Hey guys! So I changed the name of the fic because I felt like it (seriously that's the only reason) and this is the next chapter!

Read and Review!

Love, Essie

You watch me bleed until I can't breathe
Shaking, falling onto my knees
And now that I'm without your kisses
I'll be needing stitches
Tripping over myself,
Aching, begging you to come help
And now that I'm without your kisses
I'll be needing stitches

~Stitches, Shawn Mendes

Marlene and Alice were asleep but Lily sure as hell wasn't. Dany knew that because her curtains were open and she was staring at Dany.

"Come here." She whispered and Dany walked over and sat on the foot of the redhead's bed before she drew the curtains down and cast a silencing charm. "What the hell was Sirius talking about? He stayed with you in the hospital?" She said and Dany winced. Damn.

"Yeah…I wrote him and asked him if he could swing by for a little bit; I mean I was worried and I knew James wouldn't be much more than an emotional wreck and you…I didn't want you to worry and get you involved and I didn't want the pity, to be honest. Mom was beside herself and I couldn't handle that on my own. I didn't get anything in response, well I guess I did but it went to my house instead of St. Mungo's. But anyways, I had been in the hospital with Dad for…nine days? Nine days, I think when he showed up. I was so damn happy to see someone that wasn't Mom or my comatose dad that I bloody cried."

"You cried?" Lily asked, clearly surprised. Dany knew why; she knew that Lily had never seen her really and truly cry.

"Yes Lily, I cried. I did a lot of that this summer. Now do you want to hear the rest of this?" Lily nodded. "So he got there and I was a bleeding mess and my mom was barely functioning and I don't know, I guess he felt bad or something but he stayed."

"For a couple days? He said a couple of days right?" Lily asked and Dany hesitated. She didn't know how much of this Sirius wanted out in the open. But it was Lily; she could trust Lily with her life.

"No, he stayed all week, actually." Lily's mouth dropped open.

"All week? He stayed at your dad's sickbed for a week?" She said and Dany nodded.

"Yeah, I'm not even sure how it happened…I mean he kind of just never left and it was amazing that he stayed, it really was. He was so nice about it and really helped me out." She said with a shrug and Lily looked like she had just been struck by lightning. "Lils…are you okay?" Dany asked her cautiously.

"I'm fine, but you do realize that that's incredible right? I mean the only way that could get more touching is if he let you cry into his shoulder." She said and Dany looked away guiltily before she could stop herself. "Holy shit. He let you cry on his shoulder." Dany nodded. "Well that adds an extra level of romance to a horrible situation." Lily said and Dany hit her with one of her pillows.

"Shut it, Lily. I was a mess. My mom had to tell him to practically drag me home so I could take a shower and change clothes." Dany said and then realized her mistake.

"He's been to your house? You two were in your house alone?" She said and Dany saw that bright, romantic, look on her friend's face. Shit.

"Yeah, I mean it was just for a night and he stayed in a guest room, it wasn't a huge deal." She said and then kicked herself again.

"He stayed the night? Holy shit I think I might cry this is so beautiful." Lily said and Dany hit her on the shoulder with a pillow again.

"Come on Lils, my dad almost dies and all you get is a love story out of it? I don't want to even tell you about the part when my dad woke up." Dany laughed and Lily looked terribly intrigued.

"No, I really think I do." She said and Dany rolled her eyes.

"Maybe later. It's almost one in the morning Lils. Let's go to sleep." Dany yawned and Lily relented for now.

"Alright, go to bed you love struck girl, you. Sleep tight." Lily smiled and Dany walked back to her own bed. Before she drifted off to sleep she thought that Lily was either reading way too much into what had happened in the hospital or she was just oblivious. Either way, she was way too tired to care.

"Dany? Dan? You there?" Lily was saying, shaking her shoulder. Dany looked at her and blinked a couple times; she was on the ground and Marlene was holding her arms back. Alice was standing near the bathroom, looking terrified.

"Yeah, I'm fine Lils. It's over." She said and Marlene let her up. Dany walked over to her bedside table and slammed the sketchbook shut before shoving the book back under her mattress without looking at what was on the page. It was a Saturday (September 1st was on a Friday this year) and everyone looked like they had just rolled out of bed. "I didn't wake you all up did I?" Marlene didn't say anything but Lily nodded.

"Yeah, sort of. It's okay though; I mean you can't control it. We're slowly but surely getting used to having the shit scared out of us." Lily said and Alice and Marlene both smiled and nodded.

"Sorry about that…it's been a rough summer and the visions are getting more frequent. Is there a particular reason you were holding me down, Marles?" She asked as everyone slowly started to relax. Marlene looked momentarily afraid.

"Dan, you don't remember a thing? You woke up and you were hysterical; you were screaming and crying and just saying nonsense. That's what woke us all up; Lils looked and said that you had already finished the drawing. I was holding you down because we were worried that you might hurt yourself." She said quietly and Dany's eyes widened.

"What? I—I don't remember any of that. I remember falling asleep and next thing I know, I'm on the ground, Lily's shaking my shoulder and Marlene's on top of me…what was I saying?" She asked and the other three girls exchanged dark looks.

"You were crying, absolutely sobbing, and you kept saying that you couldn't survive, you couldn't survive with him in there. Just over and over. You kept saying you wanted your husband back. And you repeated the word 'innocent' like a thousand times." Alice said. "You never said who you were talking about though, outside of the fact you're apparently married to the guy." Dany was shocked.

"What? I—I get married? What the hell?" She said and the other three girls exchange another look.

"Well what did you draw? That could help us figure it out." Lily said and Dany nodded before opening the book again and finding the most recent page. It was Dumbledore's office that much Dany was sure of. She recognized herself, just slightly older by maybe three or four years. Dumbledore was there and he was clearly not happy, looking incredibly sad. The Dany in the picture was mad, a rolled-up newspaper clenched in one of her hands, the other pointing at Dumbledore. She noticed that there was a wicked looking mark on her neck that vanished under the collar of her shirt. She noticed that she was crying, even though she was clearly yelling as well.

"Holy hell, you don't look that much older…apparently you tie the knot early." Marlene muttered and Dany had to agree. This version of her was no more than twenty, and that was being generous.

"Yeah…no kidding. I apparently find 'the one' pretty quick." She said absently. "Do you think that I bothered to actually write the headline in on that paper?" She asked suddenly and everyone looked at each other like that was a fantastic idea. Lily held it close to her face.

"I can read part of it, I mean it's rolled up so it's only partial…say's that someone's been 'sentenced to life for murders'." She said and then everyone's eyes widened.

"Holy shit, I marry a murderer?" Dany said faintly and sat down.

"But you kept saying innocent, maybe that's your own way of telling younger you that he's innocent; whoever he is." Alice said supportively and Dany flipped through the book until she reached the first page, the first vision. Her father had said it was Azkaban. She looked at the man and tried to recognize him. He was her husband, who ever he was. But for the life of her, she couldn't match a face to the back of the head.

"Yeah, maybe…I marry this guy, whoever he is. You're all sure that you don't know who this is?" She said and the girls looked at it again, this time much more interested than they were when it was supposedly just some random guy that Dany maybe knew.

"I don't know…he's just so skinny, even if we knew him now I doubt we'd recognize him from this far away." Lily said.

"Yeah, I got nothing; sorry Dan." Marlene said and passed it to Alice.

"It kind of looks like…never mind, he's a blonde. Yeah, me neither." She said and handed it back to Dany.

"Well my mystery man will continue to remain a mystery." Dany said and before she could put the book away, Alice piped up again.

"Maybe the guys know him? I mean they definitely come in contact with more of the guys around here than we do." She suggested and they all agreed with that. The four of them walked up the boys' staircase and knocked.

Frank opened the door and looked at them, curious. Lily was pretty sure that coming here was essentially a waste of time and she was pretty sure that Dany thought the same thing but they were humoring Alice and Marlene. Lily was hoping that maybe the boys would surprise her and actually know who was in the picture.

"Um, hi guys…how can we help you?" Frank said.

"Um, can we come in?" Dany said and Frank turned around to look around.

"Sure, everyone's decent for the most part." He said and the girls walked in.

"Seriously you guys, we've been back for a day and this place is already trashed." Lily said. There were candy wrappers everywhere and Quidditch gear and clothes were already in weird, potentially dangerous, places. Sirius looked around blearily at the sound of a female voice.

"It's not Kenzie is it? Tell her that I'm tired and want to sleep. I'll go see her later. In her room, not mine." He said and put his head back down with a weird sound. The girls laughed.

"No, Black it's us. Please spare us the details of your sex habits too, while you're at it." Marlene said and he sat up, looking more interested now that he knew it wasn't his girlfriend here to harass him about something.

"What the hell? James, get up." He said and stumbled out of bed in his boxers to push his best friend onto the floor.

"Fuck you." James groaned.

"Get up man." Sirius said and Lily rolled her eyes.

"That's no way to get him up. I can't believe you haven't figured this one out yet." Dany laughed and walked over to where James continued to sleep on the floor. She leaned down and said loudly, "James, Lily's here." And he sat straight up, so fast his head collided with Dany's nose. She pulled back shocked at the pain and the crunching sound it made. "Fuck! James you just broke my fucking nose!" She yelled at him and James looked around like he had no idea what was happening, of course. Before anyone could react, Dany stumbled on someone's shoes and was headed for the floor until Sirius caught her by the arm and pulled her back up.

"Easy there, Dan. A broken nose is bad enough, the rest of your face doesn't have to go with it." He said gently and let go of her. She pulled her hand back from where she had automatically covered her nose and Lily could see even from here, it was covered in blood.

"Shit." She said and Lily inspected her face, looking at her now crooked nose.

"James Potter you bleeding moron. Look at what you did to her face!" Lily yelled at him, pissed that her best friend's nose was broken; for his part, James looked incredibly guilty.

"I am so sorry, Dan." He said and Dany laughed and waved a hand.

"Please, like this is the first time I've suffered damage because you're a clumsy person? I'll live and I'll be back to normal as soon as Madam Pomfrey sets it." She said and Lily was surprised by the bit about Madam Pomfrey healing it.

"You can't fix it yourself?" She said and Dany shook her head, blood still dripping out of her nose.

"Nah, trying to heal yourself with magic is risky, it can lead to a lot of problems, especially if you say the end of the spell wrong because you're in pain. Someone else is going to have to fix it." Sirius said, interrupting for the first time since he had stopped Dany's face-plant; he looked rather worried about the blood still coming out of her nose. Dany prodded her nose experimentally.

"Yeah there's no way I could get the end of the spell out without fucking it up. It hurts too much." She said and Lily nodded.

"Not to point out the obvious or anything but shouldn't we get the blood to stop coming out?" Remus said, having woken up at the commotion. Everyone looked around and exchanged looks; no one knew how to stop a nosebleed.

"Alright, this is just depressing; no one else knows how to get that to stop? Wow, not very impressive…I wouldn't become Healers if I were you all." Sirius said, somewhat amused. Lily wondered how he knew. "Alright Dan, tilt your head back and pinch the bridge of your nose. Harder then that, you need to cut off the blood supply; don't make me do it because it won't be gentle or friendly. Okay now stay like that and put this under your nose to stop the blood from going everywhere; we don't need McGonagall thinking we've committed murder in here or something." Dany nodded and took the towel. "And maybe sit down, staying like that can make you kind of dizzy, especially with all the blood loss." She sat down on the nearest bed.

"Um, Sirius not to pry or anything, but how do you know that?" Marlene asked and he shrugged.

"I've had a lot of nosebleeds McKinnon and I've always had to stop them myself. Broken noses aren't any fun, believe me; give me a broken finger any day." He said absently and Marlene fell quiet at that. Lily found that quite disturbing and she felt like an idiot for not thinking about the fact he came from an abusive household. No shit he'd know how to keep someone alive long enough to get real medical attention. Not to mention the totally depressing fact that he had ranked broken body parts on levels of pain.

"Can I stop now?" Dany said a couple minutes later, sounding weird with her nose covered by the towel.

"Move your hand." He said and he looked at her nose. "Yeah, you should be done unless your blood's shitty at clotting, which wouldn't surprise me because you haven't been injured much throughout your life." He said and Lily saw her eyes soften for a minute and looked very much like she wanted to give him a hug, despite it was her with the injury and not him. The look vanished quickly and she slowly removed her hand. Sure enough, the bleeding had stopped.

"My hero." She said and removed the now blood-soaked towel from under her nose.

"Anytime. I can also put bones back into place, if you ever dislocate something." He said dryly.

"I'll keep that in mind for the next time I dislocate my shoulder…you wouldn't happen to be able to fix noses would you?" She said and he nodded. Lily found this whole thing disturbing; judging by the looks on everyone else's faces, they did too. Lily suspected she wasn't the only one with limited knowledge of the Black household in this room; she actually was pretty sure that no one knew the extent to which Sirius was used and abused in the room except for Dany (and maybe James) and even then, Lily suspected he hid some of it from her.

"Yeah…this is going to hurt, but you know that… episkey." He said and she yelped as her nose made a sickening crunch, her hand jumping to her nose, which she rubbed gingerly. It was back to its normal shape and she looked relieved that it wasn't hurting anymore.

"Thanks…ugh I can't even imagine what Pomfrey would have said if we had been back in there the second day of school. She might refuse to do anything about my nose she'd be so irritated." She said and Lily was glad that it had been remedied, in a relatively quick manner.

"So now that Dany has been injured and fixed, we actually have a reason for coming in here." Lily said briskly and everyone looked at her. The girls all looked like they had quite forgotten their original purpose for barging in on the guys so early in the morning in the wake of Dany's nose. Marlene caught on first to her meaning.

"Yeah, so you boys wouldn't happen to recognize this guy, would you?" Marles said and handed them the book.

"Who is this?" James said as he examined it. "Is this Azkaban?" No one said anything. "I don't recognize him…actually I take that back; he's familiar but I can't put my finger on why." He said and handed it to Frank and Peter, both of whom had just come over after the bloody mess had been resolved.

"I don't know him…what about you Pete?" Frank said and Peter shook his head. "I mean I get this is one of those visions but why do you care so much about who he is? Shouldn't you know him already? Besides, I think you can wait to see, like the rest of us." He said and Lily agreed with that statement but said nothing.

"Because Dany's going to marry him." Alice blurted out.

"Alice!" Dany yelled and Al looked embarrassed.

"Sorry." She muttered and all of the guys' mouths fell open.

"You're getting married?" James said blankly and Dany threw her hands up. Lily had to admit that this sounded weird and couldn't blame James for freaking out at the thought of his fourteen-year-old Godsister getting hitched.

"See? Look what you did. No, James I'm not currently engaged, if that's what you mean. It's kind of a convoluted story, but yeah whoever that is, is who I marry and this lot is hell-bent of figuring out who it is." She said and James relaxed, glad that she wasn't currently engaged.

"So you don't know who it is?" Alice pressed and Sirius inspected the picture and shook his head.

"I'd say it kind of looks like my dad but that's really insulting to you and there's no way he'd ever be that thin, Dementors or not." He said with a shrug and handed it to Remus. His face immediately lit up and Lily knew he knew who it was.

"Oh god none of you know who this is? Wow, I'm surprised…" He said.

"You do know who it is?" Marlene asked.

"Yeah, I know who it is, but I'm sure as hell not telling you, any of you." He said and handed it back to Dany, who closed the book and wrapped her arms around it. "I'm not going to be the one who starts some self-fulfilling prophecy that sets off some long series of events. I will not be held responsible for the future."

"Do I at least know the guy? You can at least tell me that." Dany said and Remus nodded.

"Yeah, you know him. That's all I'm saying." He said and Dany nodded.

"I get that…I guess we'll just have to see, huh?" She said and he nodded and laughed.

"Yes we will…we will indeed."

As soon as Dany had moved her hand off her face, it became very evident that she had a severely broken nose. There was blood just gushing out of her nose and Sirius saw that her hand was just covered in her own bright red blood. She had looked around like she wasn't sure how to stop it; as a matter of fact no one knew how to stop it. Except for him. Except for the boy whose parents broke his nose almost constantly. Alphard was usually kind enough to set it whenever he saw his nephew. There was blood all over her face, smeared on her cheeks and dripping off her lips, like a twisted version of lipstick. He had really wanted to wipe it off her face but had decided that doing that would be weird.

As he told her what to do to get the blood to stop he let his mind wander a little too far; if his parents got their hands on her, this is what she'd look like except so much worse than a broken nose. A broken nose was getting off easy and they wouldn't let the Minister's daughter off easy, not when she could be used to torment their son. Then he'd be trying to fix her broken bones and hemorrhaging wounds; he could fix her nose but he didn't know if he, or anyone, would be able to pick her up and fix her if the word crucio was ever said. Hell, he didn't know if he could make it through watching it happen, which is exactly what would happen if his mother got her way. Dany would scream and cry and beg for mercy and they would make him watch the whole thing until one of them went insane.

"My hero." She had said wryly and he had laughed and brushed it off, making a joke to quickly move along the conversation so he could move his thoughts away from the girl in front of him crying at his mother's feet. Then Marlene had passed around the drawing, Alice accidentally saying that the guy was Dany's future husband. Weird. He looked kind of like he hadn't had a good meal in about five years and like he was rather depressed, judging by how he was sitting. Then Remus had started laughing and said he knew who it was. He refused to say, even after the girls had left.

The guys all went down to breakfast after they had managed to get the girls out of their room and changed out of their pajamas. They were sitting at the Gryffindor table and the girls had yet to make a reappearance. Sirius suspected that they were double-checking that all of the blood was off of Dany's face and were continuing to pour over the sketch.

"Come on, Remus; we won't tell anybody! Just tell us!" James tried to coax him but the werewolf wasn't relenting.

"No, no I'm not saying anything so just give it up." He said and James looked infuriated, frustrated that he couldn't find out who he was supposed to be beating up and threatening in advance. Just as Remus refused James again, Kenzie finally had tracked him down and she didn't look happy.

"Sirius! It's so good to see you; I missed you over break." She said and she seemed bubbly but it was so obviously fake that everyone there could tell she was pissed.

"Hey, Kenzie it's good to see you. I missed you too." He responded and Sirius thought to himself about just how much of a lie that was. Suddenly, the girls decided to make and appearance and they all pointedly avoided sitting near Kenzie, Dany making an extra effort to sit on the opposite side of the table from her, on the other side of James. Kenzie didn't look happy to see them. Sirius noticed that Dany looked normal, as if her nose hadn't been broken less than an hour ago. As if her blood hadn't been dripping down her face in the middle of his room.

"I was so disappointed that you had to cancel last minute like that. What happened? James said you had another obligation." She asked and Lily and James froze for a second and Sirius saw Dany's eyes move towards him, even though she was continuing to eat her cereal.

"I'm really sorry about that…it's just my parents said it was okay but then something came up in the family and they said it wasn't okay. It was just a bad time is all; the last month of break is so filled with Pureblood shit that I can hardly stand it." He said absently, having come up with this lie to feed her long ago. James and Lily relaxed and Dany looked wary. She had told him on multiple occasions to be careful lying to Kenzie but so far he hadn't had a problem so her advice was currently being ignored.

"Oh, well that was just unfortunate timing I guess. We'll just have to make up for it then." She said and Sirius saw Lily choke on whatever she was eating; Dany gave her a couple good claps on the back.

"Yeah, sure…let's talk about it later. How was your break?" He asked and as soon as she started to talk, he zoned out and was only half-listening. She had apparently gone to Paris and it had been fantastic. James was talking to Remus and Marlene was chatting with Lily and Dany. Alice and Frank were also talking intimately, Sirius suspected that the girls were right about a relationship being on the horizon for those two; that was nice, they're good people, Sirius thought to himself. He still had no idea what Kenzie was saying to him.

A few hours later, Sirius was putting his pants back on and getting out of Kenzie's bed. As annoying and whiny as she was, she was a good shag, although she was kind of boring. Sirius thought that thinking that probably made him a bad person.

"Are you sure you won't stay?" She asked and he shook his head.

"Can't. I promised the guys that I'd spend some time with them; I haven't seen them since last year either." He responded and she looked rather put out by that. "I'll see you later." He said as he walked out of her room, the Fifth Year girls' room. He was walking down the stairs towards the common room when he ran into Dany and Lily both of whom wrinkled their noses.

"Ugh, gross Sirius. Please tell me that you were looking for us and not getting your rocks off on the floor above us." Dany said and Sirius said nothing and she rolled her eyes. "Of course you were. Go enjoy running away from your girlfriend." She said and the two girls walked into their room, talking about something or another, closing the door behind them. Before Lily closed the door he caught the name Brady Harris, which automatically meant nothing good.

Brady Harris was generally regarded as one of the hottest guys in Hogwarts by most girls and generally regarded as one of the biggest asshole players in the castle by most guys. A year older and Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, Sirius knew him pretty well from being on the field with him. He could comfortably say that Brady Harris was possessive and a lunatic, judging by how he ran his team and how he and his friends talked to each other about everything from Quidditch to girls. He pushed the thought from his mind and finally got down to the common room, where James and Remus were waiting for him.

"Enjoy your time with Kenzie?" James laughed and Sirius shrugged.

"It was alright I guess…it's getting kind of boring to be honest." He said and Remus rolled his eyes.

"Well monogamy clearly isn't for you if you're already bored, Sirius." The werewolf commented and they all three started to walk out of the common room, towards the lake.

"Yeah, I can't see that happening anytime soon…what do you guys know about Brady Harris?" He asked abruptly and both of his friends looked at him like he was crazy.

"About as much as you do, I'd reckon. Why?" James asked warily. No one trusted Sirius' random questions because they usually involved snowballing thoughts that ended up in some really dark places.

"When I was coming down from Kenzie's room, I passed Dany and Lily…before they closed their door, I heard them talking about him." He said and both of the other guys looked automatically exponentially more concerned. "Who's he dating right now?" He asked and James and Remus exchanged a look.

"Last I heard, he's single right now; dumped his last girl over the summer." Remus said cautiously and Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"You don't think that one of them has a crush—?" Sirius started and James shook his head.

"No way. They both have standards way higher than Brady." James said but Remus didn't look convinced.

"I don't know guys. He can be pretty charming if he wants to and getting attention from a guy that's a year older…that might be enough to change one of their minds, is all I'm saying." He said and Sirius and James both glared at him, neither of them particularly caring for Remus suggesting that the girls they liked would go anywhere near Brady.

"There's no way. Besides, neither of them are his type." James said forcefully but Sirius was starting to see Remus' point.

"They're both pretty girls; they're both pretty girls who've never dated, to boot. They wouldn't know how being in a relationship is supposed to be like and that sounds just like him. I mean I'd like to see him try to take advantage of either of them; they'd eat him alive if he tried." Sirius said and James looked less than amused by this whole situation.

"Look guys, maybe we're just jumping to conclusions. Maybe it's nothing." James said and, conveniently, Marlene walked by. James grabbed her arm before she could go by. "Hey, Marlene." He said and she looked at him like she wasn't sure what he wanted.

"Hey James…can I help you?" She asked warily.

"Yeah, what do you think about Brady Harris?" He asked her and she looked surprised.

"He's alright…how honest do you want this to be?" She asked cautiously.

"Brutally." Sirius threw in and she nodded.

"Okay…well he's hot, he seems pretty normal I guess, I've never really talked to him though so I can't really comment on his personality beyond the fact that he seems like he isn't a serial killer. I'm not interested in him, if that's what you're asking; there'd be no point in it, honestly." She said with a shrug and then her eyes got very wide once she realized what she'd said.

"Why would there be no point in being interested, McKinnon?" Sirius asked and he got the impression that she was trying to think very quickly.

"Because he's a year older than me and it's not like guys are trying to pick up Fourth Years left, right, and center. There's no way he'd be interested in me, is all." She said and all three guys looked at her like they didn't believe her. "Well this has been fun I'm going to go now. Bye." She said and walked off, glancing back at them one time before rounding a corner towards Gryffindor Tower. They finally walked out onto the grounds and exchanged looks.

"She was telling the truth, for the most part…until the end. She was making up parts but she was definitely telling the truth when she said he wouldn't be interested in her, that's for sure." Remus observed and the other two found that disturbing.

"You don't think he's after one of them, do you? Dating a year younger than him isn't beyond him…he's actually done it before, I think." James asked and Sirius dearly wanted to tell him 'no' with certainty but he couldn't. He didn't even know if it would be worse if he went after Dany or Lily. He didn't particularly care to see Dany dating someone, let alone Brady, but James would be inconsolable if he were to get with Lily. This was a lose-lose situation if they were right.

James thought if he was being honest with himself, that if Brady were going to pursue either girl, it would be Dany. Lily was more beautiful to James and he knew people agreed with him, but Dany was much more Brady's speed; she wasn't bookish but still managed to pull good grades and she was exceptionally pretty, not to mention the immediate fame that came with being associated with her family in any way. He put his thoughts to rest on the subject temporarily as Quidditch season approached faster than he could have imagined.

Gryffindor's first game was in mid-October and they were playing Hufflepuff. Toby, their captain, was pretty confident that they would be sweeping and their seeker, Caroline, was under strict orders to catch the snitch as fast as humanly possible. Sirius had been given the delightful job of protecting their seeker, which was undoubtedly the most dangerous job someone could give a beater; no one had been particularly thrilled about that turn of events, Dany was almost less enthused than her Godbrother was about it. Kenzie continued to linger around, becoming more and more possessive of her boyfriend while simultaneously becoming more passive, it was leaving everyone confused as to what exactly was happening.

James pushed Sirius out of bed and he made a sound that didn't sound very nice.

"Get up you lazy ass, the game's today." James said as he walked into the bathroom to shower. He heard Sirius stand up and start digging around for his uniform. James brushed his teeth and wondered how crazy Kenzie would be today. Huh, that's a good name for her. Crazy Kenzie. He'd have to tell the others about that later, after the game. Right now, it was all about Quidditch until the game was over. James had to keep his head in the game and so did Sirius; he kept his girlfriends away on Quidditch days, claiming that he needed to "save energy" which was something that made James gag just thinking about.

He walked out of the bathroom just as Sirius was pulling his shirt on and there was a knock on the door. It wasn't one James recognized; Dany knocked softly and would usually call into the room, Lily usually just barged in because 99% of the time she went to their room was to yell at them because she was pissed, Marlene and Alice knocked like a thousand times a minute and none of the guys in Gryffindor bothered knocking. It sounded like whoever was knocking was smacking the palm of her hand on the door. Everyone exchanged looks and James opened the door to see Kenzie standing there. Remus, Peter, and Frank immediately cleared out and James dearly wished he could do the same but he still had to get dressed.

"Um, Kenzie. What are you—?" James started but she walked past him and Sirius looked alarmed. Poor guy. James grabbed his clothes and went to get dressed in the bathroom. He heard them talking through the door. It sounded like Kenzie wanted one of his old shirts and James shook his head. There would be a cold day in Hell before he gave up one of his old Quidditch shirts to a girl.

"Look Kenzie, I really think you're overreacting to this…I just like the shirts and want to keep them." He heard him say and James rolled his eyes as he changed pants. He heard a door slam seconds later. "You can come out James, she's gone." Sirius said dryly and James looked out into their room and sure enough, she was gone.

"All of that over a shirt?" James asked dryly. Sirius shrugged.

"Don't ask me about girls' fascination with wearing their boyfriend's shirts. Besides, if I gave her anything like that, I'm not getting it back." He said and James nodded in agreement as his best friend picked up his beater's bat. "Alright, let's go get some breakfast before she comes back." He said and James rolled his eyes.

"Why don't you just dump her if you want to keep avoiding her?" He asked and Sirius didn't respond. "It's not like you're keeping her around for the sex because apparently that became boring like a month ago."

"I don't know…I guess I haven't gotten around to dumping her yet. We'll talk about it after the game." Sirius responded as the entered the Great Hall. James saw all four girls sitting around, dressed in Gryffindor shirts. Frank, Peter, and Remus were there too and they were dressed similarly to the girls. A few people stopped the two of them on their way to their seats to wish them good luck. They sat down and James sat down next to Lily, who seemed rather neutral to this as she spoke to Dany. Dany noticed that they had sat down and she grabbed James' attention.

"I want to make something abundantly clear to both of you; play a clean game and don't die. I think I've head my fill of sitting by people's sickbeds for the rest of my life." She said and James looked at their friends and apparently no one had heard except for Sirius, Lily, and himself. James nodded.

"You have my word, Sister. I promise not to die. Besides, I'm the one in the least danger out of the two of us." He said and Dany turned her gaze to Sirius who looked alarmed at this turn of events.

"Sirius Black don't you dare die because I'll be pissed and I'll bring you back just to kill you again." She said, pointing a finger at him. James glanced at Lily, who looked amused and simultaneously like she was trying not to look sappy.

"Hey, I'm planning on dying anytime soon. Don't look at me like that; I have no more desire to spend any more time in a hospital than you do. I've seen enough of white, sterile walls for a while." He said and Dany nodded and still didn't look convinced. She went back to her conversation with Lily that sounded like it consisted of whether or not Lily was in fact addicted to chocolate.

"I think it's a clinical condition, Lils. I'm kind of worried." Dany was saying but James turned his attention from his Godsister to the girl she was talking to. Lily was so beautiful and even though her red shirt made her look paler than she was and made her freckles stand out, she was still the most beautiful girl in the room, at least to him. Sirius caught his attention and smirked. James realized he'd been staring and he looked down at his food. Suddenly, Toby stood up from his seat.

"Team! Locker room, now!" He yelled and James and Sirius both stood up to leave. Their friends all wished them good luck and Dany hugged him quickly with a grin.

"Go kill 'em. Make Daddy Masters and Daddy Potter proud." She said and he laughed before high-fiving her. Their fathers had both been chasers when they had attended Hogwarts, some of the best that the school had seen in that generation.

"You got it. I'll be sure to do their legacies justice." He said and she laughed before he left with Sirius and the rest of the team. They entered the locker room and started talking before Toby started his traditional speech. James would be quite sad when he graduated; he didn't know if Quidditch would ever be the same without Toby's speeches.

"Alright, come on in guys—"

"And ladies. Don't forget the ladies, Tobias." Caroline scolded and he laughed along with the rest of the team.

"Ladies, too. So, this is the first game of the season and I can't say that I've ever been more confident in another team before. Caroline, you're a wicked fast seeker and I'm so bloody proud of how much you've grown since last year. James, Mary, and Mark you all work together so well and together, y'all have scored more goals than any other three chasers have in Gryffindor in over forty years. Maya, you're a great keeper and I have total faith in you and that you'll keep Hufflepuff at bay, just like you did last year with Slytherin for the Cup." He said and everyone cheered at the mention of Slytherin's defeat. "Sirius, you're my fellow beater and damn even though you're two years younger than me you're the best one we've had in a long fucking time, myself included."

"Thanks for keeping all of our faces intact." Caroline threw in and everyone nodded.

"Thanks guys, you're pretty great too, Toby." He said and Toby grinned.

"Well now that I've inflated all of your egos appropriately, let's go bloody demolish them!" He yelled and everyone cheered before they left for the field. They all stood under the stands, waiting for their signal to walk out. They finally got it and James looked around at the crowd and even from here, he thought he could see Dany's gleaming hair towards one of the goalposts. Madam Hooch gave them the okay to get up in the air to warm up and he flew over to see it was indeed Dany that he had seen leaning over the fence to keep students out of the field.

"You know I can see your hair from the field." James said and she grinned at him.

"What can I say? It's like a beacon. At least you'll always know where you are on the field because I'm pretty sure I'm due north right now." She joked and he chuckled as Sirius flew over. Lily was talking to Remus, who was standing next to her; James wondered what they were talking about right now.

"Oi, James stop running your mouth and start warming up." Sirius said and Dany stuck her tongue out.

"Shut it; we're having a conversation about Quidditch you know. I think that's allowed." She said and Sirius looked like he was going to protest until he heard Toby call his name.

"Whatever, I gotta go; captain's calling after all. See you out there Potter." He said and clapped James on the back. Dany smiled at him.

"You should probably go too. I don't want it to be my fault that we lose this game. Go on, get." She said and James flew off just as Madam Hooch blew her whistle, calling for the start of the game.

"Alright, I can't say I'm particularly worried about penalties with you two teams but still I want a nice, clean game from all of you. We don't need a rerun on last year's final game." She said as she released the snitch and bludgers and eyed Toby, who looked unabashed for all the fouls he had committed against Slytherin in that game. "Here we go." She said and threw the quaffle up in the air. The game had started.

It was uneventful for a while, Gryffindor was up by seventy points, James was working in perfect sync with Mary and Mark and no one had seen the snitch yet. There were no injuries and there had been only one foul. It was a good game. He saw Sirius fly by next to Caroline a couple of times but other than that, he was completely focused on the game. They were up eighty points and still no snitch. Then there was a collective gasp and then Madam Hooch's whistle blew. All of the players looked around as they dropped towards the ground. Someone was injured. James found the problem; it was Maya, the keeper. She was cradling her right arm and looked like she was on the verge of tears. Damn she was probably out for the rest of the game. If Madam Pomfrey had to give medical attention, the player was out for the game. They all landed and she looked like she was in all kinds of pain.

"I can still play; I'm fine. It's just dislocated. I can keep going." She insisted by everyone shook their heads.

"Maya, you can't play with an arm like that; I can't let you." Toby said and she shook her head.

"I have to keep playing. Please, Toby let me play." She pleaded and James glanced at Sirius who looked like he was on the verge of saying something.

"You're sure it's just dislocated, Maya?" Sirius suddenly said and she nodded.

"About 95% sure that's the problem. Why?" She said.

"I can put it back into place if that's what you want, Maya." He said and James raised his eyebrows. He suddenly remembered him joking about that after he had fixed Dany's nose.

"Gryffindor, thirty seconds!" Madam Hooch yelled. Toby waved at her.

"Seriously?" She asked and he nodded. "Do it." She said and Toby looked like he was going to protest but closed his mouth under his keeper's silencing glare.

"Alright, come here. It's going to hurt like a bitch so please keep that in mind…on three. One…two…" Snap. He suddenly moved his hands and she groaned in pain and started to move her shoulder around. She nodded as if to confirm that her shoulder was no longer out of its socket.

"It's fine, I'm fine, let's go. Thanks Sirius." She said and he nodded.

"Gryffindor, up in the air now or you forfeit!" Madam Hooch yelled at them. And Toby nodded.

"We're going!" He yelled back and looked to his team. "Sirius, you're a hero; Maya, you're a trooper and a beautiful person. Let's go." He said and they all kicked off. The game resumed and not fifteen minutes later, Caroline caught the snitch. They had started the Quidditch off right. It was looking like a good season for Gryffindor.