No Time To Die

I - In Which Nobody Has Learnt Their Lesson

Five years have passed since Lily, James, Albus and Teddy took a trip into the past and returned after failing to remove the past versions of their parents' memories, and the timeline has (thankfully) not collapsed, though James is still grounded, and itching for adventure. Albus has made a friend, messed around some more with the fabric of time and space, and not learnt his lesson, and Lily is well on her way to ruling the school, though not from Slytherin.

The parents have spent these years frantically trying to discover a way to reverse the damage they did (or might have done, since nothing seems to be happening. Time is weird). They have done absolutely nothing, so, James believes, time is ripe for the children to step up - and no, Albus, he's not doing this because he wants to be ungrounded, why would you ever think that?

"So, here's the thing," James says to the group of people sitting in front of him. "Five years ago, we went back in time to 1995."

"We know," said Teddy. "We were there."

"WHAT?" yelps Scorpius Malfoy. "So this wasn't Al's only time-travelling disaster?"

"Well," said Albus, "I think the more recent one was worse. For, you know, the universe. And everything being awful."

"Haha," said Scorpius gloomily. "Hahaha. Now what? Are we going to have to fix time again? Wait - five years ago? But - " How is it not fixed yet, he was going to say, but, as usual, Lily interrupted.

"Yep, the adults are being useless," said Lily, "And I'd quite like to see them again."

"So, they're developing a new time turner to take us back to 1995 after we left so we can mind-wipe them properly," interjected Teddy, who was clearly the only person here with any idea what they were going to be doing.

"Oh," said Scorpius. "I suppose we're going to steal it then."

It probably said something about how much time he'd been spending around the Potters that his first thought was of thievery.

"How did you guess?" asked James happily.

"Well-" said Scorpius.

"Rhetorical." said Lily flatly.

"Okay," said Albus. "But there's one problem. Where is it?"

"We don't know." said James. Scorpius and Albus, the only ones who hadn't already been clued in, stared.

"Is it even finished?" asked Scorpius.

"...We don't know that either." 

Albus groaned and buried his face in his hands, mumbling something that sounded like, 'typical'.

"You can't seriously expect-" started Teddy.

"We do, and you will." said Lily, glaring at them.

"Oh, fine," said Albus quickly. "But how are we going to steal it?"

"Simple!" said James.

It wasn't. And that was why they found themselves in Harry Potter's office, searching through all his drawers for the time turner. They would have been caught eavesdropping if Lily hadn't smashed a plate as a distraction, and Harry and Ginny weren't even out of the house. All in all, Teddy was not expecting success, though it had not occured to him to plan for if they didn't succeed, since he was too busy bemoaning the fact that they were going to die.

"Look," said James. "We know where it is! They might move it if we wait any longer! And what's the worst that can happen? I'm already grounded!"

"Yes," said Teddy. "But we aren't. And I quite like being alive." He peered down the hallway, and saw nothing moving.

"Good for you," said Scorpius. 

"Ha!" yelled James, holding up a shiny gold thing, which Albus couldn't quite see properly seeing as James was waving it in his face, but which was probably a time turner. "I did it! Bow before my awesomeness, peasants!"

"No way!" said Lily, who was never ever bowing to James, since if anyone was a peasant, it was him.

"Someone's coming!" said Teddy.

"This isn't like the last time, when you saw the cat and spooked, is it?" said Lily, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at him.

"No, I can see them coming round the corner, James why did you shout so loud now they know we're here AFUEYFEFAGSGUHAI!" hissed Teddy.

"Yeah James, this is all your fault," said Lily, conveniently ignoring the fact that she'd been perfectly on board with the plan.

"Quick!" said James, and grabbed them all, turning the rings of the time turner. 

"Hi Uncle Harry!" they heard Teddy saying sheepishly as the world disappeared in a swirl of gold.