As the train pulled into the station, Lily began feeling nervous again. Her sister had barely said a word to her their parent's funeral a few months prior. She wondered if Petunia would continue her shunning considering she hadn't even replied to her letter about coming to King's Cross.

Lily felt a hand on her shoulder. "You alright?" questioned Marlene.

"Yeah, I suppose. It's just going to be an interesting summer, that's all."

Smiling back at her worried friend she laughed. "Don't fret, I'm only an owl away! Plus, you're still planning on staying with me when my family gets back from France, right?"

Lily loved how her best friend always tried to find something positive in bad situations.

"Thanks Marly, I'm sure you have will have an amazing time! I can't wait to hear about all of the trouble you got into."

Marlene winked back at her and started pulling their trunks down from the racks. Both girls made their way down to the platform. Upon seeing her parents, Marlene gave her friend a quick hug. "Have a good summer Lily! Keep your chin up, and I'll see you in a few weeks!" Lily waved back as she walked away. She glanced around for her sister, but there was still no sign of her. Perhaps she was running late? She had to remind herself that punctuality was something that Petunia and her new oaf of a husband were fanatical about. The whole situation just felt off.

"Hey Evans!"

Lily winced at the sound of his voice. She didn't have time to be dealing with his nonsense right now. James Potter left his parents and quickly made his way over to her.

"Would you like to grab a bite to eat with Sirius, my parents, and me? I thought I'd ask since it looks like your ride is running late. My parents wanted to see a few shops and get dinner afterwards."

Lily glanced over at his parents and were met with a smile. They seemed friendly enough, but she wasn't going to make a scene right now because of their berk of a son.

She replied flatly "Thanks for inviting me Potter, but my sister should be here any minute."

Lily noticed he started to get flushed. He kept looking at his shoes, so she deducted that he was either embarrassed or entranced by the new set of trainers he was wearing.

"That's ok. Listen, I know I'm probably the last person you'd write to, but if you need someone, I'm here for you."

James quickly ran a hand through his hair and met her gaze again. She hadn't seen this side of him in years wasn't quite sure how to deal with it. Lily was clearly at a confusing loss for words.

"Um, ok, yeah, maybe I will."

His eyes lit up like Christmas. "Get home safe and have a good summer Evans!" James and his family made their way out of the station.

Lily mused to herself over the strangeness of what just happened. "How odd." The two of them had had a pretty volatile year. Words had been yelled, objects had been thrown, and numerous hexes had been cast. How could a year full of negativity end on such a quiet plateau for the two of them? She figured things would just go back to the way they were once term started again. Deciding to wait outside, she rolled her cart down the sidewalk to a nearby bench. Maybe Petunia just didn't want to come inside the station and risk running into some of her "kind". Looking up from the book she thought she'd been reading for quite some time, she glanced at her watch. Thirty minutes had passed and there was still no sign of Petunia. She picked up her trunk again and made her way to the nearest payphone.

"Mrs. Potter, do we have to look in another shop, I'm staarrrvvvvinnnnnggg!" whined Sirius. James punched his friend in the arm.

"Mate, you ate a ton of food on the train, how are you still hungry?"

Before Sirius could reply with some sarcastic remark Mrs. Potter jumped in.

"Starving or not, I still have one more errand to run before we get dinner. You won't perish in the next twenty minutes now, will you?"

"I suppose not Mrs. P."

Heading in the direction of the last shop, she spotted the girl her son had spoken to earlier at the phone booth.

"Petunia, it is going to get dark in the next few minutes, it will take me like two hours to get home by foot! Why are you doing this to me, you're my sister?!"

The girl looked like she was on the verge of tears. Mrs. Potter didn't want to intrude on her conversation, but she felt terrible for the young lady whose sister apparently was abandoning her at the station. Dorea noticed the eagerness in her son's eyes to rush to the girl. She placed a hand on his shoulder.

"James wait here."

She tapped the young lady on her shoulder. "Are you alright dear?"

Lily turned around with tears brimming her eyes. "Um, I supposed, just need to head on home."

"I hope you don't mind the intrusion miss -?"

"Evans. Lily Evans."

A smile crept up on Dorea's face. So this was the girl her son was so madly in love with. "I can't believe I'm finally meeting the famous Lily Evans. I've heard so many wonderful things about you! I'm James' mum by the way, Dorea Potter. That's my husband Charlus standing over by the boys which I'm assuming you both know already."

Turning red all Lily could muster was a small "Oh."

"I honestly wasn't trying to barge in on your conversation, but is your sister not coming to get you?"

Lily didn't want to lie to this woman who showed a sincere concern about her wellbeing, but she was so embarrassed over the whole thing.

"I don't think so…"

"There is no one else?"

"No, it's ok, I can always walk."

A look of surprise passed over Dorea's face. "Nonsense! My husband and I will take you home. We couldn't just leave a friend of James to walk home in the dark by herself!"

"Oh, that's very kind, but I don't want to intrude…"

"Intrude? Like I accidentally did when you were having words with you sister?" She chuckled. "My dear, if you were an intrusion then I wouldn't have invited you, now would I? Are you up for a spot of dinner? We have one last shop to visit before."

Lily could not believe how kind and just generally wonderful this woman was being. How could someone like this have such an arrogant bully for a son?

"Thank you so much, this really means a lot to me." A smile finally touched the corners of her mouth.

"Come let's shrink down this heavy trunk and we'll head over to the boys."

Lily walked with Dorea over to an alley where she quickly shrunk her belongings down to the size of a small wallet. As they approached the rest of the group, her nerves were setting in again. How was she supposed to get through a meal without Potter and her arguing? She couldn't very well be disrespect in front of his parents. She opted for minimal, polite conversation with him. Yes, that would be the safest thing.

"Charlus, we have a guest joining us and the boys for dinner. This is a friend of theirs, Lily Evans."

The first thing Lily noticed about him was that Charlus Potter was one of those people whose whole face lit up when he smiled. "THE Lily Evans?! So you're the lovely lady our son never stops talking about!"

"DAD!" James flushed a shade of scarlet with a look of horror on his face.

Of course Sirius had to take this opportunity to further embarrass his best friend. "Prongs, don't get all flustered just because your dream girl is having dinner with us. It's like a chaperoned date. Ain't that right Evans?" he sniggered.

"You dolt!"

"So immature!"

The fact that both Lily and James yelled at the same time made him laugh even harder. Before the shouting match could continue, James' parents suggested they get a move on. As they proceeded down the sidewalk James elbowed Sirius in the ribs and muttered in a hushed tone. "You're a fowl git." Sirius merely shrugged his shoulders and walked ahead toward the rest of the group, whistling the whole way.

James was sure he was going to have a panic attack. Not only was he having dinner with Lily, but everyone had made him look like a stupid lovesick fool. Not that he wasn't, he just didn't like other people addressing it. How could anyone not be when it came to Lily? Her dark red hung wavy down the back of her black and white ¾ sleeve shirt. James would have been crazy if he said she looked bad in the cuffed up skinny jeans she was wearing. To him, Lily was a beautiful that most girls would have killed to achieve. She rarely ever wore makeup, and she never tried to over exaggerate herself with showy clothes. Lily was perfect to him. The sound of his mother's voice broke him from his trance.

"James, would you like to stay behind?" she laughed.

"Sorry, just got a bit distracted."

"Yeah I bet you did, maybe you should walk next to Evans, not behind her mate." Teased Sirius.

This was going to be a long evening for him. He could endure it though. James mentally made himself a list of what not to do tonight. "No flirting with her, no making jokes about her, don't talk about myself, don't make fun of her friends…" Basically he should probably just keep his mouth shut to keep himself from doing something stupid. It was hard though, he seemed to forget himself when he was around her. Tonight would have to be the first step.