A/N: This chapter was written under the influence of Crushcrushcrush by Paramore, one of my favorite bands. I hope you enjoy, and read and review and stuff. That last chapter was very painful for me to write, but necessary and I hope you'll understand why when all's said and done. Cheers.

The only person who didn't ask Jenny fifty million questions about the night before come breakfast time was Tien. Of course, that could have been because the sweet little Vietnamese firework was a bit too preoccupied with her own crush on Sirius to really take notice of the drama in Jenny's life, but Jenny wasn't about to complain.

Sirius at least had the decency to look guilty and attempt to apologize for putting her in that situation. But Jenny didn't blame him. He had no idea Remus would react like that. Who would have guessed it of him, really?

But the part she couldn't stand was the way every one of her friends spent breakfast looking at her when they thought she wasn't looking except for three: Remus, who wasn't looking at her at all; Sirius, who was staring at his plate except for the few times he glanced up and gave Tien a weak smile; and Tien, who basically spent all of breakfast stealing glances at the occasionally-weakly-smiling Sirius Black.

After breakfast, they had Potions, and Jenny hung back a little bit to talk with Tien, who was heading out to the grounds for Herbology.

"So, I noticed that you and a certain Hogwarts heartthrob couldn't keep your eyes off each other," said Jenny with a grin. "When's the wedding? Am I invited?"

Tien sighed.

"It's just a silly crush, Jenny, nothing more. You just said it yourself. Sirius Black is king of Hogwarts. There could never really be anything more between us than casual flirting and friendship. But I'd rather it stayed that way and live out my dreams in my head than have him want nothing to do with me and have all those dreams die."

"A little bit dramatic, don't you think?" said Jenny with a smirk. "Sure you're not Anna in disguise?"

But Jenny froze when she realized that Lily had said almost the same thing to her the night before, just before the almost-kiss with the boy who now hated Jenny and everything about her. Somehow, it hurt all over again.

"I've got to go to class," Jenny muttered. "I'll see you at lunch."

And with that, the girls parted and Jenny headed down to the dungeons for Potions, knowing she would be late. And she was. Professor Slughorn gave her a jovial look and motioned her to the only remaining seat: right next to Remus. Their eyes met, and instead of the friendly smile he would have normally given her, his face was stony and his eyes were empty. Jenny swallowed hard, knowing their friends had stuck them together on purpose, obviously hoping they would work thing out. But there was nothing to work out. Remus hated her.

Thankfully, they just took notes that day. She didn't think she could have handled working side-by-side with Remus on a project that day. But then, at the end of the class that day, Professor Slughorn made an announcement that made Jenny cringe.

"Oh, and consider your seats right now permanent for the year. Have a good break."

Remus summed it up beautifully.

"Padfoot," he hissed as they all filed out of the dungeon, "I'm going to kill you."

For the rest of the week, Jenny and Remus had as little to do with each other as possible, much to the disappointment of their friends, who were insisting that they needed to make up, and that the pair of them were being incredibly selfish and childish. Their friends were getting used to being ignored when the topic was brought up. Jenny found her source of entertainment in the growing obviousness of the attraction between Tien and Sirius, who had resorted to flat-out staring at each other by Thursday.

While she was watching the adorableness of the blooming romance, however, she completely missed all the less-than secretive happenings of her friends. That is, she didn't notice them until they had her and Remus locked in an empty classroom on Saturday afternoon and refused to let them out until they were friends again.

"Leave it to Lily to find a classroom without windows," muttered Remus pacing the length of the room frantically. Jenny settled herself onto a desk.

"What would you suggest, Remus?" she hissed, "jumping out a seventh floor window? I'm furious, not suicidal. Surely you don't hate me that much."

"There are spells to break ones fall," he muttered, still pacing, but suddenly he stopped. "I don't hate you, Jenny."

"Could've fooled me," she laughed bitterly. "Which part was supposed to tell me that, ignoring me? Using my full name to address me? Yelling at me until I cried?"

"I didn't know you cried," he whispered. "I'm – I'm sorry."

Jenny wanted to accept his apology. He sounded so sad and she just wanted things to go back to normal. But they wouldn't. That only happened in books, where the fighting parties apologize and everything's peachy and they fight the forces of evil together. Real life didn't work that way and nothing had really changed since their almost-kiss.

"Jenny," he sighed, walking up to her. She turned her back on him. "Jenny, please."

She nearly jumped as he put his hands on her upper arms as though he wasn't sure himself if that was something he wanted to do. She needed him to let go of her, but Merlin, she wanted him to hold her tighter, closer, anything. She didn't dare turn around for fear that looking in his eyes would make her say something she'd regret. But Jenny wasn't sure what that might be… telling him to go away or telling him to stay?

"We can't do this all year, Jen," he murmured in her ear, and she found herself leaning back into him ever-so-slightly. "I don't want to fight with you. It hurts."

Her heart was absolutely pounding. They were locked in an empty classroom. They could do whatever they wanted and no one in the world would ever have to know. Her parents could never find out… her siblings would never find out… but things would never be the same again, and she was sure they could never go back to the way things were if she gave in now.

"I don't want to fight with you either," she sighed, trying to keep her thoughts on their negotiation and not on the way his fingers felt on her bare arms as they gently massaged her skin.

"But things can't change between us," he breathed into her ear. "Things have to be like they were."

Of course they did, she thought. She understood that just as well as he did, if only for different reasons.

"That thing that almost happened can't happen," she whispered. "Not ever."

"Of course not," he agreed, nodding, letting her know just how close together they really were. "That was my fault. I wasn't thinking."

"No, it was my fault," she sighed. "I shouldn't have gone up there like that. It was like asking for trouble."

"Well," he sighed, his hot breath tickling her neck, "I suppose it doesn't really matter whose fault it was. It just can't happen again. Deal?"

"Deal. Now let's get out of here."

Jenny hopped off the desk and knocked on the door, Remus hovering behind her.

"Oi, Sirius, I know you were listening. Let us out or I'm starting story time about your youth!"

The door flung open to reveal a horrified-looking Sirius, with their other friends sitting around the hallway nearby.

"You wouldn't dare!" he hissed, but Jenny just grinned and pushed past him.

"As fun as all this was, I've got things to do. Ta."

"Wait just a minute," called Sirius, but Jenny didn't stop. She knew that if he really wanted to talk with her, he'd follow her.

And sure enough, he did.

"What do you want, Sirius?" she said nonchalantly, not looking at him as he caught up with her.

"You two didn't solve anything," he hissed. "You're back to the way you were. Nothing has been solved!"

She frowned at him and kept walking as she said, "We're talking again. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"No!" Sirius groaned. "No, JV, that's what everybody else wanted. I wanted for you two to finally stop being idiots and snog out your sexual tension in an empty classroom! Is that too much to ask?"

"Never thought you would have been the blind optimist of the bunch," she muttered. "There are dozens of reasons why that would never, ever happen."

"Name some," he shot back.

"Aside from the reasons we've pushed each other away in the first place? It may have been an otherwise empty classroom, but we knew you could hear everything we said and did. And if we ever did decide to go on a spree of snogging to release all our pent-up tension, we'd never be able to speak to each other again. Just forget about us getting together, Sirius, and move on to your own love life. I'd rather look at him and know how I feel than to act on it and lose him forever. David would kill him and you know it."

Sirius gave her a stubborn look but didn't say another word as they approached the common room. Whether he was secretly planning his next attempt at matchmaking or if he had finally decided she was right, Jenny wasn't sure, but she was happy for the moment that he wasn't speaking. It would have to do.

"On a related note," Jenny pressed cautiously, "what are your current thoughts toward a certain Vietnamese girl we all know and love?"

He chewed on his lip for a moment, which she hadn't seen him do in years, before sighing and saying, "Godric, JV, you know I'm crazy about her. The only thing is, I don't know when it happened! I mean, it's like she grew up overnight and I woke up one day and haven't been able to take my eyes off her since. But she's our friend, it's not like I can do anything about it."

"Of course you can," Jenny laughed. "Ask her out, kiss her, snog her, shag her, marry her and have lots of adorable black-haired babies and make me the godmother of every single one."

Sirius snorted and shook his head.

"You're really something, Jenny, you know that?" he sighed as she gave the Fat Lady the password. He followed her into the common room. "You think you can tell me how I should live my life, but you can't even acknowledge how you should live yours!"

She glared at him dangerously and he met her stare. They had no secrets, no hidden parts. They knew everything about each other, and there was no fear between them. She couldn't keep him from telling her how to live her life just as she couldn't help but tell him how to live his. It was a mark of how much they depended on each other that they could still be friends after all they had put each other through.

"Sirius, please, you know I can't," she sighed. "I don't want to hear any more about it. If I even manage to make it out of that house alive it will be a miracle. I don't want Remus's blood on my hands."

"Jenny, please," he whispered, "I'll make sure you get out. I'll protect you, I promise."

"You know, Sirius," she hissed back, angry now, "you've been making that same empty promise since we were eight years old. I don't know how many times I'm going to have to remind you that you can't even protect yourself. Just leave me be, Sirius, please. I have work to do."

He finally relented, although he looked as bitter as he always did when she reminded him of his silly promise. Did he honestly think he would be able to protect her from her parents? His own parents were just as bad and they had been coming up with similar injures for years. But it was a silly thing to dwell on, she reminded herself, making her way to the library to write her essay. It was pointless to keep running over the same stupid things. They weren't getting anywhere.

She took her usual seat in the library, huddled up in the corner, out of the way of the general, bumbling traffic who didn't know how one ought to properly use a library. She had forgotten, until she sat down, that Remus had a similar spot in the library, but she recalled it instantly as she sat and saw him, already buried in a text not three tables over, not noticing her entrance. He may not have noticed her, but she couldn't help but notice him.

Despite what Jenny had agreed to, what she had said, she wanted him. He was like the piece of chocolate sitting just out of reach, or perhaps just within reach, to a woman on a strict diet. She knew now how he tasted, how blissful it was to be with him, and yet she absolutely couldn't have him. Rather, it wasn't that she couldn't, it's that all sorts of terrible things would happen if she did, and despite the great things that would come, she couldn't handle those terrible things. She couldn't have him. She could, however, look at him.

And Jenny loved to look at Remus. His sandy brown hair, his light amber eyes… The scars on his face didn't bother her. She had scars of her own. She would never forget when her parents were brought in shortly after her fall on the stairwell by request of Madam Pomfrey, who had seen some of her scars.

Her mother held that face of pureblooded perfection as she smoothed her robes over her lap. Her father had an equally stereotypical expression as he sat down beside her, regarding Professor Dumbledore indifferently.

"What seems to be the concern, Albus?" her father said softly. "From what her brother told me it was just a broken arm, easy fix. Don't you get a lot of those here, what with Quidditch and all?"

"Yes, we do, Darius," said Professor Dumbledore with a similar soft voice, his face more serious and stern than Jenny had ever seen it. "What we don't tend to see quite so much of is students with the extensive amount of scarring your daughter has. After all, most injuries are healed quickly with magic and scars are fairly uncommon on magical children, as I'm sure you know. Jeneva refuses to speak about them, and Poppy has asked me to call you in to discuss them. Perhaps one of you would like to explain them to me? I hate to pry, but my primary concern is for the welfare of my students, and you must concede that it is rather unusual."

Her parents didn't miss a beat. Her mother gave a soft, unconcerned smile and said, "Well, you know Jeneva, Albus, she's by far the most rambunctious of our children. And she's got her father's pride. She injures herself far more regularly than her siblings, lacking her sister's grace, as you might have guessed by her most recent incident, and she is far too proud to get them taken care off. She would rather try herself or let them heal naturally. It's a silly thing, but you know children."

"I certainly do," said Professor Dumbledore, and Jenny knew he wasn't buying. Jenny wasn't buying it either. Nobody seemed to be buying it, actually. "Do you happen to know how she acquired the particularly large gash on her left forearm? It seems to be fairly recent and she refuses to talk about it, as you might have guessed."

Her father, the dirty hypocrite, shook his head.

"Forearm? No, Albus, haven't a clue. She may have gotten it after school started. She runs with those rowdy boys, you know. Could be from any number of things, I suppose."

"That's the thing, though, Darius," said Professor Dumbledore coldly, "is that it couldn't." He had Madam Pomfrey roll up Jenny's sleeve to reveal the young scar. "As you can see, there really isn't a way for that to have been an accident, that I can think of. It appears to have been carved deliberately out of her flesh. Rather sadistic, wouldn't you think?"

"Quite," her mother said, in the tone of someone discussing disagreeable weather.

"In any case," Dumbledore continued, "I think it's clear that there is something not quite right with this situation."

"What are you insinuating, Albus?" her father hissed. "That's the Avery name you're besmirching, and I'm not going to stand for that."

"Of course, Darius," Professor Dumbledore said, the severity mounting with each word. "But as I have just demonstrated, a fair number of her so-called accidents couldn't have been accidents at all. There are only two possibilities: Either someone is doing this to her, or she is doing this to herself. Either scenario is fairly disturbing, I think you would agree."

"Albus–"

"I have spoken with the Ministry on this matter," continued Dumbledore, plowing over her father with a raised hand. "The Minister himself has stated that I am allowed to do whatever I see fit to ensure that Jeneva's safety is seen to. Since I cannot at this time determine how the marks are occurring, I am going to have her undergo mandatory psychological counseling until such time as she is considered safe. I understand your concerns. This is not going on her permanent record unless it is uncovered that there is some pressing reason to put it there, and there will be absolutely no mention of this in the Ministry or the press. Now, unless you have some new thoughts on where these scars came from that had previously escaped your mind, that is all, and I trust you know your way out."

Jenny had watched her father leave with a sense of fear, knowing that look he was giving her, that look that said to tell no one. As if she would say a word. He had already ruined her life; she didn't want him to end it.

Jenny tore her eyes from Remus's face as she came back to reality, remembering her counseling requirement. She would have to start her appointments the next week. For some reason, she felt horrified at the thought.

A/N: Sorry for the delay! College student, working hard… but there's a lot going on! Reviews drive the process forward, but I can't guarantee the chapter efficiency, I'm sorry! I don't even know when I'm going to have a chance to eat next, I'm so busy right now. Much love! Read and review! This new plot development came to me about five seconds ago. HAHA.