Chapter 10: Tomorrow
"Harry Potter," said Harry, shaking hands with her. "This is Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley, and Hermione Granger."
"Nice to meet you," said Erica as handshakes passed all around. "Though I could wish for better circumstances. At least it's not raining. Or snowing."
"What, they have these when it snows?" Ron blurted.
"Well, you never know when the building's going to burn down," Erica said. "Worst case scenario, it's 2 AM, the middle of winter, and you're in the shower when it goes. Happened to a friend of mine last year."
"Yuck!" said Ginny.
"Her hair was frozen stiff by the time they let us back in," Erica added.
Hermione shivered. So did Harry.
"About choir..." Erica looked back at the Rivers building. The fire alarm had finally stopped. "Why don't we talk tomorrow? Or rather, later today? Are you all free around noonish?"
"I think so," said Harry, as Ginny and Hermione nodded.
"All right, then, want to meet for lunch at noon? Over at the food court in the Student Union? I can explain about what goes on in auditions, and then we can all go up and do them together."
"You have to audition?" asked Hermione. "Aren't you already in the choir?"
"Big Guy makes everyone re-audition every semester," Erica explained as they mounted the steps into the building. "It's how he makes sure everyone is still good, and sees who's ready to move up. Like me – I'm in the women's choir now, but I'm hoping to make the co-ed choir this semester too. So..." She sighed. "Listen to me. I could talk all night. Twelve o'clock at Garritty's?"
"We'll be there," Ginny said.
"Great. G'night." Erica unlocked the door of the quad at the end of their hall. A round of variations on "Good night" followed her inside.
"Well, I'm going to try and get some more sleep," Hermione said, yawning hugely.
"Who could sleep after that?" Ron demanded.
"I'm going to try, at least," Harry said. "You do what you like, but remember it's quiet hours. And if you shine that flashlight in my eyes again, I'm throwing it out the window."
"I already said I was sorry, what more do you want?"
"How about 'I won't do it again'?"
"I said that too!"
"No, you didn't."
"Did so."
"Did not."
"Go. To. Bed," Ginny and Hermione said forcefully in unison.
-----
Luckily for all concerned, the day of the fire alarm was a Tuesday, and classes didn't start until Thursday. However, it meant Harry had nothing much to do with his morning after he and Ron ate breakfast at the dining hall that took up most of the ground floor of the Rivers complex.
Ron was trying to better his score at online ping-pong, so he wasn't up for conversation, and Hermione and Ginny were sleeping late. Harry decided to wander around the hall and take a look at the names posted outside the doors.
At one end of the hall was Erica's quad, with Gwylan, Erica, Elizabeth, and Edith written on the green, vaguely reptilian paper cutouts. Hermione and Ginevra were next door, of course, and next to them Harry and Ron.
On the other side of his own room, Harry saw, lived a Matthew and a Bradley. He felt a little sorry for them, since they also lived directly opposite the bathroom. Francesca was next door to them, with the placard on the wall showing where she was, obligatory for all RAs. At the moment, her Velcro marker was on "I'm here, knock", but Harry didn't want to bother her.
Across the hall from Fran were Rose and Anna. Next door to them was Robert, and across from him was DJ. Harry wondered why DJ was the only person with a nickname on his nametag. Ginny was already planning on asking Fran if she could have hers changed, and Ron had simply scratched out the last half of Ronald with a black marker an hour after they had moved in.
Another mystery of Carrington College. Along with what these things actually are. He looked at the shape of the cutout again, but beyond the obvious – four legs, mouth full of teeth, and tail – he couldn't make it out. I'll ask Fran at some point – she made them, after all.
The last two rooms at the end of the hall were home to Taylor and Marcus, and finally there was the door to the back stairs, which led up to the hall that held the big all-building lounge, where he and his friends had been relaxing the night before with tea and games.
This building's a labyrinth. If I get lost in here, I'll be lucky to get out before I'm a senior.
Harry promised himself that he'd learn his way around soon.
The colors on the walls should help.
Each hall had a distinctive color of paint from about waist-level down – blues, yellows, and greens mostly, though Harry had heard that the third floor of Pennie Hall (which was on the other side of the Rivers complex from Gardner, beyond Rivers Hall proper) was an awful shade of lavender. The 1st Gardner color was a vivid green, which Fran said had been dubbed "radioactive key lime" by the previous year's residents.
I could really get to like it here, Harry mused. 2 am fire drills notwithstanding.
He checked his watch, saw that it was 11:30, and went to knock on the girls' door.
"Hermione? Ginny?"
No answer.
They must still be asleep.
He tried the knob. The door wasn't locked.
He opened the door and looked in. Then he closed it, very quickly.
Don't you ever learn? said an annoyingly smarmy little voice in the back of his head.
"Learn from what? I've never seen anything like that before..." Harry stopped. First off, I'm talking to myself. And secondly, I think I have seen Hermione doing that before...but I can't remember when, or where...
"Oh, never mind," he mumbled, and knocked loudly on the door. "Ginny! Hermione! Time to get up!"
-----
It was 11:56 by Harry's watch when they walked through the swinging glass doors into the Student Union. Erica waved at them from one of the dining tables. An Asian girl was sitting across from her, with an instrument case – a bass or cello, by the size – propped against her chair.
"Everyone, this is Edith Lee, one of my roommates," Erica said. "I'm afraid you're going to have to introduce yourselves, I'm notoriously terrible with names."
Edith laughed. "No kidding. You didn't know mine for three weeks last year and I lived next door to you!"
"We live next door to you, as it happens," said Hermione. "I'm Hermione Granger, this is Ginny Weasley."
"Her-mi-o-ne," Edith repeated. "Is that how you say it? Neat."
"My brother, Ron Weasley, and my boyfriend, Harry Potter," Ginny said.
"Good to meetcha," Edith said. "'Fraid I gotta run, though, string auditions start in five. See ya 'round."
She hefted her instrument and departed.
"What does she play?" Ron asked.
"Cello," Erica said. "Any of you play anything?"
"We all do," Hermione said. "We just started last year, but we're getting pretty good. Ron's wonderful."
"That so? Whatcha play?"
"Piano," Ron said, his ears reddening. "But I'm not that good."
"We can see later," Erica said. "I'm hungry, anyone else? They've got stir-fry today, that's always good."
Hermione apparently agreed, joining Erica in the stir-fry line. Harry and Ginny headed for the deli counter while Ron grabbed a personal pizza from under the warming lights. They checked out, giving the cashier their student IDs to swipe through the register, and returned to their table, where silence reigned for about five minutes while everyone paid close attention to their food.
"Now, about auditions," Erica began, taking a long drink of her ginger ale. "They're always the same. A form to fill out – basic stuff, name, contact information, what part you sing, experience, things like that. Then the singing. Do you know 'My Country, 'Tis of Thee'?"
"No," said Harry blankly. He had never heard of such a song. From the expressions on his friends' faces, neither had they.
"Stupid –" Erica cut off abruptly. "Not you, me. Of course you don't, those are the American words. Do you know your national anthem?"
"Of course," Hermione said. "Everyone knows that."
"How does it go?" Erica asked. "Just to make sure."
Ron demonstrated.
God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
"Perfect," Erica said, looking relieved. "It's the same tune – oh, and if you always sing like that, you're golden, Big Guy always needs good tenors," she told Ron, who looked decidedly relieved. "Just tell him you know different words to it, he won't mind. After that, he'll test your range, up and down, to see how far you can sing, and then he'll have you sight-sing a bit, and that's all. Oh, and to warn you, he looks imposing and grumpy, but he's really a big softie."
"We should be able to deal with imposing and grumpy," said Ron. "Some of our professors back home practically had the market cornered on that."
"Come on, then," Erica said. "If everyone's done. Auditions are open-door, you just walk in and wait your turn."
The music building was actually part of the Student Union, as was the art building beside it. The huge auditorium where Erica said the concerts were held sat between them. The choir room was on the second floor of the music building, down a hall from the entrance to the Union.
"I'm back, did you miss me?" Erica called as she entered the room.
"Look, Dottie, it's the Gorilla Girl!" exclaimed a rotund man with brown hair and a short white beard and mustache. "Welcome back!"
"Hello, Erica," said a blond woman in her middle years from behind the risers that filled most of the room. "Planning on taking voice lessons this year?"
"Yes, ma'am," Erica said. "You wouldn't have an Add Card around, would you?"
"Oh, not at all," said Dottie, handing Erica a slip of green paper. "All it needs is your ID number."
Erica looked it over and sighed. "You knew I'd be taking lessons before I did. Somehow that's not fair."
"Life's not fair, Gorilla," said Big Guy. "Who's all these?"
"Freshmen," Erica said. "They want to sing with us. And you can't play 'scare the freshies' with them, because I told them you're a big old softie."
"You're no fun," Big Guy said, shaking his head and walking over to the piano. "Who's first?"
The form for returning singers was less complicated than for first-timers, so Erica ended up singing first. Harry listened as Big Guy coaxed her voice higher than he would have thought possible for an alto. When Ginny went up, the opposite was true – Big Guy managed to get low notes from her Harry hadn't even heard from Hermione before.
Hermione, for her part, missed a few notes on her sight-singing, but her tone was almost perfect. Ron, as usual, sang out fearlessly and managed to get well into the treble clef before his voice cracked. Then it was Harry's turn.
He sang "God Save the Queen" and moved up and down intervals singing an "ah" vowel. Big Guy suggested he adjust his posture slightly, and suddenly his range was five notes wider. Finally, it was time for sight-singing, the part Harry had been dreading. He followed the score as closely as he could and adjusted his note quickly the few times it didn't sound right. Not as bad as I was afraid of, but not as good as I hoped, he thought, waiting for the choir director to say something.
"The lists go up tomorrow," Big Guy said, making a few notes on Harry's audition form. "Bulletin board outside my office, noon or thereabouts." He turned back to the piano. Harry understood he was dismissed.
The four spent their afternoon scheduling classes.
Hermione had placed very highly on all the tests, so she was taking high-level chemistry, the first of the literature series, and an American history course, "because I really don't know much about it," along with her freshman seminar, which every first-semester student took.
Ron picked out a music theory class to complement first-year mathematics and British history, which he freely admitted he was hoping would be an easy A.
Ginny liked the look of the theatre department and scheduled in the introductory theatre lecture, along with an English course less advanced than Hermione's and a low-level biology course.
Harry was about as undecided as he had ever been, so finally he picked one class from each of his friends' schedules – Ginny's theatre course, Ron's math class, and Hermione's American history – and put those on his own course card. He vaguely remembered doing something of the sort in years past, with the reasoning, at least I'll have someone to hate it with. They turned in their cards at the main office just as the campus bells chimed five.
They ran into Erica at Rivers Dining Hall, and she invited them back to her room after dinner. There they met her other roommates, Lanie and Lizzie, and ended up staying late to watch a movie. Erica made popcorn on the stove in the quad's kitchen for them.
I am definitely getting to like it here, Harry thought as Ginny rested her head on his shoulder. He slipped his arm behind her back. Now if those audition results are just good tomorrow.
-----
The night was, for once, uneventful, and the four got up early to go book-shopping for their classes, managing to score a wait in line of only 45 minutes. "We were lucky," Ron said in awe, looking at the line now stretched around two corners, up the stairs, and into the textbook section of the bookstore. "It was only around one corner when we got here."
Ginny sighed. "Only having two cashiers is kind of silly."
"Look on the bright side, at least we're not waiting around doing nothing for the choir lists to go up," Harry pointed out.
"I'd rather be doing nothing," Ron said wistfully. "We could sit and do nothing. My feet hurt."
"Get over yourself," Hermione snapped. Her pile of books, as usual, was larger than anyone else's.
After they had finally checked out, Harry suggested they check their mail before they went over to the choir room. The post office and bookstore, along with the student-run coffee shop, were all on the second level of the Student Union, so this made sense.
"Everyone have your box combination?" Harry asked, pulling a small oaktag card from his pocket.
"Got mine," Ginny said.
"And mine," said Ron. "Er, somewhere." He rummaged through his bag, coming up triumphant from the front compartment.
"I've memorized it," Hermione said smugly.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Why does this not surprise me?"
There was uniform lack of ability to open the mailboxes until a passing upperclassman took pity on them and told them the secret. You had to pull on the lock as you turned it. Ginny was the first to open her box after that, followed quickly by Ron, then Hermione and Harry in a tie. And there was plenty of material in the boxes.
"Hey, schedules!" Ron said, opening his. "Look at this – I've got everything I wanted!"
Amazingly, all of them had gotten every class they had signed up for. Fran had told them the chances of this were slim.
"I guess we're just extra lucky today," Harry said, stuffing his mail into his bag of books. "C'mon, let's go check the lists before it wears off."
He led the way at a trot around the balcony of the Student Union into the music building and down the hallway, where they stopped at the sight of an eager crowd of students, all pushing to see a small bulletin board. Harry joined the throng, and after a moment, suddenly found himself at the front, staring at the list labeled "College Choir".
There it was, under "Bass 1", with three or four other names that meant nothing to him.
Harry Potter.
"I made it!" he exalted, quickly running his finger down the other part listings. "Ron, you too – and Hermy – and Gin! Everyone's in!"
Hermione and Ginny squealed and hugged each other. Ron was grinning like a maniac.
"See you at rehearsal," said Erica, emerging from the crush with a smile as big as Ron's. "We start tomorrow."
-----
The rest of the day passed in a sort of blur of happiness. Not even the discovery that the choir practiced three days a week at his usual dinnertime could dampen Harry's mood. He was still grinning as he sat down at his computer that night.
Dear Remus,
You'll never believe it – all that practice paid off! We're all in the choir! You were right, by the way – Professor Johnson, the choir director, has me classed as a baritone. Everyone calls him "Big Guy"; I found out his real name is Leonard and he hates it. Thank you for helping us learn to read music. I think it's really going to pay off...
He continued with a description of his classes and added notes from Ron and Hermione and Ginny before signing the e-mail and sending it on its way.
"You mind if I stay up a little?" Ron asked. He was still at his computer.
"No, not really," Harry said. "Can we have the light off, though?"
"No problem."
Harry switched off the light and climbed into his bed.
What a day. And classes don't even start till tomorrow.
The word filled his mind as he took his glasses off and closed his eyes.
Tomorrow...
-----
"Harry?"
"Hmmh?"
"Harry, wake up."
Harry opened one eye groggily. "Remus?" His brain didn't seem to want to work. "Thought you were in England."
Remus looked amused. "We are in England, Harry."
Harry digested this. "Oh. Right. Sorry." He sat up and shook his head, feeling the dream slip away. "I dreamt I was somewhere else. What's up?"
"You, I hope. Breakfast is ready."
"For breakfast, I can be up." Harry reached for his glasses. "Give me ten seconds head start before you wake Ron."
Remus chuckled. "He does seem to eat like there's no tomorrow."
The last word seemed to resonate oddly in Harry's ears, and he suddenly remembered a question he had wanted to ask. "Remus, you can read music, right?"
"Yes. Why do you ask?"
Harry hesitated for a moment. "I... I want to learn to sing. And I think Ron and the girls might too."
"Any particular reason?"
"Not really. Just... I have a feeling."
"Well, musical notation I can teach you," Remus said. "But singing is something else. I know there's quite a lot of technical details, but I'm afraid I haven't the foggiest idea what they are. Were you planning on following the lessons in the Erica Gorelli books by any chance?"
"Sort of," Harry admitted.
"They seem reasonable enough. I doubt there's any way you could hurt yourself singing the way they describe. So I'd say go ahead, but don't scream any high notes."
"Is that like 'don't take any wooden Galleons'?" Harry asked, nipping out of the room to avoid the hairbrush Remus chucked at him.
-----
(A/N: Is it just me, or do these chapters keep getting longer?
harryp123: Now you don't have to wait. Just remember, variety is the spice of life.
MackenzieW: The first step is admitting you have a problem... ;-)
MAndrews: Thank you for all your reviews! I'm glad you found me again! I love the Canon too, in case you couldn't tell, and for the Hermione scene... heh heh heh, no guarantees, sucker. We happened to have a fire alarm at 2 AM as I was writing Chapter 9, so it kind of grew naturally out of that. And about Umbridge – agreed. Don't worry too much – something will happen to her eventually – I just have to figure out what, and why, and how.
I must admit I love writing this fic! Enjoy, all!)