Jeff looked terrible. He had a huge black ring around one of his eyes, and the whole other half of his face was puffed up like a balloon. One of his arms was in a cast, and his topless chest was covered with bandages. Ashley was sitting on the foot of his bed, painting his toes an obnoxious shade of blue that I could see from halfway across the room.

"Jeff!" I gasped, running over to him, stumbling in my heals. My feet were blistered from all the walking the night before and from running on the cobbled hallway floors.

"Vi-Vi!" Ashley said excitedly. "There you are! Where have you been? We were all so worried…"

"Who cares about that?" I said, grabbing on to Jeff's hand, only to find he had a splint on one of his fingers. I held onto it tightly with both of my trembling hands. "What happened to Jeff?"

Ashley sighed, "You remember when we were in our second year, and Jeffey fell in love with that Phillip bloke?"

I nodded, "Sure. I didn't know you guys very well back then, but I remember hearing about it."

"Well, the girl I set him up with is his ex, apparently," said Ashley. "And one of his old chums wrote him about it, and he was furious about the whole thing. So a bunch of those guys ganged up on poor Jeffey… It was just awful! They kept beating him and kicking him and hexing him… By the time Ari and I were close enough to do anything, they'd already done all this to him."

"Oh no…" I whimpered. I touched Jeff's hand to my lips, my tears sliding down onto his skin. "Poor Jeff…"

"Violet…" he said in a tired, hoarse voice.

Ashley gasped, almost knocking over the nail polish in surprise, "He's awake!"

"What?" I asked desperately.

"Y-y…" he stammered, stopping to have a little coughing fit.

"Don't strain yourself," Aria said, stroking his hair. She grabbed a cup of water off of the table and pressed it to his lips. "Take your time."

He pushed the cup away, "Y-you…"

"What?" I said again, frantically. "What is it, Jeff?"

"Your hair looks dreadful," he croaked.

I groaned, rolling my eyes as I dropped his hand, "That's all you have to say?"

"A-and… I told you…" he continued. "Never… wear black with navy. W-what were you thinking? H-h-how could you come visit me… looking like that?"

I looked down at my wrinkled black dress, which was partially covered with my long navy coat. Did I really look that bad?

"He does have a point," Ashley said, chuckling. "You're a total mess. Hey, isn't that the sexy dress Ari and I got for you?"

"No," I said, closing my coat tightly around me.

"Oh ho-" Jeff coughed before he could finish his signature call, "ho."

"Shut up," I snarled.

Ashley giggled, "Awww, did our little Vi-Vi finally give herself to her beloved Professor Lu-Lu?"

How do they always know?! My inner voice screamed as I blushed wildly. They must be mind readers. That's the only possible explanation!

"She's blushing," Jeff said, smirking with the good half of his face. "That means yes."

"That's so sweet," Aria said. "And on Valentine's Day, too. That's so romantic."

"Well, I'm a little disappointed, personally," Ashley said, turning her nose up at me. "I had hoped she would wait until she was married…"

"It's none of your business what I do," I grumbled. "And you're the last person who should go around preaching about waiting."

She sighed, "I just don't want my daughter to make the same mistakes as I did."

I rolled my eyes, ready for a subject change. "So, how was Cedric?"

Ashley sighed, returning to her work on Jeff's toes. "He was even duller than I feared. All he wanted to talk about was school and Quidditch. Such a boring boy…"

"And what about you, Ari?" I asked. "How was Eddie?"

"He was fine," she shrugged, but I could tell by the twinkle in her eye that it was more than just fine. "I think we're going to see each other again."

"Two out of three good Valentine's dates isn't bad," Ashley said cheerfully. "And Vi-Vi even got some, so that's extra points for us."

I blushed, "Points? What points?"

"But Jeff got the tar beat out of him," Aria reminded her. "So that cancels out, right?"

I shook my head, sitting down on the bed with Ashley, "I love you guys. I mean, I really love you. But you're completely bonkers."

"It must have been good," Jeff whispered to Aria, who nodded curtly.

"I can hear you, you know," I said dryly. "And nothing happened."

"Awww," Aria cooed, grabbing a hairbrush off of the table. "Let me fix your hair, dear."

"Yeah," Jeff croaked. "You look bloody awful."

"She looks awful?" I heard a familiar voice say. I turned around, and – much to my pleasant surprise – I saw Professor Lupin, carrying a container of Chocolate Frogs in his hand. "You look like you've just been run over by a train, Mr. Flanders."

"And I'm still the prettiest girl in the room," Jeff said, grinning at the new arrival.

Please don't say anything, I begged. If you really can read minds, please listen to me; don't say anything… I'm trying to talk to people with my mind. These three really are driving me crazy.

"What happened to you?" Professor Lupin asked.

"Some mean old boys beat on him," Ashley said. Her eyes landed on the Chocolate Frogs, and she licked her lips, "What are those for, Professor?"

"I brought these for Mr. Flanders," he said. "I thought he could use some chocolate. But it looks like it wouldn't hurt you girls to have some, as well."

"No," Ashley said. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt…"

"You're drooling," I said, gesturing to my lip. "You didn't have to come all this way, Professor."

"Nonsense," he said, smiling as he passed each of us a frog. "Mr. Flanders is one of your closest friends. I felt like I should at least stop by."

I sighed, holding onto the wiggling frog while I nibbled off his limbs so he couldn't hop away. Seeing Jeff in pain made it almost impossible to smile, but being around Professor Lupin made it almost impossible not to smile. It's a strange situation to be in.

"Thank you for the chocolate, Professor Lu-Lu," Ashley said, giggling as she crumbled up the wrapper.

I smacked my forehead, No…

"What did you call me?" he asked curiously.

"Professor Lu-Lu," Ashley repeated with a smile. "Hasn't Violet been calling you that? It's the nickname we made up for her to call you."

"No, I can't say she's used that one yet," he said, smirking mischievously.

"Oh look," I said, hoping to quickly jump to another topic. "I got Merlin. Anyone wanna trade?"

"Why don't you use our nickname?" Ashley asked, clearly offended. "It's a perfectly good name! And then you'd match!"

"Because it's embarrassing," I grumbled, blushing slightly. "I already told you I don't plan on using it. Ever."

"We'd… match?" Lupin said curiously.

"Mhm!" Ashley nodded enthusiastically. "Vi-Vi and Lu-Lu!"

"Awww, I see," he teased, pinching my cheek. "That is cute, isn't it, Vi-Vi?"

"Don't encourage them," I said, rubbing my cheek. "Then they'll never leave me alone about it."

He laughed, wrapping his arms around my shoulders, pulling me close, "I can see why they like to tease you. You're cute when you're flustered," he said, resting his chin on the top of my head.

I blushed, holding onto his arms, "Yeah, yeah…"

"Awwwwwwww!" Ashley, Jeff, and Aria squealed together.

"You'd better not hog her," Ashley said, wagging her finger.

"Yeah," Jeff said. "You gotta share."

"What if I don't feel like it?" Lupin asked, pulling me closer.

I'm so glad we're the only ones here, I thought, though admittedly, part of me enjoyed the attention. I was happy that four of the most important people in my life could get along.

"You can't have her all to yourself," Ashley pouted, crossing her arms.

"Yes," said Aria diplomatically. "We found her first."

"And there's three of us," Jeff said. "So we love her three times as much, and therefore we want three times as much Vi-time." He coughed a few times before he added, "Even if she does wear black with navy!"

"What's so bad about wearing black with navy?" Professor Lupin asked curiously.

"You can't wear black with navy!" Jeff screamed hoarsely. "It's a fashion sin; right up there with wearing white pants and not matching your shoes and your belt!"

"I suppose I'm not exactly a fashionista," Lupin chuckled.

"Obviously," Jeff snorted.

"Don't listen to Jeff," I sighed, finally allowing myself to lean back, relaxing in his arms. I wasn't even shaking anymore. "You look fine."

"I'm glad you feel that way," he said, kissing the side of my face.

Jeff wagged his good eyebrow – which looked a bit odd - "Oh ho ho. You two are being awful affectionate."

"Yeah, shouldn't you be worried about being caught?" Aria asked, concerned as always.

He sighed, "I know, but sometimes you need to cut loose and have some fun, right?"

"Oh, I'm sure you two did plenty of that last night," Jeff said, again wagging his one-eyebrow.

"How…" Lupin stammered, sounding a bit flustered. "Violet-"

"Shut up," I hissed at Jeff, throwing my Chocolate Frog wrapper at him. "And get your mind out of the gutter before I break your other arm."