Disclaimer: anything you recognise I don't own and anything you don't recognise I do own!
-Chapter 3-
Diagon Alley
Katie arrived a week later, as planned, and she had decided that the easiest way to get there was by floo, because she lived in Ottery St. Catchpole and that was miles from anywhere. She stepped in the fireplace, threw a handful of floo powder over her and shouted "2 Privet Drive!" she felt the familiar jerk and then she was spinning into a mass of whirring colours. Before she knew it she was at Potter's house. It didn't go quite as planned though. She had wanted to land in the fireplace in the kitchen, but found herself n Potter's bedroom. She didn't mind though. She stepped out and smiled at the three boys that were playing wizards chess, Remus had come too.
"HEY GUYS!" she shouted and hugged them all, causing the chess pieces to shout "RUN FOR THE HILLS!" and scatter in every direction.
"So, what have you been up to since I last saw you?" she asked, sitting down between them.
"Well, me and Lily got stuck up a tree!" James said.
"What happened?" Katie asked. James, with lots of help from Sirius, retold the story of the water fight, Sirius putting them in a tree and Mr Snuffles.
"Aw! Poor Siri! Is Mr Snuffles ok now? He doesn't have any psychological damage does he? Aw! Poor Mr Snuffles!" she said like she was talking to a small child and cradling Mr Fluffers. Katie said that all three of them should go over to Lily's and she was shocked when they said that they hadn't been in Lily's house yet. She supposed that Lily had good reasons to keep them out of her house, since she probably wouldn't have a house left with all the chaos they create.
They went outside, Katie jumped on Sirius' back and he gave her a piggyback ride next door. James and Remus smiled to each other, they knew that Sirius and Katie would make the perfect couple and they both fancied each other, the only problem was that neither of them were going to admit it. Katie rang the doorbell, still on Sirius' back and Lily and Gemini opened the door and hugged Katie over Sirius. Who looked hurt and said "don't I get a hug?" with huge puppy eyes. The two girls gave him a hug and then James and Remus joined in the massive hugging fest.
Lily invited them in, after much persuasion, and warned them not to make too much noise and not to totally wreck the house, because her parents wouldn't appreciate coming home to a blown up house.
They went up to Lily's room and sat around talking amongst themselves. Sirius, being nosy, was looking through Lily's stuff.
"Been doing anything nice since last week Katie?" Gemini asked her, flipping through the pages of a magazine. Remus and James were also looking through a magazine and like any boy they had turned straight to the problem pages and were making faces.
"Well, I met someone" Katie said, cheerfully. Remus and James stopped looking at the magazine and looked up at Sirius, who had stopped dead and his shoulders had dropped.
"What?" asked Katie, "what? Guys what's wrong?"
"Nothing" they replied and went back to the magazine, occasionally looking over to Sirius, who was still being nosy.
"WOW! LOOK WHAT I FOUND!" shouted Sirius, looking at some pieces of paper.
"What? Oh no! Sirius, put them back!" Lily cried, leaping at the paper. Sirius had an advantage, being a head taller and kept the paper high in the air as he read it aloud, adding in his own running commentary.
"Dear Lily my sweet flower, aw sweet Evans! Why do you ignore me, you ignore him Evans? That's not good! I love you sweet Lily, aw cute Evans, real cute! Love from, OH MY! IT'S FROM SNAPE! LILY LOVES SNIVELLUS!" he said, prancing around the room.
"I DO NOT!" Lily shouted, still trying to reach the letter.
"Sure you don't, and that's why you kept the letter!" said Sirius sarcastically.
"I kept the letter because I did and I put it in my scrap box, which is where I put stuff that I want to remember, not that I particularly want to remember that! Look, here it is!" she said, producing a little, green box. "It's like a non magical pensive!"
The others gathered round to look in the box. In it were lots of photographs, a few letters and a couple of small objects. They looked through the photographs and saw a baby picture of Lily with chocolate round her face, a picture of a five year old Lily dressed as a fairy, a seven year old Lily dressed as a witch for Halloween, at ten as Mary in a Christmas Nativity, at fifteen playing the flute on a stage and finally one at sixteen on a stage dancing. She kept trying to put the box away, but they wouldn't let her.
"Hey Lils, why didn't you tell us you did ballet?" asked Katie, looking at the photo from last year.
"I guess I kind of forgot!" she replied, shrugging. The boys found another love letter from Snape and were reading it in a stupid, high voice.
Lily, Katie and Gemini hung around with the guys every single day and reigned havoc throughout Little Whinging. They had lots of fun, but were looking forward to going back to school. James, Sirius and Remus were creating plans to get James and Sirius the most detentions the school had ever seen. They'd probably get it as well, looking at the amount they had already got. They were determined to get more though, as they wanted to set their record nice and high.
All six of them decided to go to Diagon Alley together, even though the girls had decided to run off as soon as they got there. Gemini and Katie really couldn't stand another day with James and Lily's constant bickering, even though it had got slightly better. They flooed through James' house to the Leaky Cauldron and the boys headed straight off to Quality Quidditch Supplies. Boys! Thought Lily, they have Quidditch on the brain! The girls decided to get their robes first and headed towards Madam Malkin's. On their way they saw lots of familiar faces, it was good to be back in the wizarding world. They bumped into Becky Gill and her friend Rita Skeeter, their fellow Gryffindors; they saw Emma Waring, a Hufflepuff, Laura Thompson and Sophia Stephanides, Ravenclaws. They managed to steer clear of Robyn Howe and Kate Thompson, two Slytherins from their year, they weren't all that bad alone but together they were a nightmare! They also saw Kathryn Howe, another Slytherin and Robyn's younger sister, the queen of gossip at Hogwarts.
They walked through the door, chatting merrily and went to look at the dress robes. A girl can never have too many pairs of dress robes! They would need some for the Christmas ball, so they started looking, even if it was a term away. None of the girls bought any new dress robes but they did all get some new, black school robes. Katie complained about the colour and thought that pink was a more suitable colour for school robes and then went into fits of giggles imagining the Marauders wearing pink robes.
They left the shop and started on their way to Flourish and Blotts, but Lily saw something that made her run behind Gemini and whisper "hide me!" Vicky and Katie looked around and saw Severus Snape coming their way. They looked at each other and carried on walking towards Snape with Lily behind Gemini, who was quite tall, the same height as her brother. Lily was a head shorter than she was, so was hidden quite well. It would have been stupid for her to hide behind Katie because Katie was a midget!
"Hello, have you seen Lily Evans lately?" Snape asked them, Lily shook her head.
"No, why do you ask?" Katie asked coolly.
" No reason" he shrugged and began to walk away but was stopped when Sirius shouted, "hey look! It's Snivellus!"
Snape stopped and turned around to face James and Sirius who were standing in the middle of the street, Remus was sitting nearby reading a new book, not interested in their taunting. Remus was always nice to everyone, even people he didn't like very much. Lily was ver much the same and she hated James and Sirius torturing Snape. She recalled one day in the fifth year when she had asked James what Snape had ever done to him and he said that 'it was bad enough that he was alive'
Sirius smiled as they started to gather a crowd. Sirius liked being in the limelight and being an entertainer. He got out his wand and Lily got out from behind Gemini. James looked from Sirius, to Snape, to Lily. He raised his hand to run through his hand but put it back down remembering Lily, who as standing there looking angry.
"Sirius Black, put your wand away!" Lily shrieked at Sirius, who didn't move.
"Aw! Lily! Don't spoil my fun!" he whined. She looked at James with a pleading look and he sighed and said to Sirius "come on Siri, not this time alright"
"What! Aw! Jamsie! She's getting to you! You're turning into Remus! Not that that's a bad thing Remus! I mean come on! You're Head Boy and everything! Remus was the only one that was supposed to be prefect and Head Boy!"
"You're Head Boy Potter?" Snape cried, "oh no! Dumbledore is an idiot if he thinks that a freak like you can ever be Head Boy!"
James walked away and took Sirius with him. Sirius kept protesting but James dragged him off to the Leaky Cauldron. Lily smiled and went to follow, but was stopped by Snape who said "see you at school Lily" and she replied "whatever and remember, girls don't like greasy hair so wash it! Come on girls!" and Katie and Gemini followed giving Snape dirty looks as they passed. Remus got up and followed as well, still with his head in the book.
They reached the Leaky Cauldron and saw James talking to an angry Sirius. They bought butterbeers and sat with them. Lily couldn't stop thinking about how James had stopped Sirius. It wasn't like him at all and why did he stop when he was about to mess up his hair. It was weird!
They didn't spend much longer in Diagon Alley. They went back to Quality Quidditch supplies and met Anna Haigh, the other Gryffindor beater with Sirius, who was buying a new beater's club. Lily wasn't really concentrating though; she was too busy dealing with all the mixed thoughts that were running through her head. Why had she always thought James Potter was evil, because he actually wasn't that bad. Why had he all of a sudden stopped doing bad things, well less bad things? Why was he being so friendly? She was confused and couldn't understand it. She made up her mind to talk to Gemini and Katie about it as soon as they got back home. Lily told them everything.
James and Sirius came out of the shop with even more Quidditch stuff. Sirius and James went ahead to the Leaky Cauldron, Gemini and Katie next, talking about boys or something and Lily last, still wondering. She didn't notice Remus come up next to her.
"Don't worry," he said.
"About what?" she asked.
"James, he hasn't changed that much you know, you've just begun to see his nicer side, that's all."
"Oh, thanks Remus. What book did you buy? You seem absorbed in it, though you are with any book!"
"It's a book of laws and regulations and stuff about werewolves" he explained.
"Well, I hope you find what you're looking for. Is it about jobs and stuff?"
"How do you…? Who told you?"
"I worked it out. You are always either ill or visiting family once a month and that's always on the full moon, when you see a boggart it changes into the moon and you know everything about lycanthropy." She explained.
"And you don't mind?"
"No, why would I?"
"It's just…never mind, let's get back"
Lily planned to tell Katie and Gemini about James that evening and waited for the right moment. They were all laid in bed, staring at the ceiling in the dark and were silent. Lily told them all the things that she had noticed and they both listened. Gemini smiled.
"It's a bit obvious, isn't it Lil?" she said slowly.
"What is?" Lily asked.
"He fancies you!" said Katie at once and then added "and you fancy him!" Lily was silent before saying. "No he doesn't" Katie and Gemini grinned.
Meanwhile, in the house next door, the guys were doing exactly the same thing.
"Do you think she likes me?" James asked them.
"I dunno" said Sirius "I mean she's weird, she doesn't like the Sirimister so probably not!"
"What the hell is the Sirimister? I think any normal girl can see right through you, you know!" James laughed at his friend.
"Well, I'm just charming, that's all!"
"Shut up Sirius" Remus said "I think she does, she just probably doesn't know it yet"
Sirius had, what he thought, was another good idea. He ran across to the window and shouted "OI! EVANS!"
What does he want at this time of night? She thought as she ran to the window, followed by Katie.
"What?" she said, deeply annoyed.
"Do you fancy James?"
"Shut up Sirius!" James said, who had come to the window and was standing next to Sirius.
"Yeah right!" Lily retorted and went back to bed. So did James. Katie stayed though and said to Sirius "she does really! Night Siri!"
"Night Katie!"
