Lily giggled in delight as Severus succeeded in setting a small number of twigs on fire, glancing over her shoulder and hissing warningly even as her eyes twinkled, "Oh don't let Tuney see-"

"See what?"

"Anything fun," she replied with a small wink before grabbing a rather large marshmallow from the bag that was casually lying beside her and beginning to toast it on the makeshift fire as Severus tried-and failed- to stifle a smile. "How many of us are there, anyway?" she inquired suddenly, biting her lip, and he looked at her in surprise before shrugging, grabbing a marshmallow of his own.

"Oh, millions. Wizards and witches are everywhere."

"REALLY?" she asked, eyes widening before she flushed and lowered her voice. "Sorry- it's just, I thought I was crazy all this time-" she confided in a whisper, and something softened in Severus's face before he muttered, looking away from her,

"You're not crazy, you're wonderful," not seeing the dazzling smile that lit her face before she enquired breathlessly,

"Sev, what's the scariest thing about being a wizard?"

"Oh, easy," he said nonchalantly, meeting her eyes once more. "The Dementors."

"Dementors?" Lily questioned, something resembling awe in her voice before she asked, "Are they like demons?"

Severus looked uncertain before responding, "Well, not exactly- they guard Azkaban-"

"Azkaban?" she inquired blankly as he smiled, eagerly supplying,

"It's the Wizard prison-" clearly almost as delighted to finally have someone to share his knowledge with as she was to finally be able to learn.

"There's a prison?"

"Oh, hundreds of them, but Azkaban's the worst," Severus supplied quickly as Petunia's voice sounded from somewhere to their right.

"Lily- what are you doing here with him? Come on, we've got to go-"

"Oh Tuney, just a few more minutes-" Lily pleaded, looking at Severus almost longingly as Petunia rolled her eyes.

"Come ON, Lily," she insisted, walking away, and Lily shot Severus a look of genuine regret before saying quickly,

"Can we meet up again tomorrow?"

"Sure," he replied at once, just a bit too eagerly, before flushing slightly and saying something that she couldn't quite hear.

"What?" she inquired, surprised as he got slightly redder before blurting,

"It's nice to have a friend."

He seemed, having said it, to be afraid of what her reaction might be, but Lily just smiled brightly at his words, leaning forward to quickly kiss his cheek before running after her sister.

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