"Oi, Rosie, have you seen the Prophet yet?" Albus Potter shouted across the Great Hall from the Slytherin table.
Rose Weasley sat at the Ravenclaw table with her best friends, Alice Longbottom and Danielle Thomas. It had taken a while for their Gryffindor parents to get used to having their daughters in Ravenclaw, but they were proud all the same. Following in her mother's footsteps Rose was top of the year, rivaled only by her boyfriend, Scorpius Malfoy.
"No, why?" she called back to her cousin.
"Just look at it! Page three, it's got a double spread. You'll see why when you read it!" Albus grinned.
Rose sighed but reached for the paper anyway, spreading page three open on the table.
1 KNUT ~~~ DAILY PROPHET ~~~ 15th JUNE 2013
FLASH-MOB MANIA HITS WIZARDING BRITAIN
Flash-mob mania has officially struck Wizarding Britain, reports Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondant.
For those of you who do not know what a flash-mob is, it is a public stunt of Muggle creation. Most often a group will gather in a public place and perform a 'spontaneous', pre-rehearsed dance, song or sometimes both. The point of a flash-mob is to create a spectacle and confuse passers-by, so the event is kept as secret as possible; on the day, performers join the group one at a time and, when finished, walk away as though nothing ever happened. In the Muggle world they record these flash-mobs with video cameras and post them on the Internet, often going 'viral' (watched by thousands of people around the globe via the Internet).
The first Wizarding flash-mob, a group of ten witches and wizards who wish to remain anonymous, danced and sang to a backing track of A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love by Celestina Warbeck outside the Chudley Cannons Quidditch Stadium on Boxing Day. Since then the idea has taken off and there have been over fifty noted flash-mobs throughout the country, including a traditional Highland Dance in the Scottish village of Banchory, Aberdeenshire, on Burn's Night, and the most recent being a rendition of the Spanish Muggle hit Macarena, which boasts a signature accompanying dance. Started and led by Muggle-born war heroine Hermione Weasley, this reporter herself took part in a dance outside Gringotts yesterday which involved rhythmically placing the hands on various areas of the body in between turns of 90 ̊.
Judging from experience, the loss of time and energy is worth the confused looks of the crowd and the rush of excitement when performing. Here at the Daily Prophet we have heard no rumours of more organized flash-mobs, so we can but hope that Wizarding Britain will decide to entertain the public again, following the steadily uprising trend of flash-mobs across the country.
The page opposite was a collection of moving photographs of the various flash-mobs, the largest of them being Hermione dancing the Macarena with Astoria Malfoy on her left and Ernie McMillan on her right, on the front steps of Gringotts. As Rose watched, Rita Skeeter walked into the frame and indeed started dancing with them, making a row of four. Rose glanced at Albus and they both grinned. Soon they were laughing hysterically, and as Rose fought to control the giggles Alice and Danielle snatched the paper from her to see what was so funny. Alice nudged Rose. "Hey, Rose?"
"Yeah?" Rose was still trying to keep a straight face.
"There's a Hogsmeade weekend next Saturday…" she trailed off, leaving the statement open to interpretation.
"Oh, remember that really weird song you showed us a few months ago? Y'know, the Muggle one with the Japanese guy singing about sexy ladies. What was it – Gangman Style?" Danielle continued.
"It's Gangnam Style, and he's Korean. What's that got to do with Hogsmeade, though?"
The two girls exchanged a smirk; they were obviously planning something and Rose wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. They pushed the Prophet towards her and tapped the photo of Hermione, still dancing but now with a crowd about a hundred strong with her.
"Have you ever thought about following in your mother's footsteps, Rose?" Alice raised her eyebrows to emphasise her point.
Rose frowned. "Well, yes, loads of times, but I still fail to see how this links together."
Samantha Wood, a Hufflepuff from the next table over, sighed heavily. "For Merlin's sake, Weasley! It's obvious; they want you to start a flash-mob in Hogsmeade with them! Call yourself a Ravenclaw…" she muttered, and a look of understanding finally spread across Rose's face.
She leaned in conspiritally, her smirk now matching Alice and Danielle's. "So, what was this you were saying about Gangnam Style?"
