The sun came up the next day and things returned to normal, or whatever passed for normal in the Potter household... There was now a third child underfoot but that hardly changed anything in the household. Rather, it was the extra child with the changes to deal with. To his credit, Colin took it all in stride and adjusted quite admirably to the weird happenings of number 5, and came to expect things to act the way that they did at the Potter's. One morning, he even asked his mum why the toast didn't come out of their toaster with the jelly already on it, like it did next door. She just smiled and answered, "They must have an extra special toaster," while dismissing the notion as the product of overactive imagination and that of his peers, something she found herself doing quite often of late.

A strong friendship was blossoming between the three and before long they became nearly inseparable. True, the bond between the two older boys was stronger than any bond the three could ever share but they accepted the younger boy openly and unconditionally. They found his ignorance of all things magical amusing and took it upon themselves to educate him. Naturally, their own knowledge was limited and often inaccurate, but, with nothing to compare to, Colin certainly didn't notice.

Sirius, during a visit one Saturday afternoon, commented to James and Remus, "They remind me of us, except we didn't meet till we were eleven," uncharacteristically deep in thought.

The comment stirred up memories of their own school days, of their marauding, the four of them... Thinking of the four of them inevitably led to thoughts of Peter which...and without realising it, James found himself saying, "Let's hope they don't admit a Wormtail into their midst." The discussion ended there, none of the three wanting to discuss their betrayal as they were each pulled into gloomy thoughts, unable to come up with a new topic for discussion. They probably would have remained that way quite a while longer than they did if the three young boys had not grown bored of their current game and decided to drag them into a game of hide-and-go-seek.

Of course, not all the summer days ended with the toddlers engaging the Marauders in their play. After all, not every day is Saturday. Most days were spent with Lily as the only adult supervision. Other days, the children played over at the Creevey's but such instances were rare. Not only was it safer for them to remain where she could supervise, but Lily insisted that it was only fair that she did the bulk of the babysitting. She had to argue her case quite frequently with Colin's mother, but her argument was always the same, "Two of the three are mine to watch. I can't expect you to deal with two extra children, not to mention you've got another still in diapers to worry about. That in itself ought to be more than a handful." Eventually, Carla simply stopped putting up a fuss about it.

So the children spent most of their time at number 5, and Lily never had a chance to make good of the battle she had won with Augusta Longbottom, allowing her to take the boys out on outings. In fact, the days had begun to grow short and the leaves in the trees had begun to change their colours before she proposed a trip.

At breakfast, Lily greeted them cheerily, "I've got a treat for you today."

The boys both took her comment quite literally but Neville was the first to exclaim, "Cookies!"

Lily giggled at the suggestion, "No, not that kind of treat."

Quite excited now and unable to contain his excitement, Harry exclaimed, "Chocolate!" They rarely got chocolate, except on special occasions.

Lily giggled once more, "No, no. Nothing you can eat," then noting their confusion, she added, "We're going to the zoo."

Both faces brightened, but Harry was the one to ask, "Really?"

She nodded affirmatively. Then Neville asked the question that had begun puzzling him with her affirmation, "But there's no zoo in the house? Or on the lawn?"

Not quite sure what he was getting at, Lily responded, "No, of course not."

"But we're not allowed to leave the lawn," continued the youngster.

Seeing where Neville was going, Harry added sadly, "You said so."

Lily giggled once more, "Yes, I suppose I did, but I'll be with you so it's ok. Besides, I let you go next door, don't I?"

Harry seemed reassured by this but Neville asked, "Me too?"

"Yes, of course, you too. I wouldn't take only Harry. Where he goes you go. Where you go he goes," Lily tried to reassure him.

"But, Gran..." he trailed off.

Lily smiled wryly. So the boy was starting to notice his grandmother's overprotective tendencies. "I spoke to your grandmother. We reached an agreement."

"What's an agreement?" This time it was Harry that spoke up.

"An agreement is when two people agree," realizing that her explanation was hardly adequate, she added, "when they both think something is ok."

"Oh," he seemed reassured now that he would not be excluded from the outing and finally thought to wonder about his newest friend, "Is Colin coming too?"

"No, he went with his mum and his brother to visit his aunt. Remember? Today it'll just be the three of us."

Both boys' cheery expressions dropped, clearly disappointed but Lily chastised them, "Don't give me that. We'll have lots of fun. It'll be an adventure."

If wasn't long before they were out the front door. Lily had packed a picnic lunch a was planning on making a day of the outing. When they reached the end of the street and stopped before crossing the intersection, Harry looked back the way they had come. "Is something wrong, darling?" Lily asked when he did not immediately follow as she began to cross the street.

"No, it's just that the house looks small from here. Did it shrink?"

Lily giggled, "Don't worry about that Harry. It's just because we're far from it. Things look smaller from far."

"So it didn't shrink?" he asked, once more.

"No, it didn't shrink," she reassured him.

"Will it look even smaller when we get to the zoo?" asked Neville

"We won't be able to see it from the zoo."

"Why not?" he implored.

"Will it become invisible like Neville?" suggested Harry.

"No, no," Lily smiled, "We won't see it because there will be buildings in the way. They'll hide it.

"Hide it? Like the Easter hunt? Or like hide-and-go-seek?" queried Harry.

"No quite. You know how there is a house in back of ours?" both boys nodded. "Can you see that house when you're in the front yard?"

"No," they answered together.

"Well, it's like that. We won't see the house because there will be other houses between us and our house. Do you understand?" When they both nodded she continued, "Well, lets get going now."


A.N. Well what do you think? I'm not sure how much I like this chapter. I think I might have upset my flow somehow but I can't seem to fix it. This started off as a visit to the park but the zoo opened up such interesting possibilities. I hope this chapter wasn't too much of a disappointment. Not much happened. Then again, nothing seems to happen. Well let me know what you though. I'd love to hear from you. Reviews are welcome, if not encouraged. I will even welcome flames.

Thank you, once again to my wonderful beta Aggiebell.