There were no incantations or magic charms for Jody Ann Hom.

The Weinberg sophomore simply reached her hand into last year’s housing lottery box and pulled out the crown jewel — the No. 1 spot.

But even after she drew the number, Hom didn’t know what she was holding.

“I didn’t understand the ticket,” Hom says. “I was kind of surprised when he told me.”

Others would have run screaming across campus after drawing a passport to any dorm room on campus, but Hom just walked up Sheridan Road, calmly telling people she knew of her good fortune.

Unmoved by offers of more than $3,000 or “whatever it takes,” Hom was fixed on living in sparkling new Kemper Hall with its kitchens and personal bathrooms. In fact, even if Jonathan Taylor Thomas had been an NU student with an interest in her number, Hom says she wouldn’t have budged.

“I was pretty set on keeping it and living here,” she says.

Some students made “new friends” with their high numbers, but Hom says she didn’t have to ward off any pests asking her to drag them in to Kemper.

“The people I didn’t pull in had already told me they were going to live elsewhere,” says Hom. “It wasn’t a difficult decision.”

With her year in Kemper Suite 371 drawing to a close, Hom said holding onto the number was the right decision.

“Definitely. It was worth it,” she says. “I enjoyed living here. It was very different from other dorms.”

But Hom admits that Kemper may not be the best fit for all students.

“For upperclassmen,” she says, “I think it’s nice. For freshmen it’s kind of bad. It’s kind of anti-social and it would be hard to meet a lot of people.”