Dear Lily

Yo, howzit? Sorry, a few weeks in The Leaky Cauldron with Sirius and I'm starting to even write like him. Yes, that's right, write, not talk. Anyway, Sirius keeps ducking in and out of the room, reading over my shoulder and I've barely written three lines. What a dope. Sorry about all the crossing out, but I didn't think you'd approve of the explicit swearing.

I hope you're enjoying yourself at Sam's but that's not what I was writing for.

He wants you bad.

Sorry, Sirius again.

Hey, Prongs, why don

Ok, I'm down in the pub now. I think Sirius is still struggling with those bogies, but I'll go up and help him once I send this off. I promise!

Alright, back to the point of this letter. If this wasn't the last piece of parchment I had, I'd have rewritten it. Then again, this is funny, too. Ok, you and Sam are coming to stay the final night at The Leaky Cauldron. No arguments. We already have the rooms booked and if Hannah wasn't in France and Aoife in Scotland, they'd be coming too. Peter and Remus will be here. Anyway, see you then.

Love,

James

I smiled at the 'love' part. The sun was beating down on the back of my neck but I wasn't so sure that was what was making my face so warm. I grinned, the letter still clutched in my hand, as I lay back on the grass, watching the clouds drift lazily across the bright blue sky. What was I thinking, this was just a letter from James! I couldn't like him like that... could I? No matter that these thoughts were tearing through my mind, I could not wipe this ridiculous smile off my face.

'Ooh, stop it!' I said aloud, smacking my hands over my face. Niamh, loping through the grass near me, paused for a moment in her games to look reproachfully at me. I smiled back at her, looking at her upside down. 'What? I can't help it.'

She batted one paw across my face with an amused meow, as if to say 'you really couldn't look funnier'. I tried to frown at her but instead burst into a peal of laughter.

'What's so funny?'

For one crazy moment I thought Niamh had spoken, but suddenly the sun was blocked out by Sam's shadow. I blinked and grinned up at her. 'Nothing much.'

She put her hands on her hips disapprovingly and frowned. 'Nah, I'm not buying that. You can't be laughing like that and not have a good ah, a letter from Jamsie poo.'

Sam just managed to change so smoothly from one subject to the next, her tone of voice not changing. She bent down and tugged the letter out of my hand, scanned it, whooped when she read the part about us staying at The Leaky Cauldron, then giggled and nudged me with her foot.

'Love, huh? He still loves you, when are you going to bloody date the boy?'

'Don't be ridiculous.'

'Uhuh, ok, whatever, stop worming you way out of this. You lurve him.' She clasped her hands together and made smooching noises.

'Quit it.' I kicked out and my foot collided gently with her shin. She howled with pain then laughed as she jumped up and down on one foot, holding the other with both hands.

'First, Lily, that was uncalled for. Second, I've seen the way you look at him, you think he's hot. Third, we're going. Fourth, you look ridiculous-.'

'Fifth, one more word and you won't have a leg to stand on because I'll break the other one.'

Sammy glared then giggled, dropping her leg. 'So you already decided you were going to go?'

'No, I already decided I didn't have a choice in the matter. Now, come on,' I leapt to my feet, brushing grass and dirt from my clothes, then looked up and smiled brightly at her. 'We should go talk to your parents. After all, we are leaving in two days.'

'Hey, it's the Trouble Twins!'

'Shut your face, Black,' Sammy scowled, and he doubled over as her elbow accidentally shot out and just happened to collide with Sirius' stomache. Sam smiled serenely as he gasped for air. I grinned and waved impishly at James.

'Ello!'

He grinned, his black hair sticking up in a thousand different directions. Reaching up, I watched him jam his glasses back up against the bridge of his nose, his brown eyes glinting mischievously behind the lenses. 'Well,' he said to me, by way of greeting. 'Once Padfoot gets over his mysterious illness which I have no idea how it came about, we'll get going.'

Sirius sneered as he stood up straight, then reached over and messed Sam's hair, making her laugh so loudly, an elderly witch passing us by jumped and wheeled around. James nudged my arm as we headed down Diagon Alley and I felt my cheeks grow hot as I smiled up at him. What the..?