A/N: So we did some actual marching, yay! And the next chapter is going to be pretty short and probably have nothing to do with band (most likely) but you won't get to read it for about 2 or 3 weeks because I'm leaving for camp in 2 days and I'm busy tomorrow and I haven't actually written it yet. But you'll survive for two weeks. Yes, I know it says 1 and B. Yes, Percy and Neville and Luna and the twins weren't there because: Percy is receiving private instruction, Neville is equipment, Luna is guard, and twins are drumline. Carrissa is just in this chapter for shits and gigs in case you were going to make an arguement.
Chapter 9: We Actually Do Some Marching
Malfoy strained against the duct tape holding him. It held, but the car hit a bump and he was unable to stop himself from rolling off the seat and onto the floor. He let out a scream, muffled by the duct tape. He couldn't see anything; his hair was in his eyes. He blurrily saw a figure twist around from the front seat. It pushed his hair out of his eyes.
"Surprise!" Matt exclaimed. "You got the Marching Sectional Chauffeur Service. We don't run it every day, but for your first day, we're nice."
Malfoy tried to speak against the duct tape covering his mouth.
"I can't understand you, Slytherin Bitch. You've got something covering your mouth." Matt said, all fake-sympathetic and confused.
"Matt!" a girl shrieked. "The wheel!" She leaned over and yanked the wheel, putting the car back in the right lane.
"Sorry, Stella." Matt grinned. "I was just having a little fun."
"Have fun when we get there." Stella retorted. "I don't want you to crash my car."
Matt didn't turn around for the rest of the drive, but it seemed he went out of his way to find every speed bump in the entire town. Every time they went over one, Malfoy's body was thrown painfully against the seat. By the time the car stopped, he had made up his mind to contact somebody that could help him. He was going to be killed if he stayed here.
The back door to the car opened, and Jakey (yes, Jakey) pulled him out of the car. They were in front of the school. "I see you got him to come." he said over his shoulder to Matt, who had also gotten out of the car. Stella climbed into the driver's seat, waved, and drove off.
"Yeah, didn't even give the bitch a chance to resist. Just boom, out with Dan's chloroform." Matt pantomimed putting a cloth over his mouth and nose.
Draco fired out a long string of curses that would've worked if 1. He hadn't had duct tape over his mouth and B. He had a wand. As he thought this, he started to panic. Where was his wand, anyway? He'd had it when he used the Portkey, and then he'd fallen into the river... Shit. He'd lost his wand in a river. He was so dead. He was also so preoccupied with his thoughts of wands that he didn't see Jakey's hand until it ripped the duct tape off his mouth. Malfoy's scream could be heard by the students at Hogwarts.
Nobody came to his rescue, though, except Holly, who came out of the door to the band room. She found Malfoy and the Twinsies both on the ground, Malfoy crying in pain and the Twinsies laughing their asses off. "I saw that from the window." she told the Twinsies, laughing. "It was beautiful."
Another car pulled into the parking lot. David jumped out and all of them heard Craig yell "Jump out of the car again when it's moving and you'll be missing a few body parts, Douche!"
David just grinned and Craig gunned the car straight for him, but at the last second, David jumped onto the sidewalk. Craig screeched to a stop and David tapped on the window. Craig put the window down and David stuck his head in the car. "Missed me."
Craig gave him the finger, then called out to the general vicinity "Anybody want lunch? I'm going down to Culver's."
The Twinsies looked at each other, then sprinted towards the car, both yelling "I call shotgun!"
Holly rolled her eyes, then crossed to the car herself. "Just custard." she told Craig.
"Any particular flavor? Toppings? Anything?" Craig asked as Jakey pushed Matt into the back seat.
"Surprise me. And get another one for Malfoy." she added as an afterthought.
"Okay." Craig said stonily. He put the car in drive, and took off out of the parking lot, leaving Jakey to wrestle the open passenger door shut.
Holly stood on the curb for a few seconds, like she didn't quite get what just happened, then turned towards Malfoy, who was still curled up in the fetal position on the ground. He looked up at her through half-open eyes. "What happened?" he asked weakly.
Her expression cleared and she sat down next to him on the grass. "We snuck into your hotel room at 5 A.M., and Dan chloroformed you. We didn't chloroform Harry; he came willingly. We didn't want to take any chances with you. Anyway, then we went to breakfast at Matt's house. And then we all left and did various things, and Matt said he would bring you here at noon. It's now noon-ten. You didn't wake up before he had to leave, so he duct taped you so you wouldn't try to escape if you woke up in the car. Which is exactly what happened. And now you're here, to attend a marching sectional."
"A marching sectional." he asked, trying to break the duct tape on his wrist.
"Yeah, it's where you learn how to march." She noticed what he was doing. "Here, let me do that." She pulled his wrists toward her.
As she began fiddling with the duct tape, Malfoy debated asking her the question he was dying, yet reluctant, to ask. "Hey... have you seen my wand?"
She looked up. "This is not going to work." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small knife and leaned toward him, but he yanked his hands away.
"Oh no. No way. I am not letting you slit my wrists with your knife." he tried to stand, but the duct tape around his ankles wouldn't let him.
"I'm not going to slit your wrists, dumbass. I'm going to cut the duct tape." she looked at him and, just for a second, he thought he saw a flash of something in her eyes. Something like desire. For him. But then her eyes went back to being full of contempt.
"I doubt it." he sneered at her, knowing he know had something to use against her. Later, anyway. After he formulated a plan. Which meant that he couldn't do anything now. He slowly held his bound wrists out to her. "Never mind." For now.
"Thank you." she took the knife and began to cut through the tape. He sat there, watching her, trying to come up with a plan. And by the time she had cut through the duct tape on his ankles, he had a plan. He would play along with this marching band thing, then screw them over and take off just before their State competition. And he'd take with him something they couldn't perform without. But until then he had to stick around because he didn't know what they needed most in competition. And if he left before he knew the show, he couldn't screw it. Whatever. He'd figure out his entire plan later. Until then though...
"You just going to sit there or are you going to get up and attend the marching sectional?" Holly asked impatiently.
Malfoy opened his mouth - he couldn't be completely docile or they'd know something was up - and said "I'm going to call my father and have him get me out of here." He stood and made a few steps in the opposite direction of the marching sectional before she caught him.
"You are going to the marching sectional." she said assertively, as she dragged him out to the parking lot on the side of the school. A guy in khaki shorts and mirrored sunglasses holding a drumstick and something that was red stood out there, along with Tyler, Carrissa, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.
"So is everybody here?" Mirrored Sunglasses asked as Holly dragged Draco to a painted yellow line and made him stand on it.
"I do not have to be here for this." Malfoy complained, but he remained on the yellow line as Tyler lined everybody else up on it.
"If you need to know how to march, you have to be here. And you need to know." Tyler adjusted people's postions on the line. "Right, Kevin?" he added to Mirrored Sunglasses.
"Right." Kevin said. He pulled the out the red thing he had tucked beneath his arm. "This is a glockenspiel. Mostly we call it a glock. It's used to hit a beat that we march to. Like this." He demonsrated hitting the glock with the drumstick. It made a hard beat. (If you've ever heard a glock, you know what I mean)
"Okay." Tyler said, satisfied everyone was in position on the line. "The first command is the attention position. It-."
He was interrupted by Hermione's hand waving in the air. "Our feet are at a 45 degree angle and we stand slightly forward with our weight on the balls of our feet and we stand up very straight with eyes straight ahead." she blurted breathlessly without waiting to be called on.
"Yeah..." Kevin looked at her. "Only that wasn't a question."
Hermione blushed.
"She's right, though. So when we call you to attention, that's what you do." He went into the attention position as he spoke. "The command for attention is 'Band Atten Hut.' When one of the drum majors or Steve or Kevin or whoever is running things at that particular moment calls you to attention, you go into position and you yell 'Hut!' Got it?" He nodded to Kevin. "Let's try it."
Kevin began hitting a beat on the glock. "BAND ATTEN HUT." he called.
"HUT!" Holly, Carrissa, Tyler, and Hermione yelled back. Everyone else jumped and then tried to go into attention position.
Kevin sighed. "Okay, relax, and we're going to try that again." He began hitting a beat again. "BAND ATTEN HUT."
"HUT!" everybody except Ron shouted. Even Malfoy made a half attempt to do the position.
"Better." Kevin walked down the row, correcting people's stances.
Holly leaned over towards Draco. "Stand up straighter."
He stood up a little bit straighter. "Like that?"
"Good enough. And when you have your clarinet, you just hold it in front of you." She pretended to hold an invisible clarinet. "Like this."
Malfoy rolled his eyes just as Kevin said "Okay, now we're going to do a dress center command. When I yell 'Dress Center Dress,' you turn your heads toward the center, bring your instrument up, and dress the line to the person in the center. Which in this case would be Ginny." He started another beat. "DRESS CENTER DRESS."
Hermione raised her hand again. "We don't have instruments to bring up." she pointed out.
"Okay... well when you have an instrument bring it up." Kevin resumed hitting the glock. "BAND ATTEN HUT." Everyone snapped back to position. "I think we have attention good, but don't forget to snap every move. So from attention to dress center is one fast movement. Next, we're going to do a parade rest, and in a parade rest-"
"You move your left foot so your feet are shoulder width apart!" Hermione finished eagerly.
"Uh huh." Kevin took off his sunglasses and stared at her. "You've obviously studied this."
"Oh yes!" Hermione's words rushed out. "I was up all night studying and I know almost all of the positions, and I was practicing marching backward and sliding and stuff, and I really think-"
"Great!" Kevin cut her off. He didn't look particularly happy. Ordinarily, Malfoy would've enjoyed it, but the Mudblood was getting on his nerves too. "All right... BAND PARADE REST." They snapped to parade rest.
"Ron, your feet aren't exactly shoulder width apart." Hermione fretted. "Here move your left foot in a little - there, that's good." Malfoy grinned. He liked watching other people get corrected.
"BAND ATTEN HUT." Kevin shouted, looking very annoyed with Hermione. "Now we're going to mark time."
"Marking time is just moving your heels to the beat. Your heel should hit on each beat of the glock; left on odd beats, right on even. Keep your toes together." Hermione lectured the group.
"Exactly." Kevin forced a smile. It looked more like he was in pain. "Your left foot goes in on the first beat, your right foot on the second, until I tell you to halt. When I tell you to halt, you say '1,2' and step back into attention, with your right foot first. Let's do it." He began yet another beat on the glockenspiel. "Mark time, mark." They began marking time. "Ready, halt."
"1, 2" Holly, Carrissa, and Hermione said. Tyler had disappeared.
They practiced marking time for a few minutes and then Kevin announced. "We're going to work on marching forward, and then we'll be done. We're going to do 8's and 8's going forward, which means-"
"You mark time 8 counts, move forward 8 counts, and so on until you tell us to mark time and halt. And when we step out, we always step out on our left foot and dress the line while we mark time." Hermione interrupted.
"Yes, Hermione." Kevin's eyes were practically slits. "Okay, here we go... Mark time, mark." He hit the glock, and after 8 counts, they stepped forward. After 8 steps, they stopped and marked time. Then they took another 8 steps. And marked time. They practiced it over and over again until they got it.
"Alright." Kevin said at the end of the marching sectional. "We're going to do one review before we go. But first, Hermione, could you get me the other glock from the front of the band room?"
"Sure." Hermione took off.
Kevin checked to make sure she was gone. "I'm going to screw her over." Malfoy became interested. Screwing Mudbloods over was fun. As he listened to Kevin's plan, he had to admit it was good. Simple, but good. At first Ron and Harry looked hesitant, but they eventually agreed to go with the plan.
Hermione came running back out without a glock. "Where is it?" she asked, breathing heavily. "I couldn' t find it."
"Oh, that's okay, I realized we don't need it." Kevin said quickly. "BAND ATTEN HUT."
"HUT!" They all tried not to laugh.
"DRESS CENTER DRESS."
Malfoy caught Holly's eye. She grinned widely and he gave her a little half-smile in return. Interested, but not too interested. Perfect.
"We're going to do 8's and 8's. Ready... Mark time, mark." Even Kevin couldn't stop smiling. After 8 steps, only Hermione stepped off the line.
"Wh-wha-what?" she stammered, stopping. Her face was bright red. Everyone else was laughing hysterically.
Finally, Carrissa calmed down enough to say "I guess you didn't study that-" She started laughing again and couldn't finish.
"-that you can only mark time and march from an attention position." Holly managed to gasp.
"That's not fair!" Hermioned stormed off, Harry and Ron following from a distance, still laughing.
A car horn honked. Craig was back with the food. Holly, and Carrissa took off towards the car. Draco trailed behind. He needed to work out the details on his plan so he could set it in action.
Holly handed him a dish of ice cream covered in bits of chocolate candy. He took a bite. "This is incredible!" he blurted without thinking.
"Culver's Custard. It's pretty freakin' awesome." Holly took a bite of her own sundae. Malfoy nodded in agreement. "Come on, let's go in. I have to tell you a few things about the season." She started walking toward the band room.
As Malfoy left, he turned back and saw two things: 1. A look of pure hatred that passed Craig's face so quickly, Draco wasn't even sure it was ever there, and B. The Twinsies grinning at him. That was not a good sign. He quickened his pace to catch up with Holly. Whatever the Twinsies had in store for him, he would deal with later.