Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. That would violate anti-slavery laws.
'Soon enough' turned out to be only ten minutes. As soon as he escorted the 4th years back, McGonagall silenced the hall.
"Due to the success we had at Christmas," McGonagall announced, "We will be having a Valentine's Dance. This will be open to the 4th years and above."
Harry gasped and looked around. Sure enough, a large number of eyes were looking at him. Harry groaned and sank down in his seat.
"Good news, Harry," Parvati gushed, although Harry doubted he would take the same view as her. "I talked with Professor McGonagall, and it turns out Snape will be guarding the younger students this dance. So, will you go with me?"
While Harry was glad that Parvati didn't find out he lied to her about guarding the students last dance, Harry wasn't too happy about her renewed offer.
"Well…" Harry stammered. Parvati seemed to think Harry was teetering on the edge of going with her, so she sidled close to him and put her arm around him.
"I'm sure we could have a good time, Harry," Parvati whispered.
Inspiration struck, and Harry pulled out the note from Ginny and read, "Hagrid told me about the Christmas Dance up there. I'm so proud of you, and I'm going to kill Parvati when I get back for asking you to it!... You wouldn't know why Ginny wrote that, would you?"
Parvati gulped and backed away from him. "I don't know what she was thinking. I wouldn't dream of asking her boyfriend to a dance!"
Harry smiled, and got up to lead the 3rd year Arithmancy Ravenclaws out of the Great Hall."
Harry had to hand it to Parvati; At least she cared what Ginny thought. Unfortunately, a lot of the older students remembered Ginny from her shy first years at Hogwarts and clearly didn't care much for her or what she thought.
Harry actually enjoyed the time escorting the younger students around, since they actually acted somewhat normally around him. Even Dennis Creevey, although Harry suspected that his bad trumpet playing had dissolved any sort of hero image in the Creevey brothers.
After Harry had finished guarding the Great Hall, he led the Gryffindors back up to the dorms. Harry found a relaxing chair by the fire and sat back. This is great, Harry reflected, I could just sit here. Heck, I could fall asleep here.
Harry didn't notice it at first. Hands were on his shoulders giving him a massage. Harry let out a moan; That felt good! However, a minute later, Harry realized what was going on. Harry tensed up and opened his eyes.
"What's wrong?" Lavender asked.
Harry let out another moan, only this one was caused by exasperation. "This isn't right. Please, just leave me." Lavender sighed, and left him in his chair alone.
"No, don't wake him!" Harry heard through his sleep. Why is Fred in my room? Harry thought to himself.
Harry heard a few more voices which he couldn't make out. Harry opened his eyes and saw the majority of the Gryffindor house looking at him, and he realized he must have fallen asleep in the commons.
"Ugh. What time is it?" Harry asked, his head pounding.
Everyone looked at the 7th year guys. Lee, who looked a little embarrassed, said, "10:08"
"What!" Harry cried, "Why aren't you in the Great Hall and at classes?" Harry could've kicked himself. They couldn't get there because he needed to escort them!
Fred, George, and Lee all grinned at him, and Harry said, "Ok. We're going now. What classes have been missed?"
George, whom Harry would swear sounded like he was bragging, said, "3rd and 5th year Divination, 2nd and 4th year Muggle Studies, 2nd and 4th year Ancient Runes, 1st, 3rd and 5th year…"
"Ok, Ok!" Harry said, exasperated. He quickly led the Gryffindors down to the great hall before any of them could miss any more classes. When he arrived, McGonagall was looking at him furiously.
"Where have you been! The 12 classes have been cancelled because of this!" McGonagall shouted. Harry shrank where he was sitting, but fortunately Lee came to his aid.
"It's my fault, Professor. I, er, accidentally reset all the clocks in Gryffindor. I planned for them to turn back early this morning, but I made a mistake." Harry's jaw fell, and Lee made a show of looking at his watch. "Eh," Lee sighed, "Looks like they're finally back."
McGonagall turned red and yelled, "Lee Jordan! I am getting tired of your pranks! And about your prefect duties…" However, McGonagall stopped, seeing as how Fred and George were both looking very excited. Harry had to try hard not to burst out laughing. McGonagall was torn between taking the position of Prefect from Lee Jordan, and making sure Fred or George didn't get it.
"…try to do better in the future." McGonagall finished lamely. Seeing the look of relief on Lee's face, McGonagall added, "You still have detention. And I'll make sure that it's with Professor Snape." McGonagall looked satisfied with Lee's look of disgust and turned to Harry, "Harry, you have to escort the 7th year divination students now."
As Harry turned to go back to his duty, Lee whispered, "Harry, could you tell Hermione about this? Tell her we're even." Harry understood what he meant. He wanted to make a peace offering to Hermione, and had to settle for helping Harry out instead. Harry chuckled as he heard Lee mutter under his breath, "Bogies…"
Harry led the students up to the north tower. Of all the classes he had to attend that he wasn't a part of, 7th year divination was his favorite. In every other divination class, Firenze had taken over, since he was so much better than Trelawney at it. However, Firenze seemed to have given up on teaching the 7th years, since they were basically out of school and completely entrenched in Trelawney's methods. Trelawney taught the class instead, and predicted Harry's death, even though he was just an observer! Harry got the biggest enjoyment out of Firenze. The centaur clearly felt that the 7th year divination class wasn't really even a class at all, but an enormous source of entertainment.
"Ok, turn to page 198 of 'Diput's Guide to Seeing'," Trelawney instructed, "to learn the various sounds of Gastromancy"
"Gastromancy?" asked a few students.
"Gastromancy! The study of divination by the sounds of the stomach!" Trelawney instructed. Harry sniggered. Ron would be great at this! Harry and Firenze looked around at students with their heads pressed against each others abdomens. Harry couldn't help but laugh and Trelawney had to shoot him a nasty glare before he could contain himself.
"Now, listen, what does the gurgling tell you?" Trelawney mistily said over the students.
Firenze leaned towards Harry and whispered, "I'm hungry." Firenze and Harry broke out into laughter.
"Really!" Trelawney said indignantly. Harry and Firenze recovered, and managed to keep calm, until one of the students pooted.
Firenze and Harry both sniggered, until the dam broke when Trelawney said, "Excellent! What does that tell us?" Firenze and Harry left to wait outside the classroom, howling with laughter.
Harry's good mood ended quickly as he took guard of the Great Hall. While there, Harry could hardly avoid the majority of the school, and everyone seemed to know that the Boy-Who-Lived was free for the upcoming Valentines Dance.
Each successive 'No' made Harry more exasperated, until he finally rounded when another voice asked him what he was doing for the dance.
"I said…" when he noticed that it was in fact Dumbledore, who had a small smile on his face.
Dumbledore said, "It is 8:00, Harry. Perhaps I could talk with your for a moment. I'm sure Lee can lead the Gryffindors back." This was an understatement, since Lee had already felt Dumbledore's ward go up and was rounding up the Gryffindors.
Dumbledore asked, "Harry, are you all right? You seemed out of sorts when I found you."
Harry smiled, remembering why he was 'out of sorts' and jokingly asked, "Can you make me ugly?"
Dumbledore chuckled and said, "I've been headmaster for over 40 years, and I've never heard a student ask that. I take it you're not going to the Valentines Dance?"
Harry quietly said, "No, I can't"
Dumbledore looked at Harry for a moment before saying, "Your devotion is admirable. Of course, that doesn't mean you can't go to the dance alone."
Without thinking, Harry blurted, "I'd look stupid!"
"That is interesting. In the 40 years, I don't believe I've ever seen anyone go so fast from being excessively admired to stupid, either," Dumbledore chuckled. He added, "Harry, I ask you to trust me, you want to come. You'll regret it if you don't."
Harry was confused. But Dumbledore must have had some reason for telling him this, and he trusted the headmaster.
Despite Dumbledore's words, Harry was not going to draw any attention to himself. As he arrived in the renovated Great Hall, Harry slipped into a dark corner, where hopefully nobody would notice him.
Harry was beginning to doubt the reasons for coming. What am I supposed to do? Harry thought, but his attention was drawn by a deep thrumming drum solo. No, there's no possible way! Harry looked over at the band. Instead of the 'Weird Sisters' there was a band named 'The Big Suits'
Sure enough, the band was playing 'Sing Sing Sing', one of Harry's favorite songs. For the longest time, Harry didn't even believe he was at a dance. Harry stood in the corner, completely enthralled by the music. After the sixth song, Harry felt a gentle tap on his shoulder. I hope that's not Lavender! Harry thought.
Harry turned around, and found Dumbledore smiling at him. Harry suddenly noticed that Dumbledore was holding Harry's trumpet. "Er…" Harry stammered, and looked over at the band. All of them were looking back at him, clearly waiting for him to do something.
Dumbledore gently said, "They're not asking much, just for you to play along." Harry didn't know what to do, and Dumbledore prodded, "Harry, you're holding up the dance." Harry quietly snuck up to the stage and half hid behind one of the trumpeters. Fortunately, none of the students seemed to notice him.
"Hello. I'm Scott Vincent. And you?" the trumpeter whispered to Harry.
"Harry Potter," Harry stammered. At this, Scott gave him a double take, and Harry gave a small smile. No matter what happens it seems I'll always get that reaction!
The director looked like he was getting ready to start the song, and Harry whispered, "Scott, what key is this in?"
Scott whispered back, "C. Why, you can't read music?" Harry shook his head no, and Scott was clearly worried.
As the director started the song, Harry wondered what he was supposed to do. He still wasn't the best at picking up songs, and they clearly wouldn't be playing the same song repeatedly for him to learn it.
However, Harry smiled as he heard the first measure; it was 'In The Mood'! It wasn't in the same key as when he played with the Creeveys, but Harry knew he could do it.
Scott looked over at Harry, and quickly grew impressed. The guy wasn't even reading the music. Sure, he missed a few notes, but Scott could hardly fault the kid.
After the song ended, Scott asked, "How long have you been playing?"
Harry replied, "7 months." Scott's mouth fell, and missed the opening of the next song. Harry grew disappointed. It was a slow song that he didn't recognize. Harry decided he should try to figure out how to read music. Apparently, the vertical position determined the pitch, but Harry couldn't figure out how long each note was supposed to be. Before Harry could try to figure that out, the song was over and the director was about to start another song.
"It's in F," whispered Scott. Harry recognized it as 'One O'Clock Jump'. He had only played it a few times, so was very hesitant about playing along. The next song was another slow one, which Harry didn't recognize either, and Harry tried his luck at reading music. After two measures, and a few cringes from the trombones in front of him, Harry gave up.
After the song, Scott looked at him and asked, "Do you know how to improvise?" Harry immediately blanched and Scott smiled. "Hey Bob," he called, "could we do a simple blues in Bb for our guest?" Harry realized that Bob must be the director as Scott whispered, "Bb is C for us."
The piano began playing a simple solo, and soon the drums and bass joined in. The director's voice cut across the crowd, "We've got a guest player here with us tonight…" and Harry felt Scott gently pushing him up to the front. What have I got myself into? Harry thought.
Soon the pianist stopped playing and looked over at Harry. Harry couldn't help notice everyone's eyes on him, and the director nudged him. Ok, Harry, you can do this. Just keep it simple and remember the scale.
Harry started his solo. It certainly wasn't spectacular. But it didn't sound bad, and Harry noted happily that it sounded decent. Harry chanced opening his eyes, and noticed that nobody was even looking at him. They were all back to dancing.
Harry felt a giant weight off his chest and began playing more confidently. However, he saw the giant doors to the Great Hall open. As Ginny walked in, Harry let out a giant squawk on the trumpet and stopped playing. Bob noticed this and nudged him again. Harry started playing again, and sighed as he was relieved by the Tenor Saxophone. Harry let out a large smile; Ginny and he stared at each other across the floor.
"Everybody, let's have a hand for Harry Potter!" called Bob when the song ended, and Harry blushed as he put his trumpet to the side of the hall.
Ginny walked to the stage and said, "You can't resist showing off, can you?" Harry sputtered for a moment, but Ginny put a finger up to his lips and put her arms around his neck. Harry gladly obliged and started dancing with her.
The two danced with each other silently for an hour before Harry asked, "How did you get back?"
However, Ginny wouldn't answer him and just blushed. Harry quietly said, "Don't tell me you snuck out!"
Ginny smiled, and Harry chuckled, "Oh my. Hermione's going to kill you!"
"Speaking of that," Ginny said, "am I going to have to talk with Parvati?"
Harry blushed and added, "Er, and Lavender."
Ginny said firmly, "I'm going to kill those two!"
Harry laughed and gave Ginny a kiss. "What do you say," Harry ventured, "that we visit the 7th year girls' room?"
Ginny looked at him and said, "But there aren't any 7th year girls this year. There'd be nobody up there!" Harry only smiled back.
----
Hehe, I love ambiguity!
I don't know how you people do it; 4 different reviews while I slept! Anyway, this is the last section with the trumpet in it. Ginny's obviously going to have to go back to Durmstrang, and Harry's going to have something else to worry about besides his trumpet soon…
Fire Mistress: I guess technically I made the wards up, since they're never used in JK's books. But the incantations I didn't. Exigo Larva is latin for "to drive away a ghost" and Larva Propulo means the same thing (I just pretended one was more powerful)
Ariel: ARGH!
AllAboutMe: Argh again! This is bad enough for time zone considerations?
Suzaane: I missed you! Hope you enjoy the rest!
Alison: I'm glad you like it!