The Lonely Hearts Club [ Sirius Black ]

Two

Over the next day and a half, Cecilia found the time not only to rewrite her terrible potions essay but also to finish all of the homework assigned to her (some of which was not due until the following week) and had now moved on to a new book (Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar) having finished the old one. Also finding time to read and reply to all of the letters from her father, as well as attempt to write something for the poetry night in accordance with Amalia's request. All of which she accomplished to the detriment of her social life and sleep schedule- fueled by copious amounts of coffee, Mello Yello (a favorite muggle soft drink of hers, that was loaded with caffine), and most of the muggle snacks that she kept herself stocked with.

She had been sitting in her bed organizing her editions of The Astronomical Journal by publication date, when she finally passed out from exhaustion on Sunday night- or rather, Monday morning.

She was up the following day equally exhausted by her piercing alarm clack and pulled out of bed by her roommates, and every morning after that for the next week. Bags the size of canyons dug themselves under sallow eyes, and she shuffled around the castle like a zombie from The Night of The Living Dead. Each morning, she'd guzzle her weight's worth of coffee while poring over the edition of The Washington Post that her father sent by owl, pulling out the sports and entertainment sections for Byron.

"Hey, Jim Palmer won the Cy Young Award!" He exclaimed before peering over her shoulder to her page, "And the UN is condemning Apartheid! What a brilliant day to be alive!"

"I think I'd quite like to live in an apartment." Amalia spoke up as she sat down beside them, not hearing Byron correctly. "Cozier than a bungalow, but roomier than a hermitage."

"No, Aparthied not apart- nevermind." Byron tried to correct her, but gave up when she ignored him for the page of comics Cecilia handed her. He doubted Amalia would ever find herself in South Africa anyway.

Cecilia reached across the table to pick up his section to see the Cy Young article (she was a fan of baseball herself) which gave Byron a chance to see the opposite side of the paper, and the headline that read in large glaring letters: "Reggie Jackson Signed to Yankees for $3.5 Million!"

"What? No! This was gonna be their season!" Their meaning the Baltimore Orioles, an American Baseball team that Byron had a strange affection for; strange considering he had no idea where Baltimore was, nor what an Oriole is. It had been Cecilia and her father, an American muggle, who had introduced him to the sport when he visited her the summer after their first year. His outburst startled Cecilia who jumped in her set a little, and garnered the attention of those sitting around them- not that he noticed as he all but mourned the loss of his favorite ball player. "This blows."

Turning the paper over to see the arrival, her eyes blew as she read the headline, "Wow, that is a lot of money. This has got to be the biggest contract deal ever."