AN: I've been working on this for a while. It's not a big long project and I was getting antsy just sitting on it, because I wanted to share. So ignore the fact that I'm posting yet another multi chapter. Actually, don't ignore, just read it and love it. This will have four parts and won't be nearly as long as everything else I seem to be posting lately.

Reviews give you superpowers

James Potter stood outside his new building fidgeting with the zipper on his jacket as he waited for the bus. He didn't often take the bus, he preferred to walk places, but he didn't have time to walk to the other side of town today, and he was on his way to a final interview for a job that he was actually quite excited about. He was trying to make a good impression, so he'd combed his hair and put on some nice clothes that were casual, but fancy-casual and he didn't want to show up all windswept and slightly damp from the rain anyway, so he'd planned to take the bus that afternoon.

And in his planning, he'd decided to give himself ample time, because he was known to show up late to things. So he'd planned to leave his flat fifteen minutes before the bus was supposed to show up, thinking that that way, there was no way that he'd miss the bus.

Of course as soon as he had that thought, he figured he should go out twenty minutes early, just incase his absolute certainty had jinxed everything.

So he was standing on the concrete, knowing that he had quite some time before the bus was going to arrive. He had his earbuds in and was listening to a rather angsty playlist that Sirius had put together for him when he'd moved here, but James was starting to think that this was just another thing that Sirius had done to be overly dramatic about the fact that James now lived without Sirius, in his own flat, on the other side of town. Sirius was acting as though James had moved across the country. Across the country and to a city that outsiders weren't allowed in so, Sirius couldn't visit. James had been moved in a week, and Sirius had still yet to come over.

He turned his screen on and changed to a different playlist before pulling up his messages and clicking on Sirius' name. He was about to type out some sarcastic and passive aggressive comment about how childish Sirius was being about the whole thing, when he noticed that he was no longer standing at the bus station by himself.

He looked over at the woman who had just stepped up next to him.

He hadn't realized that he'd been staring until she looked over at him and crossed her arms over her chest, turning away from him slightly. James, while he hadn't been ogling her chest, had cast a glance or two down there and quickly chastised himself. He turned his attention back to his phone, but found it difficult to think of something petty to type out to Sirius right now. He actually was finding it difficult to keep his gaze away from the woman standing next to him. But he'd already been labeled a creep in her mind, so he couldn't chance looking at her again.

But the thing was, she was beautiful. The kind of beautiful that had his mouth feeling slightly dry. And James didn't get nervous around pretty girls all that often. There had been this one girl back in secondary that had always managed to make him look like a fool, but after puberty had taken full affect, and James had grown into his limbs, well he'd gotten extremely confident. He was good at making girls blush and giggle nervously around him, and he didn't get nervous.

So maybe he was nervous about his interview. Maybe he was nervous about missing this bus.

But then the redhead (because of course this girl had red hair) turned to glance at him and his hand shot up to his hair. He cleared his throat and looked down the road for the bus.

It was definitely her giving him this strange, tight feeling in his stomach.

He could feel her eyes were still on him so he turned back to look at her and they made eye contact for a moment. James felt his hands getting clammy and shoved his phone into his pocket.

For all things holy, he hadn't even spoken to this woman yet, why was he reacting like this? Was she some kind of siren? Though that would have required him hearing her voice. She tapped him on the shoulder and he jerkily pulled his earbuds out and looked over at her.

"Sorry, I don't normally talk to people listening to music, but you look familiar. Are you the bloke that just moved into 1B?" She asked, her forehead crinkling ever so slightly. It was adorable.

He had to clear his throat again and then just ended up nodding. Fucking sod, just say something. "Yeah, I moved in last week. 1B, it's a nice place so far." He narrowed his brow and looked out at the road again. Maybe he shouldn't have said anything.

"I live in 1D, I thought I'd seen you around. You look different all dressed up though."

"1D?" He asked, wondering how he'd managed not to see her all week. And what did she mean by that? He looked different all dressed up? Just how often had he missed her this past week?

"Yeah. It's also a pretty nice place." She grinned, clearly teasing him, and he felt like kicking himself. Couldn't he think of anything interesting to say.

"I'm sorry I stared at you." He blurted out, now really wishing that he could kick himself. "I promise I'm not some kind of creep." He continued on, only digging a bigger whole for himself. Maybe when the bus finally showed up, he should just step out in front of it and be done with this awkward conversation.

She laughed luckily, "The kind of thing only a non-creep would say." But then she shrugged. "It's alright I suppose, I did my fair bit of staring earlier. Can't really hold it against you."

"You were staring at me?" He asked, not sure how she'd confessed something like that so nonchalantly.

"Sure, when you were moving in." She gave him another smile. "So where are you headed all dressed up? Got a date?"

"Oh," He looked down at what he was wearing and shook his head. He looked her over and wondered if she'd done that on purpose or not, if she had casually asked him if he was on his way to meet a girl with the intention of finding out if he was single. If his brain was currently working, he would have tried to work out her current relationship status. He twisted the wire of his earbuds between his two fingers. "Um. Interview actually."

She nodded. "What are you applying for?"

"It's a sports marketing company."

"Let me guess, you played football in uni," She had her brow narrowed just slightly and a look in her eyes that made his stomach twist excitedly.

"And after uni for a couple of years."

"But no more?" He shook his head.

"Some other things took priority." He said, hoping she didn't press any further. She didn't, only nodded.

"I know how that goes." She said and then she looked down the road for the bus. "So, did you move here for the job?"

"Not particularly. I lived on the other side of town before, with a few roommates. I just figured it was time to get out on my own for a bit." He said, hoping that she thought he was conversing like a normal human being. It wasn't fair that she was so effortlessly charming. That was usually his thing. But her bright green eyes were doing things to his mind, and the fact that she had red hair- well he'd always had a thing for red hair.

"It's a tough thing to outgrow your roommates." She nodded. "I myself got one that I can't seem to shake."

"Just needed a sense of independence." He said, wondering how this stranger could understand something that Sirius couldn't. "Sod of a boyfriend or…"

She laughed, most likely because he hadn't been subtle at all there. Though it wasn't as though she had been subtle earlier and he hadn't laughed at her. Not that he minded, her laugh was something else entirely. "He's not a sod, and he's not my boyfriend." She laughed again and shook her head before glancing down at her watch. "The bus should be here soon." She mused, her smile still brightening her face.

"Alright, not a boyfriend, but you were definitely making a joke," He said, his stomach having slowed in it's churning after hearing her laugh. He was pretty sure that he was in love with the sound of her laugh. He knew that he wanted to hear it again before the bus showed up. Though maybe they could sit together when the bus did show up. He didn't know where she was going, but they were waiting for the same bus.

"Was I?" She asked, giving him a playful look.

"Yes, you were." He thought about it. A roommate that she couldn't shake. "Do you have a dog?"

"I wish." She sighed. "I have a cat and two goldfish, but no dog. Building doesn't allow them."

"Were you talking about your cat?"

She shook her head, her smile now aimed directly at him. "No, I wasn't talking about my cat."

And then the bus was pulling up and James was slightly anxious because he hadn't seen it coming. "Where are you headed?" He asked, forgetting about her roommate for a second.

"Hmm?" She asked, looking through the back windows of the bus.

"Where are you headed?" He repeated.

"Oh, I'm not going anywhere." She said, a smile spreading across her face as a few people stepped off the bus. "I was just waiting for my roommate." She glanced at him for a brief moment. "Good luck at your interview!" She said, giving him a small wave before she walked past him and knelt down to the ground just in time for a small boy around five or six to throw his arms around her and give her a big hug. She stood up with the boy's arms still around her and James heard her start asking if he'd had a good day at school.

And he definitely heard the little boy call her 'mum.'

He was a bit blindsided by the interaction, but he shook his head and stepped onto the bus.

It was after the doors closed that he realized that he didn't know her name.

"Fucking hell." He muttered, leaning back against the seat and earning himself a glare from an elderly gentleman sitting nearby. He couldn't be bothered. How had he not asked for her name?

oOo

His leg was tapping up and down as the bus lurched and swayed around the city.

He couldn't decide if this woman, who's name he didn't know, had been flirting with him or not. Nor could he get the sound of her laugh out of his head. Nor could he get rid of the feeling in his gut from when she'd first smiled at him. He'd already decided that he was half in love with this woman and then he found out that she had a son and he was a bit startled by the realization that it had done nothing to dull his initial feelings.

He didn't want to say that it was something that changed his mind normally, because he felt like that would make him a scumbag. He was young and while he knew that he wanted children, that wasn't something that he thought about now. It was usually something that he figured he'd get to one day in the future. After getting married and buying a house and settling down. But just because he didn't think about it, that didn't mean that other people his age hadn't decided to have children.

Regardless, she had a child.

Of course, James was getting ahead of himself here. He'd been known to do that. She may have been flirting, but he had still only had a ten minute conversation with her. His ears were still ringing with the sound of her laugh, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't completely forget about her after his interview.

His interview. That was what he needed to be focusing on. He wanted to get this job, he wanted to do well today and if that was the case then he needed to put the pretty redhead out of his mind. He needed to get her laugh and her eyes and her beautiful red hair out of his mind.

He sighed and ran his hands over his face and up through his hair.

So much for wanting to appear put together and not windswept. He was sure his hair was a disaster now.

This was crazy. He couldn't believe that she'd snapped something in him this quickly. He'd always been a bit of a romantic at heart, even if he didn't always show it, but this kind of instantaneous attraction just hadn't happened to him before. Ten minutes. That's how long he'd been talking to her. And now he was trying to decide if he was mature enough to date someone who had a child.

He looked out the window and saw a pub that he and Sirius had been thrown out of only last month and pushed his glasses up his nose.

How mature did one need to be to date someone who had a child? A small child at that?

The bus stopped across from the main branch of the library and he realized how close he was the where he was going.

Alright, the interview. Think about the interview. And now that he only had a few minutes until he was there, he was finally able focus on the points he wanted to make sure he hit on, to go over the pitches that he'd been working on all week, to remember names and statistics that he would need for the interview. His stomach started to clench for an entirely different reason than having been besotted with a pretty girl at a bus stop.

oOo

He was halfway home when he stopped micro-analyzing everything that had been said in his interview and thought of the girl from the bus stop again. The woman sitting in front of him on the bus had red hair, and it wasn't the same color, but it was close enough that it reminded him of her. And then her remembered that she was his neighbor. Would he see her when he got back to his flat? Would she smile at him again?

He sure hoped so. And realizing that he hoped so made him feel like a prat.

He was a prat. He'd just have to accept that he was now the type of bloke that met a woman once for ten minutes and became obsessed with her. Despite any complications that may be brought about by the fact that she had a child.

Like the fact that this child probably had a father. And she was beautiful, so the father was probably involved in her life as well as the child's… though she hadn't mentioned an adult male roommate.

Actually, she'd mentioned that she didn't have a boyfriend. And he hadn't seen a ring either so that just gave him more reason to hope that she actually had been flirting with him earlier.

The bus pulled up to his building and he got off, looking around the sidewalk before realizing that it was ridiculous for him to be looking for her out on the sidewalk. What would she be doing out there?

But then there she was, running up the steps that led to the door of their building. She had a football in her hand and her face was flushed, her hair twisted around, strands stuck to her cheeks.

"Mum!" Her little boy called out, chasing her up the stairs.

"No running on the stairs," She said, running back down them now.

"No using your hands!" He countered, still going after her, trying to grab at the ball she was holding up over her head. "You're supposed to use your feet!"

"I know the rules," She laughed, putting the ball behind her back and looking down at the boy.

"Well you're not very good at following the rules," He sighed, still trying to grab at the ball behind her.

"What are you talking about? I'm excellent at following the rules. It's just that, as your mother, the rules don't apply to me." She shrugged one of her shoulders as though she were trying to show him that she was sorry for his luck.

"Of course they apply to you! It's the rules of the game! They apply to everyone!" He was laughing, and then he acted as though he were going to lean one way to reach for the ball, and when she reacted, he quickly went the other way and was able to knock the ball out of her hand.

"Oi!" She laughed as the ball bounced against the sidewalk and went toward the small patch of grass that was between the building and concrete. He rushed over to it and started kicking the ball against the side of the building.

James had been slowly walking towards the stairs while watching this interaction, and he was nearly at the base of the staircase when she spotted him. "How did the interview go?" She asked, sounding as though she was genuinely curious.

He couldn't help but smile at her. "I hope that it went well."

"Were they smiling when you left?" She asked.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean anything. I made a good joke as I was walking out. The lot of them are actually quite easily amused."

"So was it a good joke or were they just easily amused."

"Both." He said solemnly. "I'm quite sure a couple of them were in tears by the time the elevator doors closed behind me." She laughed and shook her head as he felt his heart rate pick up. He'd made her laugh again.

"Well if that's the case then they should hire you just for the entertainment."

"That usually how I get most of my jobs."

"Well then, perhaps you're going into the wrong line of work. Ever consider being a comedian?" She joked, cocking her head to the side.

He snorted, "Yeah, that's my true passion. Unfortunately it's shit pay- Sorry," He looked over at her son and cursed himself (this time in his head.)

She laughed, "He knows not to repeat after strange men on the street. Right, Harry?"

"What?" He looked up, having been concentrated on the ball. He saw James standing there talking to his mum and then nodded. "Yeah, whatever you say."

She laughed, "That's always the right answer, love. You ready for dinner?"

Harry leaned over and picked up his ball. "Yeah, I'm starving."

"No hands!" She cried out, pointing at the ball. Harry rolled his eyes and started walking up the stairs.

"We're not playing anymore, I'm allowed to hold it."

"I feel like you just make up the rules as they suit you." She shrugged. She looked at James. "See you around," She said, waving at him like she had when he was getting on the bus.

"Yeah, see you around." He waved back and then waited until they were already in the building before continuing up the stairs himself. How had he lived here a week without seeing her at all. And he knew that he hadn't seen her before, because he would have remembered seeing her.

"Bloody fucking hell," He muttered to himself. He saw them laughing as they raced through their door and he turned to walk in the opposite direction to his flat. Maybe he needed to call Sirius and hear that he was a git from someone else. Because he'd now talked to her twice, was quite sure that he was now more than half in love with her, and he still didn't know her name.