Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations those characters find themselves in. Everything else belongs to somebody else and that's just the way the cookie crumbles. Hope you enjoy this latest chapter and please let me know what you think!

Talk With Grandma

"So you all remember your lines, right?" James asked for the third time as he up his speed walking a notch. Lily was so going to let him have it, He thought darkly, cursing the brilliance of Sirius's plan, which had distracted him enough to forget about his date. Hurrying down the covered walkway James cursed the weather too, which would only make her that much angrier for making her wait in it.

"James, we've been your excuse over a millions times now. We know how to grovel to Lily." Remus pointed out dryly.

"Not to mention you're going to end up in the dog house even if she believes it was our fault, which she won't." Sirius added with a cheerful smirk. It was always amusing to watch his best mate be put through the ringer. Made him glad he'd never had the bad sense to fall for a girl. Especially one as magically talented and potentially vindictive as Lily.

Lagging behind and already winded Peter was the first to catch sight of the pair through one of the large windows. "Look, look, guys."

Sending Peter a look that said it better be important James looked out the window closest to him, his eyes narrowing dangerously as he saw what had caught his friend's attention. There was his Lily, walking toward them, arm in arm with Prewett. Not only arm in arm, but she was wearing the bastard's jacket, this being obvious since it swallowed her up and would have dragged on the ground if not for the spell one of them had cast. They were huddled close together under an umbrella and their heads were tilted towards each other, Lily's laughter ringing out over something the git said. Whatever she said back had the other man laughing as well, the sound driving James's temper close to the breaking point. He hadn't been this pissed in so long he wasn't sure he wouldn't simply explode.

"Easy now." Putting a restraining hand on James's shoulder Sirius had never seen James so angry. Not even when Lily and Snape had still been on speaking terms. Of course the greasy Slytherin wasn't older, handsomer or so well dressed either. This guy could be an actual threat.

"They have to stand that close, because of the umbrella." Remus rushed in to point out, Lily as much a friend as James. He hated when they fought.

"Let's get closer." James bit off. He wanted to hear what they were saying. He'd go from there.

And so the Marauders were all hidden behind a large statue of two centaurs when Lily and Jamie stepped out of the rain and under the castle's overhang.

)

"We made it." Lily announced with a grin as she stepped out from under the umbrella, watching with admiration as Jamie undid the magic he'd performed to create the umbrella in the first place, the man casually throwing the stick back onto the lawn.

"So we did. You better head inside now; have a hot shower and change." Jamie advised, running a hand through his slightly damp hair to push his bangs back.

"Sounds like a plan. I'll get your jacket back to you once it dry. Thanks again for letting me use it." When he just shrugged off her thanks with a smile Lily couldn't help but wish her man was as kind. James would have wanted a kiss at least for the timely rescue. And speaking of James. "Uhm…Jamie?" He'd insisted she call him that on their walk, "Just so you know…you might want to…well…James gets jealous very, very easily and he's bound to find out…"

"No worries, I think I'm already on his hit list anyway. Besides, if he goes after me it will give a certain Slytherin a probably much needed break."

Blinking Lily stared up at him questioningly. "You mean Severus? You know about that?"

"I've seen your James's and Sirius's school records. It was pretty obvious they have a grudge against him, and it wasn't hard to find out what that grudge was. And who can blame them? A lady such as you would definitely be worth getting hexed over." He'd studied their records actually, when he himself had attended Hogwarts. After all, how could one surpass someone without knowing what they were capable of? It had been interesting reading.

Going pink cheeked at the compliment Lily ducked her head down so her hair would hide it. "That's nice of you to say. I just wish they'd quit it."

"It does seem rather childish." Jamie agreed. "But then I've never had "The One" to get jealous or possessive about."

"The One?" Lily repeated.

"A soul mate, the person we were born to be with. Our other half. The love of our life. That's what you are to James, so I suppose I can't really fault him when I don't know what it is to love someone to that degree, and be loved that way in return."

Now her face was really, really red.

Chuckling at her response Jamie placed a friendly hand on her shoulder. "There's no need to be embarrassed, you're very lucky. A lot of people would give a great deal to find that with someone, myself included."

"Have you…have you never been in love?" Lily asked, partly to change the subject, and partly out of genuine curiosity.

"I was once. But it wasn't returned…at least not to the same degree. Then again, what does one really know about love at sixteen?"

Yet there was still sadness in his voice, reflected again in his milk chocolate eyes, Lily noted. Even after five years he still felt the loss. She could understand that. Even though the person Jamie had loved had obviously hurt him, he still remembered what had been and could have been. It was the way she often felt about Sev.

"So have you decided how you're going to make James suffer?" Jamie asked, seeking to lighten the mood. Thinking about his love life or lack there of was depressing as hell.

"No." And here Lily had to give a rueful chuckle. "What usually happens is he gets his friends to take the heat for whatever he did, I point out I'm not stupid and know it was his own damn fault, and then I give him about a week of the silent treatment before I cave. One can only stand his sulking for so long." She added with a sigh. James had sulking down to an art. That and he picked on Sev more when they were on the outs.

Tilting his head thoughtfully Jamie supposed it was wrong of him to propose a suggestion, especially the suggestion he was thinking of. She was his grandmother after all. But he couldn't see her that way and his suggestion would only up the chances of his father being born, which was a good thing. And that aside, his grandfather really did deserve to be punished for standing Lily up. She could have gotten really sick standing out there in the rain like that. His grandfather needed to shape up and Jamie saw no reason why he couldn't help her out there.

"If I might make a suggestion?"

"I know that look." A knowing smile crossing her lips Lily didn't have to be a mind reader to know the suggestion was going to be a doozey. "Sirius gets that smile on his face when he's thought up a particularly amazing piece of mischief."

"Well I actually thought this one up a few years ago in a particularly boring Muggle Studies class. I can't guarantee it will put James on the straight and narrow, but he will certainly suffer at your lovely hands. That is if you're willing to be a little…shall we say…bad?"

Raising an eyebrow Lily was definitely both interested and curious. "Why would you take a Muggle Studies class? You don't look like the bird course type." He struck her as the type who constantly needed to be challenged, like Sirius.

"Oh I could have cared less about the class. It was the teacher I was after. Hence the nature of the spell. So interested?"

"Hell yes!"

)

All four boys strained their ears to try and hear what Jamie was saying, but the two had their backs to the statue and they could only catch stray words that did little to shed light on what sort of spell she was being taught. They were particular frustrated because they could just see enough of Lily's face to watch an array of emotions, mostly shock, amusement, and evil glee cross her face. Whatever this spell was, it definitely appealed to her bad side.

Finally they spoke in normal voices again instead of whispers.

"So you got it? Any questions?" Jamie asked, his hands in his pockets as he exchanged evil grins with her. It was rather like plotting with his sister, he thought to himself, which was always interesting. Of course this was not a spell he'd ever teach his baby sister, but then she'd never had any trouble attracting boys in the first place. Besides, between his 'warnings', and his sister's love of blowing things up, the boys never lasted long, thank Merlin.

"I've got it. And I so know when I'm going to use it too. This is going to be soooo sweet." Practically rubbing her hands with glee Lily was too psyched for words. James was going to flip, she thought gleefully. And she got something out of it to, which was an added bonus.

"Just remember that if you teach him the spell it can be used against you. And being a teenage boy, with Sirius Black for a best friend, he'll be far more..."

"Oh I know." Rolling her green eyes Lily knew exactly what he meant. She loved Sirius, honest she did, but the man was a menace to her gender. And she knew the cad had no compulsion about bragging to his friends either. While the men tried to keep their talk clean around her she'd caught them more than once in an R rated conversation. She supposed she should consider herself lucky that James had always had a thing for her and therefore hadn't dated even half as much as Sirius had their fifth and sixth year.

"Well good luck then."

Returning his wink Lily thanked him again before waving good bye and taking off in the direction of a door which would lead her into the castle where she could get that needed shower, leaving the men behind.

As the rain had stopped while they were talking Jamie decided to give his run one more try and headed back the way they'd come, his strides long and easy as his mind turned to other things.

The four marauders watched him go and then slinked out from their hiding place, all wondering just what Lily had in store for James.

)

After lunch Jamie checked in one more time with Dumbledore and then headed out the castle towards Hogsmeade, apparating as soon as he was mo longer under the shields guarding the area. Arriving at his destination, Diagon Alley, Jamie headed straight for Gringotts, a smirk on his face as he climbed the familiar stairs. This would be the first time in his life he'd come into the bank alone. In his time he and his family always came to the bank in groups, only coming in as often as was strictly necessary. Thanks to the actions of his father, Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, anyone with the last name of Potter or Weasley was automatically on the goblins' hit lists. They came in groups to watch each others backs. And to make sure no one was 'accidentally' left behind.

But the goblins didn't hate him yet and so they were more than willing to exchange his money for Muggle currency, which was what he needed for the moment. Once that task was done he headed out and through the Leaky Caldron, his next destination the nearest Muggle Mall.

There he went about purchases enough clothes to last him a couple weeks and the other basic essentials he had not had in his pouch. Thankfully he'd been on an overnight trip the day before his last Quidditch match and hadn't had time to unpack his stuff before the game. If he was stuck in the past much longer than a month he was going to need to be very conservative with his money. Thanks to Gringotts future Potter Policy he always carried around more gold than most, but it would still be a number of decades before he would have access to his vault. Which, ironically enough, currently belonged to the Black family.

It was on his way back to the Leaky Caldron that Jamie happened to pass by a Muggle post office, which reminded him painfully that he would not be able to send his Gran his usual weekly letter. And it was the thought of letter sending that had an idea popping into Jamie's head as to how he might go about upping the chances of being returned to his own time. Or at the very least communicate his current well being to his family.

Once again going through the Caldron without stopping Jamie headed for the nearest post office and asked to speak to the man in charge. Needless to say the man was very surprised to be asked if they would be willing to take a letter and hold it for over fifty years. The manager of course pointed out that address changed and people passed away but Jamie assured him that this would not be the case. And when Jamie named a substantial bonus for his cooperation the manager finally agreed to do so, kindly offering Jamie his own desk to compose the letter. It took a while but Jamie finally composed a quick letter to his liking and just to be safe put a spell on the envelope so that it could be open only with the right phrase. Quickly scrawling a clue on the bottom so his father would know what that phrase was Jamie addressed the letter to his parents, hoping that addressing it to H & G Potter wouldn't make it obvious to the postal staff who it would be for. In the coming years anything to do with his father would be of extreme interest, especially something this unusual.

After handing the letter over and paying the man Jamie crossed his fingers and hoped it would get to its destination. If it did his parents would receive it the day after his disappearance and therefore would only worry a little before getting some needed answers.

)

He had only just stepped outside the office when he spotted something bright blue peeking out at him from under a nearby display table. Curious Jamie stuck his hands in his pockets and crossed over to the other side of the street, crouching down so that he was nearly eye to eye with the little girl. She couldn't have been much more than three, currently sporting blue pigtails and black eyes. She wore a black corduroy dress with a frilly purple blouse under it, and from the way she tugged at the hem Jamie gathered she wasn't all together pleased to be wearing it. But what really concerned him was the distressed look on her little face.

"Hello there, sweetie. Is something wrong?" As there was no mother or father coming over to demand to know what he was saying to their child Jamie had a pretty good idea what the problem was before she blurted out that she couldn't find her mum. "Well we'll have to find her then. What's your name?"

Now her face was plain mutinous, looking at him like he'd committed a serious offence for asking her that.

Jami was about to repeat his question when he noticed that the tips of her blue hair were turning a bright red. His goddaughter Flora's hair did that sometimes too, when she was upset or embarrassed. Perhaps the girl's hair was not blue because of some magical error, but because she was a Metamorphmagus like Flora and his best mate and god brother Teddy. He seemed to be meeting a lot of them, considering how rare they were supposed to be. That he knew more than one was only because it tended to pass through the…bloodlines. Really looking at the girl now, particularly the face and eyes, a thought occurred to him, one that had his eyes going wide.

"Are you…Nymphadora Tonks?"

If possible her face went even darker, her hair now completely red.

Well that answered that question. One thing he knew for sure about Teddy's mother was that she'd always hated her first name with a passion, and had always preferring to go by her surname. "How about Dora then? Dora Tonks. Is that you?"

A curt nod was all he was getting reply wise.

Biting back a smile at her hasty, very Black expression, Jamie rose and casting a spell delighted the girl by producing a wolf patronus, which he sent off to go inform Dromeda as to the location of her daughter. While he'd never had the pleasure of meeting the little girl before him as an adult, he was well acquainted with her mother, who'd always been like another grandmother to him. If Teddy had not been at his house when they were kids then he'd been at Teddy's. It would be interesting to see what she was like, while her husband and daughter were still alive.

"Pretty." The girl finally said, pointing in the direction that the silvery white wolf had gone.

"Thank you. Yours will be just as pretty someday." And the same animal too, if he recalled correctly.

"What's your name?" She asked shyly, coming out from under the display so that she could see him better. She liked his hair, it was a pretty color.

"My name's Jamie. It's very nice to meet you, Miss. Tonks."

Delighted at the offered hand and adult title Tonks shook the hand, feeling very grown up.

"So you like wolves, do you?" Jamie asked as he crouched back down, knowing how children hated to be loomed over in a world that already seemed so big and foreign.

"Uh huh. I want one for a pet. He could sleep on my bed."

Laughing Jamie reached out to ruffle her hair. "Well I don't know about a pet, but you'll certainly have one sleeping in your bed someday, I guarantee it."