Chapter 2:

Three days before the first of September every student, no matter how old, went to Diagon Alley. Whether it was to buy their new school books or to just meet with their friends, didn't matter. We were no exception, when it came to Diagon Alley. That's why right now I was standing in front of Quality Quidditch Supplies, bored out of my mind, mind you, with a very excited James Potter, who was ogling at the displayed broom.

"It is gorgeous," He mumbled. "I've got to have it."

I looked over his shoulder at the 'gorgeous' broom, having to fight my way through the other teenagers so I could reach the front where James was. To me it was really just polished wood and straw but to the entire male population, and some of the female, it was God's gift to the Wizarding World.

"Aunt Drea won't allow you. You just bought one." I told him, eyeing the object in question.

"But I think I'm in love." He said. His tone was serious.

I turned to look at him and smiled. His hazel eyes were widened and his glasses were falling down his nose-bridge, his black hair was all over the place around his head and his mouth was in an adorable pout. A mastered look anyone would fall for, anyone except me. I grabbed the sleeve of his black robe and started to walk away from the mob that was looking at the shop's latest merchandise.

"Imagine what Lily would think if she heard that," I joked as I tied his opened black robe in the front.

"What, what would she think? You won't tell her, will you?" he asked me.

I shook my head and passed my hands through his robe's sleeves so they wouldn't be wrinkled, then I started to fix his hair, which was a difficult task, until it didn't look like he had just gotten out of bed.

"I don't know, James, she doesn't tell me much about…you know, you." I hesitated. My honey-coloured eyes met his and I sighed, I could tell he really needed the information. "But don't you think it'd be better for everyone if you got over her?"

The look he gave me would have make Voldemort himself proud. I even considered taking a step back, but I was a Gryffindor and we were not cowards. I matched his glare and crossed my arms until he sighed, one hand going to his hair and ruining my job.

"I'm in love with her, Meredith. It's not a stupid crush." He explained. I felt a pang on my chest at the crushed look in his eyes.

"I know." I linked my arm with his and started walking away from the store.

I hated their situation and, sometimes, like now, I hated Lily Evans for breaking my cousin's heart every time she got. I understood James could be a little immature now and then, and that his pranks sometimes crossed the line and that, yes, his tactics to win Lily weren't great but he was adorably nice and loyal and incredibly good-looking. Was it so hard for her to give him one chance? Apparently, yes. I loved Lily but I loved James more, he was family after all, so I had to admit I was a little biased and Lily knew this, so James was a little off topic for us. If only James would find a way for her to notice him without making an idiot out of himself.

"Wait a minute," I stopped walking and James had to as well, my arm pulling him back. "She doesn't like you because you're immature and harass her."

"Merlin, thank you, Meredith." He mumbled but I laughed as I turned to face him.

"No, no," I put my hands on his shoulders. "What if you weren't like that? She'd definitely like you, I'm sure."

"But I want her to fancy me for me, not a fake." James mumbled.

"Yes, but, what if you didn't act like you at first and then showed her the true you? Not the joker, the mature you that I know is somewhere in there," I explained, scrunching my brows together.

"What are you saying?" he asked, his eyes filled with hope.

"I'm saying it's time you act like you don't care for a change," I said as I started to explain my idea to him.

The plan was simple. Lily hated it when James proclaimed his love for her at the top of his lungs; it embarrassed her and made her think it wasn't for real. So James would not do that in the entire year. Instead, he would be nice to her and polite and would actually accept no for an answer and then, with my help, he'd ask her out for the Christmas Ball my aunt always hosted. She would have to say yes and in the case that she didn't, I'd make sure she at least danced twice with James that evening. While dancing he'd get to show her how mature he was and how nice and she'd have to admit to liking him.

"Wow, I've got to say padfoot would be proud of that plan," James whistled as he nodded at me.

I rolled my eyes at the mention of Black and he laughed, ruffling my recently straightened hair. I moved out of the way but he followed me so we ended up running around Diagon Alley, me trying to save my hair and him simply trying to annoy me. People got out of the way so we could pass by, some of them smiled at us; others shook their heads disapprovingly and muttered something about teenagers not understanding the situation was too bad to play around. Eventually though, James caught up to me and decided to tickle me.

"Okay, stop, James, please." I laughed as I tried to squirm out of his arms.

"All right, so you really think this plan of yours will work." He asked me, letting go off me.

"Absolutely," I nodded. I was following my intuition and that usually led me to good things.

"Meredith," someone called out from Flourish and Blotts.

We both turned to see a twelve-year-old girl with long dark hair twisted up in a pony-tail and hazel eyes beckoning us to enter the shop. It was Delilah Potter, my little sister. We walked to the already-full shop; everyone was trying to buy their books, we followed her all the way to the back, where my parents and James' parents were.

"Oh, there you are you two." Andrea Potter said, relieved.

She straightened her son's robe and glasses and then took him away, ordering him to get his books and be responsible for once. His father, however, simply shook his head, a small smile tugging at his lips, and followed them but not before sending a wink my way. I laughed and turned to my own family. My mother wore a worried frown on her beautiful face, but even that made her look more beautiful, somehow, her blonde hair was neatly combed and cascaded down her back. My father was helping Delilah with one particularly large book, which I recognize to be History of Magic Volume II.

"Where are Chris and Ari?" I wondered, looking around.

"They already bought everything; I think they went to the Leaky Cauldron." My mother explained, handing me my Hogwarts letter. "Now, come, let's buy all of your books."

She gave me a small smile, which I returned, and lead us toward the front of the shop, where my Ancient Runes book was supposed to be. In Hogwarts, I studied Ancient Runes, History of Magic, Divination, Charms, Potions, Transfiguration, Herbology, unfortunately for me, and Defence Against the Dark Arts, which was taught by my own mother. My mother was an auror but had decided to retire when she found out she was pregnant with the twins and Dumbledore, Hogwarts' Headmaster, offered her a job at school as teacher.

"Well, that's about it." she muttered once we had paid for all the books. "I'll take this home, you can buy the rest of the stuff you need. James is outside with Sirius and Marlene is at Madam Malkin's…" her voice trailed off and got lost in the buzzing of the store.

"I'm grounded, remember, mom?" I asked her, trying to keep the hopeful tone out of my voice.

Somewhere near us a child started bawling and his mother ordered him to be silent but that only made him cry harder, on the other side of the shop the manager was trying to control the paying line. The place truly was a mess; I couldn't wait to get out.

"I know but I think I saw Fabian somewhere outside," She commented and I squealed, hugging her.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." I exclaimed. "You're the best mum ever."

I gave her a kiss on the cheek before running outside the shop, avoiding the big piles of books and veering around the witches and wizards; once I was out of the shop, I found James right outside like my mother had said. He was talking to Sirius animatedly; Black had an impress look on his face. Maybe he was filling him in about the getting-Lily-to-like-James plan. I walked up to them and jumped on James's back, making him stumble.

"Very lady-like of you, Potter," Black said, raising his eyebrows at me but I ignored him.

"I'm not grounded anymore." I beamed at James over his shoulder, he beamed back.

"That means you can help me with Evans today." He said and I laughed.

"And you can help me find Fabian, he's here somewhere," I got off of him and stood beside him.

He could be happy about me being free, you know, show a little bit of selflessness. Black excused himself, saying something about finding Regina, I didn't really care, and James and I started to walk around, trying to find someone we knew. I found him at Gambol and Japes', which was not surprising, really. He was wearing some jeans and a simple black shirt under his brown robe, his red hair in a just-got-out-of-my-broom fashion and his brown eyes shinning with the prospect of a prank. I shook my head, he had graduated from Hogwarts two years ago and he was about to become an auror, he shouldn't be thinking about pranks.

"Hello," I said nonchalantly as I walked up to him.

He turned at the sound of my voice and smiled, showing me his beautiful straight teeth. I had been going out with Fabian for a month and two weeks now. He was my official boyfriend, something I hadn't had since I dated Black, actually. James started to walk around the shop, looking for new stuff and most likely planning a welcome-back-to-school prank. Fabian put his arms around me as he gave me a soft kiss, making my heart flutter.

"Hey, I was already leaving." He commented.

"Mmm, no." I pouted, putting my arms around his torso. "Let's get an ice cream, yes?"

He laughed and kissed my nose, making me scrunch up my nose and snuck out my tongue at him.

"Whatever you want," he said as he veered us to the exit. "But weren't you grounded?"

I told James we were leaving and he nodded, saying he'd catch up to us later. We pushed through the doors and started to walk down the alley, we passed several shops but nothing really got our attention. The late summer breeze pushed my waist-long hair back, some of its strands getting into my face, I pushed them back with one hand.

"Mum's being out of character and allowed me to stay for a while. She even told me she'd seen you." I told him, lacing our fingers together.

I was actually pretty sure she had allowed me to stay simply because I'd be with Fabian. My mother had never ever met any of my dates, only Black and Fabian so for her he was kind of the second boy I'd ever really dated. One would think my mother would know more about my life than she knew, seeing as though she was my teacher, but apparently she preferred to stay in the dark. We entered Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and grabbed a seat.

"What would you like?" Fabian asked me.

"Raspberry with peanuts." I answered automatically.

He nodded and went to the counter. Florean Fortescue himself took his order and two cups of ice cream magically filled themselves. One had raspberry ice cream with peanuts over it and the other had blue moon ice cream with blueberries. Suddenly the door opened and in came Lily Evans. She beamed at me and made her way over, leaning over to hug me tightly.

"Oh, I've missed you, Mer." She gushed.

"I've missed you, too. Why did you not tell me you were coming here?" I demanded, pretending anger.

"I thought it was obvious." She shrugged.

Our conversation had taken only seconds and we watched as Fabian paid one galleon and two sickles for both ice creams and made his way over the table. He smiled at Lily and kissed her cheek. He sat down next to me and handed me my ice cream, which I happily took.

"Here you go, gorgeous." He said to me.

I glanced at Lily to see how she smiled widely at me and then took a spoonful of ice cream. I loved this flavour, it was my favourite. It was smooth and sweet and the peanuts were salty and the difference of tastes was great.

"I love this thing, I'm serious." I said as I licked my spoon.

"No, I'm Sirius," A voice reached us and I groaned, burying my face in Fabian's shoulder.

This wasn't happening; this couldn't be happening. I was with my boyfriend, a lovely guy who didn't care I had kind of a reputation and who was drop-dead-hot. I did not need Sirius Orion Black bothering me, that was for sure. It was kind of my fault; I did walk myself to that one but it wasn't like I knew he was around.

"Kill me, please, Fabian, if you care about me in the slightest, you'll kill me," I mumbled into his shirt, his body shook with uncontained laughter.

I heard Lily saying hi to Black excitedly. She might hate my cousin but she got along pretty well with Black and Remus; everyone did, now that I thought about it. She was introduced to Regina and even I could hear the sympathy in her voice.

"He's not that bad." He whispered back to me.

I lifted my head to face Black and Regina, who were now standing right in front of us. She was wearing a lovely blue dress with black tights under it and a dark blue robe above it all, her blonde hair was brushed up in a pony-tail and her make-up was perfectly done. It made her noticeable, but not pretty. Noticeable was good enough for Black, sometimes. Black was as immaculate as always. His hair was still falling into his grey eyes and his white shirt contrasted against his black robe. It all gave him that mysterious aura that girls all ages fawned over. If only they knew he wasn't that mysterious.

"Hi, Regina, how are you doing?" I asked her, smiling politely.

"I'm great," she smiled back. "Do you mind?" she signalled to the chair in front of us.

I nodded, not even sparing Black a glance, and went back to my raspberry ice cream. Fabian gave me a kiss on the temple; I smiled at him and gave him a peck on the lips. Lily sighed, i rolled my eyes. She was doing it on purpose.

"Too much public display of affection," Black said as he pulled out the wooden chair and sat down. His arm flung out and rested on the back of Regina's chair.

"Then leave." I told him.

"I don't understand why you don't like me, honestly." He shot back and I fought the urge to snort.

"Clearly you haven't met yourself." I arched an eyebrow, meeting his eyes.

His eyes blazed with hatred ad I glared back. For a moment, I thought I had actually crossed the line but then he looked over at Regina and asked what ice cream she wanted. She said she wanted pistachio and he went over to the counter. Regina smiled at him until he was talking to Mr. Fortescue, then she turned to us, her smile gone.

"I need your help, please." She begged me.

"What?" I blurted, glancing over at Fabian who simply shrugged.

"I really like him but I know nothing about him, not even his middle name and sometimes I say something he doesn't like and well…" she trailed off, staring down at her hands.

I felt bad for her. She actually believed she'd be the one to make Black settle down, as if that was happening. She wouldn't last the week. I sighed, grabbing the ends of my hair. Regina was nice and for being someone Black had just met, she had lasted a while. Usually he just slept with them and then dumped them, but they had met three days ago and she was still here. That was progress. My eyes met Lily's green ones. She nodded at me once and I inwardly sighed, of course she wanted me to be nice to Regina.

"Why come to me? If you hadn't notice, we don't exactly get along." I said, going back to my ice cream.

"Because you've known him for longer and because I've read Hogwarts: A Gossip since I was eleven years old. You two dated for two years. You must have done something right." she explained.

Obviously not, I thought, otherwise you wouldn't be here. The thought was bitter-sweet in a way and that surprised me. If I had done something right, we wouldn't have broken up. If we hadn't broken up, she wouldn't be putting me in this situation and Black and I would probably still be together. I shook my head. What the hell was wrong with me lately? I had been thinking about him and me a lot lately. Pull yourself together.

"I—fine, ugh," my eyes went to the front counter, where Mr. Fortescue was taking longer than necessary with Black's order.

"All right, here are the highlights. His full name's Sirius Orion Black, he loves sweets, especially Chocolate cauldrons, his friends always come first, he's incredibly smart but don't talk about DADA with him, it's kind of a sore spot. Oh, and never mention his family."—I paused for a minute, my eyes going from Regina to Black, who was already paying, and back to the girl.—"And I mean the Blacks, you can mention James and my aunt and uncle whenever you want, he adores them."

I leaned into Fabian once I was finished and let out a breath; I had said all that in one breath. Regina nodded, taking it all in. None of us spoke. Lily mumbled a 'whoah' under her breath but remained silent. Then, Fabian whistled.

"For someone who hates him you sure know a lot." He mumbled and I turned to look at him.

"You're not jealous, are you?" I asked him. He avoided my eyes and I frowned, shooting Regina a glare.

"Don't be stupid, Fabian. I can't stand the toe-rag. He's my cousin's best friend; of course I know things about him." I told him. He nodded and put his arms around me again.

"Okay… anything else I should know?" Regina asked. The air around us turned suddenly awkward.

"About what?" Black asked us as he sat down next to her. Regina jumped two feet into the air, her knee bumping the table.

The poor girl shot me an alarmed look, which, unfortunately for her, didn't go unnoticed by Black. Great, now I had four pairs of eyes staring down at me expectantly. I had already finished my ice cream so I couldn't use it as a distraction. The talking around the small parlour got louder as more costumers entered the place, already done with their shopping.

"Hair-straightening potion." I shrugged, faking boredom.

"But her hair's already straight." He pointed, taking a strand of her blonde hair between his fingers.

Regina tensed slightly under the touch; almost making it look like she thought Black could tell I was lying and know what we had been talking about by touching her hair. Well, that's great, Meredith, I thought, couldn't you look at her hair first? I didn't say this, though. Instead I rolled my eyes and said:

"Why do you think? Her potion is not working for her so I taught her mine."

The trick with lying was making eye contact. If you made eye contact and didn't fiddle much people believed you were telling the truth. Of course there was the 'thing' everyone had that gave you away. Mine had always been biting the inner corner of my bottom lip. Not many knew this and I wasn't sure if Black knew or not, so I was extremely careful not to bite it.

"All right." Black shrugged and focused on his treat. Regina sent a grateful smile my way and I returned it.

"Can we go? I need to buy some Unicorn tail hair and some lavender." I said to Fabian and Lily.

"Sure, let's go." Lily said as she got up.

"I have to leave soon, anyway. Nice meeting you, Regina." Fabian smiled at her and pulled me up from the table.

"Oh, all right." I frowned, not really wanting him to go. "Well, see you at Hogwarts, Regina; Black."

Black frowned at me but didn't say anything, which was strange. Regina waved at us before turning to Black and starting to talk animatedly. I shook my head at the same time Fabian chuckled at them.

"I feel bad for her, she won't last two weeks." I said as the door closed behind us.

"Maybe, maybe not. Who knows? Perhaps she's the future Mrs. Black." Fabian joked. I giggled at that. Black setting roots somewhere with a woman? Yeah, right.

"I doubt it, which is a shame. She's adorable." Lily said to us as she pulled her hair up in a high ponytail.

"Yeah, and he'll ruin her." He commented. Lily and I sighed, agreeing with him.

A/N: oh, my god, you guys. I'm confused, mayorly confused here. please tell me, should I make this story canon or not? I keep picturing it being canon but then I imagine a complete different story with Lily and James alive so please please please tell me what to do. thank you, xx.