The Magic in the Music
A/N: I decided to put this in fifth year. Harry has already met Bill and Charlie. I know no one reads this, but oh well. Do three disclaimers count? I hate putting them in. To encourage reviews, I'll start giving out house points. Check at the bottom for an author's note with the thing for house points. Remember, first come, first serve.
Harry walked out of the fireplace, sooty, and a bit bruised. All the others, except for the Grangers (not Hermione) had been left behind, and were dusting themselves off. Fred, George, and Charlie, who had the trunks, had apparently gone upstairs. Hermione and Ginny were dusting themselves off, and complaining good-naturedly about Floo Powder. Vriti was checking her violin case for dents and scratches, apparently not noticing that her glasses were completely covered with soot. When Ginny pointed it out to her, she sounded surprised and said a small "Oh!" and took out a handkerchief and started cleaning them.
After everyone got cleaned up, Mrs. Weasley started to make lunch. Despite complaints of "I'm not hungry!" and "We just ate breakfast!" she still continued. When she was asked why she just said, "Some people need fattening up" glancing at Vriti and Harry. Vriti let out a small snort.
"I've heard you're a great Quidditch player, Harry," said Charlie, who was called "the greatest seeker Hogwarts had ever had".
"I suppose so," Harry replied.
"Let's go play Quidditch then," said Charlie.
"I'll go get my broom," said Harry.
"Wait for me!" chorused Bill, Ron, Fred, George, and Vriti.
They had a wonderful game of Quidditch. Since there weren't many people, they only had one of each player, and Bill had to be Keeper for both teams. Harry, Vriti, and Fred (with Bill) won the game, even though Charlie caught the Snitch. They won by about twenty points, because they had Vriti as the Chaser. She was a wonderful Chaser, with good tactics and all. It was too bad that all the Chasers were still at Hogwarts. When Mrs. Weasley called them down for dinner, they were all truly hungry. Mrs. Weasley's food was delicious. They had to eat outside, because 12 people would not fit in the tiny kitchen.
"Where's the ball going to be?" Hermione asked.
"It's going to be outdoors, in Hogsmeade. All the Ministry members have been working on it for weeks," Mr. Weasley replied.
"The decorations are fabulous!" said Percy, abandoning his stiff manner, "There will be fairy lights everywhere and-"
"Percy, it's supposed to be a surprise," said Mr. Weasley sternly.
"Oh, right," Percy looked disappointed.
"How will we get there in our dress robes?" Ginny asked.
"We'll go earlier in the day, and stay at a hotel in Hogsmeade, set up for the Ministry members. As Percy was saying, the decorations are fabulous, and it is classified information," Mr. Weasley answered.
"When will it be?" asked Ginny.
"On the day after tomorrow," replied Mr. Weasley.
The next day it was too rainy to go out and play Quidditch, so the children took an outing in the small magical town that they got to from the train station. They all disappeared their separate ways. Ron, Harry, Fred, and George in to the Quidditch shop, Bill and Charlie in to the little bar, Vriti went in to the library and Hermione and Ginny went to browse around in the rain.
In the library…
She burrowed down further in to the soft purple chair with clawed feet. In her lap lay a thick, heavy book, which she could barely prop up. Outside, the rain poured down in sheets, with the occasional hailstone. Every few minutes there would be a flash, and then a huge clap of thunder. Harry hurried in, disturbing the peaceful silence she had created.
"Vriti! We've got to go! Do you know how long you've been in here?" Harry shouted.
She jumped. Harry wondered how that was possible, because of the huge book in her lap, and the fact that she was sitting down. They were running very late. Vriti had been in there for about three hours. He looked at what she was reading. She automatically shifted her hand over the title.
"Well, I suppose we should go," Vriti said.
"Yes, you've been in here for three hours and no one knew where you where," Harry replied.
"Seriously? I've been in here the whole time."
"Yes I'm serious. Come on, we don't want to keep them waiting."
Harry and Vriti stepped out in to the rain. Vriti's umbrella was bright green and rather interesting. They spotted the Weasleys at once because of their flaming red hair that was visible even in the rain. All of them made their way back to the train station, where there was another enchanted platform to go to the Burrow.
When they got back to the Burrow they decided to pack before dinner. Hermione, Vriti, and Ginny spent a good while conspiring in the girls' room and packing at the same time. No one took any notice, because they were so busy packing in the small room that most of the boys shared. Everyone went to sleep exhausted.
The next morning Harry was woken up by the twins making a racket. They had set off a number of Filibuster's Fabulous No-Heat, Wet-Start Fireworks as a wake-up call.
"Did you have to do that?" Ron grumbled.
"Of course we did," Fred and George chorused.
"Wonderful joke," Vriti said dryly, sticking her head in the doorway, "Too bad I was already awake."
"Must you early risers take the fun out of our pranks?" Fred said with mock sadness.
They took Muggle taxis to the train station, like last year. This time it was better, because they didn't have to go so far, and they had less luggage.
"Where is the ball?" Ginny inquired suddenly.
"It's in Hogsmeade, dear," Mrs. Weasley replied, "You have today and tomorrow to have fun, but the ball is tomorrow evening."
"Oh wonderful!" George exclaimed, "We need to replenish our stocks."
"Imagine if we set off Dungbombs in the middle of the ball!" Fred said dreamily.
"Ah, my heart weeps for the scent of Dungbombs!" Vriti said melodramatically.
Mrs. Weasley gave them a stern glance. "You mustn't do anything of the sort. Some people from all over the world are coming."
"It was just a joke," George said, with what was supposed to be a pitiful expression.
"No jokes like that while we are in Hogsmeade," she said sternly.
Outside it was the exact opposite of yesterday. The sky had no clouds in sight, and there was nary a breeze stirring. As they went in to the train station, the platform was much like 9 3/4, except for it was to many different places. To the magical eye, it showed the times on the lighted up board. They all went in pairs to get to the train. Fred and George went first, then Ginny and Mrs. Weasley. Mr. Weasley and Harry went next, and a huge blue train was on the bustling platform. The rest of the Weasleys, Vriti, and Hermione appeared. As they boarded they found their friend Seamus Finnigan and went in to a compartment with him. Harry introduced Vriti to him.
"Pleased to meet you," said Seamus, shaking her hand.
"You too," she replied.
"Do you know of anyone else who'll be here?" Seamus asked.
"No, but I know that Malfoy will," Ron said disgustedly.
"He doesn't really count though, does he?" Seamus wickedly replied.
"No," said Hermione and Ron together.
At that moment, none other than Draco Malfoy, with his two cronies, Crabbe and Goyle walked through the door.
"So, it's Potty, the Weasel, the Bush, and the Leprechaun," he drawled.
Seamus and Ron quaked with anger. Hermione kept a grip on Ron's robes, Vriti on Seamus's, and Harry keeping one hand on both.
Draco noticed Vriti, and said: "So, you've actually made a proper friend now," he turned to Vriti, "You know, if you hang around with people like these, they'll rub off on you. You shouldn't make friends with the wrong sort of people, that's where I can help you." (A/N: I know that's somewhat like what's in the book, but it's not a direct quote. I'm just saying that some parts are similar and I really don't want to get sued.)
"No thanks, I can judge people for myself. I know that the wrong sort of people are just like you," she said in an innocent voice.
Malfoy gestured to Crabbe and Goyle, and walked off.
"Ugh, he's horrible. How can you stand him?" Vriti asked.
"We don't. Last time that he was really horrible, Hermione slapped him across the face," Ron replied.
"Seriously? I wouldn't expect that out of you, Hermione."
Hermione glowed with pride.
A tall girl walked in with medium-brown hair.
"Can I sit here? There isn't any room anywhere else," she asked.
"Laura? Is that you? The last time I saw you was in Romania!" Vriti exclaimed.
"Yeah, Dad's still chasing dragons there. He actually formed some sort of an environmental protection agency for them. It's really successful, and many people have come to work there," Laura replied.
"Do you by chance know Charlie Weasley?" asked Ron curiously.
"Oh yeah, I know him. He's the one who recommended me for Hogwarts. Wait, are you his brother? He said that he was visiting his family here, and going to the ball."
"Yeah," Ron replied.
"Wow! We live in such a small world," she said.
"Are we there yet?" Vriti asked, bored with the current conversation.
"No, otherwise the train would have stopped," replied Hermione.
"It was rhetorical," she said.
"What does that mean?" they all chorused.
"According to Merriam-Webster…" she began.
"Who?" asked Seamus.
"A dictionary. As I was saying, it means 'asked merely for effect with no answer expected," she replied tartly. (That seriously is from Merriam-Webster.)
"What do you want to do when we get there?" Harry asked.
"How about we go shopping in Hogsmeade?" Ron replied.
"Good idea," said Laura.
The train slowed down to a halt. Mr. Weasley came in to the compartment.
"You should leave your luggage in here," he said.
"Where are we staying?" Harry asked.
"The people who are alone are staying inside Hogwarts, but the people with family are staying in a special hotel set up outside Hogwarts. We have four rooms. Molly and I are in one, Bill, Charlie, and Percy in the second, the boys in the third, and the girls in the fourth," he said.
When they went through the elegant doorway, the sparkling chandelier dazzled them. Two beautiful marble staircases with red carpets connected at the top, looking very elegant. There were also two gold doors with buttons outside of them. The two gold doors had no doorknobs.
"Where do those lead to?" asked Ginny, pointing to the two golden doors.
Mr. Weasley looked excited, just like the time he saw the Dursleys' electric fireplace;
"These are called Magical Elevators. The idea is from Muggle elevators. The elevators go up and down, to entrances at the push of a button. Our model doesn't use electricity (he finally got it right!), but it uses magic. It is also slightly advanced, because it goes to any specified entrance in seconds. There can also be a few more elevators working at the same time, because they don't have tracks. Let's go in, shall we?"
He pushed the button, and one of the golden sets of doors opened in to a small room lined with mirrors and gold handrails. There was deep scarlet carpeting, which sank deeply as they stepped on it. The mirrored door suddenly opened, and Ron, who was leaning against it, fell through on to bright purple carpet. Vriti stepped over him carefully, and gave him a hand to help him get up.
They had a small tour of the bedrooms. The boys' room was the biggest, because it had to have the most people. The girls' room and the older boys' room were slightly smaller. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's room was even smaller, because it only had two people staying in it.
The trunks had appeared magically in their rooms. Soon everyone was busy in the task of unpacking. They also found that the rooms connected into a small 'common room', although they could lock the door into it from the inside of the room. Once everyone was done, they decided to explore the hotel. Most of it was as elegant as the entrance. They narrowly avoided another encounter with Draco Malfoy, as they were looking for other people that they knew. They actually did have an encounter with Professor Snape, who was as nasty as usual, but couldn't tell them off for anything. All he did was glare his usual glare, and tell them to stop bothering others and get back to their rooms. As Snape swished him cloak and walked away Vriti whispered:
"Is he always that horrible?"
"Of course, and especially to us," Harry replied.
"What does he teach?" she inquired.
"Potions,"
"Oh, that was my favorite subject," she sounded disappointed.
They walked back to their rooms.
"What should we do now?" Ron asked.
"How about we go to Hogsmeade and show Vriti everything?" Harry replied.
"Good idea," Hermione said.
They walked off through the entrance, and went in to the main area of town. They showed Vriti Zonko's, Honeydukes, and the Post Office, where there were hundreds of owls. They wanted to stay and shop longer, but Vriti wanted to see all the sights. Then she asked the question they had all been dreading:
"What about the Shrieking Shack? I've heard it's the most haunted place in Britain."
At that moment, Harry decided that he trusted her enough to tell her about Sirius.
"Have you heard of Sirius Black?"
"Yes, of course, he gave everyone a scare two years ago. Now he's another country's problem," she said.
"Well, there's something about him that you need to know," Harry said.
"What does this have to do with anything?" she asked exasperatedly.
"It has to do with me, and the Shrieking Shack, two years ago."
"Do you know the whole history of his crimes?"
"Yes, I know that he murdered thirteen people with one curse, exploded a street, and…"
"And what?"
"And killed your parents."
"See, what we know is that he was an innocent man," Hermione said.
"How could he be? There were witnesses right there when he blasted that street up and killed those poor, harmless Muggles."
"You see, it was actually Peter Pettigrew, not Sirius Black who was on Voldemort's side. Sirius thought that no one would suspect a 'harmless' person like Peter, and changed the Secret-Keeper at the last minute. Peter Pettigrew betrayed them to Voldemort, and the next day confronted Sirius Black. Pettigrew was too quick for Sirius, and he had his wand behind his back. He was the one who blasted up the street, and killed the innocent people," Harry said grimly.
"But how has he hidden himself for all this time? I thought that his mother received Pettigrew's finger in a box, because it was the largest bit of him that he could find."
"It was all carefully planned. Pettigrew cursed the people, blew up the street, then cut off his finger, and turned in to a rat. He was hiding as a pet rat with me for thirteen years." Ron said.
"Pettigrew turned into a rat? Are you people feeling all right?"
"I think we should explain. There were three unregistered Animagi in Hogwarts then. You see all of them found out that Remus Lupin, one of their friends, was a werewolf. They wanted to be with him while he was in his werewolf form, so they became Animagi because werewolves were only harmful to humans. Two of them were large animals so they could keep a werewolf in check. My dad was a stag, Sirius was a huge dog that looked like the Grim, and Peter was a rat," Harry explained.
"Have you ever noticed that Sirius the star is called 'the Dog Star'?" Vriti asked.
"That's something we certainly haven't noticed," Hermione said, with her usual dignity, but looking a bit put out that she hadn't made that observation.
"Hey people! I thought you were going to meet me here?" Laura yelled loudly, spotting them.
"Oh, well. I guess we kind of forgot," Vriti said apologetically.
"It's okay, I really don't mind. Have you done very much shopping?" Laura asked.
"No, they've just been showing me around," Vriti replied.
"Oh, good. I was looking for you around the hotel, and your mother said you were in Hogsmeade, so I've been looking for you for the last fifteen minutes," Laura explained.
"Sorry we made you have to look everywhere," Ron said, getting up and dusting off his robes.
"It doesn't matter," Laura replied.
"Where do you want to go first?" Harry asked.
"Let's go to Zonko's," Vriti said.
They set off on their way to Zonko's, where Vriti and Laura were doing a great deal of whispering. Every once in a while, Laura would start giggling uncontrollably. The attracted a few strange looks, but they were both too wrapped up in what they were doing to notice. Harry didn't even try to spy on them, but Hermione had her disapproving frown on. Afterwards, they went to Honeydukes, where they all stocked up on candy. When they came in sight of Hogwarts, their topic switched to school.
"I heard you were going to Hogwarts this year?" Ron inquired of Laura.
"Yeah, your brother recommended me to go there. He said that his whole family had gone there. I'm supposed to be in fifth year, because I went to White Oak School of magic. That's where Vriti went also. We met each other there. I'll be in Gryffindor, Professor McGonagall said so. Speaking of professors, I met Professor Snape while looking for you. He's horrible," Laura said.
"Of course, he's the meanest professor we have!" Ron exclaimed.
"He's biased against Gryffindors, and we found out last year that he used to be a Death Eater," Harry added.
"Seriously? How did Dumbledore hire him?" Vriti asked.
"He said that he had trusted him, and that Snape became a spy against Voldemort," Ron answered.
"I thought Voldemort had ways of finding out which of his Death Eaters were spies. He always had some sort of a horrible fate for them," Laura said.
"I think it's getting dark, and we should get back," Vriti said, ever the practical one.
Laura groaned, "Must you always be so practical?"
"Of course. You know all that TV you watch says to be true to yourself," she said.
"What's TV?" Ron asked.
"It's a television. It shows transmitted images on a screen," Hermione explained.
"In English, please," Ron said.
"Ask your dad, he knows how they work," Harry said.
They walked back to the hotel, and went in to the Magical Elevator. When Laura started to lean against the walls, Ron said:
"You'll hurt yourself."
"Speak for yourself. I know that there are only two doors to go out of this elevator. Those are the two," she said, pointing to the two opposite walls next to her wall, "I'm not leaning on one of them."
"Hmph," said Ron. (A/N: I seem to have a bunch of 'hmph's).
Laura got out on her floor, and the rest of them got out on the third floor, where their rooms were. As they came in the door, they saw something that they hadn't seen before. It was a grandfather clock, much like the one at the Weasleys' home. It was useless if you wanted the time, but it had each hand with someone's name engraved in it. All of them were 'in there bedrooms' right now. Mrs. Weasley walked out of her room, with Mr. Weasley following.
"It's time for dinner," she said to no one in particular. She rapped on the boys' door, and the older Weasleys' door and yelled, "Time for dinner!"
Everyone emerged from their rooms and walked down to the exit of the hotel. There was a huge dome supported by gold columns with tables underneath. As they entered, a witch at the entrance to the dome said:
"There are assigned places for each person, so if you'll check the lists, you'll find out where to sit."
Everyone scanned the lists for their name. Harry found his, and saw that he'd be sitting with Vriti, Laura, and Draco Malfoy. He walked over to the table, where Draco Malfoy was already sitting.
"I was hoping you weren't coming," he drawled.
"Why?" Harry asked coolly.
"Because, you're going to have to sit next to me."
As much as Harry despised Malfoy, he saw this as and opportunity to get even with all the nasty things that he had done to Harry. Vriti came and sat down on the other side of Harry.
"Megas Vorare," she whispered.
"What does that do?" Harry asked.
"You'll see," she replied with a mischievous grin on her face.
Almost at once, Malfoy started rocking back and forth like Dobby, a house-elf.
"When's the food coming? When's the food coming?" he repeated over and over again.
Malfoy kept looking at everything, as if deciding whether it tasted good or not. He looked oddly like a wolf, and Ron came by and whispered in to his ear,
"Draco Malfoy, the Amazing Bouncing Ferret, can now turn in to a wolf."
Harry tried his best not to laugh. When the food finally came, Draco's eyes were bulging out, and looked like a cross between a starved eagle and a ravenous wolf. Malfoy piled everything on his plate, so that it was almost a foot high.
"That's just sick," Vriti said, pointing to all the food mixed together, even the desserts.
"Yeah, really," Harry replied, "When will the spell wear off?"
"In exactly one minute," Vriti said with an evil grin.
One minute later, Draco was gazing in disgust at his mountain of food. He was also massaging his aching stomach, because he had eaten way too much. The rest of dinner was pretty much uneventful, and they went back to their rooms.
When they got up in to their rooms, Harry decided to rearrange some of the things in his room. He was a fairly neat person, but Fred, George, and Ron definitely were not. His first job was to tackle the closet, where everything had already been piled up. First, he pulled everything out of it, on to the floor. He sorted it in to three piles, one of each person's belongings. At that moment Vriti came in.
"How can you people live like this? I mean, I only have school junk on the floor in my room at home, but never clothes," she said.
"I'm just trying to straighten the closet out," Harry replied calmly.
"I never thought it would be you as the maid," she said in disbelief.
"Maid?!" Harry exclaimed, "I'm not a MAID! I'm just trying to make it so our clothes don't grow mold in two days!"
"Touchy, touchy. You don't have to get that excited because I call you a maid," Vriti walked out the door.
Harry ended up getting so sick of cleaning, that he put away all of his own stuff, and dumped Fred, George, and Ron's things on their beds. He was exhausted after doing everything that day, so he went to sleep immediately. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was asleep.
The next day, he woke up to a silent room. Enjoying the peace and quiet, he savored it, knowing that it would be gone in a matter of minutes. Harry got up, and looked at himself in the mirror.
"Oh my God! " he yelled. His hair was hot pink, instead of its usual jet black. He heard laughing coming from the other side of the wall. Harry crossed through the 'common room' and went in to the girls' room. Inside he found Vriti, Laura, and Ginny laughing so hard they were crying. Across the room was Hermione, with her arms crossed and a disapproving frown identical to Professor McGonagall's.
"Sorry Harry. It was impossible to resist. You slept so soundly, and it was soo easy once we tried it," said Laura, trying to look apologetic, but she kept being overcome by laughter.
"Oh, right. Just pick on the ones who can actually sleep, just because you can't!" Harry retorted.
"We could sleep. We just stayed up because it was impossible to resist. Anyway, if we couldn't sleep, how would we have woken up?" Vriti explained.
"Okay, just how do I make it turn black again?" Harry asked.
"It's supposed to wear off in a few minutes," Ginny said.
"Supposed to?" Harry asked.
"It will wear off in a few minutes," Ginny said, correcting her mistake.
"Anyway, on to nicer topics," Vriti said, "There's a little ice skating place in Hogsmeade. Wanna go?"
"Of course," Hermione replied.
"Sure," said Ginny.
"Umm, I'm not so sure. I've never ice skated before," Harry replied, unsure.
"We could teach you!" Laura said.
"And that's only part of the day," Vriti said enthusiastically, "We should work on our audition for The Phantom of the Opera! I'm trying out for a singing part as well as a violin part."
"And why would you want to that?" Ginny asked.
"What if I don't make one of them?" Vriti replied sensibly, "Are any of you trying out?"
"I'm trying out for Christine," said Hermione.
"Same here," the others replied simultaneously.
"Oh, woe is me, for I shall never make it if I am competing with Laura the Great!" Vriti said melodramatically, casting her hand on her forehead.
"You know you'll probably get a chorus part," Laura said.
After breakfast, they went down to the ice skating rink. They gave their normal shoes to the wizard at the desk, who transfigured them into ice skates. As Vriti put her shoes down on the desk, he noticed that she had extremely small feet next to the ones of Laura.
"Your feet are tiny!" Harry said.
"Yeah, and?" Vriti replied.
"I was just saying."
When they got on to the rink, they saw that no one else was there.
"I've got an idea!" Vriti said brightly.
"What?" Laura replied.
"We can practice!" Vriti declared.
"But we don't have any music," Hermione said.
"That's why I can do the music," Vriti replied.
"Okay, that works," Laura said.
"Who wants to be Christine first?" Vriti asked.
"I will," Hermione volunteered.
Vriti hummed the introduction for Think of Me.
Hermione started, and her voice sounded a bit squeaky,
"Think of me think of me fondly, when we've said goodbye. Remember me once in a while - please promise me you'll try. When you find that, once again, you long to take your heart back and be free - if you ever find a moment, spare a thought for me"
At that moment, in the actual show, there was a transformation, in which Christine was revealed in full costume, and there was a transformation to the Gala. Vriti hummed the music in between the singing, and the lights grew dim. Harry gasped. Hermione was standing, in her ice skates, wearing what was apparently Christine's "full costume".
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A/N: Please review! I live off of them! I'm leaving you on a cliffhanger, but it'll be back soon.