They all rushed down the stairs once they heard the word 'dinner' over the intercom, which persisted in ringing through their ears. Once they reached the kitchen they found Mrs. Evans cutting a stick of celery.
"Oh good you're here. What am I not cool enough to know your other friends here? Morgan since my daughter here doesn't think I'm cool enough to meet her guy friends why don't you introduce me to them." She said with a smirk on her face.
"Sure thing Mrs. E. Ok the cute blonde one here is Remus."
"Nice to meet you Mrs. Evans."
"Oh call me Elizabeth, or Mrs. E at least."
"Thanks for having us Elizabeth."
"Oh it's no problem dears." She said beaming at the polite young men before her.
"OK. Moving on. The other cute one, with the long black hair the goes on, right 'til it reaches under his eye-brow. That there is Sirius Black."
"How's it goin' Mrs. E.?"
"Swell Sirius, just swell. How about you?"
"Great now that you're here." He said while flashing his 'all famous' charming grin.
"He's a charmer." Elizabeth said chuckling.
"Last and least.."
"Hey!" exclaimed a very irritated James.
"She's kidding. Jeez, James can't the King of Pranksters take a joke?"
"Erm sorry, go on Morgan."
"As I was saying before I was so RUDELY interrupted." she pointed a glare in James' direction.
"The one with the unruly raven black hair, and those hazel eyes, is none other than James Potter."
"It's a real pleasure to meet you Miss Elizabeth." He said while tipping an imaginary top hat, in her direction.
"It's a pleasure to meet you too James." chuckling yet again.
"Ok now if you boys would help carry stuff outside, it would be very much appreciated. Michael is out there right now, making the steaks." Elizabeth said while smiling warmly towards them.
And with that they each grabbed something to carry. James the plates, and silverware. Sirius the macaroni and cheese. Lastly Remus in the rear with the crispy fries.
After they left the kitchen the girls started talking while Mrs. Evans continued with the salad.
"I wonder if the boys have ever seen macaroni, and French fries. I mean we don't have that kind of food at Hogwarts." Alice thought out loud.
The girls just started at each other, then burst out laughing. After the laughter died down a bit, and they were calmed down. They all walked out to the gazebo as if nothing happened. Lily, then Lauren, Alice, Morgan, and Mrs. Evans in tow with the salad bowl, and dressing.
It appeared as if the boys had taken the liberty to set the table, after they got out.
After they were all seated, they were met by an awkward silence. There were a few feeble attempts at conversation from the girls, but to no avail. After Michael got tired of the silence he thought of a subject that he couldn't go wrong with. School.
"So James, how do you do in school?" he asked politely.
"I'm the top in my year. Besides Lily here of course, oh and Remus. They've been top students since first year. Sirius and I constantly battling for third." He said proudly.
"Good, good." he said absent mindedly.
"What about you Sirius, Remus. Do you play any sports?"
"Yeah, I'm Quidditch Captain. I play beater, we have bats and they hit these heavy balls to chase other players to have them drop the Quaffle. Remus here's a beater also. James plays Seeker. He goes around trying to catch the Snitch. Which is this tiny golden ball that flies around at a breakneck speed." Sirius boasted
"Wow, so very athletic I see." Michael said, clearly impressed.
"Yep" The boys responded proudly. The silence resumed.
"Hey uumm Lily?" James asked breaking the silence, that had remained for about fice minutes, while everyone ate.
"Yeah James?"
"Not to be rude or anything, but with are those stick looking things in the bowl?" he asked tentatively.
The whole table minus the Marauders burst out laughing yet again.
"Those James are called French Fries."Lauren replied smoothly in a would-be-calm voice, fighting to hold back her giggles.
"Oh. Well what are they?" The laughing started to increase in volume, while the Marauders had looks of bewilderment on their faces.
"They're cut up potatoes, fried in oil." Mrs. Evans responded politely, while fighting back giggles of her own.
"Erm thanks." He said shyly, while helping himself to a handful of french fries. When he tried to figure out how to get the ketchup out of the bottle, and unexpected squelch was let out.
"AAHHH" He shouted, and lost his balance on the chair, and toppled to the warm, hard, grassy terrain.
"I'm ok. I am ok." He said while jumping up from the ground. Soon everyone's concerned expresions changed to amused.
"Oh, and what is that squishy yellow lookin' stuff?" asked Sirius, in a smooth voice, that caused the laughs to be started back up.
"That boys, is called Macaroni. It's made of noodles, and cheese sauce, mixed with milk, and butter." Alice replied, being the one who got her poise back the quickest.
"OOOHHHH" the three Marauders said in unison, with a dawning comprehension shown on their faces.
Once they all got a helping, Sirius decided to examine it on his spoon. A brilliant idea came into his mind. Foodfight. Even in his head it sounded like a beautiful thing. Of course it would have nothing on a full fledged Hogwarts food fight. It would still be fun he thought. And with that he pulled back his spoon, let go and let the macaroni go flying straight between Lauren's eyes. Bulls-eye he thought, with his signature Maruader smirk on his face. What he didn't realize was that Lauren got the ketchup bottle, and was applying an abundant amount of ketchup on her spoon.
Ready. Set. Aim. FIRE! thought Lauren.
"You got it in my HAIR!!" yelled Sirius. Volume level increasing with every word. Extra emphais was put on the word hair. Sirius was like a girl when it came to his hair. He washed it at least twice a day, brushed it 200 times each morning before breakfast, and right before bed. If you think you're obsessed with your hair, you haven't met Sirius.
"Oops" Lauren said innocently.
"Well then i might just accidentally throw some more of this macaroni on you. Accidentally of course." That was his fatal mistake. Instead of hitting his target (AKA Lauren). It hit Remus. Remus now might be the prefect in their little group, but he for one was not about to take macaroni to his FAVORITE shirt, lying down.
Soon A full fledged food fight. All attempts of stopping it were down the drain, in a blink of an eye. Even Lily's parents joined in. Everybody was laughing and screaming, until the food ran out. The Aftermath of the food fight was devastating. There were globs of macaroni all over the gazebo's poles, roof, and floor. Most of it went down the girls' shirts, or in Sirius' hair. There was ranch dressing, and ketchup occupying everyone else's. French fries, stray crutons, and lettuce all stuck to the ranch and ketchup. They were all drenched in Hawaiin Punch, and iced tea, with drops still trickling down thier face, torso, and finger tips. Luckily the steaks were all consumed during the awkward silences. Whew... Thank goodness for silence. So they were all standing there laughing and staring at the state of their friends. Epecially Sirius who was complaining how his hair would never be the same, with a T-Bone in his mouth.
After dinner was cleaned up, Mr. Evans thought the boys should learn how to use a grill, so they could help him when he hosted the neighborhood's, Annual Summer Cookout Blowout.
"So boys, first you have to turn the heat on, by turning these little knobby things. Which ignited the flame."
"FLAME?!" they shouted with a look of awe, and nervousness washed over their faces.
"Yeah flames, that's how the food gets cooked."
"Why can't you just cast a cooking charm on it?" Asked a befuddled Sirius. While Mr. Evans turned off the grill
"Us Muggles don't have magic witches and wizards do, Sirius." He replied with an amused twinkle, growing in his eyes.
"Yeah, I er forgot." He stated lamely.
"It's quite alright, son. I know you wizard folk don't know much about Muggles, like myself."
"Sir, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly is a felly tone?"
"Pardon?"
"A felly tone. You know one Muggle calls another Muggle…" He trailed off.
"OH, you mean a telephone."
"Yeah, yeah that's it." Remus replied with a smile that lit up his whole face. While the other boys joined in with childish grins.
"Come on in the house, we have one in the kitchen." He laughed.
"UUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH" somebody from inside shouted.
Inside the House
The woman inside the house heard a door slam, along with the faint steps that followed.
"MOM, DAD I'm home from my date with Vernon!" Petunia shouted as she walked into the kitchen, only to be met with an unpleasant sight. Well to her anyways.
In the kitchen Lily, her friends, and Mrs. Evans were all laughing merrily, while watching the dishes wash themselves.
"You know this is a nice refreshment, watching the wash themselves, rather than washing them my…. Oh hey Petunia darling. Want some left over's? We saved you some, I know you like steak."
She stood there taking in the scene with amazement. Lily and her dweeb friends had a food fight and mom and dad let them! When her and her friends had one, Petunia got grounded for a month! A month. But when the beautiful, perfect Lily throws one she gets praised? She thought discusted. Not is she could help it.
"What are they doing here! And why are theu all covered in food. I hope there is going to be punishment." Emphasizing the word 'they' as if were dirt underneath her shoes.
"They're my friends Pet. They're as welcome here as any of yours are. As for the mess we had a food fight. Don't worry we cleaned the gazebo up. We just used a cleaning charm" Lily said in sickly sweet voice, flashing her sister and innocent school-girl smile.
"Well at least MY friends are NORMAL, unlike them. Please tell me they aren't staying." Petunia groaned in an un lady-like manner.
"Yeah they are Petunia, now be more polite to your MY friends. They are guests in this house. I'm always nice to your friends, why can't you be nice to mine? Besides your always off with Vernon, anyways. So I expect we'll be out of your hair, most of the time." Stated Lily matter-of-factly.
"UUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHH" shouted Petunia. While the boys came running in expecting the worst. Wands drawn, fighting stance at the ready, with determined looks on their faces. Mr. Evans on the other hand knew what this was about, and casually strolled in after them.
" There's MORE of them!" she shrieked.
"Tell them to put those AWAY!" Petunia complained.
"It's ok guys. Just Petunia and Lily fighting over, well I don't really know what their fighting over, but yeah." Stated Lauren.
"Ok Petunia. Calm down. They have put their wands away. So just go upstairs and call Vernon or something." Alice said rationally, yet sternly.
Listening to Alice, Petunia stomped off into her room, making sure to make as much noise as possible, seeing as their were no stairs to stomp up.
"Lily, just go upstairs and cool off for a while you can have the first shower. Oh and clean out the drain, before you let us get in. I don't really fancy stepping in macaroni, when I bathe." Alice ordered.
"How did you do that? I have never in all my years been able to stop them from fighting, before something is thrown at Lily from Petunia, or something valuable explodes from Lily losing control of her magic. At least she has the sense to take the fight into Petunia's room, so it isn't anything of hers that unexpectedly explodes." Reasoned Elizabeth, while nodding her head in approval of her youngest daughter's strategies.
"Well now that that has been settled…. How about we go take showers to get this goop off, jump into our jammies, and watch a video. The boys can pick the movie, while we get the popcorn?" Morgan asked.
"Sounds good to me." Remus said. While James and Sirius nodded their heads in approval.
"Same here." said Alice, and Lauren in unison.
(A/N: The next chapter is going to be about the movie, and the following day.)