Reception, a harry potter fanfic

JK Rowling owns all these characters and is filthy, filthy rich. I own only this particular plot and any characters I may have invented, and I am not any kind of rich. No copyright infringement is intended. -JM

She's sitting over there in the corner again. The red-haired girl.

She always sits with that skinny, pale kid who never talks to anyone. Seriously, we've been at this school for nearly a month now, and I haven't heard him speak once. He's in all my classes, and the professors call him "Loopy" or "Loony" or something. Or maybe that's just what me and Sirius call him.

Sirius has another girlfriend already. Polly just broke up with him on Monday, and here it is Friday and he's going out with Fawcett from Ravenclaw House. She's cute I guess. That's where he is tonight, with her. And I'm all alone.

The red-haired girl, whose name is Evans, I think, is fiddling with a Muggle object. It's a small box of some sort, and she and Loopy are taking turns pointing their wands at it. I'm not sure what spell they're doing, but it doesn't seem to be working. The girl's hair glows, even in the dim light of a dying fire. Most everyone else is asleep right now, only the two of them and me and a few other night owls left here. Every once in a while, the box she's working on lets out a strange squawking, then buzzing static, then nothing.

She's funny. She's practically the only girl in the first year who didn't go gaga over Sirius. Of course he was interested in her; she's dead gorgeous and she's in the same house as us. I remember the cold way she looked him up and down when he tried to talk to her, and the way she turned away and kept on talking to Loopy, like Sirius wasn't even there. He couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it either. I wonder if she'd do that if I tried to talk to her.

She points her wand at the Muggle box one last time; she's been working on it all night, biting her lip and squinting her green eyes at it, trying to get it to do something. Now, finally, it does. Loopy sits up straighter next to her and wipes the hair off his pale forehead; the girl smiles and sits back in her chair. All of a sudden, there's music coming from the box, music I've never heard before.

You say you want a revolution, we-ell you know, we all want to change the world.

"Hey Lily, well done," says Loopy. It's the first time I've ever heard him speak; his voice is thin and piping, like a flute.

Lily: that's her name. It's beautiful. Lily nods at him. She is smiling; her smile is beautiful. Somehow I can't look away from it, and I know that if she looks over at me right now she'll see that I'm staring at her. But I can't look away. And the few others in the Common Room are staring at her too, but that's because of the music coming from the Muggle box.

You tell me that it's evolution, we-ell you know, we all want to change the world...

"The Beatles! I love the Beatles," Lily says. Her voice is like a bell, just like a small bell ringing. That's the only way I can describe it.

"Who're the Beatles?" asks Loopy.

"Oh come on! You have to know who the Beatles are." She stares at him.

He shakes his head.

"Well," she tells him, "These are the Beatles." Lily stands up, steps away from the table and starts to dance, all by herself. I've never seen anyone do that before. She doesn't care if the whole room is looking at her, doesn't care if no one gets up and joins her. She's just dancing, her eyes closed, her arms up over her head, whirling to the strange music and laughing. And Loopy is sitting there like a fool, clapping his hands and watching her, when anyone can see the thing to do is go and join her, make her teach you those graceful movements she's making. I've never seen anyone dance like that, all alone.

All of a sudden I'm walking toward her, I don't know how it's happening but I'm on my feet, I'm padding across the carpet toward her and my book is on the floor, forgotten.

The music is still playing: But when you want money for people with minds that hate, all I can tell you is brother you have to wait. And she is dancing.

"Hi," I say, before I can stop myself. The red-haired girl called Lily stops dancing and her arms drop to her sides.

The music coming from the box is tinny and staticky. Don't you know it's gonna be all right...

She doesn't say anything, just looks at me with those wide green eyes, and it's like she can see right through me, to my soul. It's as if she's searching for something in me, and is finding me wanting in a way no one ever has before.

I clear my throat, trying to get hold of myself. "What is that thing anyway?" I ask.

"Oh," she says, and smiles. "It's nothing much. It's just my transistor radio from home." She pauses, bites her lip again. "I don't suppose you've ever heard of the Beatles either, have you?"

I shake my head. "Sorry."

She gives a quick little sigh and turns back to the box on the table. I feel bad for making her stop dancing; it reminds me a little bit of my dad, and the time we saw the Veela, how afterward he told me 'James, I would have given anything to make her keep dancing, to keep on hearing her voice. Just anything.' I didn't understand him, then.

"I've been trying to get the silly thing to work all the time I've been here; there's something about Hogwarts that causes trouble with Muggle electronics." She is running her fingers over and over the little box, as if rubbing for a Djinni. Her bell-voice seems to ring with electricity itself: intelligence, understanding and gentle patience. "Remus suggested using a Strengthening charm on the reception circuits, so we'd be able to pick up weaker signals." She smiles at the pale boy; he is gazing at his hands, refusing to look at me.

"Looks like it worked," I say, having no idea what reception or electionics or circuits are, only wanting her to look at me again, and to keep talking.

The song ends: Don't you know it's gonna be all right, all right, all right...

"You're James, aren't you?" she asks now, and for some reason my stomach does a double flip. She knows my name.

All I can do is nod.

"You're the one that's always hanging out with Black?" Her mouth curls up at one end when she speaks of him.

"Yeah," I say. I'm very aware of how stupid my voice sounds compared to hers. What a total idiot she must think I am...

"Is he a good friend, then?" she asks, as a man's voice comes from the radio: This is Q100 in Edinburgh, and we're bringing you all the hits. Right now let's hear The Temptations with 'My Girl."

"Yeah," I say again. Why can't I think of anything else to say? Why?

Her eyes search the Common Room around us. "Where is he tonight?"

The song starts. I've got sunshine on a cloudy day...

"He's with his girlfriend." I've stuffed my hands in my pockets and am now studying the floor. How can she make me feel like this?

"I thought they broke up?"

When it's cold outside, I've got the month of May...

"Yeah they did," I say. "Him and Polly broke up, and now he's going out with Sarah Fawcett from Ravenclaw."

"Oh. He got over that quickly."

"Yeah." Damnit, I know other words. I just can't think of them.

"Wait," she says, a smile creeping around the corners of her mouth. That mouth is so expressive: you can see what she's feeling by watching it. Her lips look so soft. "Did you say her name is 'Sarah Fawcett?'" She looks from Loopy to me, but apparently neither of us gets the joke. The two of us shrug our shoulders at one another. "You know," she continues, "Like 'Farah Fawcett?'"

"Never heard of her," says Loopy.

"Sorry," I say, shaking my head, and can't stifle a grin as she drops into her chair again and rests her chin on her hand.

"It's okay," she says, her voice weary.

I don't need no money, fortune or fame. I've got all the riches, baby, one man can claim.

"I just seem to be the only Muggle-born girl in Gryffindor."

"You can't be the only one," I tell her, sitting down in another chair. Loopy smiles across at me.

"Well, it seems like it." She's serious all of a sudden, tracing the edge of the table with her fingers. Her hands look soft and gentle too, and I have to tear my eyes away from them as she continues. "I miss things."

"Like what?" Loopy asks. He's leaning forward in his chair, watching her with a totally absorbed expression on his pinched little face. I realize, suddenly, that I'm not the only one who finds this girl fascinating.

My girl, my girl, my girl, talkin' bout my girl...

"Well..." she says, and grins suddenly. "Like my radio, for one." She touches the radio again, with the tip of one finger. "I loved listening to music at home. My record player doesn't work here either; nowhere to plug it in. And I miss my family, especially my mum. I even miss my sister, a little bit." Her mouth curls up the same way it did when she was talking about Sirius, and I realize from the way Loopy starts chuckling that she probably doesn't like her sister much.

"Is your sister older or younger?" I ask, as the song ends and another begins.

"Older. But only a little bit. We had to share a room."

Baby, now that I've found you I can't let you go...

"I don't have any brothers or sisters," I volunteer.

"Neither do I," Loopy says.

Lily looks up suddenly, glances from one of us to the other. "Do you two know each other?" she asks.

Loopy looks at me uncertainly. "Er...only a little bit."

I build my world around you, I need you so, baby, even though you don't need me...

"James," she says, and my stomach flip-flops again when she says my name, "This is Remus Lupin. Remus, this is James..." She raises her eyebrows at me.

"Potter," I supply for her.

"James Potter," she repeats, her lovely green eyes on me. "And I'm Lily Evans, in case you didn't know."

"I like your name," I say without thinking. I want to kick myself, tell myself to shut up, to say something intelligent that will impress her, for God's sake.

But she's smiling. "Thanks, me too. My sister's name is Petunia," she says. We all laugh. "I guess I got lucky." Her laugh is like bells ringing again, bells ringing in celebration. I'll have to tell her that someday.

I've been waiting for so long to find a love like you- The music is clear one second and gone the next, cut off into static again as suddenly as it started.

"Oh no," says Lily, and a frown creases that gentle brow of hers. I want to make it so she'll never have to frown that way again. Suddenly, I want to take care of this red-haired girl named Lily, want to make her happy all the time. I want to make her love me. But I don't know how. Not yet.

"Aw, sorry Lily," says Remus.

"It's all right," she says, smiling at him and touching his hand with her fingertips. For one instant I burn with jealousy, and then the feeling is gone as she looks up at me again. Her eyes sparkle. "We got reception once, we can get it again."