Laurie chuckled as she headed back toward the house and pointed to the backseat of John's car for the groceries and other parcels.
Sirius opened the door and crawled into the roomy backseat, scooting the parcels toward him and shifted through the many bags. "Ooooh! There's presents," he exclaimed excitedly.
Lily squealed, hopping up and down as she clapped her hands. "Ooooh! Presents!"
Sirius craned his neck and glared toward her. "You're a regular killjoy Evans, you know that!"
She smiled a toothy grin as she approached the car. "Need some help with those?"
"Assistance would be greatly appreciated, yes! Especially since I can't very well magic all this out of here," he grumbled.
"Pshaw! You're just being a spoil sport..."
"Oh yeah, ya think so do ya?"
Lily nodded. "Mmhmm."
"And why's that," he asked as he passed a couple of bags toward her.
"Because Daddy's out with your girl and you're not," she offered. "It's alright, we all know how you feel. But you're going to have all summer with her, right? Give John a last few minutes with her. She is still moving in with you, isn't she?"
Sirius shrugged his shoulders. "Dunno? Haven't asked her."
"Why not!"
"Because. The lease is up on this house in a month and we'll be moving again. If she moves in now, she'll have to pack everything back up and move one more time. Don't you think she's moved around enough, Lily?"
Lily's expression softened. "Oh." She nodded her head. "Yeah, you're right. She has."
Sirius cupped his hand to his ear. "Sorry? What was that? Did you just admit that I was right about something?"
"Well, it had to happen sooner or later!" She grinned finally and turned to carry the bags of groceries to the house.
"Ha. Ha," he replied drolly. Sirius rolled his eyes and returned to the back seat to pull together the remaining parcels and bags and carried everything out of the car toward the house. He looked to his right and saw Liesel and John approaching in her little yellow MGB. She parked the car effortlessly and turned off the engine. They got out of the tiny two seater and approached him.
"Oi! Need a hand," John asked.
Sirius replied, a bag muffling his speech and Liesel reached up and removed the bag that had been resting against his face. "Thanks love," he whispered.
"Sure! You could have made two trips you know."
"Oh but this is much more fun. Besides, I'll get to walk behind you." He grinned and she returned the parcel and grabbed one of the bags from his hands. "Hey!"
She giggled and trotted toward the house and John could only stand by and watch his daughter work the boy over with a quiet laugh.
"Yeah, you would think this was funny," Sirius grumbled.
Sirius managed to get the groceries into the house with only a light amount of difficulty and placed everything in the foyer and then withdrew his wand then levitated everything toward the kitchen. "INCOMING!"
Liesel turned around and a bag hit her square in her face and she grabbed at it and sneered at her grinning boyfriend.
"Sorry love," he whispered as he kissed her cheek on the way by.
"Mmhmm. You will be later," she replied and Sirius grimaced as he continued on toward the kitchen. She placed the bag on the kitchen table and began to withdraw the food. "Ooo! Brats! I don't think we have any good mustard though," she whined.
"Yes you do," Laurie cooed.
"Yay!"
"Did you get the box that was in the boot of the car," Laurie asked; Sirius sighed: he had not.
"Wasn't aware there was something in the boot," he confessed, his face suddenly flushed..
Laurie cupped his face in her hands. "Not to worry," she said. "I'll go fetch it."
"Noooo, I'll go fetch it. That's what dogs do isn't it...fetch things," he said as he returned to the front door.
Sirius trotted back out to the car and returned a moment later with a small plainly-wrapped box, addressed to Liesel. "Is this it," he asked.
Laurie nodded and motioned that he should give it to her. When Liesel saw the box, she squealed with delight and took the box and grabbed Lily's hand and together they sat down on the sofa. "These are the chips that I was telling you about!"
"Oh, you mean the crisps!"
Liesel nodded and carefully opened the box and looked inside, then withdrew a large white tin with blue lettering; Sirius tilted his head and read the painted label and watched as she removed the tin; clearly the box had been enchanted, for the tin was far larger than the box was. He looked to John and motioned toward the girls.
"Dieffenbach's Crisps," John said. "Prepared a special way. They're her very favorite."
Liesel read the weight on the large tin. "Six pounds of potato chips! Daddy!"
John chuckled. "Don't know when we'll be able to visit, so I thought..."
Liesel didn't give him a chance to finish his sentence and hugged his neck so tightly, that they looked like they may topple over. "Thank you!"
Sirius smiled warmly at seeing the tender display and he secretly felt a bit envious.
"Wait until you try these! They're amazing!" She opened the large plastic bag inside the tin then held out the tin, offering her mates a taste of one of her favorite treats on the face of the planet. "It's a bit different, it's not a light crisp at all. It's a heavier taste..."
Lily and Sirius looked to the other with raised brows and bit into the fried potato. Lily locked eyes with her and wrinkled her nose. "Sorry love. It's not my cup of tea. The taste is good, but it's...it's..."
"The consistency," Sirius added. "It's...heavy." He smiled finally. "I bet it's amazing with tomato soup and your grilled cheese sandwiches, isn't it?" He smiled knowingly.
Liesel smiled shyly and nodded.
John moved in behind her and looked Sirius in the eye. "I see you've had that meal with her before?"
Sirius nodded as he grinned. "Every lunch on Saturdays. Like clockwork. Then we go to Sunday dinner at the Potters and then return to school. I eat quite well on the weekends!"
"Well, you're quite lucky that she loves to cook," John said. "You're not supposed to be so predictable, darling," John added in a whisper and Liesel shrugged her shoulders.
"I like what I like," she offered apologetically.
Finally Lily gasped. "Wait a minute! I've seen you dunk your crisps in your soup...Liesel these would be absolutely amazing for that!"
Liesel nodded as she smiled brightly. "Yeah!" She turned around and embraced her father tightly. "Thank you Daddy," she whispered. She pulled back and looked into his eyes. "Daddy? Are you okay? You look like you're going to cry."
John released her. "Pshaw!" He turned around and headed toward his wife who was in the kitchen, separating the groceries and placing food in the old muggle refrigerator.
"You alright?"
"Yeah," he replied quietly.
"She seems all grown up, doesn't she?"
"Yeah," he whispered. "I'm erm, going to go take a look at that grill. James said he was eager to try to figure it out, so I'm going to go make certain he doesn't catch himself on fire."
"Alright love," Laurie said gently as she watched Sirius grab a hand full of potato chips and carry them toward the back door, popping a few into his mouth along the way.
The girls approached Laurie and made inquiries as to what they could do to help. As the girls were assisting with food preparations, Remus ambled in, looking a bit worse for wear. Lily gasped quietly and tried to make herself appear small as his eyes welled up. Liesel saw the look on his face and in her heart, she didn't want to hear his news...
"Well hello there, Professor Snarky," Liesel chirped brightly as she grabbed a chip from the still opened bag and approached him quickly. "Open up!'
Always happy to see her, Remus smiled and opened his mouth then crunched on the hard chip. "Well, these are different," he mused. "Great flavor though! Are these your favorites?"
She nodded. "Daddy got them for me--had them sent over from the states!"
"Cool," he replied smiling.
"Liesel?"
Liesel looked to her mother. "Yes?"
"There was supposed to have been a small box in with the tin...please tell me it's in there?"
The girl's eyes widened. "I dunno? I didn't look to be honest!"
"Take a look for me please?" Liesel returned to the sofa and looked inside the box to see that there was a smaller box nestled in the packing material. She held it up and took it to her mother. "Be a good girl and go fetch Sirius for me? Don't want him noshing on all your chips, now, do we?"
"Hang on, I'll go with you," Remus said.
Liesel made her way outside to find the three men reading the directions on the large bag of charcoal. She picked up the can of fire starter and handed it to her father. "Here, you might want this?"
John nodded and grinned as he looked up and saw his godson standing behind her. "Oi Remus!"
The younger men turned to see their friend and their faces fell and knew that the news he had to share wasn't good and John set the bag of charcoal down and approached him. Only then did the young man finally allow his heartache to show.
"Oh god no," John whispered as he approached the young man and Liesel left them to head back to the house only to see that her mother was already out the door along with Lily, her arms out to embrace Remus.
"They don't expect her to make it through the night," he sobbed.
John looked to Sirius and he could see from the young man's eyes that the wheels were already in motion. "Where's the nearest owlery?"
"The city," Sirius said with an uncomfortable-sounding thickened voice.
"Owlery! Whatever for," Remus exclaimed.
"Well, no one has telephones and I don't have a floo," Sirius replied.
"NO! You're NOT going to cancel the party!"
"They'll understand, Remus," Sirius said gently.
"But there's all that food!"
James approached him and placed his arm around his shoulders and led him toward the house. "Remus...come on mate. Tell us what you want us to do?"
"You'll only tell me why you can't. Or in this case, won't."
Laurie nodded. "It's all but done darling. Besides, you and your father need us. And your mother too," she added, a single tear escaping from her left eye.
James nodded. "Everyone will understand. We can do a, what did you call it, Bobby?"
"A cookout?"
James nodded. "Yeah. We can do that another time."
John reached into his pockets and withdrew his car keys from the front pocket of his trousers. "Come on son. Lets get you back to your Mum and Dad..."
Remus lowered his head and nodded, finally resigning and allowed himself to be escorted to the car.
Sirius followed and grabbed Liesel's handbag. "Go with them. We'll be alright here. Give us a chance to put the food away and what not?"
"Are you sure?"
He grinned his trademark lop-sided grin as he traced his finger down her cleavage. "No, I'm Sirius," he cooed and he turned her around and patted her on her bottom . "Get a move on, you!"
She headed for the door and turned around to watch his face light up from a sad frown and he winked and pursed his lips into a kiss. "Love you," he mouthed silently.
She pursed her lips in return and blinked her eyes once.
He watched her exit the front door and run toward the car. "Now where did she put that guest list," he asked himself.
"I have a copy," Lily said.
"Good. I've no idea where the hell she put it."
"How about you notify and delegate to a few of the more popular people, you know?"
Sirius and James eyed one another and agreed as James reached into his pockets, withdrawing several galleons.
"I've money, James," Sirius said with an edge to his voice.
James realizing his faux pas, slowly returned the coins to his pocket. "Sorry mate. I just figured that since you're so immersed in the muggle world now..."
Without another word regarding his finances, Sirius took the list and disapparated from the house, agreeing to meet them at the muggle hospital.