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Chapter 96: “Invitation from Sirius”
🕑 Added 2024-03-11 15:48:27 +0000 UTCThe days at the Potter House passed. With three days to go before Toby had to return to the orphanage, Peter arrived.
The situation of his mother paying more attention to Toby than to him was repeated several times in those days. However, James did not want to show it to his friend, so that his friend would not feel bad.
It was not the same with his mother. He started to distance himself in some things like for example in the goodnight kisses, he told her that he was too old for those things.
It was childish, he knew, but he couldn't control it. Somehow, he had to show that he was annoyed and upset, and he didn't plan to take it out on poor Toby, who was such a God's bread.
On Sunday afternoon, July 24, Toby and Peter left James' house. That same evening, James was about to go to bed, got up from the couch in the living room, and said goodbye to his parents while yawning.
"Pause it," said Euphemia, giving Fleamont, who was too hooked watching TV a slight smack. A few months ago, he bought a color television and a movie player both muggle inventions.
Movies were also a muggle term and were something that left both Fleamont and Euphemia fascinated. In the span of one to three hours, at most an exciting story was told all with moving pictures. They could not believe how muggles accomplished such a feat without magic.
Right now, they are watching a very new movie that was very successful in the muggle world called The Godfather.
After pausing, Euphemia followed James to his room.
"You don't need to come with me, Mother," James said. Euphemia looked at him with narrowed eyes but decided to follow her son silently to his room.
"Look at the state of your bed. Let me put it back in order," Euphemia said, looking at James' messy bed. Since she didn't have her wand handy, she put the bed together manually.
"Like new," nodded Euphemia.
"Thanks..." said James.
"Will you continue to act distant?" asked Euphemia, looking at her son.
"I don't know what you're talking about..." replied James without making eye contact with Euphemia.
"Oh, come on. All of a sudden. You don't want goodnight kisses anymore, and you don't even hug me anymore. You think I didn't notice?"
"You didn't seem to mind too much," James said with a bit of annoyance as for the previous few days, Euphemia pretended like nothing had happened.
"It didn't. You know about Toby's situation. He's a very kind and good boy," said Euphemia.
Euphemia treated Toby differently, unlike Peter or another friend of James, being more like a mother to him, as she felt very sorry for his situation. She noticed James' attitude but did nothing, as she didn't want to argue with her son while his friends were at home.
"I know," James said with a conflicted expression. He didn't want to feel jealous but he couldn't control it. Luckily with Toby, he continued to act the same as always.
"Notice how you treated Toby well as usual. You're a nice boy too," Euphemia said as she quickly hugged James so he couldn't escape.
"It hurt me that you are so cold to me. I hope you can understand why I acted that way. To me, you will always be number one," added Euphemia.
"I'm sorry..." said James, feeling worse and worse. He felt jealous of his friend, who never knew his parents, and also made his dear mother, who just wanted to make Toby a little happier by treating him differently feel bad.
"Don't feel bad. It's normal to feel jealous from time to time. Your father was very jealous as a teenager," Euphemia said with a smile, remembering old times. James nodded feeling better. It was the first time he felt jealousy.
...
The vacations went by faster than James would have liked. James continued with his usual routine, practicing martial magic, flying in his Nimbus, reading the Occlumency book, and reading the Transfiguration book.
Just when he thought his vacations would stay the same, a surprise arrived with only 15 days to go until Hogwarts.
It was a letter from his best friend, Sirius. He thought it would be like the letters he normally sent, but it was not.
It was an invitation from Sirius, but not to his house with his mother, father, and brother. It was an invitation to the home of Sirius' uncle, Alphard Black.
James had heard a lot about Alphard from Sirius. According to him, he was his favorite relative, got along very well, and unlike his mother or father did not have the extreme thinking of blood purity and utter contempt for muggles, muggle-born or half-bloods.
According to Sirius, his uncle was on the verge of being erased from the family tree, or so he thought.
Sirius didn't specify too much about how he managed to go with his uncle to spend the last few days of vacation, but James didn't care. He quickly told his parents, and they agreed.
After sending Sirius a letter telling him that he could go, they agreed to meet the next day at three o'clock in the afternoon in Diagon Alley in front of Gringotts Bank.
On the way, they would both buy the books they needed for the second year since the letter had arrived several days ago.
He also sent a letter to Gwen saying that tomorrow he would go to Diagon Alley to buy his books, and they could meet at twelve noon or one in the afternoon to have the reconciliation talk that Gwen had proposed. He tried his luck and told her to have Emily come too, though he knew it was unlikely.
James is no fool. He noticed Gwen and Emily's attitudes at Hogwarts. The two were at odds and estranged. The reason, he doesn't know. Whenever he asked it ended badly or they answered him dryly without specifying anything and telling him it was none of his business.
Luckily Gwen's answer came that same day. She agreed to meet at 12:30 in Diagon Alley. As for Emily's invitation, Gwen told him she couldn't go, 'I guessed as much...' thought James shaking his head. Dealing with the friendship of these two sisters was harder than he thought.
James packed his luggage excitedly. It had been a long time since he had seen Sirius. He didn't want to be disrespectful to Toby or Peter's friendship, but he hit it off better with Sirius and had a lot more fun with him.
Best of all, he would spend more than ten days with Sirius! It would be so much fun, but just when he thought his vacation would have nothing new this happened.
'In the evenings I'll continue with the readings...' thought James as next to Sirius it would be difficult to try to study. Perhaps practicing dueling might be somewhat easier, though Sirius would be no challenge for James.
He would be back home a day before it would be September 1st and he would have to head to King's Cross to catch the Hogwarts Express.
"Have you got everything ready? You look excited," asked Fleamont watching James stow many items in his wallet which had an undetectable extension charm.
In addition to his wallet he would be carrying a backpack and a suitcase. Just so that if someone sees that he has a lot of items they think he is carrying them in his backpack and suitcase this way they won't notice that he has a wallet with a huge space in it.
This is because undetectable extension charms are advanced spells, subject to strict control by the Ministry of Magic due to their potential to break the International Statute of Magical Secrecy.
There is an ongoing law, that states that extension charms cannot be cast for private use. Only can be cast for the production of objects (such as school trunks and family camping tents).
How did James get such a valuable gift? Of course, his parents and his grandfather Henry spoiled him a lot. When he asked for such a gift for his birthday he didn't think they would accept to give him such an item, but he succeeded.
The only people who knew he owned a wallet with such a charm were his family and the marauders.
"Yeah. I already have my Nimbus, the joke book we bought recently... Mm, I don't think I'm missing anything," James replied.
"That's good. Don't forget the money for the books," reminded Fleamont.
"And put on more clothes. You will be many days in that house. You should take several clothes," said Euphemia as she opened the big closet and started to put the clothes in the suitcase.
After checking that he hadn't forgotten anything important, he went to bed waiting for daylight to meet Sirius.
