Lives Untold

"Quidditch try-outs are tomorrow."

Startled, Hermione looked up from her book to see Ron staring at her.

"Umm. That's nice," she said kind of confused as she turned her nose back to reading.

"I was thinking, maybe, you know, I should, try-out? For Keeper?" Ron asked in a very nervous manner, which was quite unlike him.

"Go for it," she said without looking up.

"Forget it," Ron said huffily.

Hermione sighed and closed Hogwarts, A History (what else would she be reading?) and turned to her best friend.

"Ron, you are an excellent Quidditch player. Granted, I don't particularly care for that...unusual game, but I know that you love it. And you really are good at it. And I do think that you should try-out. They would have to be blind and stupid not to take you."

Ron's face was slowly turning pink near the middle of her speech and as it ended, he was bright red. "Aww, Hermione. Thanks. I think I will try-out."

"Good," she said with a little smile, glad that she could have been some help.

"Yeah. I'll show them what Ron Weasley can do on a broom."

* * * * *

"I don't think I can do this."

"Ron, relax," Harry said patiently. "You'll do fine. You have played Quidditch hundreds of times"

"Yeah, but this is the only time that counts. This decides my future. If I mess up then my life is over."

Harry chuckled. "Don't you think you're being a little melodramatic? We aren't doing acting until third quarter in Art & Entertainment."

"Don't remind me. And don't distract me from worrying about try-outs."

Harry and Ron were sitting on the bleachers, waiting for Ron's turn. Hermione was up a few rows with the other spectators but since Harry was on the team, he could help keep Ron from hyperventilating.

"But, Harry, people are watching."

"Ron. There will be about a thousand more people watching during an actual game. This is nothing," Harry said, sweeping his hand at the bleachers, which were covered with maybe twenty people spread out all over.

"Yeah, but, certain people are watching now," Ron said with his eyes flickering upward.

Harry looked confused for about three seconds before giving Ron a knowing smile. "Oh. People. Certain people, like, say, Hermione?"

Ron flushed and sputtered angrily, "Hermione? Hermione? What do I care if she's watching?"

Harry shook his head. "Sorry, Ron. For a second there I thought you were going to actually admit to liking her. But don't worry. Just forget about everyone and you'll be great."

Ron was still red from Harry's earlier comment and was about to respond when Madam Hooch shouted, "Ron Weasley!"

The color in Ron's face completely drained and left him white. He heard Hermione's voice from above clapping and calling his name. He looked up and smiled weakly at her and took a breath and stood up.

Harry clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't worry. You've done this a hundred times before."

Ron nodded and passed Fred and George who were over exaggerating their cheering by bowing at him shouting, "The Quidditch King! Lord of the Brooms! Ron the Buldger Slayer!"

Ron rolled his eyes at their antics but he did have to admit that they calmed his nerves a bit. He took a deep breath and mounted his broom.

* * * * *

Hermione clapped for Ron and watched as he got on his broom. She could tell from where she was sitting that he was extremely nervous. She silently prayed that he didn't do anything stupid like fall off his broom. She wasn't sure what that would do to his self- confidence.

But Hermione need not to have worried. Once Madam Hooch blew her whistle, Ron's nervousness completely evaporated and he flew like he was born to. All those years of practicing in his yard really paid off as he was the first person to try out for Keeper that blocked every shot.

When Ron flew down, Hermione ran over to him and gave him a big hug.

"You did wonderfully, Ron!"

"Thanks Hermione," he said while his face turned slightly pink.

"Ok, thank you to everyone who tried-out," Alicia, the newly elected team captain shouted, "We will post up the new members tomorrow morning in the Gryffindor common room. Once again, you all did fantastic and it is going to be a very tough decision."

Everyone on the field and on the bleachers gradually made their way inside with excitement and wonder written all over their faces. Soon all that was left was Hermione, Ron, and Harry.

"Well, I'm glad that's over with. Good thing I didn't get too nervous. I told you I'd keep my cool," Ron said seriously.

"Uh-huh," Harry said although if one listened close enough it might of sounded like "yeah right."

"Good thing," Hermione said while rolling her eyes.

"Well, either way," Harry began, "you did do really well. I bet you'll make it."

"I hope so," Ron said solemly. "I need something from distracting me from singing. I really hate that class."

"Me too," Hermione agreed. "We do karaoke tomorrow, don't we?"

"Yep. I can hardly wait," Harry said sarcastically. "We better head up, it's getting dark."

"You're right."

And with that, the trio made their way upstairs to get some well needed sleep

* * * * *

"Harry! Harry! Psst! Harry! Wake up!"

Harry was rudely awakened by an annoying voice calling him.

"Whaaa?"

"Harry! Come on"

Harry cracked an eyelid open and blurrily the offending person came into view.

"Ron! What are you doing? It's so early."

Ron looked sheepish. "Well, I wanted to be the first one to look at the new member list for the team."

"Team?"

"Yes. The Gryffindor team of which you already belong to. Come on, let's go have a look at the list."

"Ugh. Don't want to."

"Please, Harry! I can't wait another second," Ron begged Harry

"Fine, fine, fine. Let me change and then we'll go," Harry said sleepily.

"No need to change! You look great! Let's go," Ron said and proceeded to drag Harry downstairs.

As it was only 5:00 am there was no one downstairs including Alicia, which meant no list.

"Oh darn. It's not here. Let's go back to sleep," Harry said with a yawn.

"No! Harry, can't you wait! Just ten minutes! It's bound to be here any minute now.

Harry sighed. "Fine. Ten minutes."

_____________

Three hours later

_____________

"Ron," Harry said annoyance heard clearly in his tone.

"I know, I know! But just five more minutes," Ron said frantically.

"You have been saying that for the last three hours!"

"But this time I mean it!"

"So all those other times you said 'I mean it' you were lying?" Harry said with a raised eyebrow.

"No! No I-" Thankfully, for Ron's sake, they were interrupted by feet coming down the stairs.

Ron jumped up and looked with wide-eyes in anticipation at the person coming downstairs.

"Hermione! What are you doing here? I thought you were Alicia!" Ron said as he left out the breath he was holding.

Sure enough, it was Hermione making her way to the boys.

"What? I can't be curious to whether or not you made the team?" she said as she pushed her hair off her shoulders. "How long have you been here since anyways? By the way, nice pajamas, Harry."

Harry looked down and blushed. "Well, if I wasn't woken up at 5 am by psychopath, I would have been able to change and be well rested."

"Well, I'm sorry for wanting-" Once again Ron was interrupted but this time it really was Alicia and she had snuck up and posted the list on the wall behind them.

Ron gulped and went over to the list. When he saw it his face fell and he turned to his two best friends with wide-eyes.

"Oh, Ron! It's ok! You can try-out again next year!" Hermione said helpfully.

"Why would I want to do that?" Ron asked confused.

"Well, you don't have to but I thought you would want to." Hermione babbled.

"When I made it this year!" Ron said excitedly as he jumped up and down. "I got you! I made it! I made the team!"

Harry and Hermione rolled their eyes and laughed along with Ron as they all did a little dance to celebrate.

"Congratulations, Ron," Alicia said with a smile. "You earned it."

"Thanks!" Ron said with a big grin.

"Let me go put on my robes and then we can go down to breakfast." Harry suggested.

When all three were ready they went to the Great Hall and ate breakfast before getting ready to go to Arts and Entertainment and face the music. Literally.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Today is the day!"

Ms. Starr perkily walked into the music room with her usual too-bright-smile.

"Now, please contain your yourselves," she said dryly. "I know the excitement may be too much for you, but I ask you to refrain from being too enthusiastic."

The class simply stared at her. Some had looks of boredom, others of complete and utter mortification.

"Alright. I'm going to put you into small groups where we will then begin karaoke."

The class looked nervously at one other. Hermione suppressed a groan. The only thing worse than singing in front of the entire class would be to sing a love song with Crabbe, Goyle, or Malfoy.

Ms. Starr began calling out names and Hermione was able to slightly relax. She seemed to be keeping the houses with each other and the genders were separate.

"Weasley, Potter, Longbottom!"

Ron and Harry high-fived (secretly, under the table; they didn't want Malfoy to come up with any snide comments about how childish it was) and gave Neville a thumbs-up.

"Thomas and Finnigan!" She smiled apologetically at the two boys. "Sorry, but you two will have to do without a third person."

"Granger, Brown, Patil!" Hermione smiled over at Lavender and Parvati. She was extremely glad to be with her roommates and not someone like Pansy.

"Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle!"

"Parkinson, Zabini, Bulstode!"

Ms. Starr finally finished grouping the class together and motioned for them to get with their partners.

"Ok class, this is what is going to happen: This week I am going to assign a very easy song to the class and you will sing that with music. That song is going to be 'Row, Row, Row, Your Boat.' Since it is a very short and relatively simple song, there will be no background voices accompanying you."

The entire class groaned. "Hey! Wait a second, I'm not done. Today is Monday, meaning we will perform on Friday. Now, I want you all to be researching Muggle songs because next Monday, you will chose a song and perform that as karaoke meaning you may sing along with the song. Are we clear?"

The class nodded.

"Good to hear it. Now, I'm going to give each group a copy of the song on a cassette. I know Muggle items aren't supposed to work in Hogwarts, but all special circumstances allow those rules to be bent. You will be allowed to use muggle CD players and tape decks anywhere on the premises, as long as it is only for this class. It will not work otherwise as Headmaster Dumbledore has put special charms on the items."

With that, Ms. Starr handed out the cassettes to each group. "Now, I'm going to demonstrate how the song is supposed to be sung. Each person does not sing at the same time. You each start at a different times."

The class looked confusedly at each other.

"If my wonderful assistant, Mr. Susi, who has been hiding at the piano all week, would help me?"

Mr Susi, the pianist, nodded and began playing. Ms. Starr cleared her throat and began singing.

"Row, row, row, your boat, gently down the stream, merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dream."

Hermione noticed that Mr. Susi joined in and started the song when Ms. Starr was on 'boat' and they sounded very harmonious together.

"Thank you Mr. Susi," Ms. Starr acknowledged. "Class, make sure you don't just say the words. I want you to feel them. Really put emotion into the song whatever it is and put a bit of you into it and Mr. Malfoy if you don't desist giving me those looks then you will be looking at Headmaster Dumbledore faster than you can say 'muggle.'"

Hermione looked at Malfoy who had been shooting glares at Ms. Starr like he wanted her to die a horribly slow and painful death, and now he feigned innocence-or tried to. Hermione rather thought he looked nauseous.

"Sorry, Professor Starr," Malfoy mumbled.

Prof. Starr nodded. "Very well then. Ok, you may begin!"

Hermione made her way over to Lavender and Parvati and together they found a corner of the room to practice at.

"Oh, I so don't want to do this," Parvati moaned.

"Don't worry, Pav. It will be all right. We just need to practice a whole lot and we'll sound great!" Lavender said confidently.

"Speaking of practice, we better start. And we can always rehearse in our dorm if we run out of time," Hermione suggested.

Parvati and Lavender nodded. "Right. Well, do you want me to start?" Lavender asked.

Parvati and Hermione looked at one another and shrugged. "Sure, go for it."

And with that, the singing had begun.

* * * * *

Hermione sighed and rolled over in bed for the thousandth time to check the clock. The bright red numbers told her that she had been lying in bed for four hours trying to fall asleep, as it was 3 a.m.

Try as she might, she couldn't get singing off her mind. It seemed like ages ago that singing had meant the world to her, when it truly was only about five years. No one really knew that much about her pre-Hogwarts life. Sure, she was always heavily involved in schoolwork and never got less than an "A." She had always been a perfectionist so she hadn't changed in that sense. But, before she knew of witches and Voldermort and Slytherins, she had a normal muggle life. She did extra-curricular activities, had best friends, and had a passion for something: singing.

Not only did Hermione love to sing, she was good at it. But, as it goes, all good things must come to an end. Something had happened that Hermione cared not to even think about. It was that event that swore Hermione off of singing. She hadn't touched a microphone since she was ten years old. A year later, she went to Hogwarts and singing wasn't exactly in the curriculum along with Potions and Defense Against the Dark Ages. But now, she was forced to go back to what she had grown to hate.

Hermione sighed again and closed her eyes, praying for sweet dreams.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"No, NO, NO! You're doing it all wrong!"

Hermione looked up from Arithmancy: A Detailed Look and smirked. Ron was standing over Harry and Neville with a song sheet in his hand. His arms were flailing at he reprimanded Harry for not putting enough emphasis on "boat."

"Uh, Ron? Don't you think you might be taking this whole song thing a little bit too seriously?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, I don't," Ron answered stubbornly. "I just want this to be perfect. We have to sound good. Do you really want the Slytherins to laugh at us?" He was silent for a moment. "Not like I'd mind really. I could use a good excuse to pound Malfoy's face in."

"Ron," Hermione said warningly.

"What?" He asked. "He deserves it!"

Hermione just rolled her eyes and went to back to her book.

* * * * *

"Hey, Hermione? Do you want to practice now?"

Hermione looked at Lavender, who had addressed her, and nodded in the affirmative. Parvati joined the other two as they made their way upstairs to their dorm room.

"Ok, girls! We have a LOT of work to do! We are going to need to prepare of costumes, decide on hair and make-up and then coordinate our shoes! Oh! This is going to be so much fun!" Lavender squealed.

"Umm, Lavender?" Hermione asked tentatively.

"Yes?"

"Are we going to, you know, actually practice the song!" Hermione said with her voice raising a decibel every word.

"Oh, yeah." She smiled sheepishly. "Guess I got carried away there. Right. I guess we do king of need to decide how we'll do the song."

"Well," Parvati spoke up, "Lavender you already said you would do the first part, correct?"

Lavender nodded.

"Well then, Hermione? Do you want to do the second part?"

"Sure."

"Alright," Parvati made a few notes on a piece of parchment. "That leaves me with the third part. We each have a copy of the lyrics so we need to memorize them."

"Good. And since I already know the words, I can start on the... umm... costumes?" Hermione asked nervously.

"Terrific!" Lavender gave Hermione a huge smile and got up to go to her dresser. She came back and handed Hermione a few clothes magazines. "Look through these and then, since you're so good at Tranfiguration, you can Transfigure some of our clothes into the costumes. Just an idea, would be to have us all in the same thing, but in a different color!"

"Great!" Parvati commented. "Now, should we test out the song? Just practice it once with the song sheets?"

The other two agreed and Hermione popped in the tape and licked her lips.

The music came on and Lavender opened her mouth and began singing, "Row, row, row, your boat...."

Hermione took her cue and the words effortlessly passed through her lips and for a split second Hermione wished she never quit singing. The trio ended the song and Lavender and Parvati stared amazedly at Hermione.

"Wow! That was great! Why didn't you say before that you could sing?" Parvati asked.

Hermione shrugged. "You two were great also!"

"No, we need your help! Can you teach us to sing?" Lavender asked.

"Please? I've always wanted singing instruction," Parvati added.

"I don't know. I'm really not that great of a singer. You only heard me sing like two lines." Hermione pointed out.

"Yeah, but there was something in your voice. A person can sing one note and you can tell whether they are good or not. Have you ever had lessons before?" Parvati inquired.

"Yes. I started when I was four but stopped at ten."

"Wow! six years! Can you just give us some pointers or something?" Lavender pleaded.

Hermione smiled and relented. "Sure. Ok, let's go."

* * * * *

Later that night Hermione was down in the Common Room flipping though Lavender's issue of Modern Witch. The singing instruction had gone quite well and the girls were getting exciting about showing Prof. Starr what they could do.

"Hey, Hermione. Whatcha doing?" Ron asked as she sat next to her.

"Hi, Ron. I'm just picking out our costumes."

A look of horror came across Ron's face. "What?! We needed costumes? That teacher never said that! Did she? Please tell me I wasn't sleeping during that part!"

Hermione looked seriously at Ron before she burst out laughing.

"No, don't worry. The girls and I just want to do a little something extra."

Ron grinned in relief. "Well, I can certainly understand that. I've never seen the day when Hermione Granger hasn't given 110% on anything."

"We just want to be thorough," Hermione responded as she flipped her hair back.

"Uh huh." Ron had just realized exactly how close they were. If he leaned in just as little... STOP! No! This is Hermione! Your best friend. You are not, I repeat not, going to kiss her. Oh no. I have got to get out of here! Give any excuse. You need food! You need to practice singing! You need to go sew costumes!

"I need to go sew costumes!" Ron blurted out.

"Huh?" Hermione gave him a weird look.

"Yeah. I need to go to bed... and think about sewing costumes. We can't be outdone by you! Ok, well, good night!" Ron waved and ran upstairs.

"Night," Hermione said faintly. She shook her head and passed off that weird exchange as Ron just being Ron.

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