(Disclaimer; Alas, nothing is mine except the plot and a set of fast-approaching GCSEs…)

May I dedicate this chapter to any English out there in their GCSE year. I feel for you. I'm doing five hours revision a day, and the result is not pretty…

James sped into the house only to find his parents, crouched beside an unconscious Sirius, blocking the hallway. He knelt by his friend's head, sick with worry. "Idiot," he muttered; half proud and half exasperated. He noticed with interest the girl clasped in Sirius' arms.

She was a mess; her elfin face was covered in blood, and her clothes were soaked with it.

::So this is the girl Padfoot's nearly killed himself to save.::

James wondered why. She didn't seem Sirius' type somehow…

She stirred, moaned softly and opened her eyes. When she found three faces looming over her she screamed. Her bloody face filled with terror and she backed away until she hit the wall. The pressure of it on her back seemed to increase her panic, because she cried out once more.

At the sound of her voice Sirius' eyes flew open. He sat up; groggy and confused, and caught sight of Tulah crouched against the wall. Ignoring James totally, he dragged himself over to her and slipped an arm around her shivering shoulders.

She rested her head on his arm; he drew her close…and she burst into tears. Sirius said nothing, but he rocked her as though she was a child, and she in turn clung to him, shaking with sobs. "Ok…" he murmured into her hair.

James made as if to come closer; Tulah hid her head in Sirius' neck. Her blood smeared onto his shirt collar.

Ignoring her whimper of protest, Sirius let her go and got slowly to his feet. "I'll take her upstairs," he muttered. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience," he added as an afterthought to James' parents, helping Tulah to her feet.

James' father shook his head, smiling. "Don't be ridiculous Sirius. Take her up to the spare room, and then perhaps you'd like to come and explain all this?"

Sirius nodded wearily and disappeared in the direction of the spare room with Tulah supported on one arm.

When Sirius returned an hour or so later, James and his parents were in the sitting-room. "You took your time," said James with a grin, "What were you doing up there?"

Sirius smiled; he was glad that James could joke about it. "I was putting her to bed," he protested good-naturedly. "Just her," he added as James raised an eyebrow. "Alone."

They both dissolved into laughter. The tension in the room eased off, then vanished altogether.

The next morning Tulah awoke to the sound of hysterical laughter and the smell of frying bacon. She stretched and turned over, noting with relief that the biting pains in her arm and face had receded, and that her bruises had almost vanished totally. Maybe magic wasn't so bad after all…

Ten minutes later, fully dressed, she popped her head round the kitchen door to find James and Sirius competently burning five rashers of bacon and some eggs while James' girlfriend Lily Evans looked on, laughing.

"D'you think it's done yet?" Sirius asked solemnly, whilst behind him the pan began to smoke. Lily choked with laughter; James thumped her hard on the back.

"OW! You don't need to kill me!"

"Sorry."

"You certainly don't sound it!" Lily caught sight of Tulah over James' shoulder. "Hi," she greeted her cheerfully. Tulah treated her to a rare smile.

"Have some bacon," Sirius offered, holding out the pan.

Tulah looked at the remains of the bacon and wrinkled her nose. Sirius looked hurt. "What's wrong with it?" he asked in an injured voice. Lily cleared her throat.

"I think it's a little overdone?" she suggested.

Sirius frowned. "No! It's perfect," he insisted, and put some in his mouth to prove it. The other watched him avidly. He chewed…swallowed…and looked up at them triumphantly. "See?"

Lily had turned a delicate shade of green. She grabbed the pan and tipped its contents into the bin, ignoring Sirius' scandalised protests. "Now," she announced. "I'm going to make us pancakes. You two…" she deposited both boys on a bench "…can sit down and shut up." She turned to Tulah. "Can you make pancakes?"

Tulah nodded cautiously, wondering what she was letting herself in for.

"Right."

Having feasted on Lily's pancakes, much to Sirius' disgust, they took their brooms up onto the hill behind the house and played Quidditch for an hour or so. By the end Tulah almost felt she was getting the hang of it, and of them. When, every time he scored a goal, Lily turned James' hair bubblegum-pink Tulah learned to join in teasing him rather than gasp with horror. When she herself scored and Sirius extended the same courtesy to her, she merely chuckled and, after a whispered conference with Lily, turned his a particularly lurid shade of yellow.

James snorted with laughter and nearly fell off his broom; Sirius didn't seem to find the situation half as funny. "Finite. Finite! Finite!"

By this time James was laughing so hard that he either had to land or fall. He chose the former and thumped to the ground a moment later where he lay, winded, still helpless with mirth.

Sirius turned pleadingly to Tulah. "Take it off. Please?"

Tulah obligingly flicked her wand and Sirius' hair turned black again.  Having carefully examined the parts of it which he could reach, he nodded in satisfaction…then he got out his own wand and flipped both Tulah and Lily upside down.

Tulah screamed. Lily struggled for her wand. "Let us down, Black," she snapped. Sirius only grinned insolently and held up both their wands. "Looking for this, were you Lils?"

"BLACK!"

"Apologise," Sirius demanded, "For turning my hair yellow. Then promise you'll never do it again. Then, if you're good girls, I might let you down." He landed beside James and the two of them exchanged smirks.

Lily's face was turning red; half out of anger, and half because all the blood was rushing to her head. She traded looks with Tulah.

Suddenly both girls went limp. James stiffened. "Sirius! Let them down!"

Sirius complied, his eyes wide with shock. Once they were both safely on the ground Sirius and James bent over them.

"Hang on…Lily's eyes are open!" James exclaimed. Before either of them had time to react, Lily had snatched their wands from Sirius' hand and both she and Tulah were out of reach. Lily exchanged high-fives with Tulah; now it was their turn to smirk. In a flash James had produced his own wand, but just as he was about to hex Lily, Tulah yelled, "Expelliarmus!" and the last wand landed in her outstretched hand.

(A/N; she came of age. Don't ask me when.)

"Excellent reflexes," James complimented her resignedly. She accepted the praise with a gracious nod.

"Well…" Lily grinned. "What should we do with these two uncouth gentlemen?"

Tulah considered. "We could hang them upside-down…"

"We could…"

"No…"

"No."

"Too unoriginal…"

"Indeed."

Tulah brightened. "We could tie them to that tree…"

"…leave them for a few hours…"

"…a few days…"

"…Let them cool off."

"Excellent."

They turned back to find the boys trying to sidle unobtrusively away.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Lily nodded her approval of Tulah's tactics; there was a flash of light, and both boys were tied firmly to the large tree at the top of the hill.

Lily squinted at the sky. "Looks like it's going to rain."

"We'd better go inside."

"Uh-huh. Don't want to get wet, do we!"

With that they walked off down the hill leaving Sirius and James staring bleakly after them. "They'll be back soon," said James confidently.

It began to rain.

"They'll be back soon," James repeated, although the confidence had gone from his voice. Sirius was trying, and failing, to blow his dripping fringe out of his face. He crossed his eyes and squinted angrily at the offending lock of hair, which refused to budge.

At the sound of uproarious giggling both he and James looked up; Tulah and Lily were watching them from under a large umbrella. Sirius immediately put on his best death-stare; James glared at the girls through narrowed eyes.

"NOT funny any more," he informed them coldly. Lily flicked her wand, looking suitably contrite, and the boys' bonds flew off.

"Truce?" she suggested tentatively.

Sirius and James advanced on them, murder in their eyes. "In your dreams!"

That night, at supper, the boys exacted their terrible revenge (it included, among other things, live spaghetti worms). Afterwards Tulah and Lily went straight up to bed, exhausted.

By this time they were firm friends, and they spent almost two hours gossiping before even lying down.

When they heard the boys' efforts at coming upstairs quietly Lily rolled quickly over on her side. "Don't tell James I'm awake," she begged. "I'm cross with him about the worms."

A moment later James' tousled head poked around the door. He smiled at Tulah and nodded at Lily's back. "Is she awake?"

"No," said Tulah, winking ostentatiously. James' eyes gleamed. He went and sat down on Lily's bed. Tulah saw Lily's shoulders tense as James stroked her hair back from her face, then planted a light kiss on her forehead.

"Don't," came Lily's muffled voice. "I'm very cross with you."

"Oh, well we can't have that, now can we?" James murmured, kissing her cheek instead.

Lily turned over to glare at him and he took the convenient opportunity to kiss her on the lips.

Thinking that this had gone as far as she was prepared to accept Tulah coughed softly and the couple broke apart.

"Still cross with me?"

"No…" Lily sounded disgruntled to say the least. James left, grinning.

"We'd better go to sleep," said Tulah regretfully. Lily shook her head emphatically. "No, Sirius'll only wake you up."

"What?"

"You obviously don't stay at James' very often. I live next door, you know, so I'm here quite a lot. Wait and see what I mean…when James has gone to sleep…"

They lay in silence for half an hour or so until they heard deep, heavy breathing from James' room, across the landing.

"Wait for it…" Lily whispered laughingly. A few seconds later, the noise started; it sounded like a cross between a car engine and a dying cat. "My boyfriend," Lily continued happily, "snores like a warthog." Tulah tried to stifle her hysterics. "Sirius is still awake," said Lily, sounding like a commentator at a football match, "…and he's tossing and turning…" Tulah heard the rustle of bedclothes and an exasperated grunt. "…and he's thinking, can he bear it?"

"James, shut up," came the frustrated whisper from next door.

"And he's thinking, no!" Lily was enjoying herself. "So…"

There was the creak of a floorboard and the sound of footsteps padding across the landing. The door of their room opened a crack. "Lils?"

"Come on in, Sirius."

He shuffled into the room, clutching a duvet and looking rather ashamed of himself. "Can I sleep in here?" he asked hopefully. "James sounds like an express train!" As if on cue, there was another thunderous snore from across the landing. Lily winced.

"Feel free. There's still one spare bed. That ok with you, Tuls?" There was no reply apart from the sound of Tulah's slow, regular breathing.

"I'll take that as a yes." Sirius heaved himself and his duvet onto the spare bed and closed his eyes with a sigh of relief.

::{Tulah was back at home…and she was trying her best not to scream. Blows thudded into her back and sides, but to scream would be to give him what he wanted…::mustn't scream…don't scream…:: She saw him picking up the broken plate, and the realisation of what he was going to do tore the shriek out of her lungs unasked-for. The jagged edge of the plate dug into the soft, vulnerable flesh of her arm and pain exploded over her once more. She screamed at him again and again to stop; she struggled with all her might to break his iron grip; but to no avail.

Her father dropped the plate and began to shake her. His nails sank into her sore arm. "Tulah!" he shouted. "Tulah!" But that wasn't her father's voice…

"Who are you?" she asked, trembling.}::

"Tulah. Come on…good girl…wake up!"

"Who are you?" she asked again, dazed.

"It's me, it's Lily."

"And Sirius," added the person holding her arms.

"Why are you hitting me?" she whispered.

"Nobody's hitting you, sweetheart," said James' mother, who was standing by her bed looking concerned. "You had a nightmare, that's all."

"Nightmare," repeated Tulah, to reassure herself. It didn't work – the shock set in and before she knew what was happening she was in tears. A second later Sirius and Lily both had their arms around her and she was clutching onto them as if she would never let go.

James shuffled in, looking confused. "What's going on?" He spotted the crowd around Tulah's bed. "A party! Am I invited?"

"Um…no." Tulah sniffled at him.

"You snore," added Sirius coldly.

The next day Sirius awoke to the distinctly odd feeling of water dripping onto his face from above. He opened his eyes and looked up, just in time to see a whole jugful of the stuff pour itself onto him with a loud splash. He sat up slowly, spitting out water. His first instinct was to go next door and rant at Prongs, but he wasn't going to because any second now James was going to get out of bed and…

"Padfoot!" James bellowed. Sirius sniggered happily.

"Coming, Jamie," he carolled, skipping into James' room with his dripping hair plastered flat to his head. James stood in a pool of sticky syrup, which looked as though it had attacked him as soon as he got out of bed; he was covered in the stuff from head to toe.

James glared at Sirius, but his expression soon changed to delight when he caught sight of Sirius' soaking hair and shoulders.

"Oh! I forgot about that!" he said joyfully. "Thought you'd like a wash in the morning."

Sirius smiled disarmingly. "Me too. Syrup's the next soap, you know."

He fled, cackling, closely pursued by James' hexes.