*~*~Chapter 3: Where is everyone?*~*~



**. . .Lily and James. . .**



"Ok.these are cool quills," Lily remarked, fingering a fancy eagle feathered quill. She pick one up, examined it, and decided to take it. Lily walked by a section for parchment, found some school paper and walked on to the ink. She found a typical jar set of 12 black inks. Then she noticed a package of 6 colored inks. One writing in rainbow colors and the rest were flashy, shiny solid colors. James saw her looking at it and then she sighed, dropped it, and walked on. Lily walked to another isle and was searching for some new stationary, while James picked up the inks and fished out a simple, but pretty journal-type thing. He carried these items to the front, paid them, and waited for Lily to make her purchases. Finally, they both walked out into the bright sunlight outside.

"Want an ice cream?" James offered. The redhead glanced up as they were nearing Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. "Sure," she said sweetly.

They walked towards the place, and ordered a peppermint ice cream and a chocolate ice cream. Lily sat on a bench when they walked on a little ways, setting down her purchases and licking her ice cream contently.

"Thanks for the ice cream, James!"

"I got you something," James said, smiling shyly.

"You did? Something besides the ice cream?" Lily asked. James nodded and pulled out the inks and journal and handed them to her. Lily sighed and beamed, gratefully taking the journal at hand and studying it. "Oh, thanks, James," she said, hugging him.

"Well, I thought you could use the journal. You still like to write songs, right?"

"Yeah, 'course I do."

"And you can write 'em in here.with nice ink."

"I love it!"

The happy couple smiled at each other and kissed.

*^*%*

**. . .Sirius and Ali. . .**



It was cool and dark inside the bookstore.

"So what do we need to buy?" Sirius asked.

"Uh.well, we all need the Standard Book of Spells, Grade 6.And Grade 5 for Sierra. And then." Ali said uncertainly.

"Then I think we need the books for Study of Ancient Runes.and Arithmancy -" Sirius began.

"Ugh, is that required this year?" Ali said hotly.

"Yeah, dang it, huh?" Sirius agreed.

"And Lily and I are taking advanced Care of Magical Creatures," Ali said, trying to help Sirius remember more.

"James and I are too," Sirius added quickly. "And Remus. And we need Sierra's books, but I know her classes by heart - all her books are over there," he said, pointing.

"Great, ok there's what we need." Ali and Sirius bought books for their group and headed out, carrying 6 huge bags.

"How much time do we have left?" Ali asked the boy next to her. Sirius checked his watch.

"We've got 45 minutes. Want to get something to eat? My treat," he said, grinning.

"Sure," Ali said, smiling back. In all truth, she liked Sirius just as much as he liked her. And that was a lot. Things had changed last year after Lily and James had gotten together, and no one could figure out what. But neither of them knew this yet, of course. *~*~*

**. . .Remus and Sierra. . .**

At the Apothecary, Remus and Sierra were marching in silence, hunting for potion ingredients, both pretending to be completely absorbed in the search. Remus kept throwing careful glances at Sierra. He'd known her for years, whenever he came over to Sirius's house and all. But he'd never really gotten to know her. He watched as her back was to him, her dark brown, almost black hair hanging loosely at her waist. She seemed to sense someone watching her because suddenly she swiveled around and the two teenagers connected eyesight for a spilt second. They both blushed and turned back around.

Sierra thought 'Why was he staring at me?' She'd always really liked Remus, possibly more than a friend, but she never got to know him that well. Maybe there was still hope for her.'but why would he like me?' She thought. 'He's Sirius's friend, I mean, he's probably just like him.and, well.I dunno.'

"Er.Sierra?" Remus said shortly after.

"Yeah?" she said anxiously.

"We've got about half an hour left, wanna go get something to eat?"

"Sure! I'm starved!" Sierra exclaimed. They bought their stuff and left the dark, creepy store into the blinding sunlight of the outdoors.

(A/N: Tune in tomorrow for chapter 4! I'm uploading a chapter a day from now on. . .R/R!)