DISCLAMER: I don't own anything. Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling. And the title of this chapter is a Clash song titled well, Lost in the Supermarket.
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It was summer vacation, but for the past fortnight all it had done was rain. The rest of his family had ways of occupying themselves inside and James had plenty of people to spend time with considering the many relatives that came and went from Number 12 Grimmauld Place.
It was a far stretch to say that his home still looked as if it belonged to a family of pure-blood, muggle haters even with the snake adorned decorations. The only remaining artifacts of the past inhabitants was the Black family tree, an always covered portrait of Walburga Black and an assortment of dinnerware that Mundungus did not filch.
He liked his home quite a lot with the spacious, brightly lit rooms and the always comfortable basement kitchen. His room especially pleased him with its large, soft bed, scarlet and gold wallpaper, posters of his favorite Quidditch team and a mass collection of items that he deemed 'essential for any prankster.'
Today was different as James Sirius Potter sat stubbornly at the kitchen table, his arms crossed in front of his chest and his mouth firmly shut. Harry and Ginny Potter sat across from him, neither speaking. James could feel his parent's eyes boring into him, but he wouldn't admit defeat. His best mate, Lysander Scamander, sat next to him as stubborn as he was.
"Are you finally going to talk or are we going to have to ban you two from Weasley Wizarding Wheezes products for good," Ginny asked, her eyes flashing in traditional Molly Weasley fashion.
Luna Lovegood sat to the redhead's left, her eyes looking dreamily into the beyond. Her pale fingers drummed the wood, as her chin rested in her other hand. Lysander looked apprehensively at his mother, who kept gazing to something left of his ear in deep thought.
"Oh that's perfect," She exclaimed, making both James and Lysander jump. "For punishment you will have to help me around the house Lysander, chores and such nonsense. And I think that James should help Ginny too."
The both grinned at each other, this was probably going to be the easiest retribution for their 'crimes'. Harry and Ginny both frowned contemplating how much of a punishment this was going to be. For one thing Kreacher did most of the work, the other Ginny did the rest with magic and the third what exactly would they be doing?
Luna smiled softly as if this was the most brilliant plan in the world. "Of course no magic, obviously. Can't do it outside of school and that means no magical supplies to make the jobs easier. No help from anyone else. They just have to help you carry your groceries, cook dinner, clean up the mess they caused and well other things that can help."
James and Lysander's faces fell. They had never done a days hard work in their life, not to mention cleaning up one of their pranks. Usually they got other 'cruel and unusual punishments', which consisted of grounding and bans of Weasley Wizarding Wheezes and Quidditch. And the occasionally confiscation of everything they held near and dear.
"You got to be kidding me," James cried out. His earlier embargo on speaking ending in an abrupt statement.
"No she's not," Ginny said with a laugh. "Luna doesn't joke. I think that's a brilliant plan, what a wonderful idea. Okay, before you two think of a way out of this I want you both to clean up the green slime in Lily's room. And I want you to apologize to her and tell her that she will not end up in Slytherin. All right? The supplies will be waiting for you upstairs."
The two boys clambered out of the kitchen to the sound of amiable talking between the adults. They lumbered up the stairs and into Lily's bedroom. The room was covered from the floor to the ceiling in bright green slime. It dripped from the chandelier and hung from the canopy over the bed. And it smelled like rotten eggs, gun powder and garbage.
They groaned inwardly at the sight.
"And we have to do all of this without magical supplies," Lysander mumbled, a scowl etched onto his face. James agreed wholeheartedly at the sight. He took a step forward and slipped in the slime, falling flat on his back, slime now where it shouldn't be. James cursed.
A light musical laugh came from the doorway. Lysander turned towards the person, carefully avoiding stepping on anything neon green. It took James a minute to get back on his feet again, constantly falling into the sticky, almost transparent, green slime. With a look of disgust he flung the slime on his hand in the direction of Lily Luna Potter.
She ducked and grinned at them. With another laugh she said, "I can't believe mum is making you clean it all up. Look at the two of you."
Lily doubled over into peals of laughter when Lysander moved to slam the door in her face, instead he slipped and fell face first in the slime. Wiping it out of his eyes and spitting the stuff onto the ground, he managed to shut the door in her face.
"You forgot something," Lily called in a sing song voice from behind the closed door. "You forgot to tell me that I will never end up in Slytherin."
"Not a chance," James called back.
"I'll tell mum and then you really will be in trouble."
"Fine," he grumbled. "There is no possible way you would be in Slytherin."
"See, that wasn't so hard." Lily said with a bright laugh. The sound of her retreating footsteps diminished along with her laughter.
"I think there is a great chance that she will end up in Slytherin, mate." Lysander contradicted with a slosh of slime as he dumped some into a large bucket. "Maybe not though, I've never seen a cold-blooded Slytherin laugh."
"Imagine if she was. That would make our lives a living hell," James added grumpily. He began scraping the slime off of a large poster of Puddlemere United's winning Quidditch team of last year.
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Jun Parker spun around the room, broom in one hand and the television turned to her favorite classic, Singing In the Rain. Her long, dark hair danced with her as she loped around the couch. She swept up some dust underneath the rocking chair and then twirled crashing into her mother, who was levitating a pile of laundry.
The laundry fell to the ground along with Jun's broom. "Oh my god!" She said quickly, turning a light shade of pink. "You didn't see anything did you? Not that I was doing anything bad or wrong in the slightest. Just— did you see anything?"
Cho Parker sighed exasperatedly from the floor as she gathered up the fallen sheets. She sighed as she finished piling the laundry in the basket. "I didn't see anything, darling."
Jun didn't realize she wasn't breathing until she let out a relieved sigh. "Thank goodness," she breathed as she grabbed the broom off the floor. It was too embarrassing to think that her mother had caught her singing and dancing like a foolish teenage girl.
"What were you doing anyway?" Her mother asked, a merry gleam in her eyes. Jun just scoffed and mumbled something about privacy and quickly turned off the telly. She finished sweeping up and left the room, dumping the contents of the dust pain into the garbage along the way.
Cho just sighed at her daughter's retreating back. Jun withdrew to her room and collapsed onto her bed, her hair fanning out on the sheets. She grabbed one of her school books and began to read The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 4 by Miranda Goshawk.
Jun, though being a half-blood, didn't know much about the magical world until her letter from Hogwarts arrived. Of course she knew her mum was a witch, dad did too, but it was something that didn't come up in conversation that much. She supposed it was because the Second War.
She had heard about this war from her best friend, Alice Pomona Longbottom, fellow rising 4th Year Gryffindor. Thinking about that, Jun recalled how surprised her mum was when she found out that she didn't get sorted into Ravenclaw like herself. The Chang family were wizards and witches and all of them, well, most of them had been sorted into Ravenclaw.
Jun grinned while reading her books, recalling the three prior years she had spent at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Most of her time was squandered between the Gryffindor Common Room, lounging around the lake and the Quidditch Pitch. Jun was the best chaser on the team besides James Potter.
She sighed, James was an arrogant toe rag and Alice wasn't a Quidditch Player. She was far to clumsy, but that didn't stop her from becoming the most amazing dancer of their year and probably the entire school. Jun was secretly jealous of Alice's dancing skills, but she cared far more about how she did on the Pitch.
"Jun! I'm heading out to the market and then I'm going to stop by your favorite book store, do you want to come?" Her mother called from the bottom of the stairs. Jun sighed, of course she wanted to come, she wouldn't toss up a chance to go to Carrington's for anything, maybe to be able to ride her new broom, but that wasn't the point.
"Coming mum!" Jun called, slamming her book closed and tossing it to the side. She bounded down the stairs and landed with a thud, the pictures on the wall clattering. Cho gave her a look that said 'why do you always do this'. Jun gave her a guilty smile as she slipped on her shoes.
"It's raining Jun, so don't forget your raincoat." Mrs. Parker grabbed the wire rimmed umbrella from its stand and slipped on her own jacket. Her eyes trained on the gloomy scene outside she found her yellow rain coat and slipped it on. A few seconds later the pair left their quaint home and entered the London streets.
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Many people say he is like his namesakes, James Potter and Sirius Black, but James likes to think that he's is own person and he can't be compared to anybody. Just because he is a brilliant chaser and master prankster, doesn't mean he is exactly like his grandfather. In fact he is horrid at Transfiguration and brilliant at Charms and Potions, just like his grandmother, which he can't help but be proud of.
Like most of his family, James knew he was going to be in Gryffindor, there was no doubt about it. It was the same with the fact that cousin Victorie Weasley would end up with Teddy Lupin. He had been right then and so he had been right again when the Sorting Hat had shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" for the whole hall to hear.
So finding himself looking at canned green beans was something he hadn't been right about. He had never dreamed about finding things like canned green beans. He didn't even know why you had to can them.
"Stupid muggles," James muttered grabbing a can of pineapples and dropping it into the cart. His mother was at his side, checking off things on a list as he pushed the cart down the aisle
"What was that James?" Ginny asked as she looked up from the parchment clutched in her hands. She eyed him with amusement as he scowled and mumbled that it was nothing. "I thought so," she replied and continued looking at her list.
"Why do you want to cook the muggle way anyway?" James asked suddenly after tossing into the cart a rather large cabbage.
"Because I can't cook the muggle way, not to mention I never cook the magical way either. I've decided to broaden my horizons and learn a new skill, which unlucky for you is muggle cooking." Ginny said happily grabbing the ingredients to make a large a complicated chocolate soufflé.
James restrained the urge to groan and beg her to save them claiming that if she really did love them that she wouldn't put them through this kind of torture. He did restrain though, thinking mainly that his mother had the sudden desire to become a muggle cook to punish him.
"James dear can you get me, um. . ." She pursed her lips in a Mrs. Weasleyish fashion and eyed the parchment in her hand. "A lobster, a live lobster." Ginny concluded. She gazed at her son intently as his mouth fell open and his eyes grew to the size of galleons.
"James!"
"All right, all right. I'll go get your stupid lobster." He replied defensively. James abandoned the cart and began going in the direction he assumed live lobsters would be.
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The seafood section was large enough to carry out the basic needs of supplying her family with the means to practice their Asian culinary skills. Jun didn't have any, neither did her dad, but her mother was a fantastic cook. There weren't many places to get what they needed, especially not in a rundown muggle market, but on such short notice this is where they were.
"Thank you," Jun said, adding another wrapped package to her arm. She turned away from the counter and bumped into something solid that wasn't there before. Her belongings fell and scattered across the floor. She quickly bent down to gather them.
"Sorry 'bout that. . ." The boy began before trailing off after he handed Jun a container of salts. She looked up at him and instantly recognized James Potter. She stood up, all articles safely in her arms, and glared at him.
"Oh, it's you." She snapped. Part of her hoped it wasn't the same James Potter but someone entirely different, like a confused muggle boy or maybe even his brother. But no, it was James all right. The same hazel eyes, messy dark hair and mischevious air about him.
James rolled his eyes in response. He replied in the same manner, annoyed and wishing it wasn't the one and only Jun Parker. "Isn't it Miss Cheerful? It's good to see you too."
"I could say the same, but then I'd be lying. Unlike some people," She chose that time to narrow her eyes. "I have morals."
"Really?" He asked mockingly, a smirk now beginning to reveal itself. "I wonder where those morals were when you clocked me in the nose after we won the Quiddith Cup?"
Jun scoffed. "You deserved it!" She exclaimed. Jun paused for a few seconds trying to find something else to say. Unwillingly to give James the satisfaction of having the last word she shouted, "It's not my fault you're a thick headed troll and you don't understand that normal people don't like to find themselves sprouting tentacles! You are such a bloody idiot."
Unfortunately her mother took that time to appear around the corner. Jun blanched, Mrs. Parker glowered and James was on the verge of breaking into peals of laugher.
"Mum, really it's not— it's not. . ."
"It's not what young lady?" She asked, giving her the evil mother death glare. Jun groaned and fidgeted on the spot. She began to look pointedly at anything else besides her mother and James. Her eyes finally met he mother's and she sighed, biting her lip.
"It's not what it looks like." She exclaimed, quite loudly and rather pointlessly.
"Really, swearing in public is nothing? Do you have any morals Jun?" Cho Parker demanded. She grabbed the remaining supplies in Jun's arms and dumped them into the basket hanging from her arm.
"No morals, none at all," James gasped between bouts of laughter. He was clutching his side and looking at the both of them. "So, so sorry Mrs. Parker."
Jun was sick of his ridiculous laughing and his obnoxious attitude. How could he get away with such dimwitted behavior when her, her of all people, had gotten in trouble by the unlucky appearance of her mother. When had the strange world decided to let people like James always have their way? So Jun decided it was best to take things into her own hands.
"You kicked me!" James exclaimed from the ground just as Cho Parker shouted, "What do you think you're doing?" and an anonymous voice called, "What is going on here?"
"That crazy loon just bloody well kicked me!"
"You deserved it for being a bumbling pillock!"
"It's not my fault that you can't control you emotions, PMSing or what not."
"How dare you Potter!" Jun was fuming at this point, her fists clutched at her side and her mouth was a solid line. With a flip of her black hair she continued, "But I can see highly well that you are too thick headed to even be decent to any other human being beside your best mate Lysander and your pretty little girlfriend of the day."
"I s'pose you're just jealous then? I always knew you had a thing for me," He replied, smirking in her direction as she prepared to leap on him and knock his brains out. But she was too dignified and mature for such a thing.
"Absolutely not!" Jun screamed.
"Oh, why don't you just shut your—"
"That's enough James." Ginny scolded. "I am sick of your nonsense all the time, especially in public. Can't believe you humiliated the family again and you were yelling at a girl, James, getting into a petty shouting match. Who do you think you are? Now apologize to this nice young lady for you irrational behavior, I don't care if she did kick you. You probably deserved it."
"She's not a girl, let alone a lady. Are we even talking about the same person?"
"I told you to apologize now James Sirius!"
On the other side, Cho was lecturing her daughter on the importance of restraint. "Where did you get the idea that you can just go about kicking boys in the grocery store? I've never seen such ridiculous behavior from you Jun. You were always such a nice young girl, but now this? What has gotten into you? I want you to apologize to this pleasant young man, I don't care what he said."
"Mum, you've got be kidding me? I can't apologize to him," She retorted. "It would be like paying him a compliment. I can't do that."
"What are you saying dear, that he is beneath the standards of common etiquette." Cho cut her off. "I don't care if he's the son of a Death Eater, just apologize."
Jun gasped, caught off guard by her mother actually speaking of something from the wizarding world. James was wondering how this week could get any worse. Both turned to each other, unwillingly, and shouted, "I'm sorry!" and "I'm apologizing!" before stomping off in opposite directions.
"Well, that went well." Ginny breathed, staring after her departed son. "It was nice to see you again Cho," She added in an afterthought, thinking that this moment couldn't possibly get more awkward then it already was.
"Pleasure to see you too, Ginny." Cho replied dishonestly, looking very rumpled and dissatisfied. "Sorry about my daughter's behavior, I don't know what has possible gotten into her." Of course she knew perfectly well what it was all about.
"I don't know what has happened to James," Ginny paused, biting her lip in thought. "I've got to go before he does something he'll regret." She nodded her head in recognition of Cho, before taking off after her son.
Cho replied with a curt, "Good day." before running after her daughter, who was currently glaring angrily at a deodorant display. Cho sighed in relief once she reached her. It wasn't everyday that Jun would throw a fit in a supermarket, the realistic answer was never in a million years.
Ginny let go of an exasperated sigh as she reached her son. James gave her a curious glance, but looked away when their eyes met. It certainly was almost everyday that he found himself in some form of trouble, whether or not he was old enough to be mature.
There was one thing that everyone in the previous party could agree on; that they couldn't help but thank the Lord that that meeting was over.
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A/N: This chapter turned out dysfunctional (in the 'not performing as expected' definition, how helpful is Microsoft Word!), but in a good kind of sense. And if you suddenly happen to worry that this is going to be a boring James S. Potter/OC story, I promise, it isn't, especially since their parents have history that they don't know about. Hehe, anyway, hope you enjoyed it and its non-betaness (have had to correct my own grammar, the horror!) and do review.