Mrs. North and Sirius did hire Dobby, and when he asked shyly if he could be paid, they agreed to it. They offered him ten Galleons a week and Sundays off, but Dobby didn't want so much and in the end accepted one day off a month and two Galleons a week. Dobby started working a few minutes after that and was very good.
At the end of March was the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. It lasted fifteen minutes and James caught the Snitch, winning the match for Gryffindor, two hundred points to forty. The match was followed by a party in the common room.
The Easter holidays arrived a few days later and James and Jade were requested to go home. Hermione also had to go home as well. They were puzzled by this, for the previous Easter had been spent at Hogwarts. The next day, they found out why they had to go home when Mrs. North and Mrs. Granger took them to Madam Malkin's.
After measurements and the two mothers looking through swatches of materials, dress robes for the wedding were decided upon. Hermione and Jade would be wearing pale green with gold embroidery and trim. Aunt Nicole had sent the measurements for Cait, who was to be flower girl, and a pale green and gold dress was ordered for her as well. Mrs. Granger was also going to be wearing green and gold, though her robes would be a slightly darker green.
James was ushered to another room with Remus, Sirius, and Mr. Granger to be fitted for their robes. Sirius would wear black and silver. For Mr. Granger, Remus, and Jade, it was finally decided that they would wear dark forest green robes with silver embroidery and trim.
Sirius left after his fitting, for Mrs. North was to be fitted for her wedding dress and it was considered bad luck for the groom to see the bride in her wedding dress before the wedding. Mr. Granger and Remus went with Sirius, while James went to wait with Hermione and Jade. He was feeling bored with all this, though he was somewhat interested to see what his mother's wedding dress was going to be.
"Mum's still deciding between traditional white and pale blue," whispered Jade. "But she's already picked out the style."
Hermione showed James pictures of the two wedding dresses. The blue one was of a very pale blue that it looked as if it was white tinged with blue. Both had gold embroidery and trim, with a beaded waist, slightly puffed sleeves trimmed with pearls, and lace skirt. "Both look pretty," said James, hoping that his mother would make a decision quickly.
"Well, which one do you think Mum would look prettier in?" asked Jade.
James shrugged. "How should I know? I'm a boy, and besides, I think she looks pretty in anything. Like Cinderella and Snow White, who looked pretty even when they were wearing rags."
Hermione sighed. "Yes, I agree that Aunt Sylvia looks pretty in just about everything, but there certain clothes or colors she looks better in. Cinderella looked even lovelier in her ball gown than she did in her work clothes, after all."
"Fine, the white then," said James, tired of it all. "That's the traditional color for wedding gowns." He took out his Game Boy from his pocket, but then discovered the magical atmosphere in Diagon Alley kept it from working. After a sigh of frustration, he grabbed one of the (nonfiction) books Hermione had brought along and began reading it, despite the fact that the only books he liked to read were fiction and anything related to Quidditch or Defense Against Dark Arts.
Finally Mrs. North came out of the fitting room, having decided on the white dress and ordered a trousseau. James handed the book he was reading back to Hermione and they all went home. However, there was more to the wedding than just clothes. His mother, along with Mrs. Granger, Mrs. Weasley, and Mrs. Tonks (Sirius's favorite cousin who was disowned by the Blacks for marrying a Muggleborn) were busy going over things like where to hold the ceremony, what should be served at the banquet, and what the decorations and flower arrangements should be. Fortunately, James didn't have to take part in any of the decisions, though Jade and Hermione were eager to help. The only James was concerned about was if they had to move to the Black house after the wedding. His mother assured him that they would still be living in the same house, though if relatives or friends were staying over, they'd temporarily stay in the Black home.
The Easter holidays turned out to not be as fun as the Christmas ones. Ron had also gone home and he came every day with his mother when she was helping with the wedding prepations, so it wasn't too bad. When their homework was done and out of the way, the two boys played video games or read fantasy books. Ron still wasn't much of a reader, but he did find the Muggle fantasy books entertaining.
The week ended and it was time to go back to Hogwarts. James was relieved to escape the wedding preparations. He hadn't had to take part, but he could hear the females discussing it and it got boring to hear whether pink or white roses would be better for the table arrangements. (In the end, Mrs. North had decided on a combation of both.)
To his relief, Hermione didn't discuss the wedding, because she became worried about the end-of-year exams like she did last year. Jade wasn't worried, but she did focus on revising, so she didn't discuss the wedding much either.
Second-year students had to pick up to three elective classes for their third year. None of their old classes could be dropped. James and Ron wished they could drop Defense Against Dark Arts, for they weren't learning with Lockhart for a teacher. James spent most of the time in class pointing out mistakes and descrepancies, to Lockhart's discomfort. The only good thing that happened was that Hermione was finally convinced that the teacher was a fraud.
A few weeks later, the final Quidditch match of the year, between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, was played. It lasted for almost thirty minutes. Katie Bell couldn't play because of a bad cold, so Jade took her place. She did very well and scored six of the goals. She also spotted the Snitch fluttering by the Ravenclaw goalposts before either of the Seekers did. Since it could be considered cheating if she told James alone, she got the attention of both seekers and pointed.
The two seekers went streaking after it. Though the Ravenclaw Seeker was slightly closer, James was the better flyer and reached the Snitch a second earlier. His hand closed on it just as the other Seeker stretched out her hand. The crowd erupted into cheers. Lee Jordan happily shouted out the results: Gryffindor had won the match and cup, two hundred and eighty points to seventy. Wood was crying from happiness as the the team went to accept the Quidditch Cup from Dumbledore.
The euphoria from winning the Cup lasted for several days before James had to focus his attention back to revising for the exams. By this time, he was annoyed by the studying and almost wanted to hear about wedding preparations again. Susan joining the study sessions didn't make things much better, though he didn't have to go to Neville with Herbology questions all the time. He could ask Susan if he had questions.
Finally it was exam week. Unlike last year, there was no worry about Voldemort going after the Stone, and James's scar wasn't hurting, so he could concentrate better. He felt he did well on all the exams, except maybe History of Magic, where he mixed up some of the dates and names. He also didn't think much of the Defense exam, because it was too much like the quiz Lockhart had given at the beginning of the year. The only difference was that most of the questions were things like "Where did Gilderoy Lockhart defeat the Walla-Walla Werewolf?" and "What spell did Gilderoy Lockhart use to defeat banshees?"
When the exams were over, the 'twins' and their friends spent much of their free time visiting Hagrid and teaching Neville how to fly. Neville had expressed the wish since all his friends knew how to fly, though Hermione and Susan weren't all that comfortable on a broom. Jade helped Neville get over his fear and she and Ron did most of the teaching. James really couldn't teach flying, since he had natural talent and didn't learn it from anyone.
Neville finally got the hang of flying, though he would never be very good at it. On the way back inside, they saw Mari and Matt involved in shouting match with Agatha and Callie. Apparently Luna had just put up a sign asking for her missing belongings to be returned to her. Mari and Matt were certain that Agatha and Callie were behind all or some of the disappearance.
The six second-years pulled out their wands. Several weeks earlier, they had worked on the Summoning Charm. After asking Luna what had been taken, they summoned all the objects back. In fact, Luna's butterbeer cork necklace came flying out of Callie's pocket and a pair of earrings shaped like radishes came flying out of Agatha's pocket.
Mari crossed her arms. "I thought you said that you had nothing to do with any of the missing things, Hagatha."
Agatha turned red and looked at Callie, who snapped, "This is stupid. If you idiots want to be friends with Loony, fine. But you'll regret hanging out with someone who's so crazy. Come on, Agatha."
Mari called after them, "Be who you want to be, because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter." Then she turned to the others. "Thanks for getting Luna's stuff back. What was the spell you used?"
"The Summoning Charm," replied Susan. "Do you want to learn it?"
"Yes, but you can teach me next year," answered Mari. "The feast is tomorrow, and then after that we go home for the holidays."
The next day was the feast and it was wonderful. Gryffindor won the House Cup for the second year in the row, mainly to their success in Quidditch.
The day after that, the exam results were announced. Hermione was top of the year, while Jade came in second. (She had a slightly lower grade in Charms.) James and Susan tied for fourth in the year, while Neville and Ron placed sixth and seventh, respectively.
Students then packed up and headed home of the summer holidays. James, Jade, Neville, Hermione, Ron, and Susan got a compartment to themselves. Luna, Ginny, Mari, and Matt occupied the compartment next to them. Late in the afternoon, the Hogwart's Express arrived at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Mrs. North and Sirius were waiting for James and Jade. After greeting them and finding out how they had done on the exams, they got in the car and drove home.
Authors' Note: Well, that's the end of this fic. The next fic, which will be about the wedding and Jade and James's third year at Hogwarts will be up soon. A title hasn't been decided yet, though. Thanks to all those who read and/or reviewed this fic. If you have any suggestions for a title for the third fic, please send them in. The main point will be Peter Pettigrew escaping from Azkaban instead of Sirius, but we don't want the title to be "Prisoner of Azkaban" like the real book. Oh, and James did find a snake one day and proved that he was a Parselmouth.
