Friendship Has Its Limits
Disclaimer: I don't own it. Period.
Fredrick's eyes instantly narrowed as he stared at the hooded figure in front of him. "How did you know that I carry Time Turners?" he asked suspiciously.
The young woman waved a dismissive hand and said airily, "I have my sources, thank you. Now, I already know for certain that you have them, considering your words jut now, but I'd rather like to know the price that you're selling them for."
Greed shone quite clearly in Fredrick's beady black eyes. "Well, they aren't going cheap, that I can assure you of," he told her haughtily. "They weren't easy to obtain, I'll have you know."
"I would assume not," she replied indifferently. "I'm sure breaking into the Ministry and stealing them wasn't easy."
"Now wait just a moment," Fredrick said, now even more suspicious than ever of this hooded woman. "I never told you I got them from the Ministry—"
"It's rather obvious that that's where you got them from, isn't it?" she interrupted, her patience wearing thin. "No other place is qualified to carry them, so that tells me that you must have stolen them from the Ministry."
"Not me, exactly," Fredrick insisted. "I just do the selling, you see, it's really a bloke called Fletcher who does the stealing---"
"The price of the Time Turner, if you please," she interrupted again, obviously not caring who did the selling and who did the stealing.
"It's a hefty price, I'm sure you understand why, missy. I'm not sure such a pretty, young---"
Her hand emerged from the black cloak she wore; Fredrick was momentarily transfixed by the shining amount of gold pieces in her palm. "I should think that this would more than cover it."
Fredrick pocketed the gold almost faster than the girl's eyes could follow. Then he went into the back room, rummaged through a cardboard box for a moment before his hand finally wrapped around the object he was looking for, and reappeared at the counter. He set the Time Turner on the glass of the counter and carefully slid it across to her.
As she picked it up with shaking hands, he proffered her a long, gold chain. "I'll throw this in the bargain for free, if you want it."
Looking into his eyes for the first time, she slightly inclined her head in a silent thank you as she accepted the chain. Then she broke the eye contact, turned on her heel, and left the shop at a brisk pace.
Those spectacular green eyes would haunt Fredrick for years to come.
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By the time Lily arrived at the Peters' home, it was light outside, and she knew that someone was bound to be awake. Because of that shopkeeper's babbling and ramblings on about money and what not, her task had taken longer than she had expected; still, she'd been prepared to answer questions if anyone had noticed her gone in the night. She removed her cloak, shrunk it, and carefully put it into the pocket of her jean shorts. Taking a moment to rake her fingers through her tangled hair, she then pushed through the back door into the kitchen. As she had expected, someone was awake; Mrs. Peters was standing at the counter near the kitchen sink, brewing tea. She glanced up as Lily entered the kitchen.
"Oh, hello dear," Mrs. Peters said pleasantly, obviously surprised that someone was awake already. "I hadn't expected anyone to wake for another hour. We're mostly late sleepers in this family, except for me, that is."
Lily nodded, remembering the countless times she'd had to wake Alexa for breakfast at Hogwarts, fearing that her friend would miss it.
"Why don't you take a seat at the table there," said Mrs. Peters, motioning to the large dining table in the middle of the kitchen. "Would you care for a cup of tea then?"
"Yes, please," the redhead responded as she pulled up a chair and sat down. So far, all was going well; she hadn't been asked where she'd gone off to this early in the morning, which meant that she didn't have to lie. "Thank you."
"I know you probably don't want to hear this right now," said Mrs. Peters as she sat down beside Lily, setting a mug of tea in front of her, "but I just wanted to say how sorry I am about your father. I might not have known him, but I do know that he must have been a wonderful man to have raised a young woman such as yourself. I also wanted to say that I admire the amount of strength you have to handle a situation like this. It's a really terrible thing to have happened, and I just can't believe that you've been taking this so well, that you haven't tried to do anything rash."
Adverting Mrs. Peters' eyes, Lily fingered the thin gold chain around her neck. "Thank you for saying those things about my dad. He was a wonderful man."
Mrs. Peters smiled and covered Lily's hand with her own, but just as she opened her mouth to say something, there was a knock at the back door. "Oh, blast. Who would be calling at such an hour of the morning?" she muttered as she got up to answer the door. Lily was glad that Mrs. Peters had stopped talking about how well she was handling this, especially with the plan that the redhead had formed. "Oh, Albus, please come in and have some tea."
Lily's head snapped up to see Albus Dumbledore standing in the doorway, and her guilt level rose even higher. What would he say if he knew what she was planning?
"No, that's quite alright," Dumbledore said, stepping into the kitchen. "I just need to have a few words with Miss Evans."
Lily's heart sank and she swallowed hard before squeaking. "Me?"
"Yes, Miss Evans, you," Dumbledore said, smiling. Smiling was a good sign, the redhead thought hopefully. Smiling meant that he couldn't possibly know of her plan. He sat down at the table across from the redhead. "Due to the circumstances, you'll need to go back to your old home and retrieve the objects that you won't be coming back for, anything you'd like to keep. Naturally, the Muggle authorities will want to deal with the house as soon as possible, so perhaps later today you'd stop by and gather your possessions."
"Go…back? To my house?" Then it hit her. "Oh, right. They'll want to bulldoze the house to make room for a new one since no one will live there anymore. So I need to get my stuff."
"Right you are, Miss Evans. Now I suggest that you take along an escort, just for safety measures, of course."
Wait a moment. "Safety measures?" she repeated. "What do you mean? Professor, do you know something that I don't?"
But Dumbledore was already standing up and heading for the door again. He paused at the doorway, glancing back at her for a moment before stepping out into the yard, where he Disapparated with a loud crack, leaving her to contemplate his words. But she didn't have to worry much about it; after all, this would be the perfect opportunity to initiate her plan.
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A few hours later, after breakfast, Alexa and Lily went back to the latter's house to get her possessions. They were pretty much silent all the way over there, as Alexa thought Lily might want some quiet to think things over. Truthfully, the redhead used the silence to put the finishing touches on her plan, since she hadn't expected the complication of Alexa to arise. But by the time they reached the house, Lily had it all figured out.
"Alexa, I think I want to go inside by myself, if that's okay," she said when Alexa went to open the front door. "It's nothing personal or anything, I just kind of want to be alone."
"Oh, okay. Of course you can go inside by yourself," the other girl said understandingly. "After all, it's not like you're a little girl anymore. I'm sure you're quite capable of going inside a house by yourself. I'll see you in a little bit then?"
Lily nodded somewhat impatiently and stepped into the house, closing the door behind her. Once she was sure she was alone, Lily reached into her shirt and removed the Time Turner. Hesitating for only a moment, she swallowed and glanced out the front window, where she saw Alexa sitting in the grass, loyally waiting for her friend's return.
I'm sorry, Alexa, Lily thought as she began to set the Time Turner, but I have to make things right again.
Author's Note: So, now for answered comments!
Hermione Elizabeth Granger: I know that the Ministry are the only ones with Time Turners. I'd thought that out before I wrote the last chapter, and I think this chapter explains it a little further. Obviously the shops in Knockturn Alley are not exactly…pleasant or necessarily legal shops, so it is quite possible that they could have stolen a few Time Turners. Also, thanks for the idea of using a Time Turner. :D Also, torture Snape how, exactly? Any ideas?
MIDNIGHT-PIXIE: Do you now know what Lily wants with a Time Turner?
Umino Ayame: Look out doctors, Petunia, and Veronica! Lol, just kidding. But if I were them, I'd be very scared of you coming to yell at me.
Weird Not Boring: Thanks for both the wows, and also the encouraging words. Glad you like it so far.
Ktoddhim: Thanks a ton! I'm glad you think I'm doing a good job with my writing. Writing's my passion, and so as you can imagine, it would suck if it was my passion and I sucked at it, eh? It's good to know that I don't suck at it, though.