November 2

7 pm

"So, theoretically speaking, if we used a Diffindo, and aimed it to separate the soul piece and the artifact…" began Alice. They had been discussing spell ideas for the last three hours. Lily had started to worry about whether leaving James, Sirius and Remus alone in a house with Harry was a good idea. Knowing the four of them, she wouldn't be surprised if the house was in shambles by the time she got back. She just hoped that Remus would be able to rein them in somehow.

"No, but then the artifact might be damaged," pointed out Lily.

Dumbledore sighed. "Well, then, it looks like we'll have to develop the soul-separation part of the spell from scratch, then, rather than a combination of spells."

"Why bother?" muttered Severus under his breath. Honestly, he failed to see why Dumbledore would want to give Voldemort a second chance. And then he remembered that the reason why he was here was for the same reason. He swallowed. "Alright, then we will require arithmancy."

"Yes, I was hoping that you and Lily could work on that for us?" asked Dumbledore.

Lily looked at Severus. Severus looked at Lily. Then they both looked at Dumbledore.

"Okay," said Lily.

Severus nodded. "We will have the spell ready by the end of this week, Albus."

"That seems to be in order!" said Dumbledore, clapping his hands cheerfully. "Now, who wants lemon pie?"

The group trooped out of the basement and back up into the hall. Alice went upstairs to bring Neville down, and Frank went into the kitchen to bring out the lemon pie. Dumbledore sliced it, and handed everyone a plate.

"Well? How is it?" asked Dumbledore eagerly.

"Very good," mumbled Lily through a mouthful of pie. The flavor was certainly unique - it was tart, but not too tart, and slightly sweet, but not too sweet, and the cookie crumb crust enhanced the flavor. All of a sudden, she began floating in the air. "What-"

Frank, Alice and Severus lifted into the air as well. Only Dumbledore and Neville, who was looking at them with awe, remained on the ground.

"I don't know!" said Dumbledore in an uncharacteristically frightened voice. "I have no idea how to reverse it!"

Severus's usually expressionless demeanor changed at once. "What do you mean? You're the only one who isn't floating, Dumbledore! What have you done?"

"No, I actually don't know," said Dumbledore.

Lily's eyes widened. Alice gaped, and Frank wrinkled his eyebrows.

"But we didn't add anything else…"

Suddenly, Dumbledore drew out his wand and gave it a swift flick. They floated back down at once. He roared with laughter. "Oh, your FACES!"

Lily, Severus, Alice and Frank all glanced at each other.

"What did you put in the pie, Albus?" asked Frank.

"Nothing! You see, I just put a small levitation charm on your shoes!" said Dumbledore, grinning.

"Albus," groaned Frank.

"There's nothing else in the pie, right?" said Lily.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled mysteriously, but he didn't say anything. Lily shrugged, wrapped up three slices of pie for Remus, Sirius and James (she wasn't going to risk giving it to Harry) and stood up.

"Well, 'bye, then. Severus, the day after tomorrow, then?"

Snape inclined his head. "My house?" And Lily was reminded of all the times they'd invited each other to their respective houses, years and years ago.

"Alright. What time?"

"You could come over for lunch…" said Severus.

"Sure," said Lily. She smiled slightly - and to her surprise, so did Severus. It was rare to see him smile, especially now.

"Well, that's settled, then," said Dumbledore. For a moment, Lily thought she could see something like triumph in his eyes. "Convey our regards to Sirius," he said.

"Yeah, it's his birthday tomorrow, isn't it?" said Alice.

"Yes," said Lily. "I would invite you, except the Fidelius…"

"Of course," said Frank, nodding.

"'Bye, then," said Lily, waving, and Disapparating under the cloak as soon as she was outside.

"I'm back," she called to James, stepping into the house, dropping the bag of pie on an ottoman near the shoe rack. "Hello?" The house was extraordinarily quiet.

"Lily!" said James, appearing around the corner of the hall. Then, quite abruptly, he clamped his hand over her mouth and dragged her into the living room.

"Sirius is working on his bike; we're working on the plans for his birthday," Remus whispered, by way of explanation.

"I've fed Harry, and he's in his room right now," added James.

"Alright. Oh!" said Lily softly, examining the paper with the ideas on it. "Well, these look good. What about the decorations?"

James slapped his hand to his forehead. "I knew we'd forgotten something!"

"Well, make it something loud and bright," she suggested.

"Gryffindor colors!" said Remus. "Yeah, he'd like that."

"How are you going to do stargazing?" asked Lily. "I mean, apart from staring at Sirius…"

James snorted, and Remus smiled slightly, raising his eyebrows. "Well, I thought I'd enchant the ceiling."

"Oh, cool, like Hogwarts!" said Lily.

"Yeah," said James.

"I can help. Where are you going to set it up?" said Lily.

"My room," said Remus. "It's by far the emptiest - are you sure you wouldn't want to move Harry in there? I can share with Sirius."

"No, he barely takes up any space," Lily brushed it off.

"Alright, d'you want to get to work right now?" asked James.

"Yeah, sure," said Lily. Lily shrunk the bed, and James conjured a mattress, which Remus then enlarged to fit the proportions of the room. They sat down on it and started working on the enchantments on the ceiling. A few minutes into it, Lily excused herself to check on Harry.

She carefully opened the door. Harry was awake and the scene before her was extremely strange. Harry was sitting in his crib, surrounded by dozens of stuffed toy horror rubber ducks.

"What in Merlin's name…" she started. Harry was sitting upright and giggling. She picked up one and stared at it. It seemed to be a combination of McGonagall (the glasses and the cat ears), Lucius Malfoy (the long blonde hair - how had he even known what Lucius Malfoy looked like?), and a biscuit. A BISCUIT. Well, the 'have a biscuit, Potter,' must've really gotten to him. She shook her hair. There were also replicas of the original horror rubber duck and what looked suspiciously like what Sirius had been describing before she left.

"Oh, Harry," she said, shaking her head.

She went back to Remus's room. "Remus, do you know how long Sirius is going to take? I need to have a talk with him about his godson."

James gulped. Had she discovered the rubber duck soft toys?

"Er…" said Remus, glancing at James. "Another hour?"

"Let's finish the ceiling," said Lily. She would be having a long talk with Sirius Black.

However, an hour later, Sirius was still in the garage. So she picked up the ducks and headed through the garage door.

"Sirius Black!"

"Wha-oh, hi, Lily," said Sirius, from under his motorcycle. In his left hand, he held a bunch of screws, and he had a large screwdriver in his right. His hair was unusually greasy.

Lily dropped the soft toys on the worktable, momentarily distracted by the strange sight. "What are you up to?"

"I'm adding a sidecar," said Sirius. "So I can take Harry with me!"

"Er…" said Lily. And then she remembered why she'd come there in the first place.

"Come out here for a second."

Sirius dropped the screw, and Lily held up the soft toy.

"Oh…right," said Sirius sheepishly. She tossed it at him, and caught unawares, he held the screwdriver up in protection. It pierced through the fabric, and it exploded with a loud 'bang!' and a shower of confetti.

"Oooh, party decorations!" said Sirius. Then he went back to work on his motorcycle. "You can stay if you want," said Sirius.

"No, that's alright," said Lily. Oh, Sirius Black and his motorbike. "I actually have something from Dumbledore for the three of you.," she said, suddenly remembering the pie.

"What is it?"

"That's a surprise," said Lily mysteriously. Intrigued, Sirius stood back up, dusted off his hands and followed Lily back into the house.

"Remus, James, I forgot to tell you. Dumbledore gave me something for y'all."

"What?" asked Remus.

"That's what I asked her," grumbled Sirius.

"Accio bag!" said Lily. The bag of pie came zooming around the corner. She reached inside and handed the slices to Sirius, Remus and James.

"Lemon pie?" asked Remus.

"Dumbledore bakes?" asked James.

"He made this?" asked Sirius.

"Yes, yes and yes. Well, Frank helped," said Lily. "Well, go on, try it. We all already had some."

Sirius noticed that for some reason, Lily looked way too innocent. But, well, it was pie - it couldn't be that harmful, especially if Lily had already had some. Besides, Dumbledore, Leader of the Light (not the Dark, or the Pie-Pranksters) had made the pie. So he took a cautious bite.

Nothing happened.

Remus and James took a bite.

Still nothing.

Encouraged, he scarfed down the rest of the pie. As soon as the last bit of crust had entered his mouth, his hands started turning a dark red.

"Whoa! What's happening?" asked James, shocked. His hands were turning royal blue. Remus was slowly turning a light leafy green.

"I look like an alien!" said Remus, his eyes widening.

"What's an alien?" asked Sirius.

"Oh…er-" Lily started.

"LILY!" said James loudly. He'd just caught sight of himself in the mirror. His whole self (including his hair) had turned blue.

Lily gaped. "This definitely did not happen when we ate it!"

"Maybe they're the colors of our souls!" said Sirius dramatically. "Hah! I'm a Gryffindor for life!"

"Yes, and the color is as dark as your soul, Padfoot," said James, playing along.

Sirius grinned. And then gasped. "Moony," he said horrified. "You're a Slytherin!"

"I don't think it works like that," said Remus, snorting. "I don't particularly see James as a Ravenclaw."

Lily grinned. "No, neither do I."

"Hey!" said James indignantly.

"Never mind that! What's an alien?" asked Sirius impatiently.

A/N: A bit of a filler. What about you? What do you think the colors represent? Up next: Sirius's birthday! And you can expect to see more of Snape and Lily's friendship and Marauder action! Thank you, DarkRavie, Lady Shalpha, and MarilynT for reviewing.

MarilynT: Ah, but look where Snape went. But yeah, Voldemort has had a lot of second chances...