A/N: Hello my lovely readers! I appreciate your patience with me over the holidays, things are starting to calm down at work (mostly...sort of…) so I should be getting back to a more regular update schedule soon. I'm posting a few bits as I write them and I hope one of these days I will catch myself back up to being enough ahead to post one of my 'chapters' (a laughable term for how short most of them are) at least every other weekday. Your comments amuse me and are always appreciated, and my silent audience is also appreciated. You all make me happy by continuing to read my story. ANYWAY! Enjoy! Your 'chapter' awaits:

Severus trotted his way over to Lily's, a smile creeping onto his face as he went. When he knocked on the door, Petunia answered.

Her surprise only reinforced his (probably mad looking) grin. "Good afternoon, Tuney."

She made the expression as though she just stepped in feces and slammed the door in his face.

He heard her yell. "Lily! Your weird friend is here!"

There was the sound of feet thumping down the stairs and shortly after Lily opened the door. "Sev!" She said with a smile.

"Hello, Lily."

She rushed him into the house and practically dragged him up to her room. He waved awkwardly at Mrs. Evans when they passed the living room.

Lily released him once her door was closed. "Do you know what's been going on in the woods? I heard there were some animals killed."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Nice to see you too."

"Sev, this is serious! We can't just go out there if there's a killer on the loose! What if they decide to kill a person next?"

"Who says it's an intelligent being?"

"The Sheriff thinks it was a wolf, but animals usually eat what they kill. They found torn up bits of a few different small creatures. Even if it is just a wolf, I don't want to encounter a wild animal!"

"Lily, who told you about this?"

"Mrs. Hoover was talking to my mom about it earlier today when we went to town. Desiree Hoover tried to convince me that there's actually a monster in the woods and that's what was really killing the animals."

Ah yes, Desiree, the girl afraid of wolves that Park mentioned.

"Oh, well the 'monster' was just that boggart I caught yesterday."

She paused.

"Yeah, I suppose that makes sense...Wait, a boggart was killing small animals?"

"No, I'm certain there's still something else out there."

"Then I still don't want to go into the woods!"

"...Have there been any more dead animals found since then?"

"Mrs. Hoover only talked about the one time. She said nothing like this has happened in Cokeworth for decades. The last time was when some kid was skinning animals, but they didn't know it was him at the time, and then he ended up killing his sister. But that was over thirty years ago. Mrs. Hoover said she was really young when it happened. The 'boy' was still in prison last she checked and his parents moved away a long time ago with his younger brother."

"Huh…" Severus frowned. "I was planning on putting muggle repelling charms on the shack anyway...and animal repelling charms wouldn't hurt. I don't think it could be anything we couldn't handle, but we don't have to go out there if you don't want to."

"I'd rather not until the Sheriff finds out what's going on...I mean, it could be something worse, what if it's-" She lowered her voice to a barely audible whisper. "What if you know who or his death eaters are somehow involved?"

Severus couldn't help but bark a laugh.

"I don't think they'd waste their time with terrorizing Cokeworth. And not even properly! They would kill muggles, not squirrels."

She frowned at him. "How do you know?"

"It's only logical. Sure, someone like Mulciber would, he's the kind of prat who would find that sort of thing funny. A real Death Eater is actually scary, they're murderers… but I really don't think they'd waste their time here. They'd go raise hell somewhere more populated, like London, to impress their leader, if not ordered by him to do so already."

"You're sure confidant in your knowledge about Death Eaters."

"I live among two of their spawn from September to June."

At that she laughed. "It's not that I don't believe you, Sev...but I still think we should hold off from going to the shack. I've got a bad feeling about it."

I can investigate the matter myself then…

"Very well. Potions smell terrible and your mum would definitely not be pleased with us for that, and I'd rather not destroy your house accidentally with botched wandless magic we may not be able to fix with more wandless magic."

"What about going to the playground?"

"With the excessive amount of Cambry brats and their miscellaneous friends running about? I think not."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about them…they weren't out yesterday."

"Well they are today…I suppose we could do Occlumency lessons?"

"Sure, but I thought you were going to teach Marlene and Mary too?"

"I still plan to, but I thought maybe we could get a head start. I will pretty much be using you as a test subject for how to teach another...if that's alright?" Since I couldn't manage to teach your son, I am slightly worried about it.

"How could I refuse?" She smiled. "But before we dive into that, how was your first day at work?"

"Better than expected."

"Oh good! I was kind of worried you would hate it."

"Nope. Not yet anyway. My coworker, Jethro Park, is a bit annoying, but I won't have to see him much."

"Glad to hear it." Lily adjusted to be more comfortable. "Right then, what's the first lesson, Professor Snape?"

Severus cringed. "Please...Never call me that again."