An Uncertain Future

A/N: Thanks to Phantom of Delight for Beta Reading.

~*~*~*~

It was late in the evening when Malfoy finally seemed to have heard enough to satisfy his curiosity. He'd produced a couple of books from one of the other rooms and performed a handful of spells which seemed to convince him, at the least, that they were from the past. Lily wasn't entirely certain that this didn't rule out their being in a vision, but, as James had pointed out, if they were in a dream world, then there really wasn't anything they could do there except wait to wake up. Sirius had taken things one step further in surrealism by pointing out that if they were in a vision and a part of that vision told them they weren't in a vision, then perhaps listening to that part of their vision was the key that their subconscious had given them to help them break free from the vision.

Malfoy had given them all a highly exasperated look and told them to stop blathering on about philosophy and just take his word for it: they were in the future. When James tried joking that taking the word of an apparition wasn't going to solve the future versus dreamscape question, Malfoy stabbed him in the hand with a biro. It bled a lot and James yelled and cursed to which Malfoy only shrugged. "Now you have proof. Visions don't hurt."

It did rather put an end to the debate and not only because Lily had taken James off to one side to treat his hand while Sirius had shut up to prevent himself from falling victim to his clearly psychotic cousin. The truth was, worryingly enough, that Malfoy was actually correct. Visions don't feel real. That was a known fact. Time travel however... Well... Time travel could kill you.

They'd ordered pizza for lunch and Chinese for dinner. Lily didn't know which was weirder. Watching a Malfoy dial for take out, or seeing him write with a Bic. It almost made the violence seem reassuringly normal.

Despite having eaten dinner, it still came as a shock when Lily looked up from the scroll she'd been studying and was met with darkness outside the windows. Or, rather, with a wash of sodium light. She'd forgotten how common they were in the Muggle world. For a moment she just sat there, gazing out of the brightly lit Muggle apartment and through the thin net curtains to the surrounding flats and car parks. The warm orange light was nothing like candle light really. There wasn't enough yellow and it didn't flicker or flair, but there was the same undercurrent of warmth to the scene. It occurred to Lily that it made even the concrete blocks and tarmac seas look beautiful.

Malfoy must have caught her gazing out of the window. "Are you tired, Rose?" For a long moment she didn't reply and it was the realisation that she hadn't cottoned on to the fact that he was using her current 'name' more than anything that answered the question. He clapped his hands together loudly. "Right. Bedtime for you all I think."

It sounded like he was herding a group of pre-school children about. "Are you crazy?" Clearly Sirius thought so too. "It's barely seven. I've not gone to bed this..."

Malfoy was tapping his biro against a notebook in a most distracted manner. If Lily had been a less suspicious person she would honestly have believed it to be a nervous habit. Somehow though, she doubted that Malfoys were allowed to develop nervous habits. It really didn't seem like it would fit the image.

After a few moments awkward silence, Malfoy turned back to Lily. "How about you? Are you tired?" There was no obvious threat although she could see James start to tense out of the corner of her eyes. The main problem was that Lily actually was tired; she'd been tired for weeks now. Ever since her parents were killed. Or had it been even longer? For the first time, however, she honestly felt that if she lay down, she would actually drift off. Maybe it was the shock of time-travelling or a strange realisation that it may actually have moved them to a safer time, but some vicious tension had left her. She wasn't merely tired, she was sleepy.

Not that she was going to just go along with Malfoy's ideas. If he was anything like his father he'd start to expect unyielding obedience from them. Well, she wasn't going to let things reach that state. "I am rather tired, but before bed I need a bath."

She'd tried to sound stern and resolute and so was taken rather by surprise when Malfoy merely nodded and flapped his hand in the direction of the kitchen. "Bathroom's through the kitchen. I'm afraid there isn't a bath, will a shower do?" Jerkily Lily nodded. "Great. There are clean towels in the airing cupboard. Help yourself."

Well, that was rather straight forward. Leaving the Sitting Room, Lily resisted the urge to peak in through the doors opposite, heading instead for the kitchen. Antagonising their only ally wasn't smart and, besides, she couldn't keep the tale of Bluebeard's wives from mind.

The kitchen was fairly small with only one door leading off it, to the right. A large window looked out over more cityscape, this time uninterrupted by netting and for a moment Lily found herself entranced. Maybe Malfoy wasn't completely crazy to be living in Muggle London.

Other than the window, there wasn't much to comment about. It was a tidy kitchen, something that Lily was constantly battling with James to achieve, but appeared well used to judge from the well stocked spice rack and the number of pans on the draining board. A closer inspection revealed that several of the herbs and spices were definitely not ones which she would ever put into anything apart from potions, but then, maybe wizards were brought up with a slightly different set of recipes.

The bathroom was also rather small, but it only took her a few seconds to realise that the size was an illusion brought about by the low, tiled wall across the back of the room. The showerhead was behind it and Lily had to admit that the half-wall made a nice change to the traditional, if rather claustrophobic, shower stall. Draping a couple of towels over the doorknob, Lily stripped and stepped into the shower. She was going to have to do something about clean clothing later, but right now she just wanted to enjoy the feeling of hot water sluicing the day's worries from her body.

There were two different types of shampoo balanced on the wall, but only one conditioner and a bar of Pear's Transparent Soap. Absently Lily wondered if the second shampoo bottle meant that Malfoy had a flatmate, or maybe a girlfriend. Taking a quick glance at the labels she ended up choosing the apple-scented one that matched the conditioner figuring that it probably belonged to Malfoy's girlfriend. Somehow borrowing his shampoo seemed a little... odd.

Ten minutes later, Lily stepped out of the room in a cloud of steam feeling like a new woman. Okay, so she'd opted out of transfiguring herself a nightdress - she wasn't James - and had ended up resorting to stealing a clean T-shirt from the airing cupboard, but she was washed and definitely decent. Besides, Lily felt so sleepy she wasn't certain that she could even remember how to hold a wand, let alone cast a spell. Uncertain what she should do with her clothes, she wound them up into a tight bundle and wandered through into the sitting room again.

"Do you have a hairbrush, please?" It never hurt to be polite, a maxim reinforced when Malfoy calmly summoned her one.

"The door directly opposite had a fold-out bed. You can sleep there." Malfoy was already on his feet and past her as he spoke. Stepping into the hallway he opened the door for her, revealing a book-lined study. Lily had been aware that he'd been getting the books they had been reading from somewhere, yet she hadn't expected to see such a large array of titles in such a small flat. Of course, logically it made sense. What were the odds of randomly meeting a relative of Sirius's who had a fixation on time-travel?

"Is that room yours?" Lily gestured to the only room she had yet to see, behind the door to the left of the kitchen.

"Yes. I suppose I don't need to say that it's out of bounds." He shot a sharp look at James and Sirius as he spoke, clearly knowing where rebellion was likely to come from.

"Let me guess," snapped James, "it'll vaporise us on the spot?" Clearly he wasn't ready to forgive and forget yet.

Malfoy ignored the rude tone, speaking as if to a child instead. "No, no, my dear Fred. You just might see some things you'd really rather not. After all, it is my very... private... sanctuary." If it had been anyone else, Sirius say, Lily might have laughed at the smirk on his face. As it was, she wasn't quite so sure. "Either way, I suppose that as you are wedded to the delectable Lady Rose, you'll be sleeping here too." As he talked, he tugged at the foot of the room's sofa causing the back to collapse down into something approaching a double bed. "Which, of course, leaves Bob with the couch."

Sirius spluttered a bit at that and Lily thought she heard him mutter something about ungracious hosts. Their own 'ungracious host' just frowned at him. "I'm not giving up my bed for a bunch of unexpected and not entirely desired guests. So unless you're really desperate to share a bed with your psychotic kinsman, I suggest that you learn to live with it." Yanking open a small cupboard, he tugged out a mass of blankets some of which he tossed at Sirius and some that he dumped on the bed-settee. Slamming the cupboard shut, he fixed an unnervingly charming smile on Sirius. "So. Want to sleep with me? No? Okay then, I'll leave you to settle in. I have an early start in the morning." And with that he swept past a blushing Sirius.

Lily gave him a funny look. Annoyed or unnerved she could have understood, but embarrassed? "What was all that about?"

Sirius just looked her dead in the eye and then jerked his head towards James who, she only just noticed, was shaking with laughter. With a disgusted look which clearly implied that Sirius was thinking about getting a new, more sympathetic best friend Sirius left the room, presumably for the sitting room couch. "Why don't you ask your sweetheart that?" he threw back over his shoulder.

Lily turned a glare on her husband. "Honestly. You could have been a little nicer. Sirius, er, Bob, I mean, was really worried or something."

"You don't say." James's eyes were laughing at her. Lily really did hate not getting it.

"It was a rather odd threat, I have to admit." Maybe if she dug a little, she'd get an answer.

Which she did, if not the answer she had been expecting. "Hecate, Lily. Malfoy wasn't threatening Si-um-Bob. He was flirting with him." There was a moment's pause during which Lily felt her eyes grow wide. Flirting? But Sirius was clearly a boy. Even Malfoy couldn't think that he'd have disguised his gender when assuming the name 'Bob'. But if not...

"Oh."

"Quite. Have to admit that I wouldn't like being hit on by a murderous cousin either."

"So you mean that he's a... gay?" And yes, Lily knew that she sounded silly gasping breathlessly, but she'd never met anyone gay before. Well, there was Jack back at Hogwarts, but he acted really... differently. Not at all like Malfoy. She couldn't imagine talking to him normally tomorrow, but thankfully James was shaking his head. She doubted that Malfoy would like her casting him curious glances over breakfast.

"Oh, I doubt it." James was at his must pompously know-it-all as he spoke, he never really had learned how to speak honestly and with modesty. "Sometimes blokes joke about like that. He was just trying to get a rise out of Bob and annoy him a bit."

Lily nodded. "Trust Sirius's relatives to be as shocking as he is."

James laughed. "Are you ready for me to turn out the light, yet?" At her nod, the light flicked off. It took a few moments for Lily's eyes to adjust to the street lights reflected into the front room. Then James joined her in the bed, and her thoughts were over for the night.

~*~*~*~

Morning crept up on Lily slowly. First of all she became aware of a wonderful, all-consuming warmth that made her body feel placid and heavy. Then came the vague sense of peace and contentment that follows a fantastic night's sleep. Next she started to notice the rose-coloured glow of sunlight shining through her closed eyelids. James must have opened the curtains when he got up that morning.

With that thought awareness returned in a comparative flood, but she still lay there, contented; not-quite ready to open her eyes and face the world.

The bed besides her was definitely cold and empty and she could catch the delicious scent of bacon on the air. Lily smiled. She was so lucky to have James as a husband. He might have flunked potions, but he could find his way around a kitchen almost better than she could. Maybe if she lay there long enough, there'd be breakfast in bed. Unfortunately, her mind chose that moment to remind her of what had happened the last time there had been James and herself and food in a bed and she had to acknowledge that it really wasn't the most considerate thing for a guest to inflict upon her host.

Which was, naturally, when yesterday clicked into focus. So much for a relaxed lie-in.

Lily was just about dressed for the day, feeling absurdly foolish for not having learned the cleaning charms that Irene Spilner had insisted back in fifth year would be useful one day, when the doorbell rang. Later she could only argue that, after being the lady of a house (though not this house obviously), she had gotten used to being the one to open doors. There were few other ways of explaining how she ended up nose-to-nose with a rather older but otherwise completely recognisable Severus Snape.

The years had, strangely, not taken that much of a toll upon Severus, which both surprised Lily and yet did not surprise her. After all, Severus always had acted older than his years. Maybe he was finally learning how to let go.

He looked good, she thought, at the same time as panicking that he might recognise her (which was highly unlikely considering the charms) or her voice (which she was now cursing not having charmed). He was rather gaunt and his hair, much as she hated to agree with James on it, was rather in need of a wash. But he looked healthy and alive and really not that bad for his age, which gave Lily a moment's optimism about her own future appearance. And...

Oh my god! James! And Sirius! With Severus! Oh Hell, no! This was a disaster!

Which was rather when she noticed that Severus was pointing his wand at her.

"Just who do you think you are?" Oh, and his voice hadn't changed much either. Yes, definitely still Severus Snape.

She really needn't have worried about her voice, because all that came out was a strangled gulp.

Malfoy chose that moment to come along and rescue her. "She's a guest, Sev. No need to point wands anywhere. You can call her Rose."

'Sev' didn't deem it necessary to lower his wand, which did show the generation gap rather nicely, Lily thought in a panicked sort of abstraction. Snape had always been rather amenable to suggestion from Lucius. "She," he emphasised the pronoun with a clear degree of dubiousness, "is under Abeo."

"Yes, quite. I know already. Now do come in off the doorstep and stop letting the cold air in."

"Warm air out," Snape corrected in that frankly annoying way that he sometimes had. Occationally Lily had almost seen where James was coming from with all of his Snape-baiting antics. Still, he'd at least lowered his wand and stepped across the threshold to close the door. She hadn't realised quite how cold the morning air had been until then. Must have been the shock.

"There's bacon and eggs in the kitchen so you may as well come though." Lily wasn't entirely certain whether Malfoy was talking to her or Snape or even both of them, but she was hungry and also certain that even - or perhaps especially - Malfoys would consider feeding their guests part of the done thing. Besides, she refused to go and hide in the guest room, but maybe if she kept her mouth full of food she wouldn't have to worry about talking and having her voice give her away. Sirius hadn't been clear on what would happen if their identity was discovered. Maybe they would upset the space-time continuum. Or maybe he just didn't want another nagging about being a disappointment to the Black line.

She walked into the kitchen and discovered how much the short walk down the hallway had calmed her when she lost that calm to panic.

James and Sirius were sat on the only two stools of the small kitchen table and had presumably been eating breakfast, but were now staring at Snape with greater shock than she could imagine them showing if Malfoy had walked into the room sporting a pink tutu and performing his latest rendition of Swan Lake. Thankfully Sirius had something in his mouth and whatever else his mother might have felt he failed in, at least he had sufficient table manners not to try and talk with his mouth full. James was another matter all together. He wasn't eating, but the expression he was giving Snape was such a particular sort of horror that Lily actually felt her insides go cold. She was used to seeing his dismayed oh-no-that-didn't-work horror, but this was of an entirely different nature.

Neither Snape nor Malfoy seemed to be paying the three of them any attention, however. Indeed, Snape seemed disinclined to venture any further into the house than he had to and was instead leaning on the kitchen doorframe. Malfoy was playing with the kettle. "I'd offer you a cup of tea," he said, "but somehow I doubt you're staying. So instead can I ask what brings you here?"

"I don't suppose you have any powdered foxgloves?"

"Herb rack." Malfoy nodded his head towards it as he set about adding instant coffee to his mug. "Top row. Help yourself."

Severus at last entered the kitchen, though Lily thought she could almost see his skin shudder with displeasure. He took the little jar before retreating back to the doorway. "Only you would put a poison in the spice rack."

"I find it aids natural selection." The kettle was boiling and Malfoy calmly poured it into his mug.

"I'm surprised it hasn't killed off your little sweetheart. We all know how-"

"Yes, yes. I know. Not the brightest of Potions students ever. Still, I think you'll find my teaching expertise exceeds yours in this case." The smirk was rather ruined by a disgusted grimace as he took a sip from the mug. "Merlin, I hate bloody instant coffee."

Snape shrugged. Lily couldn't remember him ever looking so calm. "I can't say I'm devastated that that particular responsibility has passed on. I still can't believe you took it on."

"There are upsides." Malfoy might have claimed not to like instant coffee, but Lily noticed that he was already a good way through the mug.

From Snape's expression, she could tell that he, for one, wasn't particularly convinced that there could be any upsides to Malfoy's date, but he merely enquired, "Seems quiet at the moment. Not up yet?"

"What can I say? Off holding hands with the latest Mrs. Weasley as she approaches her due date. Which is fucking fantastic. I'm absolutely certain that the last thing this world needs is another wave of Weasley brats."

"Quite," Snape agreed. "I thought she, at least, was intelligent enough to have brewed up a contraceptive potion."

"You must be getting optimistic in your old age, Sev." Malfoy seemed to deflate a little under the older wizard's glare. Eventually Snape nodded, apparently satisfied that there weren't going to be many more sniping remarks in his direction.

"I'll be going now. No need to see me out." Lily let out a breath that she hadn't even realised she'd been holding as Snape left without causing a visible rise in either James or Sirius and without even attempting to get any of them to talk. It was slightly unnerving that he was leaving Malfoy to deal with his three shrouded visitors as Lily was absolutely certain that no member of the Order, or, indeed, anyone else she knew who could detect the Abeo spell, would have left without demanding a more thorough explanation. Still, peace time did tend to make people relax and suspicions stand down.

She tried to imagine Snape ever being anything other than jumpy and suspicious and somehow failed spectacularly.

A mug banged down in front of her and Lily jerked in shock. "Coffee." He might have seemed relaxed chatting to Snape, but by now Malfoy just looked annoyed. She wondered if he wasn't a morning person, or if maybe he just didn't like having unannounced guests.

"Thank you." She took a sip and gasped as she nearly burned her mouth. She'd been told last night that there was no milk in. It hadn't seemed like a problem then, but now it was occurring to Lily just how long hot drinks took to cool without adding cold milk. Maybe she could try water...

The kitchen was virtually silent, a fact that Lily only noticed when James broke the quiet. "I was thinking we should go out this morning. See if we can find some more spell books." There was something oddly intense in his eyes causing Lily to nod her agreement before Malfoy broke in.

"I really don't think that's a good idea. I don't like the thought of you lot wandering about like a bunch of free-range hens. You're not from this time and Merlin only knows what'll happen if you go about interacting with things." He managed to say 'interacting' as though it was a dirty word and for a moment all thoughts of Lucius were banished from Lily's mind; that had been pure Narcissa.

"With all due respect," James said, his eyes narrowed, making him look anything but respectful at that moment, "but you're hardly an expert in time-travelling. I don't see that we can't cause equal amounts of trouble here as elsewhere. However, if we're elsewhere-"

"You'll go about dragging other people into this little mess of yours. Yes, I know. I am aware of how the human psyche tends to work when under unbearable pressure. Trust me. I've been there before."

James's eyes narrowed and Lily immediately knew that he was going to snap back a sharp retort. Thankfully Sirius got there before him. Lily could only think of a handful of other times she'd been grateful for Sirius's quick wit. "It'd be nice to have some time alone, you know? So that we can figure things out."

"Well then, don't worry about things on my behalf. I've got somewhere to be." He flashed a quick glance at the round, plastic clock above the doorway. "In fact, it's right about now. Have fun gossiping. Don't go outside and don't play with the matches, little kiddies." With that he banged down the coffee cup and swept away, into the hallway and then on, out of the house.

Sirius was already glaring at James before Lily had even turned back. "You'd better have a damn good reason for acting like that, mate. We can't just go pissing off people whose hospitality we're dependent on."

"Don't worry." James's eyes were hard. "I do. We've got to talk now."

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