Disclaimer: None of these people are mine. I don't even really want to own them as that's too much responsibility. I just like playing with them.
A/N: This story is the result of a plot bunny that grabbed me and wouldn't let go. I wrote it in a little over an hour. The band name is a tribute to the band my friend Laura and I will have someday, we swear. Amazon!Ginny and probably the fact that I'm thinking about the crew in bands are the fault and property of Skoosie Pants, who posts over at FictionAlley, and whose work everyone should read.
Starting the Girl Rock Revolution
Hermione Granger looked up warily from the book she was reading at the excited and giggly entrance of Ginny, Tonks and Luna. Some people have a sixth sense about who will owl them next, Hermione had developed a sixth sense for potentially dangerous schemes she was about to be dragged into. The fact that all three were approaching her with wide grins and huge "innocent eyes" did nothing to relieve her suspicions.
"Hermione!" Ginny started by exclaiming her name, and then moved on to the terrifying purpose behind this visit, "We've decided to start a girl rock revolution and you are the missing ingredient in our band."
"WHAT!" To say that Hermione was surprised would be to understate things slightly.
Tonks jumped in to back Ginny up, "There's nothing else to do trapped here for the summer. I'm sure Sirius would be thrilled to have his house used as the base of operations for a band made up of gorgeous women."
"I can't play guitar or drums or anything. And I certainly can't sing," Hermione was beginning to panic, but the look in her friends eyes only got more predatory.
"That's alright. We found out you used to play cello. We're sure you were as much of a perfectionist about it as you are about everything else. We want something different in our band." Luna stated all of this matter-of-factly, but there was a distant gleam in her eye.
"Do I have a choice?" Now Hermione just looked pathetic as she silently begged her friends not to drag her into this.
"Nope."
"This is not fair," Hermione remarked to the universe at large as she was dragged out of the library and into Tonks' bedroom.
"Okay," Tonks looked around her bedroom enthusiastically, "Who has an idea for a band name?" The girls sat in a circle pondering deeply for five minutes before Ginny got bored.
"I've got an idea," she exclaimed, "Be right back!"
"While she's gone does anyone mind telling me what instruments the rest of you will be playing?"
"Good thinking, Hermione. Ginny will be playing drums, primal, redhead rage and all that. Luna will be playing lead electric guitar, and I, Tonks, will be playing bass."
"Who's singing?"
"Interesting side benefit of being a metamorphmagus, I can modify my vocal cords to sound like whoever or whatever I want. My normal voice is pretty good and I'll be throwing in all kinds of specials. We will have an inimitable style."
"I'm back." Ginny tore into the room carrying four quills, a piece of parchment and two hats. She tore the parchment into eight smallish pieces and began distributing it with the quills, "Here's the plan. We're going to be named 'The Something Something.' On one piece of parchment write down a mood and drop that piece in the hat on my left. On the second piece, write a random object. We'll draw them out and that's what the band name will be."
"Excellent idea, Ginny," Luna smiled, "I know just what I'll write for mine." For a minute the room was silent as the girls scribbled their words and dropped their suggestions into the hats.
"You draw, Hermione," Tonks' voice cut into the silence. Hermione sighed, but reached into the first hat and drew out "Ambivalent."
"Who wrote ambiguous? It's sort of weird," Ginny was obviously curious.
"I did," Hermione stated, "It's exactly how I feel about this whole band project." The other three girls shook their heads as Hermione reached into the hat and drew the second word. "Pearl."
"Who wrote pearl?" Ginny knew it wasn't her suggestion.
Luna raised her hand and quietly said, "I thought it would be pretty."
Tonks grinned, "The Ambivalent Pearl. I think it has a ring to it."
"Well, ladies," Ginny was starting to look scarily determined, "We've got a lot to do and only a little over a month to do it in. We're playing for Harry's seventeenth birthday party and we need lyrics, music, attitude and glamour."
"Glamour?" Now Hermione just sounded nervous.
"Yes. Glamour," Ginny answered sternly, "It's a necessity of girl rock."
As Hermione was dragged toward the large bathroom the girls shared she looked toward the heavens and mouthed, "Why me?" Unfortunately for her, no one answered.
One Great Rock Show Can Change the World
It was July 31st. 7:30pm, thirty minutes until zero hour, as Tonks had started referring to it. Hermione was nervous, annoyed and uncomfortable. The other girls in the band had dressed her and were currently working on hair and makeup. The fact that she'd been held in a blindfolding spell through the entire experience was not making her happy. In fact she was starting to whine, "Why am I blindfolded again?"
"Because if we let you see, you'd try to change what you're wearing and we've made you perfect," Ginny answered the question with the patience of someone who knows their right.
"But I did my part," Hermione complained, "I wrote the lyrics so I think I should get to dress however I like."
"Absolutely not." Hermione could practically see Tonks shaking her head. "Your sense of style is good, but not quite to the girl rock level."
Hermione whined for twenty more minutes, until her band mates had finished fixing both her appearance and their own. She felt the spell being lifted and looked up to see herself in a large mirror. She screamed.
Her hair was pulled up elaborately, she knew it was. She'd felt it pulled tight on her head and had heard the many sticking charms that had been applied, not to mention felt the bobby pins that had been used to supplement them. But it looked like it was lightly pulled back and freely cascading over her shoulders. Muggle conditioner, a highlighting potion and even more spells had created glimmering chestnut curls to replace the usual dull, bushy mass. Her makeup was subtle, but leaned toward smoky and glamorous, leaving her eyes looking dramatic and a little sad and her lips looking larger than usual and glossy. She was wearing a spaghetti strapped tank top in gold coloured velvet which hugged her small breasts and left her toned midriff exposed. They had paired it with black silk trousers, riding low on her hips, but loose and flowing and simple black flip flops. She looked amazing, but she felt uncomfortable. She turned around to see how her band mates looked.
Ginny was the most normal looking of the three. Her hair was restrained by a strip of dark green silk tied around her forehead and loose over her back in slightly grungy looking locks. She was wearing faded jeans that would've looked normal, if it didn't look quite so much like she'd had to be poured into them, and a brown tube top that perfectly matched her eyes. She had stayed barefoot which seemed to reflect an aura of nature around her. With her proud bearing, she looked almost like an Amazon.
Luna was obviously meant to be the counterpart to Hermione. She wore a very short silver dress, tight around her reasonably impressive figure, but with flowing gossamer sleeves. Her hair was pulled back in two flower-shaped silver clips which perfectly matched her silver sandals. Her bright blue guitar added some much-needed colour to her image and brightened the shade of her eyes.
Tonks had obviously chosen her appearance carefully. She remained small-bodied and boned, like the other three, but had made herself slightly taller. She wore baggy black jeans that looked like they'd fall off her hips if she moved at all. She'd added combat boots and a blood red tank top. Her hair was black and spiky, frosted with a little bit of gold, silver, red and green. Her skin was dramatically pale, which made her black eyes look huge and terrifying. The bass guitar she carried was just a shade lighter than her tank top and hanging low over her legs.
Ginny looked at the group and nodded approvingly, "We're all set people. Now let's get to our places before they raise the curtain."
The living room at Grimmauld Place had been temporarily given a stage and a magical sound and light system, which the twins were eagerly running, having sworn a vow of non-prankage to each of the four girls. Hermione grew more and more nervous as she heard the party guests enter. Special portkeys had been set up so that all of Harry's school friends, Order friends and anyone else he had been able to think of would be able to access the property, although not to locate it afterwards. There were about fifty people there, all told, and the sound of them getting to their seats was causing steady panic to rise in Hermione's heart.
Luna noticed her from across the stage, "It'll be alright. Just forget about them and play."
"I can't," Hermione whispered back.
"You'll have to," Ginny replied from the drums, shooting death glare, "Now be quiet, we're about to start."
As the curtains parted, Hermione played one drawn out and haunting minor note on her cello. As the note faded, her band mates crashed into the entrance for their first song. She had to play so fast, so differently from the classical music she'd been taught that it required all of her concentration and she had no more time to be nervous.
Suddenly with the lights flashing and the music blaring, with Tonks' voice going from whisper to growl to honeyed sandpaper, with Ginny's fierce beating threatening to break the drums and Luna's odd intensity pouring her soul into a guitar, Hermione got the point. She was a rock goddess, on top of the world, only needing her band and the music. No one else could do this, just her, just them. They were perfect, amazing, incredible, gorgeous. She threw herself into the music with total abandon and let it carry her. She was glad she'd fallen for this wild scheme.
