"Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart."
- Washington Irving

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Joey slipped quietly into the library. It was almost completely empty, except for the plump old librarian who was asleep at her desk. Joey tiptoed passed the peaceful old lady into the booth that she could see Amos had occupied. She closed the door behind her, and Amos looked up eagerly.

"Joanne! I'm so, so glad that you came to talk to me!" Amos blurted out immediately. "I was really worried that you wouldn't give me a chance to apologize for what happened yesterday. . .and maybe after hearing me out, you'll be able to decide for yourself what you want to do. . . about us, I mean."

Joey smiled dryly at him and sat down. "Alright, Amos. I'm willing to hear what you have to say. However, there is one thing that I would like to point out before you continue. By far, I find one of the most important things that two people can have in a relationship is trust. Without trust, there's absolutely no love. Now can you possibly understand why I felt a little confused when you told me you loved me?"

"Of course I understand. The only problem, Joey, was that we had been going out for. . . quite a while now!"

"How long, Amos?" Joey challenged. "How long have we been dating?"

Amos tried to ignore her and press on with his point. "Don't you think that by now, two people would have already told each other that they loved one another?" Amos was looking rather distressed.

"You can't remember, can you?"

"Joey! I think it was sometime last winter or something. Maybe early spring? I can't see how this is relevant!"

Joey sighed patiently and let the silence hang in the air for a moment. "Amos, let me try and answer your question with one of my own. Don't you think that after all this time we've been dating, I should have felt comfortable enough around you to feel like I trusted you? And if I had, don't you think I would have felt compelled to tell you I loved you?"

"Wait a second. Are you saying that after all this time, you still don't trust me?" Amos looked hurt. Joey simply nodded at this. She was a little surprised to hear him figure it out on his own, though. She should give him more credit.

"Well, could you have blamed me? You were going to hit me!" She did her best to keep her voice steady. It was not in her to back down when she was trying to get a point across.

"I know, Joey. . .and I am so sorry. . ."Amos trailed off as her looked down at the floor. He was too embarrassed to look her in the face. "I guess I just got carried away. After you slapped me, I just-" Joey leaned over and cupped his face in her hand. She brought his face up so she was looking directly into it. Looking deep into his black eyes, she noticed how he looked so much different now than he had the day before. Sirius really did do a number on him.

"Amos. . .you're going to have to figure out that you are really frightening when you're angry!"

"I know. . . will you forgive me? I promise that I will never do anything to hurt you again. Please Joe. I'm asking –begging- for you to forgive me. I just need another chance. I'll make sure you're able to trust me! I won't push you into anything. I really do care about you, I want you to know that." He finished as fresh tears began rolling down his cheeks. Joey just looked into his eyes, with a very contemplating stare.

Back in the dining hall, the five of Joey's friends ate lunch in a rather hushed silence. Flam, who was now sitting on Sirius' shoulder as he stared at his Shepard's pie, was the only one making any noise. He kept hooting loudly, obviously waiting for Sirius to slip him some meat. Sirius, however, seemed to be in a very heavy trance. Nothing was penetrating into his brain from the outside world. Even when Flam started nipping him sharply on the ear, he just sat there and stared down at his untouched food.

Everyone else began giving each other edging glances, trying to convince someone to say something to Sirius. Remus, who was sitting right next to James, gave him a painful jab in the side of the ribs.

"Ouch!" James bellowed. "That really hurt!" Everyone looked up at Sirius to see if he had reacted to the outburst. Nope.

"Umm. . .Sirius?" Remus was the one trying to get his attention now. No response. "Uhhh…SIRIUS!" He said it much louder now.

"What?" Sirius snapped as he continued to stare down at his food. Remus suddenly had a look of worry on his face. He really hadn't expected Sirius to answer him . . . and now he couldn't think of anything to say. Everyone's eyes began to dart around the group, obviously trying to figure out what to say that could possibly make him feel better.

Getting fed up, Sirius looked up into the faces of his friends to see what they wanted. Trying to make eye contact with one of them was virtually impossible, considering each one he looked at immediately averted their eyes back down to their food. Growling loudly, Sirius stood up and walked out of the dining hall.

He meant to make his way to the Gryffindor common room, but stopped on the stairs as he noticed Joey, who was alone, coming down them. She smiled and stopped on the stairs when she was level with him.

"Hey," she said. Glancing over at Flam, who was sitting on his shoulder, she noticed Sirius' ear was bleeding. Clearly, Flam had gotten carried away with the nipping when Sirius had been ignoring him during lunch. "Oh, no! Flam bit you!"

"Oh, no, really. . . I'm okay. . .it doesn't even hurt any. Joey, I-" he trailed off as Joey reached up to pull Flam off his shoulder. She was mumbling something about the damn bird always biting people. She finally stopped and looked as though she were waiting for Sirius to finish his sentence.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Uh. . . what happened wi-" Once again, he never got to finish his sentence. The bell began ringing deafeningly as it echoed through the great hall, signaling the end of lunch.

"Well, I guess I better head off to charms now," she said.

"Oh, yeah . . . hey wait! I have charms right now too!"

"Oh, good! I was worried that I was going to have another class all by myself, just like transfiguration." The two friends smiled at the good news and hurried off to charms together. They found their seats and resumed talking again.

"So, tell me, Joey. What happened with Amos?"

Joey hesitated for a moment. She looked up at Sirius with mixed look of apprehension and anticipation. She wasn't sure how Sirius would handle this. "Actually," she began slowly, "he was really sincere in his apologies . . ." Sirius already knew where this was going and his heart dropped. "I ended up deciding to give him another chance, Sirius. . . please don't be upset with me . . ."

Sirius' felt like his heart just sunk to the pit of his stomach. He wasn't sure whether he was hurt more by the fact that Joey and Amos were getting back together, or by the fact that she was actually worried he would be angry with her that she had made that decision. Leaning in, he pulled the top of her head down, and kissed it heavily, getting a nice whiff of her sweet fragranced hair.

"Oh, Joey . . . you should know by now . . . I'm not really capable of being angry with you about anything. . . especially about a decision you made concerning you own heart. Whatever makes you happy, makes me even happier." Joey leaned in and let him wrap her into a tight hug. His fresh scent was all she needed to relax her nerves back into an easy state. She had been so worked up about this whole thing. Now it seemed like her life would actually start looking up.

Charms started, and Professor Flitwick asked everyone to take out their parchments and begin taking notes on the lecture he had planned. Joey reached into her backpack and pulled out the stack of papers that she had failed to organize from earlier that day. Placing them on the table, she began sorting them out, trying to find a clean one she could write on. Finally finding a suitable piece, she jerked it out of the stack, causing her Potion notes to fall to the floor, by the feet of the pale, greasy haired boy sitting in front of her.

Looking down, the boy noticed the parchment sitting at his feet and he bent down to pick it up. The boy saw what was written on the sheet and whipped around to see who owned it. Realizing who the boy was, Sirius growled at him, "Give that back to Joey, Snape!"

The boy smiled evilly and looked over at Joey who was reaching to snatch it back out of his hands. "Well, well, well . . . what do we have here?"

Joey suddenly felt sick as she realized what was written on the potion notes that the malicious boy, Snape, was holding. "J.A. loves S.B.?" the boy cackled loudly. "How quaint."

Joey was getting frantic. She see, out of the corner of her eye, Sirius looking rather confused. He really had caught on to what Snape was implying. Snape took this lovely opportunity to rub in the trouble he had just caused. Laughing, he continued on in a mocking tone. "Joanne Atramentous wuvs Sirius Bl-"

Sirius now took this opportunity to lean forward, grab Snape by the collar of his dungy robes, and jerk him forward, snatching the paper out of his hand. He threw him back into his chair once the parchment had been nicely handed back to Joey.

Joey smiled sheepishly over at him and thanked him for getting her potion notes back for her. Super. She could just feel her ears boiling red in embarrassment, as she tucked the parchment back into the stack of papers it had fallen out of, and stuffed them into her back pack. She was so embarrassed, that she couldn't even look at Sirius for the rest of charms to even make an effort to explain what the notes had meant.

Joey and Sirius walked out of charms together, and headed back to the Gryffindor common room. Seeing Remus already sitting on the couch by the fire, curled up reading a book on muggle artifacts, they walked over and joined him. Monday's classes were finally over, and it was time to relax. They still had an hour before dinner, so the friends sat around the fire and waited for the rest of their gang to show up.

Once everyone was together again, they started asking Joey questions about Amos. She gladly filled them in on all of the details, but noticed Sirius keeping himself busy with other things as she spoke to the whole gang.

The hour passed, and they went down to eat dinner together. Before they knew it, it was about nine o'clock, and they were already starting to feel the days events catching up with them.

Lily and Joey decided to turn in early, so they said good night to the boys, and wandered up the stairs into their empty dorm room. Their other dorm mates, they assumed, were probably out having a 'good time' with some guys. The girls got ready for bed, tucked themselves in, but didn't turn the light off. Lily still wanted some of the details on Joey's feelings about her guy problems that she wasn't able to share in front of the boys.

"So why did you feel like you had to get back together with Amos. I mean, I honestly thought it was over between the two of you . . . is there anything more, that you just aren't telling anyone, Joey?"

"Huh? What do you mean . . . not telling anybody? You aren't suggesting that you think we've . . .you know"

"No! No, not really. I mean, I was just wondering . . . oh, I don't know!" Lily stammered nervously.

"Lily! I haven't slept with him, so get it out of your head!"

The red head just nodded for a moment soaking it in. The room was silent for all of about a second before Lily fired off another question.

"Amos wasn't your first kiss, was he? Cause I know it might be hard to let go of people like that-"

"No . . . he wasn't my first kiss." A smile was beginning to creep across Joey's face. She tried to hold it back, but it was too strong for her.

"What?" Lily asked with a very interested tone.

"Oh, nothing . . . I was just thinking about my first kiss . . ." she trailed off with the smile growing wider.

"Well? Who was it, then?" Lily demanded. Joey simply shrugged, trying to look innocent. "Oh my god!" Lily squealed. "It was one of the marauders, wasn't it?" Joey glanced over at her with her eyebrows raised. "It was!" Lily gave another squeal of delight when Joey smirked a little. "And? Well, which one!"

Joey just quietly laughed to herself. Lily was so easy to tease.

Please review! Thank you to you all! Love, SJ