Visiting One of Saturn's Rings chapter 4 by shana shanaisme@hotmail.com aim: meshananotu

books hp pre-1981 romance pg

That night Lily dreamt of eyes. Not eyeballs, but eyes. They sat, embedded in faces with no features, all around her in the Great Hall. The tables had been stacked by the far wall, and the room was filled with her fellow students who were walking around and mingling. She looked around, talking to herself since no one else seemed to be able to hear her. "Where is everyone? What is up with this place?"

At that, she had looked up at the ceiling, which was usually bewitched to look like the sky above it. It still was, but a pale blue sky was not dotted with fluffy marshmallow-like clouds. The sky was a dark, almost pitch-black shade of blue. Dark purples and rich blacks were splashed against it, giving it a sense of depth up to the heavens above. White lightning spread across they sky every few seconds, and there seemed to be thunder resonating around her. Just then, she realized it was raining. Dollops of water splashed around and on her. Her hair was soaked, and her robes were dragging behind her. She took them off and let them fall to her feet, like many of those around her already seemed to have done. She was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, unfortunately white but it didn't really register. She was looking at something else. Someone else.

A pair of green eyes ahead of Lily beckoned her, and she went toward them—sloshing her way through the highering floodwaters. The looked as if they were glowing, and they seemed to have some sort of energy pulling her towards them. Unruly black hair sat sprawled on the person's head, with bangs almost long enough to cover the green-ness of the eyes. The eyes were the brightest things around her; brighter than the lightning, the pale skin of those around her. Everything.

It came across her mind for a moment that she was possibly going insane. Years of hanging around the wrong crowd were finally catching up to her. The next moment, however, the eyes and their brightness were all she could think of. They overcame her thoughts, her senses. Animal magnetism. Femme fatale—er, the guy version of femme fatale. What was it, testosterone? The lapse in her concentration on the eyes let her give in to her surroundings and acknowledge the momentary dullness in the sky and the people.

Suddenly, someone—or something—stepped in front of her. The face had sharp blue—no: gray, almost silver eyes, a color she felt compelling enough to stop in her tracks. Platinum hair was sticking up everywhere in what looked to be a purposeful way. Obviously the person used magicked hair gel to get their hair to stay up even in the pouring rain.

Then it all happened so fast; it felt like a movie or something. One minute she was standing still, rain falling around her, and the next she was madly kissing the face with the gray eyes. The face seemed to have sprouted lips and a nose in the nanoseconds it took her to put her arms around its body.

She woke up then. Later (during her solitary breakfast), Lily analyzed the dream with her sometimes scary ability to remember dreams photographically, ignoring the odd symbolism. She laughed out loud at the ending. Of course, people had looked at her as if she were a madwoman, but she was used to that by now.


*


James glared at Lucius Malfoy, who was smirking so broadly James was sure his mouth would fall off his face. If only that would happen; if only that had happened two hours previously. Then everything would be okay and James's life would be normal again.

You see, Malfoy had taken the liberty of asking Brianna to the big Homecoming bash, and Brianna had the audacity to accept his offer. It was as if she hadn't even noticed James planning out his speech and responses to any reaction she would have, even the ever popular "I-don't-even-like-you-loser, bug-off" look. But James had been pretty sure Brianna would agree to go with him. After all, he was only the most popular boy in their grade. Who would want to turn him down?

"I don't care if the Homecoming dance is going to be in two days; you will pay attention in class and there will be a test during class on Friday!" Gownes, the Potions professor exclaimed loudly to the whole class, disrupting James's flow of ideas. Upset opinions were voiced all around the dungeon, angrily whispered to those around them. "And for that, Slytherin and Gryffindor will lose ten points each. Fifteen, thanks to the redhead in the back!"

Everyone turned and looked at the 'redhead in the back.' It was Lily Evans, James's fellow Gryffindor seventh year. She was looking around in utter surprise; James guessed she had been sleeping because from his table three ahead of hers he could see lines on her face that were undoubtedly marks from pressing her head against her books.

"Hey, that's not fair. She didn't do anything wrong!" James said to Professor Gownes. James could feel his friends staring at him without looking.

Gownes raised his eyebrows so high they seemed to be enveloped by his blonde hair. "It isn't, is it? Well, siding with Evans now, are we Potter?"

James could feel his cheeks tinge as he replied. "Yes, I am, and I'm sure much of the rest of the class will agree with me now." James was afraid to look around; he knew that no one would voice their opinion on the matter from fear that Gownes would give them detention. Normally, nobody really cared about detention because they were scheduled so frequently that teachers were running out of ideas for punishments, but now it was too close to Homecoming and everyone was sure Gownes would assign the detention for Friday night.

"Well, your classmates seem to be close behind you, Mr. Potter." Just then, the bell rang signaling th end of class. Gownes continued anyway. "Stop by my desk after class, Potter. We need to arrange something." Sympathetic looks were flashed at James as he turned against the flow of the students pouring out of the dungeon. I knew it, he thought. Why did I have to go off like that without even thinking of the consequences? Of course, thinking of an action's consequences was not something James was famous for, but it struck him as annoying that this day could not get any worse. As soon as he thought that, he frantically tried to un-think it; everyone knows that a phrase like that jinxes everything.

Upon reaching the desk, James rid his mind of all thoughts and tried to make his eyes look as blank as possible. Gownes looked as if he wanted to finish this conversation as fast as possible. He started speaking in a matter of seconds.

"Listen, Potter, I want to get this over with as quickly as possible."

"So do I," James replied. "Talk on."

"Dumbledore wants me to supervise this Homecoming event—sort of like a chaperone if you will. I am supposed to ski around like an idiot and reprimand students who are misbehaving. However, I don't want to. It's utter nonsense to do that because everyone will just continue what they are doing. That is why I want you to take over my position. Dumbledore will not be here this weekend (he's got meetings with the governers) but McGonagall will be upset. Just tell her I think a student monitor will do more effect than a boring old teacher. Feel free to tweak with the speech if you wish to. Alright, got it?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. That will be all." James started to walk away, but he caught a wisp of Gownes muttering to himself: "...Evans will be boycotting it again and I won't miss anything."

Those cryptic words stuck in James's head for the rest of the evening and all through their study hour. He couldn't understand what exactly Gownes had been saying.


*


The next day, Lily had History of Magic for the first time that week. She sat in History of Magic listening to Professor Binns drone on. Ugh, she thought, I don't care if Binns has magical eyesight; I'm going to do my Care of Magical Creatures homework. She looked around her, wary of a teacher's pet (hey, even the most annoying of teachers have them). Seeing none, she opened her CAMC book. What was inside she was definitely not prepared for.

Melissya had slipped the letter, crumpled in the middle as it had been before, into Lily's CAMC book.

"Whoa," Lily said aloud. Professor Binns looked at her as if he had never been interrupted in all the years he had taught at Hogwarts, living and dead. He continued, but not before he could add a brief comment.

"That certainly is so. When the Australian Muggles found out about magic and our kind, it was a surprise. Fortunately, a shark bit their appendages off while surfing and both Muggles bled to death. There was mourning, but it was a relief to many on our side." He then started speaking about Wizard vacationing areas that are unmappable.

Lily stared at the letter. She had thought Melissya to be just another bee in the hive, another one of the wannabe preps speaking and acting exactly like everyone else around them. She also realized that she had forgotten about the letter during all of Tuesday and she hadn't spoken to Melissya about anything at all.

It turned out that Melissya was just the opposite of Lily's image of her. Even Monday night she had seemed a bit out of it. Well, maybe she really doesn't gossip, Lily concluded. But there were people Melissya hung out with, like some Hufflepuffs and the occasional Gryffindor. I think I just found my new best friend.

Actually, Lily didn't do 'the best friend thing.' At least, not since her fourth year when she detached herself from the crowd and gave up all of her old, popular friends. Back then her circle of gal pals was a tightly knit group, comprised of four Gryffindors (including herself) and two Ravenclaws. They were the ones everyone younger than thou tried to befriend and everyone older thought about every so often. Hip on the music and theater scene, anyone with an entertainment question came to them. In fact, numerous bets were placed on whether Lily and her friends would actually answer the question. If they associated with any of the wrong people, they could lose their popularity. It was a long, hard, and often times confusing way of living.

How Lily could consider those people her friends was beside her. As soon as she and her then-boyfriend broke up, no one had spoken to her at all. She received not a single owl, nor a piece of Muggle mail, or even a phone call. Even though it was the last day of the term, there was nobody who stepped through the barrier with her when they got off the Hogwarts Express. When her father greeted her and helped put all of her luggage on a trolley, she was very near tears but held them in. Her eyes felt as if they would explode; she just looped her arm around her father's as she would have any other time and shut her eyelids, letting him lead her.

That voice inside told her she was going to be alright. She didn't want to believe it. She refused to believe it.

Her summer went as though as it were any other summer, except the only people she hung out with were her Muggle friends. Once or twice she saw someone from Hogwarts, at the mall or public library or someone's party. They ignored her though, unless it was a head boy or girl who hadn't taken the train back to London after the year was over.

Come September, she had not wanted to go back to school, but decided that just because some people would ignore her it didn't need to interfere with her education. For a while, the only thing keeping her from dropping out was graduation. She had never been suicidal, but many thought she still was. Lily realized that life went on even if the worst happened, and many people had had it worse than her.

Now, she was quite all right and normal again. She drifted between friends, never settling on one for fear that they would stop supporting her. Perhaps, she thought while remniscing, Melissya could be a new friend. A good friend—unlike Riky.


*


During Quidditch practice that evening James flew sluggishly. He was tired for some reason, and no one was yelling at him to pick up the pace. They all also had other things on their minds; things like tests, homework, and the biggest: Homecoming. But running through James's head was a different thought.

Who was it?

James had realized that the only person who could have been his perfect match must be the same age as him, or somewhere around it. The only wizarding folk who were seventeen and lived by Hogsmeade were students at Hogwarts. A simple process of elimination helped him deduce that he knew who his date was going to be already, which was weird because it was supposed to be a blind date.

But who could could it be?

"Okay, obviously no one is really paying attention to the game today, so let's call it quits." The whole team gave a united sigh of relief, and the Gryffindor Captain rolled his eyes as he slowly flew towards the ground of the Quidditch Pitch.

"That has got to be one of the few times I actually agreed with what Michael decided to do," Sirius said, looping around James and grinning.

"I know the feeling." After taking quick showers and changing, the team headed back to their common room. Sirius and James talked about their last game, which had happened two weeks earlier and had been against Ravenclaw. It had been an easy victory, because the Ravenclaw team only had a few good players and the rest were just mediocre. As they walked through the opening behind the Fat Lady to the Gryffindor common room, James told Sirius that he was tired and didn't feel like staying in the common room for a few more hours. Sirius shrugged him a good night and went to the corner where all of the other seventh years were. On impulse James looked around for Lily, before he shook his head clear and climbed up to his dormitory.


*