Chapter 7 – Lunch at James's

At about mid day Lily decided that it was time to leave her house and take the short walk to James's, so putting on her sandals and leaving a note on the kitchen table telling her Nan where she was going, Lily walked out of the front door and along the street.

Reaching James's house slightly out of breath from the walk up the hill, Lily rang the doorbell and within seconds the door burst open with James standing where the door once was.

"Hey Lils." James stepped aside to let Lily in "How you feeling?" James said this with concern in his voice.

"I'm ok, I guess." Lily shrugged as she followed James into the kitchen where Winki was rushing around with plates of food.

"I did tell Winki only a small lunch, but well I think she went a little over the top. Maybe she thought it was Sirius who was coming round." James said this looking at the kitchen table, Lily looked over to where James was looking and on the table were already a large plate of sandwiches, chocolate éclairs, pies, sausage rolls and a large bowl of crisps.

"Well at least we wont go hungry!" Lily said her eyes wide, thinking how was she ever going to eat that much food.

"Shall we start eating our way through a feast then?" James said guiding Lily over to one of the many empty seats, and taking a seat opposite and taking a couple of sandwiches from the pile.

"So what have you been up to for the past couple of days?" James asked while grabbing a warm sausage roll and offering Lily, who took one and put it on her plate.

"Looking at the family photo's that my Nan has scattered everywhere. She's been really weird really, not talking just putting all her efforts into cleaning up the house."

"It's just probably the way your Nan deals with grief, like you deal with it looking out at the rain and looking at old photos, you Nan probably likes to keep busy." James was looking at Lily with his soothing Hazel eyes.

"I didn't…how did you…how did you know I was sitting at the window looking out at the rain."

"Lils, I know you too well, I've seen you and Isabel twirling and running around in the rain a million times, from the common room window." James smiled looking at Lily's shocked reaction and chuckling. "Kindda makes me wonder how you can manage to have the energy to run around, but not walk up a little hill!"

"Oi" Lily threw a sausage roll from her plate at James's head, but he caught it before it hit him with his reflexes from Quidditch practise and dropped it onto his own plate.

"You know me too well do you? Ok then what else is true about me?" Lily challenged looking over at James who now had a cheeky smile on his face.

"Well I know how you hate the idea of flying, how you never wear matching socks because it's bad luck, and how you always suck your bottom lip w/hen your concentrating or nervous." James was looking at Lily the whole time he spoke looking at her reaction of shock.

"How do you know all that?" Lily asked in amazement. James just winked at Lily

"Maunderous secret, plus did you really think that you were that invisible?" James asked looking over at Lily.

"Well, I didn't notice that I had a stalker no." Lily had grabbed another sausage roll and launched it across the table at James's head. The sausage roll nearly hit its target, but James moved his head to the other side and the sausage roll hit the window behind him.

"You know you don't have to keep throwing things at me. Besides we both know that it will never hit me." James smirked "Well do you fancy a game of wizarding chess, make a change to play with someone other then Sirius or Remus."

"Sure, but well I have never really played it before so your gonna have to explain it to me as we play."

"What! Never! That's an outrage!" James said the dramatically throwing his arms everywhere. "Shall I meet you in the sitting room, just going to run and get the chess set."

Lily got up from the table and made her way to the sitting room while James was skipping across the ballroom to the stairs, like a five-year-old child. Walking into the sitting room Lily sat down on the large white sofa, which was opposite the fireplace and picked up a book that was lying on the chair, which James must have left there, as it was Quidditch through the ages. Having nothing else to do Lily started flicking through the book, watching the pictures of famous players zooming around in the pictures. Lily had got so engrossed in the book that she didn't notice the sound of someone doing a fake caught to get her attention.

When Lily finally did notice the noise, Lily looked up from the book.

"Whaaaaaaa…" Lily had jumped up out of the seat in shock, and dropped the book onto the floor, looking back into the fire where the fake coughing had come from, there was now a head in the flames, which was laughing and trying to catch its breath.

"Well I can't say that I have ever had a welcome quiet like that before!" The head in the flames was saying this with a chuckle in his voice.

"Hey Padfoot, what can I do for you?" James asking walking into the room, then looking at Lily whose mouth was opening and closing. James was thinking that Lily was doing a brilliant impression of a fish.

"It's ok Lils, it's only Padfood, and I guess you have never seen someone talking from a fire before." James said this trying to hold in a laugh.

"Well it's not something I'm accustomed to, no." Lily was talking to James but still staring into the fire with the initial shock over.

"Well Prongs, I was just letting you know that I'll be over tonight to stay for the rest of the summer, Mum's gone absolutely mad, I can't take it anymore!" Sirius was saying this with his voice getting more and more high pitched.

"Sure, mum's been expecting you for ages."

"Right well I'm going to go and pack, see you in a couple of hours. Have fun you two. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Sirius said this with a smirk before his head disappeared from the fire, just in time as Lily was about to kick the head that was once there.

"I like to see that he NEVER changes." Lily emphasised the never as she took a seat on the floor opposite James who had already started to set up the chess set. "So how do all these things move then?" Lily was looking down at the many different pieces in front of her.

"Right well there are six different players so to speak, your Pawn which can go forwards and sideways, your King that can move one square in any direction, your Queen which can move as many squares as she wants in any direction, the Bishops which can move as many squares as they want diagonally, the Knight which can move in an L shape and finally your Rook which can go up or to the side in as many squares as it like. You got all that." James looked at the confident look on Lily's face, after he had pointed out each of the different playing pieces.

"Yep I got it, it can't be that hard!" Lily said this with confidence but the reality was that she was still a little confused on how some of the pieces moved, but Lily decided that the best way to play.

"You can't do that!" James screeched as Lily moved the king three spaces away from James Queen, which had it in check.

"Why not?" Lily asked innocently looking up into James's large warm hazel eyes.

"That look wont work on me." James said this pointing a finger at Lily. "Just face it you lost."

"Fine." Lily huffed just as there was a loud crashing noise coming from the ballroom.

"What the" James started.

"Honey I'm home." A voiced shouted from the ballroom and James laughed before getting up from the floor and motioning Lily to follow him as he rushed into the ballroom where Sirius was standing.

"Hey Padfood, though you would have been quicker then that." James laughed. Lily just stood there, feeling like she was intruding. Lily had never really spoken to Sirius before, and didn't know what to say.

"Ahh Lillian, no screams of welcome this time, made a nice change." Sirius said this walking over to her and throwing his arm around her shoulders. Lily looked up at Sirius with her eyebrows raised.

"I'm sorry I'm all screamed out, and I'm not your personal leaning post." Lily said this shrugging off Sirius's arm, which made Sirius laugh.

"So Lillian what are you doing here, I mean a few months a go I remember you telling ol' prongsie here that his ego was too big for both of you to be in a room for longer then what 5 minutes!" Sirius laughed, and taking in the sheepish look on Lily's face, who was trying to think of a way of telling Sirius why she was in James's house.

"Well…Well I was wrong, James isn't such an egotistic, bullying, cunning, idiot as I thought he was." Lily said this looking past Sirius at the fire.

"Well there's no need to keep repeating my many faults…you could have just said that James Potter is the best person in the world. " James did a look of mock outrage.

"Come on all three of us know that's not true." Lily returned which had Sirius in fits of laughter.

"She's got you their Prongs." As Sirius finished his sentence and was wiping the tears out of his eyes, Mrs and Mr Potter appriated into the ballroom.

"O it's getting a bit busy in here, Ah Sirius I see your back." Mr potter said this walking over to Sirius and clapping him on the back. Lily could see where James got his messy black hair from; Mr Potters was just the same as his, and also had the same hazel eyes, James was a spitting image of his father. "And I'm guessing that you must be Lily." Mr Potter said this now looking at Lily.

"Yes I am Mr Potter." Lily said politely

"Mr Potter, now now none of that, makes me feel old." Mr Potter laughed. "It's Henry if you don't mind." Henry smiled over at Lily.

"Ah Lily, why don't you stay for dinner, the boys can walk you home afterwards." Moria said over to Lily as she took off her travelling cloak and hung it up in the cloakroom, which was hidden behind a door Lily had never seen before.

"Er ok thanks Moria."

"Not a problem, well why don't you three go out and get some fresh air while I get dinner done." Moria said this as she walked into the kitchen.

"How about a game of Quiddich?" Sirius asked excitedly jumping on the spot.

"Sure." James was sounded excited at the prospect of going flying he hadn't been on his broom for at least thee weeks. "HEY DAD, you wanna come and play?" James asked his dad who was walking away to the sitting room.

"Nah I'll leave you three to it, I have some papers to look over."

"Last one down to the pitch is a rotten egg!" And without warning James and Sirius sprinted across the ballroom and out into the garden, it took Lily a moment to register what had just happened when she decided to walk and meet them down at the pitch.

"Ah, they are a bit of a handful when they're together, but there good kids." Moria said to Lily as she walked into the kitchen. "If you just walk straight you'll make it down to the pitch."

"Thanks Moria." Lily said as she walked into the garden and made her way down to the pitch, which seemed miles away.

When Lily did make it to the pitch James and Sirius were already on their brooms and flying around. Lily noticed that there was a wooden bench on the sidelines to the pitch, and went over to sit and watch the two in the air, hoping that they would be having too much fun to notice her sitting there. The last thing Lily wanted was to go up on a broom. But unfortunately for Lily when the Quaffle came zooming down where Sirius had dropped it and fell down near Lily's feet.

"Ah Lillian we can't have you sitting down here all on your lonesom, why don't you grab James's old broom and come up and join us." Sirius said this pointing over to where the Quidditch gear must be kept.

"Well as kind as the offer is, I prefer my feet firmly on the ground, so I'll stick to the watching. And stop calling me Lillian, its unnerving." Lily said as she handed Sirius the Quaffle.

"Your loss Lillian!" Sirius zoomed back up into the air to where James was now hunched over his broom and looking down at Lily below.

Half an hour later and Lily heard Maria call out that it was time for dinner and immediantly James and Sirius came flying down and dismounted from their brooms, and threw all of the Quidditch gear back into the shed.

"Come on Lils." James said this rushing back to where Lily was slowly walking up and pushed her along.

"Ok…Ok." Lily shouted starting to pick up her pace walking up towards the house, but for Sirius this still seemed too slow. He ran down to Lily and James, grabbed Lily around the waist and threw her over his shoulder running up towards the house.

"Lily. Don't you understand the words dinner is ready…its not right to keep people waiting." James laughed hearing Sirius's reasons for now running up to the house. Within a couple of minutes of Lily kicking and telling Sirius to put her down they arrived at the back door. Sirius put Lily down before walking into the house.

"Thanks!" Lily excalimed at the now vacent door.

"Lils if theres one thing you should know about Sirius it's don't keep him away from his food." James laughed following Lily into the kitchen were Sirius and James's parents were already seated waiting for them to take a seat.

As soon as Lily placed herself in a seat opposite James and next to Sirius, Sirius started to pile food onto his plate, and take a large mouthful.

"Well nice to see your appitite hasn't changed there Sirius." Moria laughed from the end of the table.

"There's nothing like your cooking Mrs P." Siruis said this through mouthfuls of mash potatoe.

"So what havoc have you two got planned for tomorrow, and bare in mind that your mother and I would love our house to still be in one piece when we get home from work." Henry asked looking between James and Sirius.

"We never cause any havoc!" James exclaimed with a look of innocence.

"And that one time where the sitting room got trashed wasn't our fault, an elf came in and did it!" Sirius finished matching the look of innocence that James was portraying. Lily was sitting there smiling watching the scene before her. Lily knew perfectly well that neither James nor Sirius were the innocent little angels that they were trying to make themselves seem.

"We all know you're not that innocent boys." Moria said looking at the pair of them. "But as long as you don't cause too much trouble."

"James clear the table ready for pudding." Henry asked his son as he sad back in the chair.

"Oi pass them plates down please." James asked to the end where Moria and Sirius were sitting and started to gather up the plates around him. Once James had the plates piled up he picked them up and took them over to the sink, before walking over to a cabinet and got out five plates before walking back over to the table, and taking a seat again at the table. Moria waved her wand and a large strawberry trifle and a summer fruits cheesecake flew over and landed on the table.

"Lils what ye be wanting?" James asked with a plate ready to put Lily's choice of pudding on.

"Mmm trifle please." Lily smiled as James scooped out a large amount and passed the plate over to Lily.

"Dad?"

"Cheesecake of course!" Henry seemed shocked that James had to ask.

"Mum?"

"Trifle please darlin'." After James handed his mother her pudding James put a slice of cheesecake and a scoop of trifle on a plate before handing it to Sirius, and then took the last of the trifle for himself.

After everyone had finished eating their way through the puddings and the general chit chatter had faded away, James once again got up and collected the plates, putting them in the sink with the dinner plates, as a clock chimed in the kitchen. Looking around Lily noticed a little wooden clock in the corner. It was eight O'clock already; Lily couldn't believe that it was that late already. But Lily couldn't decided if she was more shocked of the time or the fact that James had just tidied the table and it looked like he was now getting ready to do the washing up.

"Sirius you can wash I'll brake." James said throwing the dishcloth at Sirius who was slowly getting up from his seat.

"Its ok boys I'll let you off this once, besides you have to walk Lily here home." Moria said pulling out her wand once again and the dished started to clean themselves and fly back into the cabinets where they had come from.

"Thanks mum, you ready then Lils?" James asked looking over at Lily.

"Yeah, I'm good to go." Lily said getting up from her seat. "Thanks for dinner, it was lovely." Lily said over to Moria and Henry who were still seated at the table, now with coffee in front of them.

"It was no problem, you're welcome round for dinner when ever you want." Moria told Lily.

"Thanks, well goodnight." Lily said this as she followed James and Sirius out of the house. The walk home seemed to be the shortest yet; James and Sirius were running up and down the street playing tag, until they got to Lily's house.

"Thanks for the entertainment on the way home." Lily laughed to James and Sirius as she stood on the porch.

"No problem dear Lillian." Sirius bowed down in front of Lily.

"How many times don't call me L.I.L.L.I.A.N?" Lily emphasised the Lillian.

"Ummm bout another 100 or so." Sirius smirked leaning against a post. Lily shot him an aggravated look, which only seemed to make Sirius smirk more.

"Hey Lil's why don't you come round tomorrow, we can all go for a swim, have a game of exploding snap – I take it you at least know how to play that!" James mocked Lily.

"Yeah sure I'll come up bout 11. Well I shall see you tomorrow." Lily said this as she turned away to push open the front door.

"What no kiss goodnight?" Sirius exclaimed but ran when he saw Lily turn round, and launch her way towards Sirius. But James grabbed Lily around the waist.

"Now, now children, that's enough for one night." James said this in a strict voice, sounding like he was imitation professor McGonagall

"Yes Sir!" Lily did a salute before turning around and going into her house, closing the door behind her.

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Thanks, for the reviews, glad your enjoying the story. Here's the next chapter a little earlier then I was gonna post it, but as I have broken my laptop I though I would post it while I've got a computer that works and with the internet.  Please Review and I'll try and get the next one up soon!

Lorna x