A/N: Thank you to everyone that reviewed!
Disclaimer: I think this is the last one I'm going to write! The chars that you know, still aren't mine!
Chapter 6
"Today is the day!"
Ms. Starr perkily walked into the music room with her usual too-bright-smile.
"Now, please contain your yourselves," she said dryly. "I know the excitement may be too much for you, but I ask you to refrain from being too enthusiastic."
The class simply stared at her. Some had looks of boredom, others of complete and utter mortification.
"Alright. I'm going to put you into small groups where we will then begin karaoke."
The class looked nervously at one other. Hermione suppressed a groan. The only thing worse than singing in front of the entire class would be to sing a love song with Crabbe, Goyle, or Malfoy.
Ms. Starr began calling out names and Hermione was able to slightly relax. She seemed to be keeping the houses with each other and the genders were separate.
"Weasley, Potter, Longbottom!"
Ron and Harry high-fived (secretly, under the table; they didn't want Malfoy to come up with any snide comments about how childish it was) and gave Neville a thumbs-up.
"Thomas and Finnigan!" She smiled apologetically at the two boys. "Sorry, but you two will have to do without a third person."
"Granger, Brown, Patil!" Hermione smiled over at Lavender and Parvati. She was extremely glad to be with her roommates and not someone like Pansy.
"Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle!"
"Parkinson, Zabini, Bulstode!"
Ms. Starr finally finished grouping the class together and motioned for them to get with their partners.
"Ok class, this is what is going to happen: This week I am going to assign a very easy song to the class and you will sing that with music. That song is going to be 'Row, Row, Row, Your Boat.' Since it is a very short and relatively simple song, there will be no background voices accompanying you."
The entire class groaned. "Hey! Wait a second, I'm not done. Today is Monday, meaning we will perform on Friday. Now, I want you all to be researching Muggle songs because next Monday, each group will chose a song and perform that as karaoke meaning you may sing along with the song. Are we clear?"
The class nodded.
"Good to hear it. Now, I'm going to give each group a copy of the song on a cassette. I know Muggle items aren't supposed to work in Hogwarts, but all special circumstances allow those rules to be bent. You will be allowed to use muggle CD players and tape decks anywhere on the premises, as long as it is only for this class. It will not work otherwise as Headmaster Dumbledore has put special charms on the items."
With that, Ms. Starr handed out the cassettes to each group. "Now, I'm going to demonstrate how the song is supposed to be sung. Each person does not sing at the same time. You each start at a different times."
The class looked confusedly at each other.
"If my wonderful assistant, Mr. Susi, who has been hiding at the piano all week, would help me?"
Mr Susi, the pianist, nodded and began playing. Ms. Starr cleared her throat and began singing.
"Row, row, row, your boat, gently down the stream, merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dream."
Hermione noticed that Mr. Susi joined in and started the song when Ms. Starr was on 'boat' and they sounded very harmonious together.
"Thank you Mr. Susi," Ms. Starr acknowledged. "Class, make sure you don't just say the words. I want you to feel them. Really put emotion into the song whatever it is and put a bit of you into it and Mr. Malfoy if you don't desist giving me those looks then you will be looking at Headmaster Dumbledore faster than you can say 'muggle.'"
Hermione looked at Malfoy who had been shooting glares at Ms. Starr like he wanted her to die a horribly slow and painful death, and now he feigned innocence-or tried to. Hermione rather thought he looked nauseous.
"Sorry, Ms. Starr," Malfoy mumbled.
"Ms. Starr nodded. "Very well then. Ok, you may begin!"
Hermione made her way over to Lavender and Parvati and together they found a corner of the room to practice at.
"Oh, I so don't want to do this," Parvati moaned.
"Don't worry, Pav. It will be all right. We just need to practice a whole lot and we'll sound great!" Lavender said confidently.
"Speaking of practice, we better start. And we can always rehearse in our dorm if we run out of time," Hermione suggested.
Parvati and Lavender nodded. "Right. Well, do you want me to start?" Lavender asked.
Parvati and Hermione looked at one another and shrugged. "Sure, go for it."
And with that, the singing had begun.
* * * * *
Hermione sighed and rolled over in bed for the thousandth time to check the clock. The bright red numbers told her that she had been lying in bed for 4 hours trying to fall asleep, as it was 3 a.m.
Try as she might, she couldn't get singing off her mind. It seemed like ages ago that singing had meant the world to her, when it truly was only about 5 years. No one really knew that much about her pre-Hogwarts life. Sure, she was always heavily involved in schoolwork and never got less than an "A." She had always been a perfectionist so she hadn't changed in that sense. But, before she knew of witches and Voldermort and Slytherins, she had a normal muggle life. She did extra-curricular activities, had best friends, and had a passion for something: singing.
Not only did Hermione love to sing, she was good at it. But, as it goes, all good things must come to an end. Something had happened that Hermione cared not to even think about. It was that event that swore Hermione off of singing. She hadn't touched a microphone since she was 10 years old. A year later, she went to Hogwarts and singing wasn't exactly in the curriculum along with Potions or Defense Against the Dark Ages. But now, she was forced to go back to what she had grown to hate.
Hermione sighed again and closed her eyes, praying for sweet dreams.
That's it for now! Please review :)