James and Isobel

AN: I couldn't think of a better title, but I hope you like the story anyway. It could be worse I was originally going to name this James Potter and the Muggle.

Chapter 1: The Meeting

Godric's Hollow is a close-knit small town. The neighbors were all friendly and the crime rate was non existant. The last crime that happened took place over forty years ago. What most villagers don't know is that half the village is filled with witches and wizards. They don't know that it was a wizard, Godric Gryffindor, who founded Godric's Hollow in the first place.

Due to the stature of secrectcy muggles (non-magic folk) don't know that the Potters who lived at number seven Cottage Hill Road were directly related to the Potters who died forty years before.

Ginny Potter was in the kitchen making dinner. She was a having a little trouble with a new recipe that her sister-in-law Audrey gave her. Something was missing and she was determined to find out what. So she went rummaging through her nearly empty spice rack.

"Hey Mom" James, her eldest, came down the stairs and into the kitchen.

Ginny turned away from the cabinet and looked at her son. He was wearing jeans and a red shirt. He'd blend in well with the neighbors. "I need you to go to the market" she said.

James groaned. "Why me?"

"Because you're here. Al is at Ron's. Lily is shopping with Fleur and Dominique. And your father has locked himself in his office again."

James groaned again. He was headed towards his Uncle George's shop.

Ginny held up a spoon full of the soup for her son to taste.

James spit it out as soon as the soup touched his tongue. "What was that?"

"Dinner if you don't go to the store for me."

"Okay, okay what do you need?" he asked quickly.

"Salt, nutmeg, basil, …" the list went on and all and James tried to remember it all. James took some money from the muggle money jar. They always kept some on hand for emergencies. He walked to the local market.

James Sirius Potter just celebrated his seventeenth birthday. That made him legally an adult. He had asked his mother before he left why they couldn't just magick the spices needed. Gwaps five laws applies to food, but should ingredients really count? She told him to just go to the store like she said.

The market wasn't far away. James whistled while he walked. He was already planning out his back to school prank. Every year since his first, James and his cousin Fred pull a big prank during their first week of school. This year was going to be no different.
At the spice rack James looked at all the different spices and tried to remember which ones his mother told him to get. He grabbed salt and pepper because those were easy ones to remember. But what the hell is a paprika and who came up with a name like Horseradish? He immediately decided to skip those two and he grabbed some nutmeg just because it sounded like something his grandmother Molly would use. Cilantro? That didn't sound good at all. Then he decided what the hell and started tossing random bottles into his basket.

James started walking towards the lines. He saw a sign that said Mars Bars and he faintly recalled his father mentioning that he used to eat those. He headed over to the display but wasn't watching where he was going and crashed right into a girl who was walking in the opposite direction.

"I'm sorry" the girl said automatically and she reached down to get her basket that fell.

James beat her to the basket and he picked it up for her. "It was my fault I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." He handed her the basket. He looked into her eyes and felt a funny swooping in his stomach.

"I'm James by the way" he said quickly.

"Thank you James" the girl said, and with a slight blush she walked away. James stood there staring after her for a while wondering why she didn't tell him her name back. Then he noticed a line was forming and he grabbed a Mars Bars and entered the line.

The whole time he waited in line he kept glancing behind him to see if he saw the girl again. By the time he got checked out he still hadn't caught another glance at her. Instead of going home immediately after he waited outside of the store.

It took about five minutes but the girl finally came outside.

"Hi, I thought I'd try this again" James said as he fell into step next to her.

"Are you stalking me?" she asked.

"Maybe" he said with a quick smirk. "I feel horrible about bumping into you and making you drop your basket. So I thought, in order to let me make it up to you, you should let me take you out on a date."

"I don't date strangers."

"I'm not a stranger. My name is James Sirius Potter. I'm seventeen. My mom used to be into sports now she writes for a newspaper. My father works for a hidden part of the police. I have a younger brother named Albus and a younger sister named Lily. See you already know more about me than most strangers."

"My name is Isobel Abbey. I'm sorry but I don't date guys I meet at the market. Thank you for walking me home though" the girl said as they stopped outside of a big white house.

"Isobel, I like it" James muttered. "I'll be seeing you around." He'd make sure of it.

"What took you so long?" Ginny asked as soon as her son stepped through the kitchen door.

"There was a line" James said.

"Yeah right, more like you couldn't stop flirting with the clerk and held up the line" James' younger brother Albus said as he entered the kitchen.

"I thought you were at Uncle Ron's" James said ignoring Al's comment.

"I was" Al said as he reached into the fridge and grabbed a can of soda "but then Aunt Hermione wanted me to try out this new dish she was making."

"Wait until you taste what mom made, you're going to wish you stayed over there."

"Get out of my kitchen, both of you!"

James went up to his room. For some reason he couldn't get the Isobel girl out of his head. It's not like James is inexperienced with girls. He had his first girlfriend at the age of fourteen. The relationship didn't last. How was he supposed to know then how clingy and needy a girl could be? James had plenty of girlfriends since then. It wasn't like he didn't have any experiences with rejection either. The first girl he ever asked out turned him down. He was a third year Gryffindor looking forward to his first Hogsmeade trip and she was a seventh year Ravenclaw who wouldn't been seen hanging around someone younger than her; even if he was the boy-who-lived's son.

So what was it about Isobel that made her stand out so much? Maybe it was the red hair. Maybe it was that sparkle she had in her hey diamond blue eyes. Whatever it was about her James knew he had to learn more about her.

At dinner he decided to broach the subject. "Hey mom, you deal with our muggle neighbors sometimes, right?" James said in what he thought was an off-hand casual sort of voice.

"Sometimes I deal with the neighbors if we run into each other at the store or when they first move in and I have to send over a casserole or something" Ginny replied back.

"So you know the Abbeys over on Blossom Street?"

"The minister's family? He lost his wife some years ago, she had cancer. Poor things, she was really nice. Remember when we first moved in here Harry she sent over that amazing apple tart dish? The church used to host fundraisers all the time. I wonder if they still do" Ginny trailed off thinking about the last time she left the house for something other than work. Being a writer for a newspaper was not as simple as she thought it would be.

"Why do you want to know about the Abbeys?" Harry asked.

"No particular reason" James said and he went back to his soup. He was surprised this was the same thing he sampled earlier, it tasted way better now.

"I bet the Abbeys have a daughter" Albus muttered.

James kicked him under the table. Albus chuckled so James kicked him again. The two of them began a game of footsies and Lily changed the subject to a beauty pageant she wanted to participate in.