I ran up the driveway, eager to see Rosie for the first time all summer; she’d just come back from Cyprus the other day, and i hadn’t had the time to see her yet. But of course that was about to change. I’d called her after I’d got out of the shower, knowing how long she took in the mornings, i wouldn’t be surprised if she was still in her pyjamas. I reached the door and knocked 3 times, in what i hoped would be loud enough for her to here from wherever she may be in her house. I didn’t have to wait long, the door opened just 5 seconds after I had knocked. I was greeted by her tired face, her slightly frizzy, brown hair was still a mess; obviously she hadn’t been awake for very long, but at least she had bothered to change into some jeans and a shirt.
“Lily! Oh my, i haven’t seen you all summer! I’ve missed you!” She threw her arms around me as she said this, almost suffocating me in the process. I struggled out of her grip, gasping for breath.
“Rosie! I know - I’m excited to see you too.” I bent over with my hand over my chest, trying to steady my heart. “But i do hope that’s just your wand in your pocket.” I looked up with a grin on my face, Rosie winked at me.
“Sorry Lily, i just haven’t seen you in so long, if you know what i mean.” Rosie mirrored my grin. We often did that, put the words ‘if you know what i mean’ at the end of a sentence, just to make it sound dirty. Oh how I had missed her presence!
I straightened up and winked back at her, we both laughed as she led me back into her house. The familiar smell of washing powder filled my nostrils, i smiled to myself, I’d missed this smell; it brought back so many memories. Like one summer, we had tried to bake a cake, and make some butter icing to go on top; simple, right? Wrong. We had gotten the recipe wrong and put in too much sugar, so when we took it out of the oven, it could barely be registered as a cake at all. Nevertheless, we didn’t give up! We had got to work on making the butter icing, but soon discovered that we had no icing sugar. Us being us, we wouldn’t give up, and we decided to use normal sugar as a substitute. The end result? We’d stayed up the whole night, watching Barbie movies, with butter icing on our noses and her mother’s knickers on our heads, to hyper to sleep. Yes, this was when we were 13...don’t pretend that you didn’t at some point in your life watch those movies.
Rosie turned back to me, “you hungry?”
“Always. But we really should be going, i told my dad I’d be back by 6, and it’s already 2, you know how long we’ll take in Diagon Alley.”
She scowled at me. “Fine, just let me brush my hair and we’ll be off, I’ll be 2 minutes.”
She hurried off up the stairs. I took advantage of her absence and ran into the kitchen, wrenching open the fridge door, only to be met by a jar of pickles, and some eggs. Really? People these days, should remember to stock the fridge more often; for cases such as these. I shut the door gently and walked to the living room, sinking into the brown leather sofa. I occupied myself by staring into the fish tank; they looked hungry, poor things.
“Hey Rosie, did you feed your fish yet?” I called to her, but she was already standing at the door.
“Yeah i did this morning, but there always hungry, never stop eating.” She shook her head and turned towards the front door. “Shall we vacate? I called my mum and she said you can sleep round tonight if you want, so we can go to Kings Cross together tomorrow. We have to be back by 6 though.”
The poor fish, i can relate. But i was more interested in Rosie’s proposal than some hungry fish. “Yeah sure, we can leave a bit early tomorrow so i can collect my stuff from my house. Dad won’t mind, and Petunia will probably be off with Vernon.”
Rosie shuddered, “Ew. They’re still together?” I nodded my head in confirmation
“Unfortunately, she’s been round his every day this summer. I’m not complaining, but there is only so much to do around the house when you’re on your own.” I liked to space myself from my Hogwarts friends during summer, i didn’t like to connect them with my home life. But Potter sure made that difficult by ringing my doorbell every other day asking me if I would like to come round. Of course the answer was no every time, but he wouldn’t give up. He was way too stubborn for my liking.
I sighed and heaved myself up on my feet, taking one last glance at the fish, and turned to follow Rosie, who was unlocking the front door. I gave her my best ‘what-on-earth-are-you-doing’ look. And she stared back at me quizzically, blinking her eyes like a confused puppy.
“Are you a witch or not? Lets apparate there you ninny.” She really could be quite thick sometimes.
“Oh! Right, sorry i keep forgetting. I only turned of age last week, and since i was in Cyprus, i didn’t get much time to use my new found freedom; we were out all the time. Blame my parents.”
I rolled my eyes at her, “I do Rosie, i do.” She smirked at me and i smiled. “See you in The Leaky Cauldron.” And with that, i turned on my heels and vanished.
*******
“Lily, don’t look now, but a certain Mr Potter is making his way through the crowd towards you.”
Merlin’s beard, won’t he leave me alone for 2 seconds! “Quick go, now, move, go!” I shoved Rosie further into the crowd and we pushed past people as quickly as we could, eager to escape. Finally we got to Flourish and Blotts, i wrenched the door open and we threw ourselves in, hurrying to the back of the store, just to be safe. Rosie busied herself by sorting through the book case to her right, looking for the books we were supposed to be buying; whilst i peered though a gap in between the books that were stacked neatly on the case we were hiding behind, keeping a look out for Potter.
Suddenly i felt a breath of warm air on my neck, making my spine tingle.
“Well that was rather rude.”
I turned round and whipped my wand out of my pocket and pointed it at the face that was now standing in front of me.
“Potter! How the hell did you get there!?” My heart was still beating rapidly from the shock of finding him stood so close behind me.
“Ah, secrets my love.” He reached for the back of his head and ruffled his hair with his hand, making it stick out at odd angles, not like it wasn’t before, but still; it was very messy. His eyes twinkled mischievously with hope as he said this.
I snorted. “’Your love’ my arse. What do you want?” And why won’t you leave me alone? I thought to myself.
“Evans, must you always be so negative? I merely wanted to wish you luck on your 7th year, in the hope that you shall soon realize your inevitable feelings for me, and we shall live happily ever after.” His words were smooth, and slightly cheeky, but there was something behind them, i just couldn’t put my finger on it. “Besides, i caught you staring this morning, i know you want me. But next time, I’d try and be more discrete, and maybe invest in a pair of binoculars, it’s what i did.” He finished with a wicked grin on his face, the one he used to seduce his fan club back at Hogwarts.
It took me a few seconds to realize what he’d just said, but when i did, i could feel myself blushing as i remembered this morning’s incidents, but then i found myself with my mouth hanging open in shock, did he really just say that!? I was speechless.
He walked right up to me, bent down and put his forefinger and thumb on my chin, closing my mouth for me. He lingered with his hand on my face for longer than necessary, staring at my lips. EW, since when did i give him permission to do that? This had to stop. I narrowed my eyes and pushed him away from me, but he grabbed my waist pulling me with him, so i was pressed up against his chest. “Oh” i thought to myself, “well, this is ni-” wait, no, this was defiantly not nice. This was awkward and embarrassing. I pulled away from him, which was surprisingly easy, but i guess he was in slight shock from being that close to me. I certainly was for a second or two, but seeing as he’s been after me for so many years, i guess it meant more to him than it did for me. Not that it meant anything. Oh Merlin, I’ve given him false hope! May the lord forgive me for my sins!
Rosie’s eyes bulged as i shook my head and glared at him. “Lily! Just go out with him! It’s been 6 years! This is far past the point of ridiculous!”
James grinned at this, “the lady speaks the words of wisdom, Prongs approves.” He winked back at Rosie and despite herself, she found herself blushing.
Pathetic, where was her inner bitch now! She knows how and why i can’t stand him, so why won’t she back me up? I guess it’s just you and me Lils, i thought to myself. James was now staring at me weirdly, well it wasn’t exactly weird; but it was uncomfortable to be under such a profound gaze. But somehow i found myself staring back, inspecting his face. His eyes were still that light hazel, and his dark hair was as unruly and messy as ever. His jaw was sturdy instead of the childish look it used to have, and his skin looked slightly rougher than it had last year. I will never deny the fact that he is handsome and good looking, everyone knew that, him the most. His cocky attitude was one of the reasons i found him so annoying; but his stare was deep and meaningful, did he realize this? Was he doing this on purpose? Or has James Potter actually changed? HAH. Who am i kidding? There is no way in a million years that Potter could ever change.
Rosie coughed and shifted her feet, looking at the ground. He lifted his gaze and looked around, probably clearing his head, it must be hard for him to stare at me for so long, i mean, I’m just so darn sexy, it actually hurts. I chuckle to myself and James raises an eyebrow. What with messy my red hair, crazy green eyes and no shape at all; I find it quite hard to believe that there aren’t boys lining up outside waiting to take me out. No, Potter’s made sure that he’s the only one who can do that. I glare at him and he grins.
“Well, whenever you change your mind, you know where to find me.” He winks at me (he sure seemed to do that a lot, maybe he was developing a twitch) and walks out of the shop, leaving me laughing at my thoughts. Eventually i look up at Rosie, who is looking at me weirdly.
“Care to explain those retarded noises you just made? Or was that actually supposed to be a laugh?” She smiled proudly at her sentence.
“I believe that Potter has developed a twitch in his right eye, and i was thinking how unfortunate that would be, especially when he’s chatting up girls, if he winks, and then can’t stop winking, so he would have to wear an eye patch. And then i imagined him walking round school dressed as i pirate.”
“Um right okay, well, I’m going to pay for these books and then let us be off, have we got everything we needed?” She tried not to smile, but i knew she was cracking up inside, i mean, who wouldn’t laugh at the thought of Pirate Potter?
“Yeah, I’ll give you the money and you can buy mine to”, I reached into my pocket and gave Rosie the money. She walked off to pay for the books and quills, so i looked out the window into the busy street, not staring at anything in particular, but feeling quite sad. This will be the last time i ever do this; things have gone by so quickly, I’ll have to make this year the best ever yet. I mentally made a list of all the things i want to do this year.
1. Pass my N.E.W.T’s
2. Get a boyfriend
3. Finally convince Potter to leave me alone
4. Become more carefree and enjoy myself
Convinced with my list, i turned back to Rosie who was walking up to me with bags laden on her arms.
“Ready to go?” She asked.
“Um Rosie, could we just walk around outside for a bit, i want to remember this, we’re never going to do this again.” She nodded at me understanding what i meant. We walked outside into the sunshine and walked to the end of the street. I took my time to notice the little details i had missed over the years; little first years would gaze round in amazement at the sight before them, for it was most likely, their first trip here. Or how Zonko’s joke shop was never empty, there were always children piling in through the doors, eager to get inside. Little pointless things like this flitted through my mind.
We reached the end of the street and turned back, taking in everything again. I was going to have to get used to this, saying goodbye. If this is how sad i felt just saying goodbye to Diagon Alley, i hated to think what I’d feel like come the time of graduation. Rosie grabbed my hand and we were back in her house, with the smell of washing powder and the sound of the water in the fish tank. I smiled and looked over at Rosie; she was inspecting a note taped to the door.
Something’s come up at work, we won’t be back till late so you’ll have to make dinner yourself, I went shopping so there’s food. Behave.
Love, mum
xxx
I stared at Rosie hopefully, my puppy-dog-eyes in full action. “To the fridge?”
“TO THE FRIDGE!”
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