Okay everyone, sorry for the delay. I've been really busy lately with projects and mounds of homework and divine-ruler-of-whatever-religion-you-are-part-of knows what. But now comes the update. Yay! I also have a Marauder's one chapter story coming up. But I felt I should update this first.

Oh, and by the way, I've never actually gone to a karaoke bar. I've only done it with friends on the computer and such, and from the local amusement park karaoke stage. So it might not be exactly right, but I'm just going to say that's the kind of place it is in this story.

Savvysuperstar95: Well, I'm glad she's back, but I'd rather not have anyone else die. It's too sad. . Oh, and he will. I'll make sure of that.

Kd7sov: I forgot about the inscription on Erised. He's bound by the words, not by the meaning. This comes into play later, so I wasn't going to say, but I guess it can't hurt too much that you know. Considering that you've figured out a bunch of the things for the story already…

SilverNsirius4ever: I'm just worried that if I go any slower, it will get boring, and then I won't bother to finish it. It has been known to happen.

Disclaimer: If I were the owner of these characters, they probably would not exist. I also do not own any of the lyrics to the song in this chapter, no matter what song or who they come from.

And now the moment you have all been waiting for, the fifth chapter.

Lives of Sacrifice Ch. 5: Dancing King

A week had passed, and Ron was thankful that he didn't get any major orders from Hermione. Sure he got the basic ones ("Put these dishes away" and the such), but nothing he hated doing.

But that Friday night Ron heard a command so horrible that he couldn't think of any command that would be worse than it.

"Ron, come with me to do karaoke. You don't have to actually sing, but you're coming."

Ron stared in shock. Karaoke? Is that some Muggle thing? But, bound by the spell, he could not protest, and given the attitude he was thinking it, his mouth wouldn't open to let him speak. Grudgingly, he got up out his seat and followed Hermione out the door.

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Arriving at the karaoke bar (filled with Muggles, Ron noticed), Hermione guided him over to an empty table for two, where they sat. Shouting over the noise that filled the room so that they could hear each other, they started talking. Hermione tried to explain the idea of Karaoke to her pure-blood boyfriend.

"People go up on the stage and sing a song. They don't have to be good; they don't have to know the words. They just read the words off the screen and have fun."

"How is being the center of attention for being horrible, and people cheering you on, fun?" asked a very confused Ron.

"Well-" Hermione began, but was cut off by an announcement.

"Attention all karaoke singers! If you want to be a part of tonight's show, please come up to the booth next to the stage to sign up! We will randomly choose ten people to sing their hearts out for tonight's show!"

"I'll be right back, Honey," Hermione said quickly as she joined the throng that quickly grew around the booth. Ron waved her on half-heartedly, though it was kind of useless, as she had already left. About ten minutes later, Hermione returned, extremely excited.

"Oh, gosh, I hope they pick me. I've never done it before," Hermione rambled in the same way she usually did at school when she was excited or nervous about something.

"And we have all the names of people that want their fifteen minutes of fame have entered for their chance to be a star! And now we have the names of people that will get that tonight. Our performers, in order of appearance are as follows: Mary Anne Windill, Chris Brown, Nick Sibi, Lisa Ash, Carrie Chung, Sarah Grove, Eric Casten, Marc Richards, Zach Bellows, and Hermione Granger! Let's give these ten a hand while Mary Anne takes her place for her performance!"

How somebody would ever want to do that, I have no idea Ron thought as Mary Anne sang, slightly off-pitch.

The next singers weren't very interesting. Sure, some of them were good, and some of them were completely horrible.

And then in was Hermione's turn. She went up on the stage and announced her song, but Ron wasn't paying attention. Instead, he was in his own world, daydreaming about unmentionables. Hermione's voice filled the room, singing a very fast-paced, energetic song, as Ron continued to stare off into space.

Suddenly, Ron had an urge to stand up. Not knowing why, he gave in to the temptation.

And then he heard it. The words to the song Hermione was singing.

"Throw your hands in the air

Like you just don't care."

Hermione! His mind raged. She picked a song that had orders in it!

But he had no choice but to continue. Before he knew it, he was doing a side step, along with "throwing" his hand in the air. From the stage, Hermione could not see who was dancing like a maniac. All she could see was a shadowy figure in the audience, so she continued her song.

The moon-walk continued his dance (though his hands were now back down at his sides, thank goodness) and he started moving towards the front of the room, closer and closer to the stage. More and more people started to notice this odd character dancing and moving towards the front of the room. Ron stopped in his place, freezing for a moment, and then beginning the robot. His sequence ended with a spin and fell into a split (oh, the pain it caused him).

Hermione looked down to the redhead right in front of the stage. Hermione quickly realized what she had been singing, and started apologizing to Ron. She could hardly be heard, though, as nearly everyone stood up and applauded the dancer.

Ron stood up, grimacing from the pain of the split, and hobbled back to his seat. "Fans" did not let him sit down. "Encore! Encore!" they shouted at him, hoping for more of his spectacular moves. Hermione rushed off the stage toward Ron, guiding him outside of the little bar.

A shadowy figure's eyes followed them out the door. This figure was one of the few that were not clapping for Ron's moves. As Hermione and Ron exited the bar, the figure followed them, but instead of turning right as they had, he turned left, the ends of strands of silvery-blonde hair catching the moonlight before returning to the body they came from.''

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Again, I'm sorry I haven't updated for a while. I've been so busy, so I don't know when I'll have the chance to update again. I'm hoping it will be a shorter time period than this, though.

Please keep reviews coming!