Lily Luna Potter (![]() ![]() @ 2012-09-02 00:24:00 |
![]() |
|||
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
Current music: | Papa Don't Preach - Madonna |
To Sing a Song
Characters: Lily Luna, Harry
When: day 2 of songs, breakfast time
Location: Harry’s room
Warnings/Rating: None
Summary: Lily sings an opposite song and is mortified
Status: Complete/Gdocs’d
Things were going well. Sure, she could do without the tunnel -- and whatever those freakish things were that had hung on the windows for a bit -- but it could be worse. They could still be underwater, or up in space, or back on Pandora, or Don could be gone. Things were … all right. While she doubted her father was ever going to warm up to Don, she didn’t think there’d be any more face punching, and that was something. Feeling in a better mood than she had been since … well, really, since the whole train thing had started, Lily decided to surprise her father with breakfast. Getting up earlier than usual, leaving Don sleeping in their bed, she’d made her way to the front kitchen. With her gran’s help, she got together a nice breakfast on a tray and carried it to her father’s room. While she did offer one warning knock, she let herself in and just hoped he was decent. “Good morning, daddy!” She chirped cheerfully as she moved to set the tray on his dresser. She then intended to ask how he was this morning, but what came out of her mouth was something … well, not anywhere near what she’d had in mind. “Papa I know you're going to be upset 'Cause I was always your little girl But you should know by now I'm not a baby You always taught me right from wrong I need your help, daddy please be strong I may be young at heart But I know what I'm saying The one you warned me all about The one you said I could do without We're in an awful mess, and I don't mean maybe - please Papa don't preach, I'm in trouble deep Papa don't preach, I've been losing sleep But I made up my mind, I'm keeping my baby, oh I'm gonna keep my baby, mmm...” Keep her -- oh Merlin this was not going to end well. Lily covered her face with her hands, but the words kept coming. They were a little muffled, but still distinguishable. She shook her head vehemently even as she kept singing. “He says that he's going to marry me We can raise a little family Maybe we'll be all right It's a sacrifice But my friends keep telling me to give it up Saying I'm too young, I ought to live it up What I need right now is some good advice, please Daddy, daddy if you could only see Just how good he's been treating me You'd give us your blessing right now 'Cause we are in love, we are in love, so please Oh, I'm gonna keep my baby, ooh Don't you stop loving me daddy I know, I'm keeping my baby.” Lily panted a little, her head still shaking back and forth, her hands still over her face. “No,” she said as she lowered her hands. “No, that’s not -- no,” she insisted. “I’m not … none of that …” She scowled. Merlin damn this sodding train! ____________ Sleep had finally started to come more easily to him and Harry was grateful for that. Ever since Pepper had shown up, things were different. It wasn’t like he’d walked around starkers or anything but it was different, living with a woman who wasn’t his wife. Pepper stayed out of his way though, and kept their room in order, so he couldn’t complain. She was always an early riser so Harry was on his own when Lily walked in with her breakfast tray. Harry had started to stir at the knock and rubbed his eyes as she said good morning. She’d just done that the last Father’s Day and he smiled, turning and pushing himself up so that he was sitting against the headboard. Of course, that smile disappeared as soon as he realized she was singing and what she was singing. His little girl was pregnant. “I’m going to kill him,” Harry muttered, assuming from the way that she was trying to keep the words in that it was true. His feet had already hit the floor and he was starting to stand, dressed in a slightly oversized tee and shorts, when she finally stopped singing and tried to refute what she’d just spilled out. He looked at her very very seriously. “Lily Luna, do not lie to me,” he prefaced, obviously distressed at the idea of her being pregnant. Not on this train of all places. That was just painful to think about. He was making some effort to at least give her a chance to explain instead of just going off and demanding Don’s balls as punishment. It was an improvement, wasn’t it? “Are you pregnant?” Merlin, if she was, he was going to have to go see his mum first, to let her set him straight. Christ, he had always figured he’d be going to Ron for that conversation but here, he didn’t think that was the best idea. ____________ “I’m not,” she insisted. “And if I was, I wouldn’t sing it to you.” Well, she wouldn’t willingly sing anything to him -- or anyone else -- but especially not something like that. Though really, all things considered, if she was pregnant, she’d ask her mum or aunt or just about anyone else to tell her father. And then she’d devote all her time to keeping wards on the door so he didn’t go after Don. “It’s not … no. Merlin, no,” she repeated, her face scrunching up. While she didn’t mind the idea of kids eventually, they weren’t on her agenda any time in the near future, and definitely not on the train. Probably not with Don, either, though that was a thought that carried mixed emotions. Someday, she thought, it wouldn’t be so bad. But she’d rather be home properly with all her family, and … whomever she wound up with there. As much as (right now) she’d like to take Don with her, she just really didn’t think their relationship was ever going to go to a place like that. And for the train, their relationship as it stood suited her fine. “The train does things like this. The songs,” she reminded him, her brow furrowing briefly before she tried to make her face relax. “We’re not … like that, me and him. Besides, I told you, we’re being safe.” Not that she was in a rush to discuss her sexual activities with her father, but he had to know he hadn’t raised an idiot. Exhaling, and hoping they could change the subject and not dive into a discussion about Don, her relationship, or what she should do in the event she wound up pregnant, Lily gestured toward the tray. “I brought you breakfast.” _____________ Relief was not an accurate word to describe how Harry felt when Lily insisted that she wasn’t pregnant. He was overjoyed that he wasn’t getting his first grandchild while they were in a situation like this. How would that have even worked? What if she was taken before she’d gotten through the nine months? Would that life just poof out of existence? Her baby wasn’t going to follow her, he didn’t think, but if it did? How was she going to explain that? Understand it even? A baby just complicated things, and he knew that from experience in his own life, where things were much more reasonable than on the train. He couldn’t understand how anyone could do it. “Good, good. You’re not...” Harry sighed, not sure what the best way to say what he wanted to say was. He just shook his head and sat back against the headboard, pulling his legs up so that he was sitting Indian style, leaving plenty of room for her to sit down on the bed with him. “Come on, take a seat,” he offered with a smile, already moving the tray so that it was in front of him. It looked delicious and he wondered how long he’d managed to get breakfast in bed for either Father’s Day or his birthday. “Looks like the next stop is China. You learned a translation spell, yea?” A stupid thing to talk about when it came right down to it but Harry felt awkward around his daughter. He hated it, but that was the way it was. _____________ “No, I’m not,” she repeated. Not that she thought she had to, but for something like that … a little reiteration never hurt. She wasn’t pregnant, he didn’t need to go attack Don. The drama was settled, and she had no desire to stir it back up. Even if it was the train, and nothing she was doing on purpose. Which made her wonder who else was going to be singing songs like that to people, and she pulled a slight face. Maybe she’d just … start avoiding certain people. She couldn’t stand the idea of someone singing a song to her that wasn’t true. Like if Don started to sing about how he loved her, and … well, she knew better, didn’t she? “Your mum helped,” she replied when he complimented the breakfast. She never quite knew how to refer to her grandmother around him. Saying ‘my gran’ felt too possessive, but saying ‘your mum’ seemed too dismissive. ‘Lily’ was just weird and sometimes confusing, and sometimes felt improper. Like she shouldn’t be addressing her elder (even if she was only elder by six months) by her name. ‘Evans’ was just too informal and felt wrong and … LIly sighed and shook her head. Well, no matter. She’d stick to ‘your mum’ until someone told her elsewise. “I haven’t. I was going to pop over to somewhere that spoke English,” she admitted. It seemed easier, somehow, to try to apparate over to England than to try to learn to speak Chinese or find a translator. “What about you?” she prompted as she moved to settle at the foot of the bed, sitting so she was facing him. She hadn’t forgotten the song -- how could she? -- but she was glad they seemed to be abandoning the topic of it. _____ Reiteration never hurt when it came to Harry and any information about Lily’s relationship with Don. He was never going to like the man, but he could appreciate that he was doing a hell of better job keeping Lily happy than anyone else. It was unfortunate that he hadn’t gotten there sooner, but he couldn’t do anything about it. He was just going to have to learn to live with things they way they were, and he’d started to. Pregnancy though...he really couldn’t fathom that. He was still adjusting and his daughter knew that. Some days, he didn’t really think it counted for anything, but that was fine. It was better than nothing. Harry smiled when Lily referred to her grandmother as ‘your mum’. “Guess it’d be a bit odd to call her grandmum, huh?” Considering the two of them were the same age, he could understand that and as long as his mum wasn’t upset, he didn’t care either way. His mum would always be mum, even if she was a bit older than half her age. He probably could’ve made a comment about his cooking skills and getting them from his mother but the truth was, he had to be a decent enough cook in the Dursley household. Instead, he busied himself with taking a bite, enjoying the food for what it was and the fact that she’d done this for him. Maybe she didn’t quite hate him after all. He chuckled outright when she said she was just going to Apparate somewhere that spoke English. “I’ve got a translation charm that’ll work. It’s come in handy before and it should come in handy now. I didn’t even think about Apparating. Have you done that on previous stops?” He’d done so when they’d stopped in the zombie infested place, but that had been in the general area. Had others managed to go further? She would know, or else he could ask his mother. ____________________ “I dunno what to call her around you,” she admitted. “I call her gran when I’m with her, and I call you my da’ when I’m with her, but … I dunno. There’s nothing that really feels right to call her around you.” She guessed if her grandmother had lived, and they’d all been their proper ages, it wouldn’t have been an issue. “What d’you think you would have named me, if … if she’d still been alive when I was born?” She was curious if her parents had ever even considered back-up names, or if she was always going to be Lily as soon as they realized she was a girl. She guessed if that was the case, there would have been no reason for back-up names. Lily tried to think, then she shook her head. “In Nebraska, but just between the hotel and the train. Dorny’s usually the one that goes everywhere. When we stopped in New York, she apparated to England to see if it was our England. In Nebraska, she went up to Canada. In Tortuga, she took Logan across to the States.” She guessed Jaime must have done some hopping around in Nashville, too, but Lily hadn’t been paying that much attention. But maybe not. Hadn’t she been grounded after she got her arm broken? “You’ll have to teach it to me,” she prompted her father. “In case.” In case Don didn’t want to go with her. In case she had to stay in China. In case he didn’t speak Chinese -- and she saw no reason he would. _________ Harry nodded, taking another bite of his breakfast as she explained her relationship with her grandmother. At least they’d worked something out between themselves, but there was a question of what to call her to him. Lily was out of the question, it wasn’t very respectful, but he was all right with the other options if she found something she was comfortable with. “Try some things out, whatever feels comfortable. Just not ‘Lily’,” he said, but that was probably a given and she was generally very respectful of her elders. “I’m glad you have a chance to get to know her.” He was glad he had the opportunity too, but she was who his daughter was named after. “You were always going to be Lily, and your brothers were always going to be named James Sirius and Albus Severus. I wanted to honor my parents and the men I owed my life to.” He’d taken on a bit of a quieter demeanor, as he always did whenever he talked about the loss of life associated with Voldemort’s ploy for power. He still wasn’t all that comfortable talking about it, particularly and especially with his children, but he wasn’t going to not answer. “Ah, okay. It’s a simple enough spell, designed to translate your speech into the native language and translate what the other person says into English. It’s like this,” he said, setting his fork down to move his hand the way she’d need to for the spell itself. “Loqui Vernaculus, just like that.” It wouldn’t work on them, because their native language was the same, but it should work on someone whose native language was something other than English. “You can also cast it on someone else,” he added. _______________ “I am, too,” she replied. Honestly, sometimes she felt like her gran was her only ally here. Even if Lily didn’t approve of Don, she at least wasn’t being outwardly vocal about it. “I wouldn’t call her Lily. It’d just get … confusing. Or I’d start feeling like I was talking about myself or … something.” Lily grinned. “No, if they’d been alive still,” she replied. “I mean …” Though she guessed it wasn’t anything they would have considered. Still, she wouldn’t have minded knowing what other names they’d been considering. If they had been, which apparently they hadn’t, so she shrugged her shoulders to brush off the question. It didn’t really matter, and she might be put out if she might have been a Cynthia or a Felicia or something. She had nothing against her name, really, aside from the occasional confusion of being the other red-headed Lily on the train. She watched as he demonstrated the spell, and she thought she’d have to find someone to practice it with before they landed in China. Maybe they could start passing it around, so they’d be able to cover all the Muggles. Lord. Now she sounded helpful or something. “I’ll have to try. Does Aunt Hermione know it? I mean. At the age she’s at?” Lily grinned. “Or was she the one that taught it to you?” She teased him. _______ Harry grinned and responded, “Your name definitely wasn’t chosen with this particular situation in mind. You’ll always be my LilyLu though.” In all honesty, he hadn’t considered anything else to name her. Their first daughter had always been Lily when he’d discussed it with Ginny. James Sirius had been an easy decision and so had Albus. The Severus part had been a firm decision made by Harry, but the fact that it was the boy’s middle name was his compromise. They would’ve kept trying until they had a girl, or so Harry was inclined to believe. “I’m not sure what we would have named you otherwise. Likely another ancestor of either mine or your mother’s,” he explained, but he honestly had never given it any thought. If he’d grown up with his mother and father, if he’d never felt the need to pay tribute to the people that made his life possible, would he have continued his mother’s family’s tradition of flowers for names? Would he and Ginny have decided on something else? Would he have even been married to Ginny? There were so many possibilities that Harry just forced himself to forget about it and focus on teaching her the spell. “She might, but I’m not sure. I didn’t learn about it until after I joined the Aurors and went on my first international assignment,” Harry offered, eating more of his breakfast. “And I think I’m enjoying this chance to know more than your Aunt Hermione. She’s always been the one with all the answers.” ___________ “Being stuck on a train?” Her brows arched, but she did smile a little. “Can’t say any of us really saw this coming,” she continued thoughtfully, reaching over to pick up a piece of toast off his plate, breaking off a corner of it before putting it back with a little grin. “I’m not naming any of my kids after you,” she began before rolling her eyes at herself. “My eventual, distant future kids that I’m not having on the train,” she clarified. In light of recent events, maybe her eventual future kids weren’t the best topic of discussion. Moving away from that, she was more content to focus on the idea of the spell. She was still sort of set on the idea of apparating somewhere that spoke English, but if Don didn’t want to, she’d stay with him. Though … if he was going to stay on the train, she’d at least take a couple days. Unless the reality had zombies or disease or … rabid pandas. Given the trend of stops lately, it wouldn’t have surprised her. “Maybe you should teach her, if she doesn’t know,” Lily encouraged before she nibbled on the edge of the toast. “I mean, it wouldn’t hurt to pass it around. Since most everyone on the train seems to speak English … we’re probably not going to do well in China, and not everyone can just pop away to England. Or … somewhere else.” _______ Harry grinned. “It’d probably be a little odd if you did, unless I was dead. Then I’d go for a middle name I think,” he replied, joking with her. She could name her children whatever she liked. That was her prerogative, along with her husband. “Have you ever thought about it? Having kids, I mean,” he asked, not bothered in the slightest that she’d taken a bit of his toast. “Just as long as there’s marriage first, then the baby.” It was good natured, but there was an undercurrent of seriousness that he did his best to tone down. She’d already insisted repeatedly that she wasn’t pregnant, that she didn’t have any intention of getting pregnant, and that she and Don weren’t there. He was glad they agreed on all of those points. “I can do that, and I’ll pass it along to the others as well. There’s a good number of us now so it wouldn’t hurt. Jaime and your gran go out for supply runs, so at the very least that’ll be good.” Harry was all about being helpful and the spell would be a step in the right direction. “Were you thinking about going to England?” he asked, taking one of the other pieces of toast and taking a bite. “It’s not our England though, yea? No Diagon Alley or the like?” It would’ve been nice to at least go somewhere familiar, but if it was vastly different, he wasn’t sure he’d want to see his home like that. ___________________ “Not … really,” she admitted. They were vague ideas, something she assumed would be in her future, but she’d never really sat down to consider the reality of. She was a little amused by his insistence she be married first, and she glanced over to him. “But what if I want to be in an open relationship, and … Kids are something that just happens?” Not that that was a likely scenario; she didn’t share well, and if she was going to have kids, she’d want the security of marriage, too. But … well, what fun was life if she couldn’t tease her father? “Thinking about it. If it’s … a decent reality, and if …” She hesitated, then shrugged. “If Don wanted to go.” She did shake her head to his question. “It wasn’t, when we stopped in New York. Dorny checked, and reported back. It isn’t likely this one will be, either, but … who knows? It may well be our world, and we’re just landing in the China of it.” It wasn’t likely but it was possible. “You could check though. I mean, well. Any of us could. I’m sure Dorny will go see, if it’s … safe.” If there were zombies or disease or mad cows or whatever else, she imagined they’d all stick around the train, like last time. ______________ Harry could feel the twitch at her teasing and gave her a look. “Ha ha, very funny.” He was able to manage a smile though, because she was his daughter when it came down to it and family ran in her veins. Even though there was a ten year difference between them, he was confident that he at least had that much right about her. He’d sworn, when he married Ginny, that family would always come before anything else. His children would have the life he never did, no matter what. “I do think your brothers will have kids before you do. Though, that could be because I intended on not letting you date until you were 17.” He liked to think he could tease her right back. “If you have the chance to go and have fun...” Harry shrugged. “I’m not going to stop you. Better there than around the train if it’s a nice one. I hope so.” And that was an honest statement. At the very least, they’d be able to see if the world where they arrived was a similar situation elsewhere. She knew how to defend herself for the most part, and he’d work on that with her if she wanted. “Just stay safe. That’s all I can ask.” Physically, mentally...there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to keep his little girl safe, even if it meant letting her go and being there to pick up the pieces. “I’m not too worried about it. I’ve come to terms with the fact that having zero expectations of the train is a good place to start.” He offered her a smile and then picked up the last piece of toast. “Want it?” ___________ Lily nodded. “James probably will,” she admitted. Her lips parted to say it wouldn’t surprise her if he had an accidental kid out there somewhere, but that was probably unfair, and an assumption, really. Just because he seemed popular with the girls hardly meant he was shagging them all. And even if he was … well, he should know how to be safe. She did, after all. “We made it to fifteen,” Lily replied. “Then I started doing it anyway.” A grin played across her lips that might have implied she could have been teasing. Truth, she hadn’t really dated much in school, and she’d only had sex once before the train -- and it hadn’t been very good. “I don’t go running out in front of danger,” she informed him, her brows lifting slightly. She was more the sort to head the other way when there was danger, though she guessed in the right circumstances she’d step out in front of it. To save someone she cared about, for example. But she wasn’t like Dorny, who seemed to revel in doing stupidly dangerous things. It just wasn’t in her nature. “Probably a wise course,” she admitted. She couldn’t help it; sometimes she expected things of the train. She reached out to take the offered toast, returning his smile. “I hope you’re still around if it ever goes back to the resort,” she murmured. “That was nice.” Don hadn’t been there for that, but Marvel and Tris had, and it had been fun to just pal around with them, without worrying about what sort of insanity would be inflicted on them -- at least for a little while. ___________ “Fifteen? That’s pretty good,” he replied warmly, privately wondering if she lasted longer than her cousins. It didn’t matter, so he didn’t ask her, but he was relieved to know that some of the promises he made to himself had lasted a decent amount of time. “Did they have any dances while you were there?” They’d had the Yule Ball, and that seemed to be only for that one particular special occasion, but things could have changed. “No, thank Merlin. You got your mother’s sense when it comes to that.” The last thing he wanted was to worry about her going off and running headfirst into danger like Jaime did, or like he did before he became the department head. Speaking of though, she’d have been old enough to have graduated already. “What did you end up doing, after you graduated from Hogwarts?” Harry couldn’t remember if he’d asked that before, so it didn’t hurt to ask again. Privately, Harry wished he’d stay around for as long as she needed him. He hated the idea that the train could whisk him away without any warning more than anything else, even the idea that Gin could show up ranting and raving and hating Lily. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and there will be another good stop sooner rather than later,” he replied, finding it in him to be the optimist. __________________ “You didn’t think so at the time,” she replied oh so innocently. “There were rows that shook the walls of the house,” she elaborated. Or fabricated. It wasn’t like he’d know, and she grinned slightly, more amused than she should have been at being able to tease him like this. She did shake her head to the question. “No, nothing like that. It could have been fun though.” Lily shrugged. “I hadn’t decided yet. Hugo and I were going to travel around Europe, but I got warped onto the train instead.” She frowned slightly, because there were days she really, really wished the train would bring her cousin back. But she had her father, and she had Don; she guessed asking for Hugo would be greedy. “Guess we’ll see when it stops.” While she was of the camp who thought they were due for a good stop, the trend of stops lately didn’t exactly offer much hope in that regard. Maybe it would be apocalypse China, or some other form of uninhabitable. Trust the train to dump them somewhere like that. Nibbling around the edges of the toast, she gazed toward the window before she let her eyes drift away. “If you’re done, I can take the dishes out,” she offered. She figured he’d want to shower or finish waking up or … whatever, but if he wanted her to hang out a little longer, it wasn’t like she was going to mind spending time with her father. ________ “Rows? Really?” That was surprising, but she’d know better than he. Plus, given his reaction to Don...it wasn’t all that surprising now that he thought about it. “Well...I guess not really,” he acknowledged sheepishly. He wanted to move on though because dwelling on punching Don wasn’t on his to-do list. “It was, when we had it. McGonagall taught us the waltz, said she wasn’t going to let us disgrace Gryffindor,” Harry shared, smiling at the memory of Ron having to dance with the older woman, Fred and George looking positively gleeful. It had been a fun class, if a little awkward. “Thanks, LilyLu,” he said, wiping his hands on the napkin before balling it up and putting it back on the tray. “What do you say we hit the entertainment car this afternoon? Cards maybe? Or a movie.” He didn’t particularly have a preference either way, but it was nice spending time with her and he was looking forward to doing more of it. Just, after he took a little nap. ___________ “Guess you’re not at that point yet,” she speculated. “Me and Jamie are champion yellers, and rows aren’t that uncommon in the house.” That … was actually more or less true. Between the lot of them, and with her and her brothers all being teenagers, and her having a temper like she did … well, it was easy enough to get them going. While Al didn’t often get in on it … she knew how to push his buttons to rile him up. She grinned as her dad recounted the dance class, and she shook her head slightly. “Maybe you’ll have to teach me sometime,” she teased him as she unfolded her legs and slid off the bed, reaching to gather up the tray. “Sure,” she agreed. She was sure Don wouldn’t mind a couple of hours to himself, and now that things were mended between her and her father, she really did intend to spend more time with him. “I’ll see you there then, after lunch,” she said before she started toward the door. |