McKinley High, Rachel Berri
"You're kidding me, right? Hogwarts?"
"Quinn's right. That is a pretty faggy name."
"Shut up, Puck. They could be really cool."
"I think Finn's absolutely correct. It's immature to judge people by the mere name of their school."
"No offense, Rachel, but I don't think anyone says 'mere'."
"Well, thanks a lot, Brittany."
"Guys, guys, no need to discuss it. The students of Hogwarts are coming here to show us what they've got," Mr. Schue said, attempting to calm us down. Like that was ever going to happen. "and we are going to give them the most respect we can muster."
"I don't think a lot of people say muster, either," Brittany muttered. I spun around in my chair and glared at her. Honestly, who did she think she was? She was an idiot, and I was the only reason New Directions had made it to Nationals, so why was she talking?
Mr. Schue cleared his throat. "You guys. Listen." I turned back around and straightened out my back. "I hear these guys are really into opera. Classical music, you know the kind." Everyone looked at each other and laughed.
"This will be easy," Puck said confidently.
"For sure," Finn agreed. They high-fived each other.
"Now guys, don't get too confident. We don't know how good these guys are," Mr. Schue said. I rolled my eyes.
"Really, Mr. Schue, they can't be that good. I think we all know that opera only lets you go so far, and as long as we have me we'll be okay," I said with a smile, pleased with myself.
"Maybe you're talented, Berri, but nobody likes you," I heard Santana say smugly. I rolled my eyes.
"As if anyone likes you, Santana," I said without turning around. Skank. I could hear her hair whip behind her.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Mr. Schue stood up, and as he walked to the door he said, "I want you guys to practice extra hard, even if these guys aren't that good. Remember, we still have to go up against Vocal Adrenaline."
Everyone dismissed the issue with 'yeah, yeah's and a wave of their hand. Mr. Schue rolled his eyes and opened the door.
There was a man, extremely small with a huge hunter's cap on that covered his ears. Freak. Mr. Schue looked confused for a moment, then stepped aside and waved a hand for him to come in. "Hello?" he asked puzzled.
"Hello there," the man said. "My name is Filius Flitwick, Professor Flitwick to my students, and I am the head of the Hogwarts Show Choir."
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Ronald Weasley
This was ridiculous. I couldn't believe that we were riding in a bus, yes a regular, plain old muggle bus, to a muggle school for some muggle competition. It was absolutely mental. The only reason I had agreed to join the show choir was because Harry had joined, and the only reason Harry had joined was because Hermione had pressured him and beat up his conscience until he did. Ridiculous.
Hermione nudged me. "Look out the window." So I did of course. You can't defy Hermione Granger. I didn't see anything in particular. Just a few road signs and a lot of grass.
"What?" She groaned.
"You idiot. The landscape." The landscape, she says. Landscape? Hmm...
"Am I supposed to know what that is?" I ask. She slaps me on the arm. "Ow! What the bloody hell was that for?" She rolls her eyes.
"The pastures? The hills, the grass, the trees? Hello?" she said, gesturing to the window. She means the land? Wow. That's what she's getting all worked up about? Classic Hermione.
Harry reached his hand over Hermione and whacked me on the chest with the back of his hand. Why always me? "Look, you guys, we're almost there." I looked over to see a large green sign that read 'You are now entering Lima, Ohio.' Great. One step closer to hell.
I leaned my head against the window and closed my eyes. Might as well get some rest before the most annoying day of my life. How did I get into this? Oh right. The fear of being alone. I hate myself and my low self esteem. Let's face it, I have no other friends than Harry and Hermione, which is extremely sad. At least I'm not Fred and George. They have pretty much no one but each other for company, if you think about it. I felt a bump in the road and looked up.
We were pulling into the parking lot. How did we get there so fast? Oh well. Might as well get it over with. I looked over to Harry and Hermione. They were talking. The only words I caught were 'vocal chords' and 'rubbish'. Probably talking about this whole situation, I suppose. The bus halted to a stop and we began to file off. I pushed past Harry and Hermione and practically shoved my way off the bus. After they caught up I looked at them and smiled sheepishly.
"I couldn't stand it in there. Claustrophobic." They rolled their eyes and shook their heads. Whatever. We were ushered inside.
McKinley High is nothing like I've ever seen before. Teenagers bustling all around, wearing things I've never even seen. Short, red, ruffled skirts with red and white, tight tank tops that don't even cover their bellybutton. Guys wearing baggy jeans and what look like t-shirts with the sleeves cut off strut around, shoving around nerds and grabbing girls' butts. If only I had that kind of courage.
Somebody whistled. I turned around and realized it was Malfoy. Malfoy? He's a part of this? And Pansy, and Crabbe, and Goyle, and all those Slytherin jerks. Wow. Show choir is more popular than I thought.
I feel extremely stupid in my robes. Why did they make us wear them? They should've let us wear our regular clothes, but no, they said it was to show our school pride. Ugh.
We're ushered down the hall until we find a small door. Professor Flitwick knocks and it's opened by a tall, rather handsome looking man with incredibly slimy hair that had so much product in it I gagged. Dear Merlin.
"Hello?" he said. Professor Flitwick cleared his throat.
"Hello there. My name is Filius Flitwick, Professor Flitwick to my students, and I am the head of the Hogwarts School Choir." The man nodded.
"Um, hi. My name's Will Schuester, Mr. Schue to my students, and I lead New Directions, the Glee club here at McKinley," he said, gesturing to the students lined up in chairs. Some were wearing the same red outfits the other girls had been wearing, some of the guys the same outfits as the thugs, one boy was in a wheelchair, one girl was dressed in dark, creepy clothing that reminded me of spiders, one girl was wearing an extremely unappealing sweater and a short skirt, but not as short as the other girls, and one guy and girl were dressed in almost matching outfits, except the sizes were different because the girl was rather fat. She also had very dark skin.
I groaned. Could this get any weirder?
"Alright then. May we begin?" Professor Flitwick asked. Yes! The sooner the better! I wanted to be out of there. But Mr. Schue shook his head.
"I insist that we introduce ourselves first. How about," he said clapping his hands together and turning to his students, "we all go around and tell our names and one thing about ourselves!" Everyone, including Hermione groaned. "Oh come on guys, it'll be fun!"
"Sure it will," I mumbled to Harry. He laughed quietly and nudged me. But nevertheless, we all lined up in front of them and sat down on the floor. Nice hospitality.
"Mr. Schuester, if you will, I'd like to start," the girl in the ugly sweater said. Everyone sighed, but in the end no one else wanted to start so Mr. Schue finally gave in. Sweater-Girl grinned.
"Hello, my name is Rachel Berri, and I was born to be a star," she said, still grinning. Everyone moaned and it went onto the next person. It was one of the guys in the baggy pants. He had a mohawk.
"Hey, the name's Puck-" he began, but Mr. Schue interrupted him.
"Puck, real name please?" Puck sighed.
"Hey, the name's Noah Puckerman, but you call me Puck." It went onto the next guy, one wearing the same kind of clothes.
"Sup, I'm Finn Hudson, and I don't have a father." I immediately looked over to Harry. I could see his eyes were glassy, but he showed no emotion in his face.
The next girl was blonde and in one of those red outfits that were so easy on the eyes I had trouble looking away. "Hello, my name is Quinn Fabray and I'm head of the Cheerios." Cheerios? What the bloody hell? I didn't know they had breakfast cereal at this school. She looked to the boy in the wheelchair seated beside her.
"Hey, my name's Artie Abrams and I dream to dance one day." As he said this his eyes got glossy but oh well. He obviously wasn't going to, and he would just have to live with that. In the row above them was another one of those girls in the red uniform, but with darker skin and dark hair in a pony tail.
"My name's Santana Lopez, and I hate pretty much everyone in this room." Well, she's nice.
It went on like this. And on and on and on. Eventually it came to us, but that wasn't very interesting either. Finally it came down to Hermione and of course she made a spectacle of herself. She stood up proudly and tossed her hair. All the boys mouths drooled over her. Oh, soon they would see.
"Hello there, my name is Hermione Granger, and I'm the brightest w- girl of my age." Well, that was a slip up. Then it went to Harry.
Without standing up he said, "My name's Harry Potter," he paused for a moment, waiting for gasps as usual, but none came, "and both of my parents are dead." He gave a glance to the boy who had said he was fatherless, then looked down at his shoes.
Sod. My turn. "Erm, 'ello, my name's Ron Weasley, and I'm a pureblood." Flitwick looked murderous. Hermione and Harry's eyes bugged out. "I, uh, erm, I mean, I have six other siblings." The confused look of the muggles faded and they all nodded. I exhaled.
When the last of us had finished our introductions, we all stood up.
"Well," Mr. Schue said, clapping his hands together. "Time to perform."