CHAPTER 5

Madleina nudged Harry as he stood on the stage, mentally preparing for the ordeal before him.

"You may want to remove your robes – you've got, er, trousers on underneath?" she giggled.

"Yeah," Harry muttered, embarrassed. He removed his robes, revealing blue jeans and a plain black T-shirt – nothing special; but the witches in the first few rows immediately began to make sounds of deepest appreciation.

Harry moistened his lips nervously. He had given Madleina the compact disc ("Oh, a Muggle sound recording medium, wonderful, we don't get that many of those!") with the playback music, and he saw her dart over to the playback equipment and drape his robes neatly over a chair. He could feel everyone staring at him, including Severus Snape. He took a deep breath. The music started. Cheers went up in the audience – obviously, The Beatles' cover version of Twist and Shout was well known even among the Wizarding people. Harry raised the microphone to his lips. He was going to show Snape what he could do. Glaring for a moment at the sneering Slytherin, he started yelling out the lyrics at the top of his voice. Madleina, who had retired to the edge of the stage, began to clap in accompaniment, and Harry, wondering from where he was getting such courage, began to sway his hips along to the rhythm; and when he reached the "you got me goin' now" part, he jerked them strategically. The witches began to screech, and something that looked suspiciously like a set of witch's robes sailed onto the platform.

"…and let me know that you're mine!" Harry shouted.

"WE'RE YOURS, YOURS, YOURS!" the audience echoed back, including the wizards.

People were jumping up and down on the floor; cameras were flashing and smoking, and Harry was starting to enjoy himself immensely.

Towards the end of the song, Harry looked back into Snape's eyes, dancing with all his strength on the platform, singing out boldly:

"You know you twist, you little girl, you know you twist so fine! Come on and twist a little closer, now, and-"

"-LET ME KNOW THAT YOU'RE MINE!" the audience shrieked back at him with the exception of Snape, who was looking furious, though this may have been due to the fact that a witch behind him had just misaimed and flung her robes at the back of his head.

As soon as Twist and Shout ended, the audience stumbled to their feet and gave him a standing ovation. More things flew onto the stage, including several letters, some more clothes, shoes and other tokens like singing plush hearts, necklaces, boxes of sweets and moving photographs begging to be signed and sent back to their respective owners.

Madleina emerged and clapped him on the back.

"Was that good enough for you folks?" she hollered.

"YES!" the onlookers roared. "GIVE HIM THE PASSWORD!"

Snape stood up and left the room.

Madleina beamed and handed him back his robes and a piece of round metal embossed with a music bar crossed diagonally with a wand. There were letters on the rim.

"It's a pass-coin now, we changed the system only yesterday," she revealed to him, "and those letters spell out the password – it's "love potion" right now. It changes every two months and will update itself automatically so you can enjoy visiting the whole bar. Just make sure you don't lose it. You will receive the latest news, events etc. via owl post. Well done, Mr. Potter. Simply amazing. We're delighted to have you as a member of our bar."

"Thanks," Harry laughed. "I was really nervous, actually."

"Nervous? Mr. Potter, I thought that after killing You-Know-Who, you would not be nervous about anything."

"Oh no, you're quite mistaken, and do call me Harry," Harry said, and Madleina looked deeply impressed by his genuine modesty.

"Uhm…by the way…You wouldn't recall what Mr Snape sang?"

"Mr Snape? Oh, he didn't sing. He played the piano instead. He is a very accomplished piano player, and he has complete mastery over the harpsichord as well. He didn't seem at all enthusiastic about singing and asked about alternatives, such as playing an instrument. I think it is an excellent idea, we could offer people the choice between singing or simply playing an instrument, but Nervosus says it wouldn't be a karaoke bar anymore but a concert hall, and the founder is inclined to agree."

"Who founded this place, by the way?" Harry asked curiously. Before Madleina could answer, a witch with pink hair walked over to them, nearly tripping over a potted plant which shrank back in alarm.

"Wotcher, Harry!"

"May I introduce you to the founder of Enchantments, Mr. Potter, er, Harry?" Madleina said.

"Tonks? This is your bar, then?" Harry exclaimed. Tonks inclined her head in acknowledgement.

"Yes – Tonks the Auror. You were also involved in the final battle against You-Know-Who, weren't you?" Madleina sounded breathless again. Tonks blushed a little.

"Yes, I was."

"Wow, I knew you liked music, but you never told any of us of your plans," Harry said slowly.

"Well…A Metamorphmagus is bound to surprise people," Tonks beamed. "I wanted it to be a surprise."

"Cool bar, Tonks. It rocks."

"Glad you like it – Albus contributed generously as well."

It explained a lot, Harry thought with a huge grin.

Madleina piped up in an official manner:

"A locker has been automatically allotted to you together with your membership, so you will find all the gifts from your fans inside it. You can access your locker with the pass-coin. The locker is in the locker-room which adjoins the main hall."

Madleina excused herself, wished him an enjoyable time as a member of the bar and jogged towards the entrance to show the next visitors around, leaving him in conversation with Tonks.

"This pass-coin system reminds me of Hermione's solution to the communication issue between the members of Dumbledore's Army," Harry remarked.

"It was Hermione who told me about it and I asked her if I could borrow the system. She also came up with the idea to use it as a locker key. Her credits are written on the back of the coin. Brightest witch I've ever known," Tonks said admiringly.

Harry flipped the coin over.

"Conceived and approved by Hermione Granger," he read out. "She must have been delighted."

"She was. Until I told her about the restricted sections…"

A rustle of black robes made them both turn their heads.

"Swimming in self-glorification after enlarging your fan-club, Potter?" Snape remarked acidly. "These were obviously meant for you. They were thrown at my head by one of your frantic fans."

He unceremoniously dumped a witch's spangled purple robes into Harry's arms.

"I think Harry was brilliant, Severus," Tonks said coldly to him.

"I beg to differ on that point," Snape replied smoothly.

"You…you were watching me too, Tonks?"

"Of course. I was disguised as a hag, I was somewhere at the back of the audience."

Snape brushed past them haughtily and disappeared in the crowd.

"Grouchy fellow…Anyway, I'm sure you'll want to explore the other rooms now that you've got the password," Tonks reminded him.

"Oh yeah, I'm going to start now."

"You can give me those robes, I'll take care they're put inside your locker. Enjoy," Tonks said, waving at him and gliding away with the spangled robes. The seam of her own robes caught on a branch of the potted plant and she was forced to stop and disentangle the cloth. Harry chuckled. Delightfully clumsy and innovative Tonks.

He decided to explore the Romantic section, wondering idly why it was restricted. At the Romantic section, he was confronted by what looked like a heavy iron gate with a slot for the pass-coin. Harry inserted his new coin. The gate flashed all the colours of the rainbow in rapid succession, emitted the first majestic chords of Beethoven's fifth symphony and slowly moved upwards, disappearing into the ceiling.

Harry entered.

---

A/N: Twist and Shout was covered by The Beatles; it originally belongs to Phil Medley and Bert Russell.
Beethoven reference: Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony no.5 in C minor, op. 67, Allegro con brio.
Thanks a lot for your very encouraging reviews so far!