Lily Luna Potter - Back to the Past

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

“You can’t catch me!” James shouted, whizzing past us on a broom.

“Wanna bet?” Sirius replied, following close behind.

Lily ducked quickly, trying to avoid a snowball that had been thrown by James, who’d been aiming for Sirius, but it still caught her on the shoulder, leaving a splotch of white on her navy sweater. She brushed off a little bit of snow that had fallen on her copy of A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, and huffed angrily.

“You’d think they had better things to do than goof around in the freezing cold,” she said, irritated, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I had known from a young age, by observing my older brothers and cousins, that boys really didn’t seem to have anything better to do than be stupid, most of the time. I’d grown up watching my brothers chase each other on brooms, and Sirius and James’ game brought back fond memories of Christmases at the Burrow.

Lily and I were sitting on the patio, where a mild warming charm was held up by wards, making it the perfect place to sit and watch the boys ‘goof around in the freezing cold’ while we were content in our bubble of warmth, requiring only sweaters and jeans to stay warm, even though it was mid-December.

“BOYS!” Mrs. Potter yelled loudly, reminding me of Grandma Molly doing almost exactly the same thing. “SUPPER IS READY! GET WASHED UP AND SIT AT THE TABLE!”

She then turned to Lily and I, sitting a short ways away and to the left. “Food’s on the table, girls, so come in and enjoy! There’s plenty for everyone.”

Mrs. Potter, or Dorea, as she wanted us to call her, was almost like a mix between Aunt Fleur and my Grandma Molly. Which was funny, because my grandma never really liked Aunt Fleur all that much. But Mrs. Potter, like my aunt, was used to a certain level of status. Her home was very neat and orderly, with not a thing out of place, and she always was dressed in semi-formal robes, even if she wasn’t leaving the house that day. And yet, at the same time, she wasn’t shy about yelling at James or Sirius like my Grandma Molly, and her cooking was very nearly as good as any dinner I’d had at the Burrow for a holiday dinner.

Mr. Potter, or Charlus, on the other hand, was very similar to my father. Not only was Mr. Potter an Auror just like my father, but he was down-to-earth and sensible, while still being able to have animated discussions about which Quidditch teams were in the running for the World Cup and whether Celestina Warbeck, a new singing sensation on the Wizarding World Wireless, looked better than she sang or the other way around.

Both of my great grandparents reminded me so much of home, which felt wonderful and terrible at the same time. On one hand they made me even more homesick for the twenty-first century, but on the other hand their familiar personalities made it easy to connect with them even though I’d only met them a week before.

James, Sirius, Lily, and I had tried to come up with a plausible backstory for me in order to introduce me to James’ parents. We all agreed I couldn’t just come up and have them introduce me as their daughter in the future, so we decided to just stick with the story I’d given them before they’d found out my real identity - my alias was Luna Thomas, a girl of unremarkable parentage, who had transferred to Hogwarts after her parents had died as a result of Death Eaters. My resemblance to Lily was explained as nothing more than coincidence. Simple, believable, and apparently sympathy-inducing. I’d caught Mrs. Potter gazing at me sadly multiple times when she thought I wasn’t paying attention, her eyes sad and her hands folded together as if she wanted nothing more than to scoop me up in a bone-crushing hug.

Lily and I entered the dining room from outside to find a magnificent feast of lemon-seasoned fish (of some sort), mashed potatoes, salad, rolls, and fruit.