Visiting One of Saturn's Rings chapter 2 by shana shanaisme@hotmail.com aim: meshananotu

books hp pre-1981 romance pg

An owl flew into Lily's dorm room. She looked up, acknowledged its presence as it sailed in through the open window, and dropped her head back on to her pillow. She had learned how to breath through pillows; after three and one-half days of doing it, you get used to it. No magic needed. She sighed, but held it back. Sighing wasted good air and heated up the pillowcase beneath her. Nope, not good. Her breathing became even—as did her heartbeat.

Something pecked at Lily's shoulder. She swatted at it until it stopped. The pecking resumed, this time on the back of her hand. She shoved her hand under her pillow and looked up, ready to break the twig she assumed someone had hexed to annoy her. A flurry of feathers brushed against her hair.

"Oh, I get it," she said, realization hitting her and making her utter her first words in three and a half days. "You're delivering the Daily Prophet for someone and expect me to pay for it. Not gonna happen."

The owl swatted her head with its wing and threw the newspaper in its beak at her lap. The whole front page held one article, and it was titled, "Homecoming Nearby".

"Like I need this," Lily said, to the owl. When there was no peck of understanding, she looked up. The owl had already flown away. She looked at the title of the paper—Hogsmead Herald. 'Hmm,' she thought, 'I didn't know Hogsmeade had a newspaper.' She looked at the Homecoming article again and started reading.

"Homecoming Nearby
by Rita Skeeter, Hogwarts correspondent
*-*—*-*
HOGWARTS — For fifth years and older at
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizard-
ry, the most anticipated time of year is
almost here.
Homecoming at Hogwarts will be taking
place this Friday. It will begin with a ski
outing in the mountains behind the school,
which usually has a race between the
fastest girl and the fastest boy. Last
year's race was boring, in this reporter's
opinion, for Hogwarts' fastest girl opted
out of it.
The ski outing is usually followed by a
buffet and a dance in the Great Hall.
Cocoa, as always, will be there by the
kegful, and in self-refilling goblets for a
price. Marshmallows, contrary to popular
beliefs, are not made of skeletons and will
be there—in jet puffed and miniature sizes.
It is confirmed that there will be a widely
renown band there, but Hogwarts' personell
has kept its name under wraps.
As of tradition, there will be a King and
Queen elected by students. Since there
is a special Hogsmeade 'Best Teen Couple'
contest going on here at the Herald, the
couple selected will become nominees for
the contest. Rumor inside Hogwarts has
it that..."


*


"Checkmate."

James looked up from the list he was making; the pros and cons of asking Brianna to Homecoming. "That's impossible!" He took a quick glance across the board and realized that he had lost. His king stomped its foot and threw his crown down. James added, "I don't get it. This is the first time you beat me in seven years. This is definitely one for the record books."

"Ah, well, maybe fate was on my side," Sirius said, smirking.

"Eh?" James questioned, folding up his list and stuffing it in his pocket.

"You lose the game, you lose the bet."

"What?" His hand went to his pocket instinctively.

"I'm not going to read your love letter, James. You just lose the bet—so you have to turn in the form."

"Oh, come on! You don't really expect me to put a personals ad in the Hogsmeade paper!"

"A bet is a bet, James."

"But I didn't anticipate losing to you!"

"Neither did I, but it happened. Fork over the form."

"I didn't fill it out."

"What? That was part of the rules! Both of us filled it out and then we began the chess game."

"Like I said, I didn't think I'd lose to you."

"I know that already. Here, I'll erase mine."

No less than fifteen minutes later, James had filled out the form with un-erasable ink (as Sirius was sure to check) and had taken one of the secret passageways into Hogsmeade. He now was standing in the office that the Hogsmeade Herald operated out of. Sirius was beside him, looking around at the opposite-of-drab surroundings. The woman at the receiving counter kept looking at James suggestively, which finally propelled him to just leave the counter and look for a door possibly marked "Personals."

It was all the way in the back of the building. It was, in fact, marked "Personals." It had a large banner over the top of the doorway, proclaiming "25 years of perfect matches—the Hogsmeade Herald", which made James wonder as he knocked the door if they really always made perfect couples.

"It's him!" called someone on the other side of the door. It squeaked quietly as it opened.

"Ignore Kayla; she thinks every guy who walks in here is going to be part of the Best Teen Couple."

James stared at an astonishingly beautiful woman in front of him. He blinked quickly, closed his mouth, and said, "Oh, uh, okay."

"But Kayla might be right this time..." The woman grinned and glanced at the girl with cat-eyed glasses sitting in an armchair on the other side of the room, leaning over a thick book. She eyed James and seemed to be blind to Sirius. "Come in. I'm Jessie Lerry, and that's Kayla Schumitz. I'm twenty-two, and she's twenty-four. We're probably too old for you."

"I could deal with you." The witty side of James shone through for a flickering moment.

"Same here. So, lemme guess; you're from Hogwarts, lost a bet, and were sent here to put in an ad."

James was genuinely surprised. "How did you know?"

"Your friend behind you is holding up a sign."

James turned around and flicked Sirius in the side of the head. He stepped into the room. "So, how does this work anyway?" He sat on a black stool, his gaze wavering between Kayla and Jessie, who had plopped on to a blue beanbag chair.

Kayla spoke first. "I would tell you, but I'm updating our database right now. Jess?"

"I'll tell you, uh..." she faded.

"James."

"James, then. I'll tell you. We put your name into this book, followed by your interests and birth month and date. The year isn't used because most people don't want to tell their match their age. We use your star sign too, for some reason. I think whoever started this section was a Divinator. So, anway, we give you a number based on your information and when we find someone who comes within three digits of your number, we owl you and send you to Le Champagne free of charge. You just have to get there. And we might be able to find you someone before Homecoming."

"No need for that; James was just writing a love letter to his date," Sirius put in. James blushed.

"It wasn't a love letter, but I do have a date." Not technically, he thought, but yeah. He remembered the list in his pocket and his hand patted it for a second.

"Well, you'll have fun anyway. So, have a form?" Jessie asked James.

"Yeah." He handed the paper to her.

"You can leave, unless you want to hang around here." She handed the slip to Kayla, who looked it over quickly and sent a series of ribbon-like numbers into the air above her with a flick of her wand. "That's your number: 3181981. Wow, you must be popular."

"How can you tell? My number?"

"Yup; all the ones and eights. And you should write it down."

He pulled the list from his pocket, along with a Muggle ballpoint pen. "Am doing...one-nine-eight-one. That's it. And you'll owl me?" James asked, putting the parchment in his pocket.

"Yeah. See ya."

"Bye, James and Sirius!" Kayla shouted.

"Bye," they called back.

"You put your name on the sign, too?" James asked Sirius, pushing open the front door to the building and ignoring the receptionist.

"Of course." He grinned. James rolled his eyes.

They headed towards the passageway to Hogwarts.


*


Lily was back in classes. Everywhere she walked, people stared, knowing of her four days of sulking. But now, she was almost glowing, and a mischievious smile was permanently planted on her face.

She spoke to no one, least of all Riky, except for insulting people twice. This surprised everyone, but they assumed that this was another one of her stages, like when she hated all popular people even when she had been one herself. Riky thought it as aftermath of Lily finding out about her and Dan. In a way, it was. But not really.

James had received the Lily Evans Insult in Defense Against the Dark Arts when his shrinking potion 'accidentally' splashed by someone on to a certain place where shrinking is not wanted. Accidents in the magical world do not happen. And Dan, in Charms, was attacked by the LEI when he failed to be able to banish a cushion—review from their fourth year. Then, she had sent a pillow flying at his head and said, "Can't talk through the stuffing? I thought you were used to it, since that's what your head is full of." This had brought laughs all around, but a mysterious look from James, who had been with her the previous Friday and remembered her state. She figured that he came to the conclusion that it was a 'girl thing' and he shouldn't mess with her.

Well, she wished.


*