FINDING LOVE IN THE PAST
Chapter One
Years and years ago, on April 11,
1912, the Titanic left Queenstown, Ireland and started its first and last
voyage to America. But years later, when Lily woke up that morning at Hogwarts,
she never knew that that was where she would end up--in the past.
*****
Lily Evans was talking to her
best friend, April, at breakfast on the morning of April eleventh. The day
started out as every other day. When the mail came, the students of Hogwarts
got their usual letters. What was different was that an owl dropped off a
package in front of Lily.
"Who’s it from?" April
asked. April was Lily’s best friend and had been since they were little. They
were both delighted when they got their letters to Hogwarts. When they came to
Hogwarts, they met Jacqueline, an unstable but kind girl with strawberry blonde
hair and sapphire-colored eyes. The three had become inseparable from the time
they were all sorted into Griffindor. Even though they had similar
personalities, they looked completely different. Lily had long red hair and
beautiful green eyes. April had always been jealous of Lily’s green eyes, even
though April had light brown hair and reddish-brown eyes.
"It’s from my cousin. It’s a
little early for my birthday. I wonder what it is." Lily started to unwrap
the small package and gasped at what it was. "Look! She sent me a time
turner!" She picked up the card and read out loud, "Lily, Happy
Birthday! I saw this and I had to get it for your birthday. The reason I bought
it so early was because the Ministry is trying to get these recalled soon.
Happy Birthday!" Lily laughed and said, "Leave it to her to buy
me something that will soon be banned."
"Are you going to use
it?" April asked, and then added, "Because I could think of some
people who would love to control time."
"You don’t control time with
it. You just go back in time," Lily corrected.
"Same thing."
"Hey, morning. How come you
guys didn’t wait for me?" asked Lily and April’s friend, Jacqueline.
"Because you were still
sleeping," April said.
"You could have woken me up.
Hey, what’s that?" she asked, looking at the time turner as she sat down.
While Lily and April explained to
Jacqueline what a time turner was, James, Sirius, and Remus were at the other
end of the table, discussing what to do for the day, because Peter was sick in
the hospital wing after their last adventure. "Sirius! Sirius!" James
said. "Remus, he’s daydreaming again."
"I am not," Sirius
said, finally snapping out of it.
"What was it this
time?" Remus asked.
"Do you have to ask?"
James asked, sighing. "He’s always staring at the same person."
"Who?"
"April, Lily’s friend,"
James said while he pointed out the brunette girl to Remus. "I wish it was
someone else, because if he ever goes out with her, April, Jacqueline, and Lily
will be with us the whole time."
"What’s wrong with
that?" Sirius asked while staring at April again.
"You know why," James
said. "I’ve always hated Lily, ever since first year."
Remus remembered, although no one
knew exactly why. It seemed that Lily Evans and James Potter would never get
along. Once, they were assigned to be partners in potions class. It had started
to be another boring class, but then Remus had heard arguing and then a splash.
When he had looked over at the source of the noise, he had seen Lily and James
covered in the potion they were making. Apparently they had never forgotten
that episode, even though they were now in their seventh year. Of course, there
were many more occurrences in several other classes. By the end of first year,
all the teachers had learned to never partner Lily and James again.
"Sirius, just ask her out. I
don’t know why you’re stalling. You never stalled when it came to asking girls
out before," James mentioned. "Oh, my God. Could it be? Is our little
Sirius in love?" James asked in a mocking tone. "Or is she the only
girl in our year that you didn’t snog?" James and Remus laughed at James’
joke while Sirius just stared at April, who was now laughing at one of
Jacqueline’s many blonde moments.
"Padfoot, just ask her
out," Remus said in a reassuring voice. "Come on. What’s the worst
she’ll say?"
"She could say no,"
Sirius said miserably.
"Well, you’ll get over it.
Come on. Give it a try," James said.
"If it will make you shut
up, then fine. I’ll ask her," Sirius said heatedly as he walked to where
April was sitting.
"He must really be in love
or something, because that is the first time I ever saw him like that,"
James said, eating a piece of toast.
"Oh, damn," Lily said.
"I forgot something. I’ll be right back." She stood up and walked out
of the Great Hall.
"April, could I talk to you
for a minute?" Sirius asked, trying not to sound nervous. "In private."
"Um…sure," April said.
She followed him out of the hall.
Jacqueline, being really nosy,
got up and followed them, James and Remus right behind her. She saw April and
Sirius talking in hushed voices and she took a step back and collided with
Remus. Remus gave her and James a signal to follow him. He led them to a secret
passage that took them to the top of the stairs. The three crept as close as
they could to April and Sirius without being caught.
"What do you want,
Sirius?" they heard April ask in confusion.
"I…I just wanted to ask you
a question," Sirius said to April.
Oh, that’s original, James thought. Just then, they heard a
noise behind them. Lily had just turned the corner and spotted James, Remus,
and Jacqueline.
"What…" Lily started to
say, but stopped when she saw what they were doing. She thought to herself, Oh,
they’re spying on April and…is that Sirius? I’m so confused!
Just when Sirius was about to ask
April out, he saw a group of people spying on them. "What are you guys
doing up there?" he asked when he found out who was in that group.
"Nothing," Jacqueline
said innocently. "What makes you think we’re doing something?"
Everyone rolled their eyes. James, Remus, Jacqueline, and Lily started to walk
down the staircase. Just then, Lily’s hands slipped and dropped the time turner
she was holding. It bounced off the top step and rolled down the long
staircase. She tried to grasp it, but it just bounced out of the way. She raced
down the stairs after it. The time turner rolled across the floor. James, who
was closest, went to pick it up. Lily was close behind and reached it at the
same time as James. Their hands touched the time turner at the same time.
Suddenly, everything was going blurry. All Lily could see was James and the
time turner.
April screamed in horror as she
and everyone else saw Lily and James disappear.
"Where the hell did they
go?" Sirius yelled. "And what were they holding?"
"It was Lily’s time
turner," April said, stunned.
"But that means," Remus
said, "that Lily and James are now in the…"
"Past," Jacqueline
finished.