Sorry it took so long to get this out; I have exams coming up, so my next update will probably be in March. Sorry!
Chapter – 2
Puzzled? It takes a while to puzzle out the puzzle in the puzzle. A puzzle may have one puzzle, or two puzzles or many puzzles. The puzzler will be puzzled when he tries to puzzle out the number of puzzles in the puzzle which puzzles him. Now, I ask again, PUZZLED?
--------------------------------------
'JAMES, GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE! WE HAVE TO LEAVE!!' screamed dark-haired Sirius Black, irritated that his best friend was inside his room, grooming himself like a lady.
James appeared in a minute's time, dressed in a normal red Muggle T-shirt and jeans. As usual, his handsome neatly carved features complimented him in anything, even rags, so he looked positively breath-taking.
Peter jumped up and ran to where his three best friends were assembled in front of the fireplace.
'James, where are your parents?' Remus asked. He didn't know whether James had actually told his parents that the four Gryffindors were leaving for New York.
'Oh, I told them that we were going to New York, so they sent our trunks over there, and they left to work early this morning.' James replied.
Jack and Janice Potter were Aurors. They had to go to work at the most absurd times, but they spent every minute of the much precious spare time with their son.
'Okay, the words are...'James started.
'Prongs, stop it, we don't need dramatics for every single thing!' said Remus, irritated.
'Oh, for this you do!' Sirius said.
Remus rolled his eyes.
Meanwhile, James was busy completing his started sentence 'The "LA" effect'
'The what effect?' asked Remus and Peter together. Sirius chuckled.
'James keeps talking about Lily to Lila, so to avoid confusion, Lila is called "LA" and Lily is just Lily, as Prongs is too scared of her to even try to give her a nickname.' He stated.
Peter chuckled as Sirius reached his break-point and burst into peals of laughter. James blushed. Remus shook his head and grabbed some Floo powder. He stepped into the flames and said 'The LA Effect' clearly and vanished, but not before giving his fellow Marauders a Look.
Sirius shut up (finally) and did the same, closely followed by Peter and James.
As James stepped out of the fireplace, he almost fainted in shock. Lily Evans, Kristin Fowler, Nikkita Chopra (Indian origin, guess whose mother she is!) and Alice Turner were standing right across him, looking as shocked as he felt. He looked around to see his dashing cousin holding hands with an American-looking dude.
'Umm….what's going on here?' he asked, not at all surprised to find that the other Marauders were voicing the same thing.
Lily Evans looked up at the huge building in front of her. This was her cousin, Michael McCrossan's house. He was a wizard too, and he went to Beauxbatons. (1) Lily walked up to the door and rang the doorbell.
A boy opened the door. The girls had to keep themselves from drooling, he was so handsome. He was tall, husky, had brown hair and blue eyes which seemed to penetrate into their souls. He looked at Lily and asked 'Lily, right?'
Lily nodded. 'You must be Michael.' After he acknowledged the fact, she asked 'How did you know that it was me?'
'I've seen your mom and my mom's childhood photos. You look a lot like her.'
Lily smiled at that. Michael hit his forehead. 'Where are my manners? Come on in!'
The four girls entered the house. The walls were painted green in colour, and it radiated a feeling o protection, though why, Lily had no clue. Michael led them into the dining room, which had a big table in the middle where a tall brown-haired man and a red-haired lady were sitting. They looked around to see the source of noise.
Mrs. McCrossan stood up first and greeted the girls. 'Well, you must be Lily and Co.!' she said. Lily smiled and nodded. Mr. McCrossan's loud voice boomed from behind them.
'Well, the Hogwarts students are here!'
Michael looked from his father to the girls, with a pained expression on his face. Clearly, the man was embarrassing him. But Mr. McCrossan did not notice this. He walked forward.
'Why don't you brief Michael about Hogwarts, eh? He will be joining for his final year.' He declared.
Lily nodded. 'We would love to…' she trailed off, unsure of what to call him.
'Alfred, just call me Alfred.' The tall man said.
Lily smiled. She liked him already. 'Sure, we would love to tell Michael about Hogwarts, Alfred.'
Michael watched this exchange for a while, and a glance towards his watch a few minutes later told him something.
'Dad, I have to take the girls to meet Lila.' He exclaimed. He looked at the girls. 'My girlfriend-Lila, she lives across the street. She'll be coming to Hogwarts next year too.'
They nodded. 'Sure.'
The five made their way out of the house and back into the street. On the way, Nikki and Kristi started bickering about something and Alice was trying to calm them down. Lily looked apologetically at Michael.
'Sorry, they tend to do this a lot. But don't mind them.'
Michael chuckled and shook his head. They reached another mansion which rivaled the size of Michael's house. Michael nodded to the guard, who let them in quickly.
This house was filled with blue, everywhere, radiating a calmness Lily had come to associate with her mother. As soon as they entered what Lily thought to be a lounge, they saw a tall, slim and pretty girl pacing the room. She looked up to see who had come.
At thre sight of Michael, she bristled.
'WHERE WERE YOU? DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I'VE BEEN WAITING?' she thundered before noticing the others and blushing. 'Sorry, I just got a little carried away.'
Lily laughed. Nikki and Alice grinned while introducing themselves.
'I'm Nikkita Chopra, this is Lily Evans…' Nikki started.
'I'm Alice Turner and this is Kristin Fowler.' Alice finished.
Lila nodded. 'Pleased to meet all of you and I'm Lila Potter.'
'Potter?' Lily whispered in shock.
'Lila,' Kristi called. 'Are you related to a certain messy-haired, hazel-eyed James Potter?'
'Yeah, he's my cousin, as in, Dad's Brother's son, why?' Lila asked, confused.
'Well, the same James Potter has made Lily's life hell at Hogwarts, or so she claims.' Kristi said.
'Why, what did James do?' asked Michael.
'He only asks her out about thirteen times a day!' Nikki said.
'And he does not get it into his head that I'm not interested!' Lily said, trying to control her anger.
Realisation dawned on Lila's face. 'So you're the Lily Evans?'
Lily had a blank expression on her face, as did the others.
Michael spoke up. 'James writes to us frequently, and I doubt there has been any letter without the word 'Lily' in it.'
'In fact…' Lila began, but she couldn't complete whatever she was going to say as the fireplace suddenly spouted green flames. A minute later, Remus Lupin stepped out and dusted himself, before looking at the scene in front of him, expecting only Lila and probably Michael. But, as soon as he recognised his classmates, Sirius and Peter stepped out of the fireplace.
Lily looked fearfully at the fireplace, clearly anticipating who was going to step out next. Sirius never went anywhere without James Potter, not since he'd run away from his house.
And then, her worst fears came true.
James stepped out of the flames a second later, and it didn't take him and his friends long enough to asked 'Umm….what's going on here?'
Close to a cliffhanger, ain't it? Sorry it's a little short, but I wrote this at 10:30 in the night. Also I'd like to thank the reviewers of the previous chapter.
MotherCrumpet – I'll definetly take you up on that deal! And update soon please, I want to read the next chapter of your story soon.
LiiGn3r.aka.MiisSz Co0oKii3 – Thanks for reviewing, It's really appreciated!
just.like.jess- Again, thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad that you think that this fic has potential. It kept bugging me for a long time, so I wrote it.
Stinkabhel – Thank you for the complement!
To clear some stuff-
(1) Lydia Evans McCrossan is Lily's mom's sister. She married Alfred McCrossan, an Auror. They didn't know that Lily was a witch until Michael heard about her in Beauxbatons, where he studies. So, now they all know about each other.
I hope you all like this next chapter, and please continue reviewing!
JAMES1257
