The doorbell rang loudly, much to Lily's frustration. She glared at the book in her hands and dropped it onto the side table with a thunk. Petunia, sulking on the other couch, glared at Lily as though the doorbell being loud was her fault. Knowing that Petunia wasn't going to get the door, Lily got up and walked to the door slowly.

Opening it, Lily scowled at the person on the top step.

"Hi!" The girl said, chirpy and beaming. "I'm Alice! You're Lily Evans, aren't you? I remember you from a few years ago. You weren't much shorter then, surprisingly. Do you think I could come in? It might look awfully odd for you neighbors to see a random person with a carry bag and robes standing at your door."

Lily paused for a second to take all of it in.

Alice spoke a bit too much for Lily's current mood to handle. With a disgruntled look at the surrounding houses, where the neighbors were indeed peeking at Alice, Lily pulled the door open fully and moved out of the way.

She didn't understand why Ellie thought it was necessary for her to have a babysitter, but to send someone this chirpy and bright, let alone an auror to her house, when the auror could be out searching for those children, was a completely different thing. Lily hadn't thought that Ellie would follow through on her threat.

"Please, make yourself at home," Lily said, plastering on a smile when all she wanted to do was roll her eyes. "I'll take your stuff up to the guest bedroom!"

If Lily was going to enjoy one thing through this vacation though, it would be the torture Petunia was going through because of the presence of a fellow magic user. Petunia could barely deal with Lily and Severus, how she would deal with another cheery person Lily wasn't sure, but it would be an entirely too entertaining event.

So, Lily skipped down the stairs to find Alice sitting on the couch and examining the room with interest and Petunia scowling from behind the magazine. The air was decidedly awkward, but Alice didn't seem to notice it.

"Where are your parents?" Alice asked, looking over as soon as Lily entered the room. "I'd love to meet them!"

Lily had no doubt that Alice was being entirely sincere.

"They're out currently. An office party that we excused ourselves from," Lily said, trying to be polite. "Would you like some tea?"

"No, thank you."

Petunia giggled from her place on the sofa. When Alice looked at Petunia curiously, she elaborated with a smug look at Lily. "I never thought I'd see the day when Lily offered drinks to a guest like a polite hostess."

Alice laughed. "My parents said the same about my cousin the other day, and my great-uncle before him. They always complained about the ice cream business being a complete waste of time as well, so we usually don't put too much stock in their words."

Petunia put down her magazine, speaking up. Lily stared at the unfolding conversation in shock and slight embarrassment at Petunia's extremely un-subtle quips.

"An ice cream business? I didn't know wizards liked ice cream!"

Alice shrugged. "Apparently, everyone loves ice cream. And wizards have the best ice cream flavors, with magical ingredients that can change the taste of the ice cream to anything you like."

Petunia looked suspicious. "Well, Lily has never introduced me to this side of the wizarding world. Does your world have other interesting things that I have never heard of?"

"Not as much as the muggle world," Alice said, looking lost in thought. "Frank took me to this thing called an amusement park; darling that he is, he couldn't understand heads or tails of how they worked. But it was an entertaining experience nonetheless."

"Frank?" Petunia interrupted, her curiosity for gossip overcoming her dislike of magic in general.

"My boyfriend," Alice said, looking as though she was miles away. "Frank Longbottom. He's wonderful, truly."

"What does he do?" Lily asked, curiosity winning out over spite as it always did.

Alice smiled at her, bright and sunny. "He's an auror as well. He works under Moody though, which is a completely different division from what I do."

"Right."

And that was that. Petunia retreated behind her magazine, and Alice went back to looking around the house curiously. Lily ended up staring at Alice, glaring at the blonde's perfectly curled hair and her calm demeanor despite the awkward environment. This entire situation was embarrassing and highly annoying.

Lily wished she'd never tried to help the wizarding world, if this was what she got in return. She would rather burn the world down than have a babysitter!

Maybe she should start with burning Ellie?

Lily frowned at the newspaper, a normal, muggle newspaper, with no moving pictures or any sort of odd happenings. It was normal news. Some celebrity had done something interesting, a person who lived across the street had been arrested for attempted shoplifting, a few stores on the main street were having sales. That kind of thing.

But Lily hadn't heard from the wizarding world in a while. She hadn't gotten any news, because the Daily Prophet had been closed for some reason, and the Ministry had issued a muggle warning alert. No magical deliveries would reach muggle districts unless it was authorized by someone in the Ministry.

She knew that Alice was getting the news. Alice hadn't been spending the entire vacations gossiping the Petunia about fashion trends. No, Alice had actually gone to work a couple of times, and on one memorable occasion in the middle of the night, during emergency calls. So, Lily could have asked Alice to bring her a newspaper.

It was just that Lily didn't want to like Alice, and if she asked Alice for help, then she would owe it to the older girl to give her a chance. And Lily knew that Alice could worm her way into anyone's heart with enough time. She was just lovable like that.

Lily rubbed her face with her hand, pressing the heel of her palm into her eyes. This waiting around was painful, especially since she had her very own babysitter, for all that Ellie had called Alice an auror honor guard. Making up her mind, Lily stood up, pushing the chair out loudly.

Petunia glared at her, over the cup of tea she was nursing, but Lily ignored her. The sweltering heat of the day was not conducive to Petunia's mood, and she had a nasty scowl almost permanently etched on her face. The fact that she had some of her important exams coming up in the next few months probably had something to do with it, but Petunia would never admit to being stressed about exams.

"You have to clean up after yourself in the normal world," Petunia called after her, even as she exited the room.

Lily closed her eyes and stood still, hoping her sister would just quit it. She didn't even know why she was annoyed with Petunia, but there were so many important things happening in the world with Voldemort and the vampires and those poor kidnapped children, and all Petunia could think about was how to get revenge.

"Gimme five minutes," she called back, ignoring the little voice that said that she would be procrastinating. "I'll do it when I get back."

Petunia only scoffed behind her.

Making her way to Alice's room, Lily stood outside and took a deep breath. She would need all the Gryffindor courage she could scrounge up to stomp down on her pride and spite. Inhaling, Lily lifted her hand and rapped smartly on the door.

"I'm coming," Alice's chirpy voice called out, even so early in the morning.

The door clicked open, and Alice gestured Lily in.

"Well, what brings you to my door?" she asked, tilting her head slightly. "Although it really is your door, I only meant it in a metaphorical sense, you know?"

Lily waved her off. "I need the news. The Daily Prophet has apparently shut down?"

Alice grimaced, the expression looking odd on her face. She shook her head, folding her legs as she sat on her bed.

"The Daily Prophet hasn't shut down," she said, sounding disgusted. "It's Ministry propaganda, led by the Malfoys that stopped all muggleborn subscriptions to be cancelled. So, no muggleborns are getting the newspaper."

Lily could feel the burning hot fury enveloping her. How dare the Ministry do such a thing? Wasn't the Daily Prophet supposed to be a newspaper company anyways? Shouldn't it act independent of all government activities?

"Ministry propaganda?"

Alice hummed, looking out of the window. "I still get the Daily Prophet. They haven't gone to the lengths to remove blood traitor families yet, and my family is one of the more neutral ones anyways."

Lily took a deep breath to calm herself. She couldn't wrap her head around the fact that the Ministry of Magic was corrupt enough to allow bigoted politicians to have their fingers in the newspaper business – a business that had no business being biased in any way.

"If you want," Alice added hesitantly, "you could read my copy of the paper."

Lily's head snapped up, shock nearly paralyzing her. "I could? I mean, thank you!"

For the first time in the vacations, Lily was glad that Alice was her auror guard or whatever. There was something good that came from having a babysitter to stop her from doing some not so smart things. Although Lily was sure that Ellie didn't want the vampire trying to enter Lily's house. Not that Lily would allow Aurora in. She didn't trust Aurora near her parents or her sister.

"Sure," Alice said, smiling again. "The paper should be here in about half an hour. Do you want to wait here?"

Lily nodded, hoping she didn't come off as too excited. But she also couldn't help but feel that this was a dream, that Alice wouldn't allow her to have the paper if she left the room now. Who cared that she still had to clean up her dishes? Petunia could complain about it later. Lily would read her news first.