Chapter Text
After the quickest lunch of their lives, the group made their way up to the seventh floor. Lily was doing all she could to not break out into a full run up the moving staircases, which were thankfully in position for where they needed to go as if the castle knew the importance of their journey.
“If the room is on the seventh floor, we’ll have to be careful it’s out of bounds because of construction after the fifth years blew a hole in the wall fighting and burst a pipe. Apparently magical sewer systems can’t be fixed with a repairing charm. If we get caught up there we’ll be in deep shit, so be quick about getting into the room.” Lily thought it was amusing that her grandmother wasn’t necessarily against breaking the rules, but against getting caught. A trait that she definitely saw in herself.
“I just can’t believe that we never knew about this, we’ve explored this castle, how many times? And we never came across a room that could give us anything we wanted?” Sirius seemed almost insulted that the castle had never revealed such a secret to the Marauders. Lily couldn’t help but think that it was a good thing that these boys didn’t have access to a room that could supply them with countless inconveniences for the rest of the school. She knew that her brother would have used his knowledge of this room on countless occasions to make her life miserable whilst they were both at school if it had been available to him.
“Maybe you just never needed something enough.” Al shrugged his shoulders as they stopped at the stretch of wall that Lily knew the room was. She had heard the stories about the DA so many times, demanding her dad tell her about all the times that he had taught the rebellious group.
I need a room with a time turner that allows me to travel years forward in time.
I need a room with a time turner that allows me to travel years forward in time.
I need a room with a time turner that allows me to travel years forward in time.
Whilst Lily was pacing, James took out the Marauder’s Map. He knew that not adding this room’s discovery to the map would bother his completionist side, he knew it was here now so it needed to be added. He found the seventh floor on the map, saw the group standing around and was about to mark the section that Lily was pacing in front of to add the room later, when he froze. He felt the heat start in his toes and rise limb to limb until he knew for a fact that his face and ears were so red heat could be felt without touching his skin.
“James?”
He ignored the other, staring intently at the map, watching the name pace back and forth as he knew the girl, Lily’s granddaughter, was doing to access the room. Then the name stopped, and James looked up to see the younger girl looking at him in confusion, behind her a door had appeared in the space where a blank wall once was moments before. He could also feel the eyes of his three best mates, the girl he loved, and his grandsons on him, probably questioning his weird reaction.
“Lily Potter.”
Lily’s eyes widened as she drew in a sharp breath. The map. How could she forget the map?
“It says here your name is Lily Luna Potter.” It wasn't a question, they both knew that the map never lied and that was her name, she couldn’t deny it.
Before James could question her, or Lily could open her mouth, a noise was heard at the end of the corridor.
“Filch! Quick everyone in.” Remus rushed forward, opened the door that Lily’s pacing had conjured. The momentary surprise evaporated and as one the group charged into the room just as Filch rounded the corner. The door slammed shut behind them and the caretaker was none-the-wiser.
Once the shock of running into the room wore off, all of the Marauders turned to look at Lily.
“You’re a Potter then?” It was surprisingly Peter who addressed Lily, as he was someone who had skirted around the three time travelers as if he didn’t quite know what to make of them.
Lily blew out a breath, and knowing what she needed, two sofas that looked identical to those in the Gryffindor common room appeared in front of them. Lily took her grandmother and the Marauders to the sofas to sit. Lily noticed her two brothers did not join them, but knew that this conversation was more pressing than looking for them.
“It said it on the map Pete, you know the map doesn’t lie it’s linked to your magical signature.”
“Let me see then.” James went into his robe pocket to pull out the map, but felt nothing. He started patting his other pockets and looking around him, but to no avail.
“I must have dropped it! If Filch saw it outside in the corridor he’ll definitely have confiscated it!” James swore and looked at his friends apologetically, distraught at having lost such a precious item through carelessness.
“If it makes you feel better,” Lily spoke up, “you losing the map to Filch is how my dad ended up with the map in the first place. So, if you think about it, you losing it now was actually the best thing that you could have done.” The four boys seemed to consider this, exchanged a heavy look between them and nodded in silent communication. Lily was certain that this was what people meant when they said that the three Potter children could communicate without words and it was very disconcerting to watch. However, when growing up the children of the most famous man in their society with every eye on them at all times, they had to be able to say the things they were truly feeling without it getting printed in that evening’s paper. Each of the Potter children had learnt the hard way who they could trust and what they could say when. The constant secret keeping and trouble making that these boys got into was another example of high stakes communication, so she understood better than most the importance of the exchange that had occurred in front of her eyes. Without having spoken out loud, it was clear that James was chastised but Lily’s words were considered and he was forgiven, the entire exchange had taken no longer than 30 seconds.
Lily watched as her grandmother eyed the boys, she could tell that the Head Girl understood that a communication was occurring, but not what was being said. It must be exhausting to be around such a tight knit group but not being privy to the information and exchanges that passed between them. Lily Evans was staring at James without any embarrassment, she knew the conversation that was about to occur and she was determined to get her opinion across if it was the death of her.
James nodded and then directed the conversation back to Lily, “So you are a Potter? Lily Potter.”
Lily looked towards the Head Girl before nodding. “Yes, James and Al are my older brothers.”
“So what does that mean?” Sirius looked Lily up and down and for the first time since yesterday eyed her with slight distrust.
“Well, it means that my parents' surnames are Potter.”
“Don’t be cute, we’ve come this far now you might as well tell us.” Sirius shook his head and a ghost of a smile appeared as Lily blew out another breath and knew she’d been caught. What was the harm anyway, one half of her grandparents already knew it wasn’t like she was changing the course of history, she was just being honest.
“Okay, well, James and I are named after my dad’s parents: James Potter and Lily Potter nee Evans.”
Lily let her words settle over the group. The redhead sat beside her was running her hands up and down her thighs in anxiety staring intently at James whose eyes were fixed solely on his granddaughter.
“We all owe you five galleons.” Remus’ words were unexpected, but seemed to break the tension that Lily’s words had left. Sirius let out a loud laugh and clapped James hard on the shoulder who seemed to still be in a state of shock. Lily hid her giggle behind her hand and glanced over at Lily who was still intensely staring at James who was still let to look at her. If Lily was honest with herself it looked like James was in a state of shock.
Lily cocked her head to the side at the other Marauders, and as four they stood to allow the two Heads to talk about Lily’s revelation.
“Let’s go and find my brothers yeah?” The boys nodded and Lily looked around at the room for the first time. It was one long room with shelves on each side. On both shelves there were various devices which Lily presumed were variations of the time turner based on her request to the room. Beneath each device there was a plaque describing the device's name and a brief summary of how to use it. Lily walked over with the three Marauders to her brothers who were both standing at a section of shelf and were in deep discussion.
“Hey Lil, finally revealed our familial bond?” James laughed as Lily hit him on the arm.
“Noticed that you two were conveniently absent for that conversation!”
“We thought that you had it handled, and why put myself in an awkward conversation when I don’t have to!” Al laughed as Lily’s glare was directed towards him next.
Remus laughed at the siblings’ antics, and now that he knew he couldn’t believe that he hadn’t realised their relationship purely based on their interactions, the playful banter and closeness that he had only seen in the Marauders who were described as brothers and not friends. But, Remus mused, it was easy to realise these things when you knew the information vital to understanding.
“Anyway, what have you found?” Al explained that whilst they were chatting they’d started looking at each of the time devices and were able to quickly dismiss the first few devices based on the fact they were theoretical prototypes and had never been used before. James explained that they weren’t to be trusted as something that worked in theory very rarely worked in practice without a bit of trial and error and they shouldn’t risk more errors with time travel. Lily couldn’t help but agree with their assessments, it was a rare treat to see both of her brothers in work mode as James never brought work home and Al was in another house.
“We’ve narrowed it down to this one here. The name on the plaque, she’s an Unspeakable that I studied for my exam. She created a lot of time manipulation devices and her success rate was very high. So if I was going to place my bets on any device that has been presented by the room it would be this one.” Al picked up the device that he was referring to. It looked like a standard time turner that she had seen in her textbooks but with my dials. It was a beautiful rose gold colour which she knew differed from the traditional gold.
James explained that there were three dials on the turner, days, months and years. Lily had to admit that it seemed simple in comparison to all of the intimidating devices that surrounded the simple one that her brothers had selected.
“There’s one more thing,” all of their attention was directed towards Al again, “we can’t take the devices out of the room. We’ll have to use the device here.” This made sense to Lily, the room created all of the devices so they only existed in the room so logically could only be used in the room.
“Okay then, shall we report back what’s going on and talk about how to go forward?”
X-X-X
Lily watched her granddaughter walk away with the Marauders and looked towards James. He was staring down into his lap, and didn’t look up when Lily slid into the seat next to him.
“James?”
He still didn’t look up and Lily felt a clenching in her chest, she thought that the knowledge that she and James were meant to be together was set in stone but now looking at him not acknowledging her she wasn’t so certain anymore.
“I’m sorry.”
James had spoken to softly that Lily wasn’t certain that she’d heard him. Why was he apologising to her?
“I’m sorry you were blindsided like that, I didn’t mean to put you in that position, I was just taken aback by seeing her name. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I’m so sorry Lily. If you need space and stuff I understand, I obviously love talking and being with you but finding out about Lily, well that must have been a shock for you right now, and I know you don’t feel that way about me, so yeah, I’d understand if you need some space.”
James hadn’t looked at Lily the whole time he spoke, but delivered his speech to his lap where his hands twisting around themselves.
“James, I knew about Lily,” James’ head shot up to look at her for the first time, “she told me last night.”
James frowned at her and stared intently, “you knew?”
“I knew.”
“And you’ve still been around me all morning and acting normal?”
Lily sighed, she knew that this was the time to put all her cards on the table, but now the time was here she felt the anxiety settle deep in her stomach.
“James, I wanted to know if our lives were intertwined through our grandchildren because our children happened to get together, or whether it was you and me. I wanted to know from my granddaughter whether I was wasting my time falling in love with you and if I’d missed my chance with you. Because I am, falling in love with you I mean.”
“What?” James had never been so shocked in his life, he had no idea. He thought that the time that they had spent together this year had been amazing, they had been getting closer but he hadn’t let himself hope for something more, he went to bed every night telling himself that friendship was enough.
“I’ve been falling in love with you since last year, I thought you might have gotten over me and I’d missed my chance, but hearing that from Lily well I let myself believe that maybe I still had a chance, but if that isn’t the case and you don’t want to be anything more than friends then-” Lily was abruptly cut off my James’ mouth on hers. The kiss was urgent but soft and exactly what Lily imagines kissing James would be like.
James pulled back and looked Lily in the eye for the first time, “I never want you to say something as ridiculous as me not wanting you, ever again. Do you know how long I’ve wanted this, how long I've hoped this could happen.”
This kiss was slow and steady, and melted Lily from the inside out and she felt at home.
“Go out with me Evans?”
“Always.”
Lily looked over her shoulder when they heard the others approaching. Lily was smiling at the new couple with joy.
“Come on you two, we have a lot to discuss. Let’s go back to the common room.”