...."YOU'RE GOING TO have to tell her, Moony."

"Are you mental? We can't tell her, she'll have me kicked out before Halloween."

"Well she'll only find out on her own if you don't tell her."

Jackie was thoroughly fed up with waking up sporting a headache. She reached her hand around to figure out what exactly that ache was at the back of her head and her fingers were met with fresh bandages. She must have hit her head harder than she thought. Although, not hard enough to forget what she had seen.

Her eyes blearily opened as she took in her surroundings. She was in the hospital ward and was seemingly laying on a rather uncomfortable metal bed. Her eyes travelled down to the foot of the bed to find the source of the voices and she was met with the sight of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin having a heated little discussion.

"Don't tell me what? That you're an illegal Animagus who apparently went all feral mutt and mauled his best friend?" Jackie snapped.

Sirius' eyebrows shot up at the sound of her voice and he turned to face her glowering scowl. "Jackie! You're awake, how lovely to see you." He greeted in his most sugary sweet tone.

"Don't you dare try buttering me up Black. Tell me what's going on." She demanded, deepening her frown.

"You fell, banged your head. There's nothing more to tell." Interrupted Remus before Sirius had a chance to spill his secret. He was jittery and on edge at the thought of Slytherin's resident green girl finding out about his life-long secret.

"But luckily your knight in shining amour was there to nurse you back to health." Sirius cut in with a shit-eating grin. "Where's my prize?" He asked, tapping his lips with his fingers, obviously expecting a kiss for landing her in a hospital bed.

Jackie slipped her foot out from the covers and kicked him as hard as she could, hitting him in the thigh and soliciting a pained "Ow!" from his mouth. Huh, that fall must have weakened her a little. She was aiming for the crotch.

"What was that for?!" Sirius cried out, rubbing the spot on his upper thigh that she had kicked.

"For being enough of a prat to ever think I would be that depraved." She explained simply, with a shrug of her shoulders. "Now I know what I saw. I didn't faint with no reason to. And you will tell me why you are part canine and why Lupin looked like he'd been through a meat grinder last night before I figure it out for myself. Or better yet, I'll just leave you in a matching hospital bed." She threatened with an evil little glint in her eye.

"Mate, should I be worried that the only time she's spoken a full sentence to me is to threaten me?" He mused, turning to Lupin to get his opinion.

"I reckon she's playing hard to get." Remus replied, joining in on the joking in an effort to steer her away from the topic. No such luck.

"Okay that's it-" She countered, sitting up to try and get out of bed and bang their two heads together.

"Careful there, I hear Pomfrey uses open back hospital gowns." Sirius warned, a mischievous smile on his face. Jackie gasped and turned to look down at the simple white night gown she was wearing. When she saw that he was only teasing her, she went to grab for him and pull him into a headlock. "Made you look." He jeered, a look of absolute glee on his face when he dodged her outstretched hands and instead tugged on one of her brown curls.

Before she could murder him once and for all, her ears were met by the familiar sounds of her little group of friends arguing with Madam Pomfrey. "But Miss! Please just a quick visit." Whined the voice of Delia.

Before her friends could round the corner, she grabbed Sirius by his ridiculous red and gold uniform tie and pulled him down to be eye level with her. An unusual blush crept up his neck as her sparking brown eyes bored into his grey ones. His breath ghosted on her cheek as a look of surprise crossed his face and a look of something else that she didn't quite recognize. "I am going to find out what you're up to Black. And when I do you won't be the one laughing." He gulped as she released her grip on his tie. "Now the two of you get out of here before I transfigure you into mice and feed you to Mrs. Norris."

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Just as they left, her girls entered. "Jackie! By Salazar, what did you do to yourself this time."  Lizzie fretted like the mother hen she was.

"Must have tripped on my way back to the common room last night. I can't really remember much about it." Jackie replied. She wasn't just ready to let her friends know what she had seen yet before she had a chance to figure out what those two were up to.

"Jackie it's me Benny! You remember me, don't you? Your best friend Benny?" Benny shouted in her ear.

"Bloody hell Benny, I fell, I didn't go deaf." She groaned, rubbing her probably now damaged ear socket.

"Oh, thank God you didn't lose your memory. You have my timetable memorized; I'd be lost without it." Benny sighed in relief.

"Well I'm glad to know that's what you value most about me." Jackie grumbled as the lanky girl tried to clamber her way onto the bed beside her, wrapping her long arms around her shoulders. Jackie turned her head and nuzzled her face into Benny's shoulder to show her gratitude for her unwavering ability to bring light to every situation.

"These linens are horrible really." Lizzie tutted as she pulled the covers up to Jackie's chin, tucking her in. She perched on the edge of the bed with her ankles crossed underneath her, ever the lady.

"I think the scratchiness is comforting." Jackie told her, rubbing her cheek against the pillow. She gave her a bright grin to show her how much she loved her constant doting.

Cordelia crawled onto the bottom of the bed, laying rather heavily across Jackie's legs. "Missed you lots today Jac Jac." She told her with a begrudging grin.

"How much did it bother you to admit that?" Jackie asked, knowing the unaffectionate girl all too well.

"Oh, you have no idea." The girl teased, patting her legs. Jackie caught her hand and gave it a squeeze to let her know that she never had to be afraid to show her love and emotions around the people who loved her most of all.

"I missed you too Delia. I missed you all today." Jackie turned to each girl with a genuine smile on her face. Seeing them all squeezed onto a tiny little hospital bed with her, concerned about her and caring for her was a kind of love that Jackie had never experienced from her Father.

It made her realize how lucky she was to have such wonderful people in her life to make up for the paternal love that she had never received. She didn't remember much about her Mother before she packed up and left but she had heard that she was the only woman submissive enough to win her Father's heart so she hadn't held out hope that she had received much maternal love either.

She had really come to depend on these girls. They all had their troubles; Benny and her blood status. Elizabeth and her pureblood expectations. Cordelia and her overbearing Grandmother. Jackie and her Father's plans for her. But in each other they had found a home. A place where they could be unapologetically themselves around people who loved them without conditions.

Jackie realized just how little hope she would have without them. But with them it kept that fiery spark burning inside her. She didn't realize it yet, but they would be her salvation.
 

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Regulus was in a foul mood. Christmas came closer with every passing week, he had been docked house points for skipping classes and he hadn't seen her all day. Was she avoiding him after he had sat with her in the library? He really couldn't afford to start from scratch in his efforts to win her affections and he had thought that it was a good plan when he had concocted it.

He began to lose his patience when the clock struck eleven that night and she still hadn't appeared in the common room. She wouldn't be so childish as to stay away from her own dorms for the night over something so miniscule, would she? Unless she was spending the night in some other bed. Regulus' heart sparked with fury at the thought of it.

Regulus grabbed the Dekker girl she was friends with before she could turn up the stairs to go to bed for the night. "Do you by any chance know where Harmon is tonight? I have... homework to pass onto her." He lied.

"I already let her know about the homework that she missed today." She shrugged, turning to leave again.

"Could you-" He interrupted, grabbing her arm again to stop her. "Could you just tell me where she is? I just want to make sure she has it all."

She gave him and odd look and continued her way up the stairs. "Hospital ward." She called to him over her shoulder nonchalantly as she reached the top step. She was gone before he could even ask why.

He didn't know why his heart sunk so rapidly when he heard those words or why he felt the sudden need to go to her and protect her from whatever had hurt her. His feet were suddenly carrying him out of the dungeons and to the hospital wards.

He kept to the shadows as he went, knowing that if he got caught by a teacher while roaming the halls past curfew, he would never make it there to see her. The hospital ward was practically empty and luckily Madam Pomfrey was nowhere to be seen so he could slip in without being questioned about it.

He spotted her curls slipping out onto the pillow on the very last bed of the row. He made his way down to her and quietly lowered himself down in the seat beside her. He didn't want to wake her and let her find out that he was developing some odd attachment to her, but he just needed to make sure she was alright.

She actually looked rather nice in sleep. She was rid of that frown that she always wore, and she looked almost peaceful. Her nose twitched as she dreamed, and her lips were set in a soft curve.

A breeze came in from the open window above her bed and blew a strand of fine hair down onto her face. He didn't know why he did it, maybe he just wanted to find out if her hair felt as soft as it looked, but he reached down and pushed the piece of hair behind her ear.

Her eyes fluttered open and her all-knowing eyes met his. "Regulus?" She whispered in a light breathy voice that had his mouth going dry and his heart speeding up at the sound of his name coming from her pale pink lips.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you." He mumbled gruffly, his voice sounding raspy from his proximity to her. He tucked his hands behind his back and stood, making to leave.

"Wait." There came that gentle whisper again. "Stay with me. I don't like the dark." She pleaded, grabbing his arm, and tugging on it until he presented her with his hand. She took it and intertwined his fingers with hers, placing both of their hands between her face and the pillow, her breathing soon slowing down again.

He didn't know why he was acting like this. Why just those words from her made him feel like it was his honor and duty to protect her from the dark for the rest of eternity.

This wasn't supposed to happen. This wasn't the warm and fuzzy feeling that people talked about when they had an attraction to someone. She was a burning constellation, threatening to collide with him and cause his whole being to implode. He knew it was insensible. He had only really begun speaking to her this year and even at that, the conversations weren't at all lengthy. But he couldn't help this building possessiveness that was coming over him.

He really needed to get out of there and give himself a good talking to. But, how could he? How could he leave her when her hand fit in his like the gods had made it so just for him? How could he leave her when she nuzzled her face against his hand in her sleep and he got a touch of those beautiful soft curls of hers. How could he leave her when she was right there?

The sun had begun to rise again when he could finally manage to let go of her hand and make his way back to the dungeons.

( and that's a wrap on chapter 4!! its only early days but let me know if you're team sirius or team regulus yet. chapter 5 should be coming soon if i get a spare minute to write it. thanks for reading if you're keeping up with jackies story so far!!)