Harry Potter:
Musical Reception
by
Jake Crepeau
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter; the franchise belongs to J. K. Rowling and a host of other entities, none of which are me.
A/N: This story was inspired by a song and by another story I recently read here (I can't remember the title or author) and could be considered an aftermath.
Musical Reception
Muggles bitten by werewolves usually didn't survive the first full moon…but Muggleborn wizards were a different matter entirely. In his globetrotting years during the First Wizarding War, Remus had met an American werewolf by the name of Mark Kittering. Mark, a young man about Remus' own age, was an upbeat kind of guy who seemed unfazed by anything fate threw at him—including being bitten by a werewolf. He took the usual precautions most responsible werewolves took—engaging a trusted friend to ensure he was safely locked up on the night of the full moon, and obtaining the Wolfsbane Potion when he could—and the rest of each month leading his life as normally as he could. At least MACUSA had more lenient laws regarding werewolves than the British Ministry of Magic did, his job opportunities limited only by the fact that most employers took a dim view of a worker who must be absent for one or two days every month. He'd even adopted a song popular at the time, sung by some Muggle artist named Warren Zevon, as his personal theme song, altering one word in the lyrics to fit his particular situation.
Remus had kept in touch with him through the years—when he could afford parchment to write letters, and the fee to send it by the owl postal service. The American werewolf's attitude toward life in general and his lycanthropy in particular had been simultaneously encouragement and frustration for him, though it had been more of the former during the time when the Wizengamot was debating the legislation that would reduce the discriminatory practices against werewolves who registered in the new assistance program. After it passed, the British werewolves had decided to throw a party to celebrate.
It was originally planned to be just a small, private party, with all the werewolves pitching in whatever they could afford for food and drinks. But then Sirius and his wife took over organizing it and turned it into the society event of the year.
Upon hearing about this from Remus, Mark took matters into his own hands and began contacting Sirius to contribute his input regarding the music. He had to scrabble to get his hands on a musical score for the wizarding band to rehearse, and Sirius had a bit of a hassle trying to convince the pureblood leader of the band in question to perform a Muggle tune, but eventually humor—helped along by a hefty bribe…errr, bonus—won the day.
The weather on the night of the ball couldn't have been better, and the turnout was huge. From a group of confreres who had just planned to celebrate the improvement in their circumstances, the werewolves had become the guests of honor at a ball that threw all the lavish Malfoy events of recent years into shadow.
It was a nerve-wracking introduction. Kept waiting in a room apart from the partygoers—a large, comfortable sitting room—they were introduced one by one and asked to stand in a group at the front of the room until all of them had been announced. The entire process was accompanied by a lilting ditty of a tune being played softly in the background by the band, a tune which had the halfbloods and Muggleborns in the room struggling to hide their snickers, and Remus mentally groaning. Finally, when all of them were assembled, the musicians went to full volume, and the singer suddenly belted out the refrain everyone who knew the tune was expecting…
AOWOOOOOO! Werewolves of London!
The End
