Harry felt as though the world was crashing down around him. How could he have a daughter, who was almost the same age as him. A daughter that looked like a carbon copy of Ginny Weasley. Her mother had to be a Weasley. He looked carefully at Lily, with the trademark red hair, and fiery temper, but also more subtle features, features similar to him, the shape of her nose and chin.
Harry stammered. "Your father is Harry Potter?"
Lily candidly replied. "Yes, he is big and strong and always protects me, my brothers, and mummy. He loves us all dearly."
Harry looked stunned. "Bbbut I'm Harry Potter. And there's no way I could have even had a child ten years ago. Please tell me this is a prank from my friends, I miss them terribly."
Lily shook her head. "You don't look like daddy. Daddy is much bigger and stronger. Daddy defeated Voldymort. But you have a scar on your head like Daddy, from when an evil man went after Granny and Grandpa."
Harry's hand touched his scar before continuing. "But only I have this scar, Voldemort gave me this scar when I was a baby. When he tried to kill me. What's your name?" Harry felt he trusted this girl more.
Lily replied. "I am Lily Luna Potter, daughter of Harry Potter, and Ginny Weasley. The bestest parents in the world."
Hearing that this girl, who was supposedly his daughter, was named after his mother. Harry suddenly hugged her. He did not know what came over her, but Lily felt safer than ever, despite how strange her situation was. He pulled away slowly. "Does this mean you're from the future? Hold on, what year was it before you woke up here."
Lily quickly replied. "2018."
Harry looked into her eyes. Emerald gazing into brown. Lily knew that these were definitively her father's eyes. Harry looked silently before telling her. "Lily, you have a beautiful name. But it is not 2018. It is 1992. I don't know what will happen at Hogwarts this year. But I promise I will keep you safe, your mummy too, she starts this year."
Lily reached for another embrace which Harry gladly accepted. He had normally been uncomfortable with physical contact due to his experience of growing up with the Dursleys but it felt so natural now. It felt so right. He knew this girl, who was only somewhat younger than him, would now mean the world to him. Above all else, the Dursleys could not know she was here, for he would never forgive himself for harm coming to her. They stayed in the warm embrace for a while, before slowly coming apart.
Harry knew he had to return to Hogwarts, and take Lily with him. As the Masons filtered out of the house, he pondered about how he would survive the next four weeks, with the Dursleys. Hopefully, Uncle Vernon's business dinner had been successful enough that he would not take out his frustration on Harry. He had been despondent previously, for his friends had not written to him, but now he had a new hope, this strange girl who appeared in his room, his daughter, Lily.
Harry told Lily that he would try to get her out of this place as soon as possible, no matter what it took.
She nodded slowly, hoping she would be able to also see her mother soon enough. Harry tucked her into the bed, content to sleep on the floor, so that his daughter could be comfortable.
Lily was scared but at least her father was here, in one form or another.
In Malfoy Manor, Dobby was wincing as he gingerly took his ears out of the stove. It had been his punishment for leaving his family without permission, and talking with Harry Potter. For trying to protect the boy he knew to be his main hope. But how stupid he felt, he had managed to deliver the warning, yet the great Harry Potter had not given any indication he would heed it. Was his journey all a waste? Had stealing all these letters been a waste? For Harry Potter's own good? His masters could not have good intentions for Hogwarts this year. He had to get him to promise, or keep him away from Hogwarts, one way or another.
But that girl. The great Harry Potter was loyal to that girl, the fiery, red haired girl, who claimed to be his daughter. That would complicate the elf's attempts to protect the great Harry Potter, for Harry Potter would instead put himself at risk so that his daughter could live. Harry Potter would forsake the world for his daughter.
But Dobby had to try. And while he knew he would be forced to iron his hands in doing this, he had to try and elicit a promise from Harry Potter not to return.
1st August 1992
Harry woke up early the next morning, and headed for the bathroom. The bathroom had just been retiled this summer, in order to accommodate the Mason's visit.
As Harry finished using the loo, he got up and there was the strange creature from last night, with his back to the wall. His large batlike ears were now blackened from being burnt the previous night. He now winced slightly as he moved. It was Dobby.
"Dobby!" Harry hissed. "What are you doing here? And just how long were you watching me just now."
Dobby gave a quiet whimper before whispering, "Dobby has come to make sure the great Harry Potter does not go back to Hogwarts. It is not safe."
Harry carefully thought before replying slowly. "Dobby, I told you this yesterday. Hogwarts is my home, all of my friends are there. It's one of the only things keeping me going." Of course, his newfound daughter was also his hope, but Harry would never mention this to the excitable and frankly unstable house elf.
In a sly reply, Dobby said. "Friends who don't even write to Harry Potter?"
Harry scowled. "How do you know my friends have not been writing to me? Have you been taking my letters?"
Dobby whimpered again and clutched a stack of letters that he grabbed from his pillow case. "H-Harry Potter sir must not be angry-y. Dobby thought if Harry Potter did not receive any letters, then Harry Potter would think his friends have forgotten him and not return to Hogwarts."
Harry made a low growl. And slowly crept up towards Dobby, his back now firmly against the wall. "Dobby. Give. Me. My. Letters. Now."
Dobby let out a shriek before stammering to words. "D-d-dobby w-wwill give Harry Potter the letters b-bbut only if he promises not to return to Hogwarts this year."
It was quite unfortunate that Dobby's shriek had woken up Lily Luna Potter in the next room. Her father was not in the room. It was quite lucky however that Uncle Vernon, being a fat walrus-faced excuse of a man paid no heed, and as such, slept through the noise, dreaming about punishing freaks and locking them up with bars on their windows.
As Harry was pondering his response, Lily Luna came barreling through the bathroom door with such fury the lock broke with Dobby whimpering once again. She grabbed Harry tightly, wanting to keep her father safe.
Harry made a grab for the letters but Dobby jumped to the corner of the room. Now more vulnerable than ever.
Dobby was whimpering once again but looked restless as though he may run, then he timidly replied.
"Harry Potter will have them, sir, if he gives Dobby his word that he will not return to Hogwarts. Ah, sir, this is a danger you must not face! Say you will not go back, sir!"
Harry looked back towards Lily, locking eyes with her. He silently motioned towards the door with his emerald eyes, and she nodded, moving slowly towards the door.
Harry turned back to Dobby and angrily replied. "No. Give me my friends letters."
Dobby winced once again before screeching. "Then Harry Potter has left Dobby with no choice." And he bolted towards the door, only for Lily to be standing in the way. She snatched the letters from Dobby, while Harry crept up from behind. Dobby was now utterly surrounded. He clicked his fingers and disapparated with a crack.
Harry smiled at Lily. "Thank you. I've been missing my friends terribly. Never knew it was an elf disrupting my post."
Lily skimmed through the letters, with the names Ron and Hermione frequently appearing. She handed them to Harry. Smiling, she replied. "It is strange that he's trying to stop you from going back to Hogwarts. I've always wanted to go but I've always been too young. Can I come with you. Please?"
Harry gazed into the pleading eyes before replying, "I suppose you should. There's no way I could tell someone to stay here."
Lily beamed at him.
Harry continued. "Well, I suppose I'll get you something to eat but then we should leave soon. I don't know how long I can keep you hidden here, and I would rather not risk it."
They both left the bathroom and headed down to the kitchen. Harry made some scrambled eggs on toast. Unlike before, where he only made food for the Dursleys begrudgingly, he put effort into this food, giving her a larger portion than even Dudley would have had. Anything for his daughter.
Lily wolfed down the breakfast ravenously as she and Harry talked about what they should do. They came to the conclusion that they should try to find her mother, Ginny, and their family. His true family, the Weasleys. Lily explained the concept of the Knight Bus to Harry's embarrassment. The irony that a little girl knew more than him, the man who had defeated Voldemort twice thus far, about the workings of the wizarding world had not been lost on him.
The clock in the kitchen was approaching 6:30am. The Dursleys would wake up soon, and it was best that he left sooner than later. He grabbed Hedwig from his room, and his trunk from the cupboard under the stairs. Lily's experience in mischief, learned from her brothers, enabled her to simply break the flimsy lock. By the time all his items were collected, the clock struck 7am.
Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, the walrus face of a man, woke up to the slamming of a door. Petunia rushed to the window, gazing upon a small raven haired boy and a red haired girl walking down the street. Petunia rushed to Harry's room. It was empty. She rushed back to Vernon, silently confirming that the boy was gone.
The expletives that came out of Vernon's mouth could be heard throughout the neighborhood.
Harry pointed his wand towards the sky, as Lily instructed him, and the Knight Bus arrived. A large triple decker bus popped out of thin air and stopped in front of the pair. Startled, they climbed onto the bus and said their destination. "Ottery St Catchpole. The Burrow."
Stan Shunpike eyed the pair before turning to Lily. "Ya look like a Weasley. Guess ya ought ta get 'ome." Harry paid 24 sickles. 11 for his journey, and 13 for Lily, paying extra so she could have some hot chocolate.
The bus moved rapidly, throwing Lily and Harry all over the bus, although they held each other close as it hurtled to the distinctive Devon home.
Lily and Harry stepped off of the bus, feeling queasy from the journey. There in all its glory was the Burrow. Lily was relieved at the familiar sight, and the smell of Molly's breakfast cooking was in the air. Memories of playing with her cousins and grandmother's cooking were flooding through. Her father was a good cook, but nothing could compare to Molly, especially now.
The pair entered the house from the side, straight into the dining room, greeting the Weasleys head on.
"Harry!" Ron called from the table, his mouth full of pie. Lily smiled, she had even more to blackmail her Uncle Ron in the future. "How did you get here? Why weren't you answering letters? And who is that girl? She looks just like Ginny."
Harry froze momentarily, holding Lily closer to him, before speaking." I, uh, took the Knight Bus. Some bloody house elf has been stealing my letters."
"Harry!" The admonishment came from Molly.
Harry continued. "And she's uh-"
Lily cut him off. "He's my father."
The exclamations of shock would have been newsworthy but just at that moment, Ginny was hurtling down the stairs casually asking, "Mummy, have you seen my jumper?"
She saw the pair. There was her crush, the boy who lived, holding hands with this small red haired girl, one who looked just like her. Her brown eyes bore into Harry's emerald eyes then focused upon the smaller girl, brown met brown. She stood there stunned before running back upstairs.
Lily broke from Harry's grip and ran after her. "Mummy, wait!"