Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

Oh my God I forgot about Caitlyn again! I was going to make her and James have a serious relationship but I can't do that since I keep forgetting about her. So let's say James has this thing how he breaks up with his girlfriends before summer so he's not tied down during summer vaca and him and Caitlyn didn't feel like getting back together.

Ok, this is gonna be kind of a short chapter and not much is going to happen I think. It was originally going to be the start of the fifth year but I decided to have more of James and Lily's friendship at his house before…well, you'll find out. James and Lily have a lot of ups and downs in this story.

Also, I changed the title of the last chapter because this chapter is going to be at James' house also.

Chapter 12: Dinner and a chat with Sirius

As soon as they found Petunia, Dad drove her home. She was grounded for a week. While he was gone, James and I watched TV while our moms talked.

When Dad got back, it was time for dinner. We were led into the dining room. I gasped as we entered. It was beautiful. There was a big mahogany table with fresh flowers in a big vase on the middle. The chairs had elegant legs that looked like a lion's paw. The cushioning was gold.

Above the table was a huge crystal chandelier. It was sparkling because of the lights inside it and looked like there were tiny rainbows on every piece of glass. The walls were painted golden yellow and the carpet was cream colored. There were red curtains with gold ties and a grandfather clock.

"Wow," I breathed, looking around. James chuckled. Mom and Dad and James' mom were all seated. James walked over to the table and pulled out a chair for me. I sat down and he went to his own chair.

As soon as he was seated, a door across from me opened. A couple of creatures wearing fresh and clean sacks – maybe pillow cases – came in carrying trays of food. House elves. My mother shrieked and my father gasped.

"Don't worry, Mom, they're house elves. They're not dangerous," I said.

"I'm sorry," said Mrs. Potter. "I didn't realize you haven't seen any before."

"It's ok," said Mom, eyeing the house elves warily.

As they put the food on the tables, the one in the front opened his mouth.

"Dinner is served," he said in the raspy voice I recognized from the intercom.

"Thank you, Rusty," said Mrs. Potter. The house elf bowed himself out of the room, followed by the others.

"So, Richard, what do you do?" asked Mrs. Potter, helping herself to some pork chops.

"I'm vice president of a science company. We make various acids and mixtures."

"Where do you sell them to?"

"Well, some schools buy them for science classes. Usually they get them from the store but sometimes they want them directly from the company. There are stores which buy our products and sell them. Of course, you can't just go to the supermarket and buy an acid."

"Of course," agreed Mrs. Potter. "What about you, Marianne?"

"I've been meaning to get a job painting, now that the girls are all grown up, but I haven't managed to find anything. So far I've just been selling paintings in Times Square sometimes and to anyone who would want one," said Mom.

"Oh, so you're a painter?"

"Yes, I love painting."

"What do you do, Julia?" asked my dad. Julia. So that was her name.

"I'm an auror. I haven't been doing much work recently, though. I've been given a couple of months of easy going so that I can recover more from what happened."

"Aurors are like police, but they fight Dark wizards and stuff. They sort of do more than police, but basically the same stuff. Just with other things, obviously," I said, seeing my parents' confused faces.

"Oh," said Dad.

"Yes," said Julia quietly. Then she brightened. "So, Richard, do you think you'll become president of the company, or are you just happy being vice president?"

"Well," said my dad, helping himself to more pork chops, "I've only just been promoted to VP but I love it. I don't know if I'd want to become president; it might be too much work and not enough time with my family."

"Oh," said Julia. They continued to talk about work and other things while James and I ate in silence. I watched him stuff his face amusedly. It used to disgust me but now I just thought it was funny.

I found myself imagining me and James walking down the hall at school holding hands and laughing. We would sit next to each other at meal times, classes, and in the common room. I'd cheer him on at Quidditch Games and we could sit at the lake together on weekends…mmm...

"Lily? Lily!" A distant voice brought me out of my reverie.

"Yeah…huh…what?" I saw James smirking across the table at me. As if he knew what I was thinking about.

"My mom wanted to know if you liked Hogwarts but you were, like, zoned out or something and your mom started yelling your name and now here we are," he explained.

"Oh. Yeah, yeah I like it." I said.

"Oh, good. James loves it. I hear he's very popular," said Julia proudly.

"Yeah," I said. "Gets all the girls." I smirked at James. He gave me a sarcastic look.

"All except one. His friends told me there's one girl who won't go out with him. Her name's Jill or something. Oh! You must know her!" said Julia. She looked at me, expecting me to say whether or not I knew her. I looked back at James. He shook his head slightly, looking down.

"Yeah, I know her. The fights they have are famous." Julia smiled.

"Won't take no for an answer, will he?" she said.

"Nope. He just won't give up on her."

"Are you friends with her?"

"Yeah, I guess," I said.

"Well then, tell me, do you know why she won't go out with James?" Julia asked, her eyes twinkling.

"No, but I think she might be giving in to his charm," I said and brought my cup to my lips.

A little while later, the plates were cleared, and the house elves came back into the room.

"Dessert, ma'am?" asked Rusty.

"Yes, thank you," said Julia. Rusty left the dining room but came back in soon, carrying a cake tray. On it was a magnificent chocolate cake.

I licked my lips; chocolate was my favorite.

After the cake was sitting on the table and the house elves had gone, Julia turned to James.

"Would you like to serve everyone, James?" she asked.

"Sure," he said and stood up. He cut the cake expertly. Perfect for the wedding, I found myself thinking. Then mentally bashed my head on the table to get rid of those horrible thoughts.

First James served his mother. Now that there was a hole in the cake, I could see the inside. It was a three layer cake. I was practically drooling.

You might be wondering – how come I love chocolate so much? Well here's the answer – I have no idea. I just know it's my greatest weakness. I'll do almost anything for some rich, luxurious, creamy chocolate – oh goody, I got my piece!

As I dug my fork into the cake, I felt something against my foot. I jumped, realizing it was another foot. Then I grinned, looking at James who was also grinning. I managed to slip my shoe off (I must say I was quite proud of that – strappy sandals are almost impossible to "slip off") and engaged in footsie with James Potter.

He rubbed my foot with his own for a bit while we ate our dessert. I was taking a sip of milk when he rubbed the bottom part of my foot – a.k.a my MOST TICKLISH SPOT EVER. I snorted into my milk. Everyone looked surprised until James realized what was happening. Only he didn't stop like any normal person would…no, he had to keep doing it.

So this is what it looked like to our parents: everyone was quietly enjoying some DELICIOUS cake when suddenly I snort (very unattractively, I have to say) into my milk. Then I start giggling insanely, screaming "stop! Stop!" and since they can't see my feet, they have no idea what is going on.

Well, naturally, my mother was concerned.

"Lily? Are you ok?" she asked. Finally, James stopped. I glared at him and looked at my mother.

"I'm fine," I said and kicked James, hard, under the table.

After dinner, the grown ups went to the Drawing Room and left me and James free to do what we wanted for a couple of hours.

"Your house is amazing," I said. He was giving me a tour. We were on the second floor at the moment.

"Thanks," said James. "You want to go online?" he asked as we reached what was apparently his room. I nodded.

"All right," I said. James turned the handle and the door squeaked open. The room was all red and there were Quidditch posters all over the walls. In one corner there were about five brooms. I walked over to get a closer look.

"Those are all the brooms I've ever had," explained James.

"Oh," I said. James sat down behind a desk, on which was a flat screen monitor. I pulled up a chair next to him and watched as he signed on. While he got rid of all the websites that were already open (he had apparently been online when I came) I looked around the room again.

Suddenly, I heard the sound that meant someone had IMed James. I looked back at the screen but James had clearly read it already as he was minimizing the window, embarrassed.

"What did it say?" I asked.

"Nothing," he said. The person said something again. James quickly clicked on the flashing orange light and entered a bunch of random letters a couple of times so that I wouldn't see what had been said before. I crossed my arms.

"Fine. I don't care what they said," I said.

"Good," said James and I groaned. He grinned and scrolled up a bit. Seeing there was nothing bad he let me see also.

NotasblackasBlacks: Oh Jamesie, you're not answering me!

"What did he ask?"

"Nothing important," said James.

Quidditchstar23: I can't talk about that right now, Sirius, Lily's here.

NotasblackasBlacks: Whoa, back up a moment. Lily? As in Evans?

Quidditchstar23: Yup.

NotasblackasBlacks: Lily Evans is at your house?

Quidditchstar23: Mhmm

NotasblackasBlacks: How'd you manage that? Did you drug her or something?

Quidditchstar23: Shut up.

NotasblackasBlacks: lol but seriously.

Quidditchstar23: Her mom met my mom at the store and invited her over for dinner, not knowing that she was Lily's mother. Obviously, since she doesn't know Lily.

NotasblackasBlacks: Oh. Well, cool. Hey, Evans!

James moved so I could type. But first he deleted the window.

"You're too smart for me," I grinned. I had been planning to see what Sirius had said earlier.

Quidditchstar23: Hey, Black!

NotasblackasBlacks: How's life at the Potters'? Is James behaving?

Quidditchstar23: Hmm…I guess so…

NotasblackasBlacks: Really? That's interesting…something smells fishy…

I was standing up in order to type and James had just rolled his chair back (it was a rolly chair). He suddenly smiled mischievously and pulled on my waist. I sat down on his lap, surprised. I turned around and was about to slap him (old habit) when I caught myself. I smiled and leaned back against him.

"It's more comfortable this way," I said.

He laughed.

"For me too," he said and winked.

Quidditchstar23: What did you have for dinner?

NotasblackasBlacks: Chicken.

Quidditchstar23: It can't be your breath then…although, tuna is called "chicken of the sea"

NotasblackasBlacks: Haha. That was SO funny Evans.

Quidditchstar23: That wasn't me, it was James

NotasblackasBlacks: James ? (A/n: Originally I had this face kind of thing here but it didn't show up. If you press shift and keep pressing while also pressing 6 then making the underline thing (next to the 0) and then shift and 6 again, you'll see it)

Quidditchstar23?

NotasblackasBlacks: It was the closest I could come to raised eyebrows.

Quidditchstar23: Oh.

NotasblackasBlacks: Anyway, don't avoid the matter at hand. James?

Quidditchstar23: I meant Potter. I mean, really, give me a break. I'm being held against my will at his house and being forced to spend time with him while everyone around me is calling him James.

"That hurts, Lils," said James, pouting.

"Get used to it," I said.

"Does that mean I'm going to be around you a lot?" he asked hopefully.

"Maybe…" I said teasingly.

NotasblackasBlacks: Everyone around you at school calls him James.

Quidditchstar23: Well…I don't know it's harder not to here! It's his house, after all!

NotasblackasBlacks: Fine. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

Quidditchstar23: I'm surprised you know what that means, Black.

NotasblackasBlacks: Well, maybe I don't. (A/n: There were two of those face things here, too)

NotasblackasBlacks: That means double raised eyebrows.

Quidditchstar23: Ok but it still doesn't make any sense…

NotasblackasBlacks: Mhmm, it's a trick I picked up along the way.

Quidditchstar23: Right…

Suddenly James' Web Cam window popped up. It had turned on!

"I forgot. Sirius and I know a spell that will turn on the other person's Web Cam…" said James.

"Oh. Wait, how is Sirius even online, anyway?"

NotasblackasBlacks: I'm at Remmy's

"The microphone is on too?" I asked.

NotasblackasBlacks: Yeah. Wait a minute…OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!

"What, what?" I asked, rather than type it.

NotasblackasBlacks: You…James…lap…on…sitting…!

"What?" I asked, wondering at his IQ. Then I realized: I was still sitting on James's lap! I leapt off but the damage had been done.

NotasblackasBlacks: I saw, I saw, I saw! And Remmy did too! I KNEW I shouldn't have given you the benefit of the doubt!

"We'll never hear the end of this," sighed James.

Oh, God.