Author's Note: Ello! I had this chapter sort of written up when I posted the first one, but I couldn't finish it to save my life. But thanks to the cap'n, (CAP'N CHEWY!) I got back on the author wagon. Thank the lord. I'm über excited to get the next chapter up. Also, I've started a NorringtonOC. If you feel like it, check it out. I've worked pretty hard on it.

Disclaimer: Ha! I wish!

By mid-October, everybody was up to their armpits in work. James was preoccupied as every with getting his Quidditch team to play the way he wanted. Lily was doing all these extra papers for teachers to make sure she wasn't failing her classes (as if she would). Peter was having trouble in Herbology, so he had to meet with a tutor (who just so happened to be Maggie Sharpe) every Wednesday night. Rosie was busy with her new boyfriend, a Parisian Sex God in Ravenclaw, and Jude was off being the Gossip Queen of Hogwarts, eavesdropping on interesting conversation, catching couples snogging in the hallways, etc. Not to mention the mountain of homework that was looming over us all. I had actually dropped Arithmancy earlier that month when I realised how impossible it would be to do the work in that class along with all my others. At least I had a free period now. I spent most of it relaxing with Remus and Sirius, who were the only ones that seemed as unoccupied with other affairs as me.

It was eight o' clock on a Sunday morning. Not many people were up before nine, and I had found Remus in the common room, so the two of us decided to grab breakfast. The day of our first Hogsmede trip, Saturday, October 28, had just been posted on the bulletin board. The trip just so happened to fall on Jude's 17th birthday, and Remus had the wonderful idea that we should throw her a surprise party that day. I also pointed out, this was a more-than-perfect opportunity for Remus to confess his love for her, but he was uneasy.

"What if she doesn't like me?" he worried.

I put my coffee down and groaned. "Remus, I'm convinced she likes you. She even told me last year that she wished you had asked her to the last Hogsmede trip instead of Robbie Fagan. And I shouldn't be telling you this," I leaned in closer to Remus and lowered my voice. "She's always talking about how gorgeous you are, how nice you are, and she even told us how head-over-heels she is for you! Besides, it's her birthday! This is your chance to express your unwavering, unfaltering, undying, ceaseless, passionate, steamy, hot, mad, everlasting, immortal, eternal, unsurpassable--"

"Right, right!" he sighed. "I get it. I just don't know how I'm going to get her alone to talk..."

"Don't worry your lovely little head about it," I ruffled his already messy hair. "We'll figure out something."

Remus perked up. "Thanks, Jo. You're amazing."

I buffed my nails and did my best James Potter Conceited Smile. "Yeah, I know."

"Oi, Moony! Don't get too fresh with my girl there, mate!" called a voice that so obviously belonged to Sirius Black. He sat next to me and kissed my nose. "How's my girl doing today?" he beamed.

I loved, loved, LOVED when Sirius did that. Of course we weren't dating, but our playful flirting, loving embraces, and the occasional kiss made it a bit easier for me to cope with my enormous crush. It was so nice to receive and return affection with him. I did cuddle Remus on the occasion and loved the company of all the Mad Hatters, I enjoyed the company of Sirius Black the most.

"I'm absolutely peachy, Siri-baby," I teased. "Darling Remsie and I were just having a nice little chat."

Both Remus and Sirius cringed at my sickening petnames but Sirius nuzzled my cheek. "Well, did you see that there's a Masquerade instead of the feast this year?" I shook my head. "D'you know what this means?" Again, I shook my head. He rolled his eyes. "You're so very dim sometimes, but that's why I'm taking you to the Masquerade. It even says we should have a date and dress to match. Which means we'll have to find some time this Saturday to devote to shopping for our costumes, dig?"

I was shocked. Sirius had never ever never never never never taken me to Hogsmede before. He usually went with the Marauders or, the occasional Snogging Bimbo. And I did go with him and the Marauders sometimes, but never had it been just the two of us! I smiled at him and kissed his nose.

"Of course, sugarlumpy-kins," I cooed. "I would wuuv to go wif yewww. Buuuttt..."

"But, love?" he frowned. "There are no but's with Sirius Black!" he declared proudly.

I laughed. "I told Remus we would throw Jude a party at Hogsmede. Maybe at that adorable coffee/tea shop you went to with Katie Hawkins?"

"But Joniii," he whined, "I wanna spend the trip with yewww, my oogie boogie snuggle bearrr."

Remus groaned. "You two are sick."

Sirius pouted. "Heyy..."

"Quiet, muffin," I pinched his lips together, then turned back to Remus. "Darling, you are going to plan the Birthday Extravaganza for your lady and she will luuuuuuuurve it, and when I tell her you did the planning she will become so in luuuuuurve that she will just tackle you right there in the tea shop and snoog you 'til you dieeee!"

"Isn't she supposed to snog him, Jo?" Sirius raised an eyebrow. Phwoarr, he was sexy when he did that.

"No. Jude called it snooging when she first came here," I explained. "Now, it's known as 'better-than-snogging' to us."

Sirius shook his head and smiled. "You're mad."

"D'you think you can help me plan the party?" Remus asked me hopefully. "You did such a brilliant job with that Christmas party last year, and I want Jude's birthday to be really special."

I smiled at his devotion and patted his head. "Of course I'll help, Remsie." I got up from the table. "Well, I'm going to start my Potions homework, I'll come round your room around three to help plan."

"Thanks," he said as I began to walk away. "Oh, and Joni?"

I turned around. "Yes, Remsie?

Remus cringed. "Please don't call me Remsie ever again."

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By Saturday, everything was planned out perfectly. We managed to rent out Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop for a few hours to have the yelling of "SURPRISE!", the prezzies, hugs, lots of chatting, and maybe Remus snooging her (doubtful, he'd received a nasty bit from the Hopeless Hornet that week). Lily and Nina were supposed to keep Jude busy while the rest of us went to Madam Puddifoot's to prepare, even though there was very little to organise. Nina invited her boyfriend, who helped us invite a huge gaggle of people who, of course, loved Jude and wanted to wish her a happy birthday.

Peter went to Honeydukes quickly to buy Jude some Chocolate Frogs and Fizzing Whizzbees for her present, and I was wrapping the gift Lily and I chipped in to buy. Sirius and James were utterly disgusted with our choice of venue for this party, but went along with regardless. It was a bit frilly and lacy, but Jude loves those sort of things. I had made a huge banner with a picture of the birthday girl smiling, and blowing kisses. Underneath I wrote "OH, DEAR, YOU'RE LEGAL!" I helped Remus pick out an outfit that morning, remembering what Jude always said Remus looked handsome in. I dressed him in a white and red rugby shirt ("The colours of luuuuurve, Remus!" I told him.) with some nice jeans, and I admitted to him, I was quite jealous that he fancied Jude and not me when he looked like that. Sirius didn't like when I said that.

"Jo, it's nearly time, go see if they're outside now," James said, gesturing to his watch.

Lily, Nina, and Jude were supposed to be "casually walking by" at precisely noon, and I was to go outside, bump into them and lure them into the tea shop, where Jude would receive her fabulous, almost-completely-planned-by-Remus party. I smiled, told the crowd of people I was bringing in Jude in a few minutes, so they should keep quiet. I gave the Mad Hatters a thumbs up, then walked out into the chilly autumn air of Hogsmede.

Right on schedule, I saw Jude walking arm-in-arm with Lily and Nina. I grinned and walked over to the girls. Lils and Nina, being the fabulous actresses they are, pretending to be shocked to see me.

"Hiii, dearies, how are you?" I smiled at them and gave Jude a huge hug. "Happy Birthday, babe!"

"Fanks, love," Jude smiled at me. "Watcha doin' out here?"

"Well, I was just on my way to find you, actually!" I lied superbly. "I was going to invite you all for tea, my treat! It's your birthday after all."

Jude gleamed. "Aww, that's so sweet of you! You didn't have to!"

"I wanted to, Jude. C'mon, we'll find a nice table inside and do girly chat."

Nina added with a smile, "To start off with girly chat, how're you and Remus doing?" We began to walk to the tea shop. All of us were rooting for our two friends to get together, but as I've stated before, both of them were slow getting into that Datesville taxi.

"Well, he's been acting a bit funny, really," Jude frowned a bit. "I can't figure out why. It's like he's hiding something,"

I smiled wisely. "He's probably trying to hide his oh-so-obvious luuuurve for you! You just can't tell because you're too busy luuuurving him, my dim pally. Just tell him how you feeeeel!"

"Feeeeliiiings," Nina sang as we reached the door. Lily opened it as we all came inside.

People had on mad party hats and were grinning as we walked in. Jude almost cried when we all did the "SURPRISE, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WE LOVE YOU!" Peter took a v. v. good picture of her when she walked in the door. It was all so so magnificent. We were all surrounding her and she was close to tears when we put on her birthday hat James and Sirius made for her. It flashed "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUDE!" and multi-coloured sparks were spewing out of the top.

"You're all so wonderful!" Jude cried. "I can't believe you lot, this is amazing! I never expected this!"

"Don't thank us!" Nina smiled.

Sirius pushed Remus forward. "Yeah, it was all Moony's idea. The venue, the plan, and everything!"

"It was really brilliant of him, wasn't it?" I elbowed her lightly in the arm and winked.

I had never seen Jude smile so big and bright in all my years of knowing her. And it was at Remus, who was turning a light pink in embarrassment. But he seemed to be smiling too. "You like it then?" he asked hopefully.

"OH, REMUS, THIS IS AMAZING, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!" she screamed as she pulled him into an enormous hug. When she let him go, she gave him a hearty kiss on the lips. We all looked a bit shocked, but nothing prepared us for what happened when they pulled away...

Remus pulled her in for a SNOOG! Not a snog, but a snoog! And I whooped and hollered and yelled, and so did everyone else (because we all knew they were mad for each other). And when the two snoogers pulled away again, Remus shocked us all again.

"I love you," he told Jude.

And then I screamed and whooped and hollered and yelled when Jude kissed him again and said "I love you too."

It turned out to be a very magical and very very special day.

When the party was over, Remus and Jude stayed behind at the teashop for quite some time when it was opened again to the public.

"No doubt they wanted more alone time for a snoog fest," I laughed as Sirius and I went into a costume shop. I was so so soooo happy. Two of my most favourite friends were finally together, and I was going on a somewhat date-ish thing with Sirius Black.

"Can you believe Remus did that?" Sirius said, still in shock. "It was so out of character!"

"But it was really sweet though, wasn't it?" I swooned. "You just wait, they're going to get married. Then they'll be free to have lots of sex and babies."

"Joni, you've got it all wrong. We'll be the ones having lots of sex and babies." Sirius kissed the top of my head and held up a skimpy red devil costume to me. "You'll look absolutely stunning in this."

I squinted at the costume. I would be surprised if my basoomas fit into that costume without popping out. Not that I was gifted with enormous ones, mind you. But all the same, that top would show far too much cleavage for my taste.

"Ha ha, Mister Tits-Pervert," I pushed the whorish outfit away from me. "Only in your dreams would I be wearing something like that."

Sirius grinned wickedly. "Love, if I had the choice, you wouldn't be wearing anything in my dreams."

My ears got hot. He always had to make me blush didn't he? Rolling my eyes, I picked up a green fairy costume. "I could be the Green Fairy! Like the one on the Absinthe bottles!"

"Won't you look like an alcoholic then?" he raised an eyebrow at me. Did I mention how sexy he looked when he did that? "Besides, isn't Absinthe illegal in England."

(A/N: Absinthe is this REALLY STRONG alcohol. It's banned in lots of countries, including the U.S. Green Fairy is a brand of it. It was in Moulin Rouge in the very beginning. Anyone remember that?)

"It's still a good idea..." I pouted.

We walked deeper into the store. There was quite an assortment of costumes. Ghouls, goblins, wolves, mummies, teddy-bears, sailors, cats, angels, and devils were just a few. They even had some leather skimpy outfits that looked a bit too Dominatrix for me. Sirius fell in love with a Elizabethan era outfit, puffy pants and all. I told him he'd look fruity wearing tights, but he said he was so secure in his heterosexuality it didn't really matter. I was still having trouble finding myself a costume, refusing to dress like a stuffy royal in the days of Lizzie the First.

"How about bumblebee?" Sirius groaned. We were getting desperate. Every idea he had, I shot it down. It's not that they weren't good ideas, it's just that I really wasn't mad about anything I was seeing. If we couldn't find anything soon, I was just going to wear a stuffy dress to match Sir Sirius of the Flaming Kingdom.

I put my head in my hands and kept walking. "I really hope you didn't just suggest a bumblebee, Sirius. Do you want me to look like a loon?"

He pulled me into his arms back to the costume. "Well at this point we're both bloody fed up with finding a costume. This is taking so long, love!" he said exasperatedly. "You're so fucking picky."

I turned in his embrace so I was facing him and put my head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry. But I know I'll find what I'm looking for soon, I promise."

"Please do," he sighed and I returned to my browsing.

"Nurse, no. Mime, you've got to be kidding me..." I continued to reject everything I saw.

Sirius groaned again. "Oh, come off it! You've got to find what you want soo-- where are you going?" he questioned as I shot off to the very back of the store, my eyes widened in excitement.

"THIS IS IT!" I squealed as I held up the costume of my dreams. "I'll be a PIRATE!"

"Pirate, love?" Sirius looked uneasily at the eye-patch I began putting on my head.

"Yes, it's perfect!" I smiled. "You know I'd give anything to be a swashbuckler! Will you be one with me pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease please please please?" I begged.

He rolled his eyes at me. "Fine. I can't have you looking loopy and mad all on your own."

"YES YES YES!" I punched my fist into the air. "Do you know how perfect you are right now?" I hugged him tightly.

Sirius chuckled. "I think I've got a vague idea."

I picked up another pirate costume and a peg-leg for Sirius. "Excellent! We'll just pay for these and be on our merry old way then, eh?"

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Within a few days, nearly the entire school knew about Remus and Jude becoming a couple. Some people found them to be an odd match, but mostly everyone was happy for the two lovebirds. Of course, there were jealous girls who pined for Remus, and blokes who wanted to beat Remus into a bloody pulp and take Jude for themselves, the new couple was too mad about each other to even consider glancing at anyone else. Even the faculty seemed to know about the lovebugs, because every time Professor Dumbledore saw the two, he would give them a wink or a small smile before returning to what he was doing. They had already become the faculty's favourite couple though they were barely two weeks into their courtship. Even McGonagall seemed to approve of the pair.

All of us were sitting in the common room, two nights before the Masquerade Ball, eagerly awaiting the weekend and the ball. This was a rare occurrence for a large affair of these sorts to occur. There had been a huge rumour going around that some popular muggle band was going to perform, but I highly doubted it, especially after Lily told me muggles were not allowed in the school for obvious reasons. Still, it was fun to guess who we thought would be coming. I suggested The Rolling Stones but most were hoping for Queen or ABBA. James thought maybe The Doors, because he knew I worshipped them, but it only made me get a bit teary because the heart and soul of them, darling darling Jim Morrison, had passed on sometime ago. Still, everyone was in quite a dither about the new way of celebrating Halloween. Jude, however, was still gushing about her party.

"Remsie, I still can't believe you pulled together that party!" Jude sighed as she kissed him on the cheek.

"Oi, Remus!" I pouted. "How come she gets to call you Remsie and I don't? That's unfair!"

"I'm his girlfriend, you madwoman. I'm can give him sickening petnames." Jude laughed as I stuck my tongue out at her.

"Don't be so bitter, Joni," James laughed. "You've got Siri-baaaabyyy!" he teased.

"Oh, you're just SO funny," I rolled my eyes.

Sirius, James and I shared a couch, while the two new lovebirds cuddled in a love seat. Peter had a chair to himself and Nina had somehow managed to sneak her French boyfriend, Jean-Claude, into the Gryffindor tower, despite the fact that was in Ravenclaw. They were sitting on the floor next to the couch, Jean-Claude laying on the floor with his head on Nina's lap. Lily had attempted sitting on the couch, but with James constantly trying to snuggle up to her, she managed to find a chair for herself.

Sirius had his arm wrapped around me. He was playing with my fringe, mussing it up, then smoothing it down again, and curling it with his fingers. It was incredibly sweet the way he would smile when he pushed it back to look at my forehead, which was paler than the rest of my face because my fringe blocked the sun. I snuggled up to Sirius, and he smirked when I yawned lightly.

"Well, Joni helped me with the invitations and planning," Remus admitted. "I've never been good at planning parties and she helped me rent out Madam Puddifoot's."

"Joni, you're amazing! Thanks for helping him," Jude smiled at me.

I was still pretending to be angry at her for calling me mad and stuck my tongue out at her, which she returned this time. I did a huffy pout and blew at my fringe, lifting it out of my eyes. Sirius laughed at my behaviour. "You're too cute when you do that," his laugh reminded me of a dog's friendly bark.

"I'm cute all the time, you dolt," I yawned again. "Merlin, I'm sleepy. How many days until Christmas?"

"Is that all you think about?" James groaned.

"Actually, yes." I grinned.

Christmas was by far, my favourite time of year. I always had my list ready by Halloween, and was dressing in red and green by the middle of November. Everyone thought I was a nutter for being such a Christmas freak, but by December, everyone else was in high spirits with me. Every year, Christmas would get better and better and better. I loved it. Last year, I went skiing in the French Alps with Lily, her mum and dad, and her unfortunate sister, Petunia. Other than that, I had spent every Christmas at Hogwarts with James and the Marauders. Peter's parents were having him home for the holidays so he could meet his baby cousin, Winston, but besides him, I had a feeling everyone else would be remaining at school this Christmas.

"Let's wait for Halloween to pass before we get into the Yuletide cheer," Lily said.

"What about Thanksgiving?" Jude implored.

"i hope you're joking," Nina warned. "Why celebrate some half naked blokes and women with feathers and paint all over them helped the witch-burners from dying?"

Our American friend pouted while the rest of us laughed. It was tough to stay true to your Star-Spangled roots with the company Jude chose. We all thoroughly enjoyed her mad American customs, and loved to hear the hilarious things their silly little government does, but of course, we English hold quite a grudge against the Americans for beating our arses. Twice, in fact.

"Oh, you know we're kidding, love," I told Jude. "We all love you and your slightly dim but charming Americano nutters. But we will celebrate your Thanks-for-saving-us-so-we-can-kill-you-later-day, I promise. It will be the Thanksgiving of the century!"

"Well, I don't know about you lot," James began, "but I'm starting to get hungry."

"We ate dinner two hours ago!" Jude exclaimed. "You can't possibly be hungry now."

"You obviously don't know James," Remus kissed his girlfriend on her forehead.

"I'll come with," Peter said, getting out of his chair quickly.

The two Marauders left, and soon Nina told us she wanted to walk Jean-Claude back to his room. Of course, that meant she would not be back for hours. Nina was Queen of Broom closet Snogging. Then Lily and Jude began to leave, remembering they had not finished their Potions essays and went to the dormitory to finish. Jude did not leave, however, without a hearty goodnight kiss from Remus, which made me smile. Only he, Sirius, and myself remained. The three of us launched into a long, elaborate conversation regarding the Masquerade Ball. Remus and Jude decided to dress like a couple á la 1920s. Remus was planning on looking like a mobster like Al Capone and Jude was wearing a micro-mini dress with the silly little dangling whatsits and a matching skullcap.

"Jude would," I laughed. "She does anything and everything to show off her legs. Then again so would I."

"What're you saying?" Remus raised an eyebrow. He looked attractive when he did it, but not like Sirius.

"I'm saying your girlfriend's got fucking amazing legs that I'd kill to have!" I admitted. "And I am secure enough in my heterosexuality to say so."

"Are you daft? You've got great le--" Sirius began to argue, but then stopped himself and I will swear on my life' savings that he started to turn pink.

Being the incredibly dense girl I was, I took no notice to Sirius' unfinished compliment. "D'you have any idea Peter is going with?" I asked Remus. "I'd asked him earlier but he sort of mumbled and then walked away..."

Remus shrugged. "Wormtail hasn't been himself lately. I don't even know if he plans on going."

"He's been acting strange lately, hasn't he?" Sirius asked us.

To tell the truth, Peter had been acting strange. Though he was there for Jude's party, and our chat in the common room, I had noticed less and less of him recently. He seemed like he desperately wanted to tell us something, but couldn't find it in himself to do so. Even Maggie, his tutor and supposed crush, had asked us why he wasn't showing up to his lessons. The other Marauders would see him sneak out of their dorm late at night and then not return until morning, claiming he had gone to the common room because he left something there. His behaviour was dodgy, and for some reason, none of us found the courage to sit him down and ask what was wrong.

"One of you should ask what's up," I sighed. "I would do it, but it sounds like Peter really isn't himself and you lot know him best."

"We're planning on cornering him if he tries to leave tonight," Remus promised me. "I'm going off to bed, 'night."

"G'night," I smiled as he retreated upstairs to the boys' dormitories and leaned in more toward Sirius. He was quite comfortable to rest with. And I hate being a sickening romantic, but our bodies seemed to fit nicely together. Sirius went back to lightly stroking the top of my head, and I moved so my head was resting in his lap.

"This is nice," I breathed quietly.

Sirius cocked an eyebrow. Oh, Buddha, he looked good when he did that. "What's nice, love?"

"Just this," I smiled up at him sweetly. "I luuurve relaxing down here."

"Only with me, though," Sirius laughed.

"Of course!" I patted his cheek.

For a while longer, the two of us sat in silence, enjoying the other's company and the crackling of the fire. The common room was empty save the two of us, which was odd considering the time (barely nine o' clock), which was nice because we did not have to deal with the constant, high-pitched giggling of the younger girls in our house. Of all the insatiable young girls at school, the Gryffindors were by far the worst. They considered a Marauder looking in their general direction a sign that they were completely infatuated with them. This occurred often with Sirius, who seemed to be most annoyed with the inane chatter and squealing laughter. As I had said before, he was quite the ladies' man. However, a quick glare from me or a few rude words from James got the insane preteens to shut up. James and I were the most hated amongst the young ones. I was for being so close to Sirius, and the girls despised James for a) only having eyes for Lily, and b) for sticking up for me whenever they made rude comments to or about me. But I was forever thankful for Sirius, who rescued me from a huge group of them last term. They had actually cornered me, and it was quite intimidating with there being so many of them, but darling Mr. Black stepped in before they could "Wingardium Leviosa" me (I highly doubt they knew anything nearly as bad as the hexes I knew).

Sirius and I locked eyes for a very intense moment and I was about to open my mouth when a voice came from behind us. "Joni?"

Sirius and I both turned at the interruption. A first year boy with ginger hair and adorable brown eyes to boot. I smiled at the boy, who's name I knew was Bill Weasley. "Hi, Bill. What's up?"

He seemed very happy that I knew his name and his face started to turn the same colour of his hair. "Erm, Robert Green wanted me to give this to you."

Robert Green was a seventh year Ravenclaw who had tutored me a few years back in Care of Magical Creatures. I was pleased not to be taking the class anymore, because I found that learning about unicorns and hippogriffs just did not seem to interest me. Robert and I were on friendly terms, but I spent most of my time with the Marauders and the girls. I don't think Sirius approved of him, he thought Robert was only trying to get in my pants. I enjoyed Robert's company, he was good for a chat about useless things. And I would be lying if I said he wasn't much to look at.

"From that dirty bugger?" Sirius looked displeasingly at the note in my hand.

I hit him on the arm. "He's not dirty, nor a bugger. Stop being so childish," I chastised as I opened the parchment.

"Really, Jo, why do you find this bloke so charming?" Sirius persisted. "He's not looking for anything but--"

"Sirius, please. Don't you think that I'm smart enough to know how to get myself out of a bad situation? Robert and I are no more of friends than you and I are." I gave Sirius a sly grin. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were jealous, Mr. Black."

Sirius' eyes narrowed and he shook a finger at my playfully. "You listen, here, Sirius Black does not get jealous."

I sighed and giggled. "Fine, have it your way," I got up from the couch and gave Mr. Jealous a small kiss on the forehead. "I'm off to bed, you should be too. We've got classes tomorrow."

"Sweet dreams, love," Sirius followed me up the stairs, arm around my shoulder, before we had to part ways.

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"So, what did the note say?" Jude asked eagerly when I told her Robert sent me a letter.

I shrugged. "Just checking up on me to see how I've been," I gave her the note to read. "Usual things. We've barely talked all year."

Jude and Lily, who were both on my bed with me, scanned the note with knowing grins on their faces. I raised an eyebrow at the two. They were clearly reading the letter differently than I was.

"Isn't it obvious?" Jude giggled.

I shook my head.

"Robert likes you, Joni! Lookit what he's written!" Lily joined in.

I snatched the letter back and reread it aloud. "Sex Kitten, you must be exhausted from running through my mind all day. I can see your nose scrunching up at that. You know I enjoy tragic pickup lines. But how is the Lioness? Does she miss her dear Robbie? Of course she does. I did like Marvin Gaye and heard through the grapevine you and Sirius Black are going to the Masquerade together. I'm sure you will be wearing the pants in this relationship. Give my best to the wife! See you at the ball, eh? Robert." I looked at the two insane girls before me that I called friends. "So? It's Robbie. He's daft."

"Daft about you," Lily told me.

"If that isn't the biggest 'I like you', I don't know what is," Nina said as she just entered the room.

Jude took my hand in hers. "I know why it's so hard to except, dearest."

I raised an eyebrow again. "And why is it that I can't seem to come to face that Robert loves me?"

"You don't want to hurt Sirius' feelings, of course!"

"What!" I nearly shrieked. "How did Sirius get into this conversation?"

Jude rolled her eyes. "He likes you, Joni!"

"So you're telling me that not only does Robert Green have a thing for me, but Sirius Black does too?" I nearly yelled. I don't know whether I was excited to hear Jude's "professional opinion" or not. I'd always been unsure about Sirius' feelings. We did the harmless flirting thing, only because we've been good friends for so long. There was nothing awkward about our relationship, but I would rather have him as a boyfriend than a v. v. flirtatious friend.

All three of the girls nodded. "Sirius has always liked you, Jo," Lily said.

"You're like the way I was with Remus," Jude agreed. "What was it you said the day of the party? 'You can't see how much he's in luuuurve with you because you're too busy luuuuurving him!'"

I shook my head. "No, I don't like him. Not like that."

"You've never been good at fibbing," Nina laughed.

I pushed them all off my bed and shut my curtains. "Well, I've known Sirius long enough to know if he had something to say, especially if he 'luuuurved' me, he would have told me," I said, trying to convince myself more than the girls. "So good night to you all, I'm going to sleep."

"Ohh, I think he loves you, so what are you so afraid ooof?" Lily and Nina sang.

"Sod off!" I shouted as I pulled my pillow over my head.

Sleep did not come easily that night for me.