Lily Evans and the Familiar Stranger

Harriet Potter

"Wake up," sooths a calm voice. "Please Lily."

I open my eyes and scream. It's him! The Death Eater that looks like James. "Y-y-y..." I have obviously forgotten how to speak.

"Lily," begins Harry, "calm down."

I shake my head vigorously. "Y-you're a Death Eater!"

Harry's mouth is wide open. "I am not!"

I realise that I'm laid on my bed. "Help! Please! Anyone! Help! Death Eater...!" the rest of what I say is muffled because Harry put his hand over my mouth. I bite his hand.

A normal person would immediately take their hand off my mouth. Harry is obviously not a normal person. He just winces and keeps his hand on my mouth.

"LILY!" shouts Harry, "CALM DOWN!"

Harry takes his hand off my mouth and lets me speak. "How can I calm down if you're a Death Eater?"

"You really think that I'm a Death Eater?" he asks.

"Yes," I answer.

"I'm telling the truth here, I'm Harry," he says.

"Harry who?" I quiz.

"Harry... Potter," he bites his lip.

I grin. "Harry Potter?" I burst out laughing. "You're related to that fool?" Why am I laughing? I guess it's just one of those things that people can't control.

Harry doesn't think that it's funny. He has got a really serious look on his face. "I don't think you should insult my Father." He immediately shuts his eyes and looks as though he wants the ground to swallow him up.

James Potter? His Father? James is too young to be a Father. Realisation dawns on me again, unless Harry... "You can't be James's son! Unless you came from the future then there's no way."

Harry frowns and then nods. What?! I don't believe it! But it does explain how he got here.

But wouldn't he just be able to see me doing my own thing instead of talking to me? There's no way he could've got here! Except... "You fool!" I shout. "You can't get back now! You stayed too long here! You should have only stayed here for an hour each day! If you stayed any longer you were guaranteed to appear out of nowhere!" I can't believe this, someone from the future is here because of my doing.

"I didn't know!" protests Harry. "There was no warning or anything!"

"There was!" I retort. I snatch the diary from him. I went to the back of the book and I recite, "Note to self: must stay no longer than an hour each day or will stay in that place in time one is back when they were or one dies."

"You never write in that style," mutters Harry.

"I was practicing," I reply.

"Besides, I hadn't gotten that far yet," says Harry.

"Are you mad?!" I ask. "Don't you know that every girl puts her secrets down in the last page."

"I don't read a lot of diaries," Harry murmurs.

"Then why did you read mine?" I ask.

"Because you're..." Harry stops himself.

"Go on! Spit it out!" I command.

"Because your name is familiar," Harry says.

"Ah, I see," I say. Maybe I should take him to Dumbledore?

"Can you take me to Dumbledore, please?" this boy is obviously a mind reader.

"Fine," I growl. "But I'm going to have to disguise you. James isn't too fond of identical twins."

I jump off my bed and take something out of Alice's trunk. She doesn't mind if I take anything as long as I give it back to her in one piece. I hold up a large black robe and I lay it on my bed. I then take some make-up out of my drawer. Harry looks as though he's going to faint. "Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. You're not doing that! I am dressing up as a girl!"

"It's the only way that nobody will recognise you," I say. I could just cover up his face but if one of the other Marauders sees his hair they're going to take poor Harry away so it would be safer if I dress him up. I've never put any make-up on a boy apart from Sirius. Then again, he only did it for a laugh and I only did his nails.

This is going to be so much fun! Harry doesn't seem to think so, he looks as though he'd rather dance naked at the Halloween feast.

"Harry," I instruct, "put this on." I give him Alice's robe. Alice is about the same height as Harry and she wears ridiculously baggy robes so if Harry wore them nobody would be able to notice that he hasn't got a chest.

He looks at me as though I had told him that I wanted to marry him. "Fine. But don't look while I change." I turn around.

After about a minute or so Harry says, "You can look."

I turn back round. Harry glares at me. I smile and say, "I now need to do your face."

"I thought that was a joke!" he says.

"It's not," I retort. "Don't worry, I won't have to apply any eye make-up, just a little lipstick."

"Lipstick!" Harry repeats.

I nod and he jumps onto my bed in a huff. I take a seat behind him and I take the top off the red lipstick and start applying it. Harry makes a sudden movement and I almost apply some lipstick on his chin. "Will you please stop moving?"

"Turn around," I say once I finished. His lips look perfect, I something hidden behind Harry's bangs. "What's that?" I ask pointing to his forehead.

"This?" he asks while he moves his fringe out of the way and he reveals to me a lightening bolt shaped scar.

"Yes," I answer. "How did you get it."

Harry looks frozen for a moment or two. "A car crash, my parents died in it. Or so my Aunt tells me."

"Your Aunt wouldn't lie to you about something like that," I say. No Aunt would lie about something like that! Well... unless the Aunt was Petunia.

"You don't know my Aunt," Harry replies.

I take out a brush from my pocket and prepare for the ultimate challenge: getting Harry's hair to stay flat.