look terrible!" Remus remarked. Joey elbowed him hard in the ribs. Amos looked over at him and smiled weakly.

"Well, actually, I was attacked by a rather ferocious dog yesterday," Amos looked around nervously as he said this. Joey's mouth almost dropped open. Amos obviously hadn't realized that the dog who had attacked him was Sirius. She felt bad picturing Amos admitting everything that had happened to a surprisingly intelligent dog.

"So, anyways, Joanne. . . I really need to talk to you. I am so, so sorry about what happened yesterday, and I hope with all my heart we can put it behind us." Joey hesitated for a moment as she thought about what he was saying.

She nodded slowly as she spoke, "Alright, Amos. We can talk later." She started to turn around and walk away when Amos grabbed her arm lightly. She turned around to see what he wanted. Leaning down, he kissed her lightly on the cheek.

"You know I'm sorry, don't you?" he practically whispered it. Joey just looked at him with a sad expression on her face. She wanted to forgive him, and part of her already had. Amos had been her boyfriend for. . . however long, she always forgot. . . but the point was, dumping him would be like scooping out a piece of her heart and throwing it away. She knew that he had scared her, but now she was even questioning her own judgment on what had happened the day before. Part of it was her fault as well. Maybe she should have just told Amos what he wanted to hear.

She smiled lightly at him, turned around, and walked towards the dungeons with Remus. EVERYONE was watching her, and she suddenly felt very awkward.

Potions went by about as quick as molasses. Joey was practically sleeping on Remus' shoulder by the time Professor McShailty had the class stop reading aloud from their text books. It was now time to take notes.

"Now class, take out your quills so that we can begin. As you just read in your texts, I'm sure you can guess what kind of potion we are going to create today." McShailty looked around the room expectantly. The only problem was, no one was paying enough attention before to make an accurate guess.

"No body knows?" The man heaved a fake sigh. "Five points from Gryffindor then!" Joey and Remus exchanged glances. And so it began. An entire year with McShailty still left to go, and it would be a complete surprise if the Gryffindor house had any points left by the end of it.

"Anyways," the professor continued, "today we are going to learn about truth serums. The first one we will take notes on is a truth serum involving love. The person to take the potion will immediately admit who they truly love, deep down in their sappy little heart." Professor McShailty looked almost disgusted with the idea. Joey actually wondered to herself if Professor McShailty had ever loved anybody in his life time. It was a miracle that the man even owned a heart in that cold-blooded body of his.

"Moving on to taking notes," McShailty progressed. "There are only two ingredients needed in this potion, in yet if the exact amounts of each ingredient aren't added perfectly, then I am sorry to say that you have created a rather deadly concoction. Now for the ingredients. . ."

McShailty took the time to turn around and draw a rather large heart on the black board, signifying that it was a truth/love potion. "Now, copy down everything I have on the board for your notes. The first, very important ingredient happens to be the juice of an Aster flower." The professor, once again, turned around and wrote the initials 'J.A.' in the heart, for short.

Joey giggled at this and leaned over to Remus whispering, "Those are my initials!"

"Yeah. . ." Remus played along. "Joey Atramentous loves. . ."

"And the second ingredient, class, is snake blood." The teacher turned around and wrote the initials 'S.B.' in the heart. The class followed by writing down the same thing on their parchments.

"Salty Bacon?" Joey whispered over to Remus in response to the new initials that were up on the board.

"What about Soapy Broccoli?" Remus chimed in, laughing.

"Sexy beast?" Joey was now cracking up.

"Sirius Black?" Remus mumbled barely loud enough for Joey to hear. She looked over at him with a weird expression on her face, but the other boy wouldn't look at her. She nudged him playfully with her shoulder against his. "You know it's true." Remus said like he was stating an obvious fact. Joey had the decency to feign a shocked expression.

"I have a boyfriend, Remus," Joey whispered back in response. Flam let out a loud 'hoot' as if he were arguing with that statement.

"Miss Atramentous! If you are unable to keep that. . . animal of yours shut up, then I suggest that you not bring it with you to class!"

"Sorry Professor!" Joey exclaimed as she stroked her bird. Flam had an extremely disgusted look on his face as he was about to take off in the direction of Professor McShailty. Saving her already crotchety teacher from getting a good peck on the head, Joey quickly grabbed Flam and shoved a treat in his mouth. Relaxing a bit, the bird curled back up on her shoulder and went to sleep.

The bell rang, and all the students took off out the door. Joey's second class, transfiguration, passed by much quicker and much less painful than potions had, and it was now time for lunch. Everyone by now was rushing to the dining hall. Joey wandered around just outside the dining hall waiting for Amos to find her. Once everyone in the great hall had filtered into the dining hall, some one came up next to her and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and saw Sirius standing there.

"Hey," he said, gazing down into her flawless, self-assured smile. "Remus told me during Care of Magical Creatures that you were going to be talking with Diggory during lunch." Joey gave him an expecting look when he said this. It almost made him uncomfortable that he wasn't sure what she was expecting him to say. "And I- uhhh. . ." He hesitated for a moment trying to choose his words carefully.

"Yeah?"

"I-" he almost paused again. "-just wanted to wish you luck," he forced out a little too quickly to sound sincere. "I hope you realize what you are looking for in a relationship, and find a person who'll treat you how you deserve. . . even if that person is Amos."

Joey couldn't believe what she was hearing. She smiled up at Sirius, feeling a little choked up. "Sirius, you've always been such a great friend, I-"

"And, Joey, I just wanted to apologize if I upset you this morning. I don't think I can bring myself to apologize for what I did to Diggory, because I feel he deserved it. . . But I didn't mean to seem like I enjoyed it so much. . ."

Joey had to laugh at Sirius. She knew she'd be a little abrupt with him that morning, but she certainly wasn't expecting an apology. She suddenly felt a little guilty. He'd spent the entire night by her side!

"Sirius, you big doofus, I'm not upset," she took a step closer to him and he wrapped her in a hug. He was really warm and comforting, Joey found. She nuzzled into his chest a little bit and felt his arms tighten around her slightly. His signature scent flouted up to her nose and she smiled pleasantly. Wow, this was really nice.

Joey was quickly snapped from her daydreaming by a shrill yell coming from somewhere behind her. She quickly dislodged herself from Sirius tight hug. Turning around, she saw Lily standing in the door way of the dining hall.

"Amos is looking for you!" she said. "He told me a few minutes ago to tell you that he's waiting for you in one of the library booths!" With that, Lily went back into the dining hall.

Joey turned back to Sirius just in time to see him take another step back. She silently cursed Lily for interrupting. "Well, I guess you should be on your way to the library." he said, making an effort to sound cheerful. He turned around and began walking towards the dining hall.

"Sirius!" she yelled, causing him to stop in his tracks and turn around, looking at her with an expression that said he knew he couldn't get his hopes up. "I-" she paused for a moment just like he had earlier. "thank you" she breathed out with a sigh.

He smiled slightly but shook his head in confusion. "For what?" he asked.

"For putting up with me," she answered. Sirius now had a vague smile on his face. It was an expression of both appreciation and torture. Joey, it seemed to him, would obviously never understand the way he felt about her. In her eyes, he would always be the loving brother. Sirius turned around and headed into the dining hall.

Trying to hold back the frustration, Joey turned around and made her way down the corridor to the library. She knew Diggory was waiting for her. Maybe he would be the comfort she needed right now. He did seem awfully sorry earlier. Maybe things would go back to the way they were between them at the beginning of their relationship. She continued thinking about this as she entered the library and made her way to the booth in which Amos was so patiently waiting.

Please review! love you all, SJ