Chapter 28:

Authors note: Massive thank you for your views, reviews, follows and alert and everything! Seems my phone hasn't stopped beeping telling me about all these alerts etc! I am so grateful for you lot actually reading (and hopefully enjoying) my writing! Thank you again – and remember to review!

Apparating straight into the Evans' kitchen, Lily and James were surprised to find Mr and Mrs Evans sat drinking tea with a rather giraffish looking woman who at the sight of them stormed out the room and by the sound of it, out the house by the slamming of the front door. James stared on confused, not quite understanding what had just occurred. Lily on the other hand rolled her eyes while her parents looked at her apologetically.

"Hello dear." Mrs Evans greeted, they'd obviously been expecting her. Standing up from her chair and embracing her daughter into a close hug. She had the same hair as Lily, long curly and vivid red in colour, but with brilliant blue eyes which sparkled at the sight of her daughter. Mr Evans was next to embrace her, when he looked at James and smiled, James realised that he had Lily's eyes, but paired with a much lighter blonde hair, more like the girl who had stormed out, James wasn't quite sure who she was or her relevance.

"I'm sorry about Petunia dear." Mr Evans said, pulling out of the hug with his youngest daughter. "She's just stressed – about the wedding that is." Mr Evans excused, although he didn't sound like he quite believed what he was saying. James suddenly realised who the girl was, Petunia Evans, Lily's older sister. Lily was by far the prettier of the two girls; despite only seeing her a split second James seemed to have taken in quite a lot of her facial features. She had rather too much neck which made her look like a very sour giraffe whom constantly had its lips pursed, over which hung her slightly too large front teeth, almost like a rabbit. A rabbit giraffe; James had to suppress a giggle to avoid looking rude.

"Dad, Mum, this is James." Lily said, introducing him. James plastered on his most charming smile to hide his nervousness.

"Nice to meet you son." Mr Evans smiled, reaching out a large hand and shaking James' enthusiastically. He was nothing like James imagined, he wasn't frightening at all, and seemed quite pleased to meet him… which had to be a good sign!

"Nice to meet you Mr. Evans." James replied smiling, somewhat more naturally.

"Call me Arthur. Mr. Evans was my father." Arthur smiled.

"Lovely to meet you. I'm Rose; Lily's mum, although you probably guessed that." Mrs Evans smiled, she seemed taken in by James, she smiled charmingly and batted her eyelids slightly; Lily had to suppress a grin, trust her mum to be totally absorbed by her boyfriend! 'Total opposite to what she did when she met Vernon!' Lily noted.

"Come on, we have plenty of tea, come and have some!" Rose offered. James smiled and sat down at the table, next to Rose and opposite Lily and Arthur, feeling much more at ease than he had done a minute previously. Buttering a scone and taking a sip of the coffee which Arthur had just put in front of him, he thought 'this might not be so bad after all.'

"What is this?" James questioned.

"A car." Lily grinned. "You drive it." To which James looked puzzled. Poking the wing mirror, it moved slightly at his touch which made him jump backwards.

"Like a broom?" he asked, looking down at the small black car, it was a compact two door Citroën. Lily laughed and nodded. "Doesn't look much like a broom." James mused, causing Arthur, who had been hanging out of the front door watching James' reaction with a look of fascination and amusement, to laugh raucously.

"You never driven in a car before James?" Arthur asked, making his way from the front door towards James, Arthur was fascinated by the world of magic and meeting James – who had never encountered the muggle world before - was amazing to him, to see his recations to a seemingly normal muggle object. James had only been at the house for a few hours and yet Arthur loved him already, it might have been his natural charm or maybe his amazed expression as he encountered the muggle world, or just the way he looked at Lily, with pure love in his eyes, Arthur couldn't put his finger on it, but he knew he liked James an awful lot more than he liked Vernon. Lily smirked and held the driver's door open, leaning on the top it, still chuckling to herself at James.

"No. I've never even seen one up close before." James admitted, leaning down and staring through the window at the dashboard. Lily leant in and turned the key in the ignition and the car erupted to life, the engine roaring, the dashboard sparkling with tiny lights.

"Aaaahhhhh!" James squealed, jumping backwards into Arthur's arms, who broke into fits of giggles. Knees buckling with laughter, Lily slumped into the driver's seat, holding her face in her hands to try and cover her giggles. Stepping out of Arthur's grasp, James scowled and narrowed his eyes at the car.

"Evil car." James spat.

"Oh dear!" Arthur grinned, wiping a tear from his eye. "Right James, you open the door and you climb in, Lily will show you the rest." he added.

"Is it safe?" James asked tentatively, staring at the door handle as if it might jump out and bite him.

"Yes it's safe." Arthur laughed, as he opened door and gestured for James to climb in. reluctantly James put a foot into the car, and as nothing spectacular happened, he bent his head in and then the rest of his body, finally lowering himself into the seat. He relaxed slightly as he leant back in the comfortable seat and as Lily slipped smiled at him from the driver's seat.

"Well, I'll see you later guys!" Arthur waved. "Remember don't get too much stuff – we've only got a few people coming over!" he shouted as Lily reversed the car out of the drive and onto the road. The Evans household were hosting their usual New Year's Eve party to welcome in the New Year, Lily had been set the task - with the help of James - of getting the food and non-alcoholic drink, which meant a trip to the muggle supermarket.

"Are you sure you can drive this?" James asked, as he glared at all the buttons and levers surrounding the steering wheel, then there was a strange handle in the middle of the car which James had no idea what it was used for, Lily had called it a hand brake or something that James didn't understand. The whole thing looked incredibly confusing; Lily was checking her mirrors and James winced as a car drove past them on the opposite side of the road.

"Yes, I passed my driver's test in the summer holidays." Lily replied, as she scanned the road for oncoming traffic and pulled out into the road. Once she was driving straight, she pulled a card out of her pocket. "My driving license." Lily explained. "Means I can drive a car." She added, checking her wing mirrors as she turned into the next road. James smiled, slightly more reassured, but mainly at Lily's picture, she had to stare at the camera and keep a straight face, Lily tutted at him and took the card from his grasp to avoid any more giggles at her photo, which even she had to admit was bad. She had begun taking driving lessons in the May half term and by the time the summer holidays were over, she'd passed, it was the quickest her instructor had ever seen anyone pass, but then again this was Lily Evans, she would never fail a test. She had passed on her first try – another thing that Petunia had sneered at, it had taken her three attempts for her to pass, and then she'd only just scraped a pass. 'You must have used magic on the examiner. Jinxed him' she'd sneered, to which Lily's parents had shouted at Petunia, who had smirked and stormed out the house and Lily had spent all afternoon crying. She shook the memory from her head and focused on the road.

"Ooh what does this do?" James asked, pointing to the red button on the edge of his seatbelt with great interest.

"Releases your seatbelt, that thing strapping you in. Don't press it, you've got to wear the belt, it's the law." Lily explained, spinning the steering wheel as she drove round the roundabout, to which James shouted 'WOOOOOOO' very unhelpfully. He was enjoying this car ride far too much.

"What does this do?" James asked again. Lily looked over to him and saw he was pointing at a small switch on the plastic panel on his door. Lily laughed.

"It's the window controller. Press it." Lily replied. To which James did, and jumped as the window wound down and cold winter air filled the car as they tootled along the road towards the supermarket.

"Make it stop! Make it stop!" James cried as the cold air hit him square in the face. Waving his arms around in a very unsuccessful attempt to stop the air with his hands. Lily was laughing wildly, struggling to keep control of the car; she couldn't risk taking her hands off the steering wheel to press the switch on her side.

"Press the opposite end." Lily squeaked in between giggles. James did as she instructed and the window slid back up, cutting off the torrent of cold air.

"Merlin's beard…" James breathed a second later, making the two of them burst into fits of fresh giggles. "You muggles are strange."

"What is this place?" James gasped, his eyes attempting to take in his surroundings. The place was a huge building with shelves lined with every kind of food that James could imagine some even he couldn't imagine. Then there was a magical moving staircase, leading up to another floor, where the space was full of muggle clothing. James was in love with this place.

"It's a supermarket James. And that is an escalator." Lily laughed. "Grab a basket, and try to attract too much attention." She added as forethought. Picking up a basket, James swung the basket high in the air, just like Lily had as a small child, she giggled as the excitement spread across James' face.

"Be careful James!" she warned, still laughing, as James nearly hit the security guard who was glaring at James, although his mouth remained poker straight. After seeing the annoyance in the guard's eyes, James rather sheepishly stopped swinging the basket and followed Lily as she walked down the first aisle.

"What's this?" James asked, picking up a bag of Walkers crisps.

"They're crisps James." Lily replied slowly, this really was becoming tiresome. Every five seconds James would pick up a packet of something and ask Lily what it was, quite annoyingly this had been going on for the last 15 minutes and it was beginning to test Lily's patience.

"Can we have some of these?" James asked, picking up a fluorescent packet, decorated with the name 'Starburst' written across it in red font and little packets in red, orange, purple and green covering the rest.

"Fine." Lily replied, not even bothering to look at what James had picked up; so far she'd ended up with an unwanted bottle of cherryade 'But it's the colour of Gryffindor' James had moaned, tiger bread 'it's cool, it's like a tiger!' and a packet of tortilla chips 'the shape is funny!'

Finally Lily had got everything her mother had asked, and some other things courtesy of James, she made her way over to the checkout. Placing the items from her basket on the belt of the checkout, James was enthralled by its movement, the way when you put the food on it; it moved towards the cashier, a young woman who was watching James with a mixture of amusement and confusion. Lily giggled as James crouched down and watched the conveyor belt move with his head on the same level as it. Lily tapped his shoulder and he stood up and followed her towards the other end of the checkout; the woman scanned the items and pushed them towards Lily so she could pack them into plastic carrier bags provided by the supermarket. Bags of salt and vinegar chip sticks were packed; bottles of lemonade and various other things were packed, including the extras that James had added in.

"That 20 pounds and 60 pence please." The cashier said in a sweet voice, she was staring at James, this time surveying his face, she obviously found him attractive. Lily took the money out of her purse, a twenty pound note and three twenty pence pieces; she slammed the money down into her hand, the feeling of jealousy building up inside her, a feeling she was not proud of. Then James, who had finished packing – he was enjoying himself far too much – turned to her and grinned, one of his goofish lopsided grins, the kind that made Lily's knees go weak, and the jealousy subsided, James had eyes for her and her only. The cashier handed Lily her receipt, and as James took the bags, she linked her arm through his, laughing as he continued to stare around the supermarket astounded.

Unlocking the car, Lily opened the boot and took the bags from James, who was fascinated that the car had an extra compartment.

"THIS IS AMAZING!" he had admired, as he stuck his head inside the boot of the car, as if to survey it from a closer angle. "Does it have an undetectable extension charm on it?" Lily laughed and shook her head as she pulled James back to a standing position with a firm hand on his shoulder, shut the boot and wandered round to her door and pulled it open. James however stood staring at the handle of the door, not daring to touch it.

"Come on James, it won't hurt you." Lily giggled as James reluctantly slid his hand under the plastic of the door handle and slowly opened the door, only to grin madly when he realised he'd actually opened the door to the car.

"I did it!" he beamed, Lily laughed.

"Of course you did James." She replied, as she helped James fasten his seatbelt into its holder and turned the key in the ignition to start the car, put the gear stick in reverse and began to reverse the car and exit the car park.

"I could totally be a muggle." James mused after a few seconds of silence.

"Of course you could darling." Lily supported, a grin covering her face. As they exited the car park and started down the road, Lily leant into the dash board and pressed a button, much to James surprise music sprung out of the speakers all around the car, the sweet sounds of the Beatles 'Hey Jude' filling the car.

"Aaaahhhh!" James screamed. "Lily, you have men trapped in your car and they're singing!" he shrieked.

"James, it's the radio!" Lily laughed "We have those in the wizarding world too!" she giggled.

"Oh yeah… I knew that…" James replied sheepishly and looked out the window, as if to avoid Lily seeing his blushing cheeks.

"I'm hungry, are you hungry James?" Lily asked a second later. James nodded, he hadn't noticed but his stomach was growling away.

"Good." Lily added, pulling the car into a small side road and into a small building, red and yellow in colour with a giant yellow M, plastered across the top. She followed the road round into a small queue of cars.

"Where are we?" James asked, peering round, there was a small car park, filled with a few other cars and a few people inside the building eating something, James couldn't tell from this distance.

"McDonalds James, you'll love it." Lily replied.

AN: hope you liked this chapter :D I enjoyed writing bout James in the muggle world! Heheee, I can imagine being like 'WHOA WHAT IS THIS?' at everything! It would be amusing to see! And I know a lot of my readers are from America so HI FROM ENGLAND :D it's so weird to think you lot in the USA are reading my story written by a girl from a little town on the east of England! Freakin' weird! Hahaa, thanks for reading and sorry for my weirdness – I'm in such a weird mood today! And for the Americans, I think you call a boot, a trunk, although you probably worked that out…

Remember to review! TTFN x

PS this is the last chapter I have pre written – the rest I've been writing for about two weeks, which explains my quick updates – so the next update will be slower, and I've got a bit of writers block too :/ I know what I want to write but I just can't get my read around actually writing it! But I promise I will try and update within a week! You can shout at me if not!