A/N  Part three has arrived!  No L/J action yet, but it's coming, it's coming.  I hope you all like this, and please, please leave a review and tell us what you think!  Chapter Four will be out when it's out. 

~Stef

Lily woke up to sounds of Petunia stamping around the room, making far more noise than she needed to.  "Petunia!" Lily groaned, exasperated, knowing that her sister was doing it on purpose.

"What?" Petunia snapped.  "Oh, good, you're up, are you?  Took your time.  If you're coming snorkelling, you'll need to get up now, otherwise we'll go without you."

"I love you too." Lily groaned again, and then got up out of bed.  After the quickest shower she'd ever had, she put on the first swimsuit that came to hand, and hurriedly tied her hair up.  Suddenly, she remembered Nico, and, smiling to herself, she took more care with her hair… even though it would probably get wet anyway.  Her swimmers were good enough, so she finally took Petunia's hints ("We need to go!") and left the cottage. 

"About time!" Petunia snapped, sounding far more like a bossy older sister than a younger one.  "I wanted to be fashionably late when we join Vernon for breakfast, not inexcusably late!"

"Learnt a new word, have you, Petunia? Honestly, you're- what!?!  Did you just say join Vernon for breakfast?"

"Uh, yeah!  What are you, completely clueless?  Mum and Dad made friends with Vernon's Mum and Step-Dad yesterday.  They don't know anyone here, either, and so we're eating breakfast with them.  They're going snorkelling, too."

"Oh God!  That means I'll be spending all day with Potter… just what I wanted."

"But it also means that we're spending all day with Vernon, too… the sweet, cute, incredibly handsome hot brother!"

"Um, look, as much as I hate Potter, he is definitely hotter than his ugly stepbrother.  Or is it evil step-brother?"

"He is not!"

"Vernon is… well, he's fat!  There's no other way around it.  Not just chubby, fat.  Put that with ugly and you don't have a good combination."

"He's not ugly!  And it's not fat, it's muscle!  Besides, a little bit of puppy fat never did any harm," here, Petunia giggled, making Lily nauseous, "I think it makes him look cute!"

"Well, he's ugly.  He is definitely not cute."

"And James is?"

"Well… yeah, I guess.  I mean, I hate him… but everyone says it, he's hot."

"Whatever.  We're here." 

They entered together, Lily reluctantly and Petunia eagerly, and found everybody else already at the table. 

"Sorry, Mum, Lily just woke up," Petunia said, staring at Vernon.  Lily sat, mumbling her apologies.  She pulled a face as Vernon and Petunia continued to stare at each other, and accidentally caught James's eye.  He looked every bit as disgusted as she did, and Lily grinned for a second before going back to her menu.  It looked like James was just as against their siblings going out as she was.

~*~*~

Surprisingly, there weren't that many people on the snorkelling trip, and the boat they used was relatively small.  Lily's family, James's family, Nico's family, and two couples in their mid-twenties were on the trip, and that was all.  Once the tour guide had finished explaining how to snorkel, for those who had never done it before (Lily was not one of those people), they were allowed in the water.  She was climbing over the side of the boat when Nico came up next to her. 

"What a surprise seeing you here!" He said, grinning at her. 

"Oh, hey.  I saw you, but I didn't say anything 'cos whatsisface over there was talking."  She slid off the edge of the boat and into the water, surfacing almost immediately in the warm sea and treading water.  "You getting in?"

"Of course!"  He jumped in without hesitation, splashing her.  Lily coughed, as water came into her mouth, and felt Nico's arms around her waist.  She stopped coughing and, blushing, said,

"I'm okay, thanks." 

Nico took his arms away and smiled at her.  "Come on, then.  Let's go and see the fish and the coral.  Oh… you've been snorkelling before, right?"

"Yeah, twice."

"In waters like these?  Or at the pool?"

Lily laughed.  "Both, actually." 

"Okay.  Well, don't step on the black spiky things, because they'll put you out of action completely.  Don't step on the coral if you can help it, because you'll break it and it stings like hell, and if we get to shallow waters, I wouldn't step on the stony parts without looking.  Stonefish will… well, kill you."

"Really?" Lily asked, wide-eyed. 

"Yeah.  Not that I've seen it happen, but I've heard the horror stories.  They have perfect camouflage, so they're hard to see, but step on them, and… yeah.  Oh, and avoid the jellyfish if you possibly can… they're nasty." 

"Okay then, thanks."  Lily grinned at him once more, and then put the end of the tube in her mouth.  Then she was under water, looking for all she was worth.  The colours of the coral were amazing… bright blues, deep purples, yellows, greens, soft pinks.  There was so much variety, too, coral that looked like oversized brains, coral with branches all over the place, and then there were the little orange fish that swam among the wavy parts of some time of anemone.  Lily was really enjoying herself when Nico tapped her on the arm.  She surfaced, and Nico took out his mouthpiece. 

"I saw parrot-fish over there… you want to see?"

"Yes!"

"Okay then."  Nico's voice was muffled; he'd put the mouthpiece back in. "Follow me."  He led the way around the other side of the boat, and Lily, looking through her mask, did see the large, multi-coloured fish that he'd been talking about.  They were quite common in waters like this, but very pretty nonetheless.  At last, Lily had had enough.  She was thirsty and beginning to get badly bitten by sea-lice. 

She surfaced, and this time it was she who tapped Nico.  "I'm going back now, I need a drink."

"Yeah, I think I'll come too."  They swam back together, and Lily clambered up the ladder first.  She stood at the top, waiting for Nico to come up.  He really was quite hot, she thought, in the typical blond beach-boy way.  Nice tan, not burnt, with the dark blond hair and clear blue eyes.  Still, admiring him wasn't going to quench her thirst.  She went back to find a bottle of water, blushing for some reason, as Nico followed.

Lily grabbed a bottle and sat on a bench, wrapping her towel around her.  Nico did the same, sitting next to Lily.  "Well?" he asked.  "Did you like it?"

"Yeah.  I love snorkelling.  How about you?"

"I do this all the time when I'm at beach resorts, which is pretty much every holidays.  I live on the mainland."

"You're Mexican?"

"Well, not technically.  I was born in France, lived there for three years, moved to England, lived there six, and I've been in Mexico seven."

"Wow!  I've always wanted to move about.  I've been in England all my life… how boring is that?"

"Nah, you're lucky to stay in one place.  I've always wanted to.  But I like Mexico, now.  I think I'll probably stay after I finish school."

"So you're going into seventh year, then?"

"Yeah, it's my seventh year of boarding school at… at the school I go to, and hopefully my last."  He seemed fidgety all of a sudden.  "Where do you go to school?  A state school?"

"No, I board, actually, up in Scotland.  It's… a specialised school."  Lily really didn't want to go into this conversation any further.  "Oh look, my favourite person." 

James had just come up, looking just as good as Nico, Lily had to admit.  Still, his personality was severely lacking.  James grabbed a drink and sat on the bench opposite them.  "So who's your boyfriend, Evans?  Conned someone else into believing you're human, have you?"

Before Lily could reply, Nico snapped out, "I'm Nicolas.  And I know who you are… the guy cheating at the volleyball match yesterday."

"I did not cheat!  It's not my fault that Evans can't admit she's less than perfect!"

"I know I'm not perfect… but it's not like you are!  Just because you're on the Qui… the sports team doesn't mean you're a god, you know!"  Lily spat out.

"Oh, good one, Evans!" James was nearly shouting now.  "You nearly told the muggle all about-"

"I am not a muggle!" Nico interrupted, looking quite angry.

"He didn't mean it as an insult… not really," Lily stepped in, glaring at James.  "It's school slang for… for people who don't go to our school.  It's hard to explain."

"I don't care how he meant it, I'm taking it as an insult!  If I had my wand, you'd be in trouble, Potter."

"You're a wizard?" James and Lily both asked, at the same time.

"Yes.  Muggle-born, but a wizard nonetheless.  C'mon Lily, let's get away from Potter.  If I had been a muggle, he would have spilled everything… and magic is forbidden to wizards who are still at school in Mexico, so he couldn't've done a memory charm.  Idiot." He said, looking at James in disgust.

"Yeah, same in England."  And they both left, walking to the front of the boat and leaving James fuming.

Nico casually put his arm around Lily's waist, asking at the same time, "You want to get back in the water, then?"

"No, thanks.  I think I've had enough."

"Good, same here.  So… what can we do to fill in time?"

Lily grinned at him.  "Don't know about you, but I want a suntan.  Can you stand lying next to me for twenty minutes or so?"

"I believe that can be arranged."

~*~*~

It was the next day after breakfast, which the Evans and the Potters mercifully ate separately, that Lily walked in on Petunia and Vernon kissing.  Disgusted, Lily closed the door (to what was her cabin) quietly, and knocked loudly before entering again.

This time, Petunia and Vernon were separated… just.  Petunia was lying on his (quite large) stomach, staring up at him adoringly.  Lily choked.

"What's he doing in my room?  That's disgusting, Petunia."

"It is not.  Besides, it's my room too!"

"Whatever.  Mum sent me to find out if you're going to do the hotel activity tomorrow afternoon.  It's a pillow fighting competition… although I have no clue why."

"Yeah, we'll do it, won't we Vernie?  You can go now."

"Oh, how kind," Lily said sarcastically.  As she was leaving, she added, "And I wouldn't make out with him, if I were you.  If he's anything like James, he probably has fleas."  And she closed the door before she could be hit with any flying objects.  She would have to thing up stage two of her plan to separate Petunia and Dursely.  Things were rapidly getting uglier.