Winter break had come and gone and for the moment, the group of friends were huddled around a large table in the Heads' Common Room.
"Ok, so no balls, cuz plenty of blokes don't have a girlfriend and balls are for those that do. And no masquerades, cuz well, everyone does a masquerade."
"I didn't think you were that interested in it Brett." Lily said after a moment of silence.
"Of course he is, are you forgetting who suggested the whole thing, Evans?" Sirius joked as he gently punched Brett in the shoulder.
"Fine, whatever. Now stop teasing them," Ashley started only to be interrupted by Josi.
"What do you mean by 'them'? He's only making fun of Brett cuz he has this stupid idea that Brett wants to date me. Which is absolutely ridiculous." She stared around at her friends, as if daring them to say otherwise.
"Actually, Josi, he isn't being ridiculous. Nor is the idea stupid." Jaws dropped at his words as heads turned instantly to look at him. Smiling he continued, "You see, I am the only person who would even consider dating you simply because I am the only one you would let. We all already know that. I mean, if James for some reason wanted to, you would say no in an instant, same with Colin, Remus, and Peter. And well, you and Sirius already tried, so he's out of the question. And none of us would let you date anyone else here, I mean, they could be very very bad."
"You know," she started, looking up to the right, biting the bottom left part of her lip, "You aren't the only one I would consider."
"Oh, and who else would you consider?" he asked, the smile falling off his face.
"Oh, well that's simple, two of them happen to be sitting in this very room."
"Who?" everyone in the room could feel his jealousy at the thought of her wanting someone else. And his submission to the fact that she would. As if he had known she would.
"Remus and Colin."
Colin stood from beside Ashley, walked over to his friend and looked her up and down.
"You know, I might actually let her go," he said and sat down next to Josi, grabbing her hand.
"No, I want her," Remus exclaimed as he jumped from his seat and grabbed Josi's other hand. The girls and remaining Marauders stared at the scene in front of them, confused and quite frankly, frightened. They had never even thought that was going to happen.
And then they collapsed into a fits of laughter as Brett chuckled.
"WE, we ---soooo got --- got you guys," Colin gasped out. He turned to high five Josi and Remus, only to find Josi across the room, whispering to Brett.
"OI!" Sirius shouted at them. Brett turned his head to look at him as Josi continued whispering.
"What are you two doing? We got the joke ok? You guys are all great actors, I mean, seriously, you seemed genuinely jealous. Which you couldn't be cuz you already knew what was going to happen. What could you still be talking about?"
"When would be a good time to sneak away and go have hot and wild sex." Josi said as they walked back towards the group.
"Didn't need to know that," Peter said as Brett returned to the seat across from him.
"Padfoot asked, thank you very much," she said as she sat in Brett's lap.
Shaking his head, he pushed her onto the floor. Laughter came out in waves at the look on her face, one that resembled a little three year old not getting her way.
"We aren't going to have sex of any kind thank you very much."
"Dude, that's not a good thing. Sex is very much needed for every male." Sirius looked so intense that Brett couldn't help but laugh as he replied, "Yes, it is, but sometimes, we must suffer the pain of withdrawal."
"You can't have withdrawal if you've never gotten any," Colin whispered just loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Very true, very true."
"That's perfect Sirius!" Josi shouted. Everyone turned to stare at her, confused.
"Well, for the dance. Obviously we have to have a regular dance, where it's semi formal. But you can't bring your own date. We charm the tables to be truthful, you know where you sit at them and you can't lie. And then we have to have prearranged seats. And when you sit down, you are moved to sit by whomever the truthful tables put you!" she seemed almost giddy at the thought.
"Why would that be at all appealing?" Remus asked.
"Well, because, it puts you with whomever it thinks you would be best matched with. And that way there's house unity cuz not everyone will be matched with someone in their house and no one has to pluck up the courage to ask someone else out and the whole 'what if it doesn't work out' scenario…I mean, it's perfect."
"You know, I think you're on to something Josi." Lily stated slowly, "There's only one problem."
"Which is?" she asked impatiently.
"What about those of us that already have boyfriends or girlfriends?" James finished for her.
"Oh, that's easy." At their continued silence she realized she had to elaborate, "We just make the tables put you with you boyfriend slash girlfriend. Either that or we ask the public and see what they say. We can go with popular vote. So all we have to do is explain to Dumbledore, and make the announcement. And decorate, but that'll just be easy. We did decide to have a Hogmeade visit this weekend right?" Lily nodded.
"So there we go. Problem solved. Oh, and as to the decorating, we can make it all like Muggle homecoming, only we have a feast together. And we probably won't choose our dates."
"Mkay, just one question."
"What Prongs?"
"What's homecoming?"
"And so, its up to you guys to decide. We'll go with popular vote. Alright so everyone for just leaving the dogs as they lie to the left, and for those willing to throw caution to the winds on the right." As the benches scrapped against the floor, Josi smiled. It seemed most of the school had gone with throwing the caution to the winds. So the truthful tables would find it all.
"And so, the tables will decide! Now, ummm, I'm going to ask you to decide on something else. I want you to pick between l and r." confused, the students stared at each other for a while until seven of eight from each side switched.
"So it looks like we go with r. thanks."
One student bravely shouted up to her, "What was that for?"
"Oh," she laughed slightly, "That was for the theme. I had one in mind for the left and another in mind for the right. Ok, well it was Lily who had them in mind, I really don't know what the themes are, or is going to be cuz Lily decided not to tell me which was which. So yeah. Oh, and no, you won't find out the theme until the dance on Sunday. Yes, I know that is the day after you go shopping," she added at the alarmed looks on many of the girls' faces, "But that my friend is just to build much anticipation. Much more curiosity, and of course much more of something else Lily said that I can't remember."
"Excitement Josi, I said excitement."
"Yeah yeah yeah. Mkay so we can all go to beddybye now." And with that she just walked off the podium leaving utter silence in her wake. A moment later and the Hall was filled with excited chatter, confused looks, and sleepy children.
"Brett, I really think we can tell Dumbledore for sure it isn't Ashley, Colin, James, or Lily."
"But, I really don't think we should tell him," he replied as he pulled the covers of his bed back. Slipping in, he waited for her to join him before he turned out the lights.
Sighing, she climbed into bed and lay on her side, staring him directly in the face, "I don't want to either. I don't want to tell him that we think some of our friends really are on the Dark Side and I, I can't. I mean, they all mean so much to me, thinking one of them is a Death Eater is almost as bad as thinking you're one. And we still just have to lie to them, and lie, and lie. I can barely get through the day it hurts me so much. I can't, I can't," he could see the wetness in her eyes as he gathered her against him.
"Shhh," he whispered in her ear as he felt a cool drop on his neck, "I know, I don't think we should tell him. All we have to say is that we don't know. And I think we should tell them. I think that would-" he cut off as something he had prayed would never happen again, happened again.
"Ashley, Colin, they're dead, gone," Sirius whispered as he looked at the burnt remains of a house, "Gone, just ashes." A swift look at James revealed a man who looked as if he were ready to kill. Ready to destroy any one that got in his way of silencing that bastard Voldemort for good. Lily was devastated, her best friend truly gone felt like, felt like hell had come up and the devil now reigned. But the devil had reigned on this place for a long while, for Voldemort was the devil. He had become that thing for all his murders, all his hate, all his power and fame.
Remus, Josi, and Brett just looked stunned. And Peter, the person he was in, felt shattered, as if the world had fallen apart.
My sweet, my love, he thought as he looked at the burnt fragments, all that is left of my beloved, I shall stay with Dark Lord, and serve him as you wished me to. And you will be avenged. Those who have slaughtered you will perish. The smell of burnt flesh reached his nose, and he turned away, filled with pain, flushed with anger, controlled by hatred.
Waking out of his vision, he whispered, "I didn't think I could get those anymore."
"Nor did I," Josi whispered.
"Peter. It's Peter. I don't think I like knowing who it is."
"Me either. But do we still tell anyone?"
"No, but we can't act any different. Telling them would be bad. We have to make sure he doesn't hear anything of importance." He pulled her tighter against him, pushing his face into her hair and suddenly he wasn't comforting her: she was comforting him. And they fell asleep, wrapped up in one another's arms yet again, as they tried to remember the good parts of their lives, to forget the lies they would have to continue to tell.