"James! Sirius!" Lily's mother greeted them and kissed them each on the cheek. The boys blushed.
"Come in, come in!" She ushered the boys in.
"Yeah and she leaves us out. I swear Lils she loves them more than she loves us." Maeve muttered to Lily. Lily burst out laughing.
"Lily! Maeve!" Lily's mother yelled from the dining room. "The boys are hungry, get here this instant!" Lily and Maeve grudgingly went into dining hall.
"Maeve, Lily, you're late. And Lily put some potatoes back, the boys won't have enough." Lily held back her anger as she put two out of her five potatoes back.
"Oh no Mrs Evans, we're fine." James said as Mrs Evans piled their plates sky-high with food.
"Oh no dears. You need to eat. The sauce, where is the sauce? MARIETTA?" Mrs Evans screamed for the cook.
"Yes Mrs Evans." A rather plump woman came through the dining room doors.
"The sauce, Marietta, the sauce! How could you forget?" Marietta smiled at her mistress.
"Yes ma'am. How could we forget?" She went back through the doors. She knew that once her mistress saw boys she immediately did the best she could for them. She always wanted a son but alas she only had two daughters. The sauce was brought in and immediately Mrs Evans tempted the boys with some.
"Eat, eat!" and with that the boys tucked in.
"So you're the Potter boy from next-door are you?" Mrs Evans asked James.
"Yes Ms, but Sirius here is my best friend from school and he's spending the summer with me." James' mouth was full. Lily was sure that if she was the one speaking like that her mother would have immediately scolded her. Damn Potter got away with everything, she thought to herself.
"So Lily, how's school?" James asked while he took a bite out of Yorkshire pudding. Lily glared at him.
"Just like yours." She said.
"So you play pranks, get detention and laze about. Very productive." James smiled at Mrs Evans horrified face.
"Lily? Is this true? You play pranks and get detention?!" Lily glared at James again.
"No mum. Remember? I got all O's on my OWLs. How could I have studied for a good grade if I had detention everyday and lazed about like DEAR Potter here." She emphasized the dear a lot. James grinned at her. Mrs Evans didn't comment she merely smiled at herself while she ate her vegetables.
"Mrs Evans, this food is great!" Sirius said enthusiastically not taking heed of what was happening around him. He put his fourth helpings of Yorkshire pudding and more salad and took three bread rolls.
"Er… Sirius?" Maeve looked at him.
"No, no dear eat all you want!" Maeve and Lily looked at each other and tried their best not to laugh. Sirius looked at them and raised an eyebrow.
"What? What? I'm a growing boy. I need my food. That's how I also get my sexy looks." He grinned to himself and patted his stomach.
"Padfoot! Not in front of Evan's mum." James hissed.
"Yeah Sirius, I don't want my mum to be traumatized for ever. Sexy? Honestly, come up with a better excuse to eat all the food." Lily told him from across the table.
"It's ok, it's ok. Now is everyone finished? Dessert is coming up." Sirius shovelled down half his plate in one go.
"Sirius!" The girls complained.
"Wow mate! How did you do it?" James looked at him fascinated. Lily and Maeve were trying not to throw up, Mrs Evans was oblivious to what Sirius did as she had gotten up to help Marietta bring in the dessert.
"We have treacle pudding, chocolate cake, chocolate fudge and strawberry ice cream." Slowly, slowly Mrs Evans and Marietta lay the dishes on the table.
"You kids tuck in. Excuse me." And she left the living room.
"Why isn't your mum staying?" Sirius asked spraying bits of chocolate fudge over Lily.
"It's because she saw your eating habits" Maeve snapped at him. Sirius stopped chewing and looked at her funnily.
"You're mean you know that?" He resumed his chewing.
"Well considering you're DATING me…" James laughed.
"She's got a point." He spooned more treacle pudding on his plate.
"Oy! Leave me some." Lily yelled. James looked at her and the nearly full dish of treacle pudding.
"Er…" he was at loss for words.
"Lily likes eating at midnight some of the deserts. Treacle pudding is her favourite." Maeve said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Lily took the dish away from James and put it next to her.
"Hey!" James and Sirius protested, but after Lily gave them one of her most evil glares, they shut up.
"I like the chocolate fudge more." Sirius boasted breaking the silence. Everyone laughed.
After the table had been cleared away they went to Lily's room.
"Your room's really nice!" James said turning and looking at her room.
"That's all thanks to me!" Maeve said from behind him. Sirius' arm was around her shoulder and her hand was holding the one hanging off her shoulder.
"Wow you did this?" Sirius said in awe. The girls nodded.
"I like the lyrics." James grinned.
"We love them as well." Lily said.
"What are we going to dooooo?" Sirius whined making Lily break her eye-contact with James.
"Er…" she was blushing but thankfully no one but Maeve noticed.
"How about we take a dip in the pool?" She said saving Lily from the embarrassment.
"Yeah, the pool. You guys go into the room on the right from this one and you'll find swimming trunk in the drawers. They're brand new and we use them for this occasion." Lily opened the door waiting for the boys to exit.
"Ok." They both shrugged.
"Sirius?"
"Yeah?"
"Er… which room is it?"
"The one on the right Prongsy."
"Yeah but on our right when we come out or on the right when we're coming in?"
"Er….?"
"I'm meant to say er… You're meant to answer."
"Prongs you're the smart one. You figure it out."
"This room." Sirius followed James but he stopped abruptly. "Nah, nah, nah, I changed my mind. It must be on the right when we're coming IN." They went to the room and barged in. That scream stayed in the brains forever. Sirius swore he saw the window behind the girl shudder.
"What are you freaks doing here?" A blonde and skinny girl looked at them, her blue eyes full of fury.
"Er…"
"Er…" They both said.
"ANSWER ME!" She screeched. Thankfully the boys didn't have to say anything. Lily came in with Maeve. The blonde girl screeched again and Sirius covered his ears.
"Oy woman! Stop that noise!" The girl stopped and talked to Lily.
"What are you doing here?" She spat at her.
"I heard screaming and so I came. I thought you were being murdered but then again I always told myself not to get my hopes to high. I only end up disappointing myself." Maeve snorted from behind her. James and Sirius laughed.
"Watch your mouth!"
"Oh why? Are you going to tell mummy on me?"
"Look, ever since you became a…"
"Go on say it" Lily dared with a dangerous malice in her voice.
"a WITCH" Petunia said with such a disgusting voice that Lily couldn't take it. She slapped her.
"You bitch!" Petunia screamed, silent tears running down her cheek.
"Ooops, it slipped." Lily said grabbing Maeve's arm and dragging her out.
"That bitch, that…argh!" Lily screamed.
"Want us to get her for you Lils?" Sirius said taking out his wand.
"No thanks." Lily said sadly. James looked at her and immediately felt her pain.
"Well I will!" Maeve marched up to Petunia's room before Lily could protest.
"You bitch. You foul creature! How can you do this to Lily? She is a thousand times the girl, friend, girlfriend you'll EVER be!" Maeve shot out a few colours from her hand. Soon Petunia looked like a rainbow. Her blonde hair was flashing different colours, her skin was red with green boils. Maeve left satisfied.
"Hello!" She was grinning like mad. Sirius gave her a peck on the nose.
"What did you do to her?" Lily asked but she didn't have to since Petunia came screaming out of her room.
"Look what you and your abnormal friends did to me!" Maeve stepped in front of Lily.
"Actually may I intervene here? There was only ONE friend. The boys didn't do anything." Petunia looked at her. No one could tell that her face was a deep shade of red under the jinxed colour.
"Change me back!" Petunia screamed.
"No! You deserve what you got." James calmly said to her.
"Turn be back or I swear I'll…" Petunia pointed her finger to him.
"You'll point at us?" Sirius said in a nonchalant way. Maeve laughed.
"Yup, it's like she can do magic!" Sirius and Maeve shared a quick kiss.
"First, you guys get a room. Second, Petunia everything will come off in three hours. We've used that spell many times. Well Maeve has…" Lily looked at her sister and sensed danger.
"Let's go." She and her friends scampered off.
"Let's go to my house." James offered. Everyone nodded.
"LILY EVANS COME BACK HERE! I HAVE A DATE WITH VERNON IN TWO HOURS AND IF I'M NOT BACK TO NORMAL I'LL KILL YOU!" Lily scampered back to her sister despite the others trying to pull her back.
"Well then, now you and he can be voted worst couple of the year. No, scratch that. You guys will be voted the worst couple of the CENTURY." And before Petunia could say anything Lily ran off. They all burst out into laughter when they had exited the door. They were still laughing when James opened his front door. Funnily enough it was Sirius who calmed down first.
"Guys?" He stopped dead in his tracks. "Where's the furniture?" James looked around his house and saw that the room was poorly furnished.
"Shit, I don't think we're…" James didn't have time to finish because an old man came running towards them.
"INSOLENT CHILDREN THESE DAYS, THEY DON'T KNOW WHEN TO STOP AT A JOKE." The group looked at each other and ran out the door. The ran to James' house until they were securely locked in.
"Phew, that guy had looks that could kill!" Sirius said.
"Hello, he was holding a knife!" Maeve shrilled. She seemed shaken up at the sight of the knife coming towards her.
"Aww come on Maeve you don't think he would actually kill us?" Lily asked her best friend.
"Dunno Lils, dunno." The boys looked at each other and raised an eyebrow.
"We would have saved you." Sirius told them.
"Yeah we would have placed our lives before yours." James said solemnly. The girls looked at him.
"Yeah right." Maeve said.
"No, no, we totally would!" Sirius protested.
"Hm…" Lily said sceptically.
"Alright then, let's go back there and we'll prove ourselves." James took both girls hands.
"Hey, Hey!" Maeve protested.
"Ok, ok you proved yourselves." Lily grabbed her hand out of James'.
"You don't, you don't have to repeat yourselves." Sirius said grinning.
"Ok, ok" Maeve said without thinking. They all laughed.
"Can we do something now?" Sirius whined again.
They all went to James' room. It was really big. The walls were painted red and had paintings that looked like a five year old drew them.
"The paintings?" Maeve asked.
"Me." Sirius puffed out his chest.
"That's nothing to be proud of." Lily said. She took a pencil and went to a wall.
"Can I." She asked James. James nodded. Lily took the pencil and a rubber and got to work. The other three stared at her. She started making bodies and then faces. The faces took shape and soon James and Sirius noticed she was drawing them and Remus and Peter; their other best friends. They were all under the shade of a tree and the lake was visible behind them.
"That's so nice!" Sirius exclaimed when Lily drew back and showed everyone what she had drawn.
"Gorgeous" Maeve whispered in awe.
"Thanks!" James said to her. Then he turned to the others. "I got a pretty picture on my wall." He boasted, sounding like a little child.
"You forget, Prongs dear, that I live in the same room so… I get a pretty picture on my wall as well." Sirius mimicked James at the last part. James looked at him and didn't say anything. He gave him a glare.
"What?" Sirius said innocently.
"Ok, ok!" Lily said sensing something was going to crop up. "Let's do something!"
"Let's play a game." Maeve suggested.
"Or… let's go to the movies." Lily said.
"Lily…" Sirius started.
"We'll get to use the tube." Lily said smiling. Sirius and Maeve looked at each other and grinned. They immediately left the room and waited by the front door.
"Come on!" Sirius said tapping his foot impatiently.
"Grrr" Maeve growled wanting to get to the tube as fast as possible. Lily and James looked at each other smiled. They sure had the most eccentric friends ever.