Rating: M to be on the safe side, will be bad language and knowing me a lot of slashy goodness
Warning: this will most definitely be slash, but will hopefully also contain humour, or at least my version of humour. Anyway, if you don't like serious lovin' between two guys then this is not for you. May also contain het, not sure exactly where this is going yet :-/
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, I just use them to do stuff my original characters won't let me do. Neither do I own the X Factor, thank god as it's really starting to suck now, not that it was that fab to begin with…
Summary: Due to being housebound at night with my amazing wee son I have been watching the X Factor, and also X Factor USA. This fic stems from imagining my fave characters in that situation and a lot of sleepless nights due to my sons incessant teething. So yeah, I decided Dumbledore having a crazy moment and bring the Hex Factor (clever innit?) to Hogwarts.
A/N - I must sincerely apologise for how long I've left this. My son has been ill with a throat infection, didn't eat for a week and kept me up most nights, and my husband has recently been a huge tool. I haven't really had the right state of mind to write, which is really bloody annoying. Not exactly up to scratch at the moment, I could not get my head round the best way to do this at all, but I wanted to at least put something out there. I'll probably come back and redo it at some point if you guys really think it sucks :-/ Anyway, thanks for your patience.
As the first student walked on stage to a chorus of clapping and cheers, a 4th year Hufflepuff by the name of Laura Madley, Harry felt his stomach tie itself in knots. As the young brunette started her song, a surprisingly good rendition of a Shakira song, Underneath Your Clothes, who knew Hufflepuffs even thought of that sort of thing, Harry peeked out to look at the judges. He noticed they all seemed to be enjoying themselves, apart from Snape, obviously. Harry wondered again why the hell he had agreed to take part in such a competition, unless he was literally bullied into it by Dumbledore. Hell, he could imagine it being some sort of twisted bet between his Godfather Sirius and Snape, it sounded like the kind of thing Sirius would taunt the man with.
As the crowd started to clap and cheer at the end of the song Harry leapt back taken by surprise. Only to creep forward again when the host started to speak.
"So there was our first audition, lets go to the judges, Professor Remus let's start with you."
Harry noticed a faint blush appear on the professors cheeks and smiled to himself, "Well, I think it was a lovely job, very nice indeed, erm, it's a yes?" he trailed off.
The audience clapped as the host met the eyes of Helena May, the singer.
"I think it was wonderful, good tone, you hit the notes perfectly, and it was quite a daring song choice. A definite yes!"
The audience cheered once more, Katy Heedry concurred enthusiastically, "Absolutely, yes from me!"
As Snape straightened in his seat the audience held their breath, "Well, I don't approve of the song choice, I thought it quite dull in fact", the audience started booing quietly, "Never the less", he continued raising his voice, "It's a reluctant yes".
The audience cheered again as the young Hufflepuff beamed and ran backstage. The other contestants congratulated her, and assured her she had in fact done a fab job despite what the snarky old potions professor said, after all, what does he know about music, especially muggle music.
Dumbledore had in fact made it compulsory to sing only muggle songs throughout the competition in an attempt to educate the Wizarding community on the fact that muggle's were pretty much the same as them, and improve muggle relations throughout. After all there were some wizards out there who still thought they roamed in packs, were vicious drunken animal types and slept in caves. Although if they had walked through Manchester on a Friday night you could see where they might have gotten the idea. Harry still didn't understand how Draco Malfoy and half the Slytherins even knew muggle's made music, never mind knowing the words to any of the songs.
The contest carried on and Harry found himself feeling more and more nervous as his number got closer and closer to being called out. He sat through terrible auditions such as Pansy Parkinson attempting and killing a Pink song, how she managed to replicate the sound of a cat being put through a blender he had no idea, and Susan Bones of all people singing and dancing to Buttons by the Pussycat Dolls, he shuddered as he remembered the what he supposed were meant to be smouldering looks she threw Professor the look on the snarky bastards face were enough to get him through it. He thought at one point that he would actually get up and leave, not that anyone would miss him. At least the other judges said no nicely, Snape seemed to embrace the opportunity to be cruel to the students. What was it he had said to the poor 4th year Raven Claw, Orla someone? Oh yes, 'the ability of a 2-toed sloth that had been buried in a swamp for 15 years, then dug up, beaten with a large stick and handed a magical microphone'. The poor girl had run off stage in tears, followed quickly by a couple of her friends calling after her. Harry could only imagine what the potions professor would have in store for himself. He was happy to see the other judges glaring at him every time he opened his mouth however, and the fact that the entire audience booed him every time he said something horrible.
His attention was grabbed, quite literally, by Ginny who tugged his arm viciously, "Harry I've been called", she whispered, her face white.
Harry gathered her into his arms, "You'll be great Ginny, I believe in you, you're amazing okay?", he stepped back and pushed her towards the stage, " Go, knock 'em dead, especially Snape the bastard", he grinned. As he watched his friend walk on stage he couldn't help cross his fingers and hope she did as well as he knew she could.
A single chord sounded before his friend started singing in a mellow, slightly haunting voice.
"I know I can't take one more step towards you,
'cause all that's waiting is regret,
And don't you know I'm not your ghost anymore,
You lost the love I loved the most…"
As the song drew towards the chorus, Harry watched as Ginny started to slowly cross to the front of the stage. Wands glowed in the dark as students began to cast Lumos and sway from side to side as she sang, and Harry felt nothing but love and pride for her. As the song came to it's climax he watched as the female judges shed a slight tear and he grinned, knowing she would be sure to go through to the next round.
All the judges had nothing but wonderful things to say about her, even Snape was obviously moved as his comment of "Acceptable, you can go through", muttered between gritted teeth showed. As Ginny ran off the stage beaming from ear to ear Harry caught her up in a hug.
"I told you it would be fine", he grinned, "You were brilliant Gin."
Ginny flicked her hair over her shoulder and winked, "Of course, we Gryffindors know how to rock it, right?" she giggled.
There celebrations were cut short as they heard an acoustic guitar start up, and they found their place backstage again to see who was next. Harry was shocked to see Draco Malfoy sitting on a high stool strumming a shiny black acoustic guitar like a pro. As his rival started to sing he felt a shiver begin to work it's way through his body and he felt the blood rush to his face as he blushed. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Ginny staring slack-jawed.
His voice was smooth with a slightly raw edge, and the way he handled his guitar made Harry squirm inside for some reason. Shaking himself mentally, and physically to make sure, he concentrated on the lyrics, blushing even more when he heard them.
"I don't know who you think you are,
but I know that one thing's true,
I wanna do bad things with you."
And all of a sudden Harry knew it was true, for reasons beyond his mere mortal fathoming, he wanted very much so to do bad things with Malfoy. As he stared, he could have sworn the blonde turned and winked at him as he sang the final line, making the nervous butterfly madness he was feeling in his stomach ten times worse. Luckily for him, after the judges all said yes to him and Snape actually gave him a compliment, of course, bloody Slytherin loving bastard, Draco exited the stage on the other side. Sagging in relief he heard Ginny muttering darkly about stupid blonde Slytherins trying to steal her thunder.
After several other auditions, many more compliments and a plethora of increasingly ridiculous put downs by Snape.
After Seamus was physically dragged off stage half way through his rendition of "The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered", a humorous song pretty much offering an opinion on every kind of bestiality to be had.
After a confusing appearance by Dobby performing some sort of Spice Girls mash up that Harry tried to instantly forget.
Finally it was time for Harry to go on. Ginny squeezed his hand tight and smiled as she nudged him towards the stage. As he looked back at her, face pale, he saw Draco make his way to the side to watch, that ever present smirk on his face. Glaring at him he turned back to the audience and groaned inwardly as he saw the Wizarding press immediately start to take pictures. After he introduced himself and stated his song choice, rolling his eyes as several girls squealed loudly and Snape glared at him, he bowed his head and nodded along to the roaring guitar intro waiting for his cue.
"I will dedicate, and sacrifice my every thing,
for just a seconds worth of how my story's ending,
And I wish I could know the directions that I take,
and all the choices that I make, won't end up all for nothing.
Show me what it's for, make me understand it,
I've been crawling in the dark, looking for the answer.
Is there something more, than what I've been handed,
I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer."
As he got into the song he forgot the audience watching him and concentrated on how good it felt to sing. Through the next verse and chorus he let himself go and realised he was actually enjoying himself. During the brief instrumental period he danced enthusiastically across the stage and stuck his tongue out at Draco and grinned before continuing with the song. When the song finished he was grinning broadly, sweat shining on his face, breathing hard as he faced the judges, not really caring what they had to say. The crowd was cheering wildly and he caught Ron and Hermione's eyes and winked.
The host came and clapped a hand on his back, grimacing slightly, no doubt at the slight dampness of Harry's shirt.
"Well, that was young Harry Potter, I'm sure everyone knows who he is, let's see what the judges have to say. Lets start with you Remus." Harry grinned at his Professor and friend.
"Amazing Harry, just amazing", he grinned, "Where in the name of Merlin have you been hiding that talent. A definite yes!"
Harry mouthed his thank you at him.
Helena May straightened her robes and looked up at him, " I think, Harry, you may have just earned yourself a few more fans", she grinned, "I hope you're prepared for what's next, it's a yes from me too."
Next up was Katy Heedry who replied with a simple grin and a very loud yes. Harry's smile slipped as he met the icy glare of Snape.
"Yes, well, without getting caught up in the obvious favouritism and idol worship I suppose it was acceptable. Very well, it's a reluctant yes, you'd better work a bit harder if you want to stand a chance however", he sneered, looking as if he would like nothing more than hex him on the spot.
Harry stood open mouthed as the audience booed Snape, only moving when the host started nudging him off stage. As soon as he stepped backstage he found himself with an armful of Ginny, and he hugged her happily.
"That was awesome Harry, I'm glad you decided to audition", she smiled.
Harry couldn't agree more, "Yeah well, let's just see what happens next yeah?" he hugged her once more, looking up to find Draco glaring at them from a distance. As their eyes met Draco blushed softly and turned away quickly, leaving Harry confused. And wondering when the hell he started referring to him as Draco in his head.
Songs mentioned - Underneath Your Clothes - Shakira (Laura Madley)
Raise Your Glass - Pink (Pansy)
Buttons - Pussycat Dolls (Susan Bones)
Jar of Hearts - Christina Perri (Ginny)
Bad Things - Jace Everett (Draco)
The Hedgehog Can Never be Buggered - Mentioned several times in Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, found some very interesting lyrics to it on You Tube by some hardcore Pratchett fans. BTW Pratchett is my Hero XD (Seamus)
Spice Girls Medley - I just thought it would be assuming to see Dobby dancing and singing to various Spice Girl songs o_O
Crawling in the Dark - Hoobastank (Harry )
A/N - Just to say sorry for the wait once again, and please leave a review. If you have any suggestions for improvement I'd love to hear them as I'm really not happy with this chapter. I may be posting a small one-shot in the near future just to try and get myself out of my writing rut so watch this space O_O
Crap, nearly forgot, a big thank you to those who have reviewed, and those who are following this story's progress. We'll get through it together, lol XD