November 1

3:30 am

"So," said Alice. "Obviously, now that we're casting a Fidelius charm on this place, the secret will have to be shared with all of you, at least, because we'll be working in the lab here. So…I'm Secret Keeper?"

"No, let me…" started Frank, but with a glare from Alice, he sighed. "Fine…fine, I'm better at charms anyway."

Alice whacked him with a pillow.

"Hey!" yelled Frank. "I got an O on Charms for OWLs and NEWTs, for your information." He chucked the pillow back at her. Which she ducked.

"You did not!" said Alice. "You got an E on your Charms OWL!"

"You got an A!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "As I remember, and I am fairly certain that my memory is as good as ever, that you both got O's on your OWLs and NEWTs for Charms."

"Oh," said Frank and Alice sheepishly. Sirius had somehow obtained a bag of popcorn and was grudgingly sharing it with James and Remus, but all three of them were laughing hard.

They were still laughing.

Lily, Alice, Frank, Dumbledore and Snape stared at them.

Still laughing.

Lily did the Umbridge-throat-clearing impression.

Still laughing.

Lily turned James into a hamster.

Sirius only laughed harder, but Remus stopped abruptly, snatched the popcorn, vanished it into who knows where, and went red.

Sirius was still laughing.

His laughter was cut off as Lily turned him into a cat.

"Meooooooooow!" said the cat hotly.

Snape actually grinned.

"So…" said Dumbledore, after approximately ten minutes, in which they were all standing and staring at Sirius the cat and James the hamster. "Lily, if you'd like to reverse that spell, I believe we've got a Fidelius Charm set up?"

"Riiiiiiiight," she said, waving her wand and changing James and Sirius back into people. "Can I gag them?"

"No!" said Sirius and James together,

"No," said Dumbledore, sighing. "Now, all of you, please be serious about this!"

Everyone burst out laughing again.

"Er, Albus," said Snape, with a slight smile, "I highly doubt that Black is the correct role model for a situation like this."

"OH!" said Dumbledore. "Oh, Merlin, not again!"

They all quietened down eventually. Eventually.

"Right, so Alice, step forward," said Dumbledore. They were all outside Longbottom Manor, and Severus, Lily, James, Sirius and Remus were keeping watch and patrolling the location. She did. "Frank, you have to say this: "I, Frank Longbottom hereby declare Alice Longbottom the Secret Keeper of Longbottom Manor, the Headquarters of Group 3 of the Order of the Phoenix, the location of which shall remain with her for the remainder of her life." He repeated the words solemnly.

"Right, now say it again while moving your wand in an upside down triangle, and then wave it from the bottom left to the top right in zig-zags, like you're wiping out the triangle," demonstrated Dumbldore.

"Like this?" asked Frank.

"Yes," said Dumbledore. "Now, do it together." There was a bright golden flash of light around Alice, and everyone shielded their eyes.

"Where on Earth is your house?" said Lily.

"What do you mean? Longbottom Manor is right there, here as it's always been, on 7 Holly Street -" No sooner than when Alice had said those words, it appeared, shimmering.

"Wow!" said James. "That totally worked."

"Alright, now that that's done, we should really go home, we've got to get Harry to bed - it's nearly four in the morning," said Lily.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. We've got to set the Fidelius Charm on Sirius' house, too," said James.

"Good night!" said Alice.

"Yeah, see you guys tomorrow," said Frank. They headed back up to the house.

"Severus, please accompany me to Hogwarts. We have matters to discuss," said Dumbledore. Snape nodded curtly, and in a swish of robes, they both disapparated.

"Well," said Lily, "See you guys in a few seconds." And she twisted and vanished into thin air with Harry. Sirius, Remus and James followed suit.

Once they were all in front of Sirius' house, they started the Fidelius Charm process. Naturally, Sirius was Secret Keeper again, with Lily doing the charm.

"I, Lily Potter, hereby declare Sirius Black the Secret Keeper of Padfoot's Doghouse (she honestly had no idea why he would call it that, did he want everyone to find out?), the residence of Sirius Black, Lily Potter, James Potter, Harry Potter, and on occasion, Remus Lupin, the location of which shall remain with him for the remainder of his life." There was a bright golden glow again, and the house seemingly vanished.

"Padfoot's Doghouse is where we all live now," said Sirius happily, and it reappeared to the others. Of course, Harry was still (somehow) asleep, despite the amount of noise Sirius and James were making. Sirius waved his wand and unlocked the door, and they all walked in.

"Well," said Remus. "It's been a long day."

"That's an understatement," yawned James. "Well, see you guys tomorrow morning - if we can even get up that early."

"'Night," said Lily, heading up the stairs behind James.

"Yeah, I'll go up, too," said Remus. He headed upstairs to the second guest bedroom.

Sirius yawned, then crossed the room to go to his own bedroom. The war seemed suddenly much more achievable with Moony, Prongs, Lily and Mini Prongs with him in his house. Padfoot's Doghouse.

A/N: This one was a funny little filler - there's more action (and more fun) in the next one. Thanks MyWriterBlock and DarkRavie for reviewing our last chapter =D