Chapter 30

Dinner Party at the Potters'

Disclaimer-Not mine.


Julia was laying on her bed, staring at the ceiling above her as she opened and closed the locket that hung loosely around her neck. She was thinking about everything and nothing at the same time. Each thought that cam to her mind was pushed away by another idea too quickly for her to even realize she had thought it.

She jumped into a sitting position when she heard the door to her room swing open. She smiled as she saw the figure in the doorway, "Lily!" She exclaimed happily, getting up from the bed to greet her.

Lily threw her arms around Julia. "Surprised to see me so early?" She asked, after all the party wasn't supposed to start for a few more hours. Julia, Tom and Sirius would, of course, being attending the Potters' dinner party along with Lily, her family, the Lupins and James had even mentioned something about the Minister of Magic stopping by.

"Yeah I thought you weren't going to be here until six." Julia replied.

"Well there's World War 3 going on at my house." She started, walking around the room and plopping herself on the bed. "Petunia doesn't want to come her tonight and I, quite frankly, would br happy if she stayed home too. But my parents want this to be a 'family thing'..." She looked up at Julia and shrugged, "So I got dressed and took a cab here."

Lily paused for a moment and studied Julia's face, she didn't look like her normal self. "Is everything alright?" She asked her.

Julia nodded, not meeting Lily's eyes. "Yeah...I mean...I guess no...Well, I don't know." She sighed and took a seat next to Lily on the bed. "It's just that Sirius was in here before." Julia told Lily everything about what Sirius had just done.

Lily listened intently as Julia spoke. She had known Sirius was going to get Julia a Christmas present but she had no idea what is was going to be. Her mouth formed a small 'o' as Julia explained what Sirius had given her.

"I just don't know what to do." Julia finished with a defeated sigh.

Lily, absorbing the story Julia had just told her, remained quiet for a few moments. She opened her mouth and began, "I think you should just-."

The door to the bedroom swung open a second time. This time, Sirius entered. "Julia you have got to see this." He began, a smile plastered on his face. His eyes landed on Lily, "Hey, I didn't know you were here."

"I just got here." Lily explained.

"Well you both have to see this."

They two girls got up from their seats on the bed. "See what?" Julia asked as Sirius led them out of the room and down the hallway. At the end of it, there was a door on the right that was slightly ajar. Julia could vaguely hear voices coming from inside.

"Mom this shirt is ridiculous. Do you really want me to wear this?" James said as he looked over the shirt he was wearing in the full length mirror.

Sirius, Lily and Julia peeked around the door, cautiously looking at the scene before them. Lily crouched down low to look around the door while Sirius and Julia stood over her.

Lily took one look at the scene before her and nearly burst out laughing. Instead, she managed to stifle what sounded like a cough/snort. Sirius gently kicked her and she looked up at him, grinning widely. He put a finger over his lips, motioning her to stay quiet.

"Yes I do want you to wear this when you meet the Evans'. I think it makes you look charming." Mrs. Potter said, smoothing the wrinkles on James's shirt with her hands. Julia put a hand over her mouth and shook her head. The shirt James was wearing, in fact, the entire outfit James was wearing made him look as far from charming as possible. The shirt was a solid burnt orange color, stripped up and down with purple squiggle-like stripes. He was wearing black slacks that must have been five inches too short for him with shinny white shows that made his feet look three sizes bigger than they really were.

"Charming?" James asked, as he turned to look at himself from the side in the full length mirror. "I look like I mugged a clown..." He thought out loud.

"Nonsense!" She said, picking up a towel from the ground and placing it in the hamper. "You're going to wear it. You look dashing in it."

"Uh...sure Mum..." James said with a light shrug as he watched her head towards the door.

His mother let out a loud gasp as her eyes landed on the three students, who were scrambling away from the door. "Well, hello." She said cheerfully. "I didn't know you were here Lily." She said and threw her arms around Lily, pulling her into a rib crushing hug.

"Thank you so much for having me. My family will be here in a few hours." Lily breathed.

"Nonsense!" She said, letting go of Lily. Lily gasped for precious oxygen as subtly as she could. "We love having you here." She continued, still sounded as cheerful as ever. "You keep these two boys in line eh?" She said, pointing to Sirius and James (who was taking the globs of gel out of his hair that his mother had put in it to keep his hair from sticking up). "Both of you keep them in line." She said to Julia and Lily. "You just wouldn't believe what I found them doing one night! Ah! I wouldn't believe it."

She seemed to paused a moment before shaking her head, "No. No, I couldn't tell you." When neither of the girls said anything, Mrs. Potter stopped shaking her head and looked up at them. She nodded this time and continued, "Alright, I'll tell you then." She dropped her voice to a whisper, even though Sirius and James could still hear her perfectly. "I found these two watching this, uh, this..." She drew a square in the air with her hands over and over again as she tried to think of the word. "That...that thing...with the pictures...that muggle contraption..."

"A television?" James offered as he glanced at Sirius, knowing exactly where this story was going.

"Yes, it was one of them." Mrs. Potter said. "They charmed the darn thing so it didn't need that...uh...that stuff...that makes it work...in the wall...you know?"

"You mean, electricity?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, that stuff." She leaned in closer to Lily and Julia and opened her mouth to whisper something but than closed it again. "No, no. I can't tell you what they were watching...Your innocent minds...no, no." She shook her head again and her eyes fell to the ground.

"Oh well," Julia started but fell silent because Mrs. Potter started talking again.

"Alight, okay. I'll tell you." She leaned in closer again and whispered, "They were watching people...having...sex." She said the last word as if it was the dirtiest one in the dictionary.

"Mum!" James said and Sirius just laughed. "Don't you have to cook or something?" He asked, desperate to get her out of there.

"Oh right!' She said, resuming her cheerfulness again. "The roast!" She scurried down the hallway towards the kitchen.

Lily raised an eyebrow and looked at the two boys. "You were watching porn?" She asked.

"You naughty boys." Julia sang, smirking a little.

"It wasn't porn." Sirius said, as he sat down on the couch parallel to the bed.

"Uh huh." Julia said, skeptically.

"It really wasn't." James said, un-tucking his shirt.

"What movie was it then?" Lily asked, sitting on James's bed. Lily knew of a lot of muggle movies, being muggle-born and all.

"I forget." Sirius said. "Sappy movie. Something you would have balled you eyes out watching."

Lily frowned and opened her mouth to rebut but James spoke out, "There was a scene in it with an old couple lying in bed sleeping. I guess my mum thought something happened in the bed before that scene."

"And nothing did." Sirius said with a shrug, as he patted the seat next to him, motioning for Julia to sit down next to him. She hesitated a moment before joining him on the couch.

"So you were watching old people porn?" Lily jokingly questioned.

James laughed. "There was no porn-watching."

"Whatever." Julia muttered.

"You don't believe us?" Sirius asked Julia.

"I said whatever." She answered with a smirk, as she watched James kick off the shoes his mother had just told him to put on.

James smiled at the situation, "Well you two might have had to result to porn but Sirius and me..."

Lily threw a pillow at James, "Very funny." She dryly stated.

"You want to know what else is funny?" Sirius asked.

"James's new look." Julia piped in.

Sirius laughed, "Now that is funny." He said, studying James's orange shirt. "Why did you let her dress you in that anyway?"

James shrugged, "I didn't realize it would look this bad."

"Well it does." Lily joked as she dodged the pillow James sent back at her.

Sirius chuckled and asked, "You are going to change, right?"

"I wasn't planning on it." James said, seriously, with a shrug.

"Uh, why not?" Sirius returned.

James, again, shrugged and sat next to Lily on the bed, wrapping his arm around her waist. "I don't know. She'd probably get all disappointed that I changed."

"Disappointed?" Julia questioned.

"Yeah, I don't know. She was telling me yesterday how she misses the days that I actually wanted to hang out with her and dad." He removed his eyes from the quidditch poster on the wall and looked at his friends. "I didn't want to make her upset again, you know what I mean?"

"I know exactly what you mean." Lily said, thinking about her own parents. "Parents just don't want to let go..."

Sirius nodded as they spoke but he didn't understand it. His parents hadn't really cared much about him, except for the fact he didn't get into Slytherin.

Julia looked up from her hands and at James and Lily. It was kind of like an invisible barrier was splitting James and Lily from Sirius and herself. Not like a solid brick barrier, but more like a glass barrier. A barrier that you could see through and witness what was going on on the other side but you couldn't cross the barrier; experience what was going on on the other side.

The room was silently for only a second, but it seemed like that second dragged on. "Yup, one second she's watching Jamie-poo playing with blocks and the minutes she finds out he hexed a television so he can watch porn..." She joked, breaking the seriousness of the conversation.

"You know Carr, you're asking for it." Sirius said, nodding his head matter-of-fact like.

Julia pouted. "For what?" She said innocently, a smile cracking across her lips.

"You'll find out if you don't cut the porn jokes." Sirius teased back.

Julia stuck out her tongue at him and said to the group, "I'd love to stay and chat but I have to get dressed for tonight." She mockingly narrowed her eyes at Sirius and James. "I probably shouldn't have told you that seeing as your both horny-." She had to cut her sentence short seeing as she couldn't finish it and duck an oncoming History of Magic book at the same time.

"Goodbye Carr." Sirius said as she walked out the door towards her own room.

James glanced over at Sirius, "She's not going to let us forget that."

"Not a chance..." Sirius said, shaking his head.

"I don't think she really believes it." Piped in Lily as she studied the tips of her hair.

"Do you believe it?" James asked her.

Lily chuckled and shook her head, "No."

"Good." Sirius said, resting his head on the back of the sofa.

"So you gave her a locket." Lily conversationally stated.

Sirius nodded, "Yeah." He said, quietly.

"When are you going to tell her?" Lily blurted out. She didn't exactly like the idea of keeping this from Julia.

"I told you already." He said, getting up from his seat and walking across the room to the window. "When the trial's over."

"Why not now?" Lily asked. She had asked almost the same question at least ten times before.

Sirius sighed, slightly frustrated but James answered for him. "Because if he ends up going to Azkaban or getting expelled, Julia won't feel as bad about it." James said. Sirius had told him this before. He didn't exactly agree with how Sirius was handling it but he was his best friend. So he respected his decision.

"But if you get expelled or go to Azkaban she will eventually find out what happened." Lily began. "And than she feel even more guilty because you kept it a secret from her while she continued to be mad at you."

"Lily," Sirius said, turning to her. "Just don't tell her okay?"

"I already said I wouldn't." Sourly, she replied.


Sirius, Lily and James all sat in the living room waiting for guests to arrive. Sirius let out a loud sigh, breaking the silence. "I wonder what's taking Julia so long." He voiced. "Do you think she got lost in your house?" Sirius joked.

James smiled, "Maybe. It wouldn't be the worst thing." He joked.

As if on cue, the three heard a voice travel from the top of the stairs. "Tom do you want to come down with me?" Sirius turned his head to see Julia poking her head into a room at the end of the hall at the top of the stairs. She emerged a few seconds later, her brother at her side.

The siblings were both dressed appropriately for the diner party. Tom was wearing black slacks with a white button down shirt and a dark green tie. But Sirius barely even noticed Tom. His eyes landed on Julia and were glued to her.

She was wearing a dark green dress that ended just below her knees. The dress was a halter top but she was wearing a gray shrug over it. The color was perfect against her dark skin. She is perfect...Sirius thought as she reached the bottom step.

The three both got up to greet the two. "Well don't you two look nice." James said, smiling.

"Uh...so do you." Tom said, eying the orange shirt he was wearing.

James just grinned at what Tom had said and turned to Sirius, who was still staring a Julia, his mouth forming a small 'o' . Julia watched James give Sirius a 'manly' pat on the back and subtly whisper something in his ear that she couldn't quite catch. Sirius blinked and closed his mouth. He nodded and said, "Yeah James is right. You look good Juls." He shook his head realizing his mistake. "And Tom." He added quickly. "You both look good."

Lily elbowed James lightly in the side and gave him a small, knowing smile as Sirius continued, "I meant that in the first place. That you both look-."

Sirius was saved from his pointless babbling when the echo of a door bell rang throughout the house. "I'll get that." James said, as he headed for the door.

Sirius looked up front the ground and rubbed he back of his neck. He looked, almost shyly, up at Julia, a small smile on his face. Julia's heart did some sort of back flip in her chest when he looked at her. She immediately cursed herself for that. I'm just being nice to him for Lily and James...And because he gave me the locket...She sighed. And because Tom trusts him now. She told herself. "Don't give me that look." She blurted out before she could stop herself.

"What look?" Sirius asked, completely unaware that he had given her any sort of look.

Julia shook her head and decided to change the subject. "Is Peter coming tonight?" She asked as she watched James open the front door.

"No, his parents and him are in Ireland visiting family." Sirius answered as the rest of the Evans family entered the house.

Julia turned her attention to the doorway when she heard Lily groan loudly. Her parents had entered the room and they were already fawning over James. "Oh James! Look how handsome he is. Lily told us you were handsome but...oh! Just look at him Mark!" Mrs. Evans said, giving James a light hug.

"Oh, well..." James muttered, glancing at Lily who had her hand on her forehead and was shaking her head.

"Yes I can see him." Mr. Evans answered, clearly bored.

"Petunia don't you think he's handsome..." Mrs. Evans continued as she turned around. "Petunia, where'd you go?" She asked, looking behind her.

James glanced behind Mr. and Mrs. Evans to see Petunia headed back towards the car. Mrs. Evans sighed and ran after her. "Petunia you get over here this instant!" She grabbed Petunia arm and proceeded to drag her into the house.

"Mum! This isn't my boyfriend's house!" Petunia almost pleaded.

"Oh my God..." Lily muttered which only made James laugh. The others were watching all looking equally amused with the scene before them.

"Mark!" Mrs. Evans yelled. "Help me here, will you!"

Mr. Evans rolled his eyes. "Excuse me..." He muttered before taking his wife's position in persuading Petunia into the house.

Mrs. Evans straightened her skirt before marching up to the house. She entered it and pleasantly looked at the students standing in the doorway. She let out a small gasp as her eyes landed on Sirius, "Sirius Black!" She walked over to the shocked looking boy and pulled him into a hug. "I just wanted to thank you for everything you did for Lily."

Sirius guiltily looked at Julia as he was released from the hug. "It was nothing."

"Nothing!" Mrs. Evans replied. "I think not! Not every sixteen year old can take on a dea-."

"Mum!" Lily said, harshly. She hadn't meant to say that as loud as she did. Lily cleared her throat and nodded towards the door as her father and sister entered the house. "Um...Don't you think I should introduce everyone?" She said.

Julia looked curiously at Sirius and then at Lily. She obviously knew something was going on. But she had no idea what...

"Right. Good thinking..." Mrs. Evans muttered.

"Uh, this is my mum and dad and Petunia." She quickly said. "And Julia and her brother Tom, Sirius and James."

"That's your boyfriend?" Petunia rudely stated as she looked over James in his 'new' outfit.

"Yes Petunia. That is my boyfriend." She snapped through gritted teeth.

James looked from Petunia to Lily and back again, concluding that they looked nothing alike. Compared to Lily's short curvy figure, Petunia was tall and skinny as a stick. Her skin was pale but lacked the freckles that covered Lily. Her face was almost horse like and her long neck made her appear even tall. While Lily's hair was thick and a flashy red, Petunia's was a dull light brown, stringy and thin.

Petunia opened her mouth to snap back at her sister when Mrs and Mr Potter entered the room. "Welcome!" Mrs Potter said cheerfully.

Greetings where exchanged and soon after, Mr. Potter had offered to give everyone a tour of the house. James whispered something to Lily and soon after, Sirius watched them sneak up stairs. Lily looked back down the stairs and waved to Sirius who smiled back at her. Lily put a finger to her lips, motioning him not to say anything about them, not that he was planning on it.

Julia watched Tom as he started talking to Mr. Evans about something. Lily and James were gone too. She noted. Figuring now was the best time, she took Sirius's hand and pulled him into the living room as the rest of the group continued down the hall.

Julia stayed quiet as she sat down on the couch and stared at her hands. Sirius slowly followed her lead and sat down on the couch next to her. Awfully close to her, Julia noted. "So what's it going to take for you to cut the porn jokes." He said, breaking the silence. He knew she wanted to talk about something or else she wouldn't have brought him in here. He was also pretty sure he knew what she wanted to talk about it, but he didn't want to. That's why he spoke first.

A small smile crossed her face as she looked up at him. "Come on. You guys are always teasing me about something and this is the first time I really have something on you." She replied.

"Maybe but the way you talk about it...sounds like you might be suggesting something." He joked, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

"You wish I was suggesting something." She replied, turning more to face him.

Sirius looked down at his hands before he said anything. When he looked up, he did two things. First, he gently rested his hand on hers. Then he answered, "Maybe I do." A small, mischievous smile crossed his face.

Julia's smile slowly faded, not like she was mad. She just sort of looked like she went blank. Why is he holding my hand? She thought, desperately begging herself to move her hand. The thought faded and she blurted out, "What's going on Sirius? I know something had to have happened to make everyone love you now." She shook her head. "And what was Mrs. Evans talking about. There's something you're not telling me and I want to know." She looked up at him, meeting his eyes.

Sirius paused and thought about what to say. He really did want to tell her everything but the thought of him getting expelled, or worse being sent to Azkaban forced him to keep him mouth shut. He rather serve his punishment with Julia still thinking poorly of him than with her forgiveness. It would hurt her a lot less.

"I really want to talk about this Juls." Julia didn't say anything when he paused, she just waited for him to continue. "I've been waiting for the right time and that's why I haven't told you yet but-." He looked up at her. "Just not here, not now."

Her blank expression turned into concern. "Is everything okay?" She asked, noting the fear in his eyes.

Sirius nodded. "Yeah. You'll probably find the news to be..." Good. He wanted to say, but he knew that would only make her want to hear it now. "Well, yes. Every thing's fine."

"You're sure?" Julia said, leaning back on the couch.

"Positive." Sirius said, nonchalantly stretching his arms over his head and proceeding to rest it on the couch behind Julia.

Julia, not missing this move, looked up at him and gave him a small smile.


A/N- Only two things I have to say.

1) Sorry this took so long to get out. I had written the entire thing awhile ago but my computer wouldn't connect to the Internet. My computer sucks...

2) You're probably going to like next chapter (or maybe I'll make it the chapter after)...a lot.

Kait