"James!" Lily belted out upon the sight of his limp body being carried out onto the field. The color in her face drained as she, along with Marlene and Alice, burst out of their seats and raced with urgency down the stairs, which seemed so terribly long in that moment, down to the grassy bottom.

Hermione was about to join the other girls to see James, but was taken aback by the boy next to her. Sirius remained motionless in his seat. James, practically his brother, was wounded. He was there for him when no one else was; he was everything he needed; he was good. Without a doubt, James was that source of good in his life, distracting him from the family trauma of his childhood. Come to think of it, Sirius had never really thanked James for that, for being such a great support system: his truest friend.

What the hell would he do without him?

Hermione watched the bravery fade from Sirius eyes, and the murmurs of the crowd faded as she dialed in on him alone. In a moment of comforting, Hermione gently placed her nervous hand on Sirius' back, an action that she quickly questioned herself for doing. He tensed up almost immediately. So did she.

"Let's go see him Sirius, he needs you," she spoke, the anxiousness in her voice amplified.

And so they walked out of the stands together, Sirius especially picked up speed in a disorganized fashion just as Lily had done only moments before. Once he finally made it down to where Lily was so anxiously waiting, he saw Gryffindor's second-year seeker carrying James over to where Dumbledore had so quickly appeared.

Lily ran over to them, Sirius immediately following along with Hermione, Marlene, and Alice.

The anxious ginger then grabbed the attention of the nervous seeker carrying James. "W-What happened, um," she paused, "I'm so sorry, what's your name?"

"Zachary Sutton," he paused, "Zach." It was clear that Zach was shaken up by this situation. Despite his strong arms holding up James with consistency, he was weakened with everything that he saw. Hermione could see it in his eyes.

While she, Alice, and Marlene kept their distance to avoid crowding the injured boy, Lily spoke for both her and Sirius. "Zach, what happened?"

Gulping, he placed James on to a stretcher that Dumbledore had summoned. The Headmaster himself was just as eager to know how James had been injured. "It was a horrible accident," Zach started, looking down at his feet, "I was falling behind Lucinda in catching the snitch, and James got caught between her and the boundaries. I can only assume that he lost his balance and ran into the wall. I wish I were there to see it, to have helped him in any way."

Zach's voice began to break. "I feel terrible," he swallowed.

"Thank you Zach, I can't imagine how hard this is for you. Madam Pomfrey will have him back on the field before we know it," Dumbledore eased.

"But James never loses his balance," Lily spoke under her breath. She remained baffled as she tried to follow Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey to the Hospital Wing, before being sent back.

While Lily became combative and tried to fight her way into seeing that James would be okay, Sirius, again, remained motionless as he watched his unconscious best friend being carried away. Everything possible thought about losing James ran through his head, how he wouldn't be able to manage it, how he would feel alone, how one of the few people that was good to him throughout his unfortunate life could leave just like that. He could bear it, and it scared him.

Standing back with Marlene and Alice, Hermione watched Sirius. She didn't like seeing him anxious, it made her anxious, and she didn't like it.

"You should go with him, Harper, he listens to you," Alice whispered into the ear of Hermione as she watched him.

To Sirius, Harper was good in the same way James had always been. In the past two months, despite that fact that he had grown to care about her in a way regarding more than friendship (little to Harper's knowledge), he knew her as a friend, and having her in his corner at the moment eased his internal pain immensely. The simple "I can't imagine how hard this is for you," rolling off of Harper's lips in that moment meant the world to him. He could hear the genuineness in her voice.

But as she spoke those words, as genuine as they seemed, Hermione could stop replaying Alice's words over in her head.

What did she mean by he listens to me? What was that supposed to mean?

She didn't like the way that another thought, or many thoughts, regarding the black-haired boy standing a yard away from her kept perturbing in her mind. And she didn't like the way they never left.

And they did never leave, even throughout the slow walk back to the castle with the rest of the Gryffindors and Slytherins. While Lily remained in denial about James' injuries, Hermione was nearly drowning in said thoughts. Little did she know, the boy alongside her had become slightly more at ease from her companionship. But that possibility didn't enter Hermione head.

She played it off as being just as shaken up as the rest of them about James' safety. Though she too cared about James, she had seen Madam Pomfrey's work in the previous five school years whenever Harry or Ron got themselves injured in the most peculiar ways. She knew James would be okay.

The arrival back to the castle followed by the hours waiting for Madame Pomfrey to allow visitors felt like a century. Everyone who considered themselves dear to James congregated themselves in the Gryffindor common room. Some passed time by talking about the treats they were going to buy for James as soon as the next Hogsmeade trip rolled around, others, the more artistic ones on that note, put together a "Get Well Soon!" card for him. Lily lead the charge in that progression, getting nearly the entire house of Gryffindor to sign the enchantedly large card with their best regards.

The following week, each of James' close friends were allowed visiting hours to see him. Sirius was up first, followed by Remus and Peter, and Lily accompanied by Hermione.

As soon as they entered the hospital wing, James' eyes lit up at the sight of Lily, and even Lily herself was beginning to catch on to it. The first time having seen him after his accident, she rushed over to him with great urgency.

Though he was restricted to bed rest in the hospital wing, he seemed in high spirits once the girls walked in the room, especially for someone who took a serious knock to the head less than a week ago. Hermione was shocked.

"James! James, how are you?" she fired at him, getting more than a smile in return.

"Good, surprisingly. Madame Pomfrey's amazing. I don't remember anything past the last goal I scored before blacking out, and Pomfrey says there's not much to do about that though."

"Oh, that's too bad," Hermione started, "Zach, the seeker, told us that you ran into one of the posts pretty quickly after that. We're so glad that you're okay now—"

"It was probably that Slytherin nut job Lucinda Talkalot. Zach said she practically pushed you over," Lily glared.

Zach didn't say that.

"She's harmless Lils, we all know that. Just a bit cocky sometimes is all. I doubt it was intentional."

Lily smirked. "You're cheery for someone who hospitalized only five days ago," she said.

"Well, let's just say that you're quite a sight for sore eyes," he smiled back.

Hermione began to notice the blush rising in Lily cheeks and understood exactly what James had wanted for years. She smiled to herself before saying, "Well, I've got a large pile of homework waiting for me back in the dorm, I better go. It was great to see you well again, James."

Hermione waved goodbye the James and Lily, leaving her best friend's young parents to their own company.

As she was leaving, Hermione could just barely hear Lily starting to say, "we made this for you," in reference to the card signed by everyone who loved James. It brought a smile to her face.

A similar schedule in these visiting hours resumed for the following three days, until James would be released from the hospital wing. Sirius, then Remus, then Peter, then Hermione and Lily, Lily staying longed than the rest of them combined.

Despite the copious amount of events that had halted Hermione's plan of action in the past week, the image of Peter entering the Room of Requirement was buried into her head. That was her next step, and visiting it during Peter's slot of visiting hours seemed to be a reasonable time to take a look around, Hermione thought.

She had only one hour that Peter would be gone to inspect the room, until 5 p.m. to be exact. Bringing with her her wand, Harry's invisibility cloak, and a wristwatch, Hermione made her way up to the top floor without drawing suspicion as soon as Peter's time started. The hallway where the door to the mysterious room appears was deserted, giving Hermione the perfect opportunity to pace with purpose.

Three times down the hall, she paced with her mind best focused on what Peter could possibly be hiding in the Room of Requirement.

Out of the stone wall, the familiar massive door appeared the same way that she had seen it do for Peter. All she had to do was walk in.

Turning the nob, entering the room, and removing her invisibility cloak caused a rush of adrenaline to flow through Hermione veins. The door returned to its minuscule size as she peered around the room. It was like she had entered a crime scene, but with every piece of evidence practically laid out for her use.

In the middle of a room, lay a table with three items across it. Hermione practically ran to it, before being caught off guard by the large amount of dark energy that she felt when she stepped closer and closer.

But she couldn't believe it was all there.

First on the table and to her left, lay Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem. The same exact one that Peter had hid in here for her initiation. The same exact quivering, evil feeling pulsates through her fingers to the rest of her body as she picked it up.

The second object, laying in the center of the table, was a notebook. Hermione flipped through the pages, the first entry dating back to the start of last year. She recognized Peter's handwriting. As she skipped through the pages, Hermione began to realize that this notebook contained information from each of the Order of the Phoenix meetings, down to the smallest detail. She had almost forgotten that her arrival was after the founding of the Order, meaning that they each took part in it currently. Knowing that he has been a spy since the very first meeting made Hermione's blood boil more than ever.

And lastly, and most pressing of all, the third option on the table contained a half-full bottle of a liquid unknown to Hermione. Unknown, that is, until she popped off the bottle's cork and took a faint smell of the formula.

She smelled sugar, fire, and wet dog.

It was Amortentia.

A/N: thanks for reading this far and for 650+ views! i appreciate any and all feedback!

A/N UPDATE (4/25/21): ok so for those of you who have stuck with this story since they VERY start (straight up 3 years ago), you know that i've completely rewritten/changed this story and in my drafts is what's left of the original draft and OH MY GOD is it bad, like i am laughing looking at my writing from 2018. for starters i couldn't write dialogue for shit, ALL of my characters had the same bland ass personality traits, and just everything about it SCREAMED middle school. if you're reading this, you're sincerely lucky that you didn't read this story 3 years ago bc i probably would have scared you off of my account. ANYWAY, big thanks for 183K, like that's insane. all of ur votes and comments mean the words to me.

one last thing i forgot about, i noticed that there's a plot typo! earlier in the book i wrote emma as being the slytherin quidditch captain, and wrote her last chapter as being a spectator. i am going back and editing that mistake to clear up any confusion. i know it's very small error, but i just wanted to let you guys know in case anyone caught onto that!

peace out!   - callahan.