I slammed my trunk shut and heaved it off my bed. It seemed lighter than normal. I dragged it to the door of my room, before giving up and simply levitating it down the stairs. "Mum?" I peeked my head into the living room, where mum and dad were both sitting, as usual, in their armchairs by the fire, whilst reading.

"Yes dear?" Mum looked at me over the top of her glasses.

"I…I'm going now," I said, not quite sure if I should try hugging her or not.

"Ah right, well, owl us when you get to her house," mum told me, adjusting her glasses and allowing her eyes to sweep over my muggle attire, her lips thinning in disapproval at the rips and holes in my jeans.

"Right…" I was about to close the door, but jerked it open again, "See you at Christmas?" Mum nodded, but didn't take her eyes off her book. I nodded, knowing full well that neither mum nor dad could see me. I closed the door with a quiet click and heaved my trunk outside into the chilly August air. I closed the front door and pulled out my wand, giving it a wave and pocketing it again. Seconds later, the bright purple triple decked bus appeared at the end of the drive and a good friend of mine stepped out of the door.

"Evenin' Kate," Jim asked, his Scottish accent rippling through the cold air, as he tipped his hat slightly at me and moved to help me with my trunk. I smiled gratefully as he took it from my hands and heaved it onto the bus with ease. He gestured for me to get on and he followed me. The doors closed and with a great lurch, the bus snapped to attention and sped off, turning into nothing more than a blur of purple.

"Yur no goin' tae King's Cross the noo, are ye?" He asked me, keeping his balance easily at the front of the bus while watching me cling desperately to a handle bar on the roof.

"No, Jim," I forced a smile, as I felt my stomach squirm at a right turn. "You know the Potter Manor?"

Jim nodded, "Oh aye, aye that's that big yin just ootside London, intit?"

I nodded, "That's the one."

"Oi Lenny!" Jim shouted to the driver, who completely ignored Jim's existence. "The Potter Manor!"

Once Lenny had taken a right turn, which seemed to satisfy Jim, Jim turned back to me and nodded to my trunk, "Yur maw know yur stayin' it a wee lad's hoose?"

"Nope," I grinned despite myself. "Though even if she did, I hardly think she would disagree with me associating with such a family as the Potters."

"Aye yur right enough there," Jim nodded understandably. "Those Potter folk are nice folk though. I goat the lad oan 'ere a few weeks past in' he seemed an awrite lad. Yoo friends wae him?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Or…more his girlfriend than him."

"That wee yin goat a lassie aw'ridy?" Jim sniggered.

"Yeah, though I wouldn't exactly say already," I smiled. "He has been trying to catch her for near six years."

"Aye a ken that," Jim nodded. "So yoos aw havin' a wee git taegither?"

I shrugged and nodded; "I don't know about the others but any chance I have to get away from my parents, I take it."

"'Av never mit yur maw, is she nice?" Jim asked, not moving an inch as the bus lurched almost horizontally to the side, and then secured itself again.

I shrugged, "I'm not a big fan of her but I suppose, since she's my mum, I'll have to say yes."

"Aye most maws uur like that," Jim nodded. "Ma maw wis a right piece o' work."

The bus suddenly pulled to a stop and I was thrown forwards. Jim caught me and set me back on my feet, and then helped get my trunk off the platform.

"I still haven't got the hang of it yet," I laughed as I set foot on the firm ground outside.

"Aye takes a loat eh' gittin' used tae," Jim grinned. "A only goat the joab cus a could stone up straight."

I laughed, "Well thanks for your help, and no doubt I'll be seeing you again soon."

"Aye nice seein' ye again Kate, an tell aw that lot that a wis askin' aftur them!" Jim waved as I hauled my trunk out of the way of the bus. "An dinnae bother wi' them taxis! A met a driver the other week an a goat cheek enough fur me to slap tha wee rascal!"

"Don't worry, I'll only ride the Knight Bus!" I laughed and began pulling the trunk towards the pavement. "The conversation is much more interesting compared to taxis!"

Jim waved one last time, I blinked, and the Knight Bus whizzed out of sight. I sighed as I dragged the trunk up the path next to what I knew to be the Potter garden, and sat the trunk on its side as I rung the door bell. I turned to inspect the front of the house, though was disappointed as it had already turned dark and the house was already swallowed by blackness.

"We have a Kate!" I heard James shout from inside, his voice rather muffled. He threw open the door and grinned, "About time! We were getting worried!" He pulled me through the door by the arm and then heaved my trunk in. "Bit heavier than usual don't you think?" he asked, gesturing to my trunk. I simply shrugged.

"Katie!" I turned just as a squealing red head wrapped her arms around me in a hug. "You said you were coming at six! It's now half six! James be a gentleman and take her trunk up to her room will you?"

I pulled Lily off me and grinned at James as he rolled his eyes, though continued to take the trunk up the flight of stairs to the guess room, "Thanks James, and I couldn't find half my stuff so packing took me longer than I thought it would."

"I told you didn't I?" Lily laughed and linked arms with me, ushering me down the main hallway to the kitchen, where I found Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black all sitting at the worktop eating ice cream. "I told you to get everything sorted out and ready in the morning, then you would have no panic before you left."

I shrugged, "You know me, I just have to do the opposite of what you say."

Lily grinned. "Well boys!" she turned to the three boys, who all turned to look at us, all with ice cream dripping from their mouths. They looked at Lily questionably and Lily frowned, "Say hello."

They all cheered a hello through their mouthfuls of ice cream and I smiled a hello in reply. Lily sighed and sat me down at the main table, "They've been like this since I got here. You have no idea how hard it is to survive in a house with no female company besides Mrs Potter, and she's out half the time with Mr Potter on Auror duties."

I smiled, "Well I'm here now so I'll try my best to be female."

"Yes, just you do that," Lily sniggered. James appeared at the kitchen door and sat himself down next to Lily, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and kissing her on the cheek. I smiled at them, it was about time Lily got off her high horse and dated James. It seems she thought that too, as she rested her head on his shoulder and smiled up at me.

"I didn't come all this way to become a third wheel though," I smiled playfully. "So James you'll have to give Lily up for at least 50 of the time."

James pouted, but Lily grinned, "I think Kate is right, I need some female company otherwise I'm going to find myself eating ice cream with my fingers like that lot." She gestured with her thumb to the three boys who were just finishing the ice cream. I grinned.

Sirius wiped his ice-creamed face with his sleeve, making me raise an eyebrow, and leaned against the wall next to me. "Not seen you in a while," he smiled at me.

"Ditto," I smiled back.

"How was the ride over?" Remus asked as he took the seat next to me.

I shrugged, "Same as every other year. Jim was asking after all of you."

"Who's Jim?" Lily asked.

"The conductor of the Knight Bus," James told her, flicking his messy black hair out of his hazel eyes.

"I'm bored…" Sirius sighed and banged his head against the wall.

"Come on, Kate, I'll help you get unpacked and show you around," Lily got to her feet and led me out the room. "It took me at least a week to find my way around here."

I laughed, "That big a place, eh?"

Lily smiled, "No have no idea."

Finding that the summer weather was not quite gone yet, we spent most of the last week of summer by James' swimming pool, which, apparently, he barely used as a result of the predictable English weather.

Lily and I amused ourselves by sitting on the sun chairs by the pool, just catching up, and every now and then watching as one of the boys dive-bombed into the pool. "So has James been a good boy and not abandoned you for the boys?" I smiled at Lily as I sipped on my can of Coke.

Lily turned slightly pink and shook his head, "As hard as it is to admit, I was wrong about him." I grinned. "He's been nothing but a gentleman since I got here and has always picked me over the boys, that is, when he isn't being a true host and involving me in everything they do."

I grinned, "Looks like Lily's picked a winner…"

Lily swatted my arm, though she continued smiling, this time with a blush on her cheeks. "He really is…well…erm…"

"…Incredible? Droolable? Absolutely jumping-on-able?" I sniggered.

Lily sighed pathetically, "…Amazing…"

I laughed, "Lily's all grown up!"

"And what a relief that is," Lily laughed.

"Oi!" We both turned to look at Sirius, who was leaning on the side of the pool, his wet black hair covering most of his eyes. "Get off your lazy arses and come swimming. James and I swear we wont duck you."

Lily rolled her eyes, "What do you say, dear?"

I smiled, "I think a nice swim will do us some good, dearest Lillian."

After stumbling into our bathing suits, Lily and I hurried out into the summer sunshine and raced each other to the pool. Lily slowed down just as she got to the edge, but I dived straight into the water with no hesitation. I was rather proud of myself as I broke the surface and spouted water out my mouth, as I had never before accomplished a perfect dive. Not that my dive was perfect, but it was better than doing a forward role and landing up side down at the bottom of the pool.

I hadn't really thought about whereabouts in the pool I was, and felt my face flush when I broke the surface and found myself practically on Sirius. I muttered an apology and swam to the edge of the pool, where I clambered out and ran, giggling, to Lily, who had acquired a warm towel to protect her against the breeze.

"Why don't you get in, Lily?" I laughed as I tugged at her towel.

She looked up at me nervously and her cheeks tinged pink. "He's never seen me in my bathing suit before…" She muttered.

I laughed again and pulled the towel out of her grip, "Come and get it, Lils!"

Lily laughed and tried to grasp the towel but I was too quick for her. I wrapped the towel around my waist and dive-bombed into the pool, laughing when I came up again and saw Lily gaping at me.

"Mrs Potter won't be pleased!" She hissed, worry etched across her face.

"James will your mum mind if I get this towel wet?" I asked James, who was busy trying to duck Sirius.

"Definitely not," James snorted. "Don't worry Lil, she won't mind if you wet a towel."

Lily blushed again and scurried to the side of the pool, "Just give me it so I can have it dry before she comes home."

I laughed and handed the dripping towel over. "You worry too much Lily," I told her, watching James in the corner of my eyes climb out the pool and sneak up behind her. Just as she was about to reply, however, James grabbed her round the waist and threw her in the pool.

He jumped in after her and collected the very wet and shocked Lily in his arms. "You look very nice in your bathing suit, Lily," he told her with a small smile. She smiled shyly back at him and thanked him by kissing him on the lips, which he took advantage of and practically kissed the face off of her.

"Pretty disturbing, but you've gotta love em'." I jumped and turned round to find Sirius floating behind me. He smiled at me, "So why haven't we heard from you since we finished school?"

I shrugged, "I've been busy."

"Well, you now have no choice but to hang around me at all times and satisfy my every need," Sirius told me with an evil grin.

I smiled, "It's very tempting, but I think I'm already someone else's slave."

"Ach the atrocity of it all!" Sirius grinned and nipped my arm as he swam off to talk to Remus.

I touched the spot on my arm where he had nipped me, and then looked back at the boy. This was going to be an interesting week.

A/N-Hello dearies!! This is a new thingy and I've only got a wee idea of where it's going. I'm hoping it's going to be just as good as Define Love, but nothing I write can beat that story just now so don't worry, I won't be favouring this story over Define Love. Not much is happening in this chapter but I'm hoping things will liven up pretty soon so don't lose complete faith in me lol I had a bit of drouble adjusting to the new character, Kate, because even though I'm not as much of a fan of Amy, from Define Love, as I was before, I still prefer her to any of my characters just now. Kate's hopefully going to be a completely different personality, however, so things should get interesting soon. As for the character Jim, I was so pleased with him, and had so much fun writing him. I based him mainly on a pure Scottish friend of mine, who, believe it or not, has said at least five of those phrases in his short life time. I found his sense of humor and pride of Scotland admirable and thought I'd dedicate a character to him, even though he doesn't know about it lol Being Scottish myself I really only have to translate what I sometimes talk like onto paper, which wasn't that hard after a few tries, and I've been itching to insert a little bit of my Scottish heritage into my stories for a while. I hope his Glaswegian accent wasn't too hard to interpret, but if so feel free to review me and let me know, and I'll maybe post a translation lol Once again, sorry for the pretty boring start, and please read and review!! Xx