Oh my god. What had she done? Should she have made such a decision in just a short while? God, had she really done it?

She was no longer a virgin.

Oh. My. God. She wasn't truly panicked on not being a virgin. Just on how she felt different, yet knew she wasn't. Was this how it felt to lose your virginity?

Man, it wasn't like she remembered much of the night except for Jamey, anyway. Oh man. Why was she getting so hyped up about this? It was no biggie, really. WHAT THE HECK WAS WRONG WITH HER?!

Maybe she just wasn't used to love. She hadn't ever said to herself, "Jamey loves me." In a way she knew. But she wasn't the kind of person who would say, or even think really, that another would love her. So it was weird to actually have something that made her say, "He wouldn't have if he didn't love me." Maybe that was it.

Or maybe it was because she didn't know whether of not they had used protection. Why had she never thought of buying anything? Had she always been so oblivious? What if Jamey had something? Man, something was wrong with her if she was a teenager that worried about this stuff.

But once she got thinking about it, she didn't regret it. She trusted Jamey, even if that was how most girls got pregnant or STDs anyway. By trusting their boyfriends.

She got up, not knowing how she had gotten into her night-stuff last night. She yawned and decided to forget it and go get ready. Then go down for some breakfast. She walked out, forgetting that she was coming from Jamey's room. Luckily, his parents weren't there. They weren't the type of parents who would like that him and his girlfriend were making out in the night.

When she got into the bathroom, she took a quick bath, getting calm. She wanted to stay in the tub forever, sinking deeper into the warm-

*DEAD!*

She jumped, having felt a jolt. She had been feeling them ever since she had come to Jamey's but this one was more powerful than the others had been. She quickly drained the tub, dried off, and got dressed.

She ran downstairs, still feeling chilled. She saw Jamey sitting there, his hair in his eyes and she felt as if it wasn't possible that she was worrying about anything. If this was love, she wanted to feel it more often. She sat down next to him and took his hand from under the table. "Hey, morning."

"Uh huh." he said groggily. Obviously had hadn't gotten as much sleep as Aldrea had. She had slept wonderfully, but wondered what was wrong with him. She gave him a sideways look, before getting up and pouring herself some cereal. Then she sat back down.

"So, what's wrong?" she asked curiously. She hoped he wasn't sick. Not now.

"I don't know. I feel really weird inside. Like-" suddenly his spoon flipped over, caused by his hand clutch his head. He grunted painfully. His eyes were closed tightly and Aldrea could feel him shivering. When his 'attack' was finished, she took his hand.

"When did it start, Jamey?" What was wrong with him? This wasn't an illness she wasn't familiar with. Not that she was a doctor or anything in the first place.

"Start? Uh.I think, uh, last night. Right after you went to sleep." That answer froze her blood completely. Her breath stopped and her heart skipped a beat. Could this all be her fault. Did she have something in her that she had passed to Jamey without knowing? God, how could Aldrea live with herself if he was hurt because of her?

"How bad's the pain?" she asked as quietly as she caressed his face softly. [A/n: Arg! I must get off this part ASAP and on to the real MEANING of this story/chapter/whatever. *sigh* Talk about mushy.] He closed his eyes slowly. "Bad, good. Both, depending on when. Bad when it's good. Good when it's bad." Aldrea frowned as he said that. He either was confused or this disease hurt when it didn't or something like that.

"C'mon," she said, as she gripped his arm and pulled him up. "You are going upstairs and taking a nap." She let him lean on her while she dragged him upstairs. It turned out she didn't have to have worried in the morning OR at that moment about Jamey's parents. They had gone shopping. Aldrea suspected it was to leave Jamey and her alone for a while.

While she helped him down to sleep, he peeked up at her through his eyelashes. "Stay?" What if he couldn't even form full sentences now? But she decided to leave those thoughts for later. Now was for making Jamey as comfortable as possible. She wrapped his hands in hers and nodded. "Yeah. I'm here and I'm not leaving. Just sleep. Sleep."



Aldrea was to come back in two days. That was the earliest you could come back to Hogwarts. I would have thought that Aldrea and Jamey would have wanted as much time as possible together. Maybe they had gotten into a fight.

He didn't hate Rilee now. Well, depending on the moments. Sometimes she could be sweet. Really sweet. It was at times like that he would have actually have let her kiss him. But sometimes she was annoying. So annoying that Tobias would have liked to kiss Faerie on the mouth just to shut her up.

Rilee was with him now. But he was thinking about Isobel. He had stopped thinking about him a long time ago. He had stopped believing Bonnie's speech about how Isobel still liked him. Especially the prophecy part. How lame could Bonnie get? Not much lamer actually. A prophecy. Seriously.

But Isobel had never been mean to him. She had treated him as one would a friend you want to be more. But they HAD once been more than friends. She had ruined it, not him. So if she wanted him back now, it was too late. Maybe he would even go out with Rilee, either out of spite, or because she wasn't that bad anymore.

The next day, when Rilee sat next to him, and moved closer, he didn't move away like he usually did. Maybe Rilee wouldn't be too bad. After all, she deserved a chance, didn't she?

That whole day, Rilee hardly left him alone. It was as if him not moving away had been proof that they were soul mates. Yeah, right. He was starting to regret his decision. He, at one class he had with Isobel, peeked at Isobel's mind, wondering her thoughts were about Rilee being all over him. What he caught was a bunch of images. He saw himself, sitting with Isobel, back when they were 'together'. It was quickly squished by an image of Rilee, instead of Isobel herself. And there was Rilee, her arms full with a child. A child with those gray eyes he himself had.

He shot out of her mind like a bullet. That had been his first proof in a long time that Isobel had any feeing about him still. But that image of Rilee carrying a child that was obviously theirs was extreme. What was it about? He wasn't sure if he was ready to kiss her, much less have a kid with her. But would he be, in time?

He wasn't sure if that thoughts was comforting or not.

The day before Aldrea would come back, he gave myself another little peek at Isobel, but during a time when she was across the whole school. It was a test of his skills, he told himself, not another peek at Isobel's thoughts. He didn't convince himself well.

This time, her thoughts weren't on him or Rilee, but they weren't on her class either.

'Oh, the village. How strange it is here, where they are so confided, unable to find their limits. Here their powers are so limited, that I am finding it hard to keep myself look and acting average. But soon I will return home. Home to my mother, has she lived through the sickness. Why was I sent here? I am not strong enough, as I once thought. Bonnie thinks I'm so strong. I feel weak. Weaknesses peek through, no matter where you look. I will fail, and with me Amplis will fall. I am not strong enough.'

He frowned. What was she talking about? Amplis? There was no such place, was there? What was she talk about? Did she mean she was stronger than all of them? Was she so strong? Where was the home she spoke off? How could he find the answers to such questions without letting her know of his peeking? Damn, there was no point. There were no answers to these questions. Not yet, anyway.

Finally it was time to meet Aldrea. The sound of the engines slowing and coming to a halt made it hard to hear yourself think. At first Tobias didn't even recognize his sister. "Aldrea?" he asked cautiously, think about how those dark circle that were under these girl's eyes were not her sister's. But she turned at the sound of his words, and he saw the same eyes as his staring back. "Tobias!" She ran up to him and hugged him tightly. "Tobias. Oh my god, Tobias."

"What's wrong?" he asked, holding her away from him at arms length. He was looking at her tired features; thinking about how they didn't fit her when she had left Hogwarts.

"It was Jamey, Tobias. He got sick. I don't know how. But I know it was after-After we..we."

"After you gave your virginity away. Go on." He looked deep into her eyes, looking for meaning in them.

"He got sick. Maybe it's my fault. I don't know. He seemed better when I left." she began to sob. "Jamey's parents. They were horrible. They though I brought it upon him. Maybe I did. But they didn't have to send me away. I need to know he is! But my powers don't work at such a distance. I need him, Tobias. Is he better, is he worse. I need to know!"

It took Tobias a second or two to suck in the facts. His best friend was sick, maybe dying. It began right after his sister and him had sex. He tried not to blame him sister inward, but it was struggle. There was no other answer.

But he had to just look at his sister to see it was hurting her to see Jamey like that, especially if she might have caused it. She knew that she might be to blame, and it burned her to have that knowledge. He couldn't be too harsh with her.

He stroked her head lightly. "Don't worry. Aldrea, it'll be alright. It'll end up just fine, you'll see." He went on and on to that effect, until she was calm enough. He took her up to the GCR, where Bonnie and Isobel waited.

"Aldrea!" Isobel cried when she saw the state my sister was in. She wrapped her in a big hug before asking, "What happened?"

She told them, and they stood, shocked, probably knowing what pain she was going through. It was Isobel that spoke first. "Aldrea, first thing you are going to do is take a nap. You will sleep, for you obviously need the rest." She would have said more if the Head Boy had not entered the GCR, all flustered about something.

"Who here is Aldrea Chant?" he asked urgently. Aldrea looked over at him and raised her hand, obviously not trusting herself to speak.

He nodded and handed her a letter. "Came in a little while ago. Said it was urgent."

She slowly opened the envelope and almost silently took out the letter. She opened up, almost in slow motion. Then she read the note. The more she read, she wetter her eyes began. They began to overflow and run down her cheeks. At last she put the note down. She looked up at me, staring into my eyes with her wet ones. "He's dead," she said quietly. "He died an hour after I left."



Aldrea never would forget Jamey. She never wanted another guy. She didn't want to marry or have children. She would only accept them as her own when Jamey fathered them.

But now he was dead.

She cried herself to sleep at night, if she slept at all. All her classes were a dream, a dream where her life continued, even though the guy the loved had just died. She cooped her feeling inside her. If you just saw her in the hall, you would think she was unchanged. But if you looked closer, you would see she had never smiled.

Tobias was worried. Jamey's death had hit him hard as well, but he was able to move on after a few weeks of getting used to the idea. Sure, he wasn't about to forget Jamey, but he wasn't about to stop smiling and always seem hard and cold either.

So one day, almost a month after the death, Aldrea was in the GCR, thinking. Memories and moments she had taken for granted. Lee, Rilee's stepbrother, who had been sitting not too far away, came to sit next to her. "Hey, babe. What's with the long face? You lost your smile?"

Aldrea looked over at him solemnly. "My boyfriend died." she said simply, not looking for pity or sympathy. Just stating the facts. Whatever she expected, it was not his grin. "Well, that means you're single, right?"

How he could treat death so lightly was beyond her. But she went along with it. "I suppose."

On and on went the conversation, even though several times, Aldrea considered leaving. But she stayed. And in the days that followed, their conversations were one of the few things that kept her going. She began to tell him things. Things she never even knew she felt. Yet it felt so nice to let it all out.

Tobias was glad that Aldrea was calmer now, and not so tense. She needed a friend, someone besides Bonnie and Isobel, who had failed in getting her to move on. Sure, Lee wasn't beyond having one night stands for weeks on end, or so was told. But Aldrea trusted him anyway, without proof.



Tobias's relationship with Rilee had been growing as well. He liked her a lot now, although he wasn't thinking of anything drastic. Not now, anyway.

Seeing Aldrea not moaning around about Jamey, made him feel better.

But then it all changed. For them both.

One night, Aldrea was sitting with Lee, talking. She was telling him how she was so tired of always being the peacemaker at her house. Tobias and Aunt Jane always fought. She was the one who suffered through her anger while Tobias ran off. She was the one who had to clean up after them both. And she was goddamn sick of it.

She was so busy telling him that she didn't notice him coming and sitting close. Too close. But Aldrea didn't see that. She only saw that he was listening and she had much to say. But he was only looking at her, almost hungrily. He took her hand, trying to make it seem friendly. He succeeded and Aldrea smiled.

But he had stopped listening to her. She was pretty, he though to himself. I wonder how it would feel to have sex with her. Hmm.

Somehow Aldrea had gotten back to the subject of Jamie. She talked on and on about how much fun she had had with him, going to movies and such. She tried not to think about the death part of him.

He moved closer to her, half hoping she would notice, and half hoping she wouldn't. Suddenly out of nowhere, he grabbed her chin and kissed her roughly.

The shock of such a move on her, paralyzed her for a moment. That was enough for Lee. It was late, so the GCR was empty. So Lee pushed her back against he wall that was beside the fireplace. She struggled, but it was too late. The small moment when he had been vulnerable had passed and he had in his grasp.

She kicked and squirmed, but to no avail. He slid his grubby paws up the hem of her shirt and she began to scream again his mouth. He locked his lips tightly onto her's. She couldn't move. He tried sliding his tongue into her mouth. After finding she wasn't resisting his tongue, he slide in deeper. That was when he felt the sharp pain on his tongue.

She had bit him! The stupid bitch had bit him. He had let go of her and she was running. But he wasn't about to lose her. He wasn't done with the little whore.

He grabbed her arm roughly and pulled her back toward him. She kneed him in the balls and won herself some more seconds, in which she ran up to the girl's stairway. Lee had lost her for the moment. But he wasn't going to let this wound of his pride go free. No. Revenge would be sweet.

Tobias was in shock. He felt weird. I wasn't sure if he was happy, or if he was sad of what. He was just.weird. He put his head into his hands as he sat in the GCR.

He really liked Rilee. Maybe he even loved her. He wouldn't say it to her face, of course. But he couldn't fight what he felt.

Just then Rilee came in. She smiled at him and sat down next to him. Then she wrapped her arms around began to french him. Tobias turned his head and broke the kiss. "Uh, hi."

She sighed and moved to sit on his lap. She rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes. That was what troublesome about Rilee. She was so perfect, yet he didn't know what to think about her. It was strange.

And Jamey was gone.

That was happening a lot all of a sudden. He would be thinking of something, and suddenly Jamey would pop into his head. It would make his stomach tie into a knot and he wouldn't be able to speak for a few seconds. He just couldn't the hang of it.

"You alright, hun?" Rilee whispered up at him.

He shrugged. "Just thinking, I guess."

"You shouldn't think so much then."

He shrugged again and didn't say anything.

She smiled at him. "C'mon, Toby. I'll take your mind off everything." She took his hand and led him upstairs to her dorm. He let her.