As always, would very much appreciate reviews if you have a moment. Any kind of review is accepted, but I am not egotistical enough to think my writing is perfect and I really would like to improve more; so, constructive criticism is very welcome too! And a huge thank you to GhostWriter1864, DracoSly, cj Thompson for taking a few moments to comment.

Hope you enjoy!


James and Sirius were awakened around noon by the deafening roars of their empty stomachs.

"Bloody hell, we really should have made a trip to the kitchens before we passed out this morning," Sirius clutched his stomach as he climbed out of bed. His muscles were sore from the night of wrangling a werewolf but he never minded helping his friend.

"Oye, Prongs! Get out of bed you lazy bastard. I need food, and you promised me a quest for information."

James moaned painfully in response. He yanked the crimson duvet over his head to block out the light streaming in from the window. Sirius threw his pillow at the lump he assumed was James' head. He walked over to the window when he noticed a faint tapping from an owl.

"Hello there Hecate, hope you haven't been waiting there long." Sirius fed the calm bird some owl treats they kept by the window and removed the letter from its leg. He already knew who the letter was for and where it was from; Sirius just had to decide how to use it against James.

Sirius rolled the parchment between his fingers and decided on a simple ruse. "Well mate, it seems you've been lying to your poor Padfoot."

"What are you on about, Black," came a muffled voice from within the bed.

"You told me last week, that you and the lovely Miss Evans were just chums. But this letter here is addressed to 'my dearest James.' What on earth could that mean?" Sirius feigned surprise as he tilted his chair back on two legs and held up the small bit of parchment.

James acted as if he had been set ablaze as he bounded out of bed and snatched the paper from Sirius' outstretched hand. When he read the address line as, "to James," he shoved Sirius so he fell onto his back, "You prat!"

Sirius rolled on the floor laughing as he imagined steam pumping out of his friend's ears. "I'm sorry mate, I couldn't help it. I thought you were over Evans anyway. You haven't asked her out in ages."

"Yea, well maybe I'm trying to grow up a bit and be friends with her before I try asking the girl out again. Remus suggested I actually get to know her first. Seemed logical at the time…" James was visibly hurt by Sirius' prank; his face fell as he explained his more mature attitude toward Lily.

"Sorry Prongs. I didn't mean any harm," Sirius clapped James on the shoulder to try to comfort his friend. "I really don't understand your fascination with this one girl though. She's pretty I guess, but you could have any girl in the school. Potter is a fairly respectable name you know."

"Yea, well I think you pay enough attention to the other girls in school for the both of us," James shrugged his friends hand off and went to find some clean clothes to change into.

Sirius mimed being daggered through the heart, "Low blow Master Prongs!" He was answered with a dirty shirt thrown at his head.

"Get dressed Pads. I need nourishment or I might buck you in the head." James dressed quickly and scribbled a quick response to Lily, who had been curious about Remus's health after this full moon.


They were both clad in muggle clothes as they descended the stairs to the common room. A glorious smell met them as they reached the landing; McGonagall had asked the house elves to prepare some food for the two Marauders. She left a note; again asking them to behave themselves in the vacant castle while they waited for Remus to recover.

"I thought McGonagall trusted us by now. It's not like we can get into much trouble with no one around anyway," James mumbled through bites of bacon.

"Yea, well you didn't see her face when I found her niece. She looked terrified. But then she seemed angrily defensive when I asked about the girl. She reminded me of a mother bear," Sirius raised his arms and made his hands mimic craws, "I was quite afraid she would bite my head off."

James scoffed at Sirius' antics, "She probably would have if she wasn't so tired. Did you see her eyes? Looked like she slept even less than we did."

The pair finished their food quickly and made their way to the hospital wing to check in on Remus.


They found Madame Pomfrey alert and tending to Remus' arm again. "Hello boys. Did you both sleep alright?" she asked in a soft, quiet tone.

The Marauders mirrored her voice as they answered, "fine here, and you?"

"Oh I'm doing well. I slept a few hours in my office since Professor McGonagall refused to leave the girl's side. She kept watch over Remus for me as well." Madame Pomfrey examined her wand stitch work on Remus' forearms before she reapplied a green cooling salve and wrapped it in some new bandages.

"Is the professor still here?" James asked, glancing over at the partitioned white walls surrounding the young woman he hadn't set eyes on yet.

"No. I finally forced her out of the ward a few hours ago and told her to get some sleep. I can watch over her niece while Minerva rests."

"Would you tell us what happened to the poor girl?" Sirius asked the nurse with sugar coated words.

Madame Pomfrey stiffened at the question. She didn't actually know what the truth was, but she knew that the young woman wasn't of this current time period. Minerva had asked her to address the girl as 'Amelia McGonagall' if she awoke before the professor's return, and to also answer anyone's questions as unspecifically as possible. They needed the girl to wake up to confirm information and cover stories before anything was determined.

"Well, I don't know much yet. Professor McGonagall arrived late last night with her unconscious niece and asked if I could heal the wounds she had accumulated during her journey." Poppy knew that this would not satisfy the boys, so she made a point of befriending them in this situation with hopes that they would trust her and leave the girl alone, "But I will let you know when I found out more. Minerva is very concerned about her at the moment and hasn't elaborated much on the girl."

Sirius and James both nodded their heads but continued to imagine theories of their own. James thought she might have been attacked my giants, since there had been a recent maneuvering of their kind in the Ben Nevis Mountain. Sirius believed that the girl had been badly burned; he recalled the faint sent of singed flesh when he had stepped into her makeshift room this morning but could not remember if he had seen any burn marks on her exposed skin.

Madame Pomfrey lifted Remus' eye lids and checked their dilation with the lit tip of her wand. Then she held the werewolf's wrist and counted the heartbeats against the second hand on her watch. "Well, Mr. Lupin seems to be healing up nicely. I'll have to keep him under medical supervision for another day or two, but I wouldn't be surprised if he woke up later tonight. Why don't you both leave him be until then." She waved them off toward the door and went around the partitions to reexamine Hermione.

The Marauders were too interested in the unidentified woman to give up so easily. They watched Madame Pomfrey's shadow carefully weave a spell over the young woman's body.

Poppy, let out a little defeated sign as the results for the spell came back inconclusive. Madame Pomfrey was quickly running out of creative ideas on how to treat the girl. She lifted some bandages to inspect the lightning scars. Poppy decided to reapply some of the cooling salve to help with the pain she was sure the girl was experiencing. "I hope you're not conscious enough to endure this dear," she whispered; squeezing the young woman's hand as she exited around the temporary room.

The boys quickly encircled themselves with James' invisibility cloak before Madame Pomfrey entered the main area of the hospital wing. They watched as Poppy, checked her watch, and wrote down the time on Hermione's medical chart. She exited the hospital wing, presumably to stretch her legs a bit, as she did during regular school term as well.

"Do you think we should stay under the cloak?" Sirius asked in a harsh whisper.

"No Pads. Poppy didn't sound very hopeful while she was examining her, so I think it's safe to presume that she's not going to wake up any time soon." James removed the cloak from their shoulders and tucked it under Remus' bed. He casually crossed to the other side of the hospital wing and slipped behind the white partitions. Sirius followed close behind.

They found the young woman tucked carefully into the cot. Her arms were placed on either side of her. Her breath appeared deep and constant; if you did not know she was in a coma, you would have assumed she was only sleeping. James began investigative her bedside table, where Hermione's jacket had been folded and placed for safe keeping. He found a little purple bag, but dismissed it quickly when he noticed its light weight and its silence when shaken. James looked through her pockets and found nothing of significance. He turned to Sirius to see if he had found anything interesting.

But Sirius stood unmoving at the foot of her bed. He had been staring at her the entire time James had been searching for clues. "Oye!" James said furiously, "I thought we were trying to figure out where the girl came from, not fawn over her as she slept like some creepy bugger."

Sirius glared at James, and defensively snapped back, "Well, we're being creepy bastards anyway going through her things."

"And what's your ingenious plan for getting information, smoldering it out of her while she's unconscious?" James was growing impatient with his friend. He loved Sirius like a brother, but sometimes he was as equally annoyed by him as well.

"Yea, alright Prongs. Let's get some answers." He glanced at the young woman again before he joined James in rifling through things around her bed, but they found nothing. There were no personal effects around her bed at all; nothing to even hint to what her name was.

As they were giving up and about to leave, Sirius caught a glimmer of the setting sun's reflection off the girl's wrist. He bent down to see what had mirrored the light. "Hey Prongs, is this a coat of arms?"

James knelt down beside Sirius to get a better look. "Yea, it looks really old too." He took the girl's arm from Sirius and tilted her wrist slightly to more closely examine the engraving. "I've seen this before. Can't remember where; but it might have some connection to Gryffindor since the lion is there."

"Wait! I know where it's from." Sirius excitedly answered as he jumped up and dragged James down the hall. They stopped in front of McGonagall's office. 'Professor Minerva McGonagall' was printed in bold black letters on the door. There, underneath her name, was a small shield with the same lion and olive branch.

"So your big realization is that the girl is related to McGonagall," James hit the palm of his hand against his forehead. "Oh wait, we already knew that!"

"No, we confirmed that she's related to McGonagall. You can't say you didn't have some doubt about that. I know the Professor wouldn't talk to students about her personal life, but Poppy seemed just as clueless as we did about who the girl was. I thought Madame Pomfrey and McGonagall were friends. Why wouldn't she have mentioned an adored niece before today?" Sirius sounded very pleased with himself.

"Yea, alright then Padfoot. I don't think we're going to get any more information until the girl wakes up though, so let's leave her alone. She looked pretty bad off."

James is right. Sirius thought, and nodded his head as they turned to walk back down the stairs to the main hall.


After dinner, McGonagall rushed to the hospital wing. She had received word from Madame Pomfrey that the young woman had been stirring. Minerva barley registered Poppy tending to an already awakened Remus Lupin as she turned the corner and disappeared behind the partitions.

"Hi Professor…" Remus choked out at McGonagall before she vanished. His voice was a bit raw from the night before.

"Here you go dear," Madame Pomfrey handed Remus an orange potion and instructed him to swallow it all at once if he didn't want to savor the taste. Remus threw the liquid back and sputtered; it was like hot lava covering his throat, but it quickly turned to ice and soothed his voice back to normal.

"Thank you, Madame Pomfrey." Remus was happy to be sounding better, but he found his strength was still gone. The school nurse assisted in getting Remus to an upright position so that she could check on his lungs. He had a clear view of the temporary room, set up across from his bed. "Who else is in the school so early before term?"

"Well that is Professor McGonagall's niece actually. We're helping her recover from some injuries, that's all," Poppy noticed that this statement was feeling less and less like a lie the more she repeated it.

A blood curling scream raked at their eardrums as the sound filled the large hospital wing.

"NO!" shrieked a young woman from behind the white fabric walls. Remus could hear her gasping for air as her shadow flung her arms about violently.

"Poppy!" Professor McGonagall shouted. But Madame Pomfrey has already left Remus' side and was racing behind the partitions.

"Hush child. Shh. It's alright. You're safe here." McGonagall attempted to use soothing tones as she tried to restrain the girl's wild arms.

"Professor McGonagall?"


Yay, Chapter 7!

Please, please, please Favorite, Follow and Review!

...I might hold the next chapter hostage if no one does...just fyi. =)