A/N: So, this brings us to chapter numero 6! I seriousy thought that this story would only get up to four chapters, but I guess I've always been a little long winded when it comes to telling stories. They always seem so much shorter in my mind. smiles

Disclaimer: I can't claim, lawyers will sue me! I can't claim, lawyers will sue me! I can't claim...

James opened his eyes to find himself staring into a pair of blurry sapphire eyes. Even with his glasses off, he could tell that they were beautiful and their owner was a female. A very annoyed female, it would seem.

"Who are you,"James and the blue-eyed girl inquired of one another simultaneously. James chuckler, but the girl did not seem to be amused by the coincidence.

"I think," she said slowly as she handed him his glasses, "that since you came hurtling into my home in the middle of my sisters' engagement party that it is I who shall be asking the questions and you who shall be answering them."

James accepted his glasses and sat up. Now that he had his glasses on – and a better point of veiw – he could see that he had, indeed, come hurtling into a ballroom in the middle of a fancy party. He could also see the girl more clearly and he found that she was as beautiful as her eyes. Her hair was ebony, long, and wavy and she wore a blue dress that matched her eyes perfectly.

"Er...my name's James Potter," he said sheepishly.

"I see," said the girl."Why are you in my house? Where did you come from, and where are you going?"

"I used the floo powder," James answered thinking that, if this place was hooked up to the floo network, it must be safe to speak of it."I guess I must have fallen into the wrong grate. I came from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and I was heading for a friends house."

The girl smiled brightly and grabbed his hand. With strength that James would have never have imagined she possessed, she pulled him to his feet. Then she snapped her fingers and a butler was at her side in moments.

"Take this boy up to the baths," she ordered simply, " and bring him some clean clothes from my brother's room. The two are similar in size, so they should fit – I'm sure that brother will not mind.

"When he is finished with his bath and has dressed," she continued, ignoring the sounds of protest coming from James, "take him to my study and give him some food and something to drink.

"As for you," she added as she turned to James. "This party shall be ended in about fourty minutes time – we shall finish this conversation then. I shall, therefore, be up in my study within fourty-five minutes and I expect to find you there, so utilize your time wisely. That is all; you are dissmissed."

"This way young sir," the butler informed James in a nasally voice as he headed toward the tall doorway that led from the room. James gaped at the girl for a moment before following the butler. As he went he wondered what was to be in store for him.

Sirius, Remus, and Peter are never going to believe this, James thought as he exited the extravagant ballroom.

6

The bathroom had been humungous – the whole place was humungous. It was lucky for him that he had the butler to show him around because he knew he would have gotten miserably lost otherwise. He assumed that the girl knew it, too.

As he followed the butler to the strange girl's study he badgerd him with questions. Where was he? Who owned this place? Who was the girl who had ordered him about? What was her name? What was her status? Was she always that bossy or was it just the effect of a stranger hurtling into the middle of her sister's engagement party? Was she nice? Was he her personal butler? Were there other butlers in the house? What was the girl's sister's name? Her brother's?

Through his questions he discovered that he was at the Jennings Estate, exactly the place the book had told him to go to first. The house was owned by the master. The girl who ordered him around was the master's daughter and her name was Marietta. She was the younger daughter, but with her sister's engagement her status would move up. She was always bossy, but she was also nice. He was not her personal butler and was the only butler – the other servants were house elves. Marietta's sister's name was Juliette and her brother's name was William.

By the time these questions were answered he was being ushered into a room – Marietta's study, it turned out – alone. He looked around at the walls which were covered, mostly, by four bookshelves which were, in turn, covered with books. The room was circular and the bookshelves curved with the walls. In three of the gaps between the bookshelves beanbags were amassed for sitting on. In the middle of the room there was a desk with a chair on either side. James took the seat in front of the desk and waited patiently for food, drink, and Marietta to arrive.

His fingers began to fidle with the strange clothing that he wore. Marietta had been correct in thinking that William and James were similar in size for, although they were a little big, the clothes fit James rather well.

He wore a pair of navy blue, cotton pants and a silken shirt that was a bright blue that was about three shades lighter than the pants. He had also been given a pair of fuzzy slippered that were silken on the inside and very comfortable in general. The outfit was finished off with an ebony cloak that was draped around his shoulders and fell to his feet, James had to admit, this William had style.

Food arived soon after James sat down – it was as elegant as anything else in the house. However, as it was midnight where he'd come from, James wasn't very hungry. He did eat a few sandwiches to be polite and drank a cup of orange juice, though. When he'd finished eating he grabbed a book from one of the shelves and began to read. There were only two pages in 1001 Un-useless Artifacts and Their Un-useless Uses that interested him.

The book turned out to be very interesting and James finished the first chapter by the time Marietta entered her study with a boy who must have been only a year or two older than James was and about an inch or so taller. He had straight, black hair, like Marietta, and green eyes. Jamed assumed this was her brother William, but said nothing.

"Hello James," Marietta said as she walked over to sit in the chair behind the desk. William followed her and stood behind her like a body guard. "Jonathan, the butler, has told me that you have been informed of a few key things. Please, fill me in on what it is you have learned."

James told her all the questions he'd asked and the answers he'd recieved. As he spoke he realized that she had to be at least a little younger than he and marveled at the ease in which she had exerted authority over him and the ease in which he'd accepted it.

"Well then, as you have all your questions answered," Marietta began calmly, "We can turn to the matter which I truly wanted to discuss with you.

"This, by the way," she added as she gestured at William, "is William, as you have probably already guessed."

"Hello James," William said with a smile and a nod. His voice was strong, confident, and deep. It was also kindly, which fit with the rest of him perfectly.

"Hello," James said, smiling in return. "Thank you for letting me borrow your clothes, mine were a little dirty."

"A little," Marietta scoffed derisevly. "They were absolutely covered in soot!"

"Marietta," William warned, putting the girl in check quickly.

"Anyway," Marietta said, waving her hand."I was considering the situation during the party and have decided that you shall remain here as our guest."

"What?" James exclaimed as he jumped up.

"I mean, after all," Marietta continued, completely ignoring James and his outburst of indignation, "I'm sixteen. Next year I will be of age, so, realistically, I should have started buckling down a year ago. It's never too late to get to business, I always say. Of course, I always say time is galleons, too...

"Either way," Marietta continued as she looked at James once more. "You shall be staying here so that I may decide whether or not you will make a worthy husband. If I think you do, then we shall, of course, be engaged imm-"

"Now wait a minute!"

Marietta and William both looked at James with expressions of pure shock. James felt a little ashamed of himself for yelling out as he had, but still! Marietta was going a little too far for only knowing him for fifty minutes.

"Look," James said a little more calmly as he sat back down. "Y-...you're nice and pretty and everything like that, but don't you think it's a little bit too early in out relationship to be thinking about marriage? You know, considering we've only known one another for less than an hour. I mean, we're barely even acquaintances."

"Exactly," Marietta said pointedly."You must not have been listening very well, James. You see, that is the exact reason that you will be staying here for a few days, so we may become better acquainted."

James gaped at her with his mouth open, he just couldn't think of any other way to respond to her ridiculous reasoning. Marietta, however, seemed to take it as an agreement, for she continued to babble on about all that they would do together. Then she was gone and James was following William through the maze of a house to a room which, he was told, was right next to William's

"In case you need anything," William informed him."You're a bit new to all of this, I noticed. I'm sure you will eventually get used to asking the house elves for anything you require, but, until then, you can just ask me. Also, I'm sure you'll have few questions that the house elves won't be able to help you with."

Then James was alone in "his room" which had already been decorated somehow. The walls were painted a navy blue with light blue trimming around the top edge and the floor was covered with a dark green carpet. The rest of the room was decorated to go with the blue and green and the dresser was an emerald color that reminded him of Lily.

Will I ever get to see her again, he wondered fearfully. Or Sirius, or Remus, or even Peter? Will I ever see my parents again, or Hogwarts? Am I going to be traped here for the rest of my life?

James sank onto the bed and felt a little choked, as though he was going to cry, but he stopped himself. He didn't want to give this prison anymore of him than it had already taken if he could help it.

His eyes roved the room and landed on a pair of pajamas that were folded neatly on the end of his bed next to him, but he merely pushed them away before flopping down on his back to stare up at the canopy of his bed.

6

Hogwarts, 9:00 a.m.

Sirius stretched as he looked around at his curtains. After a moment of sitting and stretching, he got out of bed and opened his curtains. He knew immediately that something was wrong, for James' bed was empty and Remus was sittin up, dressed, in the bed on the opposite side of James' looking at Sirius sadly.

In his hands was a note.

Sirius was before Remus in moments, holding out his hand for the letter. Remus silently handed it over to him and waited patiently for him to read it. Sirius looked at him for a moment before joining him on his bed to read the note. It read:

Dear fellow Marauders,

I have gone in search of a Holy Grail of sorts. I promise to return as soon as I can and when I return I'll explain everything to you.

I chose not to tell you of my intentions personally, because I knew that you would either try to persuade me not to go or demand to be allowed to come along. I couldn't let either of these things occur, because I don't know how dangerous my quest will be and I feel this is something I have to do. I have no idea what to expect. All I have is a list of directions and a map to guide me.

By the time you read this, I will hopefully have retrieved the item I am seeking and will be resting before I start my return journey.

Wish me luck!

–James

Sirius reread the note before crumpling it up and throwing it away from him in anger. He glared at James' bed for a moment before dropping his head into his hands. Remus hesitated for a moment before putting his hand on Sirius' shoulder.

"He'll be fine," Remus said quietly. "I know you're angry and scared, but I know he'll be fine. He's too stuborn to die and too annoying to be kept cative for any length of time."

Sirius snorted, but said nothing. After a moment, Remus took his hand from Sirius' shoulder and clasped it with his other hand in his lap. Then he sat in silence with Sirius, both of the waiting for Peter to wake up so he could be informed of the news and they could come up with a joint story to cover for James.

A/N: Dang! So many chapters! Is this story ever going to end? I'm truly starting to wonder. I know what you're all wondering, is James going to get out of his prison? Is he ever going to get the Magitop? Is Lily going to fall in love with him? All these question and more will be answered in the following chapters and hopefully soon.