"Love is a friendship set to music."
-E. Joseph Cossman

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That night, all the Gryffindors slowly trudged up the stairs to their tower. There was still excitement in the air about being back, but people were so full from the lovely meal, that their speech was practically slurred and their eyes drooped sleepily.

"Feels good to be home. . . I suppose, " mumbled Lily as she practically drifted off to sleep on James' arm.

"Lily, you look about ready to pass out!" said Joey with a laugh.

"mhmm . . ." she said with a smile as she cuddled up to James a bit more.

"Well, it doesn't surprise me," Joey answered. "You've been up and about for a couple days straight. . . bustling around, getting everything ready for school. You're going to have to find some way to better handle the pressure!"

Sirius smiled playfully over at the group. "Well then I guess James, here, is just going to have to help her cope with the stress, then?" He laughed at his own joke while the others didn't dare act like he was implying anything. They all entered the common room and headed up to their dormitories, Lily still wrapped around James.

"Do you want help walking up to your bed-er-. . . dorm?" asked James with a concerned tone. Joey giggled to herself at the thought.

"No, I think i'll be alright. . ." Lily said, trying to hide a smirk.

"Yes, yes. . .of course you will. . ." James said quickly. "Well, goodnight then."

James heard Sirius heave a deep sigh somewhere behind him and could practically picture him rolling his eyes. The group said their goodnights and split up to their dormitories.

Everyone slept well that night and woke up late that Sunday. Joey was the second to last girl in her dormitory to wake up, and when she opened her eyes, she realized that she and Lily were the only girls left in their room. The other beds were already made, and it was clear that their owners were down in the dining hall eating a nice breakfast.

Smiling to herself at the thought of being back at school with all of her friends, Joey jumped out of bed, hopped into the bathroom and took a nice long shower. When she was satisfactorily clean, she wrapped a snuggly towel around her and opened up the door, releasing a large amount of steam into the dorm room. Lily was already up, dressed, and making both of the girls' beds.

"Ohg, g'ank gue, gLils!" Joey tried to speak as she began brushing her teeth.

"No problem!" Lily said cheerfully as she walked into the bathroom and began brushing her teeth right next to Joey.

Just as the girls had finished with their teeth and began doing their hair, the other two girls from their dorm busted the door open, and flooded into the room, screaming at the top of their lungs. "EEEEEK! JOANNE!"

"What?" she sounded extremely worried. "what happened?"

"You won't believe what we just heard!" one of the girls screamed.

"Wait! Lemmie guess!" said Lily as she pulled the curlers out of her hair. She wanted to have a little fun with the overly excited girls. "Judging by your extremely high pitched shrieking, you must have seen Amos Diggory walking around in his boxers!"

"Oh, shut up, Lil!" one of the girls, teased. "We've just heard a rumor that Amos Diggory wants to 'talk' to you. . .privately! And we're pretty sure it's about something 'really' important!" The girl's voice trailed off into an incomprehensible squeal.

"Huh?" Joey felt like she wasn't getting the drift. Both girls faces suddenly looked stuck between the expressions of bewilderment and shock.

"What do you mean, 'huh'?" one of the girls asked, practically scoffing at her.

"I mean, so what? What's so special about this and why is he announcing it to the whole school?" Once again, Amos succeeded in putting on a show for the entire school.

"Well," continued one of the excited girls, "we think that he let it slip to Cassie Meriwether of Hufflepuff, who happened to have told Claira Florashum of Ravenclaw, who happened to have told us just a few minutes ago!"

"What? Let what slip?"

"Three little words, babe!"

This was too much for Lily. She started getting completely giddy as well, and then started joining in on the gossip, much to Joey's dismay. "You mean to say, that Amos Diggory is going to tell Joey that he loves her?" Now it was hard for Joey to even understand Lily! Her voice was taking on a pitch similar to that of a dog whistle.

All of the sudden, however, Joey began blocking out everything that the three other girls were carrying on about. Was Amos really going to tell her that he loved her? She had a sudden wave of anxiety and felt a little light headed. Why was everyone making such a big deal about this? She had been dating Amos for almost. . . how long?. . . she always had trouble remembering because he refused to recognize any anniversaries. Joey heaved a sigh. She really felt like she needed Flam to comfort her right now. But, wait a minute! Where was Flam? Come to think of it, she didn't remember bringing him up with her last night. . .he must still be with Sirius!

Without another word to the other girls, Joey raced down the girl's dormitory steps into the common room, and then up to the boys' dormitory. Finding her friends' room, she knocked lightly and crossed her fingers that they were still in there. Pressing her ear to the door, she listened carefully to what was going on inside. . . silence. Were they still asleep? She knocked again, harder. Suddenly, she heard the bathroom door inside the room getting wrenched open and could hear muffled cursing as someone walked across the dorm room floor.

"James, is that you? Did you forget your damn key again!" It was Sirius' voice. He opened the door and his mouth dropped open when he saw Joey standing there. Joey's mouth dropped open too, at what she saw.

Sirius Black was standing right in front of her, soaking wet, with nothing but a towel around his waist! "Omigod! I. . . am so. . .sorry. . .i was just. . .i was just-" Joey stammered as she tried to look directly into Sirius' face. . .not down his perfectly proportioned, ripped body, that just so happened to be glistening with moisture from the, obviously, hot shower he just got out of.

"You were just what?" Sirius was trying hard not to laugh from the weird way Joey was acting. Yes, he was not completely ignorant to the effect he had on girls; but he'd never seen Joey act like this towards him before! Granted, Joey rarely ever saw him dressed (or undressed) like this, but he knew she'd definitely seen some bare chests before. Amos Diggory was notorious for ripping off his shirt every chance he got, and that cocky bastard made sure to find a lot of opportunities. . .

"I was just. . ." Joey tried again as she forcefully stared into Sirius' face. A few strands of hair dangled in front of his eyes, wet and dripping frequently. Joey allowed her to eyes slip as they focused onto a single particle of water that suspended from one of the strands. Her gaze followed the droplet as it descended in slow motion through the air. It landed with an inaudible thud as it hit his smooth, naked chest. Joey didn't bother to avert her eyes as the bead then proceeded to trickle down his sleek torso. Joey felt her bottom jaw drop ever so slightly. She bit her bottom lip to keep herself from swooning right there in the doorstep. Sirius patiently waited for her to finish her sentence as she checked him out. Except, she never did. Joey had gone into some weird trance as she just stood there, staring at him, while he was half naked.

"Oh, just come in!" Sirius said, grabbing her arm and yanking her in the room. He sat her on his bed and turned around, about to enter back into the bathroom. "It is cold standing around in a towel, you know!"

"Oh," Joey said, a bit dazed. And without realizing what she was saying she finished, "I hadn't noticed. . ." Sirius paused for a moment and looked back at her with his brows furrowed a bit. He was shaking his head a bit in confusion. She sure was acting odd today.

Noticing his abruptness, Joey quickly cleared her throat and tried to get a hold of herself. "Oh! I meant to ask you if you'd seen Flam anywhere!" Joey recovered quickly. Now she could feel her ears go hot as she turned her face away from his gaze and began fiddling with the bed hangings. Sirius relaxed a bit and turned around the corner, back into the bathroom.

"Yeah, he's in here. He must have followed me up last night, because I found him sleeping next to me this morning. In fact, he jumped right into the shower with me, too!" Joey bit her lip slightly. A mental image of Sirius in the shower popped into her head. She smiled in spite of herself.

Suddenly, Flam went flying around the corner, his wings in a ruffle. It was quite obvious that they had been soaked thoroughly and that Sirius had tried to dry them with a towel. Joey giggled to herself at the adorable sight of her bird. Glancing up, she noticed a towel fly out of the bathroom door, onto a pile of dirty laundry that was sitting near her. Sirius must have been standing on the other side, quite towel-less, Joey thought. She quickly averted her attention to her bird.

A few seconds later, Sirius emerged from around the corner and came walking over towards his trunk which was sitting right next to Joey. All he was wearing was a pair of blue and green pin-striped boxers. He leaned into his trunk and pulled out a pair of pants. Sitting down on his bed, right next to Joey, he began pulling them on. Realizing what he was doing, Joey stared, wide-eyed, directly at her bird, who had been sitting on her lap. She laboriously kept this tunnel vision as she began to stoke Flam, quite roughly, due to the extremely high amount of adrenaline that was pumping through her body. Flam, however, did not like this at all, and gave a very loud 'hoot' in protest.

Glancing over at where the noise was coming from, Sirius leaned over Joey and stoked the bird softly on his back. "Careful, Joe! You don't want to break your bird!" he said teasingly. Joey didn't answer. She was trying so hard to steady her heart beat as Sirius shifted back into his own space, giving her a perfectly clear whiff of his fresh scent. She closed her eyes and breathed very deeply, trying to ignore Sirius' crisp, signature scent that wafted into her lungs. She jumped off the bed and walked quickly across the room.

"Shall we?" she asked brightly, gesturing to the door.

"Of coarse!" Sirius answered, yanking a shirt over his head. The two friends and bird walked out of the dorm together, through the common room, and out towards the great hall.

As they entered the delicious smelling dining hall, Joey sighed deeply, suddenly remembering the rumors about Amos wanting to 'talk' with her. She couldn't see what the big deal was! She didn't even know if she felt the same way as Amos did yet. She couldn't pretend to not be annoyed that he was treating their relationship like some drama in a theatre production! Why did it have to be everyone else's business?

please review! love you all, SJ