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This is the true story of Lily Evans known only to a few and kept well hidden by them. Our strange tale begins way beyond Harry's time at Hogwarts. He's a family man now and has a daughter. Read on...
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LILY'S GRANDMOTHER
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Chapter 1
Lily's Wish
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Twenty-one Years Later
The last evening of August, 2019 remained warm after the sun had finally set, and the sky, still gold and glowing through the window, illuminated a young girl's full Hogwarts attire that her mother had insisted she try for size one more time.
"I won't go!" pouted Lily Luna Potter, grinding her shiny new shoe into the living room carpet and averting her face from both mother and father.
Harry Potter sighed. "But when Albus started at Hogwarts, you couldn't wait to join the boys there. Anyway, you have to learn about magic, Lily."
"Dad, you've already taught me spells and–"
"–I've taught you plenty to give you a head start but you still need a formal–"
"–But James said it's boring. I want exciting adventures like those you had, like all those stories you told me."
"Trust me, you do not want to be fighting trolls or... rescuing beautiful maidens from secret chambers." He glanced sideways at Ginny, who smiled back at him and took over:
"Lily, that's where your father's adventures began – at Hogwarts," she said soothingly. "Who knows what might happen to you there one day?"
"Nothing! That's what will happen to me! NOTHING!" Lily ran to the door. "I just wish for once something wonderful would happen," Lily shrilled back as she raced out into the garden.
"Be careful what you wish for!" Harry called after her.
"Well, that went well." He shook his head. "What on Earth's got into her? She was really keen to go only a few days ago."
"Oh, Harry, she still is, of course. It's nerves mixed up with doubts about living up to the expectations she thinks will be placed on the daughter of the 'Chosen One'."
Ginny walked to the window and looked out. A puzzled frown creased her brow. "Who's that she's with? One of her Muggle friends from the village?"
Harry came to look. His eyes scanned past Ginny's formidable row of hydrangeas and along the shallow ditch at the lower corner of the garden. Near the side where a muddy trench petered out, a cracked path continued, and Lily was stood upon it talking to another young child over the squat hedge. The long tresses of both girls glowed redly in the light from the western skyline.
Ginny gasped, then began to cry. Harry stared for a moment then took her in arms. He tried his best to comfort his wife but now he was weeping too.
"My poor little baby's going out into the big world all on her own," sobbed Ginny.
"It's alright. It'll be alright, Ginny. She'll be back in here in a few minutes..."
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The Strange Girl
"Hello," said the visitor.
Lily frowned and moved her hand very slowly towards her wand – as she had been so carefully taught. "Uuh... who are you?"
"Oh, I'm so glad you're magical too!" said the newcomer, seeing Lily's wand being gradually drawn from her waistband, but not recognising that the manner was defensive. "I got my own wand a few weeks ago." The girl pointed to the duffle bag slung over one shoulder but made no move to retrieve its contents.
"But why are you here?" said Lily.
"Oh, sorry, I, erm... wanted to find out about my relat– that is, my distant relatives," she added hastily.
"I'm fetching my dad," said Lily, spinning away. The sole of her right shoe scraped noisily around the dirt gravel on the paving leaving an imprint as she took her first stride.
"No, wait, please hear me out," cried the girl. "It's not what you think. I was afraid of what might happen so I came to find out how things worked out. Just to look, not talk, you understand. When you dashed so furiously into the garden, you took me by surprise."
Lily held still, then turned slowly around, keeping her distance. "How can anyone find out how things worked out?"
The stranger hesitated.
Lily scowled. "Tell me or I'm fetching my dad." She scuffed more marks on the path with her best kicking foot.
There was a nod of acceptance and the girl's hand crept towards the strap of her bag. Lily pointed her wand as a warning. "How?" She repeated.
"With this." The hand held up something that glittered like fire in the dwindling sunset.
Lily drew nearer until she discerned an ornament resembling an hour-glass tied to a Muggle clockwork device. Her eyes flashed wide and she took a step back. "That's a...!"
"So you know what it is?" said the girl with some surprise.
"Yes," frowned Lily. "It's a Time-Turner. My auntie told me all about them – warned me about the danger. You shouldn't have come back just to find out how... things would work out. That makes no sense anyway."
"Uuh... well, no, I didn't come back – well I did but I also came uumm... forward if you see what I mean."
"No, I don't. You can't travel forward in time. And certainly not go back all in the same moment."
The stranger laughed. "No, what I mean is, I came forward to yesterday in Diagon Alley but it took me a week of searching the Daily Prophet archives to find my – that is, your family name – and another day to locate you, so when I got here my grand– erm... all you children weren't home, so I travelled back a few more days to the early hours of this morning. I wanted to see each of you – just to be sure you were alright."
"Naturally we wouldn't have been here in a few days because my brothers and I will all be off to Hogwarts tomorrow. And–"
"–Oh, me too, and I have new robes and a cloak exactly like yours in my bag!" squealed the girl but Lily continued like an express train that wouldn't be stopped now it had started:
"–And why shouldn't we be alright? And you can't time travel for longer than a day nor even twice within a day. And I don't believe you, so there!"
The stranger smiled warmly. "I'm glad you're so cautious and sensible. I read good things about our... that is, your family. I was pleased to learn your grandfather was a man called Potter, and I saw, uuh... his son Harry at the window a while ago. He's lovely."
"Ah, so it's all about my dad? I might have guessed," Lily said glumly. "So many exciting things happened to him there's nothing interesting left for anyone else. The Chosen One – p'uh!"
"Who? Ah, yes, I spotted a little about that too but I didn't read it all."
Lily stared for a moment then moved closer, squinting as daylight dwindled. "So you're a cousin or something from way back in the past? You do look a bit like me."
"A lot like you actually. Same hair. Same eyes. Very similar features too." She pointed at her delicately-upturned nose, then her cheek and chin.
"But you can't simply stroll through different years just to see how – anyway, I still don't believe you. Time-Turners don't work like that."
"Only because they're physically restricted." The girl leaned forward over the low hedge. "See that microscopically-tiny grub screw?"
"A micro – grub – what?"
"Well it obviously held a lock pin in place but even though he didn't know what the device was for, Dad and I pulled it out with pliers and–"
"A what pin with what?"
"A lock pin that – ah! I forgot witches think magically not mechanically... Oh, Goodness! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to call you a witch."
"Why not? That's what I am. And so are you, aren't you?"
"Uuh... you're right. I'm just not used to talking like that yet. I mean I know now that I'm magical but–"
"You're Muggle-born! I wondered why you were dressed so funny but your clothes are not much like any Muggles I've seen. I thought you were going to an old fancy-dress party or something!"
The girl flushed with indignation. "Well there's no need to be so–"
"Oh, don't get me wrong – I like Muggle-borns," said Lily. "My favourite auntie's one and she's really smart! It's just that, well, I knew you weren't a Muggle obviously."
"So you're not mad at me anymore?"
"No, all Muggle-borns act a bit... different." Lily winked and the girl smiled again as Lily continued, "I mean, why take such a risk travelling through time?" Lily frowned as her own question became more direct. "Why did you?"
A sigh blew out from between the girl's lips and her shoulders sagged. "I suppose it was rather reckless but..."
"Tell me. Perhaps I can help. I'd like to help in fact. My life is as dull as that ditchwater." Petulantly, she kicked a stone into the mud and received a splash on her shoes in return.
"Well... because both of my parents are Muggles, Professor McGonagall – she's the one who brought my Hogwarts acceptance letter – was to take me to Diagon Alley, but instead it was agreed I could go with my magical friend and his mother. We spent a whole glorious day exploring and I found this old necklace in a box of bric-a-brac in a No-Turn Alley shop."
"Knockturn."
"Sorry, yes, Knockturn Alley. Anyway my friend ridiculed me and said it was disabled and just for show and when I said my dad might fix it he scoffed and called him a nasty word. And he's also upset my sister and turned her against me – she's not magical either you see, and he doesn't like–"
"–Doesn't sound like much of a friend!"
The stranger's face clouded. "I thought he was amazing and interesting and entrancing at first and he kind of implied I might be his girlfriend one day if I wanted..."
"What!"
"I know. I was... dazzled by his magic, excited, perhaps even flattered, but now I've seen his other side and well, what if...?"
Lily's mouth fell wide open. "You came through time to see if he married you!"
The girl squirmed and nodded. "But I suppose I cannot avoid seeing him tomorrow on the train." She turned aside looking quite mournful. "Well... it's been a real adventure anyway."
"Lucky you. Nothing adventurous ever happens to me," said Lily with a glum expression to match the visitor's.
The girl looped the long necklace chain over her neck, then prised open a safety catch on the clockwork attached to the Time-Turner. "I suppose I'd better get back..."
"What, now? How can you? You only arrived here this morning, you said."
"So...?"
"I told you, a person can only time travel once in the same day! It won't work for you again until tomorrow morning – you said you arrived here very early this morning didn't you?"
"But I have to get back! And the mechanics are set for the exact number of turns and can't be unwound. You see, the spring is wound up tight and the mechanism is locked into the – oh, my mum would phone my friend's house if I'm not back by bedtime, and then the police! I'd be in such trouble! I have to try..." Her finger moved to the red button on the device.
"NO, NO, NO!" Lily reached over the hedge to grab the girl's wrist. "If you set it spinning it could be dangerous! At best it will do nothing for you. Same day, same may, surely fall in harm's way! – that's the rule."
"Same? The same person?" The girl leaned forward and looked closely at Lily.
"What?"
"You go."
"ME! You're crazy!"
"No, seriously, we look and sound so much alike. Cover for me, just until an hour or so after midnight. We'll swap clothes. You only need walk in the backdoor, call out that you're tired and going straight to bed. The stairs are on the left and my room is at the end of the corridor."
"I'll do no such thing! Are you mad! Anyway, I'd still be in this garden wouldn't I? I'd have to travel all the way to your–"
"–No, it will unwind where it started."
"Even so, I'm not mad enough to–"
"–You said nothing exciting ever happens to you! This is your big chance: a safe, risk-free adventure that will only be for a few hours."
Lily shook her head. "You're forgetting, my bedtime is only a few minutes away, but I, myself, won't be able to get back here for another twenty-four hours. It makes no sense."
"Once it's unwound you can reset the mechanism for you to come back anytime! Why, you might have already come back and be waiting behind that big bush over there!" She pointed at a particularly tall hydrangea against the far fence, and they both stared towards it for a while, almost expecting to see an arm wave from behind it. A cool night breeze sprang up, stirring the foliage and, for a fleeting moment, Lily did imagine another slight movement beyond it: an elbow? a hand perhaps? – then, although she squinted hard, she saw only the gathering darkness.
The girl, seeing that Lily half-believed, continued excitedly, "So you have to do it if you've already done it! Anyway, if not, I'll cover for you of course!" With a sudden lunge over the hedge, she pushed the Time-Turner into Lily's hand.
Lily gaped at her, then, with a vigorous shake of her head, held the device out at arm's length back towards the strange girl. "Not gonna happen. Even though I can come back to now, I'd still have had to wait in your time for a whole day! I'd have to start at Hogwarts twice! Get sorted twice! Once for you, then back here for me! Anyway, in the cold light of day, your mother would see I'm not you."
The other girl had taken a step back out of Lily's reach. She looked extremely worried now and began muttering half to herself. "Let's see... I need the Time-Turner back earlier than one day... If you're really already behind that bush you could give me the Time-Turner so I could go back at one in the morning."
"After I've gone indoors – which is going to happen any minute now when Mum calls me," said Lily.
"What?"
"No way am I going to meet myself – that might cause a highly-destructive Time echo conflict according to Aunt Hermione."
The visitor did not even ask what that meant but continued thinking out loud. "So... you'd have to send the Time-Turner to me another way..."
"Another way? How can anyone send a Time-Turner on its own through time? And where would it arrive? And how long would it take? And wh–?"
"–Years!" The girl's expression had brightened considerably. "Listen, there is an infallible way of sending the Time-Turner forward through time."
"How?"
"The big tree at the side of my house has a deep cavity close to the earth where I kept my magic shells when I was little so–"
"Your what?"
"Seashells. Oh, they weren't really magic but I thought they were because I could hear the sea when I held them to my ear."
"So...?"
"When you arrive at my garden, put the Time-Turner deep into the tree-hole. It's quite hard to find so you'll have to lie on the grass. Nobody else can ever discover it and that tree is long-lived. I'll retrieve it tonight – Sev told me about the Knight Bus. I'll use the Time-Turner to come back to you, then you can hide somewhere for a day to get past that silly rule, then use it to come back to here" – at this point she waved theatrically at the hydrangea bush to convey her certainty that Lily had already returned there – "and get a good night's sleep in time for school tomorrow. It'll be a wonderful adventure we can tell our grandchildren in years to come!"
Lily's mouth sagged open so wide she could catch a whale but never so wide that she could swallow the nonsense she was hearing. "You. Have. Got. To. Be. Joking! Are you stark, raving–?"
"–LILY! BEDTIME!" came Ginny's cry from the house. Both girls' heads whipped around but only one's attention was on the mother; the other was on the Time-Turner still held out in Lily's hand. Before Lily knew what was happening, the chain was flipped around her neck, another hand closed impulsively on hers and pressed the winder.
Only one girl remained.
"COMING, MUM!" cried the strange girl, scrambling over the hedge. She bit her lip in sudden dread at the consequences of what she had done, then, after a few hesitant moments, she walked slowly up the gloomy path towards the house.
"Cocoa?" Ginny called from the kitchen.
"Not tonight, Mum," said the girl. "I'm tired. I'll go straight up to bed. I don't want to be late in the morning."
"No," said Harry, very sternly. "Come in here please, Lily."
"What? ... Why?"
"Come here," repeated Harry. "We want to see you. We all want to see you."
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The Muddied Shoe
When the darkening garden had dissolved around her, Lily Potter suffered a sensation that she was flying backwards really, really fast. A blur of colours and shapes rushed past and her ears were pounding. She tried to yell but couldn't hear her own voice–
Then once more she felt the grass beneath her feet, and everything came into focus again. Yet...
For a few moments, the stars were failing, many winking out quite noticeably, as if life had departed them. Then, just as suddenly, the night sky struggled, opened its twinkling eyes once more, and Lily felt a cool breeze with quite a different scent.
Her mother was still calling her name, urging her to come in, but the voice rasped rather strangely, as though she needed to clear her throat. And the now-dark garden... was transformed! Even in the failing dusk, Lily knew she ought to distinguish the familiar shapes of the hydrangeas where now she perceived only the black outline of a large tree, She moved towards it.
"LILY!"
"Coming, Mum."
As she blinked and squinted about, trying to make sense of what had happened, something cool and metallic slipped from around her neck and down into the high grass surrounding the bole of the tree – where the mower couldn't reach. In a moment, fear was clutching her heart, drawing her to the only possible explanation, and she began scrabbling blindly on her hands and knees.
"LILY EVANS – GET TO BED THIS INSTANT! How many more times do I have to tell you!"
Frantic now, Lily blurted an incoherent reply then swerved away from her search and scurried towards the bright doorway of the house, stopping and starting with anxious backward glances as she did so, trying to memorise where she had lost the charm. Only as she neared the figure silhouetted in the doorframe did the surname 'Evans' finally receive her attention and confirmed her fear.
"Why, oh why have you put on your school clothes at this time of night, Lily? And..." The woman leaned down to see better. "Oh, for goodness' sake, however did you get mud on your new shoes? The garden's dry as a bone this year!"
There was a frown in the tone of voice that Lily could not discern on the woman's brow in the deepening twilight. "Sorry, uuh... Mum...?"
"Mum? What happened to 'Mummy'?" The lady sighed. "You're growing up too fast what with all this..." – she glanced anxiously around then continued in a softer voice – "magic and so forth. I expect I'll hardly know my little girl by this time next year." She sniffled into a handkerchief and turned back inside the house.
"Come on, leave your shoes down here in the passage and I'll polish them up again. You'd best get to bed; we've got quite a drive in the morning." Her voice lowered as she turned away to speak to someone else. "Don't you be too long either, Tuney."
As Lily gratefully kicked off the shoes and took the opportunity to scurry onto the stairs, she felt another pair of eyes upon her, causing her to halt in mid-stride on the first step. A slightly older girl was hovering against an inner doorway from which came the thin sound of radio music. Lily stared back, murmuring softly to herself, "Great-Aunt Petunia?"
The girl scowled and mouthed what might have been "Freak!"
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A Long Wait
In the darkest hours of the night, Lily crept downstairs in her stockinged feet. All was silent save for the softly-ticking clock in the hallway. Trembling, she opened the backdoor and stepped out into the cool air of the back garden. As she renewed her search for the missing Time-Turner, a friendly half-moon emerged from behind a cloud and, eyes now becoming accustomed to the darkness, Lily found she could easily part the blades of grass and see between them quite well. Even so, many anxious minutes elapsed before a glint of metal drew her attention and she seized the charmed necklace once more.
It took longer to find the small hollow cavity in the tree because woody growth had ringed it like a doughnut, but at last Lily had pushed the Time-Turner inside then crept back to bed leaving the backdoor unlocked for the real Lily Evans.
For an hour she lay there, gnawing at her lip and staring up at the faintly visible ceiling. That changes made in the past took an unknown time to ripple forward into the future she had been told by her aunt, but surely it didn't matter; Lily Evans would still travel back to 'now'? What was keeping her? She'd only have to wait until... yes, that was it. She would have to wait until twenty-four hours after she'd arrived at the Potters, but Lily Potter struggled to remember what that time was exactly. Patience... just relax... She imagined herself back in the future tomorrow. What a tale she'd have to tell on her first day at Hogwarts! There she would be surrounded by wide-eyed kids marvelling at the exploits of The Chosen One's daughter...
As her mind drifted off through those happy thoughts, she sank into strange dreams where everything was almost normal but here and there were curious differences: seeings, sounds, and scents that did not quite fit.
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Meet The Evans
"LILY!"
"Mmm...?"
"Time to get up. You don't want to be late for your first day!"
"Coming, Mum..." murmured Lily, dozing back to a lazy stupor.
Suddenly her eyes were wide open. That had not been her mother's voice!
Tumbling out of bed, Lily knee-crawled, blurry-eyed to the curtain and peeped out of the window. She knew deep down, of course, and the big tree in the garden confirmed it. "I'm still in the past!" Before her, within that tree, was the Time-Turner. Obviously Lily couldn't stay here a moment longer so she'd have to use the device herself as quickly as possible. But how?
Lily grabbed a skirt and top from the wardrobe then eeked softly as she began to dress. The skirt was so short! Fumbling and scraping clothes hangers aside, she found something slightly longer in grey and white tartan with a white pullover, struggled into them, dashed downstairs – straight past the surprised looks of the Evans family who were gravitating towards the breakfast table – then she was out the backdoor.
Lily vaguely heard a male voice cry out behind her, "Lily! Where on Earth are you going?"
But Lily was dashing for the tree and only as she returned with the time device did it dawn on her that the man must be Mr Evans. Tentatively, she said, "Erm... Dad...? Daddy?"
'Daddy' stopped with a spoonful of cornflakes in his mouth and stared at her.
Lily continued, "Did she... uuh... did I tell you how to work this?"
"Your spinning top thing?" crunched Mr Evans, his attention back on the radio news. "Well, you said something about precisely winding it up and setting various hands so it spins longer as I recall – like the second hand and the minute hand is probably for 3,600 twirls or – no that can't be right. Here..." Absently, he stretched out his free hand. "Lob it over and I'll have a fiddle with it in a bit."
"Uumm... perhaps not... ah..."
"Is it 'magic'?" smirked Petunia as she scraped butter on her toast. "Is that why you're even uglier today than yesterday?"
"Tuney!" cried Mrs Evans. "I've told you before about–"
"–Well she is!" cried Petunia. "Look at her fatty face! And she's got her stupid skirt on back to front too!"
"No she's not–" Mrs Evans looked more closely. "Oh, Lily, you do look more rosy today! It's good to see you so bright and healthy for your new school." She glanced at the clock on the wall. "Come on, eat up. We have to leave in less than an hour and you don't want to rush."
"Won't be much traffic on a Sunday," murmured Mr Evans as the voice of Diana Ross burst into song from the wireless. "We'll make Kings Cross quite comfortably."
"OH. MY. GOD!" cried Lily, mouth agape as she realised what lay ahead.
"Lily! Don't use such language!" cried Mrs Evans.
"What?" frowned Lily. "All I said was–"
"Lily, do what your mother tells you," growled Mr Evans.
Petunia twisted her mouth into an evil smirk, toast crumbs and butter around her lips.
"Erm... sorry," said Lily, but her mind was elsewhere. How could she possibly carry on this farce? Experimenting by guesswork with the device that Lily Evans had concocted would be very dangerous; she'd have to return it to the tree and trust the girl would appear during the next hour – she just HAD to!
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Reflecting On Her Future
But as her view of the tree dwindled into the distance through the back window of the Evans' mini car, Lily let out a sob of despair and began silently weeping.
Mrs Evans squirmed around in her seat to look over her shoulder. "Oh, Lily, it'll be alright. You'll soon make new friends and be home for Christmas in no time."
In no time... the words repeated in Lily's head. Yes, the other Lily – grandmother – is smart and wants to get back here as much as I want to return there. She must have had trouble getting to the Evans house in the night, but when she does then all this will be undone. Yes! It doesn't matter because it can all be undone in no time! She dried her eyes and straightened up more cheerfully, not wondering at all why it hadn't already undone.
"Only weirdo friends is what you'll make," Petunia murmured under her breath.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Lily struggled to remember everything her father had told her all those times she'd pestered him, how Petunia had written to Dumbledore to ask if she might attend Hogwarts too but had been refused. Her heart went out to the girl beside her.
"I'm sorry, Tuney, I'm sorry you can't come with me." She caught her young aunt's hand and held tight to it, even though Petunia tried to pull it away.
"Get off me!" cried Petunia, and she dragged her hand back out of Lily's grasp. "You think I want to go to some stupid castle and learn to be a – a – freak like that Snape boy?"
Lily cringed at the insult but accepted defeat. Her dad had been right that there could be no reconciliation; Snape's contempt for Lily Evan's sister had sealed Petunia's view of magic forever. No wonder Lily Evans had at first been bitter towards her friend Severus on the train until...
Lily Potter tried to recall her father's account of that journey: James Potter! My God, she'd be meeting her grandad as a young boy! What was she to do? She couldn't – dare not – avoid that first encounter because that would risk a circular time paradox; Harry Potter might never be born and neither would she herself! Inevitably she could not then come back in time, the real Lily Evans would meet James as normal, eventually marry, and then both Harry and herself would be born in due time and she'd go back in time to...! The cycle would repeat like an endless whirlpool. Some Muggle physicists had conjectured that black holes are such paradoxes, galaxies collapsing in on themselves to a single instant in eternity – and they might well be right, she thought.
No, unless the real Lily turned up before she met James on the train, she had to act out her part – not daring to cause changes that might break the known chain of events leading to her own existence.
Round and round poor Lily's mind swirled during the journey until finally the little car swung on its suspension into Pancras Road, and Mr Evans pulled to the kerb to let them all out while he drove on to find a place to park. On the corner of the next side street a flash of red hair inside a shop caught Lily's attention. She waved frantically and the girl waved back! Eyes wide, she dashed towards her.
"Lily! Where are you going! It's this way!" cried Mrs Evans, clinging tight to Petunia's hand as they struggled with Lily's baggage. She thrust that hand onto the strap of the large trunk, warning Petunia with a glare not to dare let go or move from that spot, then dashed after Lily.
She found the girl distraught and staring at her own reflection from a large mirror in the window of a home furnishings store. "I thought..."
"What's wrong, Lil? You look fine – you're not fat at all!" said Mrs Evans, somewhat exasperated. She glanced back at Petunia who was still clinging over-dramatically to the luggage strap and scowling at them impatiently, then added, "You shouldn't take any notice of your sister's insults. Or is it the school? You think the other kids won't like you? Is that it?"
When Lily turned around, her face was screwed up with distress and, rubbing tears from her eyes with a fist, she sobbed, "I want ... m-my ... Mummy!"
"There, there, darling," said Mrs Evans, crouching to enfold Lily in her reassuring arms, "Mummy's here."
.
Strangers on a Train
Mr Evans rejoined his family as they were walking into King's Cross station, but poor Lily began to feel more and more isolated despite the crowds around them. They found a near-empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express and exchanged farewells through the window, then she hunched up in a corner seat looking out onto the platform and feeling miserable.
All around was the noise of excited schoolchildren chatting, shouting, bumping their luggage about as they clambered aboard. Even when the train finally began to clatter along the tracks, Lily blotted it all out and withdrew into her thoughts. Inevitably, a few rowdy kids spilled into her private space to join the others in the compartment but she ignored them all.
What was she to do? What could she do? Hitchhike back to the Evans home? Retrieve the Time-Turner, and recklessly guess how to set the clockwork? Take that chance? Impossible! And what of her grandmother, the young Lily Evans? Was she now aboard a future Hogwarts Express taking her rightful place beside her brothers, Albus and James!
She rubbed tear stains from her cheeks as the compartment door banged open and shut once again and another youngster sat down opposite her. One instinctive glance was enough to widen her eyes and return her to the present with a jolt. A sallow face curtained by long stringy hair stared expectantly back at her. Could this really be the boy from whom her brother's middle name was taken? Severus Snape? The very one who drove Lily Evans to visit the future and the terrible fix that now trapped them both and made her fearful of anything she might do!
Impulsively, she blurted out in a constricted voice, "I don't want to talk to you."
"Why not?"
Lily hesitated, trying to think how she ought to respond but not wishing to interact at all within this minefield of time bombs.
"You made Petunia hate me."
"So what?"
She threw him a look of deep dislike. "So she's my sister!"
"She's only a–" He caught himself quickly; Lily, too busy trying to wipe her eyes without being noticed, did not hear him.
"But we're going!" he said, unable to suppress the exhilaration in his voice."This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!"
She nodded, mopping her eyes, but in spite of herself, she half smiled. It would be a curious adventure – to see Hogwarts for a day – and once the Time-Turner was sorted out, everything would be fine.
"You'd better be in Slytherin," said Snape, encouraged that she had brightened a little.
"Slytherin?"
One of the boys sharing the compartment, who had shown no interest at all in Lily or Snape until that point, looked round at the word. Lily was shocked at his appearance which was so very much like a photo of her father when he'd been in Hogwarts. She knew it couldn't be, but her mouth had shaped the word, "Dad?" before she realised – with an aftershock – it must be James, her grandfather.
"Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" the boy asked his friend lounging on the seats opposite him, and with a jolt, Lily recognised it was a very young Sirius Black.
"My whole family have been in Slytherin," said Sirius.
"Blimey," said James, "and I thought you seemed alright!"
Sirius grinned.
"Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"
James lifted an invisible sword.
"Has to be 'Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad."
Snape made a small, disparaging noise. James turned on him.
"Got a problem with that?"
"No," said Snape, though his slight sneer said otherwise."If you'd rather be brawny than brainy–"
"Where are you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?' cut in Sirius.
James roared with laughter. Lily sat up, rather flushed, and looked from James to Sirius in dislike.
"Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment."
"Oooooo...!"
James and Sirius imitated her lofty voice; James tried to trip Snape as he passed.
"See ya, Snivellus!" a voice called, as the compartment door slammed.
The finality of the door crashing shut stopped Lily in her tracks. Had she disrupted time itself? Had the real Lily Evans fallen in love at first sight? With that loud-mouthed, arrogant hooligan? Poor Lily Potter struggled to remember. All she knew for sure was that Lily Evans had become James's sweetheart at some point. Surely it couldn't hurt to put it off for a day or so until the real Lily Evans turned up? Tortured by the desperate fear of breaking time's intended fate and yet so unwilling to face that awful lout Potter, her face screwed up tight in conflict.
"Lily?" said Snape, showing real concern for her.
She stared at him. There in the corridor of the Hogwarts Express, Lily Potter gaped at Severus Snape and remembered that he'd truly loved the real Lily Evans. How was she supposed to push him away? What was to be done to separate them?
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—oOo—
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Author's Notes
This short story has only three chapters which I'll put up weekly, but I hope you already find it interesting. I mostly write (and read) only about Harry and friends at Hogwarts but this idea seized me and wouldn't let go!
Many thanks for all comments and reviews. These are most welcome and very encouraging. Let me know of any weaknesses or faults — I'm always trying to improve my writing so feedback is really useful. :)
- Hippothestrowl
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