A/N: So I'm really sorry I didn't put this up sooner. I had a nightmare and a half getting the lyrics to the song I needed, then translating part of it, then finding the movie to check dance moves, then my floppy broke and I had to find another. To top that, I started school. I still love you guys, and to prove it, here is my next chapter.
Disclaimer: I'm trying to buy it okay? When I do I will inform you. Until then, I own nothing unless otherwise stated.
"Did you hear that they're going to have a talent show?" Ginny asked, bursting into Hermione and Draco's common room. Hermione smiled at her friend from the couch she was laying on.
"Of course I did, it was my idea. When did they set the date for?" Ginny nodded, sitting down on the couch across from her.
"Two weeks from now, the day before we get off for Christmas break," She grinned at Hermione. "So should we enter?" Hermione smiled back at her.
"I've got a really good idea, but we'll need four more girls for it,"
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Hermione smiled as their group began to form. First the girls from their study group arrived. Ginny arrived with Luna and Millicent Bulstrode in tow. Millicent had joined their group sometime in November, arriving with Blaise. She was a nice girl, though she hid it well with her exterior curtness with people she didn't know very well.
"Parvati agreed to do it, and she's going to get her sister and come here in a second," Hermione smiled.
"Great. I had Dumbledore charm a DVD player and TV for me so that I can show you what I have in mind," At that moment the two girls walked in the room through the still-open portrait hole. "One, two, three, four, five, six," She counted, looking around the room, and smiled. "Okay, let's start," Hermione used her wand to conjure beanbags for everyone to sit. "How many of you have seen the Muggle musical Chicago?" Parvati and Padma raised their hands. Ginny raised her hand, grinning at Hermione, who had dragged her to it. Luna and Millicent stared blankly at her. "Okay, I have a DVD player here to show you my idea for what we should do for the talent show," She turned on the TV.
After a few minutes of watching, the song was over and she switched the TV off. All the girls remained sitting, staring at the TV screen.
"Will the teachers let us do that?" Ginny asked. "I'm not sure the costumes fit the dress code," Hermione laughed.
"I think we'll be okay, seeing as I'm Head Girl and they won't know what we're doing until we perform," Luna was the first to smile.
"Looks like fun," She said cheerfully, "Can I be the Hungarian girl?" Hermione stared at her.
"You speak Hungarian?" Luna nodded.
"I learned it last summer,"
"I've always wanted to know what she said. What does she say?" Luna grinned at her.
"Roughly translated, 'What am I doing here? They say that my lover held my husband down while I cut off his head. But that's not true, I'm innocent! I don't know why Uncle Sam thinks I did it. I tried to explain at the police station, but they couldn't understand me," 1 Hermione smiled at Luna.
"Okay, then I call the first girl," Parvati spoke up. The others chimed in with their choices.
"So it's decided then," Hermione finished with a smile, "Meet tomorrow in here at lunch time. We'll get food from the kitchen and plan in here. The password's Lilly of the valley."
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Draco sat alone at dinner and Hermione was nowhere in sight. He finished dinner quickly and then headed to the common room. He was surprised to find the common room dark except for one corner. Hermione was sitting in front of the TV staring fixatedly at it.
"What is that?" He asked, staring in fascination at the box as he dropped down to sit on a beanbag next to her.
"TV. Muggle invention. I'm watching Phantom of the opera," She said shortly, not taking her eyes off the screen. Draco examined the Phantom in the white mask.
"So that's who my costume was!" He exclaimed, watching the characters on the screen.
"Yeah," Hermione said as she mouthed along with the singing. Draco listened to the TV with vague amusement.
"Can you sing well?" He finally asked, glancing over at her.
"I suppose so, why?" Hermione replied, still not taking her eyes off the screen.
"Because I can sing reasonably well too and I think we could sing something from this for the talent show,"
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The night before the show everyone met in the common room for one final practice. The girls had recruited Tonks, who was more like a friend than a Professor, to act a short part in their number. Hermione and the girls perfected their act and performed it for Draco, who wholeheartedly approved. Draco and Hermione performed their song for the girls, and they all agreed that it was beautiful. Hermione had secured the first spot of the evening for her and the girls' Chicago performance and the last spot for her and Draco.
The curtain opened to a dark stage. Tonks, with a short cut, bright blonde hairstyle, and different features than usual, sashayed up on stage, standing in front of the open curtain. Everyone in the audience sat, waiting for her to do something when whispers could be heard from onstage in the darkened area.
"And now, the six merry murderesses of the Cook county jail in their rendition of the cell block tango," The announcer said as the whispering got louder.
"Pop, Six, Squish, Uh-uh, Cicero, Lipschitz," The stage lights went on as 6 figures moved forward into the light.
"Pop," Parvati said, stepping forward to stand near the center of the stage.
"Six," Her sister Padma stepped forward to stand at her right.
"Squish," Millicent stood on Parvati's left side.
"Uh-uh," Luna shook her head as she moved to Padma's right side.
"Cicero," Hermione breathed, moving to Millicent's right, on the edge of the stage.
"Lipschitz," Ginny finished, taking the other edge of the stage, next to Luna. The dim stage lights got brighter, and they stood in a line, wearing black, low cut and revealing dresses. Some of the boys in the audience began to clap and whistle.
"He had it coming. He had it coming. He only had himself to blame. If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it,"
"I betcha you would have done the same," Hermione announced as the girls repeated their statements. The girls danced seductively, moving their hips with the background music. Parvati stepped forward to the front of the stage and the other lights faded away, leaving just a spotlight on her.
"You know how people have those little habits that get you down? Like Bernie. Bernie liked to chew gum. No, not chew, POP. So I come home this one day and I'm really irritated and looking for a little bit of sympathy and there's Bernie lyin' on the couch, drinking a beer and chewing. No, not chewing, popping. So I said to him, I said, you pop that gum one more time… and he did. So I took the shotgun off the wall and I fired two warning shots," Parvati leaned over and picked up a gun from the stage floor. "Into his head," She pulled the trigger and a flag with the word BANG on it unfurled, along with a red scarf. She tied the scarf around her wrist, and walked back to her spot, gun in hand.
"He had it coming. He had it coming. He only had himself to blame. If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it, I betcha you would have done the same," They all sang as Padma walked forward.
"I met Ezekiel Young from Salt Lake City about two years ago and he told me he was single, and we hit it off right away. So, we started living together. He'd go to work, he'd come home, I'd fix him a drink, and we'd have dinner. And then I found out. Single, he told me, single my ass! Not only was he married, oh no, he had six wives… one of those Mormons, you know. So that night when he came home, I fixed him his drink, as usual," She raised a wineglass that she held at her side. "You know, some guys just can't hold their arsenic," She said thoughtfully as she took a red scarf out of the glass and stepped back.
"He had it coming, he had it coming. He took a flower in its prime. And then he used it, and he abused it. It was a murder but not a crime," Millicent stepped to the center of the stage.
"Now, I'm standing in the kitchen, carving up the chicken for dinner, minding my own business. In storms my husband Wilbur in a jealous rage. "You been screwing the milkman," he says. He was crazy, and he kept on screaming "You been screwing the milkman." And then he ran into my knife," She flicked a carving knife in the air, catching both the knife and the scarf that fluttered into the air. "He ran into my knife ten times."
"If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it. I betcha you would have done the same," They all sang as Luna took center stage.
"Mit kersek, en itt? Azt mondjok, hogy a hires lakem lefogta a ferjemet en meg lecsaptam a fejet. De nem igaz, en artatlan vagyok. Nem tudom mert mondja Uncle Sam hogy en tettem. Probaltam a rendorsegen megmayarazni de nem ertettek meg…"2 Tonks turned to look at her curiously.
"Yeah, but did you do it?" Luna shook her head frantically.
"Uh-uh, not guilty," She pulled a white scarf out of her pocket. The others were silent as Hermione took the center stage and Luna stepped back to her spot.
"My sister Veronica and I had this double act, and my husband Charlie used to travel around with us. Now, for the last number in our act we did these 20 acrobatic tricks in a row. One, two, three, four, five, splits, spread eagles, back flips, flip-flops, one right after the other. So this one night before the show, we're down at the Hotel Cicero, the three of us boozing, having a few laughs, and we run out of ice, so I go out to get some. I come back, open the door, and there's Veronica and Charlie doing number 17, the spread eagle," Hermione slid down into a split. "Well, I was in such a state of shock, I completely blacked out, I can't remember a thing. It wasn't until later, when I was washing the blood off my hands I even knew they were dead," She opened her hands, which had been clenched in fists, showing two red scarves. She stood up, tossing her hair back. "They had it coming," She sang
"They had it coming," The others echoed after her.
"They had it coming,"
"They had it coming,"
"I didn't do it,"
"She didn't do it,"
"But if I'd done it,"
"But if she'd done it,"
"How could you tell me that I was wrong?" Hermione asked, with her hands in the air. She stepped back and Ginny took her place with a wistful smile.
"I loved Al Lipschitz more than I could possibly say. He was a real artistic guy…sensitive… a painter. But he was always trying to find himself. He'd go out every night looking for himself, and on the way he found Ruth, Gladys, Rosemary, and Irving. I guess you can say we broke up because of artistic differences," She waved a paintbrush through the air. "He saw himself as alive, and I saw him dead," A red scarf flowed through the air from the paintbrush.
"They had it coming. They had it coming. They had it coming all along. Cause if they used us, and they abused us, how could you tell us we were wrong?" All the girls moved to the front of the stage. "He had it coming, he had it coming. He only had himself to blame. If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it, I betcha you would have done the same," All the lights faded away except for six spotlights, one on each girl.
"You pop that gum one more time," Parvati warned, gun over her shoulder.
"Single, my ass," Padma laughed, toasting with her wineglass.
"Ten times!" Millicent exclaimed, tossing the knife in the air.
"Miert csukott Uncle Sam bortonbe," Luna whispered, her hand at a cross necklace around her neck.
"Number seventeen, the spread eagle," Hermione hissed, sliding into the splits on the floor.
"Artistic differences," Ginny finished, tucking the paintbrush behind her ear.
"Pop." Parvati's spotlight went out.
"Six." Parvati said, waving 6 fingers at the audience before her spotlight went out.
"Squish." Millicent said with a wink as her light went out too.
"Uh-uh!" Luna protested as her light went out.
"Cicero." Hermione breathed, her light went out.
"Lipschitz." Ginny finished, and the whole stage was dark. Everyone broke into applause as the lights went back on and the came to bow. The six girls held hands as they bowed together. They hugged each other, relieved that everything had gone smoothly. The teachers seemed to not mind the breakage of school rules as the students were beginning to form a real bond, not caring about what house they were in.
1 Okay, I got this translation from someone online, I'm not sure if it is correct.
2 Again, I don't speak Hungarian. I got this online, sorry if it's spelled wrong.
A/N: More of the talent show will be coming soon. Reviews will help speed the process. Thanks go to my BETA: A.N.L Anne