Dear James,
Hurrah! You’re a big brother now! Mum says she’s coming over to see ‘Dearest Melanie and her new baby’ tomorrow and me and dad’ll come too. Dad says that he’s taking yours out for a drink somewhere as he knows what it’s like to be a father! Well I’ll see you tomorrow. I have to go with mum to get a present for your sister.
See You
Sirius
I sent a reply to Sirius telling him that he’d be welcome over anytime tomorrow though not to arrive by floo if possible because we’d probably have a chimney jam. I was too excited to sleep so I sent owls to Peter, Remus and Lily to tell them of the good news. I got one back from Peter telling me that he was very happy but could he get some sleep now please? One from Remus telling me that his mum and dad might ‘pop’ round later. I wrote to Lily last which was good because her reply didn’t come that night and I dropped of to sleep leaning on my writing desk.
I woke up very early that morning with a stiff back and aching all over. I groaned with fatigue as I stretched my arms and tried to loosen up my back. I slopped downstairs in my slippers and dressing gown hoping to find something interesting to do downstairs. It still being half dark I was scared out of my mind when a huge black hulk moved and snorted over on the sofa. It took me a wile to realise that it wasn’t a sleeping troll but my brother Mike curled up asleep on the sofa and I had to stop myself from laughing. Knowing he’d be very grumpy if he woke up cold I covered him up with the drape from one of the old arm-chairs before tiptoeing into the kitchen. I decided to make myself a hot chocolate to take back up to my room. It usually made me fall asleep and I was hoping that it would work today. We were going to get lots of visitors the next day.
After making my drink I walked back upstairs as quietly as I could. When I opened my door I saw my owl, Frank tapping at the window. I quickly put my drink onto my desk and opened the window to let my frustrated owl in. He was carrying a reply from Lily. What was she doing up so late I wondered. The answer was in the note.
James,
I’m so sorry I couldn’t get this back sooner. The thing is that my great big muggle of a sister has been complaining to mum and dad about me. They don’t mind about me being a witch or anything but she does. She seems to think that I get more attention and privileges than her even though I’m younger and so mum and dad agreed that we’d both be treated equally this holiday meaning that if Petunia can’t send owls neither can I. It sucks so much but I have to deal with it. I can tell my mum and dad have been taking a lot of aggro from her.
Well that's enough of my depressing babblings. What I meant to say in the first place; CONGRATULATIONS JAMES! I’m so happy for you! I have nothing to judge sisters on except Petunia but I’m sure yours will be lovely. You seem so proud. That’s so cool that you got to choose her name and you chose really well although Lily would’ve been better (joking). Well I hope this doesn't wake you up I’ll see you soon.
Lily
I smiled as I read the letter. It was Lily through and through, it sounded like she was in the room with me talking to me, it was actually quite strange. I gulped down my tepid ‘hot’ chocolate then bundled myself up in my covers and fell asleep. I woke three hours later at 8 o’ clock with Mike calling me to say that breakfast (two slices of buttered toast) was ready. By half past eight our visitors had started to arrive. At about ten Sirius and his family arrived in a red muggle car with more style than some of the people whizzing out of our fireplace. His mum dropped him off at the gate then drove off to the hospital. His family were going to stay with us up to Christmas.
The next week I had asked for and received the go-ahead for my week long sleep-over. Remus and Peter confirmed that they could come. Ellie and Jessie kept owling me and Sirius asking if it was still on but we had agreed that we weren’t letting them come if Lily wasn’t there. I tried to contact Lily but each time my owl returned with my message unopened. I scowled and Sirius and I tried to come up with ways of contacting her but in the end the only thing we could come up with was going to visit her. Mum and Catherine had come home and she was relieved to ‘get us out of her hair’ for the day. I was beginning to realise that babies weren’t as lovely and interesting as they looked. They cried alot, and slept the rest of the time.
Sirius and I decided that the only way we could get there was by flying and we’d have to use my invisibility cloak. Seating two people on a broom was unwise but the cloak could only cover the two of us. We decided that we’d tie both out brooms together and hope they held out.
It took us five hours to reach Bristol which was pretty bad going. We kept getting lost and when we were finally on the right track the brooms started to shake, not being used to long distance travelling. We’d had to rest for an hour before we moved on. Luckily we had Lily’s ‘postal address’ as she called it and after about another half an hour we managed to find her house. It was a neat semidetached house in a quiet cul-de-sac, the front garden was neat and the hedge trimmed square. A bit too perfectionist for my tastes but then it wasn’t me who was living there. I wondered how we were going to uncover ourselves - we couldn’t just appear from no where when I saw a little alley-way at the end of the cul-de-sac. We flew into it then putting the brooms up on the high wall still wrapped in the cloak we stepped out into the street. I was wearing my corduroy trousers and a green jumper and Sirius was wearing some trousers and a red knitted sweater. I felt really strange in muggle clothes but knew that we couldn’t really turn up at Lily’s house in robes. I sat on a bench outside one of the houses as Sirius marched up to Lily’s house and rapped on the door. We had decided that he’d better do all the talking because he looked smarter and he had told me jokingly ‘he was far better looking’. I couldn’t hear any of the conversation but saw a skinny strawberry-blonde haired woman open the door smilingly to Sirius. A few moments later Lily appeared and the shock on her face was visible even from my position. A few moments later the door closed an Sirius came strolling over.
“Well?”
“Oh she’s coming out. Apparently we’re going shopping.”
I laughed. A minute later Lily came out of the house. She was wearing indigo flared jeans and a reddish brown fur-trimmed coat. She was stunning. I managed to smile almost naturally as she approached.
“Hey James.”
My heart melted.
I really don’t know how I managed to get through that shopping trip. It was hell and heaven at the same time. I had to admit it, I fancied Lily. If she’d made a move on me that day I’m not sure I would’ve resisted. I loved seeing her, being near her, but I hated the fact that she was Remus’ girlfriend and Remus was one of my best friends. My head was aching.
We went round a few clothes shops with Lily who said that she had to buy something nice for Christmas. I was quite amazed by the number of muggle shops there were, in Diagon Alley is one of the only places in Britain where wizards shop - except Hogsmeade but in Bristol alone there were streets and streets full of shops and cafe’s restaurants and outlets. I was amazed at how well the muggles seemed to get along without using magic, they didn’t even seem to notice that they didn’t have any.
When Lily had decided on and bought a dress for her family’s Christmas dinner she took us to a cafe for a drink and a snack. Lily went up to the counter and ordered us a drink while Sirius and I found a spare table. It was raining heavily outside and the cafe was packed with people sheltering from the rain. Sitting down in a tiny table in the corner mine and Sirius’ eyes were attracted to a huddle of people our age crowding around a box which was bleeping. I looked at Sirius to see if he knew what it was but he didn’t. Muggles were very odd, I decided wishing I’d taken muggle studies. Perhaps Lily would know.
I squirmed, even thinking of Lily made me feel all funny. I told myself sternly that she was Remus’ girlfriend and until that was over, if it was ever over, I would not and could not make a move on Lily Evans.
“Hey Lil’s,” Sirius’ voice broke through my thoughts. “Do you know what that is over there? It seems fascinating to them what is it?”
“Oh, it’s a games machine. It’s called Pong.” She added as if she’d only just remembered.
“Pong?” Sirius guffawed with laughter at the odd sounding name.
“Oh I don’t know why it’s called that. It’s supposed to be tennis you see. When they’ve gone I’ll play you.”
“Sounds like a challenge.”
“Yup!” Lily said cheerfully her jade eyes sparkling mischievously.
About fifteen minutes later the crowd of teenage muggles went outside and ran away down the street to get out of the rain.
“Come on then Sirius let’s see how well you do you cocky sod.”
“Okay James can referee.”
Lily giggled. “You don’t need a referee Sirius, you can be pretty dense sometimes you know. We’re playing on a computer not in real life!”
“Oh.” Sirius said looking at me. I didn’t have a clue what a computer was either but we didn’t want to ask Lily as it seemed common knowledge.
“Right all you have to do is move this line here and stop the ball (that’s that little dot by the way) from hitting you back line. Gottit?”
“Umm...”
“Okay then let’s go.”
Lily won the game in straight sets, which she found really funny. Sirius said that it was a stupid game and that he preferred Quiditch.
We went back with Lily to her house. She was still having doubts about being allowed to come to the party, knowing that her sister wouldn’t like it and that her mum and dad would be put into a very awkward position. Sirius and I tried to tell her that we’d figure something out but in the end we didn’t need it.
We arrived back at her house at around five o’clock and were invited in for tea by her mum we went in and sat in the front room trying to keep our eyes in our heads as we oggled at all of the odd muggle things in the room. There was a television on a stand in the corner, an odd looking radio, a silent mirror and a telephone (which me and Sirius had never heard of). Lily looked at us, hiding a laugh behind her mug of tea. Lily’s dad came in and we tried to make polite conversation but it was very stilted as we didn’t really know what to talk about to muggles.
After about ten minutes Lily’s sister came in. It was a huge shock to see that skinny horse-faced girl who was Lily’s sister; she looked nothing like either Lily or her parents. Lily had told me that she was eighteen but she looked much older. When Petunia saw Sirius and I, her face bawled up with disgust but she didn’t even look at Lily. Instead she stalked straight over to her mum and dad.
“I’m staying over at Vernie’s for the week mum so I’ll see sometime next week okay?” Lily had told me that her sister was extremly proud of her twenty-one year-old boufriend Vernon who was to take over his fathers buisness Grunnings which made drills. I had almost died of laughing when she told me and I had to turn my snort into a cough at the recollection.
After that Petunia stalked back out again and went upstairs. A moment later we heard her heaving a suitcase down the stairs and the front door slam. Lily’s mum and dad looked horrified.
Luckily this little disturbance worked to Lily’s advantage as her mum and dad decided they couldn’t really refuse to let Lily come to the party and after they established that Lily would be sleeping in another room and with Jess and Ellie (who they had apparantly already met and liked), they were quite happy to let Lily go.
After we had finished our tea we decided it was time to go. It was already pitch black outside and were wondering how we were going to get home before midnight. However Lily got us out of that one by lending us some muggle money so we could catch the train. Thanking her and saying goodbye to her parents we managed to get a train home and arrived at half past eight. Mine and Sirius’ mothers apparantly hadn’t realised how long we had been gone so we ran upstairs to send owls to Remus, Peter, Jess and Ellie telling them that Lily would be coming.
