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Chapter One: I Don't Like Him Like That!

It was a very beautiful day in mid-August. There was but a small gust of wind blowing through the trees, a perfect day for someone to be shirking their summer homework in order to go outside and, perhaps, play in the sprinklers, maybe go to the local teenage hangout, or, in the case of a young fourteen year old witch, take a ride on a broomstick. Juniper knew deep down that she should probably finish the essays that the Hogwarts professors had dumped on her before the start of summer break, but 'procrastination' was her middle name. Yet, not once since she came home did she even pick up her books and a quill. This was probably one of the reasons why she was doing so badly in some of her classes.

Juniper pulled the hairband off of her wrist and drew her wavy shoulder length reddish-brown hair into a ponytail and picked off a piece of lint from her sleeveless hoodie before picking up her Cleansweep 35, which rested against the screen door and walked a few feet into the open field, which was surrounded by a forest before swinging her leg over the broom and mounting it. The fourteen year old then kicked off into the air. The wind was fierce at a much higher altitude and her eyes began burning almost right away, but this was what she loved. Living in a more rural part of England, there was no chance of her being caught by Muggles, for she didn't exactly have any neighbors.

She slowly moved her broom handle upwards as she neared the forest to bring herself over the tops of the trees. Juniper might not have been good in many subjects, besides Charms, but if there was one thing she knew how to do, it was flying. The first chance she got, she had joined the Hufflepuff Quidditch team in her third year as a Chaser. She would have joined in her second year, but didn't have her own broomstick back then. She also knew that she probably wouldn't have been doing this if her parents were home. They had gone to a baby shower and, fortunately, Juniper and her sister weren't required to go, but they also weren't allowed to leave the house.

A sudden updraft caused Juniper to veer off for a brief moment, but she managed to steady her broomstick and prepared to perform a stunt when...

"Hey, Juniper, phone call for you!"

The rider stopped flying and hovered overhead. The voice belonged to her sister, Jaenelle, well, actually twin sister. The two were identical, although Jaenelle wore her hair longer and dressed better. "Phonecall, who?" Juniper called down.

"James! He wants to know if you could want to come over!"

Juniper's hazel eyes widened and her throat went dry. James Sirius Potter and she had known each other for three years now, although they didn't really start becoming friends until Juniper's third year, after she started playing Quidditch. He was actually a year ahead of her and it often confused her as to why he would even want to be friends with a lowly thirteen year old. Of course, Juniper was fourteen now and, hopefully, more mature.

"Come on now, we can't keep our boyfriend waiting!" Jaenelle called wiggling her eyebrows teasingly.

Juniper dipped her broomstick handle downwards and descended, touching lightly upon the grass. "He's not my boyfriend," she grumbled, although her face most likely resembled a very ripe tomato right about now. She walked into the house with Jaenelle following her.

"Well, if he's not your boyfriend, then can I have him?"

"No!" Juniper snapped. "I mean, I don't know, I mean, he's probably not looking for a girlfriend right about now." She began playing with her hair, something she did when she was nervous, which was also when she started talking non-sensically. She picked up the receiver and shooed her sister, who had a big shit-eating grin on her face, away. "Hello?"

"Hey, you were outside flying, weren't you?" James voice crackled on the other end.

Juniper waved her hand in attempts to get rid of her very nosy sister who was smirking and wiggling her eyebrows in a suggestive manner while trying to speak simultaneously to James. "Um...what if I was doing my hair, instead?"

James laughed causing Juniper's stomach to flipflop a little bit. "That's because I know you, Junie, you spend less time on your hair than a boy does. Now, out with it. You were shirking out on your homework by practicing your flying, weren't you?"

"So what if I was?" There went her hands again, twirling her fingers around her ponytail as she leaned against the wall, holding the phone between her ear and shoulder. This was one of those times she wished that this phone was cordless or that she had a cellphone, but her parents had said no cell phones until her sister and she were sixteen.

"I'd say that I've been a pretty bad influence on you. I mean, sneaking out of the house, not doing your schoolwork, you've turned into quite the delinquint."

Juniper was struggling not to laugh. Leave it to James to take the credit, although Juniper was a big procrastinator in almost everything way before she started to really talk to him, and even though he procrastinated at times, as well, he was still a much better student than she was. "I have not!" she whined, stomping her left foot while covering her mouth to restrain a giggle-snort that came out anyways.

"So, anyways, do you want to come over?" he asked. "My parents said it was all right as long as your parents were fine with it."

Juniper bit down on her chapped bottom lip, tugging at the dry skin a bit. "Um...well...my parents aren't exactly home and they wouldn't like it if they found out that a boy was over here without them being present."

She could almost see him shrugging. "So, I'll only stay for about an hour or so, then leave. I'm really bored over here. Come on, we can pass around the Quaffle."

Juniper was tempted, oh, she was so tempted, but her longing to bend the rules a little bit was outshined by the fear that her parents might come home without warning as they sometimes did. "No, I don't think that would be a good idea. But, hey, we can totally see each other next week. That's when Jae and I go to Diagon Alley to get our school supplies."

James' tone seemed to brighten up when Juniper said that. "Yeah, sure, I'll talk to my mum and dad and see if we're going then, as well."

"Great! Well um...I'll talk to you later, I guess."

"Yep, same here. You sure you don't want me to come over?"

Juniper laughed. "I'm sure." She said good-bye to him and hung up the receiver before she was tempted to say yes. Having him at the house would be too much for her to handle.

"So, you're not going over there?" Jaenelle asked as she followed her sister into the kitchen.

"Nope." Juniper opened the freezer and took out a box of popsicles, grabbing a grape.

"Honestly, if I was you, I'd jump at the chance. That boy is so fine!"

"But you're not me," Juniper reminded Jaenelle bluntly. "Besides, I'm definitely not his type."

Jaenelle rolled her eyes. "Right, I can sense denial when I hear it. You are so hot for him."

Juniper plopped herself down on the couch and turned on the television to an old re-run of a sitcom that was cancelled way back in the mid-90s. To say that her face was a little tinged right now would be an understatement. "Even if I did like him in that sort of way, which I don't, I would never have a chance with him."

"Whatever you say, but any guy who would be willing to travel all the way out here just to hang out with you is definitely not just a 'friend'," She made air quotes with her fingers when she said the word 'friend'.

Juniper shrugged and turned the television up louder why slumping down against the cushions and nibbling the edges of the popsicle in that annoying messy way her parents hated. As much as she wanted it to be true, the possibility of James and her actually becoming more than just friends was about as slim as Hufflepuff winning the Quidditch Cup this year. Besides, if anything, James probably considered her to be a little sister.

"Hey, come on, James. Time to wake up."

The dark haired fifteen year old groaned and turned over to look at his bedside clock. Without his glasses, the numbers were blurred. He groped around the side table for his glasses and slipped them on. The clock read 8:52. He ran his fingers through his thick and very messy black hair and sat up, fixing his eyes on the person who had woken him up much earlier than he wanted to be. "Dad, it's almost nine in the morning. You know I don't wake up until around eleven during the summer."

The elder bespectacled wizard pushed his round glasses up the bridge of his nose and straightened the cuff of his dark blue button up shirt. "Your mother wants to go ahead and get to Diagon Alley before it gets too busy."

"You're insane," James muttered, throwing the covers over his head. Harry answered him by flicking his wand, causing the blanket to fly off.

"Come on now, it's not that bad. You want to see Juniper, don't you?" Harry's green eyes twinkled knowingly.

James ruffled his already messy hair. "I really don't see why we have to get up early. Juniper and her family probably aren't going to be there until later." He had no idea why his dad was looking at him like that. Juniper was definitely just a friend, who he had been wanting to see all summer, but never got the chance to.

"It'll be fine, we're leaving at around 9:30, so you have about thirty minutes to get ready." Harry turned and walked out of the room.

James was halfway tempted to just turn over and go back to sleep, but the door opened again, revealing his thirteen year old sister, who was still dressed in her nightgown. "James, have you seen my purple jumper?" she asked. "I really can't find it."

The fifteen year old scratched his cheek. "Er...I don't know. Did you look in the bureau?"

Lily thought for a moment, seemingly perplexed. James sighed, knowing that getting five more minutes of sleep would be impossible. He stood up. "Just give me about five minutes to get dressed and I'll come help you find it."

He shooed his younger sister out of the room and quickly found something to wear. After getting dressed, he spent about two minutes on his hair, which included just running his fingers through it. James definitely inherited his messy tresses from his father, as well as his horrible eyesight, although Harry often said that James' personality more greatly resembled that of his late grandfather's and godfather's, both of whom he was named after as his middle name was Sirius.

About ten minutes later, just as James predicted, Lily's jumper was found in her bureau and he was finally allowed to go downstairs where the rest of the family was. His fourteen year old brother, Albus, was already sitting at the table with a plate of toast and marmalade and a few links of breakfast sausage.

"It's about time you came down," James' mother came forward with a plate and set it down in front of James as he slid into the chair.

"Sorry, I was helping Lily find her jumper." James looked up at his dad who was busy reading the Daily Prophet while simultaneously trying to sip his coffee. "Hey, Dad, you think that since I'm captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team now, I could get that new Firebolt 4000?"

Harry lowered the paper and set down his coffee. "What's wrong with the broom you have now? It's a perfectly fine model."

"Come on, Dad, when you were Captain back in your day, you had an original Firebolt model and automatically became a much better flyer."

Harry chuckled. "Yes, the Firebolt was a better model than the Nimbus 2000, but it was my own skills that improved, regardless of the make of the broom. After all, your mother flew around on a Cleansweep 7 and did very well, herself."

James knew that the answer was no. He pouted a little bit, as he owned a Firebolt 2000. It served its purpose well, but it wasn't nearly as sleek or speedy as the newest Firebolt model.

"Hey, James, you think you could let me on the team this year?" Lily asked curiously, looking up from her half eaten toast. "You know, as a special favor?"

James snorted. "I'm not going to automatically give you a spot on the team just because you're my sister. You have to try out just like everyone else."

"Hey, don't worry," Albus spoke up. "I'll help you practice a bit before tryouts and you'll do fine."

Lily seemed to brighten. James was sure that his sister would do fine. If she was anything like the rest of the family, then she would be a decent flyer and easily land a spot on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. "Exactly, and if by some chance you don't make the team. Well, the Frog Choir could always use more members," James said with a teasing smirk.

Lily stuck her tongue out at him causing her mother to look at her admonishingly before heading over to the fireplace mantle and peering into a small clay teapot. "Hm...remind me to get more while we're out, Harry," she said.

James quickly swallowed down another sip of orange juice before joining his family near the fireplace where they would use the Floo Powder network to travel to Diagon Alley. Since he and his brother and sister were both still underaged and couldn't Apparate unless they went side-along, this was their usual form of travel, besides the car. They each went in one by one making sure to speak directly so that they didn't end up in the wrong fireplace. When James was thirteen, he had purposefully called out Knockturn Alley instead of Diagon Alley as a general curiosity. The young wizard had received such a flogging from his mother that he was unable to sit down properly for a week. James ended up going last after Albus. He threw the powder into the fireplace causing the flames the flair up a bright emerald color before he bellowed, "Diagon Alley!"