A/N: Sorry everyone who's waiting for another chapter of Picture A Pirate—I'm working on it, I really am, but I've got a little bit of a writer's block (doncha just hate those?) and I don't want it to be too cliché, so that's something I have to work through… so it's taking a while. Therefore, I decided to write this one-shot just to get the plot bunny out of my head!
Disclaimer: Don't own any of it. The plot was probably spawned from the thousands of fanfics I've read anyway.
oOo
Harry Potter snickered quietly as he glanced around the room, seeing the still dumbstruck expressions on his friends' faces. Really, they were quite funny. Although, it is quite believable that finding out the magic that the band sang was real was quite a shock. A light smirk crossed his face as he waited for them to recover, going over what had happened in his mind.
Harry had graduated Hogwarts after his seventh year, defeating Voldemort just days before the graduation. To be truthful, he was still shocked that he had managed to survive that Final Battle, but got over it quickly—a lot faster then most of the Wizarding World did, anyway, since they'd been singing his praises for the next two years. He had only been around for the first two months afterwards, though.
That's right, the Man-Who-Lived-To-Win (and-who-had-too-many-hyphens-in-his-name) had left the Wizarding World to live as a Muggle on the other side of the world five years ago. He'd found a small town in one of the Eastern states that had appealed to him, and settled down there, working in a library during the day and a small coffee shop at night. He'd actually met his new friends while working in the library—Alex had come to the desk to check out while he was humming one of the tunes that had been going around in his head for a few days, and had inquired as to what the song was. He'd been drawn almost instantly into the small local band that Alex was in, first as song-writer, then as bass player and sometimes singer. Grinning as he remembered their early days playing in the coffee shop—after finally teaching him to play, which had taken forever—he glanced around at the group.
Alex's mouth was still opening and closing in shock, his dark blue eyes wide. His faintly tanned skin gave a light contrast to the dirty blonde hair he had, which hung around his ears. Leo's light brown eyes matched his hair, which was cut short and spiked to show off the deep golden tan. Rafe—short for Rafael, a name he swore he hated—had light hazel eyes, which didn't do much to draw your gaze away from the long reddish-brown hair that swept to his mid-back.
Harry himself had changed from his seventeen year old self into the tall, lean man of twenty-two years that sat among the others. His black hair fell around his shoulders in slightly tousled waves, framing his tanned face and expressive green eyes, the tips dyed a deep navy blue. The famed scar was still visible on his forehead, but only if you looked hard to see the faint white line against his skin. He finally took pity on his three friends and grinned.
"Are you going to snap out of it any time soon?" Alex blinked a few times, then scowled at the raven-haired man and reached over to punch him lightly in the shoulder.
"Well it's not everyday you learn that your best friend is apparently famous, and oh yeah, there is such thing as magic and wizards!" Leo chuckled lightly, brown eyes cheerful.
"I just want to get to see some of this magic." Rafe raised one eyebrow.
"Why'd you tell us now? If you've kept it secret this long, there has to be a reason why it came out." Harry shifted slightly in his seat.
"Actually, my old Headmaster contacted me. My class is having a five-year reunion and he wanted to know if we could come play. He's the only one who knew where I was and what I was doing, and I didn't want to just suddenly throw it all on you. Especially if you wouldn't know I was famous until we got there." He made a slight face, which caused the other three to laugh. They were all familiar with his dislike of fame, one of the reasons they never mentioned who wrote the songs. But back to the topic at hand.
Alex shook his head wryly, dark eyes glittering.
"I think it would be interesting. Not to mention I'd like to see this castle and what-not. Would be interesting to meet your old friends too." Leo grinned.
"All in favor, say Aye!" With one or two weird looks at the brunette, all four dutifully gave their vote.
"Aye!"
oOo
Several weeks later, a few days before September 1st and the arrival of the students, the class that fought Voldemort the most was gathered together again in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, much like it had always been. There were differences among the former students, however.
Draco Malfoy, one of several Slytherins who turned spy against the Dark Lord, sat at the Gryffindor table with Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley, and Blaise Zabini, one of the other spies. The four Gryffindors and Slytherins had learned how to work together during the war, and had kept in contact afterwards, slowly become closer friends. The years had been good to them, even letting Draco look less like his father and more like his own person. The other various ex-students were scattered around at the different tables, having their own quiet conversations.
Hermione's eyes kept scanning the room and pausing at the doors, as though hoping someone would enter. When Dumbledore entered, however, she sighed and leaned back. Blaise smiled at her.
"Don't worry Hermione, I'm sure he'll be here." The brown-haired girl blew a piece of hair out of her face.
"But we haven't heard from him in 5 years! What if he doesn't come?" Before more could be said, Dumbledore stood at his chair among the other teachers and smiled down at the young men and women who he had known for several years.
"My former students, welcome back to Hogwarts! I am pleased to see so many of you doing well. I do hope you will enjoy this reunion, as well as the feast the House Elves have whipped up. Of course, we will, as we have had at every dance and reunion, have some musical entertainment before eating. I know how many of you liked the Weird Sisters; unfortunately, I was unable to get them to come tonight, so I called in a few favors and managed to get a special treat.
"Coming here from the East coast of America, I would like you to welcome the Muggle band Tiaral!" All of the wizards and witches clapped, a few Muggle-borns grinning at the thought of some Muggle music.
A small stage appeared at the side of the Hall, holding three mikes with several guitars around them (a mixture of acoustic and electric), and one large black and red drum set. All of the magical folks looked at the stage with interest, waiting as the candles dimmed slightly. Then, with the faintest of 'clearings of the throat', someone unseen started to speak, the American accent making one or two people grin.
"Well I have to admit, British accents are quite amusing to hear." Another voice joined, also with an accent.
"But then, the British are allowed their quirks." The third sounded slightly sulky.
"And all this tea—you'd think there wasn't a good cup of coffee anywhere in the entire nation." The fourth voice caught the attention of many in the Hall—it was definitely British, though it had a slight American lilt to it.
"You could do with less caffeine Leo. It'll stunt your growth, you know, and you're short enough as it is." The first voice interrupted, ignoring the third voice's intake of breath which would probably have led to a rant.
"Now's not the time for a coffee vs. tea argument, we're here to play. Or did you two forget?" The British voice snickered softly as he replied.
"Ruin all the fun Alex, just like always. Are you sure we can't turn you into a toad?" As though that line was a cue, four people materialized onto the stage (if one looked closely enough, they could see the light Invisibility cloaks slide to the floor), three by the mikes and guitars and the fourth behind the drums. Smirking lightly, Tiaral lifted their instruments. The man behind the drums clacked the sticks together four times, and the song began.
The twenty two and twenty three year olds (because some had birthdays sooner then others) watched and listened to the band play. Hermione Granger frowned slightly as she listened to the lyrics—the song was one about transformation, and it sounded a lot like someone had sat through one of McGonagall's Transfiguration classes. All four of them were Muggles though, so it would be hard for them to have…
Her brain ran through thoughts quickly, working furiously. Dumbledore had to have known the group if he were to call in favors, or at least one person of the group. That meant at least one of them wasn't a Muggle. She carefully studied the quartet, not realizing it as they went into another song. Her attention was caught, however, when the raven-haired boy began to sign, and she turned her narrowed eyes on him, studying him carefully.
Chocolate brown eyes widened sharply as she recognized a familiar scar on the man's forehead, and she squeaked, almost knocking over her goblet and managing to catch it in time. Emerald green eyes darted toward her for a second as the man kept singing, quickly turning away. Hermione scowled and leaned towards the others, murmuring quietly.
"I think we found Harry." Three pairs of incredulous eyes turned to her, then to the man still singing softly (this song was about a dark forest—it sounded suspiciously like the Forbidden Forest), and widened faintly. Through a short, unspoken agreement, however, they decided to wait until after the band was done playing before approaching them at all.
Once the group had concluded one more song, Dumbledore stood up again with a bright smile to the band.
"Thank you! And I would just like to introduce the members of the band, in case any of you were wondering. On drums is Leo Grant, lead singer is Alex Trione, back-up lead is Rafe Haron, and bass guitar is Harry Potter." The Hall was quiet for a minute before Hermione smacked her hand on the table.
"I knew it!" The four band members blinked, then began to laugh hard, eyes bright. Harry glanced over at the Headmaster with a smirk, and held out his hand. The old man sighed and pulled out a small bag full of coins, and looked sourly at the bright girl.
"Really Hermione, couldn't you have let your deduction skills die a little after school? You just cost me five galleons!" The rest of the Hall joined in the laughter as Hermione flushed a deep red. Grinning, Harry and his three friends headed down to join the others at the Gryffindor table, jumping into the conversation.
oOo
All done!
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(1) Tiaral—means Magic Hunt, from my elven names page. I love that page. So much fun to put together meaningful names! D
I know, kind of a bad ending, but I really wanted to get this up tonight and I couldn't think of anywhere else to go. So I finished it. Didn't write any songs either, I was lazy. And it's rather short, but what can you do… writer's block and all that, remember?
I really just wanted an excuse to do a coffee vs tea thing. I mean, it doesn't really fit into any of my other fics, and I was bored and wanted to do a little invisibility scene and what not... so I did.
Also, I don't like geometry. Why do I need to know anything about triangles? Grrr. Teachers should give less homework to students, so we can have a life. (or as much of a life as I have, reading fanfiction all day and attempting to write my own…)
Now that I'm done complaining about how awful the world is, just wanted to say sorry for there being a distinct lack of updates on PAP (haha, that cracks me up still) and that I really am working on it. Also, please review this? It would make me happy and might help my writer's block. (it's only a little bribe… )
kaaera
