I do not own any of J.K Rowling's characters
18 years earlier
"So, do you think I pass as a Muggle?" I asked Sirius as I held onto the back of the sofa to step into my heels.
"What?" He asked as he turned around looking me up and down taking in my knee-length, tight blue dress with matching blue platforms and a black coat. I'd left my long hair loose as I was running out of time to get to the restaurant.
"Where are you going?" he asked as he stood up from the sofa and walked over to me.
"Lily asked me to accompany her and James at dinner with her sister. They're meeting Petunia's fiancé for the first time." I said quickly heading towards the front door.
"And why wasn't I invited?" Sirius asked following me. I turned and frowned at him.
"Why do you think?" I shot at him "James has to be on his best behaviour."
"You're right, I'd better come to keep an eye on him," Sirius said, his eyes twinkling mischievously.
"Sirius" I said sternly "Lily needs this to be perfect. You can't come." I turned away from him and reached for the door handle.
Sirius stepped in front of me grabbing my hand that was reaching for the door handle and pulled me close to him grinning down at me.
"And what are you going to do to make me stay behind?" he asked in a low voice, his other hand sliding up my thigh, pulling the material of my dress up with it. His touch sent waves of pleasure throughout my whole body but I quickly came to my senses and pushed him away.
"I'm already running late-" I said, my voice coming out slightly heavy.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Sirius said joyfully. He pulled out his wand and flicked it at himself changing his outfit from jeans and a t-shirt to smart black trousers and a white dress shirt. He held a black jacket over his shoulder, his long dark hair slicked back into a small ponytail, I couldn't help but think he looked amazingly handsome. He opened the door and beckoned me out and I glared at him for a second, deciding that I was wasting too much time arguing with him. I walked past him and through the door as he grinned at me and I sighed at the thought of him and James meeting Lily's muggle sister.
We apparated around to the back of the restaurant and hurried around to the front where I spotted Lily and James walking towards the entrance.
"Lily!" I called and she and James looked around.
"Meg, thank God -" Lily started but stopped as soon as she spotted Sirius. I saw James grinning from behind Lily.
"I'm sorry, he insisted," I said quietly in her ear as I hugged her.
"The more the merrier I guess" said Lily to me as Sirius and James grasped each others' hands, laughing like idiots. I rolled my eyes and reassured her that I had told Sirius how important this dinner was to her. Lily nodded and I grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
"You can do this" I whispered to her and she nodded again.
"C'mon, let's get this over with," James said, pulling Lily's hand away from mine and coaxing her towards the entrance.
As James and Lily walked off I quickly turned around and glared at Sirius "You'd better not fuck this up for Lily."
Sirius raised his eyebrows and held up his hands as though I was pointing my wand at him "Whoa, calm down. We're just here for a nice, civil dinner. I'll be on my best behaviour, I promise."
He bent down slightly and kissed my forehead before stepping around me and following James and Lily.
I took in a deep breath and spun around to catch up with them as they entered the restaurant.
Lily spotted Petunia straight away sitting next to a rather large man who appeared to have no neck. I elbowed Sirius softly as I saw him and James exchange an amused look and grinned at each other.
"Hello Tuney" Lily said as Petunia stood up and gave her sister a rather awkward hug "You remember Meg?" Lily said pointing at me as Petunia inclined her head at me "And this is her - er - betrothed Sirius Black and this is my boyfriend James Potter." Lily continued somewhat quicker than she had started.
Vernon was introduced to us all and I sat down next to Lily with Sirius on my right, as far away from James as possible. We all picked up the menus and started to read them for something to do.
"So -" Petunia looked at me after a stained silence "How long have you been betrothed?" she eyed Sirius and I could tell that she was trying to look disapproving but was obviously taken in by his good looks. I couldn't help but feel satisfaction at this even though I wasn't out to impress Lily's older sister.
"Since we were 10," Sirius said almost proudly and I saw James raise his menu to cover his face.
I laughed nervously and added, "It's complicated."
I slowly turned to look at Sirius pointedly but the grin on his face did not falter.
"Don't your lot have laws about that kind of thing" grunted Vernon frowning.
"Not where her father's wallet is involved" Sirius barked a laugh jerking his head at me and James snorted into his menu.
"Anyway," said Lily loudly, flashing a warning look at Sirius "we're not here to talk about them. Tell us about your engagement Petunia."
Petunia spoke about a very boring engagement which involved Vernon proposing to her in his parent's front room whilst they were house-sitting for Mr & Mrs Dursley.
"That's really -er- romantic Tuney," Lily said smiling at her sister. Petunia proceeded to show us all the ugly gold diamond ring on her left hand and we all pretended it was the most beautiful thing we had ever seen. The waiter came and took our orders, the food came out and the night seemed to be progressing as planned. I began to relax a little bit as I noticed some of the tension leaving Lily.
Vernon finished a ginormous mouthful of food and addressed the table "I just bought the new Vauxhall Astra- the first of its kind to feature front-wheel drive. Probably why it's been named car of the year. Lovely drive, isn't it dear" he looked at Petunia who nodded fervently in agreement "Oh yes, it is the best car" she said.
I stole a glance at Sirius who was staring at Vernon with his eyebrows raised in amusement.
Vernon cleared his throat and looked at James "So what car do you drive?"
"Well, speaking of new purchases" James said looking at Vernon and taking a sip of wine before continuing, his voice filled with mirth "I just got my hands on the new Nimbus 1700, much better handling than my old Cleansweep, I'll tell you" he chuckled.
"Is this a foreign brand of car?" Vernon frowned "I've never heard of a Nimble 1700."
I took a long sip of wine as Lily laughed nervously and Sirius snorted softly beside me.
"Really?" asked James in a tone of mock surprise.
"I'm interested to hear more about your job, Vernon" Lily said quickly before James started talking about brooms again.
Vernon, who was still frowning at James, turned to Lily and launched into a tedious speech about his position as a junior executive at a place called Grunnings which made drills.
"What's a drill?" Sirius leant towards me and whispered into my ear. I shrugged as I looked at him. I thought that I knew quite a bit about Muggles but I had never heard of a drill. I made a mental note to go through my Muggle Studies work when I got home.
"He is on his way to becoming CEO one day" gushed Petunia looking at Vernon with such admiration, I felt a grin creeping onto my face and promptly picked up my glass and took another long sip of wine. I knew enough about Petunia to know that this was exactly the type of "man" that she had dreamt about, although it was beyond me why anyone would crave the type of boring, ordinary person that was Vernon Dursley.
There was a pause as dessert and coffee was served to the table, however, Vernon's beady eyes did not leave James.
"What do you do for work?" he asked James gruffly as the waiter walked away.
"Are you asking if I am employed?" James asked, trying to hide his amusement with a look of fake confusion.
"Yes" Vernon said loudly "What do your lot do? - Although I suppose you all live off unemployment benefits don't you?" he looked from James to Sirius and I. Petunia was also looking at me over the top of her mug of coffee.
I frowned at Vernon and saw Lily frown at him as well from the corner of my eye. Did he think that there weren't any jobs in the Wizarding World? How ignorantly absurd I thought.
James was smiling slightly, although the smile wasn't reaching his eyes. I turned to Sirius who had his eyes fixed on Vernon with a slight frown on his face.
"That's a bit presumptuous, Vernon" James said slowly "I don't need to live off benefits, I'm quite self-sufficient."
"Oh yeah?" Vernon asked curtly.
"Yes - ever heard of Sleekeazy's? Well, my father invented that." James said proudly, his smile now absent from his face "and he sold the business for a lot of gold."
"Gold?" Vernon said. None of us missed the impressed look he had on his face before he quickly picked up his coffee to hide behind the mug.
"Yeah -" James said lazily as he leant back in his chair "My parents have enough gold in Gringotts for me to live comfortably."
I shifted in my chair as I glanced at Lily. She was glaring at James and before I could think of a way of diverting the conversation away from James' boasting, Vernon cleared his throat and said "What the ruddy hell is Grigotts?"
James sat forward pushing his glasses up his nose "Grin-gotts" he said slowly as if Vernon couldn't understand him "It's only the only wizarding bank in Great Britain"
"James" Lily said a warning in her tone but James didn't even look at her.
"It's owned and operated by goblins. It was actually founded by a goblin named Gringott in 1474." As James continued I noticed Vernon's face growing red and Lily was glancing nervously at Petunia.
"How about this coffee?" I tittered trying hard to divert the conversation however, no one seemed to have heard.
"Goblins?" Vernon said in a very low and dangerous voice.
"Yeah, Goblins," James said his smile returned to his face as he was clearly loving the fact that Vernon was getting so worked up. "I've heard it's the safest place in the wizarding world. Apart from maybe Hogwarts."
Vernon's face was now scarlet and Petunia's eyes were wide, the colour drained from her face.
"Enough" Vernon spat glaring at James who was now trying his hardest not to laugh.
My heart started to beat fast as I could see the evening slipping out of Lily's grasp.
I looked around at Sirius who wasn't exactly grinning, but he looked very amused and kept catching James' eye.
"I don't know who the hell you think you are, but I will not be made a fool of. All these nonsense words and fabrications." Vernon hissed as he got up so suddenly his large stomach hit the side of the take making the plates and cups jump. "You think you're better than me, don't you Potter?"
"Aw Vernon, don't be like that" James said in an almost satirical tone, which did nothing to quell Vernon.
"Petunia, we're leaving" Vernon said loudly and without saying anything further to anyone he turned around and stormed out of the restaurant.
I quickly glanced at Petunia whose eyes were full of tears.
"Tuney" Lily said quietly, as Petunia stood up.
"I knew we shouldn't have come" Petunia snarled to Lily "I should have known you and your freak friends would have ruined everything"
"Tuney - please just wait" Lily stood up as Petunia turned around and stormed out of the restaurant after Vernon. I realised that nothing Lily could say would have made Petunia turn back around.
"Well-" Sirius said "-that went well" I turned and glared at him as he grinned watching Vernon and Petunia climbing into their car from the huge window.
I looked up at Lily who was staring at the spot Petunia had just left.
"He didn't even leave his share of the dinner," James said, leaning back in his chair and looking behind Lily and myself at Sirius.
"So rude," Sirius said, shaking his head and grinning at his best friend "Lucky you have all that gold in Gringotts."
Lily turned quickly and ran from the table towards the toilets, her face buried in her hands.
"Shit," James said his grin vanishing from his face as he watched Lily run off.
I glared at him and sighed "You knew how important this was to her."
James looked back at me and sighed "I know. But he was being a prat Megs."
"He started it. You can't expect Ja-" Sirius started from behind me
I spun around glaring at Sirius also "You keep quiet!" He fell instantly silent as he saw how angry I was. I turned back to James.
"Regardless, why couldn't you have pretended for just one night for Lily." I said to him as I stood up "I can't believe how selfish you are, James Potter" I added before turning to go find Lily.
I pushed open the door to the toilets and found Lily splashing water onto her red, blotchy face.
"Lily" I said softly and she looked up at me sadly.
"Tuney is never going to speak to me again," She said as tears started to fall down her cheeks once again.
I walked over to her and hugged her stroking her hair as she sobbed into my shoulder.
"I'm so sorry it didn't turn out the way you wanted," I said to her when we broke apart.
"I'll never make her happy, no matter what I do," Lily said, wiping her cheeks roughly.
I bit my lower lip as I deliberated what to say next.
"Maybe it's time to stop trying?" I said softly. "You're the best sister anyone could possibly want but you two are both on different paths now."
Lily sniffed as she looked at me. She sighed after a beat and nodded slowly.
"You're right Meg" Lily said, managing a sad smile.
"And as for James - well, Vernon was pretty patronising." I shrugged.
"I know - it wasn't entirely James' fault." Lily smiled sadly and sighed again. "I'm going to clean up - I'll be out in a minute"
I squeezed her hand and smiled at her before I turned around to join the boys back at the table.
They were now sitting together, trying to figure out Muggle money.
"I just don't know what these ones are" I heard Sirius mumble as he held up a penny to study it.
I smiled as I took it from his hand and they both spun around looking at me expectantly. "Where's Lily?" James asked me jumping up from his seat "Is she okay?"
I surveyed him for a second - he did look genuinely sorry and worried. I narrowed my eyes before saying "You're a lucky man, James."
"Yes he is," Lily said from behind me.
"Lily! I'm so sorry - I - I will make it up to you, I promise." James said quickly "I'll make things up with Vernon-"
Lily flung herself into his arms "You promise?" she asked as they broke apart.
"At the earliest opportunity" James smiled down at her.