There were no chairs around the sweeping lawns. Apparently, they would be watching the parade standing up, but as they had been sitting for over an hour while talking and feasting, James, Hugo, Devon, Gary, Miles, James, Todd, Samantha, Ainsley, Stephanie and Lily didn't mind this in the slightest.
Most of the floats and balloons were pretty mundane.
The most popular floats and balloons amongst Devon, Hugo, James, Gary, Miles, Todd, Ainsley, Samantha, Stephanie and Lily were a float depicting a man in a Darth Vader costume holding up a lightsaber and breathing hard and a balloon that took the form of BB8. Devon and Samantha had cheered loudly when that float and balloon had past.
"The best float and balloon in this parade, those were," said Samantha happily after they had passed.
"The force was strong with them!" piped up Devon excitedly.
But it was the very last balloon in the parade that brought about the major announcement.
Closing out the parade was a large inflated quill shaped balloon. This balloon had a long orange banner with black writing attached to it.
The banner read: The Hogwarts Writing Competition opens on Monday, January 6th, 2020.
The next nanosecond, the banner split in half and a number of orange pamphlets with white writing dropped out of the sky.
Devon, Hugo, James, Todd, Gary, Miles, Samantha, Ainsley, Stephanie and Lily each grabbed one of the pamphlets.
Lily read out loud: The Hogwarts Writing Competition shall open for entries on Monday, January 6th, 2020. On this date an entry box shall be placed in front of the Great Hall just prior to breakfast that morning. Entries will be accepted through 11;59 p.m. Hogwarts time on Friday, March 27th, 2020. The winners will be announced at a special BBQ feast on Friday, April 10, 2020 starting at 5 P.M. Hogwarts time. BBQ hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken will be served, and the winners will be announced once our tummies are full. The essay for the Hogwarts Writing Competition is as follows; How do you find life at Hogwarts? What do you like about Hogwarts? Is there anything you dislike about life at Hogwarts? And most of all, what suggestions do you have for the future of Hogwarts? How can Hogwarts improve either the lives or the education of its students? Could Hogwarts do anything better, additional, or different to prepare its students for their adult lives in the Wizarding World? The prize structure shall be as follows; Third place will win a bronze medal, a hundred galleons, and a bottle of Budweiser. Second place will win a silver medal, five hundred galleons, and a slab of Honeydukes chocolates. First place will win a gold medal, a thousand galleons, and an Old Faithful bar. The judges for the Hogwarts Writing Competition shall be as follows: Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor McMillan, and Professor Longbottom. Note that any suggestion given for the future of Hogwarts may be put into action, regardless of the paper's placement in the competition. Good luck to you all! Happy writing! Sincerely -Hogwarts Headmistress Minerva McGonagall.
"I'm entering!" said Stephanie eagerly, "I love both drawing and writing and I love the idea of writing for a competition. Writing has always been a huge passion of mine so this should be right up my alley. I'm thrilled to have this opportunity."
"I'll go for it too!" said James happily, "That Old Faithful bar at Halloween was so yummy! I'd love another. An Old Faithful bar is an awesome prize! And a thousand galleons as a side prize! can't beat that!"
"I will enter because I welcome the opportunity to help improve Hogwarts and the lives of its students, "said Lily matter of factly, "Whether I win anything or not, if I can better the lives of Hogwarts students through my participation in this contest, that would be the biggest prize."
"That's the best of many good reasons to enter," agreed Devon simply, "I doubt I'll enter. I don't enjoy writing that much and at this point I don't have any ideas anyway, but I do love the fact that Hogwarts has provided a forum for students to speak about Hogwarts in the form of this competition."
"Indeed", said Hugo, "I'm not too into writing either and I don't have any ideas at the moment either, but I look forward to seeing what my classmates come up with."
"I'm more into reading than writing," admitted Ainsley, "But I think I might just give it a shot. Since the contest doesn't even open until January 6th and we have until March 27th to submit entries. I'll give it some thought but I think there's only about a thirty percent chance I enter."
"I have some ideas I'd love to put forward for Hogwarts, but I won't enter," said Samantha clearly, "Because I don't want to risk being a loser. What if I were to enter and my paper was like forty third place? I'm not risking the shame, stain, stigma, disgrace, and embarrassment of that!"
"But," Lily reminded Samantha, "Remember that all ideas for the future of Hogwarts will be considered."
"I'm fluent in speaking English and I can read and listen to English well too. And my capitalization, punctuation, and spelling are good too. It's just that I don't think I can write a well-developed articulate essay. I'm not that great at putting ideas into writing and developing them," explained Samantha.
"Well, "began Todd
"You have no place to comment here," Samantha told Todd, "You won't even be at Hogwarts. So why do you care?"
"Because," said Todd firmly, "I want to give you some encouragement. Even if you don't do well within the context of the competition, participating in it may help you to improve your writing skills. Ask Gary."
"Yes," acknowledged Gary, "Our elementary school held an essay writing competition like that apparently being held at Hogwarts this year when we were in third grade. I entered what turned out to be a thirty second place paper. But you know what? Putting the effort I did into the competition made me start to become a better writer and I only improved steadily after that."
"It's true," confirmed Devon, "And we were all so proud of the effort Gary put into his essay. He gave it his best and did his best and became better in the process."
"The only true failures," said Miles crisply, "Are not giving it everything you've got and not trying."
"Samantha, do you have any ideas about Hogwarts that you'd like to see implanted?" asked Lily, knowing perfectly well that Samantha already had said so.
"Absolutely," said Samantha firmly, "Didn't I already say that I did?"
"Yes, you did, and that's why you really should enter," said Lily encouragingly as the others all nodded vigorously.
"Samantha, " said James in a polite but clear voice, "If you become too risk adverse you will pay a price for it. If you try too hard to avoid the bad, the good you might have had may well pass you by. If you enter and don't perform as well as you might like, at least you can be at peace with knowing you gave it your best shot. If you have ideas and don't enter, there may well come a time down the road where you'll be kicking yourself wondering what might have been if you had submitted a paper. "
"James is EXACTLY RIGHT!" said Lily fiercely, "I'm telling you, Samantha, you should enter."
"I'll think about it," said Samantha in a non-committal voice.
They could see the conflict within her. She really wanted to put her ideas forward, but she really did not want to be a loser, But the fact she said would at least think about it was a step in the right direction.
After much discussion of the Hogwarts Writing Competition. James, Hugo, Devon, Gary, Miles, Todd, Ainsley, Samantha, Stephanie and Lily all decided to go for a swim in the Black Lake. As none of them had any swimming trunks on hand, they all took off their clothes and swam naked. They swam for about half an hour.
After that Samantha, Ainsley and Stephanie broke away from the group. Samantha went to her room to watch her Arizona Cardinals play the Detroit Lions in one of the NFL's annual Thanksgiving games, Ainsley went to her room to read, and Stephanie went up to her room to get started on her paper for the Hogwarts Writing Competition. The three girls all said goodbyes to Todd, Gary, and Miles as they did not plan to leave their rooms for the rest of the day.
James, Hugo, Devon, Gary, Miles, Todd, and Lily, meanwhile, finished off the day just chatting about whatever subjects might occur and enjoying each other's company. They didn't really care what they talked about. It was using the last few hours of the day to enjoy each other's company that they really cared about.
As the day ended, Miles, Gary, and Todd all had kind words for Lily.
"Lily," said Gary sincerely, giving her a goodbye hug, "Thank you for setting up this reunion between us and Devon. It was wonderful meeting you and I look forward to seeing you again at New Year's. My world is brighter and warmer for having you come into it."
"Lily, "added Miles genuinely, taking his turn to hug Lily, "Thanks for setting up this special day for us and Devon. It will be great to see you again at New Year's. You are a special person and you make the world a better place by your presence in it."
"Lily," said Todd, hugging Lily as well "Thanks, goodbye, good luck, and see you."
"You know," said Lily thoughtfully, "I can't help feeling a little sad now that goodbye has come. I sort of feel like how Karen felt when she had to say goodbye to Frosty at the end of Frosty the Snowman. Make a new friend and then, just like that, you have to say goodbye."
"But you'll see them again before you know it," said Devon reassuringly, "AND we can make arrangements at New Year's for future meetings with Gary, Miles, and Todd, both some for me and them to ourselves and some to include all of us as a group. And I can't tell you enough times how much it meant to me that you set up this reunion today for me and my old friends. It warms my heart to see how you and they have taken to each other so well."
Lily smiled at this.
Gary, Todd, and Miles then said their goodbyes to Hugo. These goodbyes were quicker and simpler but Miles, Gary, and Todd, did make sure to thank Hugo for the role he had played in planning this day.
Miles then turned to Devon, "Devon," said Miles warmly, giving him a tight hug, "It was wonderful to see you again. I can't begin to tell you how glad I am that our friendship has been reignited."
"The feeling is mutual," said Devon emotionally, "I feel a lot wholer now that you, Gary, and Todd are back in my life."
"Today was a beautiful day," added Gary heartily as he too hugged Devon, "We feel wholer again too."
"Absolutely," added Todd, giving Devon a quick hug as well.
"Bye, Devon," called Todd, Gary, and Miles, as they approached Professor Longbottom to take them back to the Dursley's house from where they would proceed home.
"Bye," called Devon, waving at his three oldest friends.
After they had gone, Devon felt a sudden pang of sadness that this day was over. But this pang was short lived as he realized he would have more chances to see Gary, Miles, and Todd again, and that New Year's wasn't all that far away.
James, Hugo, Devon, and Lily now all bade each other good night as they each headed to their rooms for bed.
Lily sat on her bed that night both reflecting and looking forward.
The level of satisfaction inside of her had never been higher. She had gotten her prize(d) ring back, but that was a just a bonus. What meant far more to her than that was that she'd made three new friends. And bigger yet than even that, she had succeeded in creating a special day for one of her closest friends and made three other people's days special in the process. Nothing felt better to Lily than making other people happy.
But she was also looking forward. After the plans and announcements of the day, she had a lot to look forward to including Christmas with her parents and brothers, New Year's at Devon's, and the Hogwarts Writing Competition.
This was the great thing about her family, her friends, and Hogwarts. There was always something to look forward to.
