Disclaimer:: I still don't own Harry Potter, and I don't own Gone With the Wind. The only person I really own is Rae. So don't sue me.

In Chapter 1's reviews, I was asked to explain what an albatross was, so... An albatross is a big, really awkward looking bird. It lives in Antarctica. That's basically all I know about it that would really matter.

I know that at the end of the last chapter, I said this one would be at Remus' house. Well, I changed my mind, and now it's at Rae's house. It just fits the story better.

Thanks to my wonderful reviewers of Chapter 1:: Monkeygrl, GlitzyDancingShoes, James-Padfoot, PeRkieGuRL, aSullenRiot, BURN THE R.U.M, and rose! Hugs and keep reading!

OK, I posted this chapter before, but there were a few BIG mistakes in it. I've fixed them now, so its all error free! *shouts of joy*

Now I'm done talking. Here comes Chapter 2!

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"Rae!!!!" Lily leapt out of the car her parents were driving, and fairly tackled Rae. When she had let go, she walked back to the car, grabbed her suitcase and waved to her parents and her little brothers. Her older sister Petunia had refused to come with them to drop Lily off. In fact, Lily hadn't seen her in days. Not that it mattered much, but it was obvious Petunia was avoiding her more than usual.

"Have a good time, Lily Bean! We'll be back to pick you up in two weeks!" Lily's mother waved out the window as the car pulled out.

"Bye mum!" Lily yelled. She and Rae picked up the suitcases and began to carry them towards the front door. As they went up the walk, three boys came running out the front door. Remus, Sirius, and James were all holding brooms and talking about Quidditch.

"The Tornadoes will never make it if they don't — hi Rae, Lily — get rid of Degan Sommers. He does them more harm than good..." Remus was saying as he walked past. Rae did not look at all surprised that all three of them had just walked out of her house like they owned it. Lily, however, was not used to this and gave Rae a questioning look.

"Oh, they're over here all the time. If they're visiting Remus, they're visiting me."

"Where does Remus live anyway?"

Rae pointed to the house across the street.

"That makes it pretty easy for him to come over. Come on, I'll show you where you'll stay." She and Lily walked into the hall of Rae's house. Lily looked up and gasped. From the outside, Rae's house looked like a normal family home, but on the inside it was anything but that. The house had first appeared to have two stories, but now Lily could see at least five. There were several sparkling crystal chandeliers, and the floor in the entry way was white marble.

"Wow," Lily whispered. "It doesn't look like this from the outside."

"My dad does a good job of disguising it," Rae said smiling. "Your room's on the third floor. I'll show you."

The girls walked up the staircase. The third floor looked like a long way up, but they got there remarkably quickly. Rae pushed open the doors to a guest room, and ushered Lily in. The room was quite comfortably decorated. The bed was made of wood that looked antique, and there was a blue down comforter on it. There was a wardrobe in one corner and a large, comfortable looking chair in the other. A large bay window graced the front wall, and the floors were covered with soft white carpet. The bathroom off to the back of the room had a roomy shower, a chrome sink, and shining white tiles. Somehow, though, it was not as lavish as the entry hall. Lily wondered why this room would clash so much with the decorations of the hall. This must have shown on her face, because Rae said,

"I know it's a bit different from the entry way. All the furniture and stuff has been around since my great-grandpa's time. He got rich selling Demiguise pelts, and he built the beginnings of the house. That was good, except he ran out of money before he could finish the house. See, the Ministry of Magic banned the pelts to help save the Demiguise, so my great-grandfather's business was lost. That's why the rooms are small and not as expensive looking as the halls." (A/N: The Demiguise will be explained at the end of the chapter.)

"I rather like it this way," said Lily. "It makes it a home."

"Thanks," Rae answered, and they began to unpack Lily's clothes.

About an hour later, they heard a voice from downstairs calling them.

"Rae, Lily, dinner's on the table!"

"Coming mum!" yelled Rae, and the two girls began to head downstairs.

 They were passing through the hall on the second floor when they met James, Sirius, and Remus coming from a different direction. Rae said they were probably coming from the back yard. The entrance was on the second floor because the house was on a hill. They looked at the two girls, and James put his arm around Lily's shoulders.

"I don't believe I've given you a proper welcome, have I?" he said in a mock thoughtful tone.

"Not that I care," she said, trying to shake him off.

"Hit me with insults if you want, but I know that deep down, you can't resist me!" he said and tilted his head to one side. Lily was about to say something when they heard the front door click shut. James glanced down, and Lily took advantage of this momentary lapse in concentration. She stepped on James's foot, causing him to let go of her.

"Ow! What was that for?" he asked, although it was kind of a rhetorical question, considering that fact that they both knew the answer. Sirius just looked at them, not even bothering to say anything. Before the scene became more violent, Remus said,

"Lets go downstairs and get some dinner."

Lily gave James one last glare and followed Remus down the stairs. As soon as she arrived in the kitchen, a blur of short, curly brown hair was upon Lily, giving her a hug.

"Lily! How nice to see you again! It's been too long."

"Hi Mrs. Simmons. It's nice to see you too." Lily had met Rae's mother before, because she worked at Flourish and Blotts, which was one of Lily's favorite stores. Rae and Lily would visit her sometimes in the summers, but this was the first time Lily had ever been to Rae's house.

"I've got dinner on the table for everyone!" Mrs. Simmons said and led everyone into the dining room. Mr. Simmons was already there. He had been the one coming in the door when everyone had been on the stairs. They all sat down at the table and began to eat Mrs. Simmons's amazing feast.

When dinner was finished, Mrs. Simmons began magicking dishes into the sink. Lily watched her for a moment, and then, having been taught the rules of a good guest, said,

"Anything I can do to help, Mrs. Simmons?"

At this James could not resist mumbling,

"coughSuckupcough"

Lily stepped on his foot again. He acquired a pained expression but didn't say anything else. However, Mrs. Simmons had seen the little argument, and thought about Rae's descriptions of their frequent disagreements. They sound just like Matthew and I when we were their age, and we ended up getting married. They could be great friends if they would just stop and see how the other feels...

"You know, the gardens do need de-gnoming. I must say they're getting quite out of hand. Rae, why don't you and Remus take the front garden since you know it so well? Sirius can come with you. Lily and James, why don't you two take care of the back gardens?"

James grinned at Lily; she glared back and pushed open the back door. This had not been a good idea for Mrs. Simmons to ask the two of them to work together. Plus, Lily didn't know how to de-gnome, but she was not about to tell James that.

Meanwhile, James was silently thanking Mrs. Simmons for making Lily work with him. Suddenly, she stopped walking, and he almost bumped into her. When she didn't start up again, he walked around her and knelt down in front of one of the bushes. He looked up at her to see if she would do the same. She just looked at him, as if observing the procedure. At that moment, an idea occurred to James. He got to his feet and said,

"You've got no clue how to de-gnome, have you?"

Lily had not expected him to notice this, but she tried to act unembarrassed.

"No, which is likely to be the reason I'm standing here instead of doing something productive."

"I'll show you," he said. "Just stick your hands into the bush like this." He reached underneath the lowest branches. "If you grab 'em by the feet, it surprises them and they don't try to bite you as much." He demonstrated by pulling a wriggling gnome out of the bush. "Then, you stand up, and swing it around your head, and when you've got a good rhythm going, you just let go of it, and hope it doesn't hit anything on the way." He swung the gnome over his head, let go, and it flew over the hedge in the distance. He noticed the appalled look on Lily's face and said, "Don't worry about hurting them, they'll recover and be back in a few days."

Lily was still not sure about the whole thing, but she knelt down next to a bush anyway, stuck her hands underneath, and pulled out a gnome. James watched her as she did this. She stood up and began to swing the gnome over her head, but it was harder than it looked.

"Here, try putting one hand over the other, like this," James said. He gently placed his hands on hers and moved them into the right position. He was surprised that she let him do this. Usually she never would have accepted help from him, or let him touch her for that matter.

Lily was equally surprised at herself, but she let him help her. He actually wasn't being a jerk for once, and she wanted it to stay that way.

"There, now try again," James said. Lily swung the gnome over her head, and this time she let go. The gnome flew over the hedge, almost further than James's.

"Bloody hell, that was good! Where'd you learn to throw like that?" he asked.

"Being a Chaser comes in handy sometimes," she replied.

They spent the next hour or so having a contest to see who could throw the gnomes the furthest. Lily had caught on quite quickly, and was fair competition. When the garden was almost completely de-gnomed, she said,

"Looks like we've pretty well finished it. Just a few more and we'll be done! I'm getting pretty good at this de-gnoming stuff."

"I think it's obvious you learned from the best," James said and ruffled his hair. Lily did not hear the kidding tone in his voice. She gave him the usual glare and stepped on his foot. Hard. Then she walked off back into the kitchen, leaving James to finish off the rest of the gnomes. James massaged his foot.

"The same foot three times today," he mumbled. "Maybe I am a prick..."

* * *

Lily stormed up the stairs into the guest bedroom. Obviously, Rae, Sirius and Remus had already finished out front, because Rae was sitting in the chair in Lily's room, reading Gone With The Wind. (A/N: I'll explain this at the end of the chapter.) This was of course her favorite book, and it's appeal had just picked up even more after she had watched the movie version with Lily. She had been fascinated, because being from a pureblood family, she had never seen a movie before. However, the story line was just too ironic for what had just happened. Rae looked up as Lily stomped in.

"What happened to you," she asked.

Lily did not even stop to ask what Rae was doing in her room.

"Potter," she answered.

"Oh. What did he do to you?"

"He was being a prick, just like usual. I can't believe I thought he'd changed! He was being so... so... normal when he was teaching me how to de-gnome, but then he started showing off at having taught me so well! He just can't stop thinking about himself, and it makes me so mad!"

With that, she stormed off into the bathroom to take a shower.

"He's trying to impress her but he just doesn't know how," Rae said to herself. "Someone's going to have to teach him..." she laughed softly and went back to reading her book.

****

Ok, I chose Gone With The Wind for Rae to read because she's being modeled after one of my friends, whose favorite book is Gone With The Wind. I've never read the book, but she made me watch the movie with her, so I know the storyline. For those of you who are not familiar with it, the main characters are Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. Rhett is in love with Scarlett, but she's in love with someone else. Even so, Scarlett and Rhett get married, but she still doesn't love him, and he ends up leaving her. There's a bunch of stuff in between (the movie is three and a half hours long) but that's the basics of it. I thought it was really good irony for the Lily/James situation.

Demiguise – This animal is explained in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but for those of you who have never read it, I'll explain. A Demiguise pelt can be used to make invisibility cloaks, so they are highly valued.

Next chapter will be pre Thien's wedding (remember him from the last chapter?), and maybe wedding day.