Chapter 7

Lily and James suddenly appeared inside a well-lit corridor. They struggled to regain their poise as they picked up their things from the floor. A Portkey is definitely not my favorite way of traveling, Lily thought, still feeling dizzy.

"What now?" James asked her. "Where are we anyway?"

Lily looked around for a minute, then found the answer. But before she could respond, James suddenly said, a note of hysterics in his voice, "Oh no. Are we lost! No, no, no! We can't be lost! What if we're never found? No! I can't die here! I'm too young to die, and there are still millions of pretty girls I have to meet and charm! How the hell are we gonna get out of here!"

Lily rolled her eyes and said, "By walking through that door," pointing to a mahogany door on the end of the corridor.

"How do you know that that door leads to the hotel? For all you know, it may be leading to a lair of hungry lions hankering to savagely rip uses into pieces and eat the remainders of our flesh," James said in the same voice.

"Hmm, I don't know, maybe the fact that there's a sign on the door that says, THIS WAY TO THE VENTRESCA HOTEL'?" Lily asked, her hand now gesturing to the plaque that was indeed placed on the door. He is such a doofus," Lily thought.

A look of comprehension crossed James's face. But upon seeing Lily's smug expression, he quickly collected himself and said coolly, "I knew that. I was just testing you".

Lily simply gave him a look and said, "Right. Whatever. Let's just go". And with that, the two walked to the door.

James opened the door and walked in, Lily following behind him. They immediately found themselves inside a elegantly-furnished hotel lobby, the works of art on the walls living up to the Roman fame of wonderful artwork, and, judging by the looks and way of dressing of the people, except for the employees who were dressed like muggles in muggle hotels, it was no doubt that this was a hotel for wizards only.

Suddenly, a tall woman wearing a beige business suite, with her brunette hair piled into a knot, came to them. "Hello," the woman said, her English tinged with a bit of Italian accent, and her tone in a pleasant yet business-like manner, "My name is Dianne Vallarie, I manage this hotel. You are?"

When they said their names, she took out her wand, conjured up a black notebook and scanned it. A few seconds later, she said, as she vanished the book, "Ah, yes. Hogwarts, I presume?" The two nodded and she smiled. "Excellent. I'll have someone bring up your things and show you to your room. Oh yes, and the party is at 7 pm tonight, at the Grand Hall". She motioned for a bellhop and he came forward as she exited the scene to assist another group of people.

The bellhop pulled out his wand and shrunk the luggage to a small size that would fit on the tray. "Follow me," he said, and they did. Up and up they went until they reached a room with white, elegantly and intricately designed, which held the plaque, 7G4. He opened the room and motioned for the two to go in.

Lily was in awe. The suite was lovely, with cream and light peach draping over the windows overlooking Muggle Rome, a very perfect view, if Lily could say so herself. The beige couch that matched the light tone of plaint used in the room, with matching pillows, was very comfortable, as Lily found out. The whole main part was simply lovely, and Lily was sure she fell in love with it at first sight.

After depositing there luggage and returning them to their original size, the bellhop gave they key to James and departed. Lily decided to check out the rooms. One was decorated in understated masculine tones, and Lily knew right away that that was to be James's room. She opened the door next to it and, for the second time that day, was in awe.

Decorated in a mixture of light pink, dream, and peach, with drapes that hung over the window that matched the coloring perfectly, the room gave the obvious and silent air of being decidedly feminine. The bed, which had a light old rose colored bedspread and matching pillows with small decorations of roses and lilies, was also very soft and comfortable, as Lily discovered as she sank into it, savoring the relaxing feeling that came over her.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and James went in. "Listen, Evans," he said, "I'm going out; I think my cousin from Larkspur Wizarding Institute, that's in California, might be here. I'll see you at the party, and please, make sure you wear something nice".

Lily paid no attention to him as he left, yet her mind went wandering for a spilt second into the closet where her dress for tonight was hung. A few minutes later, she decided to go out of the suite as well, as there was nothing to do yet.

She freshened up, changed into a Muggle ensemble, and left the suite. She was wandering aimlessly down the corridor when, all of a sudden, someone collided with her, making her lose her balance and falling to the ground.

"Oh, hey, sorry. Are you alright?" that person, a boy asked.

"Um, let me see, but getting knocked to the ground isn't exactly my definition of being 'alright,'" Lily said, although her voice wasn't angry.

"Yeah. Again, sorry about that. Here; let me help you up," he said and extended his hand. She stood up, taking it. Once she was up, she looked into his face for the first time and was taken aback. The boy was good-looking, and by the way he dressed, Lily assumed that he was pure-blood and rich. But what she was intrigued by was his eyes. His hazel eyes that looked so familiar……

"Hi. I'm Ryan. Ryan Stanley," the boy said, smiling at her.

Lily smiled back and replied, "Hey. I'm Lily. Lily Evans".

For some reason, Ryan looked taken aback and peered at her more closely, a look of disbelief on her face. Lily must have noticed the way he was looking at her because she said, "Ryan? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nothing," Ryan shook his head. "It's just that…..uh…..um…you don't happen to come from Hogwarts, do you?"

Now it was Lily's turn to be amazed. "Actually, I am. How'd you figure that out? By the way, you're from Larkspur, right?" she added, eyeing the crest that was emblazoned on his sweater.

He nodded. "Um, well, if you must know, I have a cousin there who seems to talk incessantly about you," Ryan said with an easy smile, a slow smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.

"Really? Who is it? Someone in seventh year?" Lily asked.

Ryan nodded in affirmation. "And in Gryffindor. His name is―".

"POTTER?" Lily suddenly said, as she saw the messy-haired, bespectacled boy walk in their direction. "What are you doing here? I thought you were looking for your cousin".

"I am, Evans, what the hell do you think I'm― RYAN?" James exclaimed as he saw the boy standing beside Lily.

"Hey James! Long time no see. How's life, my absolutely crazy cousin?" Ryan asked, his facial expression becoming an amused one as he saw Lily's shocked expression.

"He's your cousin!" Lily asked him incredulously. No wonder those eyes were so familiar…..

"Yes Evans, he is. Got a problem with that?" James asked coolly.

"Actually, I do. You see, how can someone so nice possibly be related to you?" Lily fired back. Ryan smirked at the scene as he remembered a night during summer wherein James spent at least 20 minutes talking nonstop about a certain red head.

"Haha Evans. Very funny. So Ryan," he said, turning to his cousin. "How's it going? And more importantly, how did you end up talking to her?"

Ryan related the story and all James could do was nod. Suddenly, Ryan said, "Hey, guys, I've got to go. I promised the Head Girl that I'd see to some finalizations. See you at the party". And with a last wave and smile, he left.

Deciding that there was nothing to do anymore, Lily walked back to the suite. James followed. Lily noticed this and said, "Why are you following me?"

"I'm not following you; I just want to get inside the suite and by the looks of it, that's where you're going".

Silence prevailed for a few minutes before Lily broke it, saying, "So, Potter? Did you have fun talking about me all summer?" a slow smirk getting plastered on her face.

James turned red, understanding immediately that Ryan must have told Lily about the whole talking-about-her-the-entire-summer-that-it-was-getting-annoying thing, judging from her smug expression. But to cover up and save whatever pride he had left, he said in a defensive manner, "Whoever said that anything I said about you was good? For all you know, I might have been ranting on about how much you annoy me".

Lily simply smiled. "Right, Potter. And this is confirmed by the fact that your blushing beet red".

"Evans, just shut up," James said, getting thoroughly annoyed.

"Fine then. I will," Lily said, and kept quiet. They were finally at the door to their suite. James tried to open the door, but found that it was locked.

"Evans, where's the key?" he demanded. However, Lily simply shrugged and didn't reply, her look clearly saying, Well, you wanted me to shut up, so I'm shutting up. James got the message immediately, and was annoyed. "Evans, I mean it. Give me the key!"

Lily only shook her head. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the key. She inserted it into the lock, opened the door, waved bye-bye, and then went in, shutting and locking the door behind her and locking James out from his own suite.

"DAMN!" he said. He was sure he could hear the red-head's hysterical laughter even if he was outside. A few minutes later, after several failed attempts to plead and open the door, he began to think, "Now what am I going to do? How am I going to dress for the ball? Where will I sleep? What about my things? What about ―hey, wait a second. Am I a wizard, or not?" Mentally berating himself for not thinking of it sooner, he took out his wand, and cast, "Alohomora!" Instantly, the doors opened. He walked in and found Lily sitting on the couch.

"Wow! Ten minutes! Much lesser than the time I actually expected for you to remember the Alohomora charm. You're not that stupid after all. Or maybe you are," Lily said, and pranced to her bedroom, not paying any mind to the level glare James was giving her.

James, after watching the girl retreat to her bedroom, went to his own, hoping very much that the ball that night would turn out better that the afternoon did.

Hey to all my readers! So, how'd you like this fic so far? Next chapters gonna be the ball for the delegation already. Please review! I would be very happy if you would!