Just Visiting

It made James sad to have left Hogwarts really. The place had been home to James for seven years. He had made his best friends there, and had the best times there too. But now he was a graduate. A graduate without a job of course, but that didn't matter much to James. What could you do, after all, with three A's and one E for your NEWT's? Not much, but then again James had never been ambitious. He was adventurous and fun-loving, so he had joined his uncle's joke shop, and was now planning on visiting other countries.

But first, he had to check on his siblings. He missed them of course, Lily the most, and didn't know how they would be without him to look after them. They both did foolish things, Lily especially. And so, he had sent an owl to his little sister to come to Hogsmeade, where he was staying now. James wasn't allowed in the castle, and he was pretty sure it was not a Hogwarts castle, but James sincerely hoped that at least Lily knew how to sneak out of the castle.

James waited, leaning against the Honeydukes exterior walls as he looked up the path for Lily.

Lily was more than a little excited when James owl'd her. She felt as though she hadn't had any family contact in such a long time. Her mother and her still wrote on occasions and she saw Albus at school but her other brothers had been out of touch since finishing school. She almost skipped down the past as she headed toward Honeydukes.

She knew though that James would be pissed if he ever found out what happened between her and Elijah. Not that anything was happening any more but the fact that it had happened that would definitely piss off her brother. But she wouldn't tell him, she just wanted to have some sibling time for once.

Lily grinned widely as she saw James leaning against the exterior of Honeydukes. She squealed loudly causing a few people to jump in shock as she sprinted down the path and hugged her brother as soon as she was in reaching distance. "JAMESY!" She grinned widely as she pulled back.

James had gotten a bit tired of waiting by then, and was instead watching a couple women walk right past him, one of whom gave him an appraising look. James smiled back, and watched them enter the Three Broomstick. Glancing down at his watch, he thought that if Lily didn't come, he would just follow them in. James had never really gotten into a serious relationship at Hogwarts. A fling here and there but that was it. That was all he cared about really, he hadn't given marriage a second thought.

But just as he was about to leave, he heard a loud squeal and then seconds later, his little sister flew right at him. He hugged her back, and laughed, lifting her off her feet before setting her back down. "Hey Lils," he said, smiling at her. "Thought I should meet you before I left. Might not be back anytime soon."

Lily pouted at her brother's words. "Do not say that, I hate knowing that I can't annoy you from close distances." She whined as she gave a smile as she straightened her clothing which had been awkwardly adjusted from the previous change of gravity. She glanced back up at her brother tilting her head. "Where are you going?" She asked curiously, not sure whether she would like the answer she was given.

"Have you spoken to mom lately?" Lily asked after a moment, feeling slightly guilty she hadn't been writing to everyone as often as she should have been. Lily had been so distracted with life that she hadn't actually kept her ties with all her family all that well. Sure the ones at Hogwarts were easier to contact, but the others? She hadn't had quite the time to owl them of late.

"Everywhere," James replied in response to Lily's question. "Uncle George is thinking of making Weasleys Wizard Wheezes an international thing now, so I'm going to help him with that. Besides, I want to go see some other countries, see new sights, meet French women..." he explained, a glint in his eye now. James loved adventures and going to new places. It didn't really occur to him that he should get started on his job so that he could start providing for his mother. It wasn't that he didn't care for her, it just didn't cross his mind. "I'm going to go to every place in Europe Lils! Sucks that you and Albus can't come of course... Well not really Albus," he added on second thought. He preferred his sisters company far more than his brothers. He and Lily just shared many similarities while his brother was just too 'mature' to have fun with.

"Of course, I just met her before coming here," James informed her, smile still in place. "She wasn't too keen on me leaving though..." Well thats how all mothers were. Amazing, loving, annoying. "So how are you little sister? Enjoying the tournament?" he asked, referring to the triwizard of course. "Its really a shame, them holding that as soon as I graduated.." James added, quite unhappy about that. The triwizard sounded great, more because the beauxbaton girls than anything, but supporting the champion would have been fun too. His dad had one it, he reflected a little sadly.

Lily giggled at James' obvious answer having to include women. Except the whole 'French' part. Despite her love for Aunty Fleur she had a major thing against the whole country of France. One could say it was currently a tainted place for her. Damn Elijah and those damn pretty lights and sights that make people want to do crazy stuff that they definitely wouldn't want to tell their brothers about. This was probably why she stiffened slightly at this response before letting an easy smile paste onto her face.

Lily knew herself to be the peacemaker between James and Albus. She loved both her brothers to bit despite the fact she found being in James' company much more comfortable. When the boy's clashed she would jump in the middle doing her best doe eyed expression and make them all feel so guilty. It was a trick that her mother had taught her to use against older brothers. "I am meant to be green with envy at this point, right?" Lily asked teasingly.

"I am incredibly awesome with bells on! The extra fancy stuff is okay I suppose, I don't really follow it all too closely. Actually...now I think about it, I don't follow all that much closely. I haven't seen Albus in a while. I should check he hasn't gotten flattened by a giant book in the library." Lily mused with a mock serious expression.

James knew that Lily was kidding about being envious, but he still felt a little guilty about that. It would be much more fun with his siblings but that was hardly possible. "Sorry Lils, got a little carried away," he said apologetically. "Though you could always come along! If you don't mind skipping school and all that. Though I wonder what mom what think about that... She'd probably think you had run off with some older Slytherin boy or something..." That was his mom, always the pessimist when it came to that stuff. She always had to try her best to make herself worry, James had never quite understood why.

Huh, Albus was the same as usual apparently, that worried James a bit, the boy had too loosen up. "Hey you know what, try to make him get a life. Hook him up with some girls in your class, I don't know but seriously he has too chill a bit. By NEWT's he''ll have gone insane, he didn't even come down to meet me!" James had been quite pissed off at that. He took out Albus' reply from his pocket and passed it to Lily with a roll of eyes. On it was written four words. 'sorry, cant come. Busy.'

Looking up at the castle again, James sighed. "You know what, I might come back for the Yule Ball after all, if they let me in that is. Jamie will be there and I want to meet our son..." He wasn't sure about the gender of the baby to be honest, but he automatically assumed it was a male. He wasn't really too fussed about that though. "Say, do you know Jamie well?" James asked Lily, not sure about her relationship with his girlfriend.

Lily was more than slightly tempted to take up on James' joking offer. But then he teasingly mentioned the delusion that their mother could have about running off with an older Slytherin. She blinked in surprise at how close to the mark that the statement had hit. She hadn't actually ran off with one, but she had gone to France with one....that counted right? Either way she snorted at what James said. "Mom would have kittens at the mere idea, we both know that to be true." Lily smiled.

"Sorry to burst your bubble brother but not everyone finds your company to be as joyful as I do. Lily stated ignoring the complete comment of the mere image of Albus hooking up with any of her female friends. It was definitely shudder worthy indeed. Especially since she found some of his classmates to be attractive. Not that any of her brothers knew about that.

Lily glanced away from James as he spoke of Jamie and the baby. She found hte whole idea of her brother becoming a father far too weird. Sure she found Jamie fun to be around and although it would be a stretch to call them close friends the girl was pretty awesome. But...she was close with Elijah and it was something Lily found herself immensly hurt by. That the Slytherin had time for a girl who was in a relationship and heavily pregnant when he couldn't even make the time for her. "I suppose we have talked on occasions...but she's older than me, so we barely see each other." Lily spoke not meeting James' gaze.

"Yeah well, whatever," James said shrugging. He did know quite well that
James smiled and nodded. "Yeah, besides, you probably would want to stay here for the tournament eh?" he mused, before getting a little serious. "Though, speaking of the tournament, I'd advise you to stay away from those Durmstrang blokes. Their almost exactly like the Slytherins, the you know, we-are-Pureblood lot. I've heard of them and the whole lot of them practice dark arts." He was probably worrying too much over a small thing but he was quite overprotective of his little sister.

Albus didn't like to spend too much time with him. And it was quite mutual. It wasn't that they hated each other, they were just too different and got into arguments too much. And that usually stressed Albus out and pissed James off.

He saw her become uncomfortable at the mention of Jamie and his child, James couldn't blame her, he would have felt quite strange too if he was her. In fact, it generally made James quite uncomfortable too, he hadn't intented on getting Jamie pregnant, it just happened. And ever since then she, for some reason, was angry with him, even though it had been her decision not to get an abortion. He was quite confused about that, but he had never really understood girls. "Yeah well, don't tell her that I'm gone, you know what she'll think," he said with a roll of his eyes. He didn't have any intentions on cheating on Jamie, not after he had gotten her pregnant, but he had to admit that the silent treatment was making him quite frustrated.

[does Lily know about Jamie and Elijah?]

"You are just worried a handsome Qudditch player will sweep me off my feet big brother." Lily jibed only partly wishing that were to be true. But that wasn't going to happen since she had practically given up on any hope of an epic teenage romance. Yes, seemed melodramatic but by what she had seen all it seemed to do is end in tissues and chocolate. Instead, Lily would focus on flying and her future. Yes, that seemed sensible...and completely boring.

Lily shrugged. "I am not going to lie, which is why if she directly asked me about it I would say you had gone. But I would also tell you that you are my brother and you wouldn't do that. Well to a girl like her anyway." Lily said honestly. She hated lying, so she told the complete truth when directly asked. It didn't count as lying, it counted as withholding the truth. Yes that sounded better.

(OOC: She knows they are friends, but no she doesn't know what's going on. She has a certain faccination with Elijah of course.... XD )