"You really shouldn't have gotten me this Remus, it has to be very expensive!" Lina cried turning to face the scarred young man.
"You don't like it then?" He asked looking down at her.
"Oh its beautiful, of course I love it but-" She began but he interrupted her.
"Then it doesn't matter." He put the end to the discussion and she looked down at the mesmerizing bracelet. "Listen Lina, what I've been meaning to ask you is um that uh the Potters are having an end of the year party. I was wondering if you wanted to go with me as you know, more than friends. I mean I completely understand if you don't, being as I'm a you-know-what but-"
"Yeah, I'd like that a lot." She smiled brightly at the squirming fifth year.
"So you'll, you know be my girlfriend?" Messalina laughed and nodded enthusiastically.
"Of course!" She hugged him tightly as he beamed happily. "When's the party?"
"The day after we get home," Remus said as they parted the brunette smiling brightly at him. It was then that he realized he would be her first boyfriend, as she would be his first girlfriend.
"I heard you're going out with Lina," Fabian Prewett appeared directly in front of the werewolf who jumped out of his skin.
"Yes." He replied once he regained his composure. He did want to know how the twins managed to do that but at the same time knew that if he did Sirius and James would start doing it. And he didn't know if he could live with that forever.
"You going to take care of her?" Gideon asked cracking his knuckles for emphasis.
"Of course, why wouldn't I?" He asked confused.
"You'd better." Fabian nearly snarled and his eyes left Remus' scarred face to look at something behind him. Remus turned to see Messalina walking with Lily Evans and Marlene McKinnon. "Hey Lina!"
His voice was suddenly light and Remus watched as his girlfriend grinned at her brother. "Hey Fabe! Gid, Remus."
"Colovaria," Messalina murmured watching in delight as her hair changed from dark brown to bright green. She twirled her hair around her fingers admiring the charm's work. She turned her attention over to where Remus' hair was bright blue and Sirius' was purple. James was currently levitating Peter in the air, the chubby boy laughing as he did cartwheels.
They had taken to working on the practical lessons together and the fact that the Marauders couldn't help but make others laugh made studying far more interesting.
"Shouldn't we practice our patronuses? The professor said it might be extra." James asked as he lowered Peter to the floor of the common room. Messalina murmured the incantation and her hair changed back to normal.
"I like it better that way," Remus stated as he stood up Messalina nodding herself at the sight of his hair back to its normal shade of honey brown.
"Oh I don't know you did look rather handsome with blue hair." She bumped his shoulder and bit her lip as they walked towards James.
Messalina nodded at Remus before raising her wand.
Messalina walked between the twins as they walked quickly through the halls of St. Mungo's. They had been pulled out of school to visit Molly in the hospital since she had just given birth to healthy baby boy.
"Room 152, here it is." Gideon pointed out opening the door to the room. Arthur was standing next an exhausted Molly who was cradling a small baby with a shock of red hair.
"Boys, Lina I'm glad you're here. This is Charles." She smiled down at the baby and they hurried to the bedside to see the infant. He was fast asleep, his small hand holding Arthur's thumb.
"Where's Bill?" Gideon asked looking around the room for the two-year old.
"With Arthur's parents, he spent the night there." Molly replied quietly as to not awaken the baby. "Lina, me and Arthur have a favor to ask of you. We have grown to love you as family and we just think that you should officially be bound to it. Would you be Charles' godmother?"
"What?" Messalina asked her heart filling with pride and happiness. "Of course I would Molly!"
"Do you want to hold him?" Molly asked and soon the baby was being pressed into her hands where she stared at him. Her godson.
"Expecto Patronum!" Messalina cried and a silver hyena burst out of her wand running through the room throwing his head back as though it was laughing. A wolf burst from the end of Remus' wand where it ran across the room surrounded by a doe and a shaggy dog.
No one else in the room was able to come up with one, Peter was the closest one however with wisps coming out of his. As Messalina broke her concentration the hyena disintegrated.
Two silver foxes padded across the room flicking their tails at one another. Messalina turned to see the twins grinning at the group of studying fifth years. Their patronuses ran into a wall and disintegrated.
"A hyena? Really Lucien?" Sirius asked smiling at her as she shrugged smirking.
"Are you ready Lina?" Remus asked as they walked to their first OWL which was Charms. The brunette smiled before yawning. She felt content, her boyfriend's arm was snaked around her waist and she was surrounded by people she loved.
"Of course, how hard could it be?" She asked as they entered the Great Hall. Professor Flitwick stopped them, directing them to their correct seats. Messalina sat beside Remus, their last names so close together.
Written Charms Portion:
Cheering Charm
The Incantation, Side-Effects and Possibilities
Messalina ducked her head writing quickly in her scrawl handwriting. As she reread what she had written she saw Remus glance over at her and she smiled faintly before continuing what she was doing.
She finished with a few minutes left and sat back in her chair sighing. If all of her OWLs were going to be this easy, she would be getting all Os which was something she knew her adopted parents desperately wanted for her. The twins had done excellently on their OWLs despite worries that they wouldn't get anything above an A.
When the gong sounded, the essays were instantly taken up to the front and the students shuffled out mumbling about the essay.
"That was so easy!" James cried to Peter who nodded despite looking rather worried.
"Y-yeah I know James," Peter stuttered as they joined Messalina and Remus. Sirius jogged up to them from where he was sitting in the front and put his arms around Peter and James' shoulders.
"How can they expect anyone to do bad on them if they're so easy? What is the cheering charm? I'm sure a first year knows that!" Peter went red in the face and he ducked down so no one would see.
"Oh, I don't know about a first year," Remus soothed and Peter relaxed a bit.
"Yeah I'm sure Murph doesn't know it and he's a bloody Ravenclaw." Lina attempted and Remus looked down at her with affection in his eyes.
"Messalina!" The brunette turned to see Lily Evans walking towards her.
"Lily, how'd you do?" Messalina asked noticing how James quickly ran his hands through his hair and straightened his robes.
"I thought it was rather easy. Hello Remus." She smiled at the tall boy who grinned back at her.
"Hey Lily," The red-head's eyes went to where Remus' arm was wrapped around Messalina's thin waist.
"LINA!" Fabian and Gideon raced towards them pushing fifth years over in their pursuit. "How'd it go? Tell us everything!"
"It was fine!" She laughed as the twins grinned at her looking remarkably like muggle bobbleheads.
"Well Remus how'd you like it?" Fabian asked almost sneering at the taller boy.
"I found it easy to be honest, I think most people did." Remus answered modestly and Fabian's excited face fell a bit. Messalina didn't notice it like her boyfriend did, she merely said goodbye to Lily and began to walk out of the Great Hall.
"Lucien, Messalina." Lina stood up smiling at where the Marauders with the exception of Sirius wished her good luck. It was her last practical exam, and it was Astronomy. She groaned it was her worst class of all before walking to where the professor was waiting.
When she was finished with filling out the blank chart she hurried from the Astronomy tower her head aching . She knew she had been in there longer than others had and she just knew she was going to have failed it.
OWL results wouldn't be coming until a week after they got out of school which was ending in two days.
"Lucien!" Sirius Black hurried towards her and the brunette stepped away just in time to avoid being run over.
"What? What's wrong?" She asked but instead of answering he grabbed her arm and dragged her after her as she yelled for him to tell him what was going on.
They came to halt where two boys were being dragged down the corridor by McGonagall. The familiar faces of Caradoc Dearborn and Benjy Fenwick were looking ashamed at the floor as they passed the two fifth years. Caradoc had many red marks on his face as if he had been hit numerous times. Slughorn was pulling Augustus Rookwood and Antonin Dolohov away, the pair looking worse than the Gryffindors.
"What happened?" Lina whispered to Sirius.
"You know how we won the Cup?" Sirius murmured back watching as the Gryffindors were hauled past them.
"Of course I do, we beat Slytherin by thirty points. Dumbledore said no more Quidditch this year after the incident." She hissed impatiently. "What happened?"
"Well they got into it about what would've happened if the Slytherins hadn't used sectumsempra against you."
"And Caradoc and Benjy beat them?" She asked with a small smirk.
"Yeah, the Slytherins fight dirty though. Your cousin included." Sirius growled looking at where Slughorn stood.
"Believe me I know." She frowned and started walking to the Common Room.
"Stop it leave me alone!" Messalina cried as Antonin pulled her hair. She shrieked and the nanny that was supposed to be watching the children ran over. Their parents were at a party, leaving the cousins to be watched by a blonde who preferred to flirt with the young men than watch them.
"Antonin leave her alone!" The woman shrieked, snatching the boy up into the air. "Go sit over there until you've thought about what you've done! You cannot hit girls it is not gentlemanly of you!"
"My dad does it to my mum!" Antonin screamed and the nanny stopped mid-step before lowering him to the ground.
"Well you ought not to do that dear. Just go play quietly." The nanny disappeared as a handsome blonde appeared at the door.
"You screamed, you weren't supposed to scream. You practically told on me!" Antonin hissed picking himself up from the floor glaring at his younger cousin.
Messalina watched as her older cousin picked up the vase her mother had specifically told them not to touch. "Antonin, we're not supposed to touch that!"
"I need to teach you a lesson Messalina. Good girls are quiet and don't talk." He raised his hand and hit himself in the face, forcing himself to cry loudly. "NANNY!"
"Messalina did you hit him?" The woman nearly shouted and the little girl shook her head with wide eyes.
"You're father is going to have to hear about this Messalina. You hit a superior, a boy for that matter and lied. Don't move." The nanny stated and hurried away to find the brooding man.
"Lina, you okay?" She nodded smiling slightly at Sirius before he gave the Fat Lady the password.
"I'm fine, just tired. It's too late for exams, I'm exhausted. Tell everyone I went up to bed, I'll see you guys in the morning."
"Have you seen my jumper?" Remus asked from where his head was inside his trunk.
"Which one?" James asked as he put his own on.
"The black one."
"'Fraid not, mate. Grab another one I'm starving!" Sirius moaned as he stared at his reflection in the mirror.
"Me too!" Peter squeaked and made his way to the door in hopes the others would see how hungry he was.
"You two are always hungry!" James stated as he walked over to Peter. "But Sirius is right, just grab another one we're late enough as is. Messalina probably already left."
That got Remus up and he quickly put a grey jumper on. The others laughed as he ran down the stairs nearly hitting a first year.
When they made it down to the Great Hall, the four house tables were back and Messalina was sitting with the twins and Murphy Callaghan.
"Is that your jumper mate?" Sirius asked gesturing to the loose black one Messalina was wearing.
"Yeah I think so." James and Sirius grinned at each other before sitting beside the twins.
"What took you so long?" Lina asked before taking a bite of her French toast.
"I couldn't find my jumper but it seems you already had." The twins snorted into their drinks and Murphy smiled. He liked his Ravenclaw 'friends' but he had a feeling that they only liked him because he was becoming so popular.
"You've discovered my reason for going out with you-jumpers." She stated dryly looking down at the black jumper. "Hey Murph, do you know anything about Cheering Charms?"
For once the End of the Year Feast went without any drama, much unlike third year when there had been a major fight between Bellatrix and Andromeda Black. Or the previous year when the twins and Messalina had snuck a potion into Lucius Malfoy's pumpkin juice and he had confessed his love for the young greasy caretaker Filch.
Messalina woke up on the last day of the year face first in a pile of pillow drying drool on her cheek. Her brown hair was a bird's nest and remnants of the previous day's makeup was smeared under her eyes.
Groaning she sat up, scratching the side of her head. Blinking a few times she pulled the hangings from around her bed and jumped back in surprise.
"What in the bloody hell are you doing in here?" She hissed trying to figure out if Lily was in the room still.
"Evans, Marlene and Alice just left no worries. And Remus look at her, what a beauty." James smirked and the brunette glared at him as she pulled herself out of bed. Remus was glad that she was wearing a bra and shirt because he thought he would've died of embarrassment if she hadn't.
"What about Shatter?" She asked kneeling down to open her trunk.
"Gone, and nice underwear Lucien." Sirius dangled a pair of lacy black underwear in her face.
"Thank you Sirius because your opinion means so much to me." She teased as she pulled a pair of tight jeans and a tight blue tank top out of her trunk. "What are you doing in here anyways?"
"Evans said you weren't up yet and we wanted to be sure that you actually were planning on getting up." James said as he started rooting through Messalina's messily packed trunk.
"Do you mind? Rem help me out here. I have to go shower, watch them." She walked out of the room to the bathroom giving the werewolf a good look of her long legs and tan back through her white tank top.
"Moony? Mooony? Did you see that birthmark on her leg? Hot." Sirius smirked and Remus snatched the underwear from his hand. When Sirius grinned Remus threw it into his girlfriend's trunk.
"She doesn't have a birthmark on her leg." James and Sirius snickered and Remus turned red.
"You looked! He looked!" They cried between fits of laughter.
"We're leaving, now." Remus ordered and shuffled them out of the girl's dorm.