Stiel:  While we love the series, we do tend to shy away from HP fanfics.  
FF.net overloads, ya know?

Dragonboy:  Fortunately, this one is by Lurker, so it can't completely suck. 
; p


Dragon-Stiel Inc. Presents:  A C&C/MST review for-


Eighteen Sickles (and a Knut)
A Harry Potter One-shot
by Eternal Lost Lurker

To celebrate the newly evolved FFML...

Stiel:  And to finally getting around to doing a real review for a Lurker 
fic, here we go!

"Oi, Harry!"

--the musical lilt

Dragonboy:  Wow, actually had to look that word up to see if it was a typo 
or not.  Turns out it's not.

of her laughter which he could hear even across the
crowded hall, the sparkle in her eyes, long absent after the death of

Dragonboy:  This might not be necessary, but perhaps changing 'after' to 
'since' would sound a little better?

Harry Potter blinked and looked around, watching as the aforementioned
floating pot landed directly in front of his best friend, Ron Weasley, who
began lumping a huge helping onto his plate.

"Really, Ron, was that absolutely necessary?" Hermione Granger asked, a
familiar note of exasperation in her voice.

Stiel:  Seems a better alternative to just hexing Harry into paying 
attention, doesn't it?

"It's like treacle fudge," Ron said as he finished clearing his dinner 
plate
and reached for the desserts which had just appeared on the table. "The 
more
you see of it, the more you want it."

Harry and Hermione stared at him. "Mmf?" he asked, treacle clamping his
teeth together.

"You are impossible," Hermione informed Ron, before rising from the table
and stalking crisply out of the hall.

Dragonboy:  Sounded pretty good to me. *shrug*

He was brought back to reality when Hermione, having noticed he'd stopped
writing, took his roll of parchment and began reading it. "Let's see how
your essay is coming," she said. "'Flying in the sky, no draught of life
elixir, sweeter than your smile. Beautiful eagles, exotic raven beauty, 
cats
must chase their prey. I seek something gold...' Harry, what the devil is
this? You're supposed to be doing Potions, not...not...sappy poetry!"

Stiel:  I think Ron needs to start writing _her_ poetry.  Might lighten her 
up, ya know?

"I lie on the pitch, and ponder this hitch...the Snitch or the witch, which
shall I--"

"OH FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!" Hermione screamed, throwing her book across the 
room
and startling two first-years. "Get. Your. Mind. OFF. OF. THAT. *GIRL!*" 
she
yelled at Harry.

Dragonboy:  Hermoine throwing books? o_O

Stiel:  Oh yeah, she needs to be laid.  Bad.

Moaning Myrtle sighed languidly. "It'd be nice for someone to say hello to
me in a civil manner just once...no, it's always 'Oh, Myrtle, you scared
me!' 'Myrtle, what're you doing here?' 'Go away, you stupid dizzy ghost!'"
Tears welled up in her luminescent eyes. "Sometimes I wonder why I bother
coming out of my toilet at all..."

Dragonboy:  Well maybe if she'd knock first...

Myrtle floated so close that Cho could feel the ghost's frigid essence
chilling her bare skin, giving her goosebumps. "Your name," Myrtle rasped
ephemerally.

Stiel:  Has anyone ever told you that you possess one hell of a vocabulary, 
Lurker?

"Nobody asked you," Harry snapped, flushing slightly as he hurried past.

"Well, I never!" the painting said, turning away in a huff.

Harry sighed. He just knew Cho was going to read his letter and hate it, 
and
know it was from him, and hate him and laugh at him and--

Dragonboy:  Pessimistic much?

"That'll have been some letter," Hermione remarked several days later. 
"She'
s been in quite a cheerful mood all week long."

Dragonboy:  Weird looking first sentence.  "That must have been...", maybe?

"Harry," Hermione said in an exasperated tone. "Trust me. My advice worked
once already, didn't it?"

"Yeah--"

"Then keep following it," Hermione said crisply. "Now, here's what you're
going to do..."

Dragonboy:  Yes, Rob; I'd like to Press My Luck!

Stiel:  Big prize, no WHAMMIE!

The most recent note hinted that her admirer was coming close to being 
ready
to reveal himself. Her friends had finally ferreted out the secret and
convinced her--with many a well-thrown pillow--to fork over the letters for
their perusal. After much giggling, many silly suggestions were made, as
well as some good advice. Marietta had suggested taking the letters to
Flitwick and asking him if he recognised the handwriting. Cho had vetoed
that idea--although she suspected it was a sound plan, she didn't feel 
right
bothering the school faculty with something so personal, and she also 
didn't
want to risk getting her admirer in trouble--surely writing anonymous love
letters wasn't against any school rules, but she didn't want to risk
anything that would turn him off of writing her before she at least heard

>from his own quill who he was.

Dragonboy:  And that there is the problem with the owl messaging system:  No 
*69.

"I'll bet you anything it's him," Marietta said.

Stiel:  'Him' who?

Dragonboy:  Draco?

"But Potter's with Granger, isn't he?" Marietta asked.

"Not according to Parvati," Padma said, shrugging. "She thinks Granger and
Ron Weasley are a couple, though they'd never admit it to anyone."

"The way they're always yelling at each other?"

Stiel:  Is there any surer sign?

Harry walked up to the Owlery, clutching a small box with scarlet wrapping
paper and a royal blue satin ribbon. His insides were fluttering as though
he'd swallowed a hundred Snitches--today, finally, was the day. This would
be the end of the secret admirer letters. Today, Cho would know. And then 
he
'd find out whether or not she liked him at all.

Dragonboy:  Might just be the ML messing with it, but there seems to be a 
space between 'he'd' there.

Harry saw Cho coming toward him, and stood, swallowing nervously.

"Hullo,"

Stiel:  Intentional, right?

In years to come, Harry Potter would look back fondly on his fifth year at
Hogwarts--the year he spent writing secret love letters to the girl of his
dreams, the warm memory of their subsequent dates, the passionate kisses
they shared in secret, the promise they made to always be together...

And the heart-shaped Snitch pendant, which seldom left the neck of the 
woman
he loved.

The best eighteen Sickles Harry Potter ever spent.

-and a Knut-

Heh.

"By the way, Harry?" Cho said as they walked hand-in-hand down the road 
back
to Hogwarts later that afternoon.

"Yeah?"

"You might want to stop wanking in the prefect's bath. Moaning Myrtle's 
been
watching you. And blabbing."

Harry turned very, very red. "Err..."

Cho smiled, and slipped an arm around his waist, leaning into his shoulder.
"Just thought you'd want to know."

D&S:  Heh.


Dragonboy:  Very well done, indeed.  Though by now I'd expect nothing less 
from you, Lurker-san.  A great way to kick off the FFML revolution. ^_^

Stiel:  I have to agree.  It's rare (RARE!!) to even attempt to find any 
decent HP fics within the motherload of them throughout the internet, but 
this was definitely a keeper.  Nice work.


Dragon-Stiel Inc.

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! 
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/


             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'