November 2

3 pm

"And you will not teach Harry how to make any more rubber duck combination-things while I'm gone!" finished Lily, glaring at all three Marauders.

"Aww!" whined Sirius. "Please, Lily, I came up with a new one! Look, so there's Dumbledore, Rita Skeeter, that Umbridge from the Ministry, and Alastor-"

"NO!" said Lily firmly. "No way!"

"Pleaaaase?" said James.

"No, James. And that's final."

Sirius, James and Remus pouted.

"Remus, you're in charge of making sure they don't do anything I've forbidden them from doing."

"Yes, ma'am," Remus saluted her with a completely straight face.

"Good. See you all later. Bye, Harry!" Then she whirled out the door, her long red hair flying behind her.

"Well," said Sirius.

"Well…" said James.

"Well?" prompted Remus.

"Moony, read!" demanded Harry.

The three men burst out laughing.

"Sure, Harry," said Remus. "Which one do you want to read?"

Harry wandered over to the bookshelf and picked out Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

"Er…" said James. "Harry, that's a textbook for thirteen-year-olds."

"READ!" he repeated.

"Sure," Remus smirked.

Sirius groaned. "Moony, you're rubbing off on him!"

"Come here, Harry," said Remus. Harry went and sat down by Remus. He started reading. "Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them represents the fruit of many years' travel and research…"

- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Lily snapped the door shut behind her and put on James's invisibility cloak. She had mixed feelings about this. Finally, finally, she wasn't trapped at home, and she got to hang out with her friends. Right. Friends. Which she supposed included Severus again now. She didn't know how to react to the whole Severus situation. Did they go back to how they were before fifth year? After fifth year? Or before Hogwarts? Or just completely start over? She shook her head. Could she trust him? She felt like there was something he and Dumbledore were hiding, and she didn't know if she could completely trust him yet. She blinked to clear her head.

She was going to help with spell creation! She'd get to experiment in a large state-of-the-art lab with charms, and it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, especially because she was working directly with Dumbledore in a collaborative project.

Besides, the spell they developed would give them a safe way to deal with Horcruxes (she shuddered slightly at the thought of them) and (she also suspected this was Dumbledore's plan all along), possibly avoid the prophecy completely and maybe return Voldemort's soul to himself.

She'd reached the Disapparation point and swiftly turned, silently disappearing and rematerializing in front of Longbottom Manor.

Once she was in the driveway, she uncharacteristically nervously walked up to the door, and subtly pressed the button that only Order members ever used, cleverly concealed on the side of the knocker.

Alice opened the door.

"Agent…Firehead," grumbled Lily. Why on Earth had she let Sirius pick her Order 'Secret Agent' name?

Alice giggled. "Come in, they're all here."

"Oh, am I late?" asked Lily anxiously.

"No, no, Dumbledore came early because he wanted to bake lemon pie and he liked our kitchens and Severus had a bunch of equipment to set up…"

"Lemon pie?" asked Lily incredulously.

"Sherbet lemon pie," Alice clarified.

"What even is that?"

"Ask Dumbledore," said Frank. He had flour in his hair and blobs of yellow icing on his apron. "I swear, he's brought his entire supply of Sherbet Lemons, and just owl-ordered some more - Honeydukes is going to run out for sure. You know, I think they must make a special monthly stock just for Dumbledore at this point. Who knows how long he's been eating it?"

"One thousand, seven hundred and fifty-six years, eleven months and one day," said Lily promptly.

"But the pie does smell good," said Alice.

"That it does. It'll be so good even Sev will want some," grinned Lily.

He walked up the stairs to the basement. "Merlin, how long is that pie going to take? Hello, Lily," he said evenly, his face clear of emotion.

"Severus," she inclined her head. There was an awkward silence.

"ALBUS!" called Frank suddenly. "DID YOU PUT IT IN THE OVEN YET?"

"YES, FRANK," called Dumbledore cheerfully. "I'M COMING IN A MINUTE!"

Severus sighed.

"Evanesco," said Frank, cleaning all the flour, sugar and frosting off of his apron. It then floated off him and onto a peg. "Cool. That's the first time I've gotten that to happen."

"Hey…" said Alice.

"What?" said Lily.

"EVANesco!" she said, pointing her wand at Lily.

"Oi!" she said. "Scourgify, yourself!" A stream of soapy bubbles chased Alice all over the living room.

"Evanesco!"

"Tergeo!" added Frank.

"Scourgify!" A stray spell flew sideways and nearly hit Severus, but he deflected it with a flick of his wand and just stood there in the corner.

"Oh, come on, Severus," said Lily.

"Fine," he sighed. "AGUAMENTI!" he said, at the same time that Lily, Alice and Frank all said "SCOURGIFY!"

The result was that the entire living room ended up very wet and slippery, and everyone, even the usually very dignified and composed Severus Snape flew off the ground, and they all landed on the floor in a heap.

"Owwww, Lily, you're heavy!" said Alice.

"Well, it's not just me, dear Sevvie and Frank are on top of me, too! Get off, you two!"

"I would," said Severus. "Except for the fact that your elbow is in my face, and I would very much not like to get my nose broken."

"Well, it's a very nice nose," said Lily. "I wouldn't want to break it either. So let's do this slowly. Frank, why are you stuck?"

"There's a black boot on my head," he said with a muffled voice.

"I'm sorry," said Snape. "It's mine," he said, gingerly lifting his leg upwards.

"Thanks," said Frank, pushing himself off the floor.

"Alright, let me try…" said Lily, somehow awkwardly moving her arm backwards and then up so that Severus could get off the floor. Then she rolled off of Alice. "You make a nice landing mattress."

"I…know…" gasped Alice. "Owww, my head."

"Am I interrupting a water war?" asked Dumbledore, taking in the scene. "Oh, let me join in, too!" He created a massive ball of water that spun in the air over the four of them.

"NOOOO!" screamed Lily and Frank simultaneously, jumping to take cover under a raised mattress bewitched to hover a foot or two above the ground. Alice and Severus were not as lucky, though, and they got completely drenched.

"ALBUS!" they both howled simultaneously. The man in question chuckled, dried the room (and the people inside it), and led the way down the stairs.

"Let's get to work, and then we'll have pie afterwards as a reward."

"Yes, Professor," they all said, sighing. They all exchanged shocked looks.

"That was sarcasm!" said Lily and Severus at the same time that Alice and Frank said, "That wasn't sarcasm!"

"Yes, well you're all welcome to call me Albus, I'm not your teacher at Hogwarts anymore."

"Yes, Professor," sang Lily and Severus, again exchanging very surprised looks. Well, maybe, they hadn't changed that much. Or they had, or at least Sev had - and then changed back. Either way, Lily was happy to have the old Sev back.

A/N: So we're getting the Lily-Snape friendship back - slowly, with help from an ice, no, scratch that, WATERbreaker activity. Did you get the EVANesco joke? The rubber ducks will be making an appearance soon, as will the Sherbet Lemon pie. And yes, we will now be officially having a counter for the amount of times characters have fallen over in our stories. Feel free to visit it on our profile.

Lady Shalpha: Thank you! We (or at least Moony and Prongs) like it, too.

DarkRavie: Thanks! We hope you've enjoyed this chapter.

Thank you, Plew A.E for your rubber duck combination idea.