Chapter 30 Go Into Your Dance
By Wednesday morning, Harry felt a bit better, but still tired and stuffed up. He yawned and stretched his arms over his head, gazing out of the dormitory window. It promised to be a semi-cool, overcast day. "Harry! Come on-we're going to be late!" The door to the boy's dormitory burst open and Ron entered. "The auditions-remember?"
Harry jolted and slid out of bed, dressing quickly. The two of them made a bee-line for the auditorium and found Hermione sitting towards the back again, waiting for them.
"Hi!" She greeted. "I'm sorry I didn't wait up for you, Harry," She apologized, kissing him once he sat down beside her. "I didn't want to be late."
He kissed her again. "That's all right. I slept in a little." He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and smiled when she snuggled against him. Lavender kissed Ron.
"Snape's discussing the music with Lupin-he said we'd be starting in about five minutes, so you just made it."
Harry coughed. "Oh good."
"Still feeling sick today?" Hermione asked with concern.
"A little, but I'll be okay. You just concentrate on getting your movements right up there."
Hermione nodded. "I've been practicing all weekend and the past two nights. I think I have it down now."
Soon everything was set and the auditions were to begin. Hermione could see the heads of Erin and Jessica up front, and was surprised to see that they sat beside Fred and George Weasley, and the four of them were discussing something in hushed voices. Actually, Hermione had seen the four of them together at breakfast that morning as well, and wondered what they were plotting. Suddenly Professor Snape turned around to face his students and silenced them. "I want to congratulate everyone on a very nice audition Saturday."
Cheers erupted from the crowd and then Snape held his hand up in the air. "However-it is not over yet. As I am sure all of you know, this is the dance audition. I hope everyone is well prepared. Again, give a round of applause for Professor Lupin on the piano."
More cheers and clapping. "Whoooo hooooo!" A deeper voice shouted afterwards.
Harry gasped and turned around, to see Sirius standing at the back of the auditorium. He nudged Hermione's arm and she turned around, her lips breaking into a smile. He stood up and went to greet his godfather, who hugged and kissed him.
"I didn't think you were coming to the auditions!" Harry said.
"I'm sorry I missed your other one, but of course you didn't tell me till afterwards. Are you ready, Harry?"
"Course he is." Hermione came up behind Harry and wrapped her arms around him.
"Hullo, Hermione." Sirius greeted with a grin. "Now I do hope the three of you are staying out of trouble this year."
"So far we have been," Harry laughed.
"Well that's good. Listen, Harry-go back and sit with Lavender and Ron-I'm going to sit in this last row. Good luck, kid." He waved and watched as Harry and Hermione went back to join their friends. Sirius caught Lupin's eye and the two of them saluted each other before the auditions began again. Jessica and Erin looked a tad confused when they saw the strange man sitting in the back row, but figured he had as much of a right to be there as they did, so they didn't make a fuss.
"Who is that?" Jessica asked Fred, who was watching the stage as one of the Hufflepuff second-years went up.
"Sirius Black," He replied.
"Sirius Black? No kidding-not that escaped convict?" Erin cried.
"He's not a convict anymore," George explained. "He was freed last year. It's a long story and we'll tell you later. So you two know your plans, right?" He winked and the girls giggled mischeviously.
Meanwhile, Hermione leaned towards Harry and whispered in his ear, "I hope this isn't a Slytherin-slanted cast. I just thought about that. You know how much Snape favors his students over the rest."
Harry looked at her-he hadn't even thought of that. "I'm sure it won't be," He said. "I mean-Professor Dumbledore will have some influence too with the cast I'm sure."
Hermione took a deep breath as she turned back to the act on stage. When the first few acts were over, Snape called out "Jessica Brown and Erin McShannan have chosen to perform a duet piece. If you please." He encouraged them to approach the stage, and the two little girls did as they were told, but both looked a little too innocent to Hermione.
"What have those brother's of yours done?" Lavender asked Ron. "I KNOW they've been corrupting my cousin and I don't like it one bit."
Ron shrugged. "I couldn't tell you, Lavender." He admitted.
The two Gryffindor first-year's audition went smoothly for the most part. Right at the very end, both of them took something out of their skirt pockets, and popped the things into their mouths. POP. Everyone gasped as they suddenly sprouted feathers.
"Oh!" Lavender cried.
But then Jessica and Erin began to do the chicken dance, which caused roars of laughter from the rest of the school. Professor Snape was apalled by this, but the Weasley twins had doubled over in laughter as well. The chicken dance continued (Lupin was playing the music that went along with it, because he thought it was the funniest thing he had ever seen) until Professor McGonagall came out on stage, lifted both girls by the collars of their shirts, and drug them away. Then she came back out again and motioned for Fred and George to come up, and soon had each of the twins by the ear and drug them away too. Hermione, Harry, Ron and Lavender were laughing at this point.
"Those two," Hermione giggled. "I'll bet Fred and George wanted to find people to pass on their traditions. Preferably helpless first years." Harry nudged her arm with a snigger at the comment "Helpless" and she rolled her eyes and quickly changed her words to "Okay-inexperienced first years."
"And they picked the perfect two." Lavender sniggered. "Oops..." She added, when Professor Snape called her name.
"Good luck, babe." Ron whispered, waving her on and watched as she hurried down the isle to the stage. Lavender had put together a combination of tap and ballet moves, and clicked all the way around the stage. She was also very flexible, and made everyone grimace whenever she'd bend backwards. "God!" said Ron, closing his eyes after he watched Lavender do a full split. When she finished, she bowed, receiving a burst of applause from particuarily the Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffidor houses. The Slytherins never clapped (or they did faintly) for anyone other than their own house members, which was a bit annoying to Harry. He had hoped that they would have had a bit more common curtesy in the theater. He suddenly stifled a sneeze with his hand, causing Ron and Hermione to jump a little, because even his stifled sneezes were very loud.
"Bless you." Hermione whispered.
"Thanks." He sniffed and looked back at Sirius, who was giving him the once over.
Eventually, Hermione and Ron went up to do a dance number together, and received giggles from a few of their classmates. Quite a few had expected the two of them to get together and not Hermione and Harry, though they accepted their misconception.
Lavender and Harry watched the two of them on stage with wide eyes, and were amazed by how excellent their dance piece turned out to be. Ron, during one portion, had lifted Hermione into the air and spun her around (Hermione was very light and thin so it wasn't too difficult) and then dipped her so that her head was almost touching the floor. At this, Harry felt his heart nearly freeze and he held his breath, but sighed with relief when Ron returned her to the ground again. The piece ended with Ron lifting Hermione high into the air, so that she was lying flat on her stomach, one leg kicked up. This received probably the biggest applause from the audience, and Sirius even stood up, whistling, along with the rest of the school. When the two friends descended to their seats, Hermione threw her arms around Harry, laughing and he kissed her.
"You guys were fantastic!" Lavender cried. "If you don't get a lead role, I'll eat my wand!"
Ron snorted. "Which I am sure will taste fabulous, huh?" He kissed Lavender on the cheek before sitting down again.
When it was Harry's turn to go, he felt the butterflies working up in his stomach due to his nerves. With the help of Hermione, he had come up with a decent tap dance routine and had the moves down pretty well. Everyone seemed to be amazed as he tapped away, but he didn't pay attention to the audience. He found that if he stared right ahead at the back wall of the theater that he felt less nervous.
By the time the dance auditions ended, everyone was exhausted and famished, because it was nearing the lunch hour. Even Harry, who hadn't been feeling well the past couple of days, was feeling his normal appetite return again. "Good job all!" Snape announced as everyone gathered their things and prepared to head out of the auditorium. "I will post the cast list in a couple of weeks."
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Lavender met up with Sirius and headed towards the Great Hall.
"I didn't want to ask you this earlier, Harry, and I know you're going to be annoyed, but have you been feeling all right lately?" Sirius asked after Harry had sneezed a few times following their exit. Hermione scrounged around in her bag for a tissue and handed one to him.
"I've been all right," Harry admitted. "My allergies have really been working up lately. I've had two allergy shots since I've been here."
Sirius placed a hand against his godson's forehead just to be sure. "No fever. Well-just keep taking care of yourself. I don't want you to wind up in the hospital again."
Harry shuddered. He didn't want to wind up in the hospital again either-it had not been a pleasant experience.
"Don't worry, Sirius," Hermione started, wrapping her arm around Harry's waist. "We're taking good care of him."
Sirius smiled. "Good."
They entered the Great Hall and Sirius went up to the staff table to talk to Professor Lupin and the four friends sat at the Gryffindor table. Erin and Jess were there, both looking particuarily glum about something, and Lavender probbed Jess to tell her what had gone on in their heads when they played that prank on stage.
"Fred and George influenced you, didn't they?" she asked.
Jess nodded, taking a bite of her chicken-pot-pie. "Uh huh."
"I knew it. Well, girls, just be forwarned---those two have devilish minds and can't always be trusted. They are pretty decent most of the time, though."
The little ones nodded. "How did you do at the audition, Hermione?" asked Erin. "Professor McGonagall held us all captive in her office for the rest of it."
"Fairly well."
"Fairly?" Ron cried. "We were wicked, Hermione!"
"Did you two get a detention?" Lavender asked her cousin with a raised eyebrow.
Jess nodded. "Both of us."
"My first detention ever," Erin wailed. "We have to clean the trophies with Filch and not using magic!"
Harry laughed.
"But Fred and George got one too," Jess broke in. "They have to clean out the boy's bathroom."
Everyone burst into laughter at her information. "Good," Lavender said haughtily. "they deserve it. Corrupting my baby cousin like that." She proceeded to grab Jessica's nose and the girl cried out,
"Nah! Lavender-I hate it when you DO that! I'm not a baby!"
"Aren't you?" Lavender teased, ruffling the younger girl's hair.
The rest of the afternoon passed by rather quickly, and Harry, Ron and Hermione spent quite a bit of it studying and finishing up homework for the following day. Sirius had to go back to London that night, because he had found a better job in Diagon Alley working for Gringotts bank (Harry was so happy to hear this) and had to be to work early the next morning. "But write to me as soon as you find out what part you get and I'll definitely come to the show," Sirius promised.
"I will, Sirius." Harry replied, nodding.
"We'll tape a note to his forehead," teased Ron. "So he doesn't forget."
Hermione sniggered. "We'll see you later then I guess."
With that, Sirius nodded and apparated out of the common room. "Well," said Harry, yawning and stretching. "I'm really tired-I'm going to get to bed." He kissed Hermione on the cheek. "Great job tonight."
"You too," Hermione added. "Hey." She set her charms assignment on the chair and went up to hug him. Lavender and Ron watched with half smiles as the two parted and Harry went off to bed.