diff --git a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/AVMNodeFactory.java b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/AVMNodeFactory.java
index 7efb311b63..1927f371ad 100644
--- a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/AVMNodeFactory.java
+++ b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/AVMNodeFactory.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import org.alfresco.repo.avm.hibernate.LayeredDirectoryNodeBean;
 import org.alfresco.repo.avm.hibernate.LayeredFileNodeBean;
 import org.alfresco.repo.avm.hibernate.PlainDirectoryNodeBean;
 import org.alfresco.repo.avm.hibernate.PlainFileNodeBean;
+import org.hibernate.proxy.HibernateProxy;
 
 /**
  * Responsible for instantiating AVMNode concrete subclasses from 
@@ -40,6 +41,8 @@ public class AVMNodeFactory
         {
             return null;
         }
+        HibernateProxy proxy = (HibernateProxy)bean;
+        bean = (AVMNodeBean)proxy.getHibernateLazyInitializer().getImplementation();
         if (bean instanceof PlainFileNodeBean)
         {
             return new PlainFileNode((PlainFileNodeBean)bean);
diff --git a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/AVMServiceTest.java b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/AVMServiceTest.java
index 68313ef3e6..343e57fe44 100644
--- a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/AVMServiceTest.java
+++ b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/AVMServiceTest.java
@@ -79,6 +79,8 @@ public class AVMServiceTest extends TestCase
             ArrayList<String> toSnapshot = new ArrayList<String>();
             toSnapshot.add("main");
             fService.createSnapshot(toSnapshot);
+            AVMNode node = fService.lookup(-1, "main:/");
+            assertTrue(node instanceof PlainDirectoryNode);
         }
         catch (Exception e)
         {
diff --git a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/hibernate/AVM.hbm.xml b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/hibernate/AVM.hbm.xml
index c27b85caea..e62e5d6993 100644
--- a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/hibernate/AVM.hbm.xml
+++ b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/hibernate/AVM.hbm.xml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 	<class table="avm_nodes" abstract="true"
 		name="AVMNodeBeanImpl"
 		proxy="AVMNodeBean"
-		optimistic-lock="version" lazy="false">
+		optimistic-lock="version" lazy="true">
 		<cache usage="read-write"/>
 		<!-- The id is set programmatically using an Issuer.  See below. -->
 		<id name="id" column="id" type="long"/>
@@ -50,11 +50,11 @@
 		<subclass name="DirectoryNodeBeanImpl" 
 		          proxy="DirectoryNodeBean" 
 		          abstract="true"
-		          lazy="false">
+		          lazy="true">
 		    <!-- A Layered Directory is our smart symlink thingy. -->
 		    <subclass name="LayeredDirectoryNodeBeanImpl"
 		    	proxy="LayeredDirectoryNodeBean"
-		    	discriminator-value="layereddirectory" lazy="false">
+		    	discriminator-value="layereddirectory" lazy="true">
 		    	<!-- The layer id is an implementation trick to disambiguate
 		    		exactly what layer is being refered to in various circumstances. -->
 		    	<property name="layerID" column="layer_id" type="long"
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@
 		    </subclass>
 		    <!-- Just plain directories. -->
 			<subclass name="PlainDirectoryNodeBeanImpl"
-				discriminator-value="plaindirectory" proxy="PlainDirectoryNodeBean" lazy="false">
+				discriminator-value="plaindirectory" proxy="PlainDirectoryNodeBean" lazy="true">
 				<!-- For reference count based garbage collection of purged nodes 
 					to work we need to specially mark the root directory of
 					a Repository as special so that its absence of parents will
@@ -123,14 +123,14 @@
 			lazy="false">
 			<!-- Plain files just have a reference to a Content object. -->
 			<subclass discriminator-value="plainfile"
-				name="PlainFileNodeBeanImpl" proxy="PlainFileNodeBean" lazy="false">
+				name="PlainFileNodeBeanImpl" proxy="PlainFileNodeBean" lazy="true">
 				<many-to-one name="content" column="content_id"
 					class="ContentBeanImpl" fetch="join" cascade="save-update">
 				</many-to-one>
 			</subclass>
 			<!-- Layered files are almost exactly copy on write symlinks. -->
 			<subclass name="LayeredFileNodeBeanImpl"
-				discriminator-value="layeredfile" proxy="LayeredFileNodeBean" lazy="false">
+				discriminator-value="layeredfile" proxy="LayeredFileNodeBean" lazy="true">
 				<property name="indirection" type="string" length="511"
 					column="indirection" />
 			</subclass>
diff --git a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/hibernate/ContentBeanImpl.java b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/hibernate/ContentBeanImpl.java
index f1e9f3553a..dedc7078d6 100644
--- a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/hibernate/ContentBeanImpl.java
+++ b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/hibernate/ContentBeanImpl.java
@@ -39,6 +39,13 @@ public class ContentBeanImpl implements ContentBean
      */
     private long fVers;
     
+    /**
+     * Default constructor.
+     */
+    public ContentBeanImpl()
+    {
+    }
+
     /**
      * Basic constructor with an id.
      */