Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter, Lily, James, Sirius, Remus…actually it might be quicker to write down what I do own…

Thanks to the following reviewers: Myth13, Tai Greywing, lady bree, life2me, ilovedrew88, dreamergirl86, meaneatingbananas, MoonylovesFlo, Trainer Krystal, fork-tofu-pingpong-fish, JillZee, ritergrl, PsychoLeopard, MagikMischiefMaker, Kellie, Lovecats.x3, MicroChips, Kates Master, LilyFlower28, Julily, heather gernez, Sugur-huny-bun and angel tread!

A/N: Okay I know I said I would decide on whether to do faster updates or not but I've decided to put it off for a little longer. Maybe for another week. DON'T HATE ME I HAVE A GOOD REASON!

Reason being. Okay well I'm having trouble writing the Voldemort scene. I want it to be good enough for you all but I'm having problems with it. The biggest one stems from another of my books. When I helped to write Random Scribblings (a rather large book in which me and my friends visit other worlds, HP included) the Voldemort scene was really funny. So now in this story I'm having to recast Voldemort back into his usual evil self, where as I'm used to writing him as a character that I can poke fun at (anyone who has read '101 ways to annoy harass confuse or generally scare Lord Voldemort' will guess what we did).

Bottom line I'm having trouble writing our friend Voldie as evil. It's hard not to want to add a bit where we start making the Death Eaters dance the Macarena…

Well there you have it. I hope I don't kill you wanting quicker updates but as soon as I can get the sticky bit done I will start updating at a faster pace.

Chapter 26

Sirius looked at the speaker, who seconds ago had been fast asleep.

"Sirius you're scaring me, why are you crying?" Tash asked.

"You're awake!" Sirius choked out before pulling Tash into a hug worthy of Jenny.

"Ow!" she feebly protested.

"I thought you were never going to wake up," Sirius whispered.

"Why?" Tash asked in confusion as he let go of her.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Sirius asked.

"Um," Tash frowned. "I remember being in the library. Yeah, me and Lily were just leaving. We got to the fourth floor and…" Comprehension dawned on her face and she gasped.

"Oh my God! Lily! Is she okay?"

"She's fine," Sirius said. "She got out of here a little while ago." Tash looked around the empty hospital wing.

"Wait a minute, how long have I been in here?"

OOO

"Two months detention I reckon," Remus said. "Hexing another student is not just going to warrant a lot of house points."

"Nah I reckon it'll be for the rest of the term," Lily said, "have you ever seen McGonagall when she's really mad?" she asked as they made their way along the third floor corridor. They were interrupted by a very loud and angry voice from the hospital wing.

"TWO WEEKS! I HAVE BEEN IN HERE FOR TWO SODDING WEEKS!"

"I must be hearing things cause that sounded like…" James began but was cut off by the voice.

"I CANNOT BELIEVE I HAVE MISSED TWO WEEKS OF MY LIFE BECAUSE OF A BUNCH OF DEATH EATERS!"

"Is that…?" Jenny asked, a grin spreading across her face.

"She's awake!" Lily cried running the rest of the way to the hospital wing.

They all hurried in to find Tash sitting still in bed, red in the face and extremely cross. Sirius was covering his ears but was not disguising the obvious grin on his face.

"TASHA!" Jenny screamed throwing her arms around her friend, who immediately stopped shouting and hugged her back. Lily joined in.

"We missed you Tash!" Lily said as they let go. James and Remus sat down next to Sirius with equally huge grins.

"Come here you guys! You're not getting away that easy!" Tash said, leaning over to hug them.

"How are you feeling?" Lily asked.

"Well I was hurting but I felt better after screaming," Tash said. "I still can't believe I've been in here for two weeks! What did I miss?"

"Ah! Wait a minute!" Jenny said. "I have a bone to pick. Tash… NEVER LEAVE US ALONE AGAIN, YOU HEAR ME!"

"Loud and clear Jen," Tash nodded fervently and tugged the covers up to her chin in protection.

"What on Earth is going on here?" Madam Pomfrey hurried in carrying her morning dose of medicines. She took on look at Tash and let out a shriek, dropping her tray of potions in the process.

"Natasha! You're awake!"

"It would seem so," Tash nodded. At this point someone else hurried into the hospital wing, obviously attracted by the noise.

"Really Poppy why all the noise?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"Hey Professor!" Tash waved. Professor McGonagall jumped in surprise.

"My goodness, Miss Marquand you're awake!"

"That's the fourth time someone has said that to me so yes I think I must be!" Tash said cheerfully before, to everyone's surprise McGonagall hugged her.

"Blimey! Missed you too Professor," Tash said.

"Merlin, I'd better go and inform the headmaster!" McGonagall hurried out of the hospital and Madam Pomfrey hurried to her office to get more medicine.

"Right, so what did I miss?" Tash asked.

"Nothing much," Jenny said. "Just us all acting maniacally depressed cause you weren't around."

"And Jen getting detention for hexing some Slytherins," Lily added.

"Jennifer!" Tash said in shock.

"I'm sorry!" Jenny said. "They were being horrible about you."

"I've created a monster," Tash shook her head gravely.

"And Padfoot has been issued with a detention for breaking Snapes nose," James said.

"Go Sirius!" Tash smiled.

"I'm a genius," Sirius said.

"Such a modest one too," Tash nodded.

The doors of the hospital wing swung open and Dumbledore marched in looking extremely buoyant.

"I see you're back with us Natasha."

"I can't leave this lot on their own," Tash smiled. "Look at the havoc they've been causing."

Automatically Lily and Jenny gave her a playful smack on the arm each.

"Ow!" Tash protested. "Don't hurt me, I'm fragile!"

"May I have a word with you alone?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yeah shouldn't you all be in lessons?" Tash asked. "What day is it?"

"Wednesday," Lily said. "We should be in Charms. We'll come and see you later Tash, we promise."

"I'll hold you to that," Tash said, hugging each of them as they got up.

"See you later!" Lily waved as she went through the door.

OOO

"So when can I get out of here?" Tash asked. Madam Pomfrey looked up from the patient in the next bed.

"If I'm happy with your progress you can leave on Friday," she said before disappearing back into her office.

"Friday!" Tash groaned. "I can't wait that long!"

"You can't wait two days?" Jenny asked.

"No!" Tash spluttered before grabbing another chocolate frog and ripping it in half. Lily chuckled and helped herself too more chocolate. What seemed like most of their year group had sent Tash sweets once they had found out that she was awake. Unable to finish it herself Lily, Jenny and the Marauders were helping her out.

"Hope I can catch up okay," Tash said. "I mean I did miss a lot of lessons."

"You'll be fine," Lily said. "You're not friends with all of us for no reason!"

"It'll be worse after Easter," Remus said. "Apparently its all revision classes after the holidays."

"Eek!" Tash squeaked.

"We'll be fine, it's just exams," Lily said.

"Easy for you to say," Jenny said. "You passed all of your OWLs with Exceeds expectations or above!"

"Nine o clock! Visiting time is over!" Madam Pomfrey hurried back over to Tash's bed and began to shoo them all away.

"Sirius you stay a minute," Tash said as everyone else got up.

"You need rest Natasha!" Madam Pomfrey looked at her sternly.

"Just five minutes," Tash pleaded, pulling a very impressive puppy dog face. Madam Pomfrey crumbled.

"Okay but just for five minutes!" she said before hurrying out.

"Great face Tash," Jenny said.

"I've been taking lessons," Tash shrugged.

"From who?" Lily asked.

"King of puppy dog faces himself," Tash said nodding at Sirius, who beamed.

"Hey we can do the face too!" James said and he and Remus pulled their own puppy faces, which caused everyone to laugh.

"Aww! That face can do anything!" Jenny said hugging Remus.

"See you all tomorrow," Tash said.

Lily and Jenny waved as they left the hospital wing. Tash waved back quickly feeling exhausted.

"You look tired," Sirius said sitting beside her.

"You'd think after two weeks of sleeping tired is that last thing I'd be," Tash said rubbing her eyes. Sirius squeezed her hand.

"Sirius," Tash began, turning to look him in the eye. "What were you saying to me just before I woke up?"

Sirius gazed at her.

"I said I loved you. And I'm glad I got the chance to finally tell you."

Tash smiled sleepily.

"I love you too." Sirius smiled back and planted a sweet kiss on her lips.

"Five minutes are over!" Madam Pomfrey came striding over.

"Talk about inappropriate timing," Sirius muttered. Tash giggled.

"Night then," she said. Giving her one last hug Sirius left the hospital wing feeling the happiest he ever had in his life.

OOO

Tash's return to school was met with mixed emotions. Whilst a majority of the students and staff were pleased to see her out of the hospital wing there were a select group who were none too happy at her recovery. The Slytherins were obviously gutted to see her, Bellatrix and her group especially so. Professor Ramton also took this mood especially on Tash's first day back, when he decided to set them all a rather large and nasty essay as well as handing Tash all the work that she had missed, which was bound to take her most of the holidays.

Understandably Filch was also feeling rather murderous since Tash's recovery meant that Sirius was back to his normal self and willing to participate in any pranks that the Marauders had planned. The first morning that Tash rejoined the school the boys set off a round of magical fireworks, which welcomed her back in large red and gold letters. The teachers did not seem to mind this. However when Bellatrix and Rudolphus were found late afternoon caught in a broom closet being attacked by a volley of enchanted water balloons, Filch and the teachers were none too happy.

By the start of the Easter holidays most of the school had returned to normal. Lily and James returned from patrolling one evening to find Jenny and Remus still doing homework.

"Nice patrol?" Remus asked.

"Would have been fantastic if we hadn't caught Bellatrix and Rudolphus snogging down by the dungeons," Lily said.

"Eww!" Jenny winced covering her ears. "Are you trying to scar me!"

"Yes," James nodded. "Where's Padfoot?"

"Not a clue," Remus said.

"Tash?" Lily asked looking at Jenny.

"Doing laps in the lake," Jenny said monotonously scribbling on her parchment at the same time.

"Bit late isn't it?" Lily asked.

"Probably," Jenny said. "But she said she missed it. And she seems to think that after two weeks of sleeping she's out of shape!"

"Anyway when's the wedding?" Remus asked. Lily knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Last weekend of the holidays," she said. "Hope Petunia want's to be civil."

"This is Petunia, she isn't civil to you," Jenny said.

"You're making me feel so much better Jen," Lily rolled her eyes. "The only good thing that's coming out of this is that she won't be living in the same house as me any more!"

"And I'll bet the list of bad things that are coming out of this wedding is getting longer by the minute," James said.

"Too true," Lily sighed wondering silently what else could go wrong next weekend.

OOO

"Have a good time!" Jenny hugged Lily tightly. It was the last week of the holidays and Lily and James were preparing to return to muggle world for Petunia's wedding. Currently everyone was gathered in Professor McGonagall's office to say goodbye.

"A good time, you must be joking," Lily muttered.

"Owl us the second you get there," Tash said. "And for heaven's sake be careful!"

"Don't worry Tash, it's a wedding," Lily said. "The most that's going to happen is that Petunia's going to trip down the aisle or Vernon is going to forget his vows."

"Now that would be a sight!" Jenny chuckled before pulling Lily to one side and rummaging around in her pockets. "Thanks for reminding me Lily." She finally fished out a bottle of gold potion.

"What's that?" asked Lily.

"Felix Felicis," Jenny said handing it to her. "I started brewing it last September after you told me that Petuina and Vernon were going out. I suspected they might get married if he was anything as bad as you said. So I thought you might need this to get through it."

"Are you sure Jen?" Lily asked. "I mean it's a hard potion to make, do you really want to waste it?"

"I'm not wasting it," Jenny said. "This is a good cause. I'm helping you to keep your sanity!"

"Thanks," feeling slightly overwhelmed, not in the least by Jenny's skill at potions, Lily slipped the tiny bottle into her pocket.

"Ready?" James asked. Lily nodded and picked up her trunk.

"I still don't know why you're taking you whole trunk and not just the stuff you're going to need for the weekend," Tash shook her head.

"Because I'm not going to leave my books behind," Lily said. "We've got exams in just over a month!"

"Quite right too Miss Evans," Professor McGonagall came into the room just in time to hear Lily's last statement. "Haven't you left yet?"

"Really Professor anyone would think you wanted to get rid of us!" James said in a scandalised voice.

"Go on guys," Tash said. "And don't forget to owl us."

Lily waved and stepped into the fire first. Floo powder had never been her favourite method of travel. As soon as she'd said the name of her house she instantly felt sick. The abrupt stop also meant that she fell face flat onto the living room carpet.

"Lily!" the sound of her mothers voice made Lily feel much better and she picked herself off the floor just in time to receive a hug.

"Goodness me you're covered in soot!" her mother said.

"Yeah that's what happens when you travel by fireplace," Lily said brushing herself off and looking over her shoulder to see James appearing. He brushed the soot off himself and stepped out of the fireplace dragging his trunk with him.

"Hello James it's wonderful to see you again," Mrs Evans smiled.

"Great to be back," James smiled.

"Take you're trunks upstairs, I'll get you something to drink." Lily grinned at her mother as she left. Hogwarts was great, but coming home was something special.

A/N: Finished there cause the chapter was getting long. Anyone interested in reading '101 ways to annoy harass confuse or generally scare Lord Voldemort,' should search for it on Mugglenet. com (JKR has read it! It made her laugh!)

Next Chapter: Petunia's wedding and a nasty surprise at the reception

May Stardust fall in your dreams!