Along about a week later, a cold snap struck London and temperatures plummeted and everything froze, including the Thames, for the first time in a decade. Icicles coated the trees and lamp posts and the gates of all the private residences. Slick patches of ice formed upon the sidewalks and streets, resulting in more than few accidents, both with cars and pedestrians slipping and falling. Even so, most of the Londoners enjoyed the rare spate of frost and snow, for the Christmas season was nigh and the snow reminded them all of Father Christmas, snowmen, hot cocoa, carols, and hot toddies.

In the wizarding side of London, Healer Snape and Healer Morgan were kept busy prescribing cold remedies, muscle salves, and mending the occasional broken bone and sprained wrist or ankle from a child or elderly person falling down ice-coated stairs or a cobblestone path.

Even so, Severus managed to find time from his rather busy schedule to see Lily once or twice a week.

Once he had admitted that he loved her, he was no longer hesistent to court her, to use an old-fashioned phrase of Albus's. Sometimes he took her out to dinner, other times they stayed home at her house with Harry and watched old movies, Lily loved sappy old romances like An Affair To Remember with Cary Grant, and Severus humored her by watching them.

In truth, he could have cared less what they watched, so long as Lily was next to him. The smell of her hair, like mangos and lime, mingled with that of her favorite perfume Wildberry Witch, and made him long to bury his hands in her hair and kiss her until she was breathless. Several times.

But he contented himself with putting an arm about her and kissing her gently upon the mouth once. And she smiled at him, her sweet brilliant smile, and kissed him back. Then she ate some popcorn and fed him some as well, laughing when he nibbled gently on her fingers.

"Behave, Mr. Snape!"

"I am. Otherwise I'd be doing something much more scandelous, my love." He began to play with a lock of her hair teasingly.

She grinned and lay down with her head in his lap, giving him tacit permission to play with her hair, knowing how much he loved caressing her hair.

Pretty soon caressing her hair turned to kissing and it was with regret that they finally halted, for neither would go any further until they were engaged, both Lily and Severus were old-fashioned that way, and believed that commitment should preceed any kind of lovemaking. It drove them both crazy, but in the end Lily knew it would be worth it, for the waiting simply made the first time much sweeter.

"You are extremely lucky, little flower, that I have such self-control," Sev gasped, drawing away from her with obvious reluctance.

"So are you, mister," she smirked. "For there is nothing I would like more than to drag you to bed right now."

"Oh? Then why don't you?"

"Sev! You wicked thing!" She smacked him playfully on the arm. "You know perfectly well why not."

"Because you love to torture me," he groaned. "I'm torturing myself as well, you sexy thing," she chuckled. Then she glanced at the TV. "Oh, it's my favorite part! When he proposes to her on top of the Empire State Building!"

Severus wondered if he ought to do that. Then he recalled something he had seen in the paper the other day while he was reading over some charts in the office. "Lily, how would you like to go ice skating and attend the Frost Faire this weekend? I just saw an ad in The Prophet for it. Since the Thames has frozen over, they've decided to host a Frost Faire."

"What's a Frost Faire, Sev?"

"It's an old tradition, dating back to the time of Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I. The Muggles back then used to hold a kind of faire when the first frost of the season came and froze over the river. They'd have ice skating and sell hot drinks and food and other small trinkets. We wizards adopted the tradition, so to speak, and sometimes if the Ministry permits, we hold one of our own and celebrate the coming of winter and the holidays. Would you like to go?"

Lily thought for a moment. "Yes, I would." Then she frowned. "But we'd have to take Harry, Sev. My parents are going to visit my sister in Surrey this weekend and I don't dare let Harry go with them. You know how Tuney feels about magic and her fat husband Vernon is even worse." She scowled angrily.

"That's all right, Lil. Harry should get used to doing things with us together. That way, when we're engaged, it won't seem as much of a shock. Besides, I think the faire has games for little ones too and we can always teach him how to skate."

She shot him an arch look. "Think you still remember how, Sev? Last time you ended up in a snowbank."

"I was twelve, Lily. I think I've learned a few things since then," he said, pretending to be offended.

"We'll see,won't we?"

"Yes. If I remember correctly, you nearly broke your ankle trying to do a flip like that American skater. . . the gold medalist . . .Dorothy Hamil, wasn't that her name?"

Lily made a face at him. "You never forget anything, do you, Sev?"

He shook his head. "No. I have a photographic memory. It can be both a blessing and a curse." A blessing because he could recall reading or seeing something instantly, but a curse because he could also remember things he longed to forget, like what he had endured during his childhood from Tobias.

"Well, I'm a little out of practice doing triple flips, so I'll spare myself the embarrasment and just do figure eights and laybacks."

"I'm sure you're still as graceful as ever, Lily."

"Flatterer."

"Truth," he smirked, then captured her face between his hands and kissed her soundly.

* * * * * *

The morning of the Frost Faire dawned chilly and clear. Vendors started setting up their booths and sweeping the ice clear of any sprinkling of snow, creating a smooth surface for the skaters. Those wizards with a talent for snow sculpting created fanciful statues of glittering colored snow and ice of different mythical creatures and famous personages, like Merlin, Arthur pulling the sword from the stone, an ice drake with wings spread, a frost fairy with glittering butterfly wings, an ice wolf, and a snowflake that seemed to hang suspended in mid air.

A large sign stretched across the bridge said WELCOME TO THE 550TH FROST FAIRE ON THE THAMES--ALL AGES WELCOME! Many of the vendors and those who ran the games boothes were wearing combinations of white, winter blue, and silver sparkles. Some had white ermine accents and others silk, some wore belled caps and others silver tiaras.

There were games like Snowball Toss, Icicle Shoot, Spin the Fairy Wheel, Are You Stronger Than a Polar Bear?, and the Ice Drake Race.

A field further away had a snow fort set up and a playground with an ice slide and mini igloos and a cave with fluffy pillows that bounced delightfully when you jumped on them for the children.

There were small contests for the children, like the Best Snowman Contest or the Prettiest Parchment Snowflake. There were even food contests, like the Best Hot Cocoa and the Tastiest Sno-Cone and Most Wonderful Cinnamon-Sugar Pasty.

Lily made sure Harry was wearing his warmest winter snow suit and mittens and cap. He was so excited he nearly jumped out of her arms once they arrived. "Play in the snow, Mummy!"

"Just a minute, Harry," she ordered, laughing.

She set him down and he ran over to the playground and began sliding down the slide and running into the igloos, giggling with delight. There were several other children there his age and they had a wonderful time bouncing up and down on the pillows and sliding on the tiny pond on their bottoms.

Lily and Sev watched him indulgently, smiling at his antics. But after fifteen minutes, his attention wandered and he came back to them and asked Severus to help him build a snowman.

"Me? How about your mum?"

Harry shook his head. "No, Sevvy. Want you." He took Severus's black gloved hand in his own and dragged him over to the snow field.

Then they started to build a snowman, only Harry decided to build an unconventional one and gave it cat ears and whiskers and dubbed it a Snow-Kitty-man. They put a tag on it with Harry's name on it for the contest and when the judges came around, Harry won the prize for the most creative snowman, and got a purple ribbon and a large swirly lollipop coloed white, blue and violet.

Harry was ecstatic. "Mummy, we won! Harry and Sevvy won!"

Lily hugged him and said how proud she was of him. "You're so creative, Harry. Now how about you come with Mummy and Sevvy and you can learn how to skate, all right?"

"Kay." Lily conjured a pair of skates and together they taught the intrepid youngster how to glide across the ice.

It was while Lily was demonstrating her figure-eight move to Harry while he held on to Sev's hands that the scream was heard.

Severus peered around, trying to see who had screamed. "Erin! Oh, sweet Merlin! Help! She fell through the ice."

Damn! Severus swore, then called to Lily. "Lily, take Harry. Someone may need my help over there."

Lily skated up and picked up Harry, while Severus swiftly skated across and down the river where a rather large crowd of people were clustered.

He found a mother standing by, hysterical, because her seven year old daughter had skated over a thinning patch of ice and fallen in the river. They had managed to get the child out of the water, but she was swiftly going into hypothermic shock. Someone had conjured warmed towels for the girl, but Severus knew she needed more than that. This was typical of his luck. He went somewhere for a relaxing time with his girlfriend and an accident occurred which he was bound to assist in.

"Excuse me. Would you move, please? I'm a Healer, now let me through." He shoved his way rather rudely through the crowd, which parted for him hastily, and then he was beside the shivering child, who was blue with cold.

"My name is Healer Snape, I can help your daughter, if you'll permit me?" he looked at the mother, who motioned her consent. Severus knelt on the ice and pointed his wand, chanting a quick diagnostic. "Hypothermia, shock, and some frostbite," he muttered, then chanted several spells to combat shock and hypothermia.

Immediately color returned to the child's waxen features and she stirred and opened her eye. "Mama?"

Severus laid a hand on her shoulder. "Lie still, little one. My name is Healer Sev, and I need to cast a few more healing charms on you."

She relaxed and murmured, 'I'm cold, Healer Sev."

"I know, that's why I need to warm you up." He quickly cast a Toasty Warm Charm, then summoned his bag of potions and gave her a Pepper-Up potion, whose steam would warm her insides and prevent her from taking cold from her ducking in the icy Thames. He also gave her a draft to prevent congestion in her lungs then pronounced her out of danger, levitated her up and handed her to her mother. "You should keep her in bed for the rest of today and give her hot soup and a light supper. If she develops a fever or starts coughing, call me. Otherwise, she should be fine." He handed the relieved woman his card.

"Thank you, Healer." The woman was saying, tears in her eyes. "She means the world to me."

"You're welcome. Take care now." The woman and her daughter Apparated away, and Severus turned to go back to Lily when he heard another scream ring out.

Oh, for the love of Merlin, what now?

"Run! They've come for us!" Immediately there was a stampede across the ice, as people scattered in all directions, fleeing the sudden appearance of five black-robed iron masked men, who were shooting curses in all directions and laughing.

Severus went pale. Then he shouted, "Lily! Take Harry and get out of here! NOW!"

He spun around, wand out, an Entrapment Web Charm on his tongue, ready to hex the nearest Death Eater.

The followers of Voldemort had come to crash the Frost Faire.

Slowly, the tallest turned to face the physician, and cried, "Well, well, look who it is. If it isn't Healer Snape, the witch doctor who murdered for his Healer's Oath. Fancy meeting you here. I hope you've prepared a will, Snape, because you'll be needing it. Give my regards to God when you see Him, Master Healer!"

Then he shot a red bolt of fire directly at Severus.