Chapter Two

"Padfoot," said James annoyingly with gritted teeth, "would you please stop pacing."

Sirius looked at him with an incredulous face. "Pacing?" he said, "I am not pacing." He had stopped in his stracks and remused walking the entire length of the kitchen once again back and forth. James just sighed and looked at the ceiling.

Mrs. Potter, who had dressed up for the occasion today, as she hoped that she would be able to invite Isabella to stay for a bit longer for lunch, smiled at him and said, "I'm afraid that you are pacing dear."

"Your pacing isn't going to help make Isabella come here any faster, Sirius," said Mr. Potter, with an amused smile on his face. He had just come back from the office after a long night of raiding suspected Dark followers. He had missed breakfast, and was eager to catch up on why Sirius looked extremely nervous.

Sirius looked out the window. For the past half an hour, Sirius had been pacing in the kitchen, waiting for Isabella to arrive any minute now. He didn't know when she would be arriving, as she didn't give an exact time, and Sirius had been so caught up in the euphoria that he forgot to ask her what time she planned to arrive.

Last night, he had stayed up late into the night, collecting all his things and packing them neatly and orderly into his trunk, so much so that James was amazed in his ability and managed to convince him to work on his trunk as well.

"Thanks, Padfoot," grinned James, sounding extremely impressed, "Can I tell Lily that I did it on my own?"

Sirius that night didn't even think that it was funny and the fact that James was taking credit for his actions was not bothering him. He absent mindedly said yes as he looked at his trunk, making sure that everything was in a neat clean order.

Sirius barely had any sleep last night, and when he did manage to fall asleep, all he dreamt about was a loud mouthed man in green with a hat and a whistle ordering him to drop down and give him 50. In his dreams, he even asked 50 of what and the man just shouted for him to drop down and give him a hundred. Sirius' first thought when he woke up is that he thought that the guy was crazy if he thinks that he's going to fork over a hundred galleons.

It was almost noon when they all heard a loud WHOOSH from the fireplace, which meant the arrival of someone. They were just sitting down for lunch and Sirius stood up so fast that he knocked the chair down and sent his bowl of soup flying into James' plate. Sirius ignored James' cries of protest as he ran all the way to the living room, crashing head on to the sofa.

"Er - knock knock?" said Isabella timidly. She saw Sirius hit the sofa and looked like she is fighting the urge to laugh. Sirius stood up and dusted himself as he blushed and grinned in her direction.

Isabella wasn't the prettiest girl in the whole school. Nor is she the most popular or the smartest. She was just a plain simple normal girl who came from a muggle family who happened to have magical powers.

Yes, that seems normal to Sirius.

He grinned even more widely at her as she came out of the fireplace.

Isabella grinned at the whole lot of them, for they had just come in after him. James muttered a spell to dry of his clothers and Sirius distinctly heard 'clumsy git'. Sirius smirked at James' direction, and then gave an apologetic look, then turned quickly to Isabella, who was still grinning at them. "Hello Mr. and Mrs. Potter," she said, beaming at them. "It's nice to finally meet you."

Mrs. Potter smiled warmly at her. "And we are pleased to have finally seen you," she said. "Is Lily coming?"

James ran to her, grabbed her by the arms andshook her eagerly. "Yeah, is Lily coming?"

Sirius grabbed James' arm. "Lay off, Prongsie," said Sirius, though not dangerously. He knew James better than that.

"Oops, sorry mate," he said. Grinning sheepishly, he gave and apologetic look and let go of Isabella who rubbed her shoulders.

Sirius took her and put a hand over her shoulder. "You okay?" he asked softly.

Isabella smiled at him and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said, as she rested her head on his chest. "I missed you."

Sirius kissed her forehead. "I missed you too," he said.

James glared at the both of them, his hands crossed over his chest. "When you two stop being lovey dovey, maybe you can tell us if Lily is coming!"

WHOOSH.

Isabella raised an eyebrow at James. "Does that answer your question?"

James grinned excitedly towards the fireplace as Lily came grinning widely in front of her and quickly losing it as soon as she saw James standing in front of her, with his arms wide open. But Sirius didn't pay any attention to that, he grabbed Isabella by the shoulders and stood her in front of him, readying her for his inspection.

He always did this every morning while they were still at school. When Isabella asked why, he answered that he was making sure that she had stayed the same from the about 8 hours ago. Isabella just rolled her eyes at his answer but conceded to the inspection as she had no other choice.

Isabella's head curiously followed Sirius as he walked around her a few times, often commenting on one thing or the other. Sirius was taking in her every detail. She looked pretty much the same, her black curly hair was longer and her curls much more bouncier, her eyes, the same sparkling green, she was a little fairer now than last June, making a deeper contrast between her face and her hair, making her only more beautiful to Sirius' eyes.

"You'd lost weight," he said, grabbing her waist.

Isabella grinned. "I know," she said, "ain't it grand?"

But Sirius frowned. "But you didn't need to lose weight, you were fine just the way you were."

Isabella scoffed. "Last week of school you told me I was fat." she said.

Sirius shrugged. "I was wrong," he said.

James' head whipped into their direction, his mouth fell open. "Padfoot," he asked, "you, wrong!"

Even Isabella had to laugh. Sirius waited for them to stop laughing, although he did smile. He was notoriously known for his pride and often times refused to admit that he was wrong, which is often the cause of his fights with Isabella.

At this point, Isabella pouted. "You don't like?" she asked, pointing to her stomach.

Sirius grinned. "Oh, I like, I like very much."

Isabella grinned at him, and looked over his shoulder. As she wasn't as tall as he was, she stood on tip toe to be able to see pass his shoulder.. "Lily's gagging." she said.

Sirius turned to James and Lily. Lily was indeed gagging, and James had a mischievous look in his eye. Whatever they were talking about, Sirius could tell that they were getting along.

"So," said Isabella, "are you ready?"

Sirius gulped. "Is your father strict?" he asked nervously.

"Aww, honey, you're nervous." cooed Isabella.

"Is he?"

"Don't worry about it Sirius, I'm sure he likes you," she said reassuringly, "I promise if he gets out of hand, I'll stop him."

"But he's part of the Royal Army!" cried Sirius, "aren't they the most strict people around?"

Isabella nodded. "True," she said, "but you're forgetting something."

"What?"

"I'm the daughter of the soldier," she said, "his one and only daughter."

"She's got you there, Sirius," said Mr. Potter, watching amusedly by the doorway with Mrs. Potter.

Sirius was confused. "What?"

Isabella smiled at him. "Sirius," she said, "I'm his only daughter, his one and only daughter, therefore his favorite. I could get away with murder, just like that" -she snapped her fingers and prodeced a short sharp sound- "not that I'm planning any murders or anything." she added hastily. Sirius had told her that Mr. Potter is an Auror.

Sirius was still skeptical. "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Cross you heart, hope to die?"

"Cross my heart, hope to die," said Isabella placing an imaginary cross where her heart is. Sheturned to James, who had a confused look in his face, "It's a muggle thing." she said.

"Oh," said James, who nodded like he knew what she was talking about. Behind him, Lily just smiled at James, and Sirius thought that there was a rather curious look in her eyes.

Sirius took Isabella's hands. "Just promise me, that whatever you do, whatever happens, that you won't leave me alone with your father." he said, rather desperately.

Everyone in the room laughed. Isabella giggled, and looked at him with her eyes sparkling. "I promise."