Chapter Two: A Big Announcement

"And Mr. Shunpike would like to remind you that entering the forest is strictly forbidden as is wandering the castle grounds after 7 o'clock pm," said Headmistress Vector.

As usual, many heads turned toward Stan Shunpike, who tipped his hat at them. He was standing at the back of the Great Hall, where the Sorting Hall had already given each house new members.

Uncle Harry had assured Rose and all of her cousins that they were lucky to have him rather than Mr. Filtch, who had previously been the grumpy caretaker. After his release from Azkaban, many were reluctant to hire him for a job, and her uncle Harry had helped him claimed the job after Filch's retirement. Rose liked Shunpike. He often told stories to the students that she was sure weren't true, but she enjoyed them all the same. He was fond of her as well, and when she had been caught taking a stroll by the lake after hours, he had been very regretful of having to give her a detention. But rules were rules, and he took his job seriously. It had been the last night of school at Hogwarts and so she promised she would make it up the first weekend of the upcoming year, which was now.

"Now, before we part, Professor Beaumont would now like to take the floor and announce some very exciting news for all of you. Professor?"

Professor Beaumont was the unusual charms professor. Although Rose did spectacular in her class, the woman had never showed much interest in her. She was a bigger fan of her cousin, Lily, and Rose had just assumed that they had a lot in common except choice in wardrobe. She was a woman who loved creativity, and Rose wasn't sure how creative one could get with charms. That's why she enjoyed the class so much. It was quick and to the point. Rose glanced over towards the Hufflepuff table at Lily, who had a knowing grin on her face.

"Indeed, something wonderful and new has been suggested to the Headmaster and all of the staff, by one of your very own," said Professor Beaumont. All of the students looked around at each other confused. "Lily Potter of Hufflepuff has talked to me, and I have decided to go forward with a project that involves whoever wants to take part. This year, Hogwarts will be putting on a musical play come November 16th."

Immediate chatter and whispers broke out across the entire Great Hall. Laughs came from the Slytherin table. Half of the Ravenclaw table looked appalled. Rose noticed her brother Hugo giving Lily a big thumbs up.

"Lily Potter and Hugo Weasley will be posting music scores in the corridors. You must learn the song and be prepared to sing at the audition which will be held two weeks from today, from 5:00pm to 6:30pm, depending on how many of you show up."

"Hugo, what's this about?" Rose whispered across the Gryffindor table.

"Exactly what it sounds like. Lily wrote to Professor Beaumont, asking if she'd speak to Headmistress about doing a play. You know, singing and dancing, just like in those old films Papa showed us in his shed when we were little," Hugo explained, and several Gryffindors were listening in.

"Singing and dancing?" said one of Rose's dorm mates, who was clearly not won-over by the news. "We're not a bunch of Muggles."

"Yes, because Muggles are the only ones with the talent to do so," Hugo sarcastically spat at her. "By the screeching sound of your voice, I'm pretty sure you couldn't hold a note to save your life anyway."

Professor Beaumont took her seat as more small announcements were made, and then the feast appeared on the table. While eating and occasionally chatting with James and Hugo, Rose thought of the old musicals her Nana and Papa Granger used to show her and some of her cousins when they were younger. The music, the dancing, the way the movie used both things to tell a story was a different kind of magic to experience. Every once in awhile, she caught herself humming one of the old tunes, but Lily, she breathed that sort of thing all of her childhood and even now. And because she breathed it, so did Hugo. It was no surprise that they were behind this new venture.

When the feast was over, Rose and fellow Prefect Robert stood up and began to call for first years. Leading them out of the Great Hall, Jordan leading her Ravenclaw first years, fell into step beside her.

"Honestly, Headmistress ought to be ashamed of herself," said Jordan. "We don't have time for silly things like musicals and singing. School should be about academia, not pointless activities."

"Leave it up to Lily," Rose shrugged.

"I really don't know about that cousin of yours. Anyway, meet you in the Prefects lounge tomorrow morning?"

Rose nodded, and the two broke apart and went their separate ways to Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tower.

The minute Rose showed all of the first year girls to their room, she took a long shower and snuggled into her bed, cracking open her Charms book to reread the first two chapters before the next day's lesson. The rest of her housemates were talking about which boys had improved look-wise over the summer, and which couples had actually managed to last through the holidays. Although she got on with them fairly well, she stayed quiet. Over the years, it became easier to ignore them while studying, and they had learned that she wasn't much for socializing about such things.

When they were all finally in bed and the last lamp was off except for hers, she closed her book and pondered what it was like to be a typical girl, a girl who loved to talk about boys, who boys loved to talk to, who knew who was dating who and for how long. Her thoughts on this topic took her farther than she would've liked, and she started pitying herself for not having even had her first kiss. Her own mother had even kissed someone at 14, and her mother was the most academic driven person she knew. She knew she wasn't completely hideous, but why hadn't any guy approached her before? Was she that oblivious to anything fun and interesting that guys stayed away from her? Even the boys in her study group showed no interest, not that she was interested in them.

Taking a midnight stroll by the lake had been the only spontaneous thing she had ever done. There wasn't much option to try anything new and different around Hogwarts, and so she stuck to what she did best, learn. The musical kept popping into her mind. Hogwarts was going to have a play. Knowing Lily, it was going to be some romantic story where the main characters fell in love easily by the movement of their bodies and the melody of their song. But it wasn't reality. Reality… reality was reading a text book the night before classes and pondering the reasons of being an abnormal girl at the age of 16. Rose placed her book on the nightstand, turned off her lamp, and turned on her side to fall asleep.


"Mum and Dad don't know what to do," Al was whispering over to Scorpius, both of them lying in their beds in the dark. "They think it's nice that he… enjoys what he enjoys, but they know there's no real future in it for him."

"He's an adult though," said Scorpius. "They should let him make his own decision. If that's what he wants to do for the rest of his life—and I don't know why he'd choose something as ridiculous as that but—they should let him."

Al didn't seem to have heard him, or at least he ignored the comment completely. "He's a great player. He'd win more matches if Gryffindor had a decent seeker, and he knows it. I just don't know what's gotten into him. We've had scouts over to our house almost every other weekend."

Scorpius sighed and sat up on his fist. "What's so wrong with not wanting to be a Quidditch star?" His voice was innocent, but he truly wanted to know what Al would say.

"There'd be nothing wrong with it if he hadn't worked for it his entire life. It's like you all of a sudden quitting and then… I don't know… doing something mad like, like auditioning for that musical Beaumont was on about."

For some unknown reason, Scorpius's stomach started swimming. He weighed his options of testing Al's patience.

"But what if I was really good at singing or whatever? I mean, why not?"

Al was quiet for a very long time, and Scorpius was worried that maybe he had pushed the subject too far and was a bit annoyed by it.

"Why chance being good at something when you're already great at something else?" said Al quietly. "And you're great at Quidditch."

Scorpius decided to drop it. "Guess your right. Anyway, I'm sure James will figure it out."

"Let's hope. Goodnight, mate."

"Goodnight."

Author's Note: Hopefully next chapter will be up by the end of this week. Please Review! Thanks!