Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I create.
Chapter 18: A New Business
It had been a week since James started working on his new potions business.
He was lucky that he wasn't as famous as he had been in his previous life, so even though he used his real name and the owls were addressed to Hogwarts, people assumed he was one of the teachers.
However, since he wasn't a well-established potion master in the country, he had to send free samples to several potion shops across Britain to showcase the quality of his creations. But as soon as they saw what he was capable of, he began receiving a large number of requests.
During breakfast, several owls were flying in and out of the Great Hall. Most of them landed in front of James, which was causing quite a commotion.
"What's going on? Did Potter go on a shopping spree?" one of the students commented.
"James, what is all this?" Sirius asked.
"Hey, get off my bacon!" Peter had to shoo away an owl that had gotten too close to his breakfast.
'This is going to be a problem…' James realized immediately.
He needed the owls to bring materials, requests, and money, as well as to deliver his finished potions to the clients. But he couldn't have dozens of owls swarming him during breakfast every day.
James glanced across the table and noticed that almost everyone was looking in his direction. If this continued, it was only a matter of time before the teachers got involved and called him out for disrupting the hall.
'Well, I was already planning to set up a secondary lab in an abandoned classroom. Might as well make it the delivery point too,' James concluded.
"James… what in Merlin's name did you buy?" Alice asked.
He brushed her off. "You know, a few things that caught my eye from Diagon Alley."
"Some of the owls are taking packages from you before leaving," Lily noticed.
"Those are lists for more things to buy," Sirius chimed in, trying to help James out.
"Tsk… rich boys…" Lily muttered before turning her attention back to her food.
After a few more minutes, all the owls except for one had left. The last one was waiting for James to hand over his next list of ingredients.
He was about to hand it over when he noticed that Remus hadn't said a word during breakfast and looked extremely depressed.
"What's wrong with him?" James asked Sirius.
Sirius's expression grew serious. "Have you forgotten? In five days, there's, you know… the full moon."
"Oh…" James had indeed forgotten about that.
It wasn't surprising that his friends were keeping track of the lunar cycles, but he hadn't bothered to do the same.
'So, in five days, Remus will turn into a werewolf and have to spend the night at the Shrieking Shack alone,' James thought. He was sure that none of them had become Animagi yet, so Remus was having a terrible time during his transformations.
But then, he recalled the Wolfsbane Potion. This could make things much better for him.
The older Remus hadn't had access to it until his later years. For one, it was extremely expensive, and secondly, if James remembered correctly, it hadn't even been invented until the late seventies. Luckily for him, this was one of the many potion formulas he had memorized.
"Can you pass me that quill?" James called to Lily, who was a few seats away, pointing at the quill resting next to her.
She looked up at him and was about to refuse, but when she saw how serious he was, she handed it over without a word.
The owl in front of him hooted impatiently, clearly annoyed by the wait.
James threw a piece of bacon from Peter's plate. "Here, I'll just be a moment. I need a few extra things."
He quickly wrote down the names of several more ingredients and added a 'Quick Delivery' mark at the top. This would make it more expensive, but hopefully, he'd receive it in time to brew the potion for Remus.
James handed the paper to the owl, and it flew away. He then stood up from his chair.
"James? There's still half an hour before class," Sirius told him.
"Sorry, I just remembered I have something to do before class. You guys go without me," he said, passing by Lily and returning her quill. "Thank you," he added without looking at her before walking off.
Sirius and Peter called after him, but he didn't hear them.
"Uh… you're welcome…" Lily barely had time to say before he left.
She frowned. For a moment, she had thought James only asked for the quill to get her attention, but obviously, that wasn't the case.
"He's acting very strange, isn't he?" Alice, who was sitting beside her, commented.
"Yes…" Lily had to agree. The whole scene with the owls was also weird. If James had been doing some frivolous shopping by owl, he would have shown off his purchases, as he had done on several occasions before. But all the packages he received from the owls were immediately stored in an enchanted bag, and he made no comment about them.
'He also looked very serious while writing some sort of list to give to the owl…' Lily thought. This didn't look like the face of someone who was having fun while wasting money on random stuff.
Her green eyes followed James as he left the Great Hall at a brisk pace, and she couldn't help but wonder where he was going now.
"He's been like that since the year started," Alice commented. "He always seems to be busy with something. They haven't even pranked anyone yet. Can you believe it?"
"It's like he became a different person," Lily said.
"Right!" Alice agreed. "Do you think it's because of what happened during the summer? Can dragonpox change someone's personality like that?"
"I don't know…" Lily didn't like not knowing things. "But I will find out."
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