Disclaimer: Do I look like a forty year old Scottish chick? If so, press one to be connected to a good eye doctor. Just so you know, I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter Four:

Mint Chip

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James Black skipped merrily down the stairs, although he hadn't had a good night's sleep he liked to skip sometimes. Today seemed like a skipping day anyway. Some dumb painting of his great-grandfather's, mothers, third cousin or something kept him up all night asking stupid questions.

He turned into the kitchen and considered throttling Harry for giving him such a crappy room then decided against it. Harry had put him across from Hermione after all.

He glanced around the kitchen. Remus was sitting next to Tonks who was reading over Remus' shoulder and sporting bubble-gum pink hair this morning. Last night it was black. James decided not to comment on it. Harry was making out with Ginny who was wearing a bathrobe initialed with HP. Hermione was absent. Ron and lavender where missing too.

"Morning!" James beamed happily around the table.

"Good morning," Remus looked up from The Daily Prophet. He didn't care much for the paper, nor did he care for the Quibbler.

"Wotcher, James."

Harry and Ginny didn't acknowledge his presence. They were too busy tasting each other's back teeth.

"How is everyone?" James asked.

"Good. Are you making breakfast?" Tonks asked.

"Probably." James wondered if she had spent the night with Remus.

"I went to the store and got eggs, bacon, and bread this morning," Harry told him.

"I was wondering when you two were coming up for air," commented Remus, flipping to the next page.

"I'll make breakfast then." James stood up.

"What are you making?" Harry asked. He decided to ignore Remus' comment.

"Eggs, bacon, and toast," James walked over to the stove. "What else would I make with eggs bacon and bread?"

"An omelet?" Ginny asked.

"Excellent," Harry said, wishing he had thought to get the stuff to make pancakes instead.

"Where's Hermione?" James asked a minute or two later as he was cracking a bunch of large eggs into a bowl.

"She hasn't come down yet," Ginny told him.

"You two aren't making out?" James looked shocked.

"What?" Harry asked.

"There was a minute of nobody saying anything," he said. "I thought it was because you two had become reattached at the lips."

"Jealous?" Ginny asked.

"Nope." James probably was, but he wasn't going to say it. He had just opened his mouth to make a biting comment when the doorbell rang. The picture of his grandmother burst open and started screaming.

"Bugger." Harry jumped up and ran into the entryway.

"I thought it was broken," James said confused.

"It was. I did it," Remus said, following Harry along with James, Ginny, and Tonks. As they made it into the entryway, James and Tonks went over to help with the portrait who was now calling everyone in the room "Accursed Mudblood loving fools!" Ginny answered the door.

"Percy?" James heard. The rest of the conversation was drowned out by his lovely grandmother's sentimental ramblings.

"TRAITORS TO THE BLACK NAME!" she screeched. "ACCURSED SPAWN! BLASPHAMOUS HALF-BREEDS!"

"Finally," Harry sighed as they closed the curtains.

"If we could teach her to sing elevator music, that wouldn't be half bad," James joked.

Ginny closed the door.

"Who was it?" James asked.

"My older brother Percy. He fixed the doorbell for us." She handed Remus an envelope. "Why?"

"I'm about to chase him down with something heavy." James walked to the door.

"Take a number," Ginny said.

"Damn." James went straight to the kitchen door instead. Everyone followed.

"Why was he here?" Harry asked a second or two later, eyeing the envelope in Remus' hands.

"Registration time," said Remus bitterly. He threw the envelope across the room and blasted it with his wand as it hit the wall.

"Registration for what?" James asked throwing some bacon into the pan. Everything went still. Apparently no one had told him Remus was a werewolf.

James looked at everyone. "What did I say?"

Remus finally said, "I'm a werewolf." He was Sirius's son, but Remus wasn't sure what to expect. Loads of people were frightened by werewolves. Especially Dolores Umbridge who'd promoted the registration law two years previously.

"Cool." James flipped the bacon. "When's the next full moon?" he asked.

"Three days," Remus said looking at his watch half shocked by James seemingly nonchalant attitude. "Why?"

"Can I have some hair clippings?" he asked.

"Why?" Remus knew of several poisons involving werewolf hair.

"I wanted some for a potion." James wondered what exactly it would take to make a Wolfsbane potion. He'd heard of it, but it sounded rather hard to make.

"Okay," he said slowly. He could easily collect some from the basement after the full moon.

"Don't you make potions?" Ginny asked him. "Maybe you could make some Wolfsbane for Remus."

"I'd need a recipe, the ingredients, and a place to brew." He liked the idea of doing something like this for his father's old friend.

"I wouldn't put you through the trouble-" Remus started, but James cut him off.

"I want to. It sounds fun." He levitated all the food to the table. "Do you have a recipe?"

"It's in my room. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Positive." It wasn't often James got the chance to try his hand at complicated potions. He hated doing hard stuff but loved doing potions like this.

"I'll get the stuff." Remus left, and they heard him go upstairs. James carried over a stack of plates and silverware.

"It's really nice of you to make that for him," Tonks told James.

"What's your usual fee? I'll pay it," Harry offered, reaching for his moneybag.

"Forget it. I'm ecstatic to try a potion this complicated," James assured him. "Plus it's nice to be of some use." He began making a plate since it seemed no one else was.

"Here," Remus tossed a large book and a pouch of gold in front of him a couple of minutes later. "Page six-fourteen to six-twenty two. The ingredients are expensive, and you'll need this to get some of the more restricted ones." Remus handed him a werewolf registration card.

"Ohhh…" James's eyes grew wide.

"Some of the things you'll need are rather hard to come by," Remus told him. "That should allow you to get them as long as you explain what you're making… Why are you smiling like that?" Remus knew that smile. He had seen it every time Sirius was about to do something stupid.

"I can buy a lot of stuff with this thing," James smiled.

"It has a class two clearance," Remus said. It was just for werewolves who wanted to make wolfsbane potion. He had tried to make it after he had resigned as a teacher but hadn't been able to make it effectively.

"I'm an Auror, so before you tell me what you're gonna make just remember that," Tonks told him. She knew it was illegal for James to have possession of that card but that could be overlooked. If he was planning to make Veritaserum or Polyjuice, that was a totally different story.  She wouldn't bust him, but she would at least take the card.

"Right," he opened the book. His eyes went wide and he became engrossed in the potion.

"I hope he doesn't do anything stupid," Remus said quietly to Tonks.

"Well, he's like Sirius right? What would Sirius do?" Tonks whispered back.

Remus' eyes went wide. "He would probably make a Polyjuice Potion, transform himself into Snape, and then go commit several felonies," Remus said quite seriously.

"Really?"

"Well, maybe not felonies, but he'd dress up like a cheerleader or something." Remus ate some eggs.

"That would be great," Harry smiled. Remus hadn't realized he was listening.

"Damn it all," James said shaking his head.

"What?" Harry asked.

"I don't know the Homorphus charm," he shook his head.

"I do," Hermione said stepping through the door with wet hair. "What for?"

James began explaining. "It needs to be done on the potion as I throw in the Wolfsbane," he finished.

"I'll do it. It's really a simple charm," she told him.

"Tonight I'll need your help then." He closed the book. "So how about that ice cream?" He smiled.

"Okay. We can go to Diagon Alley after breakfast." She was impressed that he'd volunteer to brew such a difficult potion.

"I have to shower anyway," he got up. "I'll be back in a minute." He left quickly.

"Hermione," Remus said after a second. "Do me a favor. I gave James my werewolf registration card. Can you make sure he doesn't get anything that could be made into something dangerous? I trust him a lot considering how long I've known him, but he's a tad bit reckless."

"Okay. I'll make sure he only gets what's on the list," she said, opening the book and summoning some parchment and a quill. She always wanted to make this potion, but it was so complicated she was afraid to get everyone's hopes up and not be able to do it. James was awfully cocky about this.

"Good," Remus couldn't help trusting someone that much like Sirius, but being the sensible sort he was, he couldn't pretend something bad wasn't going to happen because of this.

"So you guys have to go to Diagon Alley too?" Ginny asked.

"Yeah. Why are you going?" Hermione asked.

"Harry's making up for trying to sneak out to a bar and getting beat up," Ginny explained.

"How?" Tonks asked.

"We're going shopping."

"Nnnnn," Harry groaned.

"See. He'll enjoy it." Ginny smiled again rubbing the back of Harry's head. Harry shifted his head since his glasses were slicing into his nose.

"I'm back." James leaped through the door smiling.

"That was fast," Hermione said. James was in a fresh set of clothes. He had his hair pulled back in a ponytail with just the bangs loose which were pulled into two bunches at the front. Hermione liked his hair like that.

"I'm learned some skills in my dorm. One shower. Ten boys. Thirty minutes," he shook his head. "Bad logistics."

"Yeah," Harry agreed.

"We need to shower. Then we can go," Ginny said, standing and tugging Harry's arm.

"I already showered," Harry protested.

"You get to wash my back." He brightened considerably.

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"Ready?" James asked. Harry, Ginny and Hermione were standing in the entry hall next to him.

"Yep," Ginny smiled.

"Yeah." Hermione said. She was looking forward to helping James with that potion.

"Harry?" James asked. He seemed down.

"Yeah," he answered half-heartedly.

"Ladies first," James said. Hermione waved as the girls apparated.

"What's up?" James asked Harry.

"She wasn't joking," Harry said.

"Huh?" James wondered what the hell he was talking about.

"She only let me wash her back," he said, shaking his head. "I guess she's still mad." He looked at James who was snickering with silent mirth. "You're a real prat you know that?" Harry asked as he apparated.

A minute or two later James apparated himself.

He appeared next to Harry in the Leaky Cauldron. Right on top of George of course. Nothing ever worked out for James.

"Nice to meet you. George Weasley," George smiled.

"Hi. James Black." James stood up and brushed himself off.

"I heard about you," Fred said as he helped George up.

"I guess word travels fast." James smiled. He noticed that everyone in the bar was whispering and pointing. He listened carefully.

"All I heard was he was living in hiding in Spain," one guy was saying.

"No it was France," another said.

"Naw it was Canada," a third one insisted.

"America," A big guy with a pipe said.

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, his mom's French though. Part veela."

"Can't be. Why would a veela go for that Black wastrel?"

"Kaleb think for once. Pretty girls are always attracted to dark wizards."

"Seriously? I always that Black was a prat betraying the Potters like that."

James was shaking with silent rage by this time. He vaguely noticed that the twins were dragging him and Harry out the back door. He and Harry were putting up an excellent resistance though. Most of the bar was staring by the time they had successfully pulled them out.

"Let me go," James growled.

"Calm down first," George ordered.

"I'm calm." James stopped struggling.

"Okay," George let him go.

"I'm calm," James repeated, but more to himself this time. Harry had stopped struggling too.

"I can't believe assholes like that refuse to believe Good Old Sirius was innocent," Fred shook his head in disgust. James darted for the door. George grabbed him.

"Calm down. It's not worth a stay in Azkaban just to kill them," Fred assured him.

"Yeah. They're just a group of assholes," Harry told him removing his wand from the waistband holster he carried it in. Fred watched the wand carefully to make sure he didn't aim it in the leaky cauldron.

"Assholes tend to travel in packs," Fred told him.

"I know." James watched as Harry tapped the correct brick with his wand. "Where's Hermione?"

"At Florean's," Fred told them as they started down the alley. "They made us stand there as messengers."

"Under threat of Bat Bogey." George cringed.

"Scary," Fred agreed.

"Hey, the apothecary!" exclaimed James as he started towards it, but Harry caught his shoulder.

"Hermione has the list," he told him.

"Damn," James cursed.

"What list?" Fred asked.

Harry explained as they continued toward Florean's.

"Cool," George said once he finished.

"You know a lot about potions?" asked Fred.

"A bit," James told him modestly.

"How about poisons?"  George asked him as they turned into Florean's patio area.

"A bit."

"We'll have to talk later. We're trying to improve the Skiving Snackboxes," Fred told him.

"We could use someone who could help out," George added.

"Think about it," Fred told him as they walked off down the street. He pulled out his card and pressed it into James's hand.

"Interesting people," James commented, watching them go.

"Yeah. There's the girls." Harry pointed.

"Good," James walked toward them. Hermione and Ginny were sitting at a shady table.

"Hello," James sat down in the chair next to Hermione. Harry kissed Ginny hello as they sat down. He had apparently forgiven her.

"So what do you want to do first?" Hermione asked.

"Let's go to the apothecary," James said quickly.

"Harry and I need to go to Madam Malkin's," Ginny said.

"Why don't we all meet back here and have ice cream in an hour?" Hermione suggested.

"Okay," Harry agreed.

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"I had no idea it was the same Weasleys as in Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes! Amazing. Nice of Harry to mention it," James said to Hermione as they walked to the apothecary. "I just realized it after they had to keep me from beating the crap out of some assholes."

Hermione disapproved of his temper and his language but had to admit his embarrassment at meeting the twins was cute.

"I couldn't believe it! I used all of their stuff in my last year at school. Brilliant pranks…" James shook his head.

"Do they even sell in America?" Hermione asked.

"At the Institute," he explained as they walked into the apothecary.

"Institute?" she asked.

"South Salem Wizarding Institute," he explained.

"Oh," she pulled a bottle of murtlap essence off the shelf.

"Do we need any boomslang skin?" James picked up a jar and peered at it.

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"So we got everything?" James asked, sorting through the bags forty-five minutes later. They had finished shopping and had gone back to Florean's for ice cream.

"Yeah." Hermione scanned the list as she licked her Moose Tracks cone. She had managed to keep him from buying everything besides Jobberknoll feathers. When they were at the checkout she realized that they had somehow snuck back into the basket. She would let it go. It was only one little thing.

"Good," James said, taking a bite of his mint chip ice cream He had opted for a quart instead of a cone.

"Do you have a big enough cauldron?" Hermione asked him. Their chairs were really close together.

"There should be one somewhere at Number Twelve," James said.

"There might be one in the basement." She knew there was one in the attic where Harry kept Kreacher. She didn't want him to keep Kreacher there, but she couldn't make him stop. She tried to picture James meeting Kreacher and not killing him, but she doubted it was possible.

"I'll ask Harry," James said, licking his spoon. He clearly enjoyed his ice cream.

"I wonder how he and Ginny are getting along…" Hermione mumbled. Ginny had told her all about only letting Harry wash her back.

"Did Ginny tell you what she did?" He leaned back in his chair dangerously. Hermione decided not to say anything.

"The shower thing? Yeah." Hermione was surprised. James seemed immensely amused by it. "You and Harry are getting along nicely," she commented.

"He's a nice guy," James smiled. "I didn't expect him to be like that."

"What did you expect him to be like?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know. When I was fourteen, I hated him." James looked at the sky. "I hated him so much for knowing my dad when I didn't, but I got over it."

"How?" She was a little bit worried. They didn't know anything about James really.

"A friend hit me in the head with a dead runespoor," he explained.

"What?" She was positive he hadn't said that.

"This good friend of mine told me I was being an asshole. He then proceeded to knock me unconscious with this runespoor that had just killed itself." He grinned fondly at the memory.

"You had a peculiar childhood," she said with a smile. Her fears about him being a psychotic killer faded.

"I know," he said as he twisted his earring.

"That's a strange earring," said Hermione.

"It's a snidget eye," he explained letting his chair legs fall.

"Wow. Those are really illegal." She knew that the snidget eyes had been used in jewelry sometimes, but she didn't think she would ever see one. Since it was made illegal to hunt snidgets, the jewelry was pretty rare.

"Yeah. I got it from my mom," he said self-consciously.

"Why do you wear it?"

"Luck."

"Does it work?"

"I found you." He was looking in her eyes.

"Is that lucky?" she asked, leaning slightly closer to him.

"Best luck I ever had."

"Is that so?" She could smell his breath, which smelled nicely like mint and chocolate.

"Very much so." His lips touched hers, and she closed her eyes and pressed her lips against his. It was a nice kiss. James had nice smelling breath and tasty lips so that was a good thing. He worried about his breath being bad constantly. Her lips tasted nice from the ice cream too. James found a new love for Moose Tracks. They separated a couple of seconds later, so it wasn't too long a kiss, but long kisses were messy, so that was good. It made quite an impression on both of them. As they pulled apart, James looked away and turned a lovely shade of red. Hermione did exactly the same. Both were in post-kiss panic.

"What's going on here?" Ginny asked. Both she and Harry had been reading a sign outside of Quality Quidditch Supplies and had missed the kiss as they walked up.

"Nothing," James and Hermione said, immediately arousing suspicion.

"Nothing, eh?" Harry remembered uttering a similar nothing after his and Ginny's first kiss. "James, are you and Hermione wearing the same lipstick?"

"Huh?" James wiped his lips on his robe sleeve.

"I'm not wearing lipstick," Hermione said. It was obvious that Harry had caught on quickly.

"Oh really?" Harry feigned ignorance.

"Did you get everything?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah. Did you?" Ginny asked, fully planning on pumping Hermione for information later.

"Yes. You ready to go?" Hermione stood up.

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A\N: I seem to be getting a few reviews. I'm happy about that. Thanks to all of my fantastic reviewers. I'm glad you guy's seem to like it.