Summary: It all started with a simple love letter, for James Potter, from a lovely admirer. Love letters led to friendships; friendships led to confusion; and finally confusion, slowly led to love. With just three meaningful words, it brought joy to young Potter's heart: Love, An Admirer.

Disclaimer: Anything familiar isn't mine, and unfortunately belongs to the oh-so-brilliant JK Rowling, whom I salute to. Creations of mine are : Piper Valentine, Fiona Caldwell, Jemima Richards, Carisa Emily Hart, Dennis Front, Walter Reese, Winston Reese, Marie Lodge, Yvonne West, Gerald Wills, Kurt Randall, Isabelle Frall, and the Fairy and the portrait society.

Note: I was FORMERLY mIz jAdEd – I am now amynixx. :) Also, leave your e-mail if you want to be notified about the next chapter!

Love, An Admirer

Chapter 15: Of Flashbacks and Empty Corridors

Stepping very carefully into the majestic Hogwarts Express, Lily Evans took in a deep breath, not knowing what to expect in the next few days. Having accepted the invitation to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry's Class of '71's Reunion Ball to be held later on that day, Lily was about to see faces; familiar faces whom she has never seen for more than six years. Faces whom belonged to friends she had failed to keep in touch with, but now given the opportunity to rekindle what was lost.

'Merlin's beard, is that you, Lily?' came a voice from the comparment behind her.

Lily's head whipped around and she saw a tall ruddy-faced man with a dowdy brown beard, smiling down on her. It was none other than -

'Well if it isn't Amos Diggory!' Lily grinned widely, not being able to contain her excitement in meeting old friends.

Amos beckoned her into his compartment and there she met three other familiar faces – Emily Hart, Dennis Front and Jeremy Atkins and one foreign. Lily shook hands with everyone and when she came to the blonde lady Amos cleared his throat.

'Lily, meet Eleanor Diggory, my wife,' announced Amos, beaming proudly. 'Met her on holiday when I was in Bath! Lucky thing she was a witch too, aye?'

'Well congratulations Eleanor!' Lily shook Eleanor's hands even more merrily.

'Thank you, Lily,' Eleanor replied softly, smiling shyly.

'Lily here had the hots for me back when we were thirteen! Ey, Lily?' Amos nudged Lily and gave her a wink.

'You knew!' Lily gasped, blushing furiously.

'Well of course I did! Your friends weren't exactly subtle when teasing you, were they? But not to worry, pet,' Amos continued, facing Eleanor. 'Our Lily here's getting engaged!'

With this, all three guests started buzzing at once demanding all the details to quench their thirst of Hogwarts Gossip – something they had been lack of ever since they graduated.

The journey to Hogwarts was undoubtedly eventful, with games of Exploding Snap, Spin the Goblet, Truth or Hex, and even a round of good ol' Wizard's Chess. One who'd stumble upon the honoured guests of Albus Dumbledore would not have guessed that they were adults with professional careers who were simply reliving childhood.

Extracts of memories from the past were often brought up, and they usually ended with a trail of laughter.

'AHAH! I knew you snogged Fredek Lorencz before the Durmstrang match in 7th Year!' boomed Dennis, pointing accusingly at Emily.

She seemed to have been akin with a beetroot and mumbled, 'So what if I did?'

'SO WHAT IF YOU DID? Hogwarts nearly lost because of you. The whole world knows how much Christopher Parkinson was helplessly in love with you. And since Fredek was the seeker, Christopher was so furious when he saw you winking at him from the stands that he aimed at least SEVEN of his bludgers towards him that even Madam Hooch called it a foul. Thank Merlin James talked some sense into him, or we would have lost one of our beaters!'

'I was never a property of Parkinson. I may kiss whomever I please and he shouldn't care because I told him time after time and again that I did not want to court him!' huffed Emily.

Lily bellowed in laughter knowing all too well what happened the day Durmstrang and Hogwarts played a friendly Quidditch match. Drama, drama, drama...

'James, I really don't like the looks of the weather...' mumbled a seventeen year old Lily, helping James Potter into his quidditch uniform.

James rolled his eyes and muttered "Impervius" to make sure his glasses repelled water when flying in the rain.

'Lily pet, it's only a little rain –'

A thundering boom was heard.

' – and mild thunder –'

White light flashed from underneath the tent.

' – and maybe brief lightning...'

Lily finished buttoning Harry's cloak and looked into his face sternly. 'Honestly, James, it's only a friendly match... Why can't they wait?'

'The 'Strang Pansies have to leave tomorrow morning because their First Years need to use the ship for some field trip later on. If you ask me, I think they are all just here to show off and make us look bad,' James muttered, but smiled quickly. 'Besides, a little challenge won't hurt?' James winked at Lily, hoping to make her smile.

Lily rolled her eyes. 'For one, they aren't pansies, James, honestly! And not every one of them are snooty; I've gotten to know one personally and he's rather charming!'

'If he ever dares to lay one finger on you, Lily, I swear I'll wring his –'

'I'm Head Girl, James? It is my duty to make them feel at home during their stay, since our ever so "responsible" Head Boy is far too busy playing Quidditch to carry out his prefect duties. Besides, you know I'm far too smitten with you,' Lily finished charming his waterproof cloak and planted a kiss on his cheek.

'Well, don't I know it?' James smiled and tickled her sides and Lily squealed trying to get free of his grasp and they both tripped over the bench, letting out hearty guffaws.

'Ahem,' came a disgruntled cough from behind.

Lily and James stood abruptly and faced a rather stern-looking Minerva McGonagall.

'The last thing I'd want to do is inform our headmaster that our Head Prefects are too busy fraternizing to welcome Durmstrang's Headmaster.'

'Y-yes, professor. I'm on my way,' stuttered a pink Lily. She mumbled, 'Good luck, James,' and left the tent abruptly, not realizing James charmed a note on to the palm of her hand.

'Lily, you're turning red!' exclaimed Amos.

Lily shook her head, leaving the flashback and touched her cheeks, giggling nervously. 'It may be a little chilly in here.'

'Anyway, as I was saying, it's your turn, Lily. Truth or Hex?' Amos began.

'Truth.'

'Very well then... How long did you fancy me?' Amos wiggled his eyebrow suggestively and Eleanor smacked him.

Once again, everyone started commenting at the same time not caring the racket they were causing – Jeremy and Dennis demanding less "wimpy" questions, Emily and Lily concluding rather frustratingly that they were fed-up with questions about Amos, Amos fending off "attacks" and sheepish Eleanor observing from afar.

She chuckled to herself completely forgetting that these "teenagers" were actually mature adults.

'The feast is going to be marvelous – just you wait!' Amos announced, dragging his suitcase and tugging Eleanor along with him.

The train had halted, and slowly everyone began getting off, waving at each familiar face they had failed to see on board. Hugs, blowing kisses, handshakes, and every form of affection was seen on the platform as the guests were mingling with one another.

'Alrigh', alrigh'!' boomed a scratchy voice and everyone stopped in their tracks, became silent and looked up to the tall silhouette lit by the lamp posts aligning the platform. 'All o' yer may have left Hogwerts a long time ago, but as long as yer under my wing – as appointed by Mr Dumbledore 'imself – yer going to be ridin' the boats 'cross the Lake once more!'

A sea of giggling whispers were heard and almost everyone rejoiced. The last time they crossed the Lake, they were all eleven – scared, excited and new to Hogwarts.

'Righ' then – follow me! Mind yer step now!'

Everyone followed Hagrid down a narrow path, and soon came to the edge of a great black lake. It was as if they were going to Hogwarts for the first time all over again...

'Now, since yer all bigger than firsties, yer will have to sit two-by-two in the boats – and no more!' Hagrid instructed.

Lily managed to squeeze through the crowd and finally met with Hagrid's waist and tugged on his coat.

'Now as I was sayin' – ' Hagrid's thundering voice suddenly softened and he looked down. 'Well, hullo there Lily!'

'Good to see you, Hagrid!' Lily beamed.

'Funny seein' yer here – yer other friends are already in the castle. Those two girls seemed to have lost track o' time and missed the train so they used their own transport!' Hagrid scratched his unruly beard.

'Very typical of Jemima and Fi!' Lily laughed. 'Alright then, I'll see you in the hall, then!'

Lily made her way through the crowd once again and found Emily and both of them sat in a boat and with Hagrid's command, all the boats moved off all at once and glided across the smooth lake. As soon as Hogwarts came into view, everyone cheered at the pleasant sight. Hagrid didn't even bother warning them about disturbing the Giant Squid, knowing how they were all yearning to return behind the cold grey stone walls.

'I've spoken to Professor McGonagall, and she has agreed for you to bunk with us!' Emily said, smiling at Eleanor.

'Thank you all, really. I know I shouldn't be here since this is your reunion and everything –'

'Oh, nonsense! I bet there'll be others who have brought their spouses to show 'em off, ey?' Lily winked.

'Now if you'll excuse me, girls, I've got to go look for our other two roomies who just happened to be missing!' Lily waved goodbye to Emily and Eleanor and set off to find Jemima and Fiona.

Knowing that they'd probably be in the Hall with the others, she pushed the oak doors of the Great Hall and rushed towards the sea of guests who seemed to have been fascinated with something, or some.

' – now as I was saying, a starfish is one of the most fascinating sea creatures that we seemed to have ignored, what with lochness and mer-people. Do you know that starfish are enchanted with self-healing powers? Yes, yes, amazing, isn't it? We are still conducting extensive research to find out how, but foolish Muggle scientists somehow found out about the enchantment and called it regeneration, or something like that! They are obviously oblivious to the magic present in these beautiful creatures. But then again, this is coming from the ones who thought mer-people were beautiful humans with lower bodies of a fish! But anyway, I – Lily! There you are, flower!'

Fiona who was clearly explaining to everyone about her Marine studies, had not realized the crowd she had pulled and simply pushed through everyone to see her best friend. They embraced and Lily pulled back.

'Where's Jemima, Sirius and Remus? I didn't see any of you four on train and I – ' Lily began but was cut off by a blood-curling scream.

'SIRIUS ALPHARD BLACK!'

Suddenly, everyone was silent and diverted their attention to a fuming Jemima Richards with green hair, who did not seem like a person anybody would want to mess with.

The Great Hall doors suddenly swung open but nobody emerged and Jemima began marching towards it and the hall erupted in laughter knowing a Hogwarts reunion would not be complete without a brawl between Sirius and Jemima.

'I'm counting to three, Black, and if you do not show your stupid face I am going to Hex you to the Himalayas!' Jemima threatened, pacing up and down the corridor of empty classrooms. Having followed the trail of a black dog into the corridor, Jemima had her wand at hand.

'One –' Jemima peeped into the first empty classroom.

'Two –' No sign of Sirius.

And suddenly a hand came out from behind and clamped Jemima's mouth shut. Jemima muffled a scream but stopped struggling recognizing all too well of Sirius' warm big hands.

Sirius spun her around and Jemima began rattling on about how she was going to make him suffer, die and pay for what he did to her.

'You're a prat, Black. A stupid inconsiderate prick! I am, without a doubt, FURIOUS at you for embarrassing me in front of all our friends with GREEN hair because everyone knows how that colour does NOT compliment my skin at all and – '

Sirius rolled his eyes knowing Jemima's tell-off speeches by heart and muttered "Silencio" and pointed his want to Jemima. Suddenly, no noise whatsoever came out from Jemima and only her mouth seemed to be moving. Realizing she had been silenced, she began to lift her arms in order to strangle Sirius but he held her down and laughed.

'Look, Jem. We both know how I broke Hogwart's Beater record of fastest swing in 7th Year and that you are never going to be able to beat me to pulp, so just stop it, okay?'

Jemima sighed and didn't bother correcting him.

'The only reason I did what I did was to have you all by myself because I knew you were going to chase me,' Sirius continued but abruptly continued when Jemima's eyes were as huge as saucers, 'I am not going to do anything stupid to you, Jem, honestly! What do you take me for?'

Jemima simply smiled weakly.

'Now if you would stay still, I would gladly remove the Silencing Charm on one condition that you would please stop talking!

Jemima looked at Sirius feeling rather offended but nodded.

'Wonderful,' Sirius grinned, and removed the Silencing Charm.

As soon as Jemima regained her ability to speak, she snatched Sirius' wand and did not stick to her word and continued lecturing him. 'If you ever attempt a silencing charm on me again I'm going to – '

With this, Sirius knew what to do and cut her off, silencing her with a kiss. A kiss so warm that Jemima's knees gave way, and luckily for her, she had Sirius to keep her from sinking into the ground.

After what seemed like eternity, Jemima pulled back slowly and blinked, digesting what had happened.

'And don't be stupid, Richards. You're beautiful regardless of the colour of your hair,' Sirius whispered softly.

'H-how dare you kiss me! I – I –' Jemima sputtered. She was lost for words and was simply staring into Sirius' warm mischievous eyes, knowing that she should have just kept her trap shut.

'Oh sod it!' Jemima exclaimed and leaped into his arms, kissing him once more. Jemima didn't care that Sirius had been playing innocent pranks on her ever since Hogwarts; didn't care that her green hair was now glowing purple; didn't care that she hated Sirius' guts; didn't care that she might secretly even like him; didn't even care that Sirius might never let her live this down post-kiss.

Author's Note: I know most of you would have known Sirius and Jemima would get together. :) Don't you worry because Remus and James would appear in the next chapter! If there are any glitches in this chapter (I have no time to proof-read this, unfortunately) or any questions, place them in reviews! Btw, I was formerly mIz jAdEd.

Excerpt of apology e-mail:

I am a hypocrite. I am not a woman of my word. :( It has been nearly a YEAR since I last promised to update in TWO WEEKS and look wtf happened? I'm never, ever, ever going to promise updates again because look what happened. I bet most of my readers would have forgotten about this as it has been untouched for quite some time. Even I nearly forgot about this, until I received a review from it's a spoon just a few days ago. He made me realize what I had missed. I admit, I myself have not been writing for quite some time... Reality caught up and I just lost interest in pursuing anything that had to do with creative writing. Recent events and even Harry Potter anticipation made me rethink everything. I may be running away from the topic, but I'd just like to apologize once again to everyone. I bet most of you are tired of waiting and reading my apologies so I hope I don't cause any more inconveniences in the future. I had planned on finishing this before the release of Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix so that it wouldn't clash with what JK Rowling has revealed about what really happened between Lily and James but since Half-Blood Prince (which I thought was bloody brilliant) it's pretty late, so I just hope you'd enjoy the last few chapters of this story as it is.

However, I have to admit I have matured quite a bit in my style of writing, and have had much fun writing this one. I know most of you wouldn't trust me with my promises of updates (:p) so I'm not going to promise anything, but just say that there might be an update three weeks from now. Quite frankly, I wasn't supposed to be even writing this as I am currently preparing for a public examination (all 15 year olds across the nation – Malaysia – will be sitting for it) which I will be sitting for on October 3rd, and my last paper is on October 13th, so expect an update after that. :) I wasn't planning on writing this today, in fact I wasn't even planning on updating this for a very long time but my most recent review struck a chord and I guess it was all spontaneous. I even forgot a few details and had to reread previous chapters to refresh my memory.

In fact, this is one of my longest chapters, and you deserved it because of my one-year hiatus. I feel silly for neglecting this because I have once discovered the fun and thrill I had once felt out of writing fanfiction. This Author's Note is getting pretty mundane, so I shall not bore you any longer.

Do leave a review – blast me all you want, as I deserve it. ;) Do not hesitate to tell me whether my writing has improved or deteriorated, or that I have had my facts wrong. (ie: Cedric's mother, Sirius' middle name)

Toodles,

Amirah Anis

Thanks to:

xPussyWillowKittenx, Funnyness9, Tiger Lily21, Kat44, tommygirlcat03, IAMSOAP, Alandra Jade Heart, Amber24, Beyond-The-Veil, Monkey is cute, Traveler of the World, skyleia, Flame of Desire, LilMizHeartbreaker, sftballchamp2004, She-Whom-Must-Not-Be-Named, hazeled eyed marauder, Red-Emerald and its a spoon.