A loud noise broke the peaceful morning silence. "Weoweoweo!" a high-pitched voice screamed, in a bad imitation of an electronic whirring. James Sirius Potter sat up sleepily to see his sister Lily brandishing a flashlight at him, one of the many Muggle items that their Grandad accidentally left at their house on his various visits.
"Shut up, Lils, it's too early..." James rubbed at his eyes groggily as his sister began to whine.
"But Jamie, it's already ten!" Lily grabbed her brother's blanket and yanked off the bed. She waved her flashlight in his face again.
"Don't call me Jamie. And put that light away, Lily, or I'm telling Dad!"
Lily pouted, but lowered the flashlight. "It isn't a light, stupid, it's a sonic screwdriver," she insisted.
James stared at his sister. "A what?"
"A sonic screwdriver," Lily repeated earnestly. "I went to Uncle Dudley's and Emily was watching the telly, and she showed me a programme about an alien who can travel in time, and he has a great big telephone booth, only it's called a police box, and it's blue, and there's more space inside it than there is in the outside, and--"
"--and what does this have to do with you shining your flashlight in my face?" James asked dryly.
Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm getting to that, stupid! So this alien is called the Doctor, and he--"
"What kind of a name is that?" James interrupted again.
"It's his, that's what kind," Lily said stubbornly. "Anyway, he's got this Muggle thing called a screwdriver. It's for attaching things together with metal things called screws. But the Doctor's isn't for that, because it's sonic. And it can open doors and stuff, only not wood, because it used to be alive. And he always has a friend in the TARDIS with him-- that's what his police box is called-- and she's a reg'lar old Muggle, but she's real nice, and--"
Lily paused to look at James, who was staring at the doorway behind her. She slowly spun around to see her father standing just outside James's room with a bemused expression.
"You know, Lils," he said in a thoughtful voice, "When I was just a bit younger than you, maybe seven or eight, that was the only show I would ever watch with Dudley. He didn't care for it too much, he just loved staring at the telly. He didn't care what show was on. But me-- I loved that show. At nights, I would sometimes think I heard the sound of his police box appearing at the corner, coming to take me away. But then I would look out the window and think, 'oh well, maybe tomorrow.' But then when I was nine, they canceled the show. I had nearly forgotten about it until now." He smiled at his daughter, who looked back at him, puzzled.
"But, Daddy," Lily began, "How on earth did I watch it with cousin Emily just this morning when they canceled it so long ago?"
Harry thought for a moment, then asked, "Do you know which Doctor you were watching?"
"The Tenth," Lily answered. "Why?"
Harry Potter's face broke into a wild grin. "Because," he told his daughter, "They stopped at the Eighth."
