HARRY POTTER
TIME TRAVELER
Summary – Harry opens a book in the Restricted Section and it transports him 21 years into the future, where he meets up with the future Ron and Hermione and their son, Eddie. Harry also meets Lily Potter, Harry's very spunky and caring future teenage daughter with a hot temper and a bit of an attitude. Harry wants to know about his future, but he feels that Ron, Hermione, Lily, and Eddie are keeping something from him; some very deep, dark secrets.
Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter, the characters, or the Harry Potter world. The all belong to the fabulous J.K. Rowling. However, while I do not own their names, the characters and the personality traits of Lily Potter, Eddie Weasley, Daris Malfoy, Christof Nott, as well as Asher Lazard and Robyn Andrews all belong to me.
Chapter 8 – A Best Friend Talk:
Eddie laid spread out on the couch with a plate resting on his chest and his head rested against the pillow that was leaning against the armrest. He munched on his chicken salad sandwich as his little sister, Teresa giggled at the Muggle cartoon on the television. It was some stupid cartoon where a coyote kept trying to catch a beeping road runner and kept falling off of cliffs and making himself explode. Teresa simply found this cartoon delightful as she giggled again at the television.
Eddie just rolled his eyes, thinking about how annoying little sisters could be. Eddie took another bite of his sandwich and was going to make a comment to Lily about annoying sisters, just to harass Teresa, but then noticed that Lily was not even in the room. Concerned, he got up and left the playroom, walking right down the hall towards Lily's bedroom. She had own room at the Windum since she was over the house so much for the summer and holidays. Eddie noticed that the door to Lily's bedroom was shut, so he knocked on it gently.
"Lils?" called out Eddie, timidly standing on the other side of the bedroom door. He heard a grunt, which was Lily's usual signal to show that he could come in. Grasping the handle of the door, he opened the door and saw Lily lying on her bed reading a Muggle book. Eddie rolled his eyes and smiled bemusedly. He could not stand on how much she read; she was so weird sometimes. It made no sense that she absolutely refused to read her school books and she absolutely refused to study or do homework, but you could always catch her behind a Muggle book, just reading. Sometimes Lily made absolutely no sense to him, but it was part of what made her so different compared to the rest of the girls at Hogwarts; compared to the rest of girls in the world.
"What book you reading now?" asked Eddie, pulling up a chair from her desk, turning it around, and sitting beside her bed, his arms leaning against the back of the chair, resting his chin on his hands.
"Pride and Prejudice," she muttered, turning the page and nibbling the end of the sandwich. Eddie looked at her astonished.
"Pride and Prejudice? Isn't that a romance novel?"
"I believe so," said Lily nonchalantly, not really paying attention to her best friend.
"Since when do you read romance novels?" asked Eddie teasingly. Lily was always reading mystery, fantasy, science fiction, and horror novels; sometimes she would expand outside her comfort zone and could be found reading science fiction. But, no one would ever catch her reading a romance novel. Lily always claimed that romance novels were either really trashy or just too boring.
"Eddie, if you wish to remain in one piece, I suggest you be quiet," said Lily in a careless voice, flipping another page, not taking her eyes away from the book. Eddie sighed and shrugged.
"I was just wondering," said Eddie, almost defensively. He hated when Lily became all guarded like this. He knew it was because Harry Potter was here but that did not put him at ease. He tried keeping the subject off of Harry and went back to teasing Lily instead. "You always say about how much you can't stand that mushy garbage-"
"Is there a reason why you came in here?" asked Lily impatiently, snapping the book shut and sitting up. "Did you come in here just because you felt like annoying me?"
"Well, someone is in a cranky mood," said Eddie, rolling his eyes angrily. Lily rolled her eyes back as she pushed her gold rimmed glasses up the bridge of her nose, crossing her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow.
"I'm not cranky," said Lily, "I've just had a long day, that's all." Eddie took a deep breath and dared to turn the conversation to where he knew Lily did not want it to turn to. But, deep down, he knew that Lily wanted and needed to talk about. Eddie knew that he might get hexed or cursed, but he took a deep breath and mustered all of the courage he had to ask the question he was about to ask:
"You mean with Harry coming back and all?" asked Eddie in a concerned voice, chancing a glance at her. To his immense surprise, Lily did not turn and glare at him, she did not raise her voice and begin yelling at him, and most importantly, she did not pull out her wand and begin hexing him. Instead, she sighed and ran her fingers through the end of her long, blonde ponytail. She did not meet Eddie's eye; she just stared ahead in a deep daze.
"I guess so," she said with a simple shrug. Eddie cocked a concerned eyebrow at her, once again leaning against the chair to show her that he was willing to sit there and listen to what she had to say. When she did not keep talking or respond to anything that Eddie was doing and groaned in frustration.
"What do you mean, 'you guess so,?'" asked Eddie in a slightly frustrated tone. "I mean, Lils, this is your chance!"
"My chance to do what exactly?" snapped Lily angrily, rising to her feet with her fists clenched. "My chance to live through all of that hell all over again? I doubt I could handle it, Ed." Eddie followed suit and got up on his own feet, making sure that he was eye to eye with his best friend. Eddie looked at her wide-eyed.
"This your chance to get to know your father," said Eddie. "I mean, this is not an everyday occurrence." Lily got red with anger and turned away to stare out of her window with her arms across her chest. Eddie simply watched and waited patiently until she was ready to respond. They both sat there in silence for several minutes, but Eddie still waited patiently as he sat back down in his seat and stared at her back.
"I don't want to get to know him" whispered Lily, finally after several minutes of silence. She still stood staring out the window with her arms crossed and her back to her best friend. She could feel Eddie's eyes burning into her back and it made her uncomfortable. Eddie, however, said nothing; he simply looked at her as though she had six heads and frowned.
"How could you be so heartless, Lily?" asked Eddie breathlessly, standing up from his seat again. "You have a chance that not many people have! I mean, after all he did for you and you won't even give him a chance!"
Lily did not say anything nor did she move from her position in front of the window. They sat there in silence again when Eddie finally let out an impatient groan and threw his hands up in the air in frustration.
"I'll never understand you, Lily," said Eddie defeated, shaking his head in disappointment. "You have an opportunity of a lifetime here but you are too stubborn; too cold-hearted and heartless to see it!"
"What exactly did he do for me, Eddie?" shouted Lily angrily as she whipped around, narrowing her eyes at her best friend. Eddie took a step back with his eyes widened. "Tell me; I would love to know! Because the only thing he ever did for me was give me lots of pain and grief!"
"The man gave his life for you, Lily!" bellowed Eddie, yelling to try to get his point across to Lily. "When Voldemort kidnapped you, your dad did everything he could to save you and make sure that you came back alive. Besides that, can you imagine how much he suffered for you?" Lily clenched her fists even tighter.
"Eddie stop talking about what you don't understand," snapped Lily impatiently. "You'll never understand! I won't give Harry a chance because I can't! I just can't!" Eddie stopped glaring at Lily and considered her for a moment, thinking about what she had just said. She was right; he did not understand. Why could she not give Harry a chance? Before he could ask her, Lily flopped on to her bed, staring at the ceiling.
With all of this emotional stress that she was going through, any normal person would expect Lily to cry, but Lily Potter never cried. Oh no! No one had ever seen her cry; not Eddie, not Sirius, not Ron, not Hermione, not Remus, not Roby, and not Asher; none of them had ever seen her shed a single tear.
"What do you mean?" asked Eddie, sitting down in his chair again, looking at his best friend thoughtfully. "Why do you think you can't give Harry a chance? Lily sighed and ran a frustrated hand over her forehead and eyes.
"I can't give him a chance because it'll just cause more grief and pain," muttered Lily quickly, still staring hard at the ceiling; determined not to look at Eddie.
"How can it cause more grief, Lils?" asked Eddie softly, almost tenderly, trying and wanting to understand where Lily was coming from and what she was feeling. "Lily, if my dad died and came back as a fifteen year old from the past, I'd be overjoyed."
"Yeah, well, your father didn't do the things my father did," said Lily bitterly under her breath. Eddie looked at her, and gently put his hand on his best friend's shoulder gently.
"But, he did those things for you, Lils," said Eddie reassuringly, giving her shoulder a gentle shake. Lily just shrugged.
"It's hard, Eddie," whispered Lily sadly. "I mean, I know if I get to know him, I'll just be harder for me when he has to leave."
"You mean," started Eddie, "you're afraid to get too close to him, and then lose him?"
"Yeah," said Lily softly. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."
"You're afraid to feel the pain you once felt when he died?" Eddie asked slowly, trying to understand Lily's position.
"I mean, I lost him once....well...twice really and I'm just afraid to feel that pain again," Lily whispered, sitting up and finally looking at Eddie in the eye. "I've already had a pleasant conversation with him and I know we could be the best of friends. But I just don't want any of the pain that will come when he has to leave. When Harry is sent back to his time that is when I'll really loose him forever. I'm afraid to love him, than loose him again," explained Lily, looking at Eddie uncertainly, biting her lip. Eddie wished she would just cry and let it all out, but he knew it would never happen; she did not even cry at her father's funeral.
"I thought Lily Potter wasn't afraid of anything," said Eddie teasingly, giving her a small lop-sided grin, trying to cheer her up and lighten the mood. Lily smiled weakly, but still rolled her eyes.
"You'd be surprised of how much I'm afraid of, Ed" whispered Lily, staring down at her hands which were now folded in her lap, as though it was shameful to be afraid of something. Eddie looked at her astonished.
"You never talk about your fears. How come you never tell me?" asked Eddie, sounding a little offended. He and Lily had always confided in each other. They were closer than a sister and brother; some would even argue that they were closer than most spouses. They were friends, the very best.
"I didn't think you would understand," muttered Lily, unable to meet his eye once again.
"Lils, you are my best friend," said Eddie impatiently, reaching over and taking her hands in his own. "How can I be your best friend if you don't talk to me?"
"I dunno," whispered Lily, still not looking at him. "It's just that I've just got a lot to live up to, being the daughter of the Boy Who Lived and all. I just figured 'being afraid of things' never really seemed much to talk about."
"But, Lils, you always go on and about like you're not afraid of anything," said Eddie; he was not sure whether it came as a statement or a question. Lily just sighed and stared off into space.
"Well, believe it or not, Eddie, I am afraid of things...."
"Why not talk about it?"
"There's nothing to talk about," said Lily coolly, grinning innocently. Eddie realized she had quickly changed her attitude to quickly change the uncomfortable subject. Unlike most girls, Lily did not like talking about her feelings, fears, and dreams. It made her feel uncomfortable and to this day, Eddie was still not sure why. He rolled his eyes, groaned, and threw up his hands in frustration.
"You are hopeless Lily!" shouted Eddie as he got out of his seat and stalked out of her bedroom, closing the door behind him.
Lily grinned to herself, knowing that she was one of the few people who knew how to get under Eddie's skin. Finishing up her sandwich, Lily put down her plate, grabbed her book and continued to read.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A note from the Jitterbelle. I hope all of my reviewers are enjoying the story; keep on reading, keep on reviewing, and keep on enjoying!!!
Coming in Chapter 9 -- Harry becomes an overprotective "father" when Eddie brings up the subject of 'boys' and Lily.