Author's Note: You'll notice that James does a lot of running in this chapter, too. *VBG* He was a very hyper child... LOL! I thought I would be uploading two chapters at once, but I'm very impatient ;) Oh! And this is the first story I have EVER written that's not in first person! LOL! Go me! (ha ha)

Disclaimer: I don't own many characters here -- they belong to the wonderful mind of J.K. Rowling. *G*

Chapter Two: Confused Collision

James ran down the stairs, and into the dining room where he took a seat across from his mother. "Hello, dear," Amelia said. "Are you ready to go to Diagon Alley to get your school supplies?"

James groaned. If there was anything he hated more than getting into trouble, it was shopping. "Aw Mum," he said. "Can't you do it?"

"No," she said, sternly. "You have to be there to get a wand and get measured for robes." He was about to protest, when she whipped out her own wand and put a silencing-spell on him.

"No backtalk from you, mister," she said, quickly. "You are coming whether you like it or not. Sirius and Peter are meeting us there."

James stood up. "Yippee!" he tried to shout, but he still had the silencing spell on him, so all that came out was "Ymmph!" After his mother removed spell, he gulped down his breakfast, and ran up the stairs.

~ * ~

Lily was nervous. It was after breakfast, and she had no idea when this instructor was going to show up -- and what if the instructor didn't like her? What if he said that there had been some sort of mistake, and that the letter was meant for Petunia? Or, what if the he got lost, and decided to give up?

Petunia could be heard up in her room. She hadn't been happy about missing yet another trip to Paris, even though none of the other family members were going. Lily hoped that Petunia wouldn't ruin anything for her today.

The doorbell rang, making Lily jump. She raced for the door, and her parents came out of the kitchen to stand behind her. She took a deep breath, and opened the door.

"'Ello," the postman said, quite surprised to recieve such a greeting. "I've got a package 'ere for a Mistah' John Evans." Lily's face fell. Gardenia thanked the postman, took the package, and went into the kitchen to open it. Lily went to sit on the couch, feeling very anxious.

She heard a small 'Bang!' from the kitchen, and went to investigate. Her parents were standing there, happily embracing a woman about twenty years old, who was wearing ruby-red robes.

"It's so good to see you again, Lydia," John said. "We haven't seen you since Petunia was born!"

"Oh I know!" the woman cried. "It's good to see you too! I'm sorry about dropping by without sending word first, but when I found out that your daughter Lily was a witch, I begged to be assigned to show her around the magical world."

"Oh that's wonderful!" Gardenia exclaimed. "I was so worried about sending her off with some stranger."

"Don't you worry about a thing," Lydia told her. "In fact, would you like to accompany us?" Gardenia shook her head.

"No," she said sadly. "Petunia is quite upset about this whole thing -- I really should spend some time with her."

"Ah," said Lydia. "Well, let's go meet Lily then! Is she excited about all of this?"

"More like nervous," Lily said. Aunt Lydia turned around to see who had spoken. "I'm sorry to eavesdrop mother, but I came in to find out what the noise was," Lily continued.

"That's all right dear," Gardenia said. "Lily, meet your father's cousin Lydia. She is a witch, too. Lydia, this is Lily." Aunt Lydia walked over, and held out her hand for Lily to shake.

"Hello, Lily," she said. "It's very nice to meet you! You may call me Aunt Lydia."

"It is nice to meet you, too," Lily told her, still a little nervous. "Um, are you hear to explain magic to me?"

"Ah, not exactly," Aunt Lydia told her. "I'm just here to explain the magical world, my dear. You'll have Hogwarts for your magical instruction."

"Oh," Lily said, still quite confused. "So, what are you going to teach me then?" Aunt Lydia laughed.

"Well, basically I'm here to take you on a shopping spree to get your school supplies." Lily's eyes went wide.

"I never thought about needing special supplies... But what do I need?" Aunt Lydia laughed again.

"Where is your letter from Hogwarts?" she asked. "That will have a list of supplies, and then off we go to London to get them." Lily ran to get her letter, which was tucked safely in her diary. She pulled out the second sheet of parchment, and and ran back downstairs.

"Here it is!" she said, breathlessly from her run. Aunt Lydia took it and opened it up.

"Just as I thought," she said. "Once we get to there, we'll have to stop at Ollivander's, Flourish and Blotts, Madam Malkin's, and the Last Stop Shoppe." Lily just stared.

"But..." she said, "I've been in London hundreds of times, and I've never seen any stores with those names!"

"Ah," Aunt Lydia told her, winking. "I never said they were in London, did I now lassie?"

~ * ~

Lily walked along the streets of London, behind Aunt Lydia. People stopped and stared at Aunt Lydia's robes, but kept going without asking any questions.

Finally, Aunt Lydia led Lily over to a shabby door, and opened it, motioning for her to go inside. She looked around to see if anyone was watching, but it seemed as though they had both disappeared to the eyes of the passers-by.

Lily stepped through the door, into a dark room. She looked around, and saw that they were in a pub of some sort. She shivered, and pulled her coat closer around her. 'This place gives me the creeps,' she thought. 'I hope we don't have to stay here...'

"This is the Leaky Cauldron," Aunt Lydia was telling her. "It's the only way we can get into-"

"Lydia!" a voice roared from the front of the bar. "I haven't seen yeh' in a while, lass! How are yeh' doin'?" Lily looked in the direction of the voice, to see a huge man standing there. Aunt Lydia put a hand on Lily's shoulder, and directed her up to him. It gave Lily quite a start to realize that the man wasn't standing at all -- in fact, he was so tall that even though he was sitting it looked as though he were already a very tall person.

"Hullo, Hagrid," Aunt Lydia said to him. "I'm doing quite fine thank you. I'm taking my cousin here shopping for her Hogwarts things." Hagrid nodded.

"Ahh then," he said, looking down at Lily. "And what might yer name be then?" He stuck out a massive hand to shake hers.

"L-Lily," she stammered. "Lily Evans." She shook hands with him. It was rather like shaking a dustbin cover, if a dustbin cover had fingers.

"Well we'd better be off then, Hagrid," Aunt Lydia told him. "You'll meet her at Hogwarts, no doubt." Hagrid nodded, and Aunt Lydia steered Lily off again.

"Who was he?" Lily asked of Aunt Lydia, once they were out of hearing-range.

"Rubeus Hagrid," Aunt Lydia told her. "He's not a full-fledged Wizard. He was, ah, expelled in his younger years. He works at Hogwarts as groundskeeper." Lily nodded. "Oh! There's Tom, the bartender. I have to talk to him a moment. Do you mind waiting right here?"

"No, that's all right," Lily told her. "I don't mind."

"All right then, I'll be back in just a moment." Aunt Lydia whisked off, and Lily sat down in a chair, next to the fireplace.

~ * ~

James was excited. He was going to Diagon Alley to buy his school supplies, and of course who could forget meeting his two best friends? He hoped to be able to pull a few pranks, too, and he knew that Sirius and Peter were looking to do the same.

James practically bounced down the stairs and into the den, where his mother was waiting. She checked to make sure that his shirt was tucked in, his robes were properly fastened, and that he had his pocket handkerchief with him. When she held out a small bag of bluish-green powder, he took a pinch, and threw it into the fire.

The fire flared-up instantly, flames turning green. James stepped into the fireplace ignoring all of the soot, and shouted "Diagon Alley!" The last thing he heard as his world went spinning, was his mother.

"We really do need to get that fireplace cleaned out..." she said to her husband, as James disappeared in a swirl of colors.

~ * ~

"Ahh!" James yelled, tumbling out of the fireplace -- and straight into a chair. A cloud of soot blew up, as the girl in the chair sneezed, and was knocked to the floor. "Oh, sorry," James mumbled, trying to pull out his handkerchief. "I didn't know there was going to be someone sitting right there."

"Well how was I supposed to know that people would come crashing out of the fireplace of all things?" Lily said (for of course, it was her), before breaking into another sneezing fit. James finally found his pocket handkerchief (it had somehow migrated to a different pocket), but it was also covered in soot. His mother then stepped out of the fireplace much more gracefully than James thought he would ever manage.

"James!" she said, shocked. "What have you done now?" She then turned to Lily. "I'm so sorry dear, did he bump into you?" The girl nodded, still sneezing. Amelia pulled her own handkerchief out of her purse and held it out to her.

"Thank you," Lily said, taking it. She blew her nose, wiped her eyes, and finally stopped sneezing altogether.

"What's your name?" Amelia asked her. "Are you here to buy things for Hogwarts?"

"Yes," Lily said, "I'm here to buy my school supplies. I'm Lily Evans." Amelia thought for a moment. Evans wasn't the name of any wizarding families she knew.

"Are you muggle-born?" she asked, curiously.

"A what?" Lily asked, obviously confused. 'What on earth is a muggle?' she wondered to herself.

"I see you are," Amelia said, smiling. "Don't worry, it's nothing to be ashamed of, of course. I was, too." She smiled. James rolled his eyes. It seemed to him as though everywhere he went, his mother had to advertise that two of his grandparents were not wizards.

"Mother, can we go now?" he asked. "Sirius and Peter are probably waiting for us already!"

At that point, Aunt Lydia came back. "Why, hello Amelia!" she said. "And James! How are you two and Harold?"

"We're fine," Amelia told her. "Just out to buy James's Hogwarts supplies. I see you have a Hogwarts student with you, too!" Aunt Lydia nodded.

"Yes, this is my cousin's daughter, Lily."

"We've already met. It seems my son crashed into her coming out of the fireplace." Amelia gave her son a very stern look. He hung his head, but was grinning all the same. He hadn't even been here for five minutes, and had all ready been able to pull something without even trying! Sirius and Peter would be quite proud.

"Well we must be off," Amelia was saying. "We're meeting some friends."

"Well we'll be right behind you then," Aunt Lydia told her. "We're headed to Diagon Alley too." Amelia smiled at her, grabbed James' hand, and led him away.

~ * ~

After Aunt Lydia had said hello and goodbye to several of her friends who were also in the Leaky Cauldron, she led Lily out to a back courtyard of sorts. Lily looked around a bit, but there wasn't much to see. Just a few brick walls, and a trash can.

"Now," Aunt Lydia mumbled to herself. "I'll have to remember this..." She pulled a stick out of her pocket, and tapped a few bricks.

Nothing happened.

"Well," Aunt Lydia said, clearly surprised. "We'll try this then..." She tapped a few more bricks.

Still, nothing happened.

Lily sighed. 'Maybe I won't be able to get my school supplies after all,' she worried to herself. 'What if Aunt Lydia can't get it open?' Just then she heard a shout of joy behind her.

"I remember!" Aunt Lydia said. She tapped a few more bricks.

To Lily's surprise, this time the wall opened -- literally! The bricks moved away slowly, leaving a hole in the wall large enough to walk through, which they did. Without even giving her time to look around, Aunt Lydia grabbed Lily's hand and directed her to the first shop.

"This is Flourish and Blotts," she explained rapidly. "The only bookstore on Diagon Alley that carries all of the books you'll need for Hogwarts, I guarentee it."

Apparently lots of people were getting their Hogwarts things today, because everywhere Lily looked, she could see boys and girls her age. The noise in the store was almost deafening.

"Hey Gil, over here!" someone yelled.

"Why Arabella, how nice to see you!" Lily heard behind her. "I see you've gotten your letter, congratulations!" Just then, she caught a glimpse of James Potter. He was standing over in the corner, looking at some books with two other boys. She turned around, determined not to look at him. Her feelings were still a bit spongy from being knocked over.

Aunt Lydia overtook the directions once more. After she and Lily had bought the correct books, they went straight to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.

"Marie, how wonderful to see you!" Aunt Lydia told the owner. "My cousin here needs some robes for Hogwarts." Lily was whisked into the back room, and behind a curtain where she was measured in every possible way. She sat down on a stool and waited for her new robes.

Through the curtain, she saw a shadow. Not just any shadow, of course, she was certain it was James Potter.

Sure enough, after she had been given a package of black robes, she stepped out into the front room to find Aunt Lydia talking with Mrs. Potter again. Lily was almost infuriated. Either she was following James around, or he was following her!

Next Aunt Lydia brought Lily to the cauldron shop. Lily just stood by while Aunt Lydia looked cauldrons over, and made a selection. She only half-listed while she was being given a lecture on how to choose a cauldron with just the right bottom thickness -- to thick and it was too heavy, too thin and it would dissolve while mixing potions.

As Aunt Lydia paid for Lily's cauldron, Lily piled her books into it. Just then she got bumped from behind, and she dropped her cauldron.

"Oh, sorry," she heard. She turned around, to find James Potter looking at her sheepishly. Giving him a narrow look, she got down on her knees and started picking up her books. He knelt down and helped her.

Without so much as a 'thank you' once she was done, she picked up her cauldron and stormed out.

"Gosh James," she heard behind her, "what on earth did you do?"