ELEVEN

The next day Josephine constantly peered around corners before she entered hallways in the anticipation of the Marauders ambushing her in search of answers. Her nervousness was seemingly apparent, as Marlene kept on backhanding her shoulder in frustration whenever she would hesitate, and overtake her in the slowing traffic of the corridors. However, Josie could, of course, not reveal the reason for her hesitation. She was inside her head for the majority of the time, mulling over what she would say to them. She hadn't realized till that morning what a terrible mistake she had made.

How was she supposed to explain to them how she knew? There was no logical explanation to this, and if she tried to make one up it would sound false. The boys would surely be distrustful of her, but what could they do? A memory charm? It was surely against the school rules, but that never stopped them before. Whenever her thoughts turned to this, Josephine had to assure herself that they wouldn't do anything as drastic as that, but she had only known them for two days. What did she know?

Josie considered talking to Dumbledore with her predicament, but she didn't want to bother him. He was probably busy with more important matters and she didn't want him to think her incompetent, especially after all he had done for her. All she could do was wait for the confrontation.

But the confrontation didn't come. In fact, the only time that she saw the Marauders at all was in Defense Against the Dark Arts just before lunch. They were in their usual place at the back of the class, and Josephine kept looking back at them. There was no obvious sign from the outside that they were distressed about their recent accumulation of knowledge regarding Remus's secret-that-wasn't-a-secret-anymore. At least, it wasn't to Josephine.

They sat as they always did. Sirius was balancing on his back two chair legs, wearing an indifferent expression as Professor Woelf berated the class for not cleaning up the mess from yesterday's duel. James sat beside him, upper body draped over his desk, painfully similar to how Harry Potter would sit. At the desks to the pair's left sat Remus and Peter. The latter showed the only sign of tension, but Josephine couldn't remember if he was always like this or not.

Remus looked up from writing notes from the blackboard and caught Josephine staring at him. Something inside her tightened and she whipped her head back to the front. She silently accommodated the thought that perhaps Remus hadn't told anyone after all.

After class Josephine walked to lunch flanked by Lily and Marlene. A sea of Hogwarts students surrounded them, and they were part of the tide. As the girls were about to cross the courtyard, something caught Josephine's eye. It came from somewhere to her left, poking out from the horizon of the corridor's end. It was a curious shape, not quite a person, and too light to be a silhouette. She paused.

"Hey, guys, I just remembered something I have to do, I'll meet you in the hall later," Josie said quickly, and vaguely to the others. "But if you don't see me before the bell rings, don't wait up, I'll just see you in Charms or something," She added over her shoulder as she pushed her way through the crowd. Marlene muttered something about Josephine being particularly jumpy recently, but she took no heed. Josie reached a quiet part of the hallway and looked around. The walls were bare and there was a single window reaching all the way to the alcove's ceiling, but apart from that, it was a dead end.

Suddenly, she was jerked backwards by a force situated at her neck. She let out a strangled cry and her surroundings plunged into darkness. She was pushed against a cold, craggy wall and a hand was pressed against her mouth as something else held her back across her collarbone. She breathed hard against the fingers of her captive and clawed her hands against the stone of the wall.

"Lumos," whispered a nervous voice, and Peter Pettigrew's wand tip illuminated his round face. Josephine's eyes darted around and found Sirius's face close, with his piercing grey eyes locked on hers.

"How much do you know?" He said in a low, half-whisper. Her eyebrows drew together and she pushed him bodily away. Josie looked at him and tried to look as unimpressed as she could. Sirius stumbled back, but his gaze never faltered.

"How was I supposed to answer with your bloody hand over my mouth?" Josephine said defiantly, before catching the sight of Remus, clearly uncomfortable, standing beside Peter and trying to look small. Josie sighed and rolled her shoulders. "I know everything," She said calmly to the floor.

James had apparently decided that Sirius wasn't really one for interrogating and pushed him aside to take his place in front of Josephine.

"How did you find out? You've only been here for a couple days," He said, firm, but somehow infinitely more rational than Sirius. Thoughts swam around in Josephine's brain like an endless whirlpool of confusion. Everything was messed up. Why couldn't she just keep her stupid mouth closed for one minute? She scrunched her eyes closed, hand over her eyes, and fell back against the wall.

"I…" I, what? I know about it because I'm from the fucking future? I know about it because I was friends with your bloody son? No. She could never tell them the truth. She would be condemned as crazy for the rest of her life, and only Dumbledore and McGonagall would ever know the reality. She moaned and looked at the ceiling. She looked desperately, apologetically, earnestly, and straight into Remus's eyes before replying,

"I can't tell you."