None of these characters belong me but to J.K. Rowling. This is just for fun.

Updated 5/30/09. Beta version. All mistakes are mine.

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Severus was so happy to have a friend who was like him. He didn't have to hide that he was a wizard from her. It had been almost a month since he had met Lily and they had spent most days together. They usually met at the park where he had first introduced himself to her. One day, when many people were also at the park, the children found a grassy spot by a park bench, which was occupied by a mother and her son.

"How long can you stay out today?" Severus asked Lily, but she didn't answer and was looking at the mother and the son. Severus didn't repeat himself, but also started looking. Both children kept silent and eavesdropped on what the mother was saying.

"I told you to take that thing off!" the mother shouted at the boy who had a puppet of a fox on his hand and was trying to eat an ice cream cone. The boy shook his head as he continued licking his cone, which he held in the same hand the puppet was on. "Okay, that is enough!" said the mother, as she stood up and grabbed the cone, throwing it in the litter bin. Then she pulled the puppet off her son and aimed for the bin, but missed.

The young boy, who was around seven, looked at his mother with wide eyes, for what seemed like a minute. The boy then slowly started to cry with his mouth wide open, but not making a sound. Severus gave a snicker at the sight. Lily quickly turned her head to Severus, and gave him a look of disapproval. When she turned back to look at the boy, he started to add sound to his cry, which was squall that seemed to hit the highest note ever.

Lily and Severus put their hands on their ears not wanting to hear. The woman started to walk away from the park bench, pulling the crying child behind her. When they thought the sound wasn't too strong anymore, Lily and Severus removed their hands from their ears.

"That poor boy," Lily said eyeing the puppet by the litter bin.

"What poor boy? He was being a prat."

Lily ignored his comment and got up to walk towards the litter bin, and Severus did the same.

"Oh, this puppet is cute," Lily said picking up the reddish brown toy.

"It's nasty. It has that boy's ice cream all over it."

Lily smiled as she looked at the puppet, then decided to put it on.

"Oh, I wish it was real. Then he would be really cute," she said pulling the puppet close to her chest and caressing it with her other hand.

"Hey, not so close."

"What did you say, Sev?"

"I didn't say anything."

"Yes, you did. I heard you," Lily said as she looked at him with her eyes squinted in anger.

"I can't breathe!"

"There you go again."

"It's me!"

"I know it's you."

"It's not me."

"Stop it. Or I'm going home."

"As long as you stop holding me so tight, I won't mind going home with you."

"Lily, I think it's that puppet," Severus said.

Lily slowly pulled her hand away from her chest.

"Hi," said the puppet, with a big smile that showed his white felt teeth.

Lily was startled and jumped back.

"Can you do that again?" said the puppet.

"You can talk?" Lily said talking to the puppet that was on her hand.

"You talking to me. You talking to me." The puppet said in a New York accent, turning his head left and right.

"I guess this is magic," Lily said, looking at Severus with eyes her eyes wide open.

"Yes. But maybe you should take it off and throw him in the bin." Lily nodded in agreement. Lily tried to, but the puppet wouldn't come off.

"Sev, it won't come off. Do something," Lily asked, with her voice getting shaky. Severus tried to remove the puppet, but it wouldn't budge.

"Stop it. Stop it or I will bite you," the puppet said with his black beaded eyes looking at Severus.

"With those felt teeth. What's that going to do you dunderhead?" Severus told the puppet, which put its mouth around his hand growling. "That doesn't hurt," he said, yanking his arm from the puppet. "You're a stupid puppet," he said, grabbing its ears, still trying to remove it.

A young woman walking by noticed Severus cursing and trying to remove the puppet from Lily's hand, who looked frightened.

"Are you okay, dear?" the lady asked Lily as she gave Severus a look of suspicion.

Lily changed her attitude, not wanting to let the woman know how she really felt.

"Everything is fine. We're just playing a game with the puppet," Lily said smiling.

"Are you sure?"

Lily and Severus nodded with smiles on their faces. "Yes, we're playing Little Red Riding Hood." Lily looked at the puppet and asked, "My, what big eyes you have grandmother?"

"The better to see, my dear," said the puppet.

"Oh, that's pretty good. I assume it is you, young man, since this girl's voice is too sweet to be that low." Severus nodded his head, thinking it was the best thing to do. The woman decided to join along with their game and asked the puppet, "My, what big teeth you have?"

"The better to eat you with," said the puppet nodding its head and showing all his teeth. "But you look to skinny to have any real meat." The puppet added as his eyes looked up and down.

She then pulled away, looking at both Lily and Severus. "You children are rude."

The lady pulled at Severus' hair and he gave a shout. "OUCH!"

"Especially you, boy. If you were older I would have slapped you instead." With that she walked away from them with her chin in the air.

"I think we'd better go to my house and see if there is anything my mum can do," Severus said as the children started walking.

"Are we going to be able to take this thing off?" Lily said, almost crying.

"Believe me I don't enjoy spending the afternoon with you either," said the puppet turning toward Lily. "Maybe if you were a puppet and we had more in common I would."

Lily looked at Severus. "What's he taking about?"

"It's just being stupid," Severus spat.

"I am not an 'it'. I am a he," said the puppet, turning up its nose at Severus.

"You're a stupid puppet."

"Then why are you talking to me?"

Severus just shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"I do have a name," the puppet said, turning to Lily with sad eyes.

"What is it?" Lily said, warming up to the puppet.

"El Zorro," he said in a Spanish accent, lifting his nose in the air.

Severus looked down, shaking his head.

"So, you're Spanish?" Lily asked.

"Si. Well, sometimes, usually when I want the ladies to notice me. They go for the Latin lover type. In the woods there are many lovely foxes. Oh so beautiful," he ended with a sigh.

"When would you have ever been in the forest?" Severus was losing his patience with the thing. "You only been alive for minutes and you don't even look like a real fox. Foxes don't have eyebrows."

El Zorro lifted one of his eyebrows and looked at Severus. "I'm not going to talk to you. Why don't you go wash your hair?"

"Hey, I washed it this morning."

"With what, petrol?"

"You two better shut it. We're about to pass some people," Lily said.

Approaching them was a blond girl about two years older than Lily and Severus and following behind her at some distance was a blond boy around their age.

"What a cute puppet," she said to Lily.

"Why thank you," El Zorro answered.

"That's pretty good. You didn't even move your mouth," she said looking at Severus.

This time he didn't nod, but just smiled at her.

"Don't I know you," she said pointing to Severus. "You're that Snape kid. My name is Charlotte, but you two can call me Charley. And what are your names?"

"Severus," giving a look of irritation, because he felt that this was time wasted, when they had to figure out how to get rid of the puppet.

"Lily," she said with a big smile.

"El Zorro," said the puppet lifting its eyebrows up and down. "But you can call me El, beautiful."

Charlotte turned to Severus. "Oh, aren't you cute. Thank you."

Severus opened his mouth to say it wasn't him, but the boy who was walking behind her passed by them yelling at her, "Seth says not to be talking to those freaks."

El Zorro gave a growl.

Charlotte yelled back at the boy, "Since when do I care what Seth says!" She then turned to Severus and Lily. "Seth is my twin brother and that prat is my younger brother, Ruben. I'm supposed to be watching him, so I better go. Nice meeting you. Hopefully we will run into each other again," she said turning around.

"I would love to run into those beautiful blue eyes anytime," said El Zorro.

Charlotte turned her head looking at Severus and winked at him, "Maybe in a couple of years."

Severus looked down. Lily punched him. And El Zorro said, "Oh hell! My head."

"Ouch, I said nothing," Severus said, rubbing his arm where Lily hit him.

"But you didn't say something," Lily said bringing her arm up and trying to get El Zorro in a comfortable position.

"Huh?" Severus said, confused by what she said. "Let's just go. So we can get rid of that stupid thing,"

"Stop calling me stupid! You…you… oil head."

"You're not being very nice," Lily said.

"I am the puppet of truth. I do not lie."

"I'm glad you don't have anything to say about me."

"Who says I don't?"

"What can you say about me?"

"Well, you are bossy."

"I'm not bossy."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, yes…you are," the puppet said, nodding its head.

"No, I'm not. Right, Sev?" Severus pretended not to hear and acted like he was interested in the family having a picnic.

"I am the puppet of truth. He is not," El Zorro said looking up at Lily. "The boy will lie to protect you," the puppet added, shaking its head.

"Here comes someone," Severus said, giving a warning for them to shut up as they passed a woman in her thirties wearing a skirt.

As she passed them El Zorro whistled and yelled out, "Nice legs. You should wear your skirts shorter to show them off." The woman stopped and slowly turned around with her arms straight down.

"Young man. I think you need a talk about you attitude. I find it disgusting to run into a male chauvinist so young." She started walking toward them.

Lily and Severus looked at each other and said at the same time, "Run!"

Both children ran until they were far away from the woman. They stopped to catch their breath. Breathing the hardest was El Zorro.

"I'm thirsty," said El Zorro. "And hungry."

"You're a puppet. You don…oh, never mind."

"Eat. Was that what you were going to say? Of course I do. How do you expect me to stay alive?"

"By magic!" Severus said impatiently.

"Are you talking to that ugly puppet or the ugly girl, misfit?" A blond boy who was two years older asked as he walked by.

El Zorro gave a growl and started jumping to chase after the boy. The boy turned to see Lily's arm going up and down with the puppet.

"If I didn't have to be somewhere, I'd give you a beating you deserve, boy."

"Who's he?" Lily asked.

"That's Seth. Charlotte's twin brother."

"Is he really going to beat you?"

"I don't know. I don't care. And I'm not scared of him."

"My puppet, my puppet," yelled the boy who was on the park bench earlier that day.

"Oh crap," said El Zorro. "Hide me, hide me. I don't want to go back to that kid who wipes his nose with me."

"Yuck," Lily said eyeing up all of El Zorro with disgust, and noticing how filthy he was. "Well, he has to take you off my hand first."

"Which he will be able to do, because he is my master. So nice meeting you Lily," said El Zorro before turning to Severus. "And you stop using whatever you are to wash your hair. It's not working."

Severus sneered at him and shook his head.

"You stole my puppet. Give it to me," said the boy to Lily.

"Take it!" Lily said as the boy pulled the puppet off her.

"Say thank you," the woman told her son. The boy shook his head no and walked away.

"Sorry," said the woman apologetically. "And thank you."

"Prat," Lily said. "I think it's time for me to go home."

"I'll walk you, but don't go picking anything up."

"No, I won't. But it does feel strange not having something on my hand," she said reaching out for Severus' hand. He took her hand as he walked her home.

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