The October air was crisp and cold, and their breath steamed in the air before them as they walked down to the village. By mutual, unspoken agreement, they walked fast enough to shake off Lily's giggling friends – thankfully there was no sign of Sirius or the other Marauders – and so arrived in Hosgmeade in almost half the time it would normally have taken.

Slightly surprised to find themselves there so quickly, they paused in the main street and looked around. The usual crowds of students were streaming towards Honeydukes, Zonko's and The Three Broomsticks. Normally James would have joined them but he somehow felt that more was expected of him today.

"Er... was there anywhere you wanted to go particularly?"

"Oh, well, I wanted to get some stuff from Honeydukes, but it's packed at the moment. Maybe if we leave that 'til later we might be able to move in there." Although she had struggled for words earlier, nervousness was now making Lily babble slightly, and she fought to keep a rein on her tongue before James got really annoyed with her. "There's a funny sort of shop down here," she said, gesturing at one of the side streets. "It sells all sorts of stuff..."

"Yeah, I know the one you mean," agreed James, sounding quite relieved. "It's good, isn't it? I found a really neat gadget in there the other... er... last time we were here." Lily did not approve of his and the others' rule breaking; she had made that quite clear on many occasions. Mentioning that he and Sirius had been here only last week, thanks to his Invisibility Cloak, their Map, and a few secret passageways, was probably not going to improve her opinion of him. "Records voices and plays them back. You don't have to be able to see it to set it off, that's... well, you don't need to know all the details, do you?" he finished lamely, realising he might have been going on a little. A glance down at Lily showed her looking mildly amused, so at least he hadn't irritated her too much. Yet. "We thought it was neat, anyway.

He did not find anything this time with such obvious potential as his gadget. His guesses as to what some of the odder-looking things might do made Lily laugh, though, so the visit to the shop was not a complete waste of time. She bought a little book on cosmetic charms. James thought it was a complete waste of paper, and had never imagined that anyone might actually buy such a thing, but realised that saying so would not be in his best interests. They managed a friendly conversation as they walked out of the shop, and he was beginning to think that the day might turn out quite well.

"Where to now?"

"Gladrags?" she suggested. He managed not to pull a face; he had been dreading that. He had been in there once, on a legitimate Hogsmeade weekend, when he and Sirius had finally despaired of Remus' dress sense, and ignoring his complaints that his robes were comfortable and he didn't need new ones, bullied him in there. It had been full with giggling, preening girls, shrieking over the latest designs and arguing over colours... They looked around for maybe thirty seconds before Sirius declared he couldn't stand it. Remus, of course, needed no encouragement to leave, and while he would never admit to being wrong, the experience had not been one of James' best.

"Sure, why not," he replied, while a little voice screamed inside his head that he was mad, he would regret it, and why on earth was he letting a girl – any girl, even Lily Evans – put him through that?

Strangely enough, it was nowhere near as bad as he remembered. There was only one group of shrieking, giggling girls, and a few more looking round in slightly more dignified fashion, but it was perfectly possible to look around without being trampled. And it was not quite so pink as he remembered, either; evidently he had picked a bad season last time.

"I don't really have anywhere to wear robes," Lily was saying. "I mean, I wear uniform at school, and Muggle clothes at home. But I'll need to get a job in the wizard world after this year, so I thought maybe I'd just buy a couple..."

He really couldn't find it in him to be interested in clothes, but he made himself listen, and said 'uh-huh' and 'yeah' in what he hoped were the right places. Until she pointed at a set of men's robes in a dark blue colour and said

"You'd look nice in those." She went red as soon as she had said it, but he was too surprised to notice.

"Uh..." What on earth was he supposed to say to that? "You think?"

"It's a nice colour," she said by way of answer. "And the material's nice, too..." her voice died away, apparently with embarrassment as she was going bright red again, and she said no more, going quickly on to the next display. But while she was in the fitting rooms with several robes – he could barely tell what the difference between them was, though he was sure there must be one – he returned to the blue robes and, looking guiltily around, checked the price tag.

Well, he supposed it was a nice colour. And yes, the material felt nice, too. There was another surreptitious look around before he checked that. He did need new robes... he had grown several inches over the summer.

But he couldn't get them now. Lily would think it was because of her. Obviously it wasn't. He needed new robes, and he happened to think these were the nicest ones in the shop. But she would jump to conclusions. Girls always did. So, he wandered back over to the fitting rooms and arranged himself lounging against a wall as if he had been waiting for some time and was beginning to get bored. He mussed up his hair for added effect before remembering that Lily hated that, and flattening it again, or as near to flat as it ever went. He would come into Hogsmeade another time, with the Cloak, and buy the robes, when he could do so without getting meaningful looks or comments.