The 1971 Ice Cream Eating Championship

The Contest

"Ah, what a lovely day," said Lily Evans, rousing from a night of dreamless slumber and looking out the window.

She was blissfully happy as of late. She had recently gotten a letter informing her that she was a witch and was accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Her sister, Petunia, couldn't be less thrilled.

"You're a freak of a little sister!" she had said, her thin lips pursing as she narrowed her beady eyes at Lily, "Vernon even agrees so! And that's without the knowledge that you are what you are!" she finished with a hiss and a sneer, stomping off and slamming the door to her room.

"Don't mind her, dear," soothed Lily's mother. "She's just a bit jealous that you get to do something you don't. She'll soon be over it."

Lily and her parents left for the pub called the Leaky Cauldron. Mentioned in her letter as a place to which she could travel, she could get to Diagon Alley from there. It was at Diagon Alley where her school supplies would be available. Apparently, she needed a lot.

Lily hoped above hope that at this Diagon Alley place, they accepted pound notes. She had no idea if magic folk used another currency. What if they didn't take her parents' money? She'd have to show up at Hogwarts and try to explain that she couldn't get anything.

Wondering even more about what could go wrong, Lily blushed at the thought of the shame her parents might feel if she would be sent home with a note saying simply, "She isn't good enough," or "She can't do it," or even worse, "We sent her the letter by mistake. She's not a witch, so you can have her back." Imagining the pleasure Petunia would take in torturing her over that, Lily grimaced. Her sister was five years older, but could be childishly cruel at times.

While Lily pondered these things, she appeared half asleep, her eyes glazed over with thought. She bit her lip at the idea of Petunia taunting, "Mistake, mistaaake!" in a singsong voice and prodding her in the ribs with Lily's wand.

"Dear," said Mrs. Evans as they were walking through the streets of London, looking for the Leaky Cauldron place, "are you ready for this? You could still go back to your secondary school this year if you don't want to go... or if you're scared..." She gave her daughter's hand an affectionate squeeze.

"Honestly, Miriam! That's preposterous! Our darling Lily isn't scared of anything, especially not a little hocus pocus..." Mr. Evans joked. He smiled and patted his daughter on the head approvingly. Never one to be overly generous with affection, he was just bursting with pride that his daughter was a witch.

I've never seen him so happy, observed Lily, seeing the Leaky Cauldron and pulling her parents inside. It would break his heart if it turned out my letter really was a mistake...

Wide-eyed, they entered Diagon Alley, soon learning they needed to have their currency exchanged. They were shown the way to Gringotts, the Wizard Bank, where the exchange rate was four sickles to a pound.

One worry out of the way, thought Lily, holding in a great breath she had been holding.

They continued to walk around the Alley and purchased all the things on the Hogwarts list to fulfill Lily's magical needs.

Lily saw many happy young witches and wizards skipping around the Alley in groups. Would she ever make friends at this new school? What if she was the only one that had non-wizards for parents?

Lily felt even more insecure after purchasing her wand at a musty looking shop, Ollivander's. Another family had been in the store. The mother, a very thin and proper-looking woman, looked down her long nose at first Lily's parents, and then at her. The woman bent down and whispered something into her blonde son's ear that Lily couldn't hear, then pointed her gaze at the Evans family. The little boy's pointed face broke into a malicious smile, and then he whispered something back into his mother's ear.

"Mudbloods," Lily could have sworn was the word she heard.

That didn't sound nice, she thought with an uncomfortable glance at her parents, who looked a little nervous. I hope they didn't hear that...

After completing their shopping venture, the Evans family decided they were highly impressed by what they had seen of the wizarding world so far. Loaded with packages and very hungry, they stopped by the ice cream parlor, Florean Fortescue's, where an apparent crowd was forming.

"One side, Mack," said a man in heavy purple robes, pushing past the family, who stood completely bewildered and wondering what was going on. He stopped, turned, and looked a moment at Lily and her parents, and then yelled over the heads of the rather large crowd, "Oi! Fortescue! Yeah, I'm talking to you! You're not allowing these here Muggles to enter the contest, eh? Are you Fortescue? Eh?"

"Well, it's-a all up to the a-judges, Renaldo," called back the stout Italian man who apparently was Florean Fortescue. "What do you say-a, fellows?"

A clump of sharply dressed wizards, each of whom looked highly embarrassed to be there, shook their heads. "Muggle-born wizards and witches may, but no Muggles," said the tallest judge, sitting back down with his fellows.

"Excuse me," said Lily as she tapped a finger on the back of someone nearby, "what exactly is going on here?"

A black haired boy with glasses and pool blue eyes turned around and opened his mouth to say something but stopped. He appeared speechless.

"Oh, don't mind him," said a charismatic voice to Lily's left. "That's James Potter there, that is. I," he said, with an airy tone, "am Sirius Black, esquire." He bowed and Lily giggled. "And your name, my lady?" His fawn brown eyes looked into her emerald ones. His gaze was calculating, but void of malice.

Lily analyzed his features, which were minutely similar to that of the boy with glasses. James still stood dumbstruck and frozen, staring at Lily, mumbling incoherently now and then. Sirius' jovial smile and olive face gave him a friendly look, a look which Lily welcomed since she had not always seen friendly faces wherever she and her parents went. Apparently the fact that her parents were not wizards was the reason she was sometimes looked upon with spite during her shopping trip.

"Lily Evans," she said, extending her hand, which her new friend Sirius took with comedic ceremony and kissed.

"So like I asked James," she said, waving to her parents who had signaled that they would wait for their ice cream outside and see Lily later, "what's going on here?"

"Well, there's an ice cream eating contest. The adults are going first, like they always do. They never last long. They are pretty pitiful considering most of them don't make it past their tenth bowl..."

Tenth!? Lily thought, shutting her jaw, which had hinged open in amazement. Great Scott! If this Sirius boy seems to think that ten bowls of ice cream isn't much, everyone going against he and James in this contest is in some real trouble!

"...Then, it's the kids' turn," Sirius continued, excitedly, "You're looking at the two champions for six years running," he said proudly, gesturing at himself and James. "Alright there, Jimmy?" he inquired, patting James on the back.

Just as she thought, How funny this lad is, she noticed he was holding a golden trophy. It wasn't just any normal trophy, but a golden bowl of ice cream piled high, complete with a golden spoon sitting in the bowl. The inscription, Sirius Black and James Potter, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, was easily visible in the light from the bright summer sun.

"Really? How interesting," she said, imagining herself eating all the ice cream she could stomach. Maybe she could do this. How absolutely wonderful would it be to oust the two "champions" from their title? Her name would look just lovely on the trophy...

Lily Evans, 1971. Ah, that would make a delightful interruption of the boys' winning streak, not to mention the ice cream trophy would make a pretty interesting decoration next to her academic awards from her Muggle primary school. She could put it on a nightstand when she went to Hogwarts, even.

What fueled her desire to enter this contest and win was the new wave of feminism that was beginning to sweep the country.

Girls can eat a ton of ice cream, too, she found herself thinking, her green eyes fixated on the golden trophy with determination.

"Yeah. There's loads of kids entering, but they don't stand a chance. Jamey-boy and I have loads of practice." He slung an arm lazily around James' stiff shoulder. James still stood there, though he had stopped babbling.

"What do you two do for practice?" Lily asked, directing the question toward James, trying to pull him into the two-way conversation.

"Oi!" Sirius laughed, pinching James, "Mate! The lady asked you a question!" He was obviously enjoying himself immensely.

"Huh?" said James, rubbing the angry red welt on his arm left behind by the pinch. "What was that?"

"I asked what do you two do to practice for a contest like this?" said Lily, smiling and shifting her weight from her left foot to her right.

James never got the chance to answer. At the moment he drew breath to answer, the crowd had erupted in cheers as the man in purple robes was raised high above the crowd.

It seemed that he had been crowned champion. He appeared pleased, though quite nauseous as the crowd bounced him up and down.

"Hey, hey, easy there, buddy..." he said, turning quite green and covering his mouth with his hand.

"And-a now," said Florean Fortescue, "these-a kids are a-gonna eat all the ice cream-a they possibly-a can!"

The crowd cheered. Sirius, James, and an assortment of other kids strode up to the tables in the front, ready to eat. James pointed and laughed as Sirius tied a red-and-white checkered napkin around his neck. Lily, still standing in the crowd, also laughed once she saw Sirius kiss his golden trophy, then shine it with his checkered napkin.

"You know, that trophy's half mine, too... Quit slobbering over it!" Lily could hear James pout.

"Are there-a no more a-contestants?" asked Fortescue, motioning towards an empty seat at the end of the long table. The crowd stood silent a moment, then Lily screwed up her courage and spoke up.

"I'm entering!" she announced as the parting crowd broke out in whispers as she strode up the shallow steps to the table and tied a napkin around her neck.

"Isn't she a Muggle-born?"

"Hey! You can't let her enter! She's a girl! And a mudblood at that!"

"You watch your mouth, buddy! Your mother's a Muggle-born!"

"Sorry, ma..."

James and Sirius were looking incredulously down the table at her, as were a few other contestants. Lily observed that there were about twenty contestants in total, including herself.

"Well, a-then," said Fortescue, giving Lily an approving smile, "let the contest a-begin!"

Bowls were placed in front of the contestants. A lovely Butterbeer variation was their first course. Lily, not caring in the least about the flavors, was very happy that she was nearly starving. Having a huge appetite increased her chance of faring well in this competition.

All that shopping really did work up quite an appetite, she mused as she cleared her first bowl (Butterbeer Cream) and began her second (Pepper Imp Pizzazz).

The contest was so hectic that it became a bit of a blur. Lily just sat there eating as much ice cream she could keep down, ignoring the excited cheering produced by the crown of spectators for her two new friends. By the time she reached her seventh bowl (Chocolate Frog Fudge), she managed a glance down the long table. Not including Sirius and James, Lily saw that only a sparse number of contestants remained. Sirius and James weren't chancing glances down the long table, though. They were eating their ice cream as focused and fervent as ever.

Lily began her ninth bowl (an interesting concoction, containing pieces of Droobles Best Blowing Gum) and began to feel a little... full. She glanced to her left and saw Sirius and James slowing down too. By the time she had reached her fifteenth bowl (a Cauldron Cake and Chocolate Chip medley), she was going at a snail's pace, afraid she would be sick all over the crowd with every successive spoonful. Sirius and James were eating their current flavor (Mint Quaffles 'n' Almonds) just as slow, and the crowd had started to get bored. A few people were leaving from lack of entertainment; abandoning hope that one of the contestants might be sick.

Lily had cleared this bowl and begun the next when she saw her parents enter with huge smiles plastered across their faces. Apparently they had managed to get wind of what was going on.

"Go get 'em, Lily! Eat that ice cream!" said her mother.

"Eat like the dickens, sweetheart!" cried her father, waving his hand in the air.

This gave Lily a bit of a second wind. Though she was on her seventeenth bowl (Pumpkin Juice Swirl), her parents' cheering gave her an extra push, causing her to go just as fast as she had on her seventh bowl. She glanced down the table again and saw Sirius eating his sixteenth bowl (The Chudley Cannons Official Ice Cream, Orange Sherbet) and James eating his seventeenth (Honeydukes Chocolate). She quickly cleared away her eighteenth bowl (Fizzing Whizbee Ice) and made it to her twentieth bowl (Sugar Quill Twist), after which she was ready for more.

"I'm a-sorry, dear, I only serve a-twenty flavors. I can start-a you over again if you want a-to go on, but I doubt a these two will a be able to a clear away past their a eighteenth. They only a-had to do sixteen last-a year and I've a-never seen them do more a-than nineteen."

Lily paused in thought a moment, but looked down the table when her ears picked up the sound of a spoon clattering to the floor and a dull thud. James had passed out halfway through his eighteenth bowl.

"May I have another bowl? We'll see if these two can catch up...." she said, eyeing Sirius wistfully, wondering how much more he could eat.

"Okay, if you a-say so..." Fortescue was very cautious around Lily, and for good reason. She began to feel a little queasy just as he turned and left.

Fortescue put another bowl (Butterbeer Cream, again) in front of Lily and looked at her, amazed that a little kid could eat so much.

Lily had just put her spoon into her twenty-first bowl when she heard the bench scraping the floor and saw Sirius running to the restroom. He couldn't make it past bowl twenty.

"Well, then," said Fortescue, "we've a-got a winner."

Moments later, Lily found herself trying to pry a lovely golden cup out the arms of Sirius, who was kissing it goodbye.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart! I'll see you next year!" he cried, hugging the golden bowl of ice cream tightly.

"He really will miss that thing," said James in an undertone, nodding towards Sirius and the bowl. James' face was still a little pale, since as soon as he was revived, he too had to run for the restroom.

Lily began teasingly, "I'll see you two around if you're going to Hogwarts this year... I might let you visit it every now and then..."

"Yeah we're going Hogwarts! We'll be first years. You?"

"Same." Lily had to work hard to conceal the excitement she was feeling. She had two friends before she even set foot in Hogwarts. And they were in her year, too! How lucky could she get?

"Maybe we'll be in the same house!" James said excitedly.

House? Lily thought, bewildred.

"Well, maybe we'll meet up again at the train," she said, finally procuring the cup and clutching it tightly, using her jacket to shield it from Sirius' longing eyes.

"Bye!" shouted James, waving.

"I'll see you soon, promise!" Sirius sadly said to his beloved cup.

"Bye, you two!" called Lily, walking away with her parents.

She walked out Diagon Alley, trying to hold her laughter and excitement over what had just happened.

The last thing she heard before the bricks put themselves together behind her was Sirius' sobbing and James' comforting words of, "There, there... I'm sure you'll see Lily again, chap."

"No! It's my cup I'll miss!" Sirius wailed loudly.

Lily chuckled and thought of how much fun she was going to have at school this year. Despite the fact that she hadn't the first clue at all about magic, she had the distinct feeling that she'd have a brilliant first year and friends to help her along the way.