NOTICE TO READERS PLEASE READ

Alright so I got absorbed into the Cult of the Lamb fandom recently and I'm gonna be just posting some content out of order for this series for a while because I don't want to abandon it. Tanners not been around and I'm sorta tryin' my best. I know the chapter isn't labled as you'd expect and it seems a little out of context.

"So, weak little Severus needs a girl to defend him, huh?" the boy said. He was the tallest of the four, and the de facto leader of the six year old brats.

"And the four of you lost to one little girl," the older sister of the girl who'd taken position between the four larger boys and Severus.

"Yeah, if he's weak for needing a girl to defend him then doesn't that make you extra weak for losing to that girl!" the girl shouted. She had dark red hair. She was grinning sharply. "And besides, four against one hardly seemed fair anyway. If you needed four of you to win doesn't that mean that you feel like you can't beat him on your own."

"Ha, so a violent girl like you thinks that-"
"So what? Do you think I care?" The girl threw her hair over her shoulder. It was loose and fell down her back in a shining red sheet. "I don't need the approval of losers! If you can still talk, how about I beat you up some more!" The boys shouted, skittering away.

"Don't think that this is over, Severus, your girlfriend can't protect you forever!" the tallest boy shouted.

"Yeah, that's right skedaddle already!" the girl said. "Losers," she muttered, then turned to face Severus. "Hey, are you alright?"

"Yeah," Severus said. Looking at her face she was covered in freckles and dirt and bruises, but her smile was soft and kind.

"Oh! So you're not going to be ungrateful?" the girl asked, smile getting even softer and warmer. Severus shook his head.

"No, you were- thanks," Severus said. The girl's eyes crinkled up with joy, green eyes brighter than the sun shining through leaves.

"Good, I'm Lily!" She said, offering her hand.

"Severus," Severus said, taking her offer. "Why'd you-why'd you help me?" Severus asked while the two got him onto his feet. Then he tucked his hands into the frayed edge of his shirt.

"Because it was the right thing to do!" Lily said. "Do you want to learn to do that too?" she offered her hand to him again. "I'll teach you. They won't leave you alone until you teach them the lesson yourself so you should learn to do it." Her smile was still as bright and warm as the sun. Her hand offered to Severus just a little ways away from his face.

"I-I'd like to be able to do that too," He admitted. Taking the girl's hand.

"Good!" Lily said. "I'll patch you up then I'll teach you how to kick their butts!"

"Lily!" the older sister said.

"Oh! Petunia, you haven't introduced yourself."

"Oh, ri-right," Petunia said. "I'm Lily's older sister, Petunia Evans."

"Severus Snape," Severus said, Lily stepped between them. Throwing one arm around Severus's shoulder, and taking Petunia's hand.

"Let's go!" Lily said.

Snape stood panting, bruised scraped and nose bleeding. Three of the four boys were already down, and the other boy the thickest of the three couldn't hold out any longer. Lily stood up from her spot nearby cheering.

"Yeah, great job Sev!" Lily said, skipping forward to hug the other boy. Severus couldn't help but feel embarrassed and also overjoyed at the praise. "You were awesome!" She said,

"Alright, fine! He wins!" The tallest boy said standing up. "So what?"

"Now your friends duh!" Lily said.

"What?" All five boys, and Petunia said together.

"Well, that's obvious right, now that we've both beaten you we're friends now, because you respect us." Lily threw her hair back. "That's how mens friendship works!"

"You've been watching too many cartoons," Petunia said.

"Well, how else do you guys stop fighting!" Lily pointed out. "If this continues you'll just keep beating each other up until somebody goes to prison! Do you want to go to prison?! I don't want you guys to go to Prison!" Lily said. "Now sit still, all of you. I have to patch you up."

"Why?"

"Because I'm the one who started the fight, and I beat all of you so I'm the boss!" Lily stated plainly. "It's the bosses job to look after their subordinates. I'm Queen Lily and I must look after my subjects!" She flipped her hair back behind her shoulders. The boys snickered.

"Fine! For now we'll accept it," The boy said. So Lily got to work patching them all up.

"Snape is the second strongest so he's the king, but I'm the big boss 'cause I won against all of you,'' Lily said.

"Oh! So who'ver's the next strongest is second in command?" The tallest boy asked.

"Maybe, you'll have to be able to beat Sev and he's super tough!" Lily said, patching up the worst of the injuries first and moving.

"We're going to face off against the Dragons!" Lily said. "They're a bunch of jerks who hog the playground when adults aren't around!" Lily said. "Let's go!"

"That's not what we're called!"

"It is now!" Lily said. "'Cause your being super greedy!" So they fought them.

"Once again I caught to most!" Lily said. Holding up her two jars full of tadpoles. "Now let's move these guys to a safer spot!"

"How is everything a competition with you?" Sev asked.

"Because it's fun!" Lily said. "But it's okay. I don't think any less of you for not being able to beat me."

"I caught the second most tadpoles!" Martin said, he chubby cheeks flexed with the wideness of his grin.

"Yeah, you were pretty great!" Lily said. "Next time we should bring more jars!"

"Yeah!" Ty, the tallest snickered. All seven of the six year olds were drenched, and muddy. Covered in moss and dirt, but all beaming with pride.

"Sev, what type of frogs do you think these guys'll grow inta?" Tiss asked. She was the only other girl in the group. She and her twin brother Dex had joined the group after Micheal had stopped hanging out with them.

"Not sure yet?" Sev said, grinning. "I'd need to watch them for a little while, but I have some guesses!" Staring determined into the murky, tadpole filled water in the jar in front of him.

"Oh? What are your guess?" Dex asked.

"Well…" Sev said thoughtfully.

Sev dug his fingers into the dirt carefully to extract two more worms. Well, it was actually more like warm mud. Most of the worms were actually on the service anyway.

"Alright, I think that should be enough," Lily said seriously, she was always very serious even about having fun. It was weird to see someone who enjoyed being serious so much. "Alright! Let's go!" She said, Her face had a smear of mud on her face, and her knees and hands were half coated, she was a little sweaty, they all were. But she was grinning as she dusted her hands off and picked up her small collection of worms. "Oh! Wow, Sev, you're really good at worm hunting."

"Y-yeah, but why are you going for the lively ones?" Sev asked, noting the difference between her wildly writhing mass and his almost motionless hoard.

"Well, obviously we need the lively ones," Lily said.

"What are we going to do with them?" Ty asked.

"We're going to make a vegetable garden!" Lily said. "I got seeds, from raking leaves in the rich people neighborhood!"

It's been several minutes since anyone's spoken, comfortable silence fills the warm air. Lily leads the way to their destination.

"So, what do you want to make a garden for," Martin asked.

"Huh? Oh, cause I thought it'd be useful if any of our parents send us to bed without supper!" Lily said.

"My parents never send me to bed without supper," Ty said. "Mom said that kids need lots of food to grow! Lily do your parents send you to bed without food?"

"That's illegal!" Tiss said. "Your parents shouldn't do that! It's a crime! That's how come me and Dex don't live with our mummy anymore?"

"Oh?" Lily said. "No, my parents do send me to bed without dinner, but I didn't know it was a crime?" Lily said. "Wait! It's a crime! Sev your Mum is doing a crime!"
"Oh! It's Sev's Mum!" Tiss said. "That's still bad!"

"Yeah, my parents skip meals sometimes to avoid not feeding me," Ty said.

"Even when my mum and dad and I are trying a new healthy diet we never skip meals!" Martin said. "We always eat our meals."

"Yeah, your mum should go to jail, our mum went to jail!" Dex said. "You should go to jail too. Our new mum said that it's the wrong thing to do."

"Oh, well, that explains those guys," Sev said.

"What do you mean?" Tiss asked.

"Well, see, these guys will sometimes come over talking about somethin' like what you were mentioning and then mum would -trick them into leaving."

"How does she trick them? Does she make it so you can't talk to them? You can talk to the school counselor, and if that person doesn't listen you can bring it up to our new mum!" Tiss said.

"I can't do that, I don't want to get your new mum into tr-trouble," Sev said.

"How could-"

"Oh right!" Lily said interrupting the conversation before it could continue. "Your mum can use that, huh?" Lily said.

"Yea-yeah," Sev said.

"So, we'd probably just end up getting hurt if we tried to get her into trouble," Lily said.

"Yeah," Sev said.

"So, we return to the original plan!" Lily said. "We set up a food garden so that Sev, can eat there when he needs ta!"

"Oh! Is she that scary," Tiss said. "I heard about dangerous types of people that it's hard to prove, and how it can get bad if your not careful. I still wanna tell my new mum, but I'll let her know she's the scary type."

"Thanks." Sev said.

"And Mum won't do something careless since we're settin' up the garden for you, but you can eat at my house anytime, if you don't mind eating weird diet stuff!"

"No-no not at all," Sev said.

"We should also put emergency clothes there too!" Tiss said. "Our old mum sometimes didn't let us have weather appropriate clothes. That's how I lost my foot." Tiss said. Everyone looked down at the prosthetic. Sev often forgot about it. Since Tiss moved almost normally.

"I'm sorry," Sev said.

"It's not your fault!" Tiss said. "Oh! Shouldn't we pick a place closer to Sev's house'n?"

"Oh, yeah, sometimes when I don't eat often enough during my growth spurt I got really sick," Ty said.

"And sometimes we misscalculate during diets and feel bad too," Martin added.

"And from now on let us all know when you haven't eaten properly, not just Lily," Dex complained. "We don't want you to get sick and pass out cause you didn't get to eat."

They'd picked a clearing, in the tree's near enough to Sev's house that it wouldn't be hard for him to reach it in a less than great condition, but far enough that his mother wouldn't find it. They'd cleared the area and then tilled and weeded the soil. Once it was loose, and they'd gotten rid of the weeds they freed the worms and planted the seeds. Tiss, Lily, Dex and Martin were discussing who and when watering would be done. Ty was seated next to Sev, the two had lapsed into a peaceful silence.

"I'm gonna bring some clothes here too," Ty said. "You don't have a coat right."

"Why?" Sev asked.

"We're the closest in size," Ty said.

"But why are you-?"

"Your my friend," Ty said.

"Ri-right, I guess, I just-"

"It's hard to feel like people can care about you when other people hurt you," Tiss said. "Well, we do." Tiss informed.

Severus was walking down the street. His face was sore with a nasty bruise, and because his mother had been insistent that he'd been doing something wrong, he'd missed the buss to school. So now he was forced to walk. He grumbled, the pain in his cheek pumping in and out. In and out. Blood trickled down his forehead.

"Oh, Severus, right?" Petunia said. She'd been coming down around the corner of her street. Severus looked around her to see if Lily was with her. "Oh, shi- that looks really bad. Hold on a sec." She said, pulling a first aid kit out of her bag.

"Where's Lily?"

"She caught the buss, just like you should have," Petunia said, crouching. "I've got to clean that." She said pointing to the painful throbbing on his forehead. "This'll sting. Sorry." She said, once she was done, she put some ointment on his cut and a different one on his bruise, before putting a bandage of the cut. "There. Sorry, there's not much I can do for the bruise." Then Petunia's friends called her. "Well, later, have a good day!" She waved over her shoulder. Severus waved back. He put a few fingers to his cheek.

"Muggles are pretty great," Severus said.