When I woke up, I was surrounded by complete darkness, and I was wearing pyjamas that weren't mine.
I checked a clock that was sitting on the bedside table, to discover that it was the middle of the night, meaning I would have had to of been completely out to it for an entire day, which also meant I'd missed out on an entire day of lessons.
I cursed myself at this thought because I knew the end-of-year exams were less than a month away now, in fact, they started in exactly two weeks.
I wanted to go back to sleep, but I'd slept all day and was no longer feeling tired, so I pulled away the curtains of the Hospital Wing four-poster I'd been lying in, and stood up, not knowing what else to do. I waited a minute for my eyes to adjust to the light, then looked around at who else was there, because I simply had nothing better to do.
The two first-years who'd been attacked by dementors weren't in there anymore, and I honestly wasn't sure what was happening with them. Everyone had different stories about what had happened to them, for example, some people said they'd both had their souls completely sucked and they were practically dead. Some said they'd been transferred to St Mungo's, while others said they were both completely fine, but they'd been expelled for their foolish behaviour.
There were only two other people who were in the Hospital Wing, as usually, students didn't have to stay overnight, and if they did, their parents would have to be contacted...
Wait, I thought. Are my parents here, then?
They didn't seem to be there, in the Hospital Wing. But if they were, where would they be? I looked around, but they were nowhere to be seen. I shrugged to myself, then grabbed a sweet from the basket of sweets that sat on one of the higher shelves, which Madam Pomfrey only gave to students who had been 'particularly brave' during their visit to the Hospital Wing (in other words, first years who had cried about being there).
I walked back to the bed I'd been in and lay down. My neck felt uncomfortable, but it felt so much better than it had that morning when I'd been in the shack. I closed my eyes, and, eventually, drifted into sleep.
I was woken bright and early the next morning by someone pulling back my curtains. I recognised it as Sirius's scent immediately and opened my eyes, sitting up.
"Hi," I said, as he closed the curtains and drew his wand to cast a silencing charm around us
"Hey," he said, pocketing his wand, "I came in yesterday morning, but you were asleep, and Madam Pomfrey told me to go away."
"You... saw me?" I asked, feeling a pang in my stomach. I didn't want him to see me in that sort of state.
"Yeah... are you feeling any better?"
"Yeah," I said. "What time is it?"
"Almost five in the morning," said Sirius. His eyes were on the bandage on my neck, so I kissed him to get his eyes anywhere but there.
"Did I miss anything important in classes yesterday?" I asked when we finally pulled apart.
"Not really," said Sirius. "Potions was entertaining, though, we got nothing done, Slughorn was just talking to James and I the whole time, about how we're too immature and need to grow up, and blah blah blah..."
I laughed, and then I heard Madam Pomfrey's footsteps. Sirius didn't notice it, so I tapped him on the shoulder manically.
"Madam Pomfrey," I hissed. "You need to go."
Sirius's eyes widened, and he pulled the curtains back slightly, clambering out, then crawling under the bed. I lay back down and pretended to be asleep. We were like that for well over an hour, and I listened as she checked in on all the students there. When she checked in on me, I lay on my stomach so she wouldn't be able to tell how tightly I was shutting my eyes.
Eventually, I heard her leaving the Hospital Wing to go to the Great Hall, and I drew the curtains, and checked that all the other students were asleep, then bent down to where Sirius was lying down under the bed. He wriggled out, grunting.
"Ugh, cramps..." he muttered.
"You should go before she comes back," I said. He gave me a quick hug, then left the Hospital Wing.
I lay back down, and Madam Pomfrey returned around fifteen minutes later. She drew my curtains, and I opened my eyes to face her. She placed a weird table thing on my bed, then a plate of food on top of that, and I realised how starving I was. I hadn't properly eaten for over twenty-four hours, and the sweet last night didn't do much to fill me up, so I dug right into the breakfast.
"After you finish that, I'll check up on the cut on your neck, and give you a new bandage, then after that, you can go to class," said Madam Pomfrey, leaving me to eat and going over to help a sixth year who was coming in with a broken arm.
Potions that day was absolute hell. I felt ridiculously embarrassed, sitting there in a classroom full of Slytherins, who were all staring at me, just sitting there with a bandage wrapped around my neck. I stared furiously at the chalkboard, trying and failing to ignore them.
It got even worse when Slughorn asked me to come to the front to demonstrate the proper way to stir a potion. I just looked down at the Potion and avoided eye contact with the rest of the class.
After the demonstration, we all had to work with our Potions partners to make a sleeping draught.
"Why do you have a bandage around your neck?" Mulciber asked.
"Got hurt," I said, shrugging.
"How?" he asked.
"Dunno," I said, shrugging again.
By Saturday, the cut had improved a lot. I'd been rubbing some cream thing Madam Pomfrey had given to me on it every day, and it was well on its way to turning white and becoming less noticeable.
On Saturday morning, I was woken by James at the crack of dawn. It was the day of the Quidditch match, and he was going crazy. He and Sirius began forcefully painting red and gold on Peter and my faces, then they dragged us down to the common room, where the rest of the Quidditch team met us. They all began their 'warm-up for the warm-up' which was a huge game of tag, which ended horribly when one third-year girl from the team sprained her ankle and had to be rushed to the Hospital Wing so she'd be fine for the game.
When it was time for us all to go to the stands, or into the changing rooms for the team, James was practically screaming as he ran out of the castle.
The game itself was boring, but it was nice to get away with staring at and admiring Sirius with no one questioning it for the full two hours that the game lasted.
Gryffindor won, so of course, there was a massive party in the common room that night, and by the end of it, several people were extremely drunk, and I felt sick because of the amount of chocolate I had consumed.
June began the day after the Quidditch match, which meant it was technically summer, but it didn't feel like summer at all. It was freezing, which felt like a complete rip-off because we were promised warmth in summer. It was kind of like going to a restaurant and ordering a big fancy meal and being served a bag of crisps.
We spent the first week of the month doing last-minute preparation for the exams and complaining about the awful summer so far.
During the exams week, the weather suddenly turned extremely hot, which was great, but it wasn't so great to have to sit in the exam room so many times, sweating like crazy.
And then there was the beloved third week of June, where we could all just relax in the sun for an entire week and do whatever we wanted.
That Tuesday, James had stolen a golden snitch from Madam Hooch and was throwing it up and down as he, Sirius, Peter, Marlene, Dorcas, Alice, Frank, Mary, and I all sat together by the Great Lake to play a massive game of truth or dare.
"Sirius, truth or dare?" asked Alice.
"Ah... I'll have to go with the dare, I suppose," said Sirius, looking at me.
"I dare you to swim in the lake," said Alice, grinning. Sirius gave her a look, then stood up, taking off his shirt.
"I hope you rot and die, Alice," he grumbled, before diving in. "Oooohh... it's actually... quite nice. You guys should come in."
"I don't think so," said Mary. "This is a new skirt; I'm not getting it wet."
"Oh, come on," said Sirius, and then, out of nowhere, he gripped my arm and dragged me into the lake. It was cold for a good five seconds, but then my body adjusted and it was a very nice temperature.
Sirius and I looked sideways at each other, then came up with a silent plan and nodded. We both ran out of the water, towards the others, who all let out loud squeals and began running from us.
"Want a hug, James!?" Sirius cried as he caught up to James, wrapping his arms around him in a huge, wet hug, then dragged him into the water.
Eventually, the entire group was in the lake, playing a huge game of underwater tag, which ended in disaster when we were caught by Professor McGonagall, who yelled at us all for swimming in the lake, made us get out, took ten points from each of us, and said we all had to go to detention with her that night. But that didn't ruin any of our moods, and we spent the rest of the week hanging out together.
On the last day of term, a Saturday, we all agreed that we'd all meet up over the summer, and James suggested we go to the beach that the other marauders and I had gone to last summer. We agreed to meet there on the first Friday of July.
That night was the end-of-term feast, and it was announced that Gryffindor had come second in the house cup, following Ravenclaw by just three points. It made me feel a pang of guilt because if my friends and I hadn't been swimming in the lake, we probably would have won.
We also got our marks back from the exams, and thankfully I'd done well in all my subjects, and I'd just scraped through by passing Potions at a score of 55%. My friends had all passed everything as well, so we decided to throw yet another party in the common room.
We were all up until dawn, which was fine because we'd all be able to sleep on the train the next day and get as many good nights of sleep as we wanted during the summer
Fourth year, overall, was an amazing year, aside from the war. I'd begun going out with the guy I'd been in love with for years. I had loads of amazing friends. I'd begun being properly helped during my most recent full moon. And now I had fifth year ahead of me, which would be a big year, with the O.W.L.s and everything.
But the O.W.L.s were a year away, for now, I could relax.