James and Isobel
I don't own any of the characters or places you might recognize.
Chapter 2: Shopping in London
Isobel Abbey was your average seventeen year old girl. She had a very loving father, Benjamin Abbey. Her mother passed when she was eleven. Her step mother, of two years, Arianna, was pretty nice as well. She goes to Sainte Geneviève, an all-girls boarding school in France. She had two best friends named Camille and Blaire. Isobel had a plan, after boarding school she was going to go to oxford, and then she would get a job as one of the best scientist to ever live.
Isobel was waiting after church on Sunday for everyone to finish speaking with her father. She wanted to go to London so she could go meet up with her friends but she had to ask permission first.
Isobel glanced at her father only to do a double take. Was that the guy she ran into at the market the other day? What was he doing here? Isobel knew every member of the church and she was sure this guy wasn't one of them. Isobel made her way over to them, they looked to be in a serious conversation.
"Oh, Isobel, we were just talking about you" Benjamin Abbey said.
"Were you?" she said politely while raising an eyebrow to the guy from the other night, a Mr. James Potter.
"Yes we were. I was explaining to your father how I go to a boarding school in Scotland and don't really know much about the area. At that point your father mentioned you go to a boarding school too."
"Weren't you saying something about going into London today? The two of you should go together" Benjamin said.
"I wouldn't want to impose" James said.
"Not at all, it would be good if Isobel interacted more with her people her own age."
Before Isobel could say anything another patron had required her father's attention and he walked away.
"What are you doing?" Isobel asked.
"What? I decided to thank you father for the wonderful sermon today and we happened to talk"
"You where here this whole time?"
"You didn't notice me? I'm hurt. I saw you up there in the choir"
"I turned you down so you turned around and appealed to my father, that was sneaky. And to do it at a church makes it even worse."
"Hey, I didn't suggest to your father that we hang out, he did that before I could offer. But I'm heading to London anyway my sister Lily's birthday is in a couple of weeks and I need to get presents not to mention my father and my mother both have birthdays coming up."
"I'll go, but not as a date."
"Friends?"
"Acquaintances"
"Ouch, I bet I can get that up to friend by the end of the day"
"You can try" Isobel said. As she walked out of the church she pulled out her cell phone and turned it on. She sent a text message to her friends telling them she'd meet them at about four.
"Where were you at all dressed up?" Lily asked as her eldest brother walked through the front door.
"Church" James said and he went straight upstairs to his room.
"Church?" Lily repeated, she followed her brother upstairs as he began to take off his muggle suit.
"What's her name?"
"Who's name?"
"The girl you're chasing after."
"Am I that obvious?" he asked.
"You made an attempt to comb you hair this morning" Lily said.
"It didn't work" James muttered.
"I know, it never does. Thank goodness I inherited mom's hair though. What's this girl's name?"
"Why so you can go and tell mom, and then she'll tell Aunt Hermione and Aunt Angelina and they'll tell all their kids and then the next thing I know the whole family will know. Fred won't stop taking the mickey and Uncle Percy will give me books on relationship advice and Nana will be wondering when I'll invite the girl over for family dinner."
"Speaking of family dinner, I hope you get back from your date in time to make it to family night at the Burrow."
"It is not a date" James said. By now he finished taking off his suit and he was standing in his closet looking through his muggle clothes.
"Then why are you acting all nervous?" Lily asked.
"Hey" James stepped out of his closet. "I never get nervous before a date. It's not a part of my nature. And I'm not nervous now. I'm just going to London to go shopping for your birthday gift. I could use a little feminine input so I invited a friend. Now if you don't want the gift I can stay home."
"Go ahead and go, but don't forget to invite your girlfriend to my birthday party. The whole family will be dying to meet her after I tell mom all about how you're acting nervous and stuff."
James threw a shirt at her. Lily ducked and laughed as she left the room.
James couldn't be too mad at his sister. He pranked his family members so much they love opportunities where they can try to get him back.
James put on a pair of jeans and a black concert tee. He put on a black pair of Converse he saw muggles wearing all the time.
James met up with Isobel outside of her house. She was wearing a dress with blue and white horizontal stripes and a big pair of blue shades.
"Do you have a car?" she asked.
"No" James replied. He never thought he'd need muggle transportation. "I suppose I could as my father if I could borrow his."
"Do you have a license?"
He has an apparition license does that count? Instead of answering he said "Do you?"
"Yes, I got my license when I was sixteen."
"Great, you can drive"
"And if I crash your father's car?"
"He wouldn't care he'd buy a new one" James said knowing they'd simply use a reparo charm on it.
"Because your family has money to waste like that?"
"No." This wasn't starting out well. He didn't want her to think they were snobs or anything. "Do you want to drive my dad's car? How else were you going to get to London?"
"I was going to take the bus" she said.
"Okay, let's take the bus."
James had only ever been on the bus one time in his life. The Knight Bus was not fun, Al was sick and kept throwing up, James fell out of the seat at every stop, and Lily wouldn't stop yelling at the conductor telling him what a horrible driver he was. James thought if anything, Lily's screeching was only making Ernie Prang drive more crazily.
"So what's your reason for wanting to go to London" James asked. He had no idea where all his swagger went, he usually isn't this nervous talking with girls. Hey at least he didn't bring up the weather.
"I'm meeting some of my friends from school."
"I have a cousin who goes to a boarding school in France" James said.
"St. Guinevere's?"
"No Boubouxtons"
"I've never heard of it."
"It's really private; they only accept children of alumni or something like that. My aunty Fleur went" James said. His cousin Dominique went to Hogwarts for her first year but she didn't really get along with the other girls in her house (Ravenclaw) so she transferred to Boubotonx for her second year.
"Well I hope she likes her school better than I like mine. My school is run by really strict nuns. We can't bring any electronics so no cell phones, no laptop, can you imagine?" James had no idea what a cell phone or a laptop was so he just nodded. "The dress code is really strict too. We have to wear the exact same shoes, our skirts have to be measured nothing shorter than our knees. There was this one girl last year who got kicked out for dying her hair pink. What's funny?"
"Nothing, you reminded me of my sister. She's always ranting about our school's dress code as well. She swears she isn't going to wear anything black after she finishes school."
"Your uniform is black? I guess it's not too bad. It must get hot during the summer though."
As they rode on, it got easier to talk to each other. Every once in a while she'd bring up something he had no clue about and he'd just nod his head or shrug his shoulders. They got off of the bus at Covert Garden. According to Isobel it was the best and only place to shop in London.
"I'm not supposed to meet my friends until later so where do you want to look for your sister's present first?" Isobel asked.
"I don't know. What am I supposed to get for my sister who is turning fourteen? I used to just get her sweets but she made me promise I'd give her a real gift this year."
"You have been giving her candy for thirteen years? No wonder she wants something new. I should take you into a jewelry show."
"Jewelry is for my mom and maybe my Nana" James said thinking about how much it would cost. Then he changed his mind "I guess we could make a stop there."
They went to five different clothing stores but Isobel got tired of hearing "No way, I can't let my sister wear something like this… it's…it's…just no!" They went into a shoe store as well but James had no idea what shoe size his sister wore. Isobel found a cute pair of shoes for herself in a place called Destiny. Isobel dragged James into a store called Accesorize. After twenty minutes he got tired of looking at all the different hand bags and glasses so he just grabbed a bag and paid for it so they could leave. As they walked down a street James saw a sign that said 'Build a Bear' he took Isobel's arm and dragged her inside.
He looked at the area where a little girl was actually stuffing a bear full of cotton.
"This is awesome. I want to do this. Pick out a bear"
"What?"
"Come on" they went and looked at the different bears. James insisted on nothing green or silver. He kept trying to get her to pick out the red bear or the limited edition lion but Isobel chose a white one with multicolored polka-dots. James had way too much fun with the stuffing machine, he ended up over stuffing the bear.
"Wait, before you close it you have to put the heart in" Isobel said.
"Really?"
"It can't be real without the heart" Isobel scolded and she put a little red heart inside of the bear. They sealed the bear and Isobel went to look at the outfits and accessories. James went to the computer to get the official 'adoption certificate'.
After build-a-bear they went to an ice cream shop that rivaled Fortecue's Ice Cream Parlor.
Afterwards Isobel took him to a place called Lush, but there was no way he was buying make-up for his little sister. They stopped at a stationary store and Isobel bought some fancy paper for when she writes home. James picked out a necklace for his mom at a place called Kabiri. Afterwards they went to a place called Circus.
Even though there were barely dressed women flouncing around eating fire James rarely looked away from Isobel. James looked over the menu, it seemed like they mostly sold seafood.
"Izzy!"
James looked away from the menu as two women walked in. there was a tall blonde and a slightly shorter girl with dark brown hair walking towards him. Isobel went and hugged her two friends. The girls talked and giggled for a few minutes. James noticed how she kept flipping her hair.
"Who is your friend?" the blonde asked finally seeming to notice James watching them.
"This is James Potter, James these are my best friends Camille" the blonde, "and Blaire" the brunette.
"Hello ladies, Isobel has been telling me all about you" James said.
"Really well she's told us nothing about you" Camille said and she tossed Isobel a look. Next thing James knew Camille was two inches away from his face. "You'll have to make up for that over brunch."
"Let's sit down and eat" Blaire said quickly throwing Camille another look James couldn't interpret.
Camille and Isobel ordered salmon salads, Blaire ordered the rock shrimp, James decided on one of the few things besides the dessert that wasn't fish and ordered lamb chops.
As they ate Camille talked about the red bus tour she and Blaire went on earlier that day. Blaire kept throwing pointed looks two both Camille and Isobel.
After lunch James tried to slip away. "I know you ladies have a lot of things to discuss that doesn't include me so I'll just walk around the shops and meet up with Isobel later."
"You don't have to" Isobel said.
"Yeah, I would hate to think about you being all alone" Camille said.
From there they spent a lot of time in at the Jubilee Market Hall looking at arts and craft.
After Blaire debated for twenty minutes on whether or not she should purchase a handmade necklace the two duos split.