Hey guys! I was going to wait to put up this chapter but I cOULDN'T WAIT THIS IS TOO EXCITING
So, this is part one of why I wrote the story in the first place. See if you can figure out what's about to happen!
(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)
Chapter 28:
Prudence Forgotten
"Harry started to laugh. He heard a weak sort of moan besied him and looked around to see Mrs. Weasley gazing, dumbfounded, at the poster. Her lips moved silently, mouthing the name 'U-No-Poo.'
'They'll be murdered in their beds!' she whispered.
'No they won't!' said Ron, who, like Harry, was laughing. 'This is brilliant!'"
"You're not actually thinking -" Mackenzie said.
"Yep," Stella said, belly-flopping onto Mackenzie's bed. "I'm going to convince the school that I wrote Hamilton."
"Three questions: What, why, and how?"
"1: You heard me. 2: Because it's fun. 3: I'm going to teach Fred and George the songs, and they'll sing it in the hallways, and then everyone will want to know them."
"But isn't this a violation of the whole 'no-interference' thing?" Mackenzie asked. "Shouldn't we just lay low and let the year go by?"
"That would be the normal, boring thing to do, yes," Stella said, trying her best to sit up on such a soft bed. "But we're not the normal, boring people we were when we came here in first year. Because Madison did what she did, not only did we expose Voldemort sooner, but Madison can never die!"
"Right," Mackenzie said. "Because she did. She did die."
"Yeah, maybe, but that's not the point!" Stella said. "Listen, we were never supposed to be here anyway, but we are, and things are still going basically as they should. Why not figure out where the boundaries are so that we can avoid them from here on out?"
Mackenzie really couldn't argue with that - after all, it would be good to know how much they needed to hide.
"Fine," Mackenzie said. "But don't show them the bootleg, and don't teach them too much at first. I'm already dealing with Molly singing Moana every waking minute of every waking day."
"Perfect," Stella said, exceptionally quickly. "Oh, and you're going to help me with the duets - okay, see ya, bye!"
She darted out of the classroom before Mackenzie could strangle her. When she got into the common room, she saw Molly holding a blue Muggle Studies textbook, yelling, "Oh, COME ON!"
"What? What happened?" Stella said, looking at the book.
"Sirius happened," Molly said, showing Stella the inside of the book. It was the end of chapter 35 of Order of the Phoenix. "It's really a shame," she said. "I liked that guy."
"Don't worry, Molly," Stella said. "We all did."
Molly was strumming her guitar in the common room when she heard a few people come downstairs. She looked up to see the twins, Lavender (at whom Molly still couldn't look without remembering her fate), Hermione, Seamus, Dean, and Mackenzie.
"I didn't know you played guitar!" Seamus said.
"Well, she probably just plays in her room most of the time," Dean explained.
Molly nodded. "That's usually where I play, but I have Astronomy tonight, so I like to stay down here so I don't have the bed as a temptation."
"That's smart," Hermione said. "Can you play us something?"
The room filled with affirmative cheers.
"Okay, okay, okay," Molly said. "I'll do two songs. This one's called 'Shine On Rainy Day.'"
She moved her capo to the fifth fret and began to pick a melody. She had been practicing this for a while, so she really hoped it worked.
"I've loved strangers, dodged deals and dangers...searching for my own little piece from the countryside to the slick city streets," she sang. "I've missed my hometown, been high and low down, learned every which way of the game, how some things do and some don't change...And it's safe to say I'm still crazy over you...Your love gets me through when I'm stuck in life's crazy glue…"
She looked up from her picking to see the group smiling.
"Ain't it funny how a little thunder can make a man start to wonder - should he swim or just go under…" she sang, beginning the chorus. "Ain't it funny how you learn to pray, when your blue skies turn grey, when there's nothing left to say...Shine on rainy day."
As she sang, Molly remembered how much she adored this song.
"A friend once told me, he said 'Boy, you sound so lonely, all those cheating, leaving, done-me-wrongs, have you ever heard of a happy song…' Offended, I sat down my glass, smiled and let the moment pass, said 'Tab's on me if you think I'm lying, but laughing ain't a pleasure till you know about crying…"
She sang the chorus again, and then once more, ending the song with the picking from earlier. Looking up, she saw the others smiling and clapping.
"Thanks," she said. "Now I have one more. You guys can sit, by the way - I should've told you that earlier."
The group moved over to the seats in the common room.
"This one's a little sadder," she said as she took off the capo. "It's called 'Over You.'"
She began picking the intro, then transitioned to strumming.
"Weatherman said it's gonna snow - by now I should be used to the cold...Mid-February shouldn't be so scary - it was only December - I still remember the presents, the tree, you, and me…"
Molly added a bit more picking, then went back to strumming.
"But you went away...how dare you, I miss you...they say I'll be okay, but I'm not going to ever get over you…"
She thought about all the deaths she had read about in the books - Cedric, Sirius, even Dumbledore. She remembered that year three, Prisoner of Azkaban, was the only one where nobody died.
She realized how lucky she was to be alive.
"Living alone, here in this place, I think of you and I'm not afraid...your favorite records make me feel better because you sing along with every song...I know you didn't mean to give them to me…"
She sang the chorus again as others came into her mind - Hedwig, Moody, and Dobby, about whom she had just finished reading. Lavender was sitting just in front of her, destined to die as well.
"It really sinks in, you know, when I see it in stone…"
The chorus was sung one more time, and then she added a bit of picking to finish the song. When she finished, she looked up from her guitar to see the others clapping.
"That one wasn't sad at all," Fred said sarcastically. Molly laughed.
"What's it about?" Lavender asked.
"Well -" Molly explained. "Back where I come from, there was this singer-songwriter couple - they're divorced now, but that's not the point - anyway, they were writing together when one of them was talking about his brother, who had died in a car accident. And they wrote a song about it - like you do - and it was a huge hit."
"Can you sing something happier now?" Mackenzie cut in. For some reason, she looked really nervous; her face was flushed, and she was looking over into the crowd. Was she thinking about Lavender? Lavender didn't have a brother. Was she thinking about Binky, Lavender's bunny?
"Well, I do have some homework I need to do," Molly said. "Maybe another day."
"Alright," Mackenzie said. "What homework is that?"
Molly held up the Deathly Hallows book sitting next to her on a table. "History of Magic."
"Sounds good," Mackenzie said. "Alright, let's clear the room, people! We got some homework to do!"
Molly smiled as Mackenzie escorted the other Gryffindors out of the common room. She picked up the "History of Magic" textbook and began to read. She was on Chapter 31 - all the excitement was beginning! The Battle of Hogwarts was afoot, and Molly couldn't wait to see what happened next.
"FRED!"
Fred's eyes darted open.
"George, are you awake?" he whispered.
Nobody replied.
"Guess not," Fred muttered to himself. "Probably just a dream."
He lay his head back down and tried to get back to sleep…
"No, no, please…"
Fred opened his eyes again - now he was sure it wasn't a dream.
"Please, no…"
It was Molly. What was she doing in the common room so late at night?
He sighed and swung his legs out of bed, grabbing his wand. Foot by foot, he snuck through the hall and down the stairs to the common room, expecting a battle. Was Sirius Black in the room at that moment?
Finally, he reached the common room and peered through the doorway. Molly was there - but she was alone. Her face was turned away from Fred, an orange-colored book clutched to her chest.
She wasn't in danger, or calling for help.
She was crying.
In the immortal words of Stella's inspiration:
OH SNAP
$HIT WENT DOWN
OOOOOOOH
With that wonderfully happy ending to the chapter, let's look at this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts!
1) So now you know where the title came from! "Shine On Rainy Day" is a song by a singer-songwriter named Brent Cobb. He's really good, and super nice - I got to meet him at a concert at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. The concert's actually online, on , and I got a little shoutout from Brent on stage!
2) "Over You" is another awesome country song, written by Miranda Lambert and her then-husband, Blake Shelton, and sung by Miranda. I've never met either of them, but I would love to someday. Have any of you heard some of Miranda's new songs from her upcoming album? They're really good!
3) I feel like Stella could've probably been in Gryffindor - she's super reckless and stuff - but I do feel like her desire to teach the school Hamilton is borne more from a loyalty to her time and her friends than a need for recklessness. (This is a very weird fanfic, I am slowly realizing.)
4) The passage from Fred's point of view was one of the first things I wrote for this fanfic. The subplot that it kicks off, as I've mentioned, is the major reason I wrote this fanfiction. It takes the idea of time-travel and knowing the future to its logical extreme, and it's very exciting for me. I hope you enjoy what's about to come!
5) Molly's reaction to Sirius's death is very much what my reaction was in real life. I don't usually get choked up at books, so I didn't go feral about it, although I do get sad when I read it. Molly also isn't as connected to Sirius within the story, as Sirius is still the wanted criminal in the Wizarding World at this point.
6) The "U-No-Poo" quote foreshadows the twins' importance later on in this chapter, but it's gained a closer meaning to me now that I've actually seen the U-No-Poo sign (and cast a spell on it) at Diagon Alley in Universal. Even my dad, who (as I mentioned) isn't a Harry Potter fan, was amused.
7) As someone who has lots of trouble waking up in time for school, I feel very bad for the kids who have to stay up for midnight Astronomy class.
Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!)