Madam Pomfrey explained to me the next morning that I would have to stay for another week to make sure I was OK. Usually she wouldn't have done this but the curse took such a toll on me that I would have to wait until I went back. My friends visited me every day, Lily cried when she saw me, and everybody was just generally nice. They filled me in on the fact that Henry was thrown out and was at trial for underaged-unforgivable-cursing. When word got around that I was going to be OK (and it got around way too quickly,) people were bringing me candy and flowers and cards of every kind.

James visited me often, though not as often as Sirius or Remus, to explain how the day went and who he had beat up that day. I always scolded him thouroughly for being such a meathead. And he always scolded me for being so uptight. For example:
"So Sirius and I beat on Snivelly for coming to your room the other night." James informed me, smiling widely.
"No!" I squealed, hand over my mouth.
"What? What'd I say?" He asked, looking confused.
"No more fighting!" I told him.
"Oh! Ok, ok, no more." James said, looking scared.
"James, it's just-"
"Uh! Say no more." James said, holding up a hand, grinning.
Sirius and Remus came to visit me more than anyone. Actually, they became late to most of their classes because they stopped by between most classes to see me, which was nice. They were two of my best friends. Lily visited on free periods to chat and laugh with me. She was still pretty shaken up and whenever I felt tired, (which I did a lot, but Madam Pomfrey said that that was normal for the after affects of an unforgiveable curse) Lily always on edge of her seat and when I woke, she was never there. The week seemed to drag, people came and went, no fighting was ever allowed in the room, and I was always sleepy. But the worst part was being unable to do things. The only thing I could do was read. And play cards sometimes. But mostly I slept, and that was never good because I had a reacuring dream.

There was a always a little boy, maybe a first year, completely naked. And there was another boy, a tall, white-blonde haired boy. And I could never remember what happened, but something did that always made me afraid.

And when I woke up, there was no one there to tell me I was alright and that it was only a dream.

The day I was released from the infirmary may have been the greatest day of my life. I wasn't tired anymore and I could be with my friends.
"Hey, look, she's back to normal!" James greeted me, giving me a hug. His leather jacket smelled like home to me, a home that I had missed way too much. "Wait...since when?" Sirius asked curiously. He smiled and gave me my second hug for the day. "I'd insult you, but you're not bright enough to understand." I laughed.
"Ha, you're funny." Sirius laughed.
"Hey Mads." Remus greeted me, putting down his book to give me another hug.
"MADDIE!" Lily screamed. She ran and tackled me in a hug.
"I'm here! I'm here! OK!" I giggled, hugging her back.
"Hey, Maddie!" A girl called, waving.
"Hey, there she is." A guy said, high fiving me.
"Who was that?" Sirius asked.
"Dunno." I shrugged.
"Maddie! There's someone outside for you." A girl told me, frowning slightly.
"Oh, sure." I said surprised.
"I'll come with you. Just in case." Sirius whispered, patting my shoulder.
"Thanks, but I can take care of myself." I explained.
"Yeah, sure you can." Sirius said, rolling his eyes. But he let it go, and I walked away toward the portrait hole. I opened it to see a boy standing there, alone.

"Hey." Severus greeted me, smiling.
"Hi." I said coldly.
"How are you feeling?" He asked, something shining in his eye.
"Fine." I said, not looking at him now.
"Look, I know that Potter and Black told you about Lily and me, but it was a misunder-"
"A misunderstanding?" I asked coolly. "How is calling someone a mudblood a misunderstanding?"
"It slipped out!" He sighed.
"Slipped out?" I repeated. "SLIPPED OUT?"
"Maddie, look, I really want to talk to you! I want to be your friend! And I tried to say sorry to Lily and she wouldn't listen. She called my friends evil and she just walked away from me before I got to finish!"
"Which is exactly what I'm going to do now." I said, turning on my heel.
"Wait!" Severus said, grabbing my hand. I whipped it out of his grip.
"DON'T. Don't touch me." I hissed.
"Maddie, can't you see? I'm truly sorry." He said. I looked into his black eyes and saw a pleading that made me want to accept his apology.
"Why, Severus? What are you sorry for?" I replied smoothly, leaning against the wall, arms folded across my chest. "I'm sorry for what I said to Lily. I'm sorry for not being able to apologize. I'm sorry for everything." Severus said, taking a step towards me.
"If you touch me, I swear to God, Severus-"
"I'm sorry." He said again. He looked like he would cry. Then he turned and walked away before I could say anything to him.

"What was that about?" Remus asked when I came back into the common room. The crowd had died down now, but Sirius, James and Lily were no where to be seen.
"Oh, just somebody saying hi." I said, hesitating at the end. Remus caught this.
"What?" He asked, really paying attention now and putting down his book.
"Oh, nothing..." I said, grabbing my quill and parchment from across the table. I had an essay due on Monday. Fridays were always hard on me, between friends and studying. So I started in, writing quickly. Remus grabbed the parchment away from me.
"This says 'The Moon and the Friends'." He read. I blushed. Did I really write that?
"No it doesn't," I said, taking the parchment back.
"What's wrong?" He asked. I looked around to see a few groups chatting and studying. I leaned over to him.
"Why do you guys all hate Severus so much?" I asked him honestly. Something flashed behind Remus's gaze and I knew I shouldn't have asked.
"Come with me." Remus said after a second. He grabbed my hand and pulled me through the portrait hole. "Remus, where are we going?" I asked him.
"To the room. We have to have this conversation." He said hurriedly. The sun was dropping like a big orange ball of yarn. When we reached the room, I looked at the calenders and things on the wall as Remus told me the story of Lily and Severus' complicated history.
"So you see, being Lily's lover, James can't forgive him. And being her best friend, I can't forgive him. And being the lover's best friend, Srius can't forgive him. So...it's complicated." He explained. I couldn't quite understand why calling someone a mudblood was such a big deal, but I could understand why they can't forgive him. Remus looked anxiously out the window.
"Look, I have to go." He told me, giving me a sad look and leaving me to look at the empty room in sadness and confusion. I thought of all the odd things happening to me lately, I thought about the brown haired girl, my dreams, the frustration of not understanding things I would like to, like why I was standing in a secret room alone. And I started to cry.

Then suddenly, the door started to open and Sirius came in, laughing, and pulling a giggling girl by the hand. When he saw me and my tear stained face, he let go of her hand and the smile wiped off his face.
"Maddie?" He asked speechlessly.
"Who is she?" I asked him furiously.
"Who, her?" He asked, pointing at the girl behind him.
"Yeah. No one's supposed to know about this room." I replied angrily. He turned and pulled out his wand. "Obliviate." He whispered. The girl went limp, and Sirius let the door shut behind him as he entered the room.
"That's terrible." I snapped.
"Not so bad." He shrugged.
"Save your breath, you're going to need it to inflate your next date." I shot at him.
"What's wrong?" He asked, a worried look on his face.
"What do you care?" I asked, wiping my eyes. He stepped back and out the portrait door. I sat in one of the chairs and cried. I hadn't let myself cry since.... I looked up at the walls and saw pictures of the four boys laughing and having a carefree time. There was something about these pictures that didn't seem right, but I couldn't tell what. I looked at the writing on the walls, all the spells and hexes. There was a star chart on the circular wall and I stared at it for a long second and then it hit me that tonight was a full moon. It would probably be beautiful. So I sat in the room and thought for a long time until the sun disapeared behind the lake's horizon line. Then I wiped my eyes and got up and left the room behind.

That night, I had a dream of a full moon. And there was a boy, running far ahead of me through the forest, obviously trying to leave me behind. He turned and I saw his dark eyes. Sirius stared at me, full on, with a look of hatred.
"Go back, Maddie." He growled, and just then his expression turned to a look only a truly scared person would have. Then something erupted from the forest, a large, hairy thing, standing on two legs. I had never seen anything so frightening, and yet it was beautiful in the moonlight. It looked to Sirius and smiled it's wolfish smile.
"Hello, Padfoot." It said in a familiar voice. Then the scene disapeared and turned into all white, with the naked boy and the white-blonde boy, who was laughing. Then the next morning, I couldn't remember the dream of Sirius at all.

The next morning was a Saturday, and I decided to go talk to Severus. I was running down the corridor to find him. I hadn't wanted to wake Lily, so I threw on some clothes and went to breakfast. When I got there, many scattered students were eating and talking. I saw James first, sitting at the Gryffindor table, his head on the table on top of a book. Wow, James was actually reading. His mouth was open and he was drooling.
"James." I whispered, prodding the boy's forehead. He stirred and made an "Mmm..." sound and dozed again.
"James." I repeated, poking his shoulder now, harder.
"JAMES." I called, prodding him a dozen times in the shoulder.
"Please do not poke me." He yawned, looking up at me. "Oh! Maddie!" He straightened up, closing his book.
"Hey James." I laughed, sitting down next to him.
"Morning." He yawned. James had a scratch down the side of his face, very thin and very light, but fairly noticable.
"Didn't sleep well?" I asked, scooping some cereal into a bowl and pulling it towards me.
"Not much sleep, actually. Was up all night." James yawned again.
"Out late?" I asked.
"Er...depends on what you mean by 'out.'" He laughed, grabbing an apple. "But, Mads, listen, I gotta get going. Have some stuff to do..." He waved goodbye and left the great hall. His book fell off the table, and I grabbed it off the floor, reading the cover. The book wasn't actually a book at all, it was a comic book, called "Werewolf by Night." I laughed at the picture on the cover. It was a silly thing, really. Cartoon werewolves. Really, I thought, James couldn't do any better?

I looked all around the great hall for Severus, trying to find him. I wanted to talk. Suddenly, from the other side of the great hall, a loud laughing and shouting erupted. I looked to the Slytherin side of the Great Hall to see a boy completely naked. I gasped, both hands going to my mouth as I remembered the scene. I had seen it far too many times. He was short with red hair and was naked. Everyone was laughing and pointing. The boy's face got almost as red as his hair, and he ran from the scene. I searched the table for the white-blonde haired boy. He was sitting, laughing and grinning widely. He caught my gaze and nodded at me, still smiling. I turned my head curtly away. My mind flew through the possibilities. He hexed that boy. The boy was going to get in trouble, I just knew it. I was so upset. I hadn't even done anything. I needed to get the blonde boy's name. So I stood up and walked slowly over to the Slytherin table, which was far too routy now. The boy stood, too.
"Your the new girl. Maddie, right?" He grinned a handsome grin. I was going to hate myself forever for what I was about to do. I leaned against the wall, and batted my eyelashes.
"Yeah...and your name is...?" I said giving him a slow once over, smirking like a whore.
"Lucius. Lucius Malfoy." He smiled, putting out a hand. I took it and smiled as our hands met. I hated myself. He held mine for longer than nesecary, smiling and giving me a quick once-over. I looked across the hall and saw Sirius staring at me, jaw dropped. I decided to punch it up a notch.
"Well, maybe we could hang sometime." I laughed, watching his grin get broader.
"Delicious, I'm sure." He laughed.
"Thanks. I gotta go. Bye now." I winked, flipped my hair over my shoulder and walked away slowly, trying not to barf.

"Maddie, hey!" A voice called. It was the person I needed to see. Severus came running up to me.
"Hey there." I replied. "Can we go for a walk?" I asked.
"Yeah, let's go. Did you see that? Being naked in the great hall is strictly forbidden...Weasley's in deep shit." He laughed.
"Yeah. Sure. Let's get out of here." I replied, holding my tongue for what I really thought of it.
"Hey, Snivellus. Here, take this." Sirius called, throwing something to Snape. He looked at it in his hands. He smirked and threw it back at Sirius. "You need it more than I do, Black." Snape called. "And it works well with vinegar." Snape winked, and turned for the door again.
"Maddie, I don't know why you even-"
"Talk to me? Because she can you no-good, two-faced liar!" Severus yelled at Sirius.
"Snape, you really want me to tell everyone?" Sirius asked, simpering at Snape.
"Go ahead, tell everyone all you know. It'll only take about seven seconds." Snape retorted angrily.
"Stop being so stupid, Snape!" Lily said, coming into the hall right then, backing up Sirius. "Sirius could kill you in thirty seconds."
"Lily, don't you know? Old Snivellus isn't stupid; he's possessed by a retarded ghost!" Sirius laughed. "And 28, for the record."
"Maddie, come on, let's go." Snape said, taking my arm in his firm grip.
"Maddie, don't listen to him. He's not worth you." Sirius told me obnoxiously.
"Sirius, you know, I'd really like to see things from your point of veiw, but I can't seem to get my head that far up my ass." I retorted, glad to see Lily, angry to see her defending Sirius.
"Maddie, it wouldn't matter if you could, you've got no brains to see with, seeing as how blonde you are. So just stay out of it." Sirius said angrily. Everyone stopped there. Everyone got really quiet, though a few people went "Ooh!" I started to see things from eyes that had tears in them. How could Sirius? He could he say this to me? I thought we were starting to be friends.
"Sirius. Anyone who told you to be yourself couldn't have given you worse advice." I said, leaving Snape and feeling hot tears roll down my face. Sirius was such a two-faced...God. And to think I let myself be fooled by him.