Chapter 6 - Joggle a Muggle

"Sure why not," said Sirius. "Do you mind?" he turned to his friends.

"No…No, of course not, we don't mind," said James and Remus smiling.

"How 'bout you Peter?"

"Err- umm sorry S-Sirius, I can't. I have to stay with my family today. S-sorry," apologised Peter, trembling.

"Don't worry about it. Well Lily, I guess it's just you, James, Remus and Me."

"Oh, all right, I'll be back!" said Lily, wheeling around and hurried upstairs. She walked up the wooden staircase to a door that her dad has pointed out. Inside beside the window (which had the view outside Leaky Cauldron) was a very comfortable-looking bed, some highly polished oak furniture next to it, an unlit fireplace in the left of Lily, and a wardrobe at the feet of the bed. Lily was unpacking her things when thoughts came to her mind: "They don't seem to like me? James looks mad even, although… He is cute. What am I talking about? I don't even know him! But, how he smiled… (Lily found herself smiling too. She stopped unpacking her things and started staring into space) ARRRRGH!! NO Lily! Get over yourself!" (Lily shaking out of her daydream and started to unpack again).

Knock! Knock!

Wondering who it was, Lily walked towards the door and opened it she saw…

"James!" Lily gasped. "How did you know where I was?"

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you, your dad told me where your room was," said James, with a tone of guilt in his voice.

"Oh! No, no-," Lily shook her head, "-I was just surprised because I thought you were downstairs."

"Well, that's the thing, Sirius and Remus couldn't come they got in trouble with their parents again (James grinning) and they can't come out for a couple of days."

"So… It's just you and me?" said Lily trying not to looked pleased.

"Yeah, b-but if you don't want to come with me that's alright, we'll just go another time with-"

Lily had cut in.

"No! Umm- I mean I don't mind coming with you. You never know, it might be fun!"

"So have you finished unpacking?"

"Yep, almost," said Lily, putting the clothing in the wardrobe. "There... done!"

They were now just in front of the bricks that opens to Diagon Alley.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley," announced James trying to sound like a tourist guide. "I am James Potter (he smiled at Lily), I will be your guide through this maze, now where do you want to start miss?"

Lily started to giggle. "Well, you tell me. You're the expert," she said smiling.

"Well, you might not like this place, but I love this place." James held his arm out for Lily to put her hands on and wheeled her to a shop filled with broomsticks. "Welcome to Quality Quidditch Supplies the best shop- well apart from Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop."

They were about to go in when Lily asked, "Why are we here? Do we need to clean something? And what's 'Quidditch'?"

James stared at her, his jaw dropped down. "You mean to tell me you don't know what Quidditch is?" he looked like he was about to faint.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm not from this world remember?" said Lily feeling frightened.

James noticed Lily looking petrified and started to smile. "I'm sorry, it's just… Well, I've never met anyone who didn't know what Quidditch is. I mean it's the best game in the world." He then started to explain the rules of Quidditch, which Lily understood a little bit, but sometimes she had to stop him and ask him what 'Bludgers, Quaffle and Snitch' meant. "-A game of Quidditch only ends when the Snitch is caught by the Seeker, which is me," said James looking proud.

"So, you're telling me it can go for ages?" said Lily amused but puzzled at the same time.

"Yep, I think the longest was three months, they had to keep on bringing substitutes so the others can sleep," said James, trying to sound it was nothing.

"Wow! Three months... Were you in the game when this happened?" said Lily very impressed.

"No, that was long time ago, but lets keep on moving. We don't want you not seeing everything in Diagon Alley."

They had walked almost everywhere (apart from Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop, James wanted to go there last), talking to each other and trying to get to know each other. Lily found out many things about James and his friends. They were the troublemakers of Hogwarts, they like to invent things like: non-dangerous explosives but when you get hit you turn into something, spells that teachers and other people don't know about (which was James and Sirius specialty), and about James repeating. He was almost expelled. Setting firecrackers and mini-explosives almost everywhere Hogwarts, which he almost cleared out by saying Lucius, Snape and Karkaroff had framed him.

"-But you see I couldn't get a proof of them doing it. Since I was always getting into trouble, Professor Dumbledore and my friends believed me and gave me second chance, but I was to repeat again." He said this sadly. "And I was one of the smartest students there, Sirius was the other. We were going to get a prize for having top marks all the time, but all that's gone now."

"Grrr, if it wasn't for Snape and his friends-" Lily was now clutching her fists tight and gave James a little pat on the shoulder. "You would've still be in second year and gotten that prize, how about Sirius? Did he get a prize?"

"Yeah, it was about 100 Galleons of spending money. Which Sirius spent just like that," James clicked his fingers and started to inflame when she touched him.

"That's big right?"

James started to laugh. "Yeah, it is, well for him it is, because his parents only give him a certain amount of money, but he spent them all in – err never mind."

Before Lily could ask what was it James took her hand and started to run towards the Ice Cream parlour, he bought her a large strawberry and peanut butter and bought himself chocolate with whipped cream Lily felt embarrassed, she was about to buy it but didn't have enough money. They slurped happily down Diagon Alley and started talking again, well, more like James. Lily was busy daydreaming about him: "I wonder whether he's got a girlfriend? God, look at those eyes and that smile. I could just melt. Oh no, he stopped talking, I should talk back, but what should I say? I like your eyes. I really think you're cute. QUICK! Say something Lily, you're probably looking stupid right now."

"Uh- James, what is Muggle?" Lily felt brainless even more.

"Huh? Oh, a Muggle?" It looked as though James was daydreaming about Lily as well. "It's what we call non-magic people."

"So that makes me a Muggle?"

"Well do you have any magic blood inside of you?"

"Not that I know of."

"It doesn't matter, what matter is that you are Lily Evans and that you are smart, pretty and you're my- err, I mean, our friend." James looked nervous as anything and hoped that Lily didn't hear.

Lily who heard everything, but saw James looking terrified just smiled.

"Umm, l-l-lets go to the Joke shop you'll love it there," said James, his face was scarlet red.

Lily trying to hold her giggle followed James who was mumbling something to himself, "You stupid git! She looked at you weirdly, she probably thinks you're weird-"

"What are you talking about James?"

"O-oh nothing, seriously."

Lily didn't hear what he said, but she hoped she did because James was now red than ever.

They arrived at Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop, Lily's jaw dropped. The room was filled with gadgets she had never seen. James stood next to her admiring her expression.

"I told you you'd like it, here lets take these," said James as he picked up some of Dr Filibuster's Fabulous Wet Start. Other kids were starting crowd in the shop and soon it was hard to move around.

"Hey Sophie! Come over here for a sec!" said James who was signalling a girl to come.

"Hi James," said the girl in a sort of flirty tone. It made Lily somewhat annoyed, but she didn't know the girl so she just smiled and listened. The girl had blonde long hair and was pale.

"Sophie this is Lily Evans, she's coming to our school this year."

"Oh is she now?" said Sophie and gave Lily what looked like a sneer.

Lily ignored that.

"Hi!" Lily held out her hand and Sophie shook it with disgust on her face.

Once again, Lily ignored this. She wasn't going to let an obnoxious girl ruin her day.

"Muggle?" Sophie whispered to James.

Which Lily heard and started to feel very red. James probably have noticed and said, "Well, have you seen Jenny?"

"Yeah…" she said boringly, "she's over there," pointing to group of girls in the corner looking at a barrel.

"Thanks, well, bye," said James.

"Yeah, bye," mimicked Lily sarcastically. "I don't mean to be rude or anything James," she whispered. "But I don't like that Sophie girl, she's got a thing for me, a BAD thing."

"Oh, don't worry about her, she's like that. That's why she's in Slytherin."

"What's Slytherin?" said Lily puzzled.

James laughed and said, "It's a house group in Hogwarts"

"You get sorted into groups?"

"Yeah, it's not much of a big deal, really. Sirius, Remus, Peter and I are all in Gryffindor, that's the best house there is. Well, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff isn't that bad either, most of the people in Slytherin are unpleasant and rotten that's why Snape and his friends are in there," said James grinning.

Lily, who wanted to ask more question but didn't want to seem annoying, just said, "Oh okay." James had dragged Lily through the crowd and stopped in front of the girls at the corner looking at the barrel. He put is index finger on his lips to gesture 'shh' and crept towards the girls.

"We know you're there Potter, don't bother," said the girls.

James, who was about to jump on them, lowered his arms and had a stunned look.

"How'd you know I was here?"

"Oh, we saw you walking in," said a girl with braided blonde hair, "who's that with you? Your girlfriend?"

Both Lily and James turned pink on the cheeks. "Err–Ye-Nah, she's coming to our school and in first year."

"Yes! We finally got rid of James Potter," said the blonde-haired girl. She walked over to Lily as if she was going to kiss her or something. "Hi! Nice to meet you, I'm Jenny and these are my friends, you'll get to know them later. I'd just like to thank you, for taking James off us, he's been such a troublemaker and always trying to find out what we're talking about. Since he's only second year who repeated-"

Lily had cut in. "But you do know that he was framed?"

Jenny gave a little laugh and said, "I like you already, and of course! I know he was framed, the whole school knew!"

"Oh, right, he didn't tell me the whole school knew he was innocent," said Lily who was now eyeing James.

"What?" James asked innocently while shrugging. As soon as Lily turned, he smiled and laughed in a low tone so that Lily couldn't hear.

"Well, what year are all of you in?" questioned Lily.

"I'm only starting first year, I know James because of my sister, Sophie."

By now, James started to walk around the shop picking up things from barrels and shelfs.

"How does James know Sophie?" asked Lily casually, trying not to sound jealous.