Chapter 2. Bookstore Brawl

James woke up and looked at his clock. Nine thirty. He sighed, figuring he should get up. He propped himself up on his elbows before pushing himself out of bed. James walked into the bathroom and took a shower letting the hot water wake him up. He washed up and stepped out of the shower drying off before going into his room and putting on a pair of jeans, a red shirt, and Converse.

James went down to the kitchen. He saw Mum eating some eggs and bacon and Misty making some pancakes.

"Mornin' Mum, Misty." James said sitting at the table.

"Good morning Master James." Misty said giving him a plate of pancakes. James thanked her and rolled his eyes to his Mum who smiled. No matter how many times they told her not to Misty would still call them by the title "Master".

"Did we get our letters yet?" James asked his mother before digging into his breakfast.

"No you haven't- Is that them?" Mum said pointing to two owls that were flying towards the window in the kitchen.

"Let's see." James said opening the window and letting the owls in.

The two owls, one a tawny and one a brown, landed on the table, both of them with letters tied to their legs. The emerald green ink and the Hogwarts shield answered James's question.

"Finally," James said. "Can we go to Diagon Alley now?"

"Why do you want to go to Diagon Alley so much?" Mum asked him.

"Remember? We agreed to meet Remus and Peter there when we're getting our stuff." James said. "I'll write them so we know when to meet." And with that he ran up to his room. On the way there he knocked on Sirius's door to wake him up.

When James got into his room Aquila was waiting for him. "Good you're here." he said to his owl. "I'm gonna need you to deliver a couple letters for me." She hooted in response and James sat down at his desk pulling two pieces of parchment towards him and dipping his quill in some ink.

Hey Remus,

Are you good for going to Diagon Alley today? I was thinking after lunch but I wanted to see what time you could go so we can coordinate. Find out for me and see you there.

James

James wrote the same message twice with the exception of the name of the recipient. He gave them both to Aquila and watched her fly out into the distance.

James licked his ice cream. It was a double scoop strawberry ice cream with chocolate sauce and a cherry on top. He scanned the street in front of him looking for any familiar faces, namely those of two of his best friends.

"You see them?" James asked, turning to Sirius who was licking his double scoop chocolate cone and looking towards the street as well.

"Nope." Sirius said continuing to look. "Hey is that Fabian and Gideon?" he asked pointing in the direction of two red headed boys.

James squinted. "I think so. Let's go see." He walked forward and Sirius followed until they reached the two.

"Fabian! Gideon!" James said waving to them.

"Hey James, Sirius." The twins said high-fiving them both.

"So either of you make prefect?" James asked the twins jokingly. They all looked at each other, thinking of one of the Prewett twins as prefect before they burst out laughing.

"Do you know who did get prefect?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, this kid from our dorm, Caradoc Dearborn. He's a nice bloke." Fabian said.

"Hey is that Alice's brother?" Sirius asked.

"Probably considering they share the last name." James said. "And that Alice told us that he's her brother."

"Shut up." Sirius muttered causing James, Fabian, and Gideon to laugh.

"So are you guys actually gonna try in school this year? It is the OWLs for you." Sirius said, trying to change the subject.

"Pfft, they'll be easy." Gideon said waving away the thought of trying his hardest in school. "When you're naturally brilliant like me and my brother here."

"I'm more brilliant." Fabian said to them.

"Are not."

"Are too."

"Are not."

"Are too."

"Are not."

"Are too."

"I bet I'll get better OWL grades than you!" Gideon said.

"You're on. 20 galleons." Fabian said, spitting into his hand and holding it out. His brother did the same and they shook.

"Well, I think we best be off. We have important business to attend to." Gideon said.

"Yep. We have to fill up on supplies for the year. If we buy too much from Hogsmeade it'll be suspicious." Fabian said. "See you on the train." The twins left and James and Sirius turned around, crashing into a couple of people. They got up and helped the people they knocked down up. James looked up to apologize to them to see none other than his two remaining best friends.

"Moony!" Sirius said hugging Remus.

"Moony? What happened to Remmy?" Remus asked, recovering from the bear hug.

"Remmy is so last year." Sirius said waving the name away. "Moony is way better. Much cleverer too."

"Yes I'm sure you're very proud of yourself. Did you spend the whole summer thinking it up?" Remus said sarcastically.

"I resent that!"

"Hey James." Remus said, turning from an indignant Sirius.

"Hey Remus, Peter. How've you been?" James asked his friends.

"Alright." Remus said.

"How was the full moon?" James asked in a low voice.

Remus closed his eyes. "Painful as ever. But now there isn't one until September." He said forcing a smile that, to James, looked more like a grimace.

"Sorry mate." Sirius said, patting Remus's shoulder. Remus almost fell, not because of the force put into the pat but rather as a result of the recent full moon.

"It's fine. I'm fine." Remus said turning from them. James and Sirius shared a look. Remus didn't like them bringing up the full moon, understandably. James and Sirius had actually spent some time in Mr. Potter's study, which was more like a small library, looking for ways to help Remus deal with his lycanthropy. So far they had found little but that didn't, and wouldn't, stop them from continuing to research.

"So let's get our books!" James said, turning the attention away from Remus. He saw Remus smile at him in thanks.

"To Flourish and Bolts!" Sirius said, leading the way.

The foursome entered the bookstore, a bell ringing as the door opened.

"So we only need the Standard Book of Spells: Grade 2 and Dark Creatures: A Guide To Protection." Remus said. "That's all that's on the list, unless you guys need robes."

"No, me and Sirius got ours, my 'rents had them. Do you need any?" James asked.

"Nope, so I guess after that we can just go to other shops." Remus said, putting his school list back into his pocket.

"Cool. How about we split up, Sirius and I can get the Standard Book of Spells and you guys can get Dark Creatures. Then we can look around." James said.

"Okay, meet us back here in five, and don't start any trouble." Remus said giving them a stern look. "We can save that for school." he added smirking.

"Excellent." James said. "Come on Sirius, let's get our books."

They walked through shelves, stopping every once and a while to look at interesting books, though that wasn't often. Finally they reached the Charms section and started looking through the titles. Soon James came across the book.

"I found them Sirius!" James said calling his friend away from a book entitled Hexes and Jinxes: Jelly Legs, Boils and Many More.

"Cool." he said running over, still carrying the book. "Grab a few- uh, actually, I'll just grab them and leave you two alone."

"What?" James asked, turning around to see Lily Evans standing behind him.

"Hey Evans." James said, running his hand through his hair nervously.

"I'll see you in a minute James." Sirius said before leaving with their books.

"Hey James." Lily said. "I thought we were on a first-name basis."

"We are. Sorry." James said. "How was your summer?"

"It was good." Lily answered with a smile. "Yours?"

"Good. Sirius has been over since early in the holiday and Remus and Peter are spending the rest at mine too."

"Poor parents." Lily responded with a smile.

"Not really. They always wanted more kids, but couldn't since they had me, er, later. Now they have four." James said.

Lily was about to say something when they heard a crash. They looked at each other before running towards the noise. James turned the corner first and saw Sirius on top of Snape next to a fallen bookshelf. James and Lily ran forward and pulled their friends away from each other.

"Sirius what are you doing?" James asked his friend. Remus and Peter ran to them.

"What happened?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, we heard a crash-" Remus started.

"It was Snape. He called us cowards and-" he stopped for a second and took a breath, wiping the little blood on his lip off with his sleeve. "And he told me that my brother was going to be just like the rest of my family."

James felt anger bubble inside of him. He knew that Sirius's family was a subject Sirius didn't like being brought up but, from what James knew, Sirius's brother wasn't like the rest of the Blacks. He wasn't as outspoken as Sirius but he also didn't blindly agree with everything that their parents said.

"Don't worry about it. Regulus won't be like them." James said.

"Snape isn't worth it. Don't let him get to you." Remus added.

"Whatever, let's just pay for our stuff and go." Sirius said grabbing their stuff and walking towards the counter. James, Remus, and Peter looked at each other and shrugged before following him to the cashier.

Sirius was putting the books on the counter when James made it to him. Remus and Peter were right behind him and they all pulled out their money bags. They each paid for their things and left the bookshop. Before they left James caught sight of Lily. They locked eyes and James saw sadness in hers. He sighed.

"It's okay. You can win her back during school." Remus said patting him on the back.

"Sorry mate." Sirius said.

"It's okay guys. Seriously, I'm fine." James said.

"I'm pretty sure that I'm Sirius." Sirius said with a smirk.

They all groaned.

A/N: Here is chapter 2! Hope you guys enjoyed it. This is probably the last full chapter about the summer, and then they'll be on the train and off to second year. This year will probably be more eventful than the first, considering all that happened in the first story was them meeting, a couple fights with Snape, and a few pranks. Please review, every time I get one it not only brightens my day but also gets me to stop what I'm doing an write some more. Anyway I'll update soon.