"You've been acting strange lately," Sirius announced as he sat down on the grass next to her by the lake. He gently bumped his shoulder into hers, "Well, stranger than usual."

"Could say the same about you," Del countered, looking over the lake, not bothering to look at her brother.

His nose wrinkled, "James told me you two saw me and McKinnon at Honeydukes." He shook his head slightly, "Not necessarily willingly, but nevertheless."

"You could have told me, you know," she pointed out as she leaned back on her hands. It seemed that whatever jinx her mother put on her only really affected her legs now.

He shrugged, "I could have but I didn't."

She turned to look at him, "Why not?"

"Because I wasn't sure where it was going to go," he explained, resting his arms on his knees. "I didn't really want to tell anyone until I knew it was actually something."

"And?"

"I don't know," he huffed. "She's just so..."

"Complicated?" Del finished for him and he nodded in agreement. "You'll get used to it."

He snorted, "I doubt that." He looked across the lake for a moment, "Your turn."

She opened her mouth to protest but decided against it. There was so much she had been keeping from him and it was about time she told him. "I've been keeping quite a few things from you."

He gasped dramatically, "No? Really?" She whacked him on the arm and he shoved her playfully, "I'm listening."

"First things first," she breathed out, "When James and I were patrolling that night and we asked you to go get a teacher? It's because it was Regulus who was with them."

Sirius's jaw clenched, "Regulus let them into Hogwarts?" She nodded and he fought the urge to get up and go find his brother. "But there's more?"

"Remember the letter I got when I was still in the hospital?" she asked him and he nodded. "Mother jinxed it."

"With?"

"She made it so that if I'm around James, I won't get any better," she explained and Sirius blanched.

"Why?"

"I don't know, maybe because the reason her eldest son left was because of him," Del commented in a bitter tone, her anger getting the best of her. She took a deep breath and shook her head, placing her head in her hands. She looked up after a moment, "I am stuck not being able to walk normally until we leave," she explained, "And I'd much rather do that while avoiding any other punishments."

"We can find a way to fix this," Sirius suggested. "We can talk to Dumbledore and maybe he can-"

"No, Sirius," Del shook her head. "The only way to fix this for me is to stay away from James. I can't do that when we go to the same school so I'm just going to deal with it."

"There has to be another way."

"Anything you try will just make matters worse," she pointed out. "At least this way, it's only my burden to bear."

"Del-"

"I'd like to be alone if that's okay," she requested, looking back over the lake.

"Yeah, okay," he nodded, standing up. "I'm sorry."

"It isn't your fault," she countered although a small part of both of them knew it was. "I'll see you later."

"Okay," he agreed before walking away, leaving her alone.

Del fell into the snow on her back and placed her arm over her eyes. She was tired and wanted all of this to be over already. Between finding out about what her mother did and realizing that Regulus was far too gone for her to help, she felt stuck. What was she supposed to do now?

"Hey," someone greeted and she uncovered her eyes to see James standing above her. "You okay?"

She nodded before putting her arm back, "I'm fine. Just need time alone is all."

"Hmm," he replied before she heard a rustling noise and realized he was sitting down next to her.

She looked over at him, "What are you doing?"

"Sitting down."

Del pushed herself up and narrowed her eyes at him, "I meant what are you doing sitting next to me."

He shrugged, "You seemed lonely."

"That's because I want to be alone," she pointed out. "Now tell me the real reason."

He rolled his eyes, "The Nott bloke has been watching you for some time now." She looked around until her eyes landed on Axel who was indeed watching her while two of his buddies talked. She turned away, "Figured if you weren't alone the odds of him coming over to you were slim to none."

"And how exactly did you know that he was watching me?"

"Well, I..." he trailed off and she raised an eyebrow waiting for a response. "I was with Lily when I noticed you were here and then I saw him. I waited to be safe and he was still there."

She cursed herself as she smiled at this, "Thanks, I guess."

"Yeah," he nodded before they both fell into an awkward silence.

"I think she's starting to warm up to you," Del informed the boy and he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Who?"

"Lily," she answered. "I mean, she willingly hung out with you and that is progress."

"Can we not talk about this?" he requested.

"Please," she stifled a laugh. "I may have only started to talk to you since this year but I know that Lily is all you ever want to talk about because she is all you want."

"I don't want Lily anymore," James replied simply, clearly agitated that the girl was so persistent on the topic. Del turned to look at him in both confusion and surprise.

"Okay, fine," she crossed her arms over her chest as she watched him, "What do you want?"

"I want..." he began, running a hand through his hair, shaking his head slightly, "Nevermind what I want."

Del rolled her eyes, "You've spent the good part of seven years chasing that girl. What changed?"

He huffed, "It doesn't matter." He glanced behind himself and she raised an eyebrow as she tried to figure out what was going on. "I have to get to Quidditch practice."

"I don't know what you're keeping from me but I will figure it out," she informed him as she forced herself to stand up using the tree and she slipped her arms through the crutches, "Have fun at Quidditch practice, Potter."

"I do have Quidditch practice," he pointed out as he stood up as well.

She held up her pocket watch for him to see, "But not for another hour." He looked down at the watch as well as she pushed herself off the tree. "It's alright, Potter," she mused, "Everyone is entitled to their secrets."

"I don't have any secrets," he shook his head.

"Au contraire," she smirked slightly. "And I will figure it out."

"I sincerely doubt that," he countered.

Del smirked a little at this, "'If you want to keep a secret, you must also keep it from yourself.'" She adjusted her crutches, "If you are so adamant on no one figuring it out Potter, it'll come out in due time."

"Who's that, Aristotle?" he inquired. "Pluto?"

"First of all, Pluto's a planet and a cartoon dog. Plato is the philosopher. And it's none of the above," she replied, adjusting her crutches, "It's George Orwell."

He nodded, "Right, well...He's wrong."

"Whatever you say, darling," she rolled her eyes. He watched her as she began her way back to the castle, "You should get going. We wouldn't want you to be late to practice."

James stayed by the lake for a moment, watching as the girl made her way back to the castle with a slight frown on his face. He shook his head after a moment before starting to walk away when Axel caught his eyes. The boy shook his head and James couldn't help but roll his eyes before walking off.

"I need you to understand that I'm not going to sit with you," Del informed them. "And it's not because of you two, it's because of him. I'm staying as far away from him as possible."

"We get it," Angela nodded, "We just miss you is all."

"It feels like you spend all your time with your brother or the Hufflepuff," Cynthia frowned, "You're barely around anymore."

"We'll find time to hang out," she explained. "But right now if you don't hurry up, we'll be late for Transfigurations."

The three made their way to class, taking a seat. Del pulled out her textbook and opened it to the page she had stopped reading it at and resumed while she waited for Professor McGonagall to start class.

"Del, can you come talk to me for a moment before you leave?" McGonagall requested and she frowned, ignoring the look her brother sent her way. She gathered her things and placed them in her bag. As soon as everyone was gone, she made her way to the teacher's desk.

"If this is about my spell work, I know," Del informed her immediately. "I've been working on it, I just-"

"I don't doubt that, I see you studying all of the time. But if you want to pass your N.E.W.T's, I'm going to suggest you start getting some extra help," McGonagall explained. "The practical is going to be an even bigger part of the N.E.W.T's then it was when you took the O.W.L's."

"Right," Del nodded with a huff. "I'll figure something out. Thank you."

She turned to leave but the Professor stopped her. Del turned to face her teacher, "Might I suggest Mr. Potter? He has top marks in Transfiguration."

"He does?" she inquired, surprised that the boy was top of any class let alone Transfiguration. The Professor nodded, "I'll talk to him."

Del made her way out of the classroom with a huff. There was no way she was going to ask James Potter for help.

After a very quick dinner and the shortest Head Boy and Girl meeting she'd ever attended, she went straight back to the Slytherin common room and into her own room.

Del fell back onto her bed, tossing her crutches to the side with a huff. She was exhausted and she wanted nothing more than to just fall into a fast, dreamless sleep.

She opened her eyes as she realized she still had to change when there was a slight crackling noise then a paper fell onto her lap. She picked it up in confusion and read it.

'Sirius told me about what your mom did. I'm sorry. - James Potter'

During the first meeting Del attended after she was mostly recovered, Dumbeldore taught them all a spell that would make it easy and quick for them to send a teacher a message for help.

She grabbed a piece of paper from her nightstand and a quill and quickly scrawled out, 'It's not your fault. - Del Black' She grabbed her wand and waved it, saying the incantation that Dumbledore had taught all of the Heads of the Houses and the paper vanished.

The response was almost immediate, 'It kind of is.'

'You didn't tell her to do it. Unless of course you did, then we'll have a problem.'

'That's not what I meant and you know it.'

'If you mean that because I've been around you, I haven't been getting better then get over yourself. Even if we never said a word to each other, I would still be where I am.'

'I'm still sorry.'

'Apologize one more time and I'll give you a reason to be sorry.'

The next response took awhile, 'Goodnight, Black.'

'Night, Potter.'

Despite having had told him that it wasn't his fault, she had come to realize that he hadn't believed her. James had spent the next week avoiding Del at all costs. He sat all the way across the room in the classes they shared together. He showed up just as meetings began and left as soon as they ended. He even stopped showing up to dinner because apparently they didn't sit far enough from each other.

"Tell him to get over himself for me, will you?" Del requested of her brother. "People are starting to ask questions and I'm this close to hexing the next person who doesn't know how to mind their own business."

"James is..." Sirius trailed off. "Well, he's James. There's not much I can do."

"He's being ridiculous," she replied. "Him avoiding me like the plague isn't making me any better if he hasn't noticed."

"No, he's noticed," he pointed out before turning to look at his sister. "Speaking of-"

"Oh, would you look at that?" Del interrupted, gesturing to the Quidditch field, "The match is starting, wouldn't want to miss anything important."

Sirius narrowed his eyes at the girl but said nothing as he turned to face the field. She knew what he was going to ask and she didn't really care to explain herself. Besides, she didn't have a reason as to why she suddenly started caring that James was avoiding her when prior to him actually doing it, she wanted nothing more than for him to leave her alone.

The match was a flurry of excitement. It was hard to tell who was who as the blurs of reds and greens flew by, causing Del's head to spin as she tried to figure out who was where and who was actually winning. From her understanding Gryffindor was winning by a landslide to the point that a Slytherin had hexed a third year Gryffindor because they had been cheering too loud.

Del was on the team third through fifth year but she dropped out sixth year due to her parents wishes. She was, and she quotes, 'spending too much time flying around on a stick when you could be studying to get a job at the Ministry of Magic.' That seemed to have high hopes for the girl yet very little appreciation for her.

The game went on and James, the Seeker on Gryffindor, caught sight of the Golden Snitch, the key to ending and winning the game. As soon as James went for it, the Slytherin Seeker, who at the time happened to be Axel Nott went for it as well.

Axel caught up to James with ease and rammed his shoulder into the boy. Del rolled her eyes at Axel's mannerisms as the two boys sped up to reach the Snitch before the other one did.

"Go, Potter!" Del cheered, her hands cupped around her mouth. James' head turned in her direction and he lost sight of the Snitch for a moment. He quickly refocused himself and went to grab for it but seemed to over calculate how far his reach was.

As he moved to grab it, he slipped off his broom causing the crowd to gasp. Del could hear Dumbledore saying something but she wasn't sure what because it sounded like buzzing in her ears.

"Bloody hell," Sirius muttered and the three self proclaimed Marauders, alongside Del, stood up to look over the railing at where the boy had fallen. Del seemed to be the first one to get over the shock of it all and quickly made her way down to the field, followed by Peter, Remus and Sirius a moment later.

Del jumped the last three steps, not falling despite the crutches, and she sprinted, as fast as one could in her condition, onto the field where the boy had landed. She fell to her knees at his side and grabbed his hand, trying to get his attention. "Potter, can you hear me?"

He groaned, his eyes fluttering open, "Yes and you're loud."

She laughed a little, "You had me worried there for a minute."

"Don't go getting soft on me now, Black," he muttered, his eyes closing slightly, the ghost of a smile on his face.

She placed her hand on his face, "Stay awake. Just until Pomfrey gets a look at you."

A moment later, the three boys along with McGonagall and Dumbledore approached them, followed by Pomfrey who immediately examined the boy. "Is he alright?" Remus inquired from where he peered over the Headmaster's shoulder to look at his friend.

"He'll be fine," Pomfrey nodded as she helped the boy sit up. She flashed a light in his eyes. "What did I say about getting injured again, Potter?"

"I told you there were no guarantees," he reminded her before holding up the Golden Snitch between his pointer finger and thumb. "On the bright side, I caught the Snitch."

Del rolled her eyes as she slipped her hand out of James' hand and stood up. She wiped her palms, which had become surprisingly sweaty, on her jeans. "Good to know you have your priorities in check."

He grinned at this before looking up at the girl. As he caught the girl's eye, his smile faltered and she frowned. She hated how quickly things had shifted between them more than she'd care to admit out loud.

"'Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids,'" she recited and all the boys who had become all too familiar with her random quotes rolled their eyes.

"And who can I thank for that?" James asked as he was helped to his feet.

"John Steinbeck," she answered as she crossed her arms over her chest, "And I can assure you, Potter, it's best not to fall fifty feet from the sky to win something as silly as a game."

"Like you said," he replied. "I have my priorities right where I'd like them."