Here we are again! Chapter 2 :D Enjoy!

Chapter 2 - A Trip to Diagon Alley

"What do you think about this one?"

Lily grimaced at the bright red top Marlene held up for them to inspect. It had a huge cut-out at the back – or it could be the front because the other back had the same sized cut-out, which weirded her out more than she liked to admit. The shirt – if you could call it that – was rather short, definitely short enough to show the wearer's belly button, if not more, and for some reason, it had really long bell sleeves that would reach way down past one's wrists and had to be pushed up, so its wearer wouldn't lose all function of their hands. All in all, it was an odd garment, which was probably the reason why Marlene felt drawn to it.

"Well, the colour's nice?"

Lily slowly turned towards Dorcas who had an awkward smile on her face. Her dark eyebrows were raised, which just underlined the fact that her answer had not only sounded but had probably also been meant as a question.

"Isn't something missing?" Lily asked, and Dorcas let out a soft sigh at not having all of the attention on her anymore. "As in… You know… It's basically just sleeves and a bottom hem."

Marlene looked back at the item in her hand, holding it at an arm's length distance that almost looked painful. Her head tilted to the side as she squinted at the piece of clothing. As if that would help the situation.

"You think?"

"Well… What's the front?"

"This one." Marlene pointed at the side that had been facing them the whole time. "The other side has a tag."

"Ah, good thinking, because both sides look the same."

"True," Marlene agreed and nodded at Dorcas. "That's a bit confusing, but regardless of that – what do you think? Do you like it? Would it suit me?"

"If you want the guy to just stare at your chest and not know what your face looks like." No matter how hard Lily tried, that sentence came out extremely sarcastic, but Marlene knew her well enough to not get insulted. Quite the contrary, in fact.

"What if that's what I'm going for?" The smirk on her face would have sent anyone running to the next church to beg the next best priest to relieve them of their sins.

"Then it's perfect."

"Awesome! I'll get it, then. Marc better be salivating all over the table when he buys me my drinks tonight because this piece is expensive and it better be worth it!"

"Are you sure you don't have any other things in mind, Marlene?" Just that question alone showed Lily how much more comfortable and confident Dorcas had gotten over the years of being their friend.

Dorcas Meadowes was a very shy girl, but one that nobody should underestimate. Lily always found that she had a hidden fire in her, which she kept a very good hand over, controlling it too perfectly. Her dark, almost black hair reached her sharp jawline, and her dark brown eyes were so warm of a colour that one could drown in them. Her skin was of a light chocolate brown and Lily had never seen a moment in which it hadn't glowed. She was a timid girl, one that didn't have a lot of self-confidence, but she was getting there. Dorcas was such a kind soul that Lily wanted her to get everything in life that she could ever wish for, because if there was someone who deserved it, it would definitely be Dorcas.

"I am most certainly not sure, no, thank you for asking, love." The level of mischief practically dripping off those words left Dorcas beet-red in the face and Lily laughing.

"You're a minx, you know that?" she said jokingly as Marlene strolled through the aisles to look for more treasures she could use to control the poor guy's brain for the rest of his life.

"Been told that once or twice, now that you mention it."

Lily snorted at the matter-of-fact tone of her friend's voice whilst following her deeper into the shop. "You still need to try that thing on, though."

"Uh-huh, Lily!" Marlene gasped and whirled around. Her light brown eyes were big and sparkling with mirth. "Are you sure you're into Potter? He's a boy, you know that, right?"

"Oh, shut up, you!"

"I'm just saying! There's nothing wrong with aiming the other way, if you know what I mean, but it's better to listen to one's heart before starting something with the wrong sex."

Lily raised her eyebrows. "You sound as if you're speaking from experience."

"Nooooo!" Marlene pushed a few shirts to the side to pull out a bright green one, clearly trying to buy time, before glancing at Lily and Dorcas. "Well, maybe."

"Oh, do tell!"

"There's nothing to tell!" She sniffed, grimaced, and hung the shirt back on the rack. "I've told you guys about last year's Italy holiday."

Dorcas gasped, hands flying up to cover her open mouth, dark eyes as big as a doe's. "Micaela!"

"Micaela?" Lily frowned slightly before it hit her like a ton of bricks. "Pool Micaela? The bartender who makes the best Virgin Coladas of Ancona? That Micaela?"

Marlene groaned and wiggled the ugly red shirt towards the redhead and brunette to shut them up. "Yes, that Micaela. Merlin, do we have to talk about this now? I was thinking about how to best get into Marc's pants and all you guys are making me reflect on now is freaking Micaela with her beautiful long hair and insanely pure skin. Like, honestly, she has to be a witch, there's no way a Muggle can have skin like she does."

"Are you sure you want to go out with a boy tonight?"

"Dorcas, love." Marlene's tone sounded awfully as if she was talking to a toddler. "Yes, I'm sure. As I've said – I've been there. Micaela was a sweetheart, a fling, a distraction – albeit a very hot distraction, but a distraction nevertheless – and it was very clear to me that I'm straight as soon as I kissed her. So, yes. Marc. Girls, we need to turn me into a hot snack today so that I can become his snack tonight!"

"No need to be so graphic about it, Marly," Lily said light-heartedly, if with a bit of seriousness in her tone. She wasn't overly fond of people talking about other people and themselves as if they were just objects that only had one thing in mind. It was probably her upbringing, but then again, Petunia couldn't even bring herself to hold hands with the whale, which Lily was thankful for. She didn't want to see Vernon 'I Like Drills' Dursley's hands anywhere near her sister. Ew. So Lily was more open-minded than that, at least. Holding hands in public was cute – if it wasn't her sister and the whale – even if full-on snogging wasn't necessary.

"Ah, I'm just saying what you're thinking, dear Lily." The addressed redhead failed to react, so Marlene continued, smirk clear on show, "You're head over heels in love with James, but you're still refusing to see it."

Lily sputtered, only slightly indignant as a small voice in her head hummed contently at the thought of James Potter. "Just because we're on a first name basis now doesn't mean I fancy him."

"No, it doesn't, but what does is the way you look at him when you think nobody sees it and the way you react to his antics and his presence."

Dorcas looked from Marlene to Lily and back, a soft smile on her lips. Even dear Dorcas sided with the traitor!

Lily huffed. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said stoically and turned towards the rails that lined the walls, pulling out random shirts to look at. She needed an excuse to not see those knowing grins on Marlene and Dorcas' faces.

"Of course, you don't. Well, you just keep telling yourself that until, one fine day, you'll see reason and come to me, thanking me for my foresight and saying how blind you have really been."

Dorcas' light laugh filled the air and Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh, ha, ha."

"You'll see. You might not say it quite like that, but you can never be too sure until it happens. Anyway," she pulled the curtain of the changing cubicle to the side and slid in, "speaking of James Potter and his good looks –" Lily blushed – "Sirius asked me what we'd be up to today and he said he and the boys would spend the afternoon in Diagon Alley as well. More specifically The Leaky Cauldron, but they'd come out for our sake."

"Sirius and the boys?" Dorcas asked as they could hear soft shuffling of clothes being removed behind the curtain. "Will Remus be there as well?"

The wooden rings that held the curtain up rattled against each other aggressively as the upper part of the curtain was pulled open and Marlene's eager face peeked out, staring their poor friend down. "Remus?"

"Y—Yeah, I was just wondering—"

"Wondering, huh? Well, well, well, I see, but until you have gathered the courage to tell us about your crush" – "Hey!" – "I'll get off your back. But just so that you know – if you ever need a wingman, or woman, hit me up. I can ask Sirius out on a couple's date and then he'd ask who the couples would be and then I'd tell him that should be obvious, and then he'd come to the conclusion to get Remus to ask you out, and voilà. You have a problem, I have the solution."

"But there would be more than two couples, and I'm not even going to mention how you instantly volunteered to ask Sirius Black on a date."

"Oh, how right you are, but Lily and James will be busy in the best hidden abandoned classroom or broom closet, whatever's nearest. And I will also ignore what you just said about me thinking about asking Sirius Black out, but honestly?" She pulled the curtain back and stepped out of the cubicle, now clad in the extravagant red top. "He's hot."

"Hotter than Marc?" Lily asked innocently as Marlene twirled in front of the mirror to see herself from all sides.

"Ha! So much hotter, you have no idea. Marc is cute and all, but Sirius is on another level."

Lily glanced at Dorcas who was hiding a smile behind her hand, eyes sparkling merrily.

"But I want to have fun now. It's the summer holidays, ladies! I gotta hook up with cute guys and make the best out of my time before I settle with the man of my dreams. Not that you know what that feels like." She smirked and winked at Dorcas and Lily who were sitting on the plastic seats in front of the cubicle. "You know what I mean."

"We go for the obviously right choice while you want to enjoy yourself before having to think about serious emotions." That answer came so fast that Lily was honestly impressed with their shy friend.

"Right you are, Dorcas, love, right you are. But coming back to the issue at hand – what do you think?" She whirled around and struck a pose – hands resting on her waist, hip jutted out to the side, head tilted, and tongue pointing out between her white teeth. "Do you love it?"

"I don't mind it, actually," Lily admitted as she looked at her friend sporting the shirt that was mostly made out of sleeve, but for some odd reason, she pulled it off. "It suits you."

Dorcas nodded. "I wouldn't have thought it possible, but yeah. It really looks nice on you and Marc will love it."

Marlene squealed and twirled back around to look at herself one last time in the mirror. "Yes, he will love it. Ah, I look hot. Okay, I have to get this one."

"You never answered my question, though," Dorcas said softly as Marlene vanished back behind the curtain again. "Whether Remus will be there as well."

"Oh, right," her voice travelled out of the cubicle slightly muffled by the heavy fabric of the velvet curtain. "I'm 98% sure that he will be there. I just hope they left Pettigrew at home."

"Now, Marly, that's not very nice!" Lily frowned at the approximate spot where her friend's head should be.

"What? He's creepy as fuck!"

"No, he's not! He's just shy."

"Dorcas is shy, and do you see her behaving like Pettigrew? No. Because she's normal and sweet." Marlene pulled open the curtain, now back in her white and blue striped tank top and hot pants. The red shirt was resting above her angled arm. "Now, Pettigrew on the other hand…"

"You just don't know him. I'm sure Peter's just as sweet as—"

"The rest of them? Yeah, I doubt it." Marlene sighed. "Lily, you're honestly too nice for this planet. Seeing the good sides in people even if said people don't even have good sides to see."

"And you are too pessimistic for this world, but I love you anyway."

"Ahh, that's the spirit, my love, that's the spirit. Now, let's get out of here. I'm in the mood for some ice cream and I told Sirius to be there at half past four."

Dorcas snorted. "It's already ten to five, Marly."

"It's fashionable for a lady to be late. You have to make the blokes wait and lust after you so that they know to treasure the time they're allowed to be around you! But honestly, Lily?"

Marlene pulled them to a stop and looked at the redhead with a serious expression on her face. Lily didn't know what to make of it, but she waited patiently for Marlene to get off her chest whatever was bothering her.

"You need to at least show James that you're not entirely disgusted by him. That would honestly be enough for the guy. Poor dolt is completely done for you, but if you don't, he will eventually get his brain back to working mode, give up and move on."

"Don't worry, Marly," Lily said, now with a smirk of her own lighting up her freckled face, before she slowly started walking towards Florean Fortescue's, "nobody will give up on anyone anytime soon."

Marlene and Dorcas both gasped simultaneously and started barrelling Lily with questions, which she just laughed off and started running down Diagon Alley, her friends hot on her heels.

*~*Take Me Home*~*

It was beautiful that day in London. Diagon Alley was bustling with people of all ages – elderly women in light robes and tightly bound hair looking at the newest products for one's home, men around thirty trying to shush their new-borns while their mothers were chatting with a friend in front of a florist with the most colourful flowers Lily had ever seen, and kids of around ten mingling in front of The Magical Menagerie looking at owls, cats, and snakes.

There was honestly only one thing that could make this day even better, and when they turned the corner leading to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, her heart reacted before her mind could register what she saw – black, messy hair, glasses that reflected the late afternoon sun, skin the colour of honey, and the brightest grin on Earth.

Before any of the girls could do more than walk a metre or two, James had spotted them in the throngs of bustling people. He jumped up off the metal seat he had been lounging on mere seconds before and started waving his arms around like crazy. Lily groaned.

"The ladies have arrived!" They could hear Sirius yell through the crowd, causing quite a few people to turn around, either confused or indignant, but Sirius, being as obnoxious as ever, didn't seem to care in the slightest. "They have graced us with their presence at last!"

"You can be happy that we came at all," Marlene said snobbishly as she let the bag that held her new shirt fall to the ground before she, herself, plonked down on the free seat next to Sirius. "We've been in the zone and super productive, but you had to have ice cream."

"Oh, McKinnon, how much you hurt me." Sirius put a hand over his heart and looked down at her with big, sad eyes. "If I had known, I wouldn't have offered to leave my Firewhiskey to buy you a sundae."

Marlene looked at Sirius, eyes narrowing slightly before a wide, flirty grin lit up her face. "Apology accepted, Black. I want chocolate, strawberry and vanilla with strawberry sauce, whipped cream and white chocolate sprinkles, thank you."

Lily bit down a laugh as she looked at Sirius blinking owlishly at her friend. "You will make me a poor man, McKinnon, but your word is my command. Also, chocolate ice cream with strawberry sauce and white chocolate sprinkles? Who even are you?"

"Alright, Evans?"

Her stomach dropped pleasantly as she heard his soft voice right next to her. Lily turned around, letting Marlene and Sirius bicker in the background, while she looked at those warm hazel eyes that she hadn't seen in weeks.

"Alright," she said softly, almost shyly, and for a wicked second, she asked herself why, all of a sudden, she was acting like this around him. They had been writing letters for weeks now and she had had the impression that being around him during the last few weeks of their sixth year had turned into feeling like second nature already, but now…

Her stomach made a somersault, and she felt her knees go weak.

"I'm glad."

Phew, when had the air gotten so hot? Was she sweating? Oh God, hopefully not! She really didn't need her face to turn red and moist right now. That would look awful!

"You look nice," James mumbled next to her, and she bit back an elated grin when his hand jumped up and ruffled his hair, a gesture that, unlike what she had thought before, wasn't arrogant at all but more of an insecure tick than anything. Which made her adore it even more.

Wait, had she just thought she adored James Potter's nervous habits? Oh, phew, it was really getting hot here.

"What have you girls been up to today?" He pulled back one of the metal chairs for her to sit on, an easy smile on his face.

"Oh, we've been looking for an outfit for Marlene," she answered softly before taking a seat and nodding her thanks to him, already feeling a light blush creep up her neck.

"An outfit for Marlene?"

"Yes, she has a date tonight and wants to… well… she wants to impress the fellow."

James barked out a laugh, head thrown back to expose his muscular neck. Lily gulped. "Of course, she does." He snickered and shot a glance to where Sirius was still busy mock-fighting with Marlene. "She's very much like Sirius, you know. He had a date the other night, but it didn't go so well."

Lily's eyes lit up. "Oh, the one with the taxi?"

"Ha, no, another one." James grinned widely and rocked his chair closer to Lily so that he could talk more quietly but still have her hear him, which caused her to actively focus on her breathing. Wow, he smelled nice! She'd never noticed before. "Sirius still has it set in his mind to be accepted as a Muggle and I fear that he won't stop until he's met a Muggle who doesn't end up running away, insulted."

"That will take him years." Lily snickered and looked over to Sirius, who honestly couldn't be more "non-Muggle", even if he tried. "But I have to give it to him – at least he has patience."

"Being a stubborn idiot also helps, I guess." James smirked and winked at Lily, causing the butterflies in her belly to go crazy. "Anyway, what can I get you, Evans?"

Lily blinked owlishly, having completely forgotten that they were at an ice cream shop. "Oh, you don't need to get me anything, thank you. I'll just go and see what they have, and—"

"What? Oh, no, don't insult me, Evans. This one's on me. I've just been to Gringotts and took way too much money out of my vault. Completely by accident, of course, but I now need to get rid of it, and what better way to do so than by spending it on ice cream?"

Lily laughed, involuntarily flattered by his ability to not boast whilst literally saying he was rich and wanting to buy her things for no reason. "Then I'll pay for Butterbeer in Hogsmeade!" She shot back without thinking about what those words might entail, but as she realised what she had just said, it was too late to take it back.

James' eyes grew bigger and bigger, and his mouth hung open slightly as he stared at her. It took him a few seconds to gather his wits, shake his head like a dog, and smile at her in such a beautiful way that Lily couldn't bring herself to regret her loose tongue.

"Are you asking me on a date, Evans?" he asked cheekily, but Lily could see right through his demeanour. Despite the cocky appearance, there was a layer of worry and anxiety clearly present hiding right behind those sparkling, and now slightly narrowed, eyes.

So, she steeled herself for what would most certainly change everything. She had promised Marlene and Dorcas earlier that they needn't worry about James moving on. And she hadn't lied. She honestly liked him, that much she had found out over the course of the last few weeks, and who was she kidding, she'd grown to like him back at Hogwarts, even.

That still didn't keep her heart from skipping a beat when she allowed herself to finally give in.

"Maybe?"

The look of pure elation on James' face was both hilarious as well as extremely adorable and Lily couldn't help but laugh, but he didn't get a chance to say anything before Sirius hit his fist on the table between them, a serious expression on his face.

"Friends," he said loudly, and both Remus and Marlene rolled their eyes. Dorcas looked rather put out at having her conversation with Remus interrupted so rudely. "We need to discuss what we want to do this holiday. It's our last, after all. This time next year, we will be fully grown wizards and witches, having graduated with flying colours from Hogwarts, looking for a job so that we won't starve."

"Graduating with flying colours. Who are you talking about? That would literally only be Lily."

The mentioned witch blushed, and James nudged her with his elbow, which only deepened her blush and caused him to snicker. She already regretted having asked him out. Well, maybe not, but she was close to it! Give her a few more unwanted moments of attention and she could be there.

"That's a given, but we'll all know more when the time comes. We'll be in our last year next month. Isn't that crazy to think about? So, we need to make the best of what carefree time we have left."

"You mean other than waiting for my sundae that an idiot promised me ten minutes ago and that I still haven't got?"

Sirius looked at Marlene, indignant, before turning to Remus. "Did you just hear what she said?"

"I'm not deaf, Sirius, and, you know, she's right. You don't promise a girl to get her ice cream to then force her to wait for it. That's why I waited until we've at least caught up a bit. Dorcas, what can I get you?"

Lily had never in her life seen Dorcas beam so brightly as she did in that moment. "Strawberry and lemon, please," she said softly and watched Remus stand up, wink at her, and turn to go get her and his sundaes. She looked as if she was close to fainting.

"You still haven't told me what flavours you want, Evans. If you don't tell me, I'll just get whatever, and you know that Florean just loves to experiment."

"Don't threaten me, Potter," Lily said cheekily before picking up the card that lay forgotten in the middle of their table, looking at what flavours were available. "Ooh, mint chocolate chip and cherry, please."

"Odd combination, but I respect that." And with that, he was off, only to, at the last moment, hurry back, grab a fistful of Sirius' shirt and pull him alongside him into the shop.

"Sirius is right, though," Dorcas put in as the boys had left the table. She was looking at her hands and seemed thoughtful. "These are probably the last carefree moments we'll have for a long time."

"It's getting worse, isn't it?" Marlene asked, and all of a sudden, the flirty demeanour she had shown just a few seconds before was gone, exchanged by something darker. She was worried, and Lily felt that she had a true reason to worry.

Silence enveloped them for a short moment before Lily sighed.

"It's not just reading about families vanishing, though." She slid further to the edge of her seat. Her bum was barely touching the warm metal underneath her. "It's how it feels. I mean, today has been incredibly fun, but it felt different somehow, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah." Dorcas nodded slowly, eyes focusing on something that neither of the other girls could see. "I've talked to my dad about it, you know? I feel like Mum doesn't want to see it, but Dad gets it. You know he's a Muggle-born, so he's just as worried as we are, if not more. But he also believes Mum when she says that the disappearances and incidents involving Muggle villages and such have logical explanations and that he should stop being so pessimistic all the time." She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts before continuing, "I just hope that she only says that to calm him down and not because she believes it."

"It's not him being pessimistic, it's him being cautious." Marlene sighed and glanced over her shoulder to see whether the boys were returning, but Lily could see Sirius jumping up and down impatiently while they were still waiting in line. "He has all the right to be worried, it's only understandable. Hell, my whole family is pure-blooded and still, I'm worried. I don't want to live in a world that has standards dictated by supremacists' ideals. One's blood status shouldn't be something of importance, and the Prophet can say all they want – this is about blood purity, even if nobody's putting it into words."

"What about you, Lily?" Lily glanced up at Dorcas, who looked at her with clear worry on her face. "How are you feeling about all this?"

A humourless laugh escaped the witch as she folded her hands together and shrugged. "How should I feel, really? There's nothing I can do about it. All I can do is read about whole Muggle villages being burnt to the core without any explanation, the only sign that magic had been involved being a weird floating head in the sky, and Muggle-borns vanishing from the face of the earth without a trace, gone forever, while the world acts as if that's just what happens every first Monday of the month. I'm super scared and would love to do anything but read about it, knowing full well that this could very well be me the next day."

"Don't say that!"

"Well, it's true, isn't it, Marlene? All of those who vanished were very vocal about their dislike of anything to do with blood statuses. I'm very open about how much I hate supremacism; all of Hogwarts' population knows that." She sighed and ran a hand over her face before continuing, "Just look at Severus. Yes, I know, you don't like him, but listen. We were friends, and I even thought we were best friends. He was literally the one who introduced me to the wizarding world. We grew up together. But being around his so-called friends turned him into one of them – someone who judges others by their blood and heritage. That isn't who I thought I knew when I was a kid. He was brainwashed and believes whatever nonsense his fellow Slytherins tell him, and the worst thing is that I feel like he truly supports it. So, what can I do, really? Nothing but wait. And fight. Eventually."

A few seconds of defeated silence followed that emotional onslaught before Dorcas quietly asked, "Have you talked to James about it yet?"

Lily scoffed. "That's not necessarily something you tell your cru— I mean. That's not necessarily something you tell someone you've only just got friendly with."

"Uh-huh, we've heard where you wanted to go with that," Marlene sang mockingly and winked at a, now red, Lily before getting serious again. "Never mind your crush on James Potter and no need to deny it – you know, we know, Sirius knows, the only ones who probably are still in denial are you and Jamesie boy – but I think why Dorcas asked that is because James' parents are in the Order. They would know how serious the situation is."

"The Order?" Lily asked softly, confused, before glancing up at the sight of the boys returning with two humongous sundaes each. "What the hell? Why do they think we can eat all of that?"

Marlene opened her mouth to answer her first question, but by the time she had taken a breath, Sirius had shoved her ice cream into her direct line of sight.

"Such a gentleman," she grumbled softly before she accepted the ice cream with a roll of her eyes. "Thanks, honey!"

"Ah, anytime, my love. Now. Where were we?"

"Hmm… Honey? My love?" Remus offered as he, too, set both his and Dorcas' filled-to-the-top glasses of ice cream onto the table's surface, earning himself a sweet smile from the brunette. He blushed softly, and Lily couldn't do more than breathe through the onslaught of 'Oh my God, they're perfect together' that wanted to literally break out of her. "Is there something you two lovebirds want to tell us?" He wiggled his eyes suggestively and Marlene started laughing.

"In his wettest dreams maybe."

"You know about my dreams? Oh, McKinnon, I do love you."

Marlene groaned, but both Dorcas and Lily knew that, deep down, she loved the attention she got from him. "Never mind your dirty dreams, Black, what I really want to know is where you left Pettigrew at."

"Way to ruin a guy's mood, love."

Marlene raised her eyebrows and slowly took a bite of her ice cream, making sure Sirius would see every movement of her spoon. "I know my way around."

"You're such a tease."

"Peter's at home," Remus pitched in before scooping half a strawberry into his mouth. "He said his mum isn't feeling well and he wants to make sure she's okay."

"His mum is sick?" Lily asked worriedly, her spoon stopping halfway to her mouth. "I hope it's nothing serious."

"It's slowly becoming a regular occurrence." James almost sounded annoyed, and both Sirius and Remus nodded solemnly. "We'd only seen him once since we got off the train. All of the other times he said his mum's not feeling too peachy."

Lily frowned and looked at Dorcas and Marlene, both of them with their own frowns on their faces. "That's odd," she said quietly before turning her gaze back to her slowly melting ice cream.

"It's very odd. Especially because the one time he did agree to meet us was only because we told him that James' mum had met Mrs Pettigrew in Gringotts and that she had seemed fine. They'd been chatting for some time, actually, and Mrs Pettigrew didn't say anything that would even hint at an illness." Remus raised his eyebrows as if to say, "What do you make out of that?"

James nodded. "I don't really get it. He's been off ever since last year."

"Did something happen that he didn't tell you about?"

"How'd we know that if he didn't tell us about it?" Sirius asked, smirking, yet his smile lacked the usual cockiness. "But to answer your question – no. Nothing happened. And we'd know because he tells us everything."

"Or so you'd think."

"What do you mean by that?" Everyone turned to James, who, in turn, started fidgeting.

"I don't know, I just don't have a good feeling about it." He sighed, pushing his ice cream around in the glass, watching it melt into a slushy consistency. "It doesn't sit right with me, and I don't know why that is."

Lily hummed as she really looked at James. He seemed worried, if not a bit scared. It wasn't something she'd seen on him before. He was usually such a happy and easy-going person, always up for fun and grinning, joking around, but now… He really had changed and something deep inside Lily told her that he'd grown up. And she was very certain that the reason for that happening wasn't their graduation next year.

"Well, I'm happy he isn't here," Marlene said as she scraped the last bit of ice cream out of the glass bowl in front of her before she leant back and settled into her chair. Upon seeing the surprised looks from the boys and the annoyed looks from the girls, she exclaimed, "What? It's true. I've never felt particularly comfortable around him. I don't know why, but something about him puts me off. He might be nice enough, but everyone has some people they just will never get along with. And that's Pettigrew for me."

"He can be rather peculiar, that's true." Lily had to give Remus credit for that unbiased and level-headed response. "But he's our friend, even if he seems off from time to time."

James and Sirius nodded, the latter eagerly while the first looked hesitant, something only Lily saw but didn't bring to the others' attention.

"And even if he's avoiding us." James sighed and finally pushed his glass bowl of melted ice cream away from him. "We'll get behind it. I just hope he didn't get himself into some kind of trouble and is too embarrassed to tell us."

"And for good reason, because we would taunt him forever." Sirius stuck his tongue out of his mouth, wiped his index finger over the bowl and licked the rest of the liquified ice cream off of it.

Remus grimaced.

"Should we hit the town in a bit?" Sirius asked as soon as his bowl was as clean as it would get by wiping it out with one's finger. The streaks of melted ice cream just highlighted what had just happened. "You know – go to Mr Donald's and afterwards go on a pub hoist?"

Lily snickered. "Okay, first of all, it's McDonald's and going on a pub crawl, there's no hoisting involved. Second of all, I have to be home in, like, half an hour for dinner or my mum will have my head." And with that, she pushed her chair back and stood up, watching in fascination and wonder as her empty ice cream bowl disappeared. No matter how long she was already part of the wizarding world, that excitable Muggle part of her would never truly go away. And she didn't want it to, either.

"I've got to go, as well," James announced before he, too, stood up. Unlike Lily, he didn't pay the vanishing ice cream bowl a second glance.

"I thought you wanted to—"

Remus hit Sirius on the arm. Hard.

"Ow! What was that for?" Sirius cried and reached up to rub his arm. "That hurt!"

"For not knowing when to shut up," Remus hissed, but Lily wasn't paying them any mind as she looked at James, whose hands were fidgeting nervously.

"Can I walk you home?" he asked softly, and Lily bit her bottom lip in an attempt not to grin. His eyes jumped from hers to her lips. He gulped visibly.

"That would be a very long walk," she answered, feeling oddly satisfied with what effect she seemed to have on him. "I had to Apparate here using three different Apparition points."

A hysterically laughing boy ran past them, swinging a stuffed pigeon on a metal stick through the air, with his mother hot on his heels.

James blinked, slightly put off, before a breathy laugh escaped him and his hand reached up to ruffle his hair, completely ignoring the now screaming mother. "Can I side-along, then? I want to see you home safely."

A blush crept up her neck and warmed up her cheeks. Everything felt so surreal, what with the people chatting and laughing in the background, the mother yelling her head off, and James standing there in front of her with that beautifully shy smile on his face. "That's very nice of you and I'd appreciate that."

She had promised herself to be more open with him during the first week of the summer holidays and despite her nerves, she forced herself to do exactly that.

James was a very nice guy – and very handsome, mind you – and he had gone through so much to turn into who he was now. And now, it was her turn to change how she had treated him so far.

"Alright, then," he said excitedly before glancing to his left where the others were still bickering over Sirius' lack of tact. With the exception of Dorcas, who was watching them closely. "Guys, we're heading off. See you losers tomorrow."

He reached for her hand and started to pull her away from Florean Fortescue's, down Diagon Alley and away from their friends.

And away from the next Apparition point.

I hope you liked this one!

Until next time - see ya! :D