I'm so sorry for the extremely delayed chapter. I know it's been more than a year and for that I'm sorry. I had a great deal of difficulty even writing this chapter, my writer's block has me writing about everything but this story. This chapter is really short though, because the next chapter is going to be very long. Again, I'm sorry and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

It took three additional days before anyone at Hogwarts received anything regarding Messalina's condition. The news came in the form of a letter that had clearly been written frantically, there were smudges in the ink and some of the sentences were incoherent when first read. It had been addressed to James and signed by Gideon, stating that Messalina was still at St. Mungo's recovering and was unable to write letters to her friends on her own. The healers suspected that the girl would be able to return to Hogwarts in a few days, likely over the weekend. The extent of the consequences created by the incident were still unclear and it was unknown whether or not Messalina's health would ever completely recover. The fear that the family had felt was clear in the letter and the Gryffindors could still sense that Messalina wasn't completely free and clear yet.

In addition to worrying about Messalina's state, the group still had to attend their classes, do their homework and keep a close eye on Remus. Ever since he had returned to the castle, there was something off about him. For the first two days they chalked it up to his mother and Messalina both falling unexpectedly ill, but it was becoming clear that there was something else that was bothering him so much. He refused to tell the other Marauders what the issue was, every time any of them brought it up, he just blamed his odd behavior on his mom and Messalina. But the other three could tell it was something else that was eating away at him and they were quickly becoming more and more concerned about the werewolf.

Remus had returned late on Sunday night and it wasn't until Thursday evening that the Marauders got any of the truth out of the boy. Their answer wasn't much and it left them with more questions than they had had before as Remus had only told them that it had something to do with his name going on the register in a year and how it was going to get extremely dangerous for his family. After disclosing that, Remus had promptly closed the curtains on his bed and gone to sleep, leaving the other three Marauders to muse about what he could have possibly meant by that.

Graham Pucey, John Higgs, and Jenny Marquette were another issue. After Sirius had tried to attacked them at the Black Lake on Saturday, the boundary between the Gryffindors and the three others was higher up than ever. Whenever Sirius passed Jenny she would shoot him an uncharacteristic glare that could've killed Sirius if it was possible. John and Graham were both on high alert as well, casting furtive glances at each other whenever they saw a Gryffindor and pulling their wands out when any of the Marauders appeared.

This was driving both parties mad, though without Messalina there, no one was going to even attempt to bridge the gap between the groups. So, they glared at one another and postured in the hallways, each group trying to make themselves seem tougher and angrier than the others.

Everyone expected things to immediately go back to the way they were before once Messalina arrived, but the longer she was gone, the more doubtful it became that things would return to normal. Tension was high between the two groups and it was growing every minute that Messalina was still gone, and it became obvious that there a fight brewing.

It was after lunch on Saturday afternoon that both groups got the release that they wanted. The weather was surprisingly warm for early December, so nearly everyone in the castle bundled up and headed outside to enjoy the snow covered grounds.

To try and get everyone's minds off of their friend, James Potter kneeled in the snow and quickly made a snowball. He chucked it at Sirius as hard as he could and it hit his friend in the back of the head, making Sirius stumble forward a few steps. Angry, Sirius whirled around, prepared to yell at James when he got hit in the forehead by a second snowball. Shaking his head, Sirius made his own and threw it at James. The situation escalated surprisingly fast, with Remus reluctantly joining. Though it wouldn't last, it made them all feel a lot better to just play around and they even had Remus chuckling.

It was all fun and games until a wayward snowball mostly filled with rock hard ice hit a passing Jenny Marquette in the face hard enough to break her nose. She let out a small, surprised shriek, her hands flying to now bleeding nose.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" She yelled as the commotion in front of her stopped completely, the four boys staring at her with wide eyes. She was with a group of Hufflepuffs, half of whom were trying to attend to her gushing nose while the others glared at the group. "Lina's in the bloody hospital and you're all messing around?"

"Marquette-" James began but she cut him off angrily.

"You lot need to grow up!" She snapped. "You have no regard for anyone's safety other than your own. If you did, maybe you would've noticed that Messalina was ill before she got so bad!"

"You take that back right now," Sirius' voice was low but there was a definite undercurrent of untapped rage that everyone could hear. "What happened to her wasn't our fault."

"And what, it was ours?" Jenny asked, disbelief oozing from her tone. "I know you blame us for what happened to her, but we're not the ones that were with her when it happened!"

"It was no one's fault!" James broke in, stepping between the two. "Let's go, Sirius."

They hadn't noticed the crowd gathering around them and so they didn't even react when the hum of voices whispering around them went completely silent. The wind had picked up in the last few moments and began to whip past them, biting at their exposed skin.

"Guys," Peter stated, staring off at something in the distance. Remus, who was sitting in the snow with an unreadable look on his face didn't even seem to have heard, and James and Sirius simply dismissed him.

"Shut up, Peter," James mumbled, looking between the Hufflepuff and the Gryffindor for signs of aggression.

"Guys," Peter said more urgently and this time, James and Sirius turned to look. The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Veran, was approaching slowly with a heavily bundled up figure. The professor, a thirty-something year old man, was moving far slower than they would have normally expected and as he neared, the group saw that the other figure was leaning heavily on him for support.

The figure had the hood of its fur lined cloak over its head but the dark, wavy hair they could see was all too familiar. The two passed by the group slowly, Veran giving them the look that if any of them said anything, they would be immediately expelled from the school. Despite walking by a group of at least twenty five people, the other person didn't even spare a glance at them or slow down. If anything, the pair sped up and Veran kept his eye on the group until he was certain none of them were going to speak up or make any sudden movements.

The argument between Sirius and Jenny forgotten completely, James turned to look at Remus. He was ashen as he stared at the passing figures, mouth open slightly and dark eyes widened. Remus stood slowly, his eyes never leaving the two people's backs.

The group around them began to talk nervously, voices low and uncertain. Jenny took a few steps forward, her face as white as the snow around them. That only made it more unnerving to see the blood that had coated her nose and mouth and was now dripping down her throat, staining her tan colored cloak.

Messalina Lucien was back at Hogwarts.