Chapter Twenty-One

The Contest Ends

Harry lifted his head. He sighed, and looked at his seatmate. "What?"

"It was beautiful," said Draco again, just as softly as before.

Harry narrowed his eyes, trying to find some hint in the contours of Draco's face that might tell him that the Slytherin is lying.

Nothing.

"Thank you," replied Harry in the same tone as Draco.

"You're welcome."

Harry watched Draco another minute, just to make sure there was no hidden mockery in the simple statement. Then he turned away to watch his roommate take the stage once again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Before Seamus had reached the steps of the stage, there was a disturbance at the entrance to the Hall.

BANG!

The doors of the Great Hall banged open. A battered and bruised-looking Neville Longbottom stumbled into the Hall, surprising everyone.

The entire crowd had all but forgotten about Neville. Everyone, as one, mentally relived the scene after Neville sang. The audience then joined in remembering that after his performance, Neville had been chased out by his handbag-wielding grandmother. Upon his return, however, the mass of people started whispering back and forth to each other. Most were wondering if Mrs. Longbottom had been whacking Neville over the head with her bag this whole time. Many giggled and pointed at the poor Gryffindor's scruffy appearance. Few actually felt bad for the boy. Only one girl even worried, and only because Hermione couldn't help herself.

Neville stumbled to his seat, on the sofa next to Hermione and Ron. He turned, grimacing obviously, and forced a small smile.

"So. What did I miss?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Seamus finally took the stage once more. He smirked at Neville, but said nothing to him or about his lengthy absense. He turned and smiled softly in Harry's direction. "Great job, mate," he said. "You even got me crying, Harry!" Seamus winked.

Harry sent a wavering smile at Seamus.

Seamus turned back to the rest of the audience before him. "Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to announce that this concludes the show for this evening. Now I must introduce to you our headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, for a few quick words regarding the judging of tonight's contest."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Thank you, thank you," said Dumbledore once the applause had died away. "I must first thank you all for being such a splendid audience. I know how difficult it is to stand before such a crowd and sing, mostly because I did it myself. I also know how excruciating it can sometimes be to sit by and listen to people sing for an entire evening," the crowd rippled with soft laughter. "It is not an easy thing to do. So I believe you should all give yourselves a hand for being such a wonderful and captive audience, and give your fellow students another round of applause for their great courage and talent." The crowd broke out in clapping again.

"Now, I must announce that things will be slightly different than one might have thought originally when I announced the judges for this contest."

Whispers of confusion erupted all through out the mass of students and teachers. "Yes, yes. Things are always prone to change here at Hogwarts, as you should all know by now. Therefore, I shall explain. We, the judges, are asking that you all cast a vote to help us decide who gets the honors of winning tonight's contest." Cheers broke out as everyone realized that they would be instrumental in choosing the winners of the contest. Dumbledore held up his hands to quiet the crowd.

"Yes, yes, very exciting, I know. Now, as it has been a long and eventful evening, I would like to take the time and remind you of all the talent you've enjoyed this evening."

Dumbledore proceeded to rattle off the name of each performer, what song they each performed, and the song they adapted. Once he was done, he said, "Now that you've been reminded of the great talent that pervades your school, I ask that you please think on this intently. Tomorrow morning, there will be a ballot collecting device of sorts for you all to place your votes in. I ask that you ponder your top three choices and place them, in order, on a piece of parchment and then put the parchment into the collecting device. And trust me, there will not be any double-voting, either."

Dumbledore looked directly at the Weasley twins' guilty faces. He smiled at them and continued. "Now, I ask that you do not consider anyone that is not a current student here, due to the fact that we would not be able to award house points. Therefore, my performance and the ghosts' performance are not to be considered for prizes. Other than that, you should be all set to retire for the evening and cast your votes in the morning."

As the headmaster was about to dismiss his students, there was the sound of a very loud raspberry from somewhere behind Dumbledore. Peeves appeared behind and to the left of the headmaster. The poltergeist was obviously angry about being taken out of consideration for contest winner. A water balloon went whizzing toward the back of Dumbledore's head.

With the wave of an ancient hand, the balloon was diverted from its course and flew in another direction.

Unfortunately for Severus Snape, that direction was his. To make things worse, Snape had fallen asleep at some point during the contest and had no idea what was about to occur.

SPLASH!

Not even Albus Dumbledore could resist at least a chuckle. Snape's fellow professors all hid their grins behind their hands and sniggered quietly. Many of the Gryffindors cackled openly as Severus Snape woke up, sputtering and cursing violently. He scrambled out of his chair and stood, holding his arms out to the sides and flapping them a bit to throw off some of the water. The potions master was drenched from head to toe, as the water balloon had been expertly filled to capacity. Snape glared around the room at all the partially-hidden but still-smiling faces. With an extra-vile sneer that rivaled even the nastiest Trademark Malfoy Sneer and a few more choice swear-words, Severus Snape stormed out of the room.

As the laughter was quieting over most of the room several minutes later, a single voice was heard shouting over the rest.


"Thank the gods I didn't miss that," cried Neville mirthfully.

~*~TBC~*~