1Chapter 8: Singing Under the Stars

Draco arrived back at the Head Dormitory at about 3 in the morning. On the way to his bedroom he noticed that Granger's door was slightly ajar. Peeking in he saw that both she and the American girl were asleep on her bed. Momentarily forgetting his ire, Draco chuckled to himself before remembering why he was so mad and stalking off to his room.

Draco's bedroom had been completely bare when he first saw it, containing only a bed, a chair, a book-shelf, and an armoire. He had made the furniture a deep, almost black, brown, the walls were black, the coverlet and sheets were dark green and the pillows were silver; Draco's only tribute to House pride. He had put thick black rugs on the floor and heavy black curtains over the window.

Draco's room was really rather plain. Almost everything was black and he didn't decorate the room with any portraits or hangings of any kind. However, when he was bored or angry, Draco did what he had done in his room at home. Using chalk he drew on his blank black walls; sometimes he drew pictures other times he wrote angry words. Generally he would assault the wall with self-expression only to erase everything a moment later, leaving the wall blank and uncaring.

That morning Draco attacked the wall with his window in it almost before the door had swung closed. At first he was writing out a tirade against Pansy Parkinson and all slutty Slytherin girls in general, but after only a few words it had evolved into what a woman should be. Then, before he knew it, he was sketching a portrait. At first, as was often the case, Draco wasn't completely sure what it was that he was drawing, but he quickly realized the chalk woman staring back at him from his wall was May, the mysterious girl he had met at the club and never found again.

Draco had started the previous evening with intentions to go to the club and see if he could find the girl. He had gone every night and had figured that he would be even more likely to find her on a Wednesday, the same night he had first seen her. It was hard to believe he had been obsessed with May for only a week. For some reason Draco felt he had known her for years, instead of just a few moments of dancing and one heated kiss.

Unfortunately Draco's plans had not worked out. Right after the animagus lesson had ended he had received an owl from Pansy saying that she was desperate; she had spent hours trying to do her homework but was still lost. Draco hadn't suspected anything to be off about her story; after all, Pansy was rather stupid. With a heavy heart, Draco had accepted his duty as Head Boy and second-best in their year and gone to help Pansy, hoping that he could get it over with quickly and then go to the club.

He had not been able to help Pansy finish her homework in a timely fashion. They had spent several hours in the Slytherin common room while Draco had repeated the same, simple explanations over and over again. Looking back Draco realized that he should have guessed that Pansy was up to something; she was stupid, but not that stupid. Finally, at a quarter to three, the last seventh years cleared out of the common room and went to bed. They had tried to be cool by staying up the latest, but even they knew that it was stupid to stay up too late on a school night. Once they were completely alone Pansy had propositioned Draco. Well, that's putting it politely. She had pulled her shirt off and tried to kiss him.

Back in sixth year Draco would have had no problem sleeping with Pansy. In fact, he had done just that several times. But by the time he had reached his seventh year at Hogwarts, Draco had learned quite well that Pansy tended to sleep with a lot of people, and that wasn't really to his taste. So, Draco was irritated and disgusted that Pansy was trying to sleep with him now. Who knew what kinds of diseases that girl could be carrying!

Draco had stormed out of the dungeons and back to his room where he now stood staring at May's drawing. Draco was stunned he could make something so good; he never had before. Erasing the words he had written, Draco kept the picture. He removed his pants and shirt until all he wore were a pair of black, silk boxers (A/N: they're always black silk, aren't they. One of these days I'm going to make them white with a smiley face on the ass, just you wait and see!) and lay down in his bed in a way that he could still see the picture he had drawn. He fell asleep with the image implanted in his mind.

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Hermione awoke on Thursday with a splitting headache, a very delicate stomach, and an unbearably dry mouth. She stumbled into the bathroom and dry-puked into the toilet for several moments until she realized she had nothing left to barf. She swallowed several aspirins and drank about three glasses of water before bothering to look into the mirror. Gasping in horror she realized that she looked the same as she had the night before! Albeit, her hair was rumpled and she had a decidedly greenish cast to her skin, but she still looked like May!

Running back into her bedroom Hermione saw Jule lying in her bed and shook her violently.

"Ungh," Jule groaned as Hermione desperately tried to wake her up. They had gotten back to the castle rather drunk and had both fallen asleep in their clothes in Hermione's bed.

"Jule! Wake up, you've gotta tell me how to get rid of you're spell!" Hermione yelled urgently. She had to get ready for school and she couldn't go parading about like this!

"Reventio," Jule mumbled, turning over and refusing to get out of bed.

Grabbing her wand off her bedside table Hermione recited the spell and watched with relief as her skin and hair returned to normal. But she still looked rather sick.

Hermione took a cold shower and got herself dressed before trying to wake Jule up again. By the time she was ready to give it another go Jule had awoken of her own accord and was staring blearily around her.

"Hermione," she asked dazedly. "Why am I in your room?"

"We were drunk and we fell asleep in here," Hermione explained, rubbing her pounding temple.

"Oh," Jule said, still kind of out of it. "I was afraid we'd hooked up or something. I wouldn't want to ruin our friendship, you know."

"No Jule," Hermione said, exasperated. "We did not hook up. Nor will we ever hook up, in all likely-hood."

"Well, that's good."

Hermione rolled her eyes, gave Jule a spare uniform, and shoved her into the bathroom. By the time Jule came back out she was her usual self. She had altered Hermione's uniform so that it was, in the appropriate places, shorter, lower, and tighter. Her hair, which was black, fell down her back in long, gentle curls. Her make-up was plainer that usual for her: black eye make-up and red lipstick.

"Morning!" She smiled brightly, her high-pitched chipper voice sending a shock of pain through Hermione's aching head.

"Ow. How are you not feeling as badly as I am?" Hermione demanded crossly.

Jule rummaged through a hidden pocket on the inside of her dress from the night before and pulled out a tiny vial. "Pour one drop on your tongue and you'll feel fine," she handed the vial to Hermione. "In fact, I modified this version so it'll give you a little something extra."

Hermione poured the drop on her tongue and instantly felt better. The kick hit her after only a moment and she smiled deliriously. "What's in this?" Hermione was feeling much better than she usually did.

"It's an anti-hangover potion. The kick I added is the potions equivalent of marijuana." Jule smiled happily.

"I feel like I'm on a roller-coaster."

"That'll happen. Don't worry, it wears off fast."

The two girls spent about five minutes giggling in Hermione's room before setting off towards the Great Hall. Hermione felt herself coming down as soon as she left the Head common room, and was completely sober by the time they reached the Great Hall. She wished she wasn't.

Upon entering together Hermione and Jule were greeted with a combination of shocked silence and cruel snickering. The latter came mostly from the Slytherin table.

"What's up?" Hermione asked as casually as she could, sitting next to Harry and across from Ron.

"Malfoy came in a few minutes ago and said that you and Jule slept together." Ron said shortly, staring at Hermione speculatively. "Is it true?"

"Do you want it to be?" Hermione asked, slightly sickened by Ron's obvious interest in the idea. Ron just shrugged. "Well, technically we did, in the sense that we both fell asleep in my room," Hermione began cautiously. "But nothing like that happened." She glared across the hall to where Malfoy was still giggling with his cohorts.

"Why did you fall asleep?" Ron asked, not quite believing her.

"Because, Ronald," Jule said from her seat next to him. "We were dead drunk."

"What!" Both Harry and Ron yelled.

"Oh God," Hermione moaned, putting her face in her hands.

"I thought you hated God," came a snarky voice from behind Hermione. Praying that it wasn't who she already knew it was Hermione turned to face Lavender and Parvati. "Hey," she said, trying to smile weakly.

"'Hey' indeed lezzy," Lavender smirked. "We heard all about you and your girlfriend."

Hermione sighed. Before she could muster the strength to fight the two idiots Jule intervened. "You know," she said casually. "It's easy to just call someone a lesbian and feel superior, isn't it? Well, I think I should correct you, just to keep the record straight. You may call neither of us lesbians. Hermione is straight and I myself am bi-sexual. The worst you could accuse either of us of being is sluts, and even that doesn't really apply to Hermione that much. And if you insist on calling us derogatory, homophobic names, please come up with something more insulting than 'lezzy'. Haven't you ever heard the word 'dyke'? I think it's a much better insult than lezzy."

There wasn't really much that the two Gryffindor girls could say to that, so they stormed off.

Hermione spent the rest of Thursday and Friday trying to ignore the whispers that followed her wherever she went. She couldn't quite understand this sudden bought of homophobic activity. She had never really noticed any strong feelings one way or the other about homosexuals in the wizarding world and wasn't very happy with what she found.

Even knowing that the rumors that she herself was a lesbian were untrue, Hermione was outraged by the negativity towards her and Jule. Hermione had always thought that gay people were the same as straight people and that it didn't really make a difference either way.

It was with great relief that Hermione packed up her books after the last class of the day on Friday. The weekend might give her some respite from the rumors of her fellow students. After dinner Hermione and Jule went for a walk around the lake. Jule hadn't spent as much time as Hermione had on the grounds at Hogwarts and was still entranced by them.

"I like it here," she said, collapsing into the grass by the lake. Hermione lay down next to her. "I love being able to see the stars." She sighed, gazing heavenward.

"You can see the stars in the Great Hall," Hermione said indifferently.

"It's not the same."

The two girls lay in silence for a while, and Hermione caught herself appreciating the stars as well. Without thinking about it Hermione began to sing under her breath. The notes of the song were long, wavering, and hauntingly pure at times. Her voice throbbed richly with feeling on the lower notes and soared sweetly on the higher ones.

"Two big babies met

On a winter's day

They thought

They'd get

All dressed up to play

So they went outside

Never to return

They run

They hide

Babies never learn

But they cry

And they cry

Who said babies never die?

They cry

Who said babies never die?"

At first she sang quietly, but by the time she was half-way through the song Hermione found herself singing as loudly as she could, projecting out towards the uncaring sky.

"One pushed the other down

Into the salty snow

He looked

Around

No one would ever know

Bad things happen to

Babies all the time

They laugh

At who

Kisses them times nine

But they cry

And they cry

Who said babies never die?

They cry

Who said babies never die?

Two big babies met

On a winter's day

They thought

They'd get

All dressed up

To play."

When she stopped singing the silence rang about them.

"You have a really good voice," Jule said softly, trying not to break the strange mood the sad song had set upon them.

"Thank you," Hermione said, shocked as Jule was at her daring. "I used to sing at my church when I was little."

They were silent for a time, still staring solemnly at the stars. Eventually they went back to the castle and retired to their separate rooms, still in a rather mellow mood.

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Hermione had planned to sleep late on Saturday but her slumber was disrupted when Jule bounced onto her bed.

"Ahh!" Hermione yelled, sitting up with a start. "What the hell are you doing?" She yelled.

"We have someplace to be," Jule said mysteriously. She pulled Hermione out of bed and shoved her into the shower where she left Hermione to fend for herself.

Ten minutes later Hermione emerged from the shower wrapped in a towel and still dripping but much more alert. "What's going on? Where are we going?" She demanded as Jule handed her articles of clothing that she didn't even glance at.

"You know how that singer quit the band at the club?" Hermione nodded mutely. "Well, there's an audition to replace her today and I think you're gonna be the lucky lady who gets the job."

"No," Hermione stated flatly.

"Yes," Jule answered just as flatly.

"I can't sing in front of people like that!" Hermione was getting desperate. "I'll die!"

"Of course you won't," Jule said, waving off any further protests. "And it won't be you singing in front of all those people, it'll be May. And May has a great voice and knows it, so I don't know why you're so nervous."

Hermione continued to fight even as she put on the clothing Jule had handed to her. She knew it was hopeless and that she would give in eventually, but she fought nonetheless. Finally, Hermione was completely dressed and had lost the will to argue.

Today's Jule-picked outfit was pretty nice. Hermione wore the boots Jule had given her, fishnet stockings, a black skirt that reached down to her knees and a black corset-type top trimmed in dark purple. The corset wasn't even as low cut as the other one had been.

"Jule, this is nice stuff," Hermione had to admit. "I think it suits me better than some of the other things you've had me wear."

"I know; I designed them with you in mind."

"You made these?"

"Yup. Same way I made your boots. I took scraps of the required materials and transfigured them into clothing." Jule explained.

"Wow, these are great designs. You should be a clothing designer." Hermione turned to look at her back in the mirror.

"That's the plan." Jule replied. "I make a lot of my clothes. This transfiguration is pretty efficient and the spell's simple enough, but it saps my energy. Plus I do have to get all the materials I'd be using, even if in smaller amounts, so it does cost some money."

"Thank you," Hermione looked at Jule. "I don't know what to say."

"Hey, this is just to get you into the band so I can mooch off of your band coolness," Jule grinned at her. "Now, let me do your face." She reached for her wand.

"Wait," Hermione held up a hand. "Do that once we get out of Hogwarts. I don't want anyone to see my like that."

Jule shrugged. "Hey, it's up to you."

Hermione wrapped herself in her cloak to hide her clothing and they left the Head's dormitory. Seventh years were allowed to leave school grounds every other weekend, so this time Hermione and Jule weren't breaking any rules when they walked through the gate in broad daylight. They followed the path down to Hogsmeade until they turned a corner and could no longer be seen from Hogwarts. Then Jule pulled out her wand and, speaking clearly for once so that Hermione could learn the spells, made Hermione beautiful.

Rather than let Jule bleach her skin again, Hermione had her leave it tan. She wanted to look exotic for her audition. Her hair was made dark, long, and wavy. Hermione's lips were a dark red and her eyes were outlined heavily in black.

"I should try this look some time," Jule said thoughtfully as she inspected her handy work. "It looks good on you." She handed Hermione a mirror.

Hermione had to admit that she did look good. She looked healthier and more natural than when Jule made her so pale, and she looked and felt more like herself and at the same time less. Hermione had never thought she could still look beautiful without making the drastic changes Jule was so fond of. It opened up all kinds of new possibilities to her.

They made their way across Hogsmeade towards the unnamed club. It wasn't nearly as exciting looking during the day time. Hermione supposed that part of it was the lack of the bouncer and the witches and wizards standing in line. They entered through the front door and saw that the inside looked pretty different too. It was well lit for once, and it wasn't nearly as mysterious. The bar was closed and empty, no Phil to give them free drinks.

At the stage at the back of the club a witch dressed similarly to Hermione (in that her clothing was tight, black, and slightly revealing) warbled to the group of people in front of her. The band was dressed normally, but all the witches auditioning were wearing the same sort of clubbing apparel to impress those they had to perform for.

Hermione joined the line and watched as one by one the witches in front of her auditioned. Some were horrible and some were pretty good. But all too soon it was Hermione's turn to perform. She stepped onto the stage and was blinded by the spotlight they shone on her (this was used to simulate the way it would be in an actual performance). Hermione found that it was easier to sing when she couldn't see the people she was singing for. She opened her mouth and sang the same song she had sung the night before with Jule.

As she let the last note of the haunting song die Hermione heard clapping. She blushed, smiled, and curtsied before stepping off the stage. She had been the last person to audition, so afterward she joined the other witches who had sung next to the stage.

"May, right?" A deep male voice came from behind her. Hermione turned to find Tom, the lead-guitarist who had bought her a drink.

"Oh, hi!" She said brightly. "Yeah, and you're Tom?" She already knew the answer but he nodded anyway.

"I had no idea you could sing like that, that was incredible!" He complimented. Hermione just blushed a deeper shade of red. "Look, the band talked about it and we've decided we want you to be our new singer."

"Really?" Hermione hadn't expected that. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, you're great!" Tom smiled sweetly. "So, are you in? We can't pay you much, but you get free drinks." He grinned jokingly.

"Um, okay," Hermione stumbled across her words. "I just can't believe it!"

"Awesome!" Tom exclaimed. "Hey, guys," he shouted over his shoulder. "She's in!"

The rest of the witches left sulkily and Tom proceeded to explain the rules to Hermione. Her first practice would be the next night and her first performance on Wednesday. Then, if everything went well, they would perform again Friday and Saturday and then again the next Monday and so on. "You really do get free drinks," he said matter-of-factly. "But if you're gonna drink, only have as many as you can handle. And don't do drugs while we're performing if you're into that. It's really unprofessional to be fucked up during a performance." Hermione had nodded; she understood.

"So," Tom had concluded. "Think you can handle everything?"

"Yup," Hermione nodded. "But I'd better be going now."

"Okay," Tom bobbed his head good naturedly. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow at noon for the audition." Then he had leaned down and kissed Hermione on the cheek.

Hermione blushed prettily and looked down. She liked Tom but she got the distinct feeling that she didn't like him as much as he liked her. With another wave to her other band-members Hermione and Jule left, Jule grinning evilly and singing (badly), "Tom and Hermione, sittin' in a tree…"

TBC………

A/N: Thank you kind reviewers! The song Hermione sang is called Crybabies and is by Rasputina. It's one of my favorite songs and you should download it if you haven't heard it already. If you don't think it sounds exactly like my description of how Hermione performed it, that's because I wrote it to be like the way that I sing it. Review!

Preview for next week:

"You fascinate me," Malfoy whispered right before he kissed her.