PLEASE DON'T KILL ME. I am so sorry; I know that this update is ridiculously late! College has been ridiculous… Actually just life has been ridiculous. However, I am getting on top of things. Well, I'm on top of my work enough to write you a beautiful chapter with James and Lizzie ACTUALLY communicating and stuff. It is dialogue-heavy but I hope it pleases all you wonderful little readers. You guys are the bomb. Bg.97 xx

Lizzie stopped outside the door of the Leaky Cauldron, tempted to just turn around and go home. What if he hits on me? What if he tries to kiss me? Lizzie- he won't; not after what happened last time. He's persistent though- maybe he'll pressure me. No you're being stupid. Ginny raised him much better than that. For goodness sake, Elizabeth! It's just a drink- it's not a date. She gulped, took a deep breath, pushed all of her stupid irrational fears to one side, and wandered into the pub.

She looked around each table until she found him there, at a small table in the middle. As he spotted her, he waved. No turning back now. She smiled awkwardly as she approached the table. When she got there, he stood up to greet her.

"Elizabeth, hey!" James said as he went in for a hug.

Lizzie's hand stopped him by grabbing his hand in a firm handshake. "James. Hi."

He was confused for a second at her rejecting his hug, but he quickly moved on from it.

"It's really good to see you. Shall we sit down?"

Lizzie nodded before sitting down opposite James. He ruffled his hair. She pushed up her glasses. Apart from that, it was as if a silencio charm had been cast. They sat like that for an awfully prolonged moment.

She sighed. "If it's going to be this awkward, then I may as well leave."

His eyes widened instinctively. "No please, don't leave. I'm sorry… I'm not really used to this."

"What, dinner without any sex after?"

He snorted. "No, but it's great to know that you believe all the papers though."

A hint of a smile came on her face, "What, then?"

"Getting to know someone, I guess." he shrugged. "You know, making friends."

"I always thought that you had a lot of friends."

"I do, but I don't usually have to work so bloody hard!" he laughed.

"You know me, I like to go against the grain."

"No- I don't know you. Well according to you I don't, anyway. That's why we're here, is it not?"

"True. And to drink. I believe we're also here to drink."

Luckily James laughed and went to the bar to get them something to drink. It gave Lizzie a moment to get her bearings. Stop being so weird. Get to know him. Become his friend. Oh, and don't forget to breath. When he came back with two butterbeers, Lizzie was somewhat relieved. Although she wanted time to think, she didn't need too much. That would just make her bail on this whole 'being friends' thing.

"So," James started as he sat down once more, "I was thinking, we need to do something to get to know each other without it being so bloody awkward."

As Lizzie sipped her butterbeer, an idea popped into her head. "I know- let's play 20 questions."

"What's that?" James asked.

She shrugged. "It's a muggle thing. Pretty self-explanatory really; we have 20 questions to try and find out about each other."

James chuckled. "Those muggles are so creative… Go on then. You go first."

Elizabeth sat for a moment as she pondered what to start with.

"Okay. What's your favourite food?"

His eyebrow raised, "Really? That's all you could think of?"

"I'm easing into it!" Lizzie defended.

"Well… I love a good burger. Cheese, bacon, gherkins, onions- the works." Lizzie nodded in approval. "Also, my nan makes the best chocolate cheesecake in the world."

"My question now. Favourite colour?"

"Green" she said without any hesitation. James made a face at her answer. "What's wrong with green?"

"Slytherin colour, isn't it? Got to hate it on principal."

This made Lizzie roll her eyes. "It's also the colour of spring. And besides, wasn't your sister in Slytherin?"

"Yes, but Lily is my baby sister. That makes her immune from any Slytherin hatred."

"Okay, whatever makes sense to you. What was your favourite birthday?"

He thought for a moment and laughed. "It's got to be my 17th. Coming of age and all. My cousin Freddie organised the party, and let's just say- I don't remember most of it! If not that one, probably my 9th. My uncle Charlie had come from Romania and he bought me a really good racing broom."

"Who's your best friend?" he asked next.

"From Hogwarts, it's probably Clara- that girl I was with in Diagon Alley that day. My closest friends are called Tom and Jenna. They're muggles."

"Muggles?" James questioned.

"Yeah, well," she hesitated, "I am a muggleborn."

She knew that in the wizarding world there had been two wars over something as arbitrary as blood status. So even though she knew that now there wasn't much to fear- she was still always somewhat apprehensive in revealing that she was muggleborn.

James thankfully just continued as if it was nothing. Well, of course he would. His parents are war heroes. "Question for me now." He said it with a childlike enthusiasm.

"Favourite book?"

"Muggle or magic?"

"Do you read a lot of both?" Lizzie asked, being pleasantly surprised. She hadn't met many focused athletes who read a lot in their free time. "Both. Why not?"

"Muggle is probably The Three Musketeers. I like to compare them to Dad, Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione. Favourite wizarding novel? That's more difficult. I'm going to go with the Melodie Moskovitz series."

She smiled, "You're into teenage girl fiction?"

"Hey!" he said disgruntled. "There are no such things as girl books and boy books. Also, I've got to say them- my cousin is the author after all."

"Very true indeed."

"My go- what did you want to be when you were little?"

Lizzie's cheeks went crimson as she reflected on the dreams of her younger self. " Well I wanted to be a warrior princess when I was really little…"

Jay's eyes lit up and his face broke into a wide toothy grin.

"However! I have wanted to be a journalist since I was 9. Favourite flavour ice cream."

"Orange and Firewhiskey. Nothing quite beats it."

Her eyes gleamed with curiosity. "I've never had it. We'll have to go and get some, sometime."

"Yeah we do!" James scoffed. "Worst date?"

Her blush returned, even though she knew that she should have known that these kind of questions would come up eventually.

"A couple of years ago, my mum set me up with a son of her friend. It was awful. He took me to see some crappy romantic film, said nothing to me afterwards as he walked me home; yet still had the audacity to get annoyed when I didn't kiss him afterwards."

"What a Quaffle."

"My sentiments exactly. Well- since you went there, I'm going there too. First kiss."

He laughed and went to ruffle his hair yet again. "I was in 2nd year. A was a 4th year. Slytherin girl- friends with my cousin Molly. She said she wanted to 'prepare me for all the girls who'd be all over me'."

"And did it?" Elizabeth asked cheekily, supressing a smile.

"It wasn't great, to be honest. Place you'd most like to visit?"

"When I was younger, I had this atlas and it had photographs of lots of different places in it. There was this one amazing phot of the Norwegian fjords which I completely adored. So there I guess. That's half the questions done. If you were stranded on an island with no magic whatsoever- what would you take with you?"

"No magic at all?" She nodded. "You're a cruel girl, Elizabeth."

She laughed and took another sip of her butterbeer while he struggled to find an answer. "A large supply of food. Moving on quickly now… Your worst habit?"

"I chew on the inside of my cheek all the time."

A little smirk graced his face. "I'd noticed that."

"Who inspires you?"

"My parents," he said without even a pause to think. "Or my grandfather- the one I'm named after. He died in the first war, but apparently I'm a lot like him. At least that's what Minnie says."

"Minnie?" Elizabeth asked.

Jay smiled. "Professor McGonagall."

"The paper was actually telling the truth then? I didn't know that Rita Skeeter was capable of that."

He full on guffawed. "The woman doesn't have an honest bone in her body! She's still convinced that Dad has a thing for my Aunt Hermione, which is weird beyond belief. Her latest article though- well if you ignore the extent to which she exaggerated, most of what she said was true."

"I've 'blown you away', have I?"

James' face grew serious. "A little bit, yeah. I'm still not quite sure what it is, but I'm drawn to you."

Lizzie stared at him a moment before breaking the silence with a cough. "Well that sounds like it's veering into romantic territory, and since this is not a date and we are here as friends; I' m swiftly moving on."

She thought she saw his eyes drop to her lips for a second, but he granted her request and moved away from the topic. "Yeah. Right: my question. What's the stupidest thing you've done when drunk?"

"That's a hard one," she remarked, scratching her head. "Probably the first time I ever got drunk. I was 15 and at a family wedding. I insisted on dancing, then proceeded to throw up on my brother's best suit."

"That's rough!" James laughed.

"Tell me something about your brother and sister."

His eyebrows shot up, surprised at the question. "My siblings? Where do I even begin?"

"Wherever you like," Lizzie persisted.

"Well Albus is a goofball. I mean they made sure that Dad had no say in his applications, but I'm still not completely sure he didn't bribe someone to let Al on the Auror Squad. He's a good kid- always has been, he just isn't the brightest flame. He's very loving: too loving in fact. It scares off most of the idiots he dates, which is quite a lot."

"And your sister?"

"My baby sister? I love her more than anything. That sounds so sappy, but I really would do anything for Lily. She's a genius- like seriously creative. She's a designer, has a shop out in Paris."

"I think your mum mentioned that actually."

"There's no way she wouldn't. Lily is our little princess. She has all of us at her beck and call."

Lizzie smiled at his openness about his family. It really was heartwarming, and it was a side of him she didn't expect to see. In fact, it was a side to him she hadn't realised existed.

"What's your idea of a perfect evening?"

"Easy! Long hot shower, followed by curling up on the sofa under a large pile of blankets with popcorn in one hand, a glass of wine in the other and a good film on tv."

"Favourite class at Hogwarts."

Jamie rubbed his forehead. "I was pretty shit at school, but the class I most enjoyed was Defence Against the Dark Arts. Shooting spells everywhere was fun, I was somewhat good at it, and Professor Ruskin was a bit of a legend. What was your worst class at Hogwarts?"

"Transfiguration. Can't do it to save my life. Okay then, my last question. Best advice you've ever been given?"

"Don't let anyone else write your fate for you. Make the choices you want to make, and damn whst anyone else thinks of them."

The tone of his voice caught off guard. "Who told you that?" she asks in little more than a whisper.

"Harry Potter. Who else?"

Lizzie thought of everything that she learned in the history books. How Harry Potter had nearly been killed time and time again. How the entirety of his teen years had been overcast by a prophecy that was uttered before he could do anything about it. How by the age of 18, he had lost so many of the people he loved, because of a fate that he had no say in following. She gulped. That was probably the best advice that Harry Potter could give.

"So I've got one last question, yeah?"

She nodded in response.

"Do you… have any tattoos or piercings?"

"That's what you're wasting your last question on?" she laughed.

James shrugged in place of a reply. "It's not like it's the last question that I will ever get to ask you ever."

"I guess. Nope, I haven't got any tattoos, and the only piercing I have is in my ears."

He smiled, before looking down at their empty glasses. "Well. Now that we know a bit about each other- what do you say to going out for a walk? I know for a fact that there is a great park near yours."

The reminder on his appearance in the park made her laugh. "Yeah, why not?"

They stood up and Jay held out his hand to hers to leave the pub together. "Well Miss Hartley, I have to say that I think this could be the start of a beautiful friendship."

"Well Mr Potter," she said, taking his outstretched hand, "I'm going to have to agree."

And there we go! I finally updated! :D Not my best chapter by a long shot, and I haven't even proofread it in my attempt to update quicker, but I'm hoping you found it cute? Now these guys are actually getting to know each other and becoming friends, the story can progress a bit further than James chasing her and her running. I will update quicker than last time. I hope. Ta and please revieeeewww. Bg.97 xx