Chapter 9: The Big Winner

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC. Everything else belongs to their perspective owners.


Lauren wanted to make sure didn't select the same play or musical as one of the other ghouls. 'The Phantom of the Opera' was out because Phantasma would probably be doing that one in particular. Drilling her fingers against her desk, Lauren looked up at her laptop to see that the desktop was open. She opened a new doc on Word and saved it as 'Play/Musical Essay' before opening up Google Chrome. She decided to browse the internet for a play or musical she would like to do. She stayed away from anything to do with Egypt in the off chance Tanis might be doing one of them. Anything to do with wolves, dogs, or werewolves, she ignored as well, for Winnie. And anything that had a lot to do with science, she left alone for Elsa. And, of course, she left Twilight alone, not because Sibella would want to do anything with it, but rather that the vampire would never be friends with her again if she saw it.

Deciding that since most everyone else would be doing a play, Lauren revisited her essay and changed it to just 'Musical Essay' and then brought Google Chrome backup. Once the search engine was opened, Lauren Googled 'funny fan-made musicals' and looked to see what popped up. The first one was a video that directed her to 'A Very Potter Musical'. Interested, Lauren reached into her bag and pulled out a pair of earbuds. Inserting them into the jack, she clicked the video that directed her to Youtube and began to play. The video buffered for a second before playing but no sound was emitted. Looking over at the volume panel, Lauren observed she had it set on mute. Clicking it upwards, Lauren stopped at ten and then resumed to play the video.

It began with Harry sitting in his trunk and he was singing. "Underneath these stairs, I hear the sneers and feel the glares of my cousin, my uncle, and my aunt. Can't believe how cruel they are and it stings my lighting scar to know they'll never ever give me what I want. I know I don't deserve these stupid rules made by the Dursleys here on Privet drive. Can't take all of these stupid muggles, but despite all of my struggles, I'm still alive. I'm sick of summer and this waiting around. Man, it's September, and I'm skipping this town. Hey, it's no mystery, there's nothing here for me now. I gotta get back to Hogwarts. I gotta get back to school. Gotta get back to Hogwarts where everybody knows I'm cool. Back to wizards and witches, and magical beasts. To goblins and ghosts and magical feasts. It's all that I love, and it's all that I need. Hogwarts, Hogwarts, I think I'm going back."

After a few minutes, Ron and Hermione were singing along with him and the trio were great, but it was Hermione's solo that sold Lauren and made her chose it as her musical. "I may be frumpy, but I'm super smart. Check out my grades, they're "A's" for a start. What I lack in looks well I make up in heart, and well guys, yeah, that's totally awesome. This year I plan to study a lot." And then Ron cut in and said, "That would be cool if you were actually hot."

Lauren covered her mouth with her hand and snorted before opening up the doc and re-renaming it 'A Very Potter Musical Essay'. She decided to watch the rest of the play since classes were probably as long, or even longer, as those at her old school. Just minutes later when Cho and her posse came out to Chinese theme and it turned out Cho was the country bumpkin, Lauren snorted yet again and wasn't disappointed at all when Malfoy turned out to be a girl and moved around by falling all over the floor and talking about going to Pigfarts which was on Mars and is run by Rumbleroar, the talking lion, who if you were good, would let you ride on his back. A couple minutes later, when Lauren saw Quirrel and Voldemort, she completely lost her cool and was crying, she was laughing so hard. But she quickly composed herself and began working on her essay. She began typing, all the while listening and snorted when Quirrel appeared and Malfoy shouted, "Go home, terrorist!"

By the time the three-hour musical was over, Lauren had five pages written. Taken out her earbuds, she raised her hand and flagged Miss Grimwood over to her. "Yes, Lauren?"

"Well, I have a few questions about the essay. How long does it need to be, what questions do we need to address in the essay, and is there anything else the essay needs to mention apart from reasons why we should watch it?"

"The length is your decision, just know the longer it is, the more likely it'll be chosen. As for what needs to be put in the essay, as long as you give a convincing argument as to why the play or musical needs to be watched, then you have done all that needs to be done. Is there anything else you need, dearie?"

"Thanks, Miss Grimwood, but no thanks. That's all." And with that, Lauren turned back to her laptop and began revising parts of it. She had it divided into several sections. The first chunk talked about the major parts of the play, followed by another part that covered the finer details of it. Then she spent the four and a half pages she had done giving reasons why 'A Very Potter Musical' should be the winner of the competition. It was the perfect parody based on the perfect series.

To explain, Lauren went into details about the Harry Potter series before describing how different parts in the books were reflected in the play, but twisted a bit, to make sure it wasn't just a copy of the movies. And because it was fan made, it had a certain humorous air that wasn't in the films because they weren't doing it for a profit and were working with a very limited budget.

Lauren focused a lot on Malfoy and Quirrel and Voldemort, namely because of the fact that when any of the three were shown, you were bound to laugh. And because in the films, Ron is known to eat a lot, every other scene in the musical involved Ron eating some ridiculous type of food; Chinese takeout, a pack of Oreos, and a giant chocolate bar, just to name a few. And the part with Pigfarts; a parody of Hogwarts, Cho Chang being a hillbilly, and the performances of Snape and Dumbledore made the musical the smashing hit it was.

Lauren leaned back in the chair and stretched. Miss Grimwood had passed out lunch an hour ago and the remnants of the sandwich were strewn all over Lauren's desk. Sighing, she bent back over the laptop and started elaborating on what she already had to make it longer. Maybe she could bore Miss Grimwood into just choosing her musical. Then, looking around, Lauren shook her head. Miss Grimwood would have only six essays to grade. She couldn't be bought with boredom. The only way 'A Very Potter Musical' would be chosen is if Lauren wrote the best essay, but seeing as she knew every way to write a killer essay and was the only ghoul with access to a laptop and Microsoft's editing tools, hers would be neater and cleaner. Chuckling to herself, Lauren laughed at how serious she was taking this essay competition. She wanted to win and have everyone watch 'A Very Potter Musical' for no other reason than having the feeling of victory of having been chosen. Her fingers clicking away on the keys, Lauren's hands flew across the keyboard faster than she could run or Sibella could fly (in bat form, obviously). Her essay was going to be the winner if she had any say about it.

A week later, Miss Grimwood was about to announce the winner of each essay. "You all did fabulously! Tanis, with her essay about 'The Prince of Egypt', Elsa, with her essay about 'Frankenstein', Winnie, with her essay about 'The Hungry, Hungry Werewolf', Phantasma, with her essay about 'The Phantom of the Opera', Sibella, with her essay about 'Dracula', and Lauren, with her essay about 'A Very Potter Musical'. They were all very good, but I have to say the winner is... Lauren! With her essay about 'A Very Potter Musical'! It was a thrilling tale about a boy wizard who is treated poorly at home and brought to a wizarding school where he learns to harness his powers. As a baby, the evilest wizard of all time tried to kill him, but he failed, so in the musical, he sneaks into Hogwarts and tries to kill Harry during the House Cup Tournament. Not to mention, it's filled with hilarious spells of comedy that I'm sure you girls will love! That, and it's three hours long so it should take up a nice, long time. Lauren, could you help me set it up?"

"I can do it myself, thanks, Miss Grimwood." Lauren pulled down the projector screen, plugged her laptop up to the projector, and her speaker to the laptop. She turned the volume up to max and began playing the video before running back to her seat by Sibella, from which she happily watched the musical, thrilled to have hers been chosen.