Turning Time (A Harry Potter Fanfic)

Water Lily, pt. 2

Harry appeared in the middle of a field. He jumped in surprise; thunder rolled in the distance and he was immediately immersed in pounding rain. 

“Impervius,” he muttered, and immediately the rain around him was repelled. He had chosen to visit his mother’s home so he could see her as well as Snape. 

One thing that constantly ate up Harry was the relationship between Snape and his mother. How Snape loved Lily more than anything in the world, until the day he died, and was willing to give up everything he had for her. Not only that, but she’d never known. Harry wished he had not died, or at least had the opportunity to have died happy. 

Harry no longer trusted his character judgement. If he had been wrong about Snape, who else could he have misjudged? He wished he hadn’t been so quick to hate him. He wished things were different.

It had been strange seeing the house exactly as it had been in the pictures.

Harry Apparated to her front lawn, which was in an orderly, symmetrical neighborhood that reminded him strongly of Little Whinging. 

Harry stood in front of the house, considering his options. He cast a spell above him to block the rain as he thought. He had to find shelter, and soon. The nearest place was, of course, Lily’s home. It was pretty close to impossible for anyone to discover him if he was invisible, so he figured it would be safe to stay. Harry pulled out his Invisibility Cloak from Hermione’s purse and pulled it over. He walked up the front steps, unlocked the door with an effortless wave of his wand, and went inside. He was in his mother’s living room, which seemed pretty conventional. Only the fireplace was familiar to him—and a few of the pictures on the mantle. Harry quietly stepped over to pick one up. Immediately, he identified one as the very same picture that was in his album. 

It was a Muggle photo of a girl standing in a field of flowers. She looked about five from what he could tell, with dark red hair that flowed down her back. She was bending down to pick a flower that matched her white dress. Obviously, the bright, gentle girl he saw in the picture was his mother.

Harry dug around in his bag for the album that held the very same picture. Eventually, after overturning everything in the bag, he felt the smooth plastic cover of the book. He pulled it out and started searching for the picture. It was near the beginning of the album, among others of her laughing and smiling as a toddler. Harry slid it out of the cover and held it up to compare to the photo in the frame. He didn’t know if he had expected something strange to happen, but anyway, nothing did. His version remained the same yellowed piece of print it had been before. 

He tucked the picture back in its slot, and dropped the photo album into the bag. Harry stood, slowly surveying the simple living room. To his left there was a door, most likely a closet, ahead of him was the kitchen, and next to the kitchen a flight of stairs going upwards.

He remembered where the basement had been when he visited—just around the other side of the kitchen. Even now there was almost nothing down there, just a couch and a few boxes full of junk. Harry set a charm that would alert him if anyone came into the room and settled down in the couch. He pulled the cloak over him as a sort of blanket as well as a disguise. He felt his weariness immediately wash over him. Thoughts vied for his attention in his mind; he couldn’t concentrate on one long enough to be distracted. But before long, he found sleep overpowering them…

Harry woke up on his own. The summer sun illuminated the basement, rousing him, so he managed to get up and out before anyone else could do the same.

He decided the safest place he could go was the small forest near their house. As he walked under his cloak, he searched for a book he brought that would help him with an important part of his plan. Eventually, he found Deceiving the Eye: Charms and Transfigurations to Disguise Oneself, which changed colors as he looked at the cover. Harry flipped through it, trying to find spells he could use.