(Disclaimer: I think I missed this out of the last couple of chapters, so this goes for all; I own nothing but unrecognisable characters, my new hairdo – on my shoulders again…and it was just starting to grow properly, too *sigh* and an apparent inability to characterise or include Wormtail.)

 I mean seriously, if it bothers everyone that much I'll put more of him in, but I think that if you look you'll find very few authors have the talent or the patience to do so. He's in the next couple a bit more.

Murgatroyd, if it's a pet hate of yours ok, and I'm sorry, and please help me sort it out.

But James, I know this is practically the only fanfiction you've read, so get an overview before you criticise?

The next day Lindsay didn't appear at breakfast, but one of her friends marched up to Sirius and hissed, "It's vile, what you did to Lins. You should be ashamed of yourself!"

Sirius looked suitably contrite. "Oh, I am, I am. Tell her so from me." Beside him James bit his hand hard to keep from laughing. Tulah buried her head in Remus' robes, her shoulders shaking. "Will you also tell her," Sirius added, "That we recommend essence of Murtlap for the worst of the boils." James, Tulah, Lily and Remus gave in to hysterics; Lindsay's friend sniffed in disgust and stalked off.

James thumped the table and tried as hard as he could not to gross Lily out by spitting out his mouthful of cereal. Remus and Tulah leaned on each other, their laughter subsiding into occasional bouts of the giggles.

"Brilliant!" James exclaimed weakly, having swallowed the offending cereal. "Bloody brilliant! Moony my man, you're a genius!"

Remus waved an effusive hand. "Any time, any time."

"What exactly did you do?" asked Tulah, awed.

"Umm…can you remember it all, Moony?" said Sirius.

"Sure can…how could I forget that? Lessee…there was the boil charm on her skin

cream, the black dye in her shampoo…"

"…the spiders in her shoes," put in James.

"Yup, and that thingy on her perfume to make it smell like a different kind of dung every time she sprays it."

"Oh, uh-huh, that was a good one…"

"That hex on her hairbrush…"

"The one on her lipstick…"

"…eyeshadow…"

"…mascara…"

"Ok, ok, stop!" Lily held up her hands in defeat. "What didn't you do?"

There was a short silence. "Uh…we didn't curse her breakfast," James offered hesitantly.

"Only because she's not down yet," Sirius protested, not wanting to spoil the glory of the moment. The others had to agree.

Lindsay didn't appear until Potions that afternoon, and when she did sidle into the room her face was covered by a thick scarf and the brim of an enormous hat, which also served to hide her new hair colour.

The Marauders couldn't meet each other's eyes without bursting into fits of laughter. Eventually Lily was sent out, and the rest of them combined had lost forty points for Gryffindor.

Everyone, that is, except Tulah. She was sitting alone at her desk, hunched over her books.

Sirius only noticed this when he glanced over to see if she would pass his note to James.

As soon as he got the opportunity – "Get into pairs please, and start your Vanishing Solutions simmering" – he dumped his bag on her table with a thump and put a friendly hand on her shoulder. Tulah jumped a mile; she'd been lost in her own thoughts. She was so used to sitting alone and to keeping her head down that she'd been doing it without realising.

"Oh, Sirius, it's you."

"Well who did you think it was, Merlin?" He began to unload ingredients from his bag. "Could you get some Armadillo bile?" he requested, without looking up. Tulah stared at him. "Armadillo bile," he repeated, and when she didn't move he gave her a gentle push in the right direction.

Tulah measured out the sticky liquid thoughtfully. She hadn't appreciated how much having friends would change things. Being sat next to, she realised, was nice. But equally – as the bottle tipped up and spilled brown gunk all over her hands – being asked to get Armadillo bile was not.

She washed her hands in the sink and went back to her place with the bottle, flicking cold water on Remus' neck as she passed him. He gasped and shivered, running a hand over his wet robes, then glowered at her. Tulah grinned unrepentantly as she sat next to Sirius, who was adding shredded dandelion roots to their cauldron and muttering to himself.

"Armadillo bile, sir," she said loudly, dropping the little brown bottle onto the table and saluting. It was Sirius' turn to jump this time. "Ah! Page, you're a bad, bad person, you know that?" Tulah nodded, still smiling.

She gestured in confusion to the potion. "I don't understand about this…what's it for?"

Sirius frowned. "But we did it in third year…oh! Right, sorry, you weren't there, were you?"

"No. Can you please explain?"

"Sure…well…maybe after the lesson?"

"Ok. When's best for you? I have extra Transfiguration at five, extra Charms at six 'till seven thirty, and extra D.A.D.A. from eight until nine, then at nine I really need to do some work…so…" she counted silently, staring at the stone ceiling in search of inspiration. "I can do seven thirty to eight, or ten 'till whenever."

Sirius was gaping at her unbelievingly. "No way! No one can do that much work!"

"I have five years to catch up on," Tulah reminded him quietly. "If I don't do this work I'll have to stay back a year, and I'd hate that."

Sirius' mouth was still hanging open. "When do you sleep?" he asked wonderingly.

Tulah laughed rather bitterly. "I don't! Close your mouth," she added gently. Sirius obeyed without even noticing what he was doing. "I managed all last year," Tulah finished. "There's no reason why I can't do it again."

That night Tulah fell gratefully into bed, too tired to retaliate even when Lindsay's friends stole her hairbrush once more. By the time Lily had replaced it silently by her bed ten minutes later, Tulah was already asleep.

"AAH! That was my toe, Peter!"

"Sorry!"

Lily sat up, her eyes narrowed to slits. "If there are any Marauders in this dorm," she said menacingly to thin air, "They'd better be gone by the time I count to three."

"Does that include me?" came Tulah's sleepy voice. "What's going on?"

"One…two…three…"

There was a short silence, then, "This is the voice of someone who is not a Marauder," said Sirius from the middle of the room. "The people about to appear are a figment of your imagination, repeat, a figment of your imagination. You are not to hex them to oblivion."

"Or," added one of the 'figments of her imagination' - who sounded amazingly like James Potter - "They will never kiss you again."

Lily gasped in mock horror; then, having decided to ignore her friends' obvious insanity, she turned over and went back to sleep.

The four boys, still concealed beneath the Invisibility Cloak, crept over to Tulah's bed.

Or tried to creep…Peter had an annoying habit of stepping on people's toes, and their progress could be marked accurately by following Sirius' yelps of pain.

Remus shook Tulah gently by the shoulder; Sirius ruined the effect by yelling, "Tuls! Wakey wakey!" in her ear. Tulah opened one eye and used it to glare at Sirius.

"There better be a good excuse for this, Black!" she hissed.

Remus ignored Sirius' disgruntled muttering and sat down on the bed beside Tulah, waving a wad of paper excitedly in her face. "Look!" Neither he nor Sirius had bothered to keep their voices down; Caz stirred and mumbled in her sleep.

Tulah, used by now to Remus' occasional bouts of lunacy, grabbed the paper and placed her hand firmly over his mouth to shut him up.

"What's this?" she asked curiously, without expecting an answer. She began to read…and as she read, her face broke into a huge grin.

I, Professor M. McGonagall, hereby give my permission for Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Lily Evans and James Potter to teach Tulah Page Transfiguration until she has reached the standard required for N.E.W.T levels.

M. McGonagall

I, Professor Flitwick, hereby give my permission for Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Lily Evans and James Potter…

Tulah flicked through the rest without even reading them, and then threw her arms around Remus' waist with a squeal. "Thank you!" she yelped.

"You're welcome!" There was a smile in Remus' voice as he returned her enthusiastic hug.

There was a conspicuously loud cough from behind them. "We'll be going, then," said James airily. "You coming, Moony?"

Remus smiled fondly down at Tulah. "Think I'll stay here for a while…"

As soon as their friends had gone Remus slid under the covers beside Tulah and wrapped an arm around her waist. "Happy?" he mumbled, leaning forward to rest his forehead against hers.

Tulah grinned up at him. "Yep…"

He smiled back in his shy way and tightened his grip around her marginally. "I thought you would be…"

She snaked her arms up around his neck and planted a gentle kiss on the tip of his nose.

"Tuls…?" Remus said suddenly, just as she was about to move her lips downwards towards his.

"Mmhmm?"

"I love you…"

Tulah was silent for a moment; Remus held his breath. "I – I love you too," she whispered, her voice breaking. (A/N; anybody smell cheese???) Remus, weak with withheld relief, pulled Tulah closer to him and kissed her as if there was no tomorrow. (A/N; what does that feel like, incidentally? I mean, I've been kissed, but tomorrow never really seemed to come into it…)

Lily, having had quite enough by now, sat up and said, "For god's SAKE! Either pass me the sick bag or shut up!"

Wearing identical sheepish smiles Remus and Tulah appeared from under the covers and Remus, dropping a kiss on her cheek, murmured, "I'd better go. See you tomorrow..."

"See you." Tulah replied and then fell back onto her bed, an uncontrollable grin spreading across her features.

Sorry about the cheese, but you know it had to come sometime. I'm making it too clingy deliberately.