Quick Trip

Lily counted her money in her room. She didn't have enough to get all her school things, but by the time her list came in and she had enough money for everything, there wouldn't be time to finish her homework. So she had planned a quick trip to Diagon Ally to buy ink.

She walked downstairs into her dad's study. "I'm leaving now," she said."

Her dad looked up the papers he was looking at. "Alright," he said, "have fun."

"I'm going to buy ink," Lily said, "How will I have fun?"

"Uh-huh," he answered. He was reading his papers again so he probably didn't even hear her. Lily rolled her eyes and left the room.

Deciding that she didn't want to disturb him when she apperated, she went upstairs to her room. She heard Petunia talking down the hall and went a little further to eaves drop. She usually didn't talk about anything interesting but every once and a while she would tell a friend a secret and Lily would hear it. It was always fun to hear things about Pat.

"No," she said, "I haven't told anyone yet." Silence. So she was talking on the phone. But to whom?

"I don't know when I will," Pat told the person on the other end, "Probably when my sister leaves." Silence. "Because I don't want her to know." Silence. "She'll probably ask to be my maid of honor just so my parents will make me let her be in the wedding and I don't want that to happen."

Lily had heard enough. She went back to her room. She couldn't believe her sister was getting married and hadn't told anyone yet. Lily couldn't help it, she was happy for her sister. No matter how poorly Pat treated Lily, she still deserved to be happy. Lily would finally have a brother.

Wait.

Vernon Dursley would be her brother.

She shuddered as she closed her bedroom door. Then, she grabbed her money off her desk and apperated to Diagon Ally.

777777777777777777777

There weren't very many people there. It didn't surprise her though. It wasn't anywhere near time to shop for school supplies. Lily was able to quickly make her way to the store she needed. Walking inside, she was met with a surprise.

Remus Lupin was sitting behind the counter, reading a book. He looked up when the bell over the door rang.

"Hello Lily," he said, smiling at her. "What brings you here?"

"I'm here to buy some ink," Lily told him, "What are you doing here?" She knew right after she said it that it was a stupid question. Why else would he be sitting behind the counter?

"I work here," he replied. Lily nodded and started looking at all the ink on the shelves.

She had forty galleons from babysitting. She could buy the Bag of Ink, which was a large bag that held about fifty ink bottles inside, for fifteen galleons. That was a reasonable price. Then she would have enough left to stop by the bookstore and get Standard Book of Spells Grade 7, since she already knew that would be on her list. She grabbed the Bag of Ink and took it up to the counter.

"Ten galleons," Remus told her.

"But the price tag says fifteen," Lily pointed out.

"Friends and family get discounts."

Lily smiled and handed him the money. "Thanks," she said.

On her way out, she bumped into someone. "Sorry," she said automatically.

"Hey Red." Lily hated that nickname. And only one person used it.

Lily turned to see James and Sirius standing there. She had bumped into James.

"Hi," she said, avoiding James' eyes. She had some so close to kissing him the last time they were together. She wasn't sure how to feel about that. Her stomach leapt at the idea of kissing him, but he was James Potter. She was supposed to hate him. Now he was being all nice and not jerkish. But that didn't matter. Once they went back to school, he would stop being the nice and not jerkish James and go back to being the arrogant egotistical ask-Lily-out-every-five-minutes Potter.

"What are you doing here?" James asked politely.

"I'm just buying some stuff," she said, holding up her bag.

"Ah," Sirius said, "Buying stuff. You know I heard people do that at stores."

Sirius apparently hadn't changed that much.

"What are you two doing here?" Lily asked.

"We're just here to see Moony," James explained.

"Peter didn't want to come too?" Peter was usually following them around.

"No," James said, "He had to visit his cousin."

"I thought it was his grandfather?" Sirius said.

"Or was it his brother?"

"Does Wormtail have a brother?"

Lily watched the two of them think about it for a couple seconds. "You don't even know if he has a brother? He's one of your best friends."

"Red," Sirius said, using Lily's nickname again, "Guys don't talk about things like that. They talk about quidditch and… other things that you don't need to know about."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I have to go. I'll see you around."

As she was walking to the bookstore, she heard someone running behind her. She didn't think much of it until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see that James had followed her.

"Hey," he said, "Are you in a hurry?"

Lily hesitated. If she said yes, he would leave her alone and not do anything, like ask her out or kiss her or something. But if she said yes, she might miss out on something important. What if he just wanted to talk to her and he knew something she needed to know? Well, she had to know what he wanted to tell her. So she should just say, "No, I'm not in any hurry." But what if he really was going to kiss her? Or ask her out on a date?

She almost kicked herself right there. Why did she care if he asked her out? She said no to him a million times in the past. Why would it make a difference if he asked her in Diagon Ally? It shouldn't since he had already asked her in Diagon Ally before.

"No," she answered. He smiled.

Crap.

"Good," he said, "Do you want to go get some ice cream? My treat."

"I don't think so," Lily replied hesitantly, looking in the direction of the ice cream parlor. It was a hot day and ice cream did sound really good. And better yet, it was free ice cream. At least for her. But she didn't want to seem too eager. He would have to talk her into it. And knowing James, he would.

"Well alright," he shrugged. "I just thought I'd offer." He started walking off. Lily couldn't believe he was giving up that easy.

"Alright," she said, taking a few hurried steps to catch up to him, "You talked me into it."

777777777777777777777

They sat outside the eating their ice cream. Lily had tried the new Double Peanut Butter Sundae. It was really good.

"So what else have you been doing this summer, other than babysitting?" James asked.

"Not much really," Lily replied, "Just fighting with my sister and all that good stuff. What about you?"

"Not much with me either. Sirius moved in the other day. That's about it."

"Why'd he move in?"

"He got in a fight with his parents or something like that," James explained. "It's about time he got out of there. You know he's the only decent one in his family."

"Sirius is the decent one?" Lily asked. James laughed. Lily liked his laugh, when he was laughing at a joke and not laughing at someone else that is.

"There you are," Sirius said, coming up behind them. "I've been looking for you."

"I told you where I was gonna be," James said.

"I don't pay attention," then he turned to Lily, "You know he snuck a love potion in your ice cream, right?" Lily wasn't sure if he was joking or not.

"Don't listen to him Lily," James said quickly. Then to Sirius, "I'm gonna hurt you Black."

"No you won't," Sirius replied. He took James' ice cream and took a big bit out of it. Lily stared at him, waiting. Then, "Oh, owe, brain freeze!"

"Nitwit," Lily said, laughing.

"I was still eating that," James tried to sound angry but he was laughing too.

"It's not funny," Sirius insisted, rubbing his head.

Lily stayed for a little while longer before she looked at her watch and saw it was getting pretty late.

"I have to go," she said, getting up from the table.

"Oh," James replied. He sounded disappointed. "Alright. So, I'll see you around?"

"Yeah, probably at your house, chasing your sister around or something."

"Yeah, probably," James agreed.

"Bye," Lily smiled at them and then walked away towards the bookstore.

7777777777777777777777777777777

(James POV)

"That was impressive," Sirius commented.

"What was?" James asked. He was still looking in the direction Lily had gone.

"Red actually enjoyed our company. At least it seemed like she did. I can never really understand girls."

"She's enjoyed our company before," James said, turning to look at Sirius.

"When?"

"That time."

"What time?"

"You know," James said. "That time at the place. With the thing." James really didn't even know what he himself was talking about, but maybe Sirius would pretend to know so it didn't seem like he was crazy… er.

"You're making this up."

Stupid Sirius with his stupid perfect memory.

"Another thing that surprises me," Sirius said as if they hadn't been talking about anything else, "Is that you were able to carry on a conversation without asking her out."

"Hey, I haven't asked her out at all this summer," James protested, proud of himself for being able to actually come up with an argument this time.

"And that surprises me," Sirius said.

"Maybe I'm over her," James told him. Sirius let out a bark like laugh.

"That will never, never, never, never, never happen."

"I think one 'never' would have been enough."

"No," Sirius insisted, "It wouldn't. That just doesn't cover enough time. I'll believe that you're over Lily when Moony stops having his time of the month."

"I thought you weren't gonna make anymore jokes about that?" James asked.

"I changed my mind," Sirius said simply, "Don't change the subject."

"I'm not changing the subject. I'm just asking you a question."

"You're doing it again."

"What?" James was gonna hit Sirius pretty soon.

"You're changing the subject."

"The subject never changed back to the first subject so I couldn't have changed the subject because the subject never changed!"

"Stop changing the subject!" Sirius yelled. He paused. Then asked, "What was the subject?"

"I don't know," James said who had forgotten what they were talking about. "Do you wanna help me baby-sit Jackie next weekend?"

"I thought Lily was her babysitter?"

"My parents don't want to 'overwork' Lily or something like that. Honestly, you'd think if they were worried about people being overworked they wouldn't send their children to Hogwarts. Not that I'm complaining," James added quickly.

"Do I have a choice or are you just being polite by asking me?"

"My mum said I needed to ask you but you don't really have a choice."

"Helping you baby-sit sounds fan-bloody-tastic."

7777777777777777777777777777

A/n Lily will be in the next one. Sorry this one took so long. I had a major writers block because I was gonna do something completely different than what I finally decided on doing. The idea I had at first was hard to write without making it sound stupid so I changed it. REVIEW!