Heya, everyone! This is the result of way way too much summer band camp. And several Mountain Dews. My friends and I just all have no social life outside of Band. Anyway, the brainstorm for this idea was "Hogwarts gets a Marching Band." I originally wrote it end of last school year, but couldn't read my document, so it got deleted. Now I'm rewriting it. This is just a short little intro to see if it gets anyone in to it, and if not, it will be purely for the enjoyment of my friends and I. Oh, and we're gonna have a real marching band here, folks, so if you want to join, just put in your review your instrument, house, and name, and I'll stick you in. If you Really want, you can email me at , but that's less fun. (See fic for complete list of instruments) Anyway, I'll just get on with it, shall I? Suggestions for the songs we should play are also welcome: We'll all vote on three songs to play. Like I said, this is just a short intro, and it will follow in the footsteps of my X-Men story as far as random-ness and inside jokes. Also, Harry/Ron/Hermione will not be the MC's in this, although they will have a few cameo parts, and it's at Hogwarts, so it still qualifies as HP fanfic. Plus, in regards to the "No non-fictional characters" Clause in Da Rules of Fanfic . net, all characters are original, and merely based off members of my band. On with the show!
P. S.
Oh, and if anyone would care to look up and see what the name (if there is one) of the Muggle Studies teacher is, I would be much obliged.
As was common, at exactly eight o'clock Saturday morning, a piece of parchment poofed in to being and affixed itself to the notice board in the Ravenclaw common room. A few students wandered over absentmindedly to see what it said, but soon the common room was buzzing with the details of the message, which was as follows:
Attention Hogwarts Students:
We are pleased to announce that, complements of our new Muggle Studies teacher, Hogwarts will be participating in the formation of an All-Magic Marching Band League! For those among us who are unfamiliar with the term Marching Band, it involves a large number of students in costume playing brass, woodwinds, and drum style musical instruments while marching in formation. It is quite common in muggle high schools for a marching band to be formed. It is high time that the magical world indulged in this proud tradition.
Any students wishing to participate should report to the great hall at 12 noon today for orientation. Uniform sizing, and to receive their music. Instruments will be provided to any who do not have their own. Here is a list of the available positions:
Woodwinds:
Piccolo
Flute
Clarinet
Saxophone- Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Baritone
Bass Clarinet
Brass:
Trumpet (B flat)
Coronet
Mellaphone
Trombone
Baritone
Sousaphone/Contrabass (Tuba)
Drum Line will have a separate audition at 5 o'clock today. Flag Corps auditions will be held at 6 o'clock.
We are also pleased to announce that, because of the strenuous requirements of Marching Band, all participating Muggle Studies students will be exempt from finals. Thank you for your participation, and we hope to see you all today!
There were mixed results from every student upon the reading of this. The muggle borns either became giddy with excitement and dashed off to eat breakfast and await noon eagerly in the great hall, or turned up their noses at the thought of even considering to be in Marching Band when you didn't have to. The not-muggle-borns either scratched their heads confusedly, found a muggle born friend to explain the concept and followed them off to the great hall, or scoffed at even considering to participate in a muggle activities when you didn't have to. Being Ravenclaws, however, they were all concerned about the exempt-ness from Muggle Studies finals. Whispers of "Will we be graded on a curve?" "What do they mean, 'Exempt?' Do we still get credit?" and "What percentage of our final will go in to our final grade?" could be heard around the common room.
In all the excitement, nobody noticed a Fifth Year Ravenclaw girl smile secretly and tromp back up to her rooms. Once there, she opened her side table, and withdrew a very large metal object. To the uneducated observer, it would have appeared to be a convex shot glass of nickel, aproxately the size of a fist, connected to a section of brass tubing about 8 inches in length. The educated observer, however, would recognize it as a Tuba Mouthpiece and connectors. The Ravenclaw slipped it in to a pocket, not noticing, or perhaps not caring, that her robes now dragged a good six inches on the ground due to the weight of her mouthpiece. After tripping on her dragging robes several times on the way down the stairs, the Ravenclaw girl took one last glance at the swarm around the notice, cracked a wide grin, and left for breakfast.
The same appearance of the notice was repeated in the Gryffindor common room, but, being Gryffindors, nobody paid much attention to it compared to the notice for a used Comet broomstick. Also, being Gryffindors, the common room was soon emptied as they all dashed down to breakfast.
Several hours passed before anything was heard in the deserted common room. However, had anyone been there, around 10 they would have heard a rather sudden thundering noise coming from the Girls Tower. The source of the unusual sound was revealed as a tall, artificially-red haired Gryffindor girl wearing large black combat boots bounded down the stairs, skipping the last three.
Dashing off to see if she could scrounge some breakfast from the kitchens, the Gryffindor's eye was caught by the notice on the announcement board. Slowly, a wide smile spit across her face. Now with no hurry, she calmly stomped back up the stairs to her dorm, where she located the large pile of dirty laundry that was her trunk. After a brief moment of digging, she located a moderately sized black case. Slinging it on to her shoulder, she walked back to the common room and down to the great hall, all thoughts of food out of her mind. Well, almost, but not really.
As you can probably guess, the same message also appeared on the Hufflepuff board. The Hufflepuffs, being Hufflepuffs, were rather annoyed at the fact that some people would be lured in to the Marching Band at the promise of an exempt exam rather than wanting to work for it themselves. There were, however, two in the room that gave no notice to the details of the message, other than the time and place of the orientation. An abnormally tall, brown haired boy with a muggle Scooby Doo t-shirt and a shorter, sandy haired girl both merely glanced up at each other, tromped up to their respective dormitories, and each returned with black cases. The Hufflepuff girl's case was about the size and shape of a large hardback book, while the boy's case was the size of an oblong, unusually thick brief case. Glancing at each other, they walked to the common room together.
On their way down, the pair passed a Slytheryn girl with curly brown hair and a Japanese symbol on her necklace. They both noticed that she was carrying a case that bore an uncanny resemblance to the Hufflepuff boy's, except for the large slytheryn serpent emblazoned on the side. Eyeing each other warily, they walked on opposite sides of the hallway on their way to the Great Hall, where they joined the throngs of other people all excitedly waiting for noon.
I kinda ran out of ideas of interesting things to happen in the common room, so I skipped the slytheryn common room entirely. Sorry to any slyths out there. So you know, there are two Drum Major positions open to anyone who doesn't wish to play an instrument. For all the non-Band-Geeks out there, a Drum Major is the one who stands on a pedestal in front of the band and conducts. One spot is already taken by a friend of mine who claimed it back in June. Anyway, Review, Join, and Welcome to the Band! Let the wackiness begin.
Toodles!
-BR
P.S. Extra mention goes to whoever can figure out which of them is me! yeah, like that'll be hard...
P.P.S. Yeah, I decided to include Jesse, traitorous quitting scum that he is. I mean, he lives right across the street, so I can see his house while writing, and he did do it last year, and he did let us tape him that one time at Laura's house, when he was singing... Plus, he was in the original I wrote on the school computer. Jenny, you'll come in the next chapter. You get to yell at everyone! See ya at Wednesday Band Camp Practice! Except Jesse and Jenny... Yeah...
Bye! (again)