"Oh I really do wish I could watch this whole episode unfurl," Sirius grinned as James yanked off his shirt, "How are you going to be able to control yourself when she turns up on one of those tight, boob enlarging dresses? I don't even think I could help myself from trying it on with her with all that in my face...." James glared in his friend's direction but Sirius just grinned back at him.
"That's precisely what I'm worried about, I mean, what if someone makes a move on her or what if she brings a date?" James mumbled, "I think I might have to punch the bloke."
"Oh I definitely wish I was staying now," Sirius chuckled.
"Sirius!" James moaned, swivelling round to face him, "I'm being serious! If she brings some guy with her I don't think I could just sit back and watch and if I did do something about it, she'd hate me more than she already does!"
"Oh I dunno," Sirius grinned, "She might think you're her knight in shining armour."
"Don't joke Sirius," James moaned, "You know how fragile I am when it comes to Evans." Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Well I personally think she won't," Sirius shrugged, "I mean, who would she bring?"
"Well how do we know that she doesn't have some secret muggle boyfriend or something?"
"Oh she wouldn't bring a muggle," Sirius dismissed, "He wouldn't know anything about magic and she'd be breaking the rules by revealing it."
"Even so, she might have met someone in Diagon Alley or something..."
"And how many times do you reckon muggle-born Lily Evans would make it to Diagon Alley, James?"
"Well she must go to get stuff for school. Pretty girls always get asked for their details Sirius; it doesn't matter how long they've been there. You should know that."
"Why? Do you think I'm pretty?" Sirius asked batting his eyelashes and James rolled his eyes at the terrible joke, "Look mate, Evans won't bring a bloke to the party, and even if she does then she's not worth it because it would mean that she's purposely trying to hurt you."
"It would still make me feel like crap though, whether or not she's worth it," James moaned.
"Boys are you ready yet?" James' father called up the stairs, "Samantha's parents are waiting!"
"We're coming!" James called throwing on a new shirt, "Come on, let's whisk you off to paradise with your fiancé."
"Shut up..." Sirius grumbled and both the boys dragged suitcases out of James' bedroom and over to the ministry car.
"Merlin Sirius how much did you wanna bring?" James laughed as he heaved Sirius's suitcases into the boot.
"It's the price you pay to look this good," Sirius grinned, throwing his own load into the back of the car, "When you decide to lose those geeky specks and sort your hair out I'll be there with all the right stuff to make you look like a God."
"Oh Merlin, why aren't you staying? I need you for next week!"
"Are you ready Sirius? We really need to get going," came the voice of James' father and the boys shared a swift manly hug.
"Try not to get Sam pregnant Sirius," James mumbled so as his father couldn't hear, "You can't fool me; I know what you're plannong to do on your holiday. Your suitcases are chock full of condoms, that's why you need so many."
"You know me too well, shame the same can't be said for you...but then again tight Victorian trousers might show-"
"Bye Sirius," James grinned, shoving his friend into the front seat of the car next to his father. Sirius grinned too and closed the car door, causing James to back away so that the car could pull out.
He stood at the end of the drive, watching as his friend embarked on his own adventure and he secretly crossed every part of his body; when would Sirius ever feel that serious about a girl again? It was then that James thought about Lily Evans with her green eyes and the red ribbon in her hair, and he wondered whether or not it really would be a good thing for Sirius to feel about Sam the same way he did about Lily.
***
When Lily Evans exited Kings Cross Station on the last day of school, she never expected to be handed an envelope with elegant gold script printed across the front by her father. She stared blankly at the envelope before eventually deciding to open it, plucking a stray strand of the ribbon in her hair as she did so.
"Who are the Potters?" Lily asked stupidly, surely John and Mary Potter weren't James Potter's parents? No, they couldn't be, how would her parents possibly know who they were? They were muggles and his parents were wizards.
"John and I used to be good friends when we were kids before we left for different schools; it was only last term when your mother and I braved passing through the barrier that we were reunited and I discovered that he was in fact a wizard. I got quite a shock the following day when an owl swooped in through the kitchen window with a letter attached to his leg. You know I swear his son's in your year....James was it? Do you know a James Potter, Lily?"
Lily's heart sank. Oh yes, she knew James Potter. Trust her parents to have a secret connection to Mr Popular James Potter; the boy that just wouldn't leave her alone, the bully, the one boy she loathed.
"Yeah he's in my house," She said as naturally as she could and that was all she was going to say on the matter, "Shame we're going to Aunt Josephine's..."
"We're not," Petunia spat, clearly as unimpressed with the invite as Lily was, "She cancelled because Uncle Phil decided to take her on a surprise trip."
"What?" Lily said, now things were getting ugly, "So we're going?"
"Well I don't see why not; I haven't seen John in years, it would be great to catch up."
"Besides we've always wanted to meet other witches and wizards," Lily's mum piped up, "I can't help but feel that we don't really know much about what's going on in your life sweetie."
"Trust me, you don't want to know," Lily mumbled miserably as the image of James Potter and Severus popped into her mind. Deciding to push the image from her mind, Lily turned her attention to her sister who lounged in the seat next to her staring miserably out of the car window with her arms folded.
"How's school Tuney?" She tried but Petunia did not answer her. Lily sighed and muttered silencio under her breath; she didn't want her parents to hear her pleading with her sister to speak to her.
"Tuney please speak to me," Lily cried and Petunia's eyes widened when her parents appeared not to have heard anything, "You can't hate me forever; it's not my fault that you're not-"
"What did you do?" She asked, rounding on her sister, stopping her before she could continue; their parents didn't know of their break up, they would have asked questions by now, "Did you do something to them?"
"They can't hear us," Lily said brushing it aside but her heart sank when she saw the anger in her sister's eyes, "Don't worry it doesn't hurt them!"
"Fix it," She spat, "Stop what you're doing and fix their hearing!"
"There's nothing wrong with their-"
"Lily just do it!" Petunia yelled, "I always knew you'd use it against me!"
"What?" Lily whispered feeling the cracks in her heart spreading, "Tuney you're being ridiculous and paranoid!"
"You and your freakish powers!" Petunia spat, "You're going to ruin my life I know it! You're doing it now; you could keep me stuck like this forever! People will never be able to hear me again! Stop it! Let them hear me!"
"Tuney they can't hear me either; it's not just you!"
"LILY STOP IT!"
"We need to talk Tuney!"
"I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU!"
"Tuney please!"
"I HATE YOU LILY! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! HAPPY?" Petunia yelled, "I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU AND I DONT WANT GO PLAY DRESS UP WITH YOU AND YOUR FREAKISH FRIENDS AT THAT PARTY. I'M GOING AWAY WITH VERNON FOR CHRISTMAS. I'M SPENDING CHRISTMAS WITH NORMAL PEOPLE. AND WHEN I COME BACK HOPEFULLY YOU'LL BE BACK IN THAT MAD HOUSE WHERE YOU BELONG! NOW STOP IT!" Lily stared blankly at her sister and for the first time she didn't feel sorry for her, she didn't wish that her sister had gotten her wish and that Dumbledore had accepted her letter into Hogwarts; instead she felt anger.
"But you wish you were a 'freak' don't you Petunia," Lily said shaking; it wasn't a question, "You want to be in the 'mad house' don't you? You hate me because I have something that you don't, something that you want and you can't have it."
"How dare you! You and that greasy-"
"Oh I know reading that letter was wrong, in fact, everything that boy did was wrong," Lily said feeling the pain spilling from her eyes; first Severus and now her sister, who else would she lose?
"I know that I shouldn't have let him take it, that I shouldn't have let him read it, but because I did, I know exactly why you hate me Tuney. You're jealous and you're pathetic." Petunia stared at her sister as if each of her words were venom and with a flick of her wand, Lily burst the bubble of silence that had surrounded them, forcing her sister to swallow her retaliation in front of her parents. Lily hastily wiped the tears from her eyes; now she was being pathetic, she was much too stubborn to let her sister make her cry.
"You girls are awfully quiet..." Their father said staring into the rear-view mirror, "Everything ok back there?"
"Fine," the sisters said in union.
Authors note: Ok so I'm thinking that this was a little rushed but I want to skip all this intro business and get to the juicy bits that hopefully everyone will like :P please review as always! XD xxx