Turning Time (A Harry Potter Fanfic)

A New Beginning, pt. 2

“Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans?” Severus picked up his box, and Lily did the same, looking curious. Harry had to be the only one of the three to have tried them before. Though, he noticed Raven had smirked slightly while drawing, so she had probably knew of them too, but chose not to say anything.

Lily opened her box first and ate a murky green bean. The look of pleasure that lit up her face indicated she had been lucky with a normal-flavored one. 

“Mint!” She exclaimed, and ate another just as Severus did. They both coughed in surprise and spat out the candy. 

“Eugh! It tastes like rotten tomatoes!” Harry laughed at her disgusted face, and she flashed him an annoyed, but amused, look. “What about you, Severus?” 

“I think it’s…” He was steadily turning greener. “…vomit.” 

Lily moved out of range. “Are you okay?”

Severus nodded, but didn’t convince any of them. It was amusing to Harry, but Lily was concerned. Harry ate a bean, which turned out to be cherry, then set aside his box. 

They let Severus ride it out as they tried some cauldron cakes. 

“I hope the food at Hogwarts is this good,” said Lily happily, using the back of her hand to wipe some chocolate off her face. 

“Yeah,” Harry agreed. He couldn’t wait. The cooking wasn’t world-class, but it was familiar. 

Lily looked thoughtful. “I wonder what school will be like compared to Muggle school. I haven’t looked through my books at all, since I just got them yesterday, but from the titles I can guess some of the subjects.” Harry nodded in agreement as she continued. “I wonder what I’ll be good at. Maybe I won’t be good at anything! But Sev told me Hogwarts is the best wizarding school, so I can't fail at everything, right?”

“You’ll be fine. Do you want to try some magic right now?” Harry asked, and pulled out a book he had brought, The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1), by Miranda Goshawk. Lily looked at it, curiosity lighting in her familiar green eyes.

“Okay! We’re allowed to, right?” 

“’Course. Er, well, I think so,” Harry replied, trying to sound like he didn’t know more than anyone else would. He flipped through the book and found a familiar incantation. 

“This one’s called the Hover Charm. It seems kind of tricky, but I think we’ll manage.” Harry remembered someone saying Lily was good at charms, so this shouldn’t be too difficult for her. He passed the book to her, and Severus, too, who had thankfully recovered. He read the directions while eating a cauldron cake to get rid of the taste the bean had had. Raven even tucked away her book and pulled out her wand to participate. 

“How about we try it on this?” Harry picked up the least dangerous item in the cabin, the package that had once contained a chocolate frog. He handed it to Lily and she balanced it on her knee. 

Lily tried first, pronouncing the incantation exactly right, but her wrist movement was slightly off. “Wingardium Leviosa!” The box shuffled a bit, but didn’t rise. She tried again, but it yielded the same results. She reread the book, her spirits clearly falling. After several more times, the best reaction she had gotten was tipping the box onto its side. 

Harry pretended to consult the book for tips, then said, “It looks like you need to back off on flicking your wrist, otherwise there’s nothing else that you’re doing wrong.” 

Lily nodded and concentrated, her face scrunching up in determination. Harry smiled faintly at her expression. 

“Wingardium Leviosa!”