Chapter 2: Concert

Excuses, Excuses

"EXPLAIN YOURSELVES!" McGonagall thundered, "RIGHT THIS MINUTE!"

They exchanged guilty looks.

"I'M WAITING."

"Um," said James, because he was the leader and not scared of McGonagall's wrath. "We couldn't sleep?"

McGonagall raised a skinny eyebrow. "All of you couldn't sleep?"

"No," Arabella piped up. "But we all have different reasons. For example, I can't sleep because there's a band concert tomorrow and I have a solo."

Lily blushed. "I can't sleep because there's a band concert tomorrow and I have to meet James' parents afterwards."

"I can't sleep because there's a band concert tomorrow and I lost my mouthpiece," said Peter.

"I can't sleep because I had too many sugar quills after dinner," said James.

Remus pouted. "I can't sleep because I was in the hospital wing and I didn't have dinner."

McGonagall carefully massaged her temples. "Mr. Black? What's your excuse?"

"Mr. Black?"

Sirius snored.

Cookie?

"Quiet down!" yelled Professor Scirvy. 'I said, QUIET DOWN!"

The first-years quieted down. Everyone else kept talking.

Scrivy sighed. "Okay, so for the concert, the dress code will be white robes for girls, and black robes for boys. Where are my librarians? LIBRARIANS!"

"All right! Keep your hair on." Arabella appeared from behind a shelf and eyed the dress robes critically. "I don't know, Professor. Can't we do every other?"

"No. White for girls, black for boys."

"Why?"

"Because."

"But the whole left half is girl flutes and the whole right half is boy clarinets," Lily pointed out. "With the robes, we'll look like a giant black-and-white cookie."

Sirius dropped a music stand and whipped around. "Hey! Did somebody say cookie?"

Band Librarians, Part 2

Arabella glared at Lily over a huge box of dress robes. "I can't believe you got us into this."

Sirius swaggered forward. "Hello, ladies. I'll take an extra-buff, extra-tall, super-robe please."

Arabella smiled deviously. "Why don't you come round to the practice room, Mr. Blakc? That's where we serve our… special customers."

They disappeared.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake!" snapped Lily. She turned. "James, did you know you're buttoned wrong?"

James stared perplexedly at his uneven collar. "I thought something didn't look right."

"Here, I'll fix that—Mmph!"

The students got their own robes from the box. Only two first years fell in.

Landscape

"Milton!" Mrs. Figg poked her husband in the shoulder. "Wake up! This is Bella's solo!"

Mr. Figg jolted awake and stared blearily at the black-and-white mass before him. As his vision shifted into focus, he picked out the long black tube that protruded from the crowd of students.

Arabella played her quivering solo.

The song continued.

"That thing," Mr. Figg grumbled privately to his wife, "is a bloody blight on the landscape."

Then he fell asleep again.

Appreciation

The handsome young man stood nervously before the assembled parents, holding a neatly wrapped gift box.

"Sonorous. Did that work? Oh, okay. Um. Hi. I'm James Potter, the, uh, band president and this is Sirius, the vice president, and we'd just like to present this to Professor Scrivy. Because he's helped us a lot this year."

"Oh yes," said Sirius. "Did you all know that Jimmy and I have set the school record for amount of detentions? At first we were competing, but then we entered as a duo, and together we have… one thousand and forty-five detentions!"

In the back, Dedalus Diggle helpfully crashed the cymbals. The audience applauded politely.

"And," added Sirius, "according to our records, Professor Scrivy here has helped us to achieve our noble goal by assigning precisely two hundred and thirty-seven of those detentions!"

The cymbals crashed again.

"Thank you," said James, bowing to the Professor and handing him the box. "Thank you from us all."

Professor Scrivy accepted the box and gingerly held it with his thumb and forefinger.

"Oh," said James, "Don't worry. It's just a new baton."

"And Lily wouldn't even let us make it sing!"

Folder Placement

Sirius slid the folder into its proper compartment very, very carefully. Then he looked around. Another folder was on the floor. Being the wonderful and altruistic person he was, Sirius picked it up. And put it away. Slowly and carefully.

The door of the drum closet-slash-really-small-room banged opened. "There you are."

"Shhhh! Your sound vibrations are disturbing the folder placement!"

Arabella threw her arms round his neck. "Are you going to stay here 'til they all leave?"

"Maybe. There are lots of folders."

"I haven't seen your parents anywhere, you know. And James' mum is on the verge of organizing a search party."

"So?" said Sirius stonily.

Arabella shrugged. "Fine." Threading a hand through Sirius' dark hair, she kissed him. "Guess I'll have to stay with you, then."

Sirius dropped the folder.

Cookie!

Forty-five minutes later, Sirius and Arabella stood in the Great Hall, slightly disheveled-looking.

"Hu-llo Mrs. Pott-er," they chorused.

Mrs. Potter, chairwoman of the HCAA (Hogwarts Creative Arts Association) looked up and smiled. "Hullo Sirius. Hullo Arabella. Excellent job! Help yourself to some refreshments."

"Thank-you, Mrs. Pott-er."

Sirius walked away balancing ten cookies neatly arranged in two stacks. Arabella walked away with one cookie and a napkin. They sat down at the Gryffindor table, and Arabella promptly grabbed one of Sirius' stacks.

"HEY! What was that for?"

"I'm hungry."

"Then why didn't you get more cookies?"

"Because I didn't want to look like a pig like you."

"Oh."

Innuendo!

Arabella's parents were at the end of the hall. "Hello Mum. Hi Dad."

Mr. Figg smiled. "Hello again, Bella. Did you find your reed?"

"Yes," said Arabella innocently. "It was in the drum closet-slash-really-small-room."

"You were gone a long time," observed her mother.

"Yes," said Arabella again. "If I don't get suck on it, it gets incredibly hard."

Sirius choked on his cookie.

Fin.

Yeah, I know, it's kind of a mess…

Unfortunately, not all this stuff actually happened (

Right. Anyway, in case it was confusing, they have to wear special dress robes for the concert, which are provided by the school. (the robes, not the concert)

Hm. I just found out drabbles are supposed to be exactly 100 words. Oh well.

Sorry this took so ridiculously long. I've had it since the time of the first and second chapters. Just didn't feel like uploading it (new definition of laziness!)

Guess what? I'M QUITTING BAND NEXT YEAR! Because it is no fun without last year's seniors and with the freshmen. Seriously, this STUPID HORRIBLE bari sax freshman who sits behind me laughs hilariously at all of Scrivy's jokes, which are actually not that funny, AND slurs everything AND always gets his rhythm messed up but plays really loudly anyway, therefore messing everybody else up.

Thankses: (like pocketses!)

bluerain627

sydney

elayna fournier

lingyeung-02

KLLRS

Rae Roberts

Christy Corr

Esperanza Fuega