The Shopping Trip

A/N: I didn't take as long to update as I did last time.  Yay everyone must applaud me now.  I expect lots of reviews because of this.  I've decided to put the disclaimer at the bottom so I can tell everyone who thought up what.  Finally, ideas are always welcome and if I like the idea better than what I have (which I probably will) I'll most likely use it and give you credit, but right now I have the rest of the story planned out.   I am willing to change what I have though.

Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to The all mighty and powerfulM and lilypad-7879 who gave me ideas for this chapter.  Thank you so much.  You two saved me from insanity. 

Lily's POV

            Why were James and Kristen so close at the bowling ally?  What were they talking about?  Most importantly why did I care so much?  I'm jealous and I have no idea why.  I hate James, so why on earth should I be jealous? 

            It was the morning after we had gone bowling and my first conscious thoughts were of how jealous I am of James and Kristen.  They had looked pretty cozy when they were talking.  After I saw them it was all I could think about and I have no idea why I reacted that way.  Why should I care if they're dating? 

            Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.  I already knew who it was.  It could only be James. 

            "Rise and shine, sleepy head," he called through the door. 

            "Why?" I asked. 

            "We're going to Diagon Ally.  Get ready."

            I heard his footsteps as he walked away and knew I had to get up.  Surprisingly, I found I actually wanted to go to Diagon Ally.  It must have been for the shopping.  I took a shower and got dressed, then, I headed down stairs. 

            James was sitting at the table reading the Daily Prophet. 

            "You read the Daily Prophet?" I asked sitting down. 

            "Yeah, you sound surprised," he said. 

            "I am.  I wouldn't think you'd actually take the time to be informed." 

            I know what you're thinking; I haven't read the paper all summer.  But that's because Alice usually gets the paper and gives it to the rest of us to read.  That way we're not all spending extra money.

            "Kristen and Sirius should be here soon.  Then, we can go," James said.  Jealousy reared its ugly head. 

            "Oh, Kristen's coming?" I said as nonchalantly as I could.  As it turned out I couldn't say it nonchalantly. 

            "Yeah, and Sirius.  I figured you wouldn't want to spend the day alone with me in Diagon Ally, so I invited them to come along.  Is that a problem?"  He sounded genuinely worried. 

            "No, no problem." 

            Then, there were a couple minutes of silence where I looked around the kitchen trying to look as if there was nothing wrong.  I could feel James's eyes on me trying to see if I was lying.  

            Whether he figured out that I was or not, though, I'll never know because right when I think he was making the decision there was a crack from the living room.  James and I went there to find James's best friend, Sirius Black standing in the middle of the room.  I don't hate him as much as I hate James.  But do I hate James?  I just don't know.  I'm so confused, now. 

            "Hey, Padfoot," James said. 

            "Prongs, Lily Flower, Where's Kristen?" Sirius said very enthusiastically.  James laughed.  I like his laugh.  What?  No, I don't. 

            "She should be here any minute," James said.  Just then, there was a knock on the door.  James and Sirius started laughing uncontrollably.  I just rolled my eyes and answered the door.  It was, of course, Kristen. 

            "Hi," I said trying and failing to not sound bitter, "Come in.  James and Sirius are in the living room." 

            We walked back into the living room where James and Sirius were still laughing.  However, when Sirius saw Kristen he abruptly stopped and adopted the attitude I've come to realize all the Marauders have when around the girl they like.  James almost always has this attitude when I'm near him. 

            "Hey, Kristen," Sirius said.  Poor guy.  Didn't he know about her and James? 

            "Hi, Sirius," Kristen replied.  I looked at James who had sobered now as well and he seemed completely unaffected. 

            "Can I talk to you for a second?" Sirius asked Kristen. 

            "How about Lily and I go on ahead and you two can … 'talk'?  We'll meet you in the Leaky Caldron in about an hour?" from James. 

            "Okay," Kristen and Sirius said in unison. 

            This was weird I was really confused now. 

            "Alright.  Come on, Lily," James said. 

"But I-" I said but James interrupted me. 

"Lily, you can spend an hour alone with me."

"Fine.  Why should I know anything that's going on?"

James and I left by floo powder.  We landed in the Leaky Caldron. 

"Alright, Lily.  What do you want to do first?" James asked. 

"Why don't we wait around for Kristen and Sirius?" I said sarcastically. 

"They won't want us waiting around for them.  In fact, I'd prefer to be gone by the time they get here," he said apparently not picking up on the sarcasm. 

"Alright, well, let's go to Flourish and Blotts," I said.  We started walking out of the Leaky Caldron, but James was smiling slightly. 

"What?  Why are you smiling?" I asked. 

"The first store you want to go to is the book store.  That's so like you." 

"You don't know me," I said and then muttered, "You seem to know Kristen really well, though." 

"I know you better than you think, Lily.  We've gone to school together for six years.  We're in the same house.  You really don't think I know at least a little bit about you?" 

"Oh really?  What do you know about me?" I asked as James tapped the proper bricks. 

"You're very studious.  You work very hard on everything especially your schoolwork.  You're also very responsible.  Those traits kind of go hand in hand, though.  You're brave and you wont take anything from anyone.  The fact that you always yell at me proves that.  But it also proves you're a good person.  You'll stand up for the little bloke even if that little bloke is a Slytherin.  You're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen.  I have always thought that, ever since I first laid eyes on you.  Basically, you're perfect to me."

I was speechless.  We walked in silence for a little while.  Then:

"Well, are you going to say something?" James asked. 

"That was the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me," I said. 

"It's the truth.  Here we are." 

We went into the shop and looked at some books, then to a few others shops in Diagon Ally.  I noticed James had a special fervor when we were in Quality Quiditch Supplies.  Some things never change. 

And some things do.  I decided to give James another chance since what he said was so sweet.  Alice was right; I had a blast.  I now see what everyone has been telling me.  James and I get along so well.  It's actually kind of odd.  James can have me laughing one minute and near tears because he's so sweet the next. 

It was too bad it all had to end.  We had decided to sit down and have ice cream.  James had laughed at my ice cream flavor and I laughed at his.  We were almost finished when James said, "We should head over to the Leaky Caldron.  It's almost time to meet Padfoot and Kristen." 

I snapped back to reality.  Something was going on between James and Kristen and I was jealous. 

"Right.  We wouldn't want your precious Kristen to wait," I said. 

"Lily, what are you going on about?" 

"I saw you and Kristen yesterday and I know there's something going on between you two."

"What!  Kristen feels just like my sister.  And she likes Sirius.  That's why we left without them.  Sirius was going to ask her out.  Lily, you are the only one for me." 

I was so shocked all I could do was mutter a feeble, "oh."  I felt completely foolish. 

"Come on, we really have to be going.  We'll probably be late as it is," James said. 

We rushed out of Floreen Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor and to the Leaky Caldron.  James and I had both been expecting to find Kristen and Sirius there (most likely snogging), but there was no sign of them.  We asked Tom if he had seen them. 

He said, "They both left.  Told me to tell to you they went home." 

"Together?" James asked with a cheeky grin. 

"No, separately.  And Kristen looked pretty upset." 

James looked at me and I knew what he was going to say.  Before he could I said, "Let's go," and with that we flooed to Kristen's house. 

She was in her room on her bed near tears. 

"Kristen, what happened?" James asked.  We both sat down on her bed and I started to rub her back. 

"We were walking down Diagon Ally, when we ran into Snape.  Sirius just started hexing him for no apparent reason.  I tried to get him to stop, gut he wouldn't listen to me.  He said something like; 'I can finally do this out of school.'  Fortunately, we had moved into a small space in between two stores, so no one saw him.  He won't get in trouble.  Once he finally stopped I slapped him and ran away.  I gave Tom the message and came here." 

James and I exchanged looks.  James actually looked guilty about hexing Snape before.  He encouraged Sirius's little outburst and he knew it. 

"Sirius I'm sure was just trying to pay Snape back.  Snape got him on the way home," James said apologetically. 

"That still doesn't excuse what Sirius did.  He can't just walk up to people and start hexing them," I said. 

"But Padfoot had to get Snape back.  You can't expect him to take it lying down," James said.  The anger was starting to rise in both of us. 

"Let's just drop it.  I don't want to fight with you anymore, James." 

"Alright.  I'll go talk to him, Kristen.  See if I can knock some sense into him.  After all, he really can't go around hexing everyone just because he feels like it."  James said the last sentence more to me than Kristen.  He really has changed. 

James, then, stood up off the bed and disapparated.  I looked back at Kristen and saw she didn't seem in the least bit comforted. 

"It will be alright.  James will make it all right.  He's a great guy," I said.  This seemed to perk Kristen up and I knew exactly why. 

"How'd it go?  You know, being alone with James in Diagon Ally for an hour?" Kristen asked. 

I, then, told her all about my shopping trip with James Potter. 

Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling owns Harry Potter and I am definitely not she.  The all mighty and powerfulM came up with the idea of Sirius and Kristen going off by themselves and leaving James and Lily alone together.  Lilypad-7879 came up with idea of Lily being jealous of Kristen when she was talking to James.  You guys should also go read her Fic sweetest sin.  It's awesome. 

A/N: okay so guess what my reviews doubled last chapter.  Uh huh I got ten reviews last chapter where as all the previous chapters I got about five.  Please let's keep that up!!!!!!!  I'm begging you guys. 

Praises: First I want to thank everyone for reading this.  Secondly I want to thank everyone for there great ideas.  Now, on to the individual thank you. 

Mrs.ProfessorLupin: I know what that's like.  When you find a fic and you want to read the entire thing, but they don't have the entire thing up yet.  I hate it.  It drives me insane.  I would have this all put up at the same time, but then I would really really be insane from trying to type that all in one sitting.  Thank you for your review I'm glad you found this story. 

Holly-evans: I'm glad you love it.  Thank you for your review. Getting reviews always makes my day. 

The all mighty and powerfulM: Thank you sooooooomuch for your idea.  It really helped.  I was just so lost and confused.  And thank you for your review too. 

DIFFEN-DOOFER: I like your name.  It's funny.  Hehe.  Thank you for your review. 

Kill lily get james: It physically hurt to not use your idea.  I really liked it and I really wanted to use it.  The problem was all the ideas I got were good and I wanted to use them all.  I just had to decide by which ones were the easiest to use.  With your idea I would have had to right another letter to Alice and I really didn't like writing the first.  (hence he reason there haven't been any other letters since)  Plus, it didn't fit as well with the direction I have decided to go.  I'm sorry.  Thank you for your idea and review. 

Jakita: Thank you for reading this.   I updated faster this time.  Yay me!  Thank you for your review.  Reviews just make my day. 

Tanya J Potter: I'm glad you think it's sweet.  Thank you for your review.  I mean it.  Reviews really make my day. 

Jinny Weasly: Thank you for your idea.  I'm going to use it later on in the story.  Your idea really helped me to get a direction for where I want to go now.  It won't be in the next chapter but I think it will be in the chapter after that.  Thank you again for your idea and your review. 

AAandACFOREVER: The reason I don't have my email on the site is because I'm a paranoid freak and it has actually gotten me in trouble with my friends before.  They have ditched me because of it.  Anyway, thank you for your idea, but I'm sorry.  I can't use it.  I have had how Lily's going to realize she likes him planned out since the first chapter and I've been preparing for it.  I only needed ideas to fill up the space between now and then.  It was a really great idea.  I wish I could use it.  It's just I have the ball rolling on this other idea already.  I'm sorry.  Thank you for your idea and review. 

Lilypad-7879: Thank you soooooo much for your idea.  It was sooooo helpful.  I was really lost and confused.  I love your story, by the way.  It's soooo cute.  I'm so excited about it.  Thank you again for your idea and review. 

Hon Snowfire Browneyes: hahaha.  You are sooooo funny! You know that, right?  You crack me up!  You need to get a story out there.  I'll r&r.  Thank you for you review. 

Next chapter: James confronts Sirius.