OK- I got a PM about the Philosopher's Stone… basically it asked what it was and how ridiculous was it that the chocolate frog card said that Dumbledore helped make it when in my story it didn't even exist? To that end I ask you- how could Dumbledore help make it when he is a third of the Flamel's ages in the first place? They are not contemporaries, the Flamels were born in the 1300's (?) I believe, Dumbledore in the 1800's…
And I promised an update on this story this weekend, and this is what came out… . This is what popped. I know it's a bit ridiculous, but I had the amazing opportunity to listen (I say listen because it's on repeat across the lobby at work in the kids area) to 'The Little Mermaid' for the past week. (Every time I hear Ariel with the Sea Witch my pharmacist and I yelp, "Don't do it Ariel! Don't give her your voice!) And I adore that stupid bird!
"Is there anything you can't do?" Ron snapped out as Harry demonstrated a freezing charm to a couple of classmates who were having a hard time (Ron included).
"I can't sing," Harry replied with a straight face.
"Oh, come now!" Ron protested, indignant at getting a brush off.
"No, really, Harry's tone deaf," Neville explained. The Gryffindor was lounging on the couch, reading the muggle newspaper, 'London Times'.
"Tone deaf?" the red head asked, never having heard that term before.
"I can't distinguish between music notes within a few steps of each other. I learned to keep my mouth shut after my aunt recorded me belting out 'The Beatles'."
"I've never listened to 'Yellow Submarine' the same since then," Neville chuckled behind the Arts and Leisure section.
"Neville here though, he's a pro." Harry replied with a smirk.
"Harry…" Neville warned.
"No, seriously, he even plays guitar. Why don't you go up and get it Neville, show these wizard kids what they're missing?" Harry's expression clearly stated that turn-about was fair play.
"Yes, please, I haven't heard any good music since…" Hermione had to pause and think about it. "Well, since whenever. Wizard radio just doesn't cut it." She shrugged at the protests coming from all around her.
"I'm not that good," Neville protested.
"Nonsense," Harry smirked as he held out an acoustic guitar, he'd gotten it from Neville's trunk as Hermione distracted him. "You're good at a lot of things, Herbology and guitar just to name a couple."
"If you don't start I'll get everyone to chant your name in encouragement." Hermione threatened.
"Damn you Harry Potter, for bringing this up," Neville scowled at his friend, but obligingly settled the guitar on his knee and arranged his hands naturally on the neck and box over the strings. In no time at all he was strumming gently, with every evidence of talent.
"Hello/ I've waited here for you/ Everlong
Tonight, I throw myself into/ Out of the red/ Out of her head she sang," He closed his eyes, this eleven year old boy, and had most of the girls in the common room breaking their hearts over him. Most of them had never heard that song before, being witches/wizards born and bred, or just from London, unaware of American music for the most part. But Hermione knew the song and started humming along, harmonizing on the chorus where it did the most good for the simple and haunting melody.
Harry refrained himself from joining in, as he might have done at home, because he seriously was tone-deaf when it came to his own singing. That didn't mean he couldn't appreciate his friends talents. Neville had always been a steadying influence on him, one that held him back when he desperately wished to jump in head first. He had been expecting his friend to end up in Hufflepuff due to that fact, but when the hat pronounced them both Gryffindor he'd almost smiled hard enough to split his head in half.
He honestly didn't know what he'd have done if the hat had placed him in Slytherin like it'd threatened, and he really didn't know what it was in his personality that made the Sorting Hat think he'd do well there. He reached up absently to rub at his scar, like he did whenever something puzzled him, and scowled when he saw a few classmates watching him, hoping for a glimpse. Some of them blushed, caught and embarrassed about staring, while others just shrugged like it was their right to be nosy like that. As Neville finished up Everlong he was cajoled into singing another, and this time he just sighed and started strumming, not even bothering to protest.
"I swallow my nose/ Crinkle up my toes
Wherever I goes/ Nobody knows
I make me smile/ Don't stay for a while
Now, Just take my time/ Wherever it grows!"
"Neville! Those aren't the lyrics!" Hermione started laughing as the other students stared at the boy in concern.
"Well I happen to think they make more sense! I mean, really!" Neville almost delivered that with a straight face, but broke down in mad giggling as Hermione punched his arm playfully.
"No they don't!"
"Well I'm not silly enough to sing it, so I'll just put my guitar away then, shall I?" Neville started to stand, but was more amused than exasperated (though that second feeling didn't trail very much) when the other students protested. They wanted the real song. Harry looked up and realized that anyone who'd been in their room previously was now in the common room, or sitting on the stairs. Nobody in Gryffindor tower was going to miss this.
"Get Hermione to sing it," Harry suggested, then smiled as the bushy-haired girl blushed.
"Yeah, she obviously knows it if she caught you out that easily!" Ron put in, flinching back a little at the girls sudden glare.
There really was nothing to it now, they had to perform or the whole house would be in an uproar. Neville shrugged, game for it if Hermione was. She nodded hesitantly, closing the open book on Goblin Wars that had been in her lap. She settled a bit and took a few deep breaths as Neville strummed the opening bars.
"I've been awake for a while now/ You make me feel like a child now,
Cause every time I see your bubbly face/ I get the tingles in a silly place.
It starts in my toes/ Makes me crinkle my nose/ Wherever it goes/ I always know,
That you make me smile/ Please stay for a while now/ Just take your time/ Wherever you go." As she sang Harry had to congratulate himself. Getting that girl to crawl out of her shell had started as a long and arduous project. He had noticed that in a house noted for its outgoing personalities she tended to melt into the woodwork. Like Neville, in Harry's opinion, she seemed suited for a different house, Ravenclaw perhaps. But a little work and she'd blossomed spectacularly, shocking the hell out of him when she stood up to the pretentious Malfoy-git during potions the other day.
The bleach-brained Slytherin had, once again, called her a mud-blood, causing Neville to clutch the back of Harry's robe as the black haired furry lunged forward to make Malfoy eat his fist. At first Hermione ignored the struggle going on behind her but, before even Harry was aware of what she'd done, Malfoy's cauldron started bubbling and emitting noxious fumes. Soon every area of skin that had been exposed to the steam turned a lovely shade of bright yellow. As Harry stared he hadn't really noticed, but the fumes started to spread around the room until the entire place smelled of rotten eggs. Snape burst out of his office and glared at the day-glo wizard with the smoldering cauldron.
"Mr. Malfoy! Nowhere in the potions list does it call for tubeworms! Where did you even get that?" And without further ado he'd grabbed Draco's ear and started hauling him from the classroom, the nasty smell of rotting eggs following him out.
The entire class was still in disbelief, staring at Hermione who had a small smirk on her lips. "Well," she sighed. "I think that concludes today's class." And, not betraying a bit of guilt, she bottled up her perfect potion, labeled it and left it on Snape's desk. Then, with no fuss she grabbed a small bottle from Draco's potions ingredients and replaced it with an empty one of her own before packing up and leaving the classroom.
"Damn," Harry whispered, full of awe and just plain admiration.
"Harry," Neville sighed as he followed Hermione's example and bottled up his potion. "I think you've created a monster."
"No," Harry disagreed. "I didn't create her," he mirrored Neville's actions and handed the completed bottle to Neville to place on Snape's desk, which seemed to bolster the rest of the room to action. With a smile he sighed, "I just set her free."
As Hermione and Neville finished up their song Harry could only sit and smile at the memory. Maybe the hat did know what it was doing after all, setting all of them together so that they could grow like they had.
The rest of the night pretty much followed like it had started, more and more people getting into the act as they discovered which ones could sing and which kids couldn't. They even managed to get Harry to hack out a song… well part of a song. Most of the room protested as he butchered a well known and well loved 'Wryd Sisters' tune.
And in the morning, if most teachers noticed a lot of yawning from the Gryffindor table, at least nobody was bleeding.
First song, Everlong by Foo Fighters, Second Bubbly by Colbie Caillat