Harry Potter woke up slowly and yawned widely, letting himself relax for the last time until Christmas. He could already hear Mrs Weasley pottering around in the kitchen and he smiled to himself. It was going to be an excellent last day of the summer holidays. He looked across to where Ron was snoring and grinned. He wouldn't be awake for ages. He glanced at the clock: half 10.

Carefully, so as not to wake his best friend, Harry stood up, picked his clothes out his trunk and made his way to the little bathroom. He washed his face and got dressed, leaving his pyjamas in the laundry to be speed washed for the start of term. As he went downstairs he passed Ginny and greeted her merrily. They'd broken up but were still close friends. She'd gone back to Dean over the summer and was perfectly happy with him. He tried in vain to neaten his hair before Mrs Weasley could fuss and went into the kitchen.

"Morning Mrs Weasley" he said. She looked up, smiling.

"Good morning dear. Did you sleep well?" he nodded as she tipped sausages and bacon onto his plate.

"Thanks!" he said, helping himself to toast. As he set to work devouring the delicious breakfast the kitchen door opened and a streak of ginger fluff proceeded a mane if bushy brown hair.

"Morning 'mione!" He said around a mouthful of bacon.

"Hi Harry," she said, grinning. His and Ron's love of food had always amused her. She greeted Mrs Weasley and helped herself to toast, pulling that morning's copy of The Daily Prophet towards her. Harry rolled his eyes; he hated reading the papers. By the time she was half way through it, he had almost finished.

Scraping his plate clean he took it over to the sink and looked out the window. His eyes widened and he hastened to open it before the five owls crashed into it. Standing quickly aside he watched them swoop in, drop Errol and two large packages then leave again.

Ron, who had just come into the kitchen, groaned. "Ruddy owl. He's pathetic! Can't we get a new one mum?" he asked, advancing towards the unconscious owl and prodding him awake. Mrs Weasley said nothing. With a start Errol woke and tried to ruffle his wings. Ron rolled his eyes and carried him to his perch, which he promptly fell off. Ron made a face of disgust and left him there. Hermione shot him a glare and got up to help the exhausted grey bird.

"What's in the parcels mum?" Ron said around a large mouthful of sausage. Mrs Weasley had gone to investigate while Ron 'helped' Errol. She turned them over, looking for a name.

"One's for Harry and one's for...well that doesn't make any sense." all three turned to look at her. "It's addressed to Draco Malfoy" she frowned. Harry Ron and Hermione exchanged a look of confusion mixed with suspicion. Harry took his package and Molly handed Malfoy's to Ron.

The kitchen was silent but for the dishes washing themselves up in the sink. It was heavy. Harry held his parcel up to his ear. Nothing. There was no noise so he smelt it. It smelled of nothing he'd smelt before so he held it out for Hermione. She rolled her eyes but took it and repeated Harry's actions. Ron had just carefully put Malfoy's at a distance away from himself and gone back to eating, not trusting it to keep it anywhere near himself.

Hermione frowned in concentration as she tried to identify the smell. "It smells like a mix of potions ingredients...but why would someone send you them?" Harry shook his head, at a loss.

"I don't know...maybe it's for a particular potion? But why would they send Malfoy one too? He could just ask Snape for anything. Or his parents, they'd get him anything," he added as an afterthought. Hermione shrugged in confusion and handed Harry back the brown paper package. He took it warily and slit open one corner with his knife.

There was a shiny black box inside and he pulled off the paper. He frowned and carefully opened the lid. He peered inside then opened it fully.

"Well you were right Hermione; it's ingredients." Harry said. Pulling his wand out his pocket, he summoned his NEWT textbook from his and Ron's room. When it flew through the door he looked expectantly at Hermione. She looked at him in disbelief.

"You can't be serious?" she said. He just smiled a little sheepishly and she sighed in exasperation. "Can't you do anything by yourself?"

"Not this early in the morning." he grinned and Ron snorted, which Harry chose to ignore, "And besides, you've probably already got an idea of what to look for," he knew he had her there and so did she. She 'humph'ed and flipped to the index. Running a finger down the page her eyes moved rapidly from side to side. She paused several times only to make a face and then kept going. She turned the page more than once and finally seemed to find what she was looking for.

"And here, we have the potion. Or so I assume," She rifled rapidly through the book to the right page and dropped the book on the table. It landed with a dull thud and both Harry and Ron leaned forward to see the page, the latter's mouth still food of food.

"A singing potion? What in Merlin's name…?" said Harry, utterly at a loss.

The Chanting Chalice presents the drinker with perfect pitch and an excellent ear for music. They will not sing a note out of tune until the solution wears off. This potion is often used by choir conductors of amateur singers or young children in musical theatre. Muggles occasionally get hold of it and have in the past become very famous in the muggle world.

Harry frowned at the text. Was someone planning on starting a choir at Hogwarts? If so, why did they send him and Malfoy ingredients but not Ron or Hermione? The latter was rummaging through the package and produced a note. She read it aloud.

"Dear Mr Potter

I am pleased to inform you that you have been chosen to be the lead bass in Professor Flitwick's newly founded choir. As Hogwarts School does not teach singing, we have no idea whatsoever whether or not you can actually hit the correct notes. Therefore we have sent you this package in the hopes you will concoct the potion before the start of term if you cannot sing. I have heard Miss Granger sing and I am confident that she can judge whether or not you can.

Have a good summer and we will see you on 1st September for the start of term,

Professor M. McGonagall"

Harry gaped at Hermione and Ron roared with laughter. Lead bass? No. No way. Harry had not signed up to this! He would not do it.

"Can you sing Harry?" Hermione asked. He shrugged.

"I've never really tried," he admitted.

"Mate you're stuffed!" said Ron, in between snorts of laughter. Harry glared at him.

"What does Malfoy's say?" He asked grumpily. Hermione started to protest but Ron grabbed the parcel and chucked it over to him. Harry caught it and ripped off the paper, shooting Hermione a look which quietened her immediately, proceeding to search Malfoy's silver box for a note. He found it and extracted it from between a jar of eyes and some suspicious looking red liquid in a vial.

He scanned it quickly and started laughing. It grew louder the more he thought about what he'd just read and he threw the letter onto the table for the others to read. They frowned and leant over it. When they'd read it Ron joined in the laughter and even Hermione smirked.

"Alto? Malfoy's an alto?" Ron said in disbelief. Harry made a gesture to indicate he had something to say but couldn't due to laughter.

"He's –he's a first alto –the highest male part there is!" He laughed until his sides hurt. At last there was a way of getting back at Malfoy for everything he'd done to them over the years. Hermione however, as ever, managed to find the one thing that could shut Harry up.

"You know," she began thoughtfully, "Since you're the lowest and he's the highest, you might well be singing a duet with him. That would explain why you've both been sent ingredients." Harry's laughter cut of immediately but Ron's just got louder.

"What's going on?" Came a sleepy voice from the doorway.

"Yeah, some of us are trying to sleep here!" Came a second, grumpier voice. The trio looked round and saw the twins in the kitchen doorway. Hermione explained what just happened and they grinned.

"If we were still at Hogwarts, we would pay to see this happen." Said George. Fred snickered and Harry threw a spoon at him. He swatted it aside and it landed on Crookshanks, who hissed and streaked away.

"Oops, sorry Hermione" said Fred. Hermione just rolled her eyes. Fred and George gave identical grins and went back upstairs to bed, laughing quietly to themselves. Harry rolled his eyes and repaired the wrapping paper on Malfoy's box with a spell, the note safely back inside. Hermione just looked at him, aghast. He smiled innocently.

"It was one harmless spell Hermione. And the ministry can't detect me in a magical setting; they'll assume it was Mr or Mrs Weasley. Or just one of the of-age Weasleys." Harry tried to console her. She just grimaced but let it go, for which he was grateful; it was too early in the morning for him to be able to win an argument against her.

Ron kept eating and when he was finally done all three of them rose from the table. Harry picked up Malfoy's parcel, thanked Mrs Weasley for breakfast and went back upstairs with Ron and Hermione. Dumping Malfoy's ingredients unceremoniously into his trunk, Harry got out his cauldron, potions knife, chopping board and cauldron stand.

"Hermione…" Harry said in a hopeful voice. She rolled her eyes.

"Yes I'll help you brew it."

"You're the best," he said. Taking the equipment downstairs he picked up his own ingredients and textbook from the table and took it all outside. Setting it up quickly he flipped to the right page (which he'd marked) and read it through again.

"Looks simple enough…" He murmured. He was alright at potions if a) Snape wasn't breathing down his neck and b) he was concentrating.

Two hours later Harry and Hermione finished. Ron was sitting to the side eating an apple and reading a new book on Quidditch.

"I thought Hermione was meant to judge your singing capabilities before you made the potion?" Ron commented, not looking up from his book. Harry looked up.

"Oh yeah!" He laughed, "Forgot about that. Ah well, it's too late now," He gave the potion one last stir and ladled it into flasks, holding them up to the light. The potion was a green-silver colour and shimmered as the light hit it. Harry blinked and put it carefully aside. Hermione cleared away the remaining ingredients and equipment.

"Would you like me to judge your singing Harry?" she asked. Harry shrugged.

"Sure, it can't hurt." Hermione settled comfortably on the ground and Harry sat up straight. He began to sing a song by a wizarding singer that he'd heard at the Weasley's a lot over the summer. As he sang he forgot there were people there and just let the music flow through him. He lost himself in the music in his head and sang his heart out, not paying attention to the warm wind as it brushed against him. He only half heard the leaves rustling on the ground and the birds in the garden that seemed to sing with him. The flowers nearby opened slowly as he sang and gnomes started poking their heads out of bushes.

Ron looked up in amazement, his mouth hanging open and Hermione stared at him. When Harry finished it took him a minute to come back to himself. When he did he blinked a couple of times and shook his head as if coming out of a trance. He looked at his two best friends both staring at him in shock and shifted uncomfortably. He hated attention.

"What?" He asked, unaware of what had just happened. The flowers, birds, wind, leaves and gnomes had all gone back to normal. "What?" He said insistently.

"Harry…" Ron said in a strangled voice, still looking rather shell-shocked.

"What?" He asked again, starting to get annoyed.

"Harry you're amazing." Hermione choked out. "Did you already take some of the potion?" He shook his head. "Have you ever had lessons?" He snorted in derision.

"Yeah, the Dursleys would so pay for me to have voice lessons." He said sarcastically.

"Harry you have to hear yourself sing. That was amazing! Why didn't you tell us you were so good?" She insisted. He squirmed slightly.

"I didn't know," he sounded honestly surprised. "I don't tend to sing. The only times I do is in the shower," his lips quirked up into a smile, "and there's never anyone there to hear me." He started to feel very uncomfortable under the stares. "Guys, please; stop with the staring." He said. They both smiled apologetically and looked away. Ron went back to his book and Hermione put the flasks of potion into a carrier. Harry relaxed slightly and helped clean the cauldron. They cleared everything away and Harry went back upstairs to pack it all away in his trunk.

As he straightened up Hedwig tapped on the window. He smiled and let her in. She flew onto his arm and nibbled his finger affectionately. He stroked her and decided to give her a job. He encouraged her onto the bedpost and got out Malfoy's ingredients. He scribbled a quick note to him explaining why Hedwig was delivering it and attached them to Hedwig's leg.

"This is for Draco Malfoy, ok?" She hooted once and flapped back out the window. He watched her go, smiling to himself. He didn't know what he'd do without her. He could of course just have given Malfoy the stuff the next day on the train or at school, but they took up unnecessary space in his trunk. He glanced at the clock again: quarter past one. He went back downstairs to enjoy the afternoon with his two best friends before school started again.