Anthony dreamed he was onstage. He scanned the crowd, searching, until he saw her. He caught her eye and she smiled at him, blowing him a kiss. The song ended and Mac was saying, "This next one goes out to all the ladies, but I think one special lady." He turned and winked at Anthony, then turned back. "It's called wake up. Anthony, wake up. Anthony, are you ok?"

Anthony opened his eyes to see Mac shaking him, a worried expression on his face.

"There you are!" he exclaimed. "You were sleepin' so deep, I thought summat was wrong. Breakfast is almost over!"

Anthony groaned groggily and rolled over. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I was dreaming..an audience."

He got dressed and looked at Mac, realization dawning. "Oh," he said. "I've had an idea!"

Mac looked at him quizzically.

"We should form a band!" said Anthony.

"We're in a band," Mac answered.

"Not really," said Anthony. "I mean a real one, with a name and gigs. We could even put out a record."

"Maybe we would be famous," said Mac. "We could spread a message of hope."

"And rebellion against the dark arts!" said Anthony.

"We have to tell Bertram!"

They rushed downstairs to the Great Hall, where they were met almost immediately by Bertram. "Lads," he said to them, "I've had a great idea. What if we used our music to do some good?"

Anthony and Mac looked at each other, then grinned back at Bertram.

"What?" asked Bertram.

Later, in the room behind the mirror, the boys were tinkering on their instruments as they talked.

"The first thing we need is a name," Anthony was saying.

"No, we need sound," said Mac. "Who will our influences be?"

"We need songs first," said Bertram. "Lyrics that will spark rebellion."

They went around arguing for a few minutes until Anthony suddenly picked up his sticks and started drumming a rhythm. It was a simple, driving beat, almost like marching. Mac picked up his guitar and started strumming some chords in answer. Bertram started humming, a bluesy tune.

"Oh I'm not gonna turn and run, oh no" he started singing with the guitar. "No, I"m not gonna turn and run, oh I'm not gonna turn and run, oh no."

The others picked up the tune.

"Gonna take up my wand and fight, oh yeah. Gonna take up my wand and fight, gonna take up my wand and fight, oh yeah."

"Cause a Muggle-born is my best friend, oh yeah," sang Anthony, grinning. "Cause a Muggle-born is my best friend, cause a Muggle-born is my best friend, oh yeah."

They all stopped and laughed, then apologized to each other.

"You're right, we need a sound first." "No, we need lyrics first, that was great!"

"How about," said Bertram, "we each think of something and share our ideas when we rehearse next time?"

"That sounds great," said Mac. "But mate," he said, looking at Anthony, "You've got ta get a real drum kit."

"I know," said Anthony. "I'll work on it."

The holidays were approaching at Hogwarts. Several teachers had changed their curriculum to include more festive spells. The Charms teacher taught them to enchant something so it glowed for a little while and Mac decided to try it out on Regulus' nose at the first opportunity. Professor Slughorn taught them to make a potion that would keep them warm, which the students definitely appreciated as they walked around the frozen grounds.

Anthony and Mac were sitting at the breakfast table admiring the fairy lights around the Great Hall when an owl suddenly swooped in and dropped a red envelope right into his hot chocolate.

"Anthony," Mac started, "What did-"

But before he could finish, the envelope rose up into the air, opened a giant mouth, and started yelling in Muriel's voice so the whole Hall could hear.
"ANTHONY PREWETT HOW COULD YOU THINK OF A DRUM KIT WHEN YOU'RE AT SCHOOL! YOU ARE THERE TO LEARN NOT TO PLAY SILLY MUSIC! PUT ALL THOUGHTS OF DRUMS OUT OF YOUR MIND AND FOCUS ON YOUR STUDIES!"

Anthony slunk into his chair as much as he could while the school turned around and stared at him. Many laughed, except the pretty Hufflepuff girl from his Divination class.

"That's it, I'm not coming back after the holidays," groaned Anthony. "I'm done."

"It was worth a try," said Mac as he caught a roll he had levitated to himself. "But they have a point, you do need to practice more."

Anthony responded by throwing a roll at Mac, who deftly deflected it with his wand. The roll soared over the hall and hit Regulus in the head, who turned around suspiciously. The two quickly turned away, trying to cover their laughter. Mac grabbed another roll to eat on the way to class and they hastily made an exit.

In Divination class, the pretty Hufflepuff girl who had been listening to the song in the common room approached Anthony. "Did you really ask your parents for a drum kit?" she asked, her eyes wide.

"Yes," Anthony sighed, "but don't worry, it doesn't look like I'll get one."

"I think that's really cool," she said. "I notice you drumming sometimes during class. Do you like music?"

"Uh, yeah," said Anthony, caught off-guard. "My friends and I listen to records sometimes." He stared into her big eyes and puffed himself up a little. "We're starting a band," he added.

"Really?" she said. "I'd love to hear it sometime!"

"Well, maybe-" Anthony started, but was interrupted by the professor asking them to take their seats.

Anthony barely paid attention to the rest of the class, stealing glances at the Hufflepuff girl instead. The Professor walked over to him. "And what do your tarot cards reveal?" he asked him.

"Brown," replied Anthony, looking at the girl's eyes. "Um, I mean." He quickly looked at his cards: The High Priestess, the Lovers, the Chariot, the Fool, and the Star. "I'm going to take a journey to a faraway place? But I'm going to be foolish about it." Beside him, Mac hid a chuckle.

"More practice for you tonight," replied the Professor, shaking his head. Anthony sighed.

"What was wrong with you today?" asked Mac after class. "You were more distracted than usual. Was it that girl you were talking to?"

"I don't know," said Anthony. "But she seems nice, doesn't she?"

"What's her name? Yoko Ono?" Mac scoffed.

"I don't know her name," Anthony replied. "But maybe I'll see her later. She likes music, maybe she'll be in the Puff common room later."

"As long as she doesn't break up the group," Mac said.

"Don't worry, nothing's going to happen to us," said Anthony. "We'll be around for a long time."

He said it with such seriousness and finality that Mac looked at him quizzically for a moment.

Later in their practice room, Mac and Anthony played around a little and waited for Bertram, who came in with a paper in his hand and sat down next to them.

"I've been working on some more lyrics," he said. "What do you think of these?"

Anthony and Mac took them and looked at them. They talked of a light in the darkness and hope. Anthony read them again, his lips moving and his hands softly drumming a rhythm on his leg.

"I like it," said Anthony. "Mac?"

Mac stopped humming softly and answered, "Yeah, these are good! Let's go ahead and try it out! What do you think of this tune?" He played a tune on his guitar.

"Yeah!" said Bertram, picking it up and starting to sing. Anthony drummed a pattern along with them.

Suddenly, they heard voices coming down the passageway.

"-should have seen Snivelus' face!" Sirius was saying.

James and his group stopped in the entrance, butterbeers in hand and their laughter cut off.

"What do you think you're doing?" asked James. "This is our space."

"You said we could use the passage," retorted Anthony. "That's what we're doing."

"We had it first," Sirius said. "We said you could use the passage, not set up camp."

A sputtering came from behind the group. "Wh..wh..what about the..r..room of Requirement?" asked the chubby boy in back.

"Pettigrew! Did you actually have a good idea?" said Lupin with a surprised look on his face.

Pettigrew beamed.

"Where's the map, Sirius?" asked Lupin.

Sirius took out a plain-looking piece of parchment, put his wand to it, and whispered something. Ink spread from the tip of his wand, forming rooms and passages.

"When we made the map," Sirius said, "we noticed there was an unplottable room here." He pointed to a blank spot on the seventh floor.

"It took us a while to figure out," said James. "At first we thought it was a hidden storeroom but then we saw Dumbledore walk by and it turned into a room full of bedpans. We think this room can turn into whatever you need."

"Just walk by it and think really hard about whatever it is you want," said Lupin. "But be sure no one sees you, we don't want the whole school to know."

Sirius put his wand on the map again. "Mischief managed," he said, and the map disappeared immediately.

"Thank you!" said Mac. "How can we make it up ta ye?"

"You can go try it out," James said pointedly, sitting in one chair and putting his feet up on another while opening his butterbeer. He took a swig and when they didn't move, motioned toward the door with his bottle. "Now."

"Oh, right," said Bertram. "Well, then. Thanks."

Mac picked up his guitar. Anthony was hesitant to leave his makeshift drum set, but Lupin reassured him that the room would probably provide a real one.

The boys carefully made their way up to the seventh floor, looking around furtively and earning themselves some curious glances. Finally they came to the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy.

"Ok," said Bertram, "everyone think hard about a practice room."

They walked back and forth several times, their eyes screwed up in thought. Finally, a door appeared in the wall opposite the tapestry. Mac opened it and all of their eyes widened. The walls were covered with acoustic foam, broken up by large shelves full of sheet music and instruction books. More instruments than they'd heard of were in one corner of the room along with several music stands. Anthony ran over to a shiny blue drum kit complete with smooth wooden sticks while Mac checked out an electric guitar. There were tuning forks and metronomes and microphones enchanted to record and play back whatever they wished. In the middle of the room, there was a large wooden mannequin dressed like a conductor and holding a wooden baton. Bertram walked over to him and saw a sign which read "Tell me what you need."

"60 beats per minute," Bertram said. The conductor's sign changed. "Time signature?"

"Four four," said Bertram. The conductor's arms moved in a rectangle pattern at exactly 60 beats per minute. "Wow," said Bertram.

"Hey Bertram, let's try out your song," said Anthony.

"Hang on," said Mac. "Let me see that for a second."

Bertram handed his lyrics sheet over to Mac, who took out his wand and pointed it at the parchment. "Multus," he said. Suddenly he was holding two. He did it again, then handed out the sheets.

"Wow, Mac!" said Bertram.

"It's only good for an hour, but it's a start," Mac said, shrugging.

"Bertram, do you want to get us started?" asked Anthony.

"Mac, what was that tune again?" Bertram responded.

Anthony told the conductor to play at 80 beats per minute in 5/4 time. He played a rhythm to match and Mac picked it up with a guitar riff. Bertram started singing his lyrics and soon, they were all playing together. They practiced for a while, letting themselves get absorbed in the music as it worked its own special kind of magic on them.