Chapter 3: Mary MacDonald

"And all I had done was open it up and there she comes running up to me-!," James jumped off the bed mimicking Lily Evans for the umpteenth time the next day. He had relayed the events of yesterday to Peter in the morning and now Remus and Frank had wanted to hear about it too. "screaming like a harpy- you'd think I killed her cat or something. I swear I barely looked in it, and it was just a pair of socks. Plain old socks." He flopped back on the bed, moodily.

Remus cocked his head. "Are you sure it was just socks? Why would Lily scream at you over socks?"

Frank winked. "Yeah James, you sure it was just socks, maybe it was some other girl stuff?"

"It was socks!" James protested throwing a pillow at Frank who was making odd suggestions about what it could have been instead.

"Now, now let's not get violent boys." Sirius said strolling into the dorm calmly with Peter at his side. James stood up and made a beeline towards Sirius. "YOU! WHERE ARE MY CHOCOLATE FROG CARDS?" James pointed accusingly at the boy, after all he was the reason he had been caught digging through Lily Evan's drawers at all.

Sirius gulped dramatically as James pinned him to the wall. "I take it you had a nice chat with Evans?"

"NICE?" James growled. "GIVE US THE CARDS SIRIUS!"

"All right, all right." Sirius grinned easily pointing to his bed. "Second drawer on the right. You win Jamesie."

"You mean to say you had it this entire time?" James asked incredulously.

Sirius shrugged. "I thought it would be funny."

James narrowed his eyes but Frank having grabbed the cards threw them on the bed, and they all immediately started scanning the cards, everything else forgotten.

"No Grindelwald." Frank told James who promptly turned moody again. He always got what he wanted. This was so unfair. He had even gone as far as to break into the girl's dorms, and he'd gotten humiliated in front of Lily Evans...all for nothing.

"James?" Remus asked looking at him with a concerned expression.

"I'm going to class." James said flatly picking up his bag and stowing his wand in his robes.

"James." Remus called out again more insistently.

"WHAT?" James yelled getting more annoyed with Remus.

"It's Saturday."

"So?" James asked turning to face Remus.

"There's no class on...Saturday." Frank added setting the cards on the bed.

"I'm going to the library."

"The library?" Sirius shook his head. "Mate- I'm sorry it was supposed to be funny. James mate come on now-"

James shut the door and stormed down the stairs angrily. He didn't want to talk to anyone. They were all just going to tell him it was okay when nothing was really okay. He had done everything he still hadn't gotten what he wanted. And James Potter was used to getting what he wanted.

He heard the dormitory door creak open slightly and presumably it would be Peter, who was the one they sent out often when things got heated, watching him as he trudged out the common room door.

He sighed and reluctantly headed towards the library. This was not how he would have decided to spend his Saturday.

The library was eerily silent when he walked in. He didn't like the silence. He let out a loud cough so the sound would echo and he'd feel more encouraged to walk in. No doubt Sirius and the others would be counting how long it would take him to get back to the common room.

"Shhhhhhhh."

James stared at the towering lady before him.

Irma Pince. He has only heard the name but had never once seen the librarian in person before.

She was dressed in all black from her dark pointed heels to the feathered top hat that rested above her equally dark hair in a ring underneath. If the feathers on her hat weren't enough, the feathered boa she wore around the midnight robes were enough to make her resemble a raven. Some tiny part in James's head wondered if she secretly had wings that she covered with that boa or if perhaps the black robes were actually wings- when suddenly she dropped down at his eye level and put a finger to her lips.

"No talking in my library." She repeated firmly.

James nodded slowly. Her nose was literally an inch away from his face and he didn't want to know if her wings sprouted if she got angry.

"No talking in my library." James mimicked softly before walking away quickly in case she had heard him. He snuck a look back to see her still watching him. Guess not.

Finding an empty table far away from her as possible, he dropped his bag and pulled out the withering leather book he always carried with him. He stroked the engraved silver letters spelling Fleamont Potter carefully. He opened the book up carefully where it proudly presented his ever growing chocolate frog collection. He had been collecting them ever since his father had told him he was old enough to eat chocolate frogs. Which was at the tender age of 3 1/2. His father had passed down his entire collection and he now had almost all the famous witch and wizards imaginable...except Grindelwald. Just last week he had obtained a limited edition Helga Hufflepuff card from Frank and the day before Peter had offered him one of his six carefully guarded Newt Scamander cards in exchange for a Glenda Summer card.

But the Grindelwald card was still missing.

Stupid Sirius. Stupid Lily Evans. Stupid chocolate frog cards. In a fit of anger, he picked up the book and threw it as far as he could. It made a loud sound as it hit the floor- or so he thought.

He leaned his chair back behind the book shelf to see if Miss Pince had heard but she was preoccupied with a Ravenclaw who was checking out some books.

He let out a small phew and looked towards where his book had fallen.

"Rude much?" a girl with dark chestnut hair had bent down and picked up his book that he found had hit her squarely in the back. "What did the book ever do to you? Honestly- oh my gosh-wait no! Are these all chocolate frog cards? This is amazing!"

He looked at her, amazed that she wasn't angry at him. Her robes showed the Gryffindor lion logo like his, so he figured she was a first year as well.

She looked at him quizzically at first. "Your names not Fleamont is it? I mean no offense it sounds sort of old-not that that's a bad thing really-I mean names aren't old or new-"

"No," James shook his head quickly to explain. "That's my dad. I'm James."

"Oh, so you're James Potter." She said her name with a frown, and he wondered why. People usually fawned over the Potter name.

"Yeah." James muttered quietly. He was too annoyed to ask her why she didn't look happy after hearing his name. "That's me."

"I'm Mary." She smiled. "And technically I shouldn't be talking to you as Lily's friend but-" she sat down across him and opened up the page she was examining before. "I've never seen this many cards in my life!" James was taken aback at her forwardness but he did like that someone was as proud of his collection as he was. Even if it was Lily Evan's friend.

"Tell me that's not a limited edition Gwenog Jones card! I've been looking everywhere for her! My collection isn't nearly as big as yours of course but I do collect a few that I like. How did you ever get one?"

She said all this very fast and had taken out the card from its plastic casing to inspect it further- careful not to damage it though he noticed. At least she wasn't mad at him for throwing the book at her.

"Frank and I collect them." James grinned; his anger quite evaporated now. He pulled the book towards him and looked at the card with a new fascination. "I actually have two of her. There's actually a very funny story about how we got her- but Frank would kill me if I told you." James laughed fondly at the memory of Frank soaking in toilet water. "What I really want is a 1945 Grindelwald card though. They're super rare ever since they changed the design but worth it."

"Gellert Grindelwald?" Mary asked. She pulled her bag up onto the table and promptly turned it upside down. Out came everything spilling out. He eyed a couple of sugar quills, many chocolate frog wrappers, a large purple book with what seemed to be fairytales, a round dream catcher looking thing and a pair of black square glasses.

"You wear glasses?" He asked incredulously. He thought he was the only one in his year to wear the horrid things.

The girl nodded, embarrassed. "Yeah. I don't like them much, but my mum says if I don't wear them, I'll never be able to see."

She put them on quickly and peered at the mess in front of her looking for something.

He saw the Grindelwald card before she could and gasped. "No way!"

Mary nodded proudly. "I got it yesterday. You can probably tell by all the wrappers. Do not ask me how old these chocolates are though." She let out a laugh.

James was still looking at the card in amazement.

"It's yours if you want."

He looked up at her and cocked his head. "Really?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I don't want him anyway. But-" he looked up surprised. "There's a catch?"

"You have to apologize to Lily."

"I-" James started at loss for words. Of all the people to bump into at the library it had to be Lily Evan's best friend.

"Here," James flipped through the pages urgently and found the Gwenog Jones card he was looking for. "You can have it. But please don't ask me to apologize."

Mary took the card. "Why not?"

"I'm not good at apologizing." He said finally. Truth was he never had to apologize to anyone.

"It's not hard." She said securing the card in her pocket.

"Look the card is yours now. I'll see you around."

"But-" she started as he walked away, Grindelwald card now added to his collection. Apologizing wasn't easy for him. He has never been one to apologize. If anything it would have to be Sirius who would have to apologize.

Needless to say, when James arrived at the Great Hall that evening for dinner, he was in very high spirits.

"You're happy." Frank pointed out through a mouthful of shepherds pie.

"Am I?" James pulled the buttered rolls to him taking in the fresh scent. "Maybe it's because I got...this!"

He pulled out the Grindelwald card with a flourish and showed the second year who promptly dropped his spoon. It clattered noisily as it hit the hard ground. "What how?

"Some girl gave it to me." James shook his head and looked at Frank. "Frank, we're almost there. We just need to find the Diggle card and-"

"First let's get the Orun the Orblock card" Frank set his plate to the side getting straight to business"I think Louis might have one but he wants the Silver Knight card in return, so I don't know. If we go through with it we'd have all the silver edition cards minus four. Do you think it's too much?"

"Ta da!" Remus interrupted taking a seat next to James. "Look what I just got from Loius!"

"But Remus," Frank insisted eyes wide "The Silver Knight card is rare! It's not worth it for Orun the Orblock! James and I were about to try to get it another way!"

"Relax." Remus grinned pocketing the card carefully in his shabby robes. "I can drive a hard bargain. I gave him a Adalfbert Wiggle and a Bertie Bott card instead."

"But those were your favorite!" Peter chimed in, coming from behind Remus, Sirius by his side. "Frank." The boy nodded. "James." He turned to him apprehensively.

"Sirius."

"Look-mate I honestly didn't meant it to go this far-"

But James wasn't listening. He was looking across the table to the left where Lily Evans was smiling. Mary was sitting right across from her and she gave him a small wave.

Lily looked at him. Not angry, not overly cheery either but at least she wasn't attacking him.

"I apologized to Evans." Sirius said taking a seat finally.

"You what?" James asked wondering if he had become hard of hearing.

"You heard me." Sirius snapped then quite. "I told her whatever you did was my fault. There, we're even now."

"And might I add this was my idea in the first place." Remus added, marveling at the card again.

"Sure it was." Sirius looked at James. " So finally got the card huh?"

James nodded. "Yeah- so want some pudding?"

Sirius laughed. "Now I heard about Miss Pince- is she really half harpy as they say?"