Are You Sure It's Love?
Chapter 3
The next morning, James was in a bad mood. Not only had he been made to wake up at nine on the first day of summer vacation, but he had to go shopping with his enemy, who was soon going to be his step-brother. He thought he was going to be sick.
They all made it through breakfast and to the Leaky Cauldron in one piece. James flooed first, followed by Severus. Paula and Jonathan apparated. They walked out into the courtyard, and then to Madame Malkin's. They were just about to go in the door, when James heard someone calling him. He turned.
"Hey, James!" It was Peter.
"Hi, Peter," James said. He had forgotten about the shopping trip that the Pettigrews always took at the beginning of the summer.
"What are you doing here? I really didn't think that you would be up before 3 tomorrow," Peter said, not noticing James's father and two other people enter the shop.
"Dad says I need new dress robes for the wedding," James said, sulking.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Peter said.
"Wish I could," James muttered. Peter pretended not to hear him.
"Who is he marrying?" Peter asked.
"Paula," James said.
"Is she nice?" Peter asked, trying to get longer answers.
"Yes," James said, knowing what Peter wanted, but not wanting to speak much.
"Care to elaborate about why your sulking, then?" Peter asked.
"Fine. Paula is fine. It's her son that I have problems with," James explained.
"Oh come on, it couldn't be that bad," Peter said. Severus chose that moment to come out of the shop.
"Your father says that you need to get back in here so we are done quicker. You were right, he is miserable at this."
"I'm always right," James responded. "The sooner you realize that, the easier this is going to be."
Peter stared in shock as Snape went back into the robe shop. "Your new step brother is Snape?" Peter exclaimed.
"Yes. That is exactly how bad it could be. I have already wrote Remus, informing him that, in retaliation for him not letting me go through the carriage window, he will be when we get back to school, and I don't want to write Sirius, who knows what could happen if his parents found out we'd been writing to each other," James said, an odd look on his face. "I need to go, apparently. See you later." With that, he turned and walked back into the shop. He started laughing. Just seeing the expression on Peter's face was almost worth all of this. Almost.
"What are we supposed to be looking for, exactly?" James asked.
"Dress robes, duh," Severus said.
"No kidding," James said, rolling his eyes. "And here I thought that we had come in here to find an owl."
"Well, we can't help what you thought," Severus said. As much as James hated to admit it, throwing insults back and forth was kinda fun. At least if you forgot who you were talking to.
"Now, directed to the people here with at least a few brain cells," James said. "What kind of dress robe are we looking for? Does it need to be fancier or more casual? What color?"
"They shouldn't be too fancy, so you can wear them some other time. Black," Paula said.
"Really? I thought we agreed on a shade of blue," Jonathan said, glancing at his fiancée.
"We did. What I meant was that Titus Black just walked in the store," Paula said, nodding towards the newcomer, that had started to head in their direction.
"Well, well, what do we have here. Paula, I know that you didn't think that Daniel was good enough for you, but I really expected you to take a step up, not fall further back," Titus said.
"Well, Titus, that is really none of your business," Paula said. She started to leave.
"Not so fast," Titus said, grabbing her shoulder. Jonathan grabbed Titus's hand, and threw it off his wife-to-be.
"What do you want, Black?" Jonathan asked.
"Just to tell Paula that no matter how much I despise her choice in men, I am properly punishing my son for that stunt he pulled in April."
When he said this, James's eyes got wide. "What did you do?" he asked, fearfully.
"Nothing yet," Titus sneered. That didn't help how James was feeling. "I'm leaving now, I just thought that I should tell you that my son will be punished for his actions."
"What's wrong, James?" Jonathan asked, once Titus had left. James just shook his head, a fearful expression on his face.
"Well, we should get back to the robes," Jonathan said, deciding that he would get James to tell him when they got home.
They managed to buy the robes with minimal hassle, mostly because James was still too distracted. When his father asked if he wanted to go to Quality Quidditch Supplies, James just shook his head, and said he wanted to go home.
"Are you sick?" Jonathan asked, joking.
"Not yet, but I just might be," James answered. Jonathan looked alarmed.
"What's wrong?" he asked, actually concerned this time.
"Nothing yet, apparently," James said, looking thoughtful. As if making up his mind, he said, "If you want, you can go ahead and shop. I'm going home." With that, he turned and walked back to the Leaky Cauldron.
When he got home, he hurriedly ran up to his room. He was just sitting down to write to Sirius when he realized just how stupid it would sound.
"What would I say? You're in danger? Yeah, he already knew that."
"Since when do you talk to yourself?" Severus asked, coming into the room without knocking.
"Well, Severus," James said, being glad he was turned around so the other boy couldn't see the grimace on his face. "I started when the number of people to have an intelligent conversation with took a nose dive. Why are you here?"
"Are you getting senile in your old age? I live here, remember?" Severus said, smirking.
Again, glad that the other couldn't see his expression, James said, "Of course I didn't forget. I just figured that you would spend so much time in that potions store that they would eventually have to kick you out when it closed."
"Oh ha ha. And I'm sure that's never happened to you in the Quidditch store."
"Of course not," James rolled his eyes. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have a letter to decided whether to write or not."
"Is a common Gryffindor trait not having enough brains to form coherent sentences?" Severus asked, sounding genuinely curious.
"Yes, it is. It's the first thing to go," James said, again rolling his eyes. "Would you just get out of my room?"
"Are you going to ask nicely?"
"No, I'm not. Now leave."
"Why should I?"
"Because I want you to."
"Is forming good excuses the second thing to go?"
"Yes, now GET OUT!" James yelled, finally losing his patience. Just then, an owl flew over to the window. James jumped up to get it. The owl flew out the window as soon as the letter was pulled off his leg. James scanned the letter. "On second thought," he said, turning to Severus. "I'll leave. Did Dad come back with you?"
"Yes," Severus said, turning to go, now that their "fight" was over.
James rushed from the room, beating Severus out, even though he was farther away to begin with.
"Dad!" James yelled, running into the kitchen. "Can I go over to Remus's tonight?"
"Why?" his dad asked.
"Because he invited me," James said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"I guess," Jonathan said.
"Isn't it the full moon?" Paula said, glancing at the calendar.
"It is," Jonathan agreed. "What exactly were you planning on doing?"
"Going camping," James said trying to keep a straight face. At that moment, Severus walked in.
"Only you would joke about something like that," he said, sitting down by the table.
"Ha ha, very funny," James said, rolling his eyes.
"No jokes, what are you really going to do?" Jonathan asked.
"We were going to take our traditional hike-through-the-woods-at-midnight hike, but I take it that's forbidden," James said, trying not to laugh. Severus just rolled his eyes, looking like he wanted to say something but was unable to. Jonathan seemed to realize he wasn't going to get a straight answer, because he finally just settled for "Be careful."