Rock Star

Rock Star

"Look, Severus, I need your help! I don't understand the properties of this potion; you do. Therefore, I think you should help me," Lily Evans stated and leaned back in her chair. She had cornered the older boy minutes earlier in a dim area of the Hogwarts library.

"No means no, Evans. Now, why don't you go back to your boyfriends and leave me the bloody hell alone?" Snape replied drolly.

At this Lily grinned. "Because you're too fun. Now, come on Sparky, why not?"

Snape barely looked up at her from the book he was pored over and quirked an eyebrow. "Remember the incident on December nineteenth?"

Lily thought for a minute. "Oh. That's why, huh?" Snape nodded in affirmative. That particular incident hadn't been pretty. Lily had tried to make a complicated potion in her dormitory. Seemingly, it was correct. She only realized her mistakes when she tripped and broke the phial at Severus's foot. Instead of growing dancing daisies instantly, it grew burning beets. He still had the burn marks from that even though it happened in the middle of March last year.

"Well, why don't you at least point me in the right direction?" the redhead questioned brightly after an awkward moment of silence had passed. Severus fully rose up this time and stared in disbelief. Before he had a chance to answer, three boys approached the table.

James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Sirius Black had to be both Lily and Severus's least favorite people in the whole world. They bullied, teased, pranked, and caused general mayhem. Usually when they approached either student, it wasn't for a spot of tea and a friendly chat about Quidditch.

"And here we have the two people we were searching for. Brilliant; we don't have to go dragging one to find the other," Sirius brightly exclaimed as he flopped down into an available chair. "Saves us the trouble, right mates?" He turned expectantly to his two companions. Remus Lupin looked both slightly abashed and embarrassed to be there, and James looked wary.

"I s'pose," Remus responded slowly.

Lily signed and cradled her head in her hands. "What'd you do now?"

"'Do?!'" Sirius questioned in outrage. "'DO?!' We didn't do anything!"

"Nope. Unless of course you count making a bet with that little second year, Ludo Bagman not doing anything," James added as he sat down. Remus sat in the last remaining chair available.

Severus, who had been quiet up until this moment, hoping not to draw attention to his self, drew in a sharp breath. When Ludo Bagman was involved, it didn't mean anything but trouble.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Fine then. What did you bet with him?"

Sirius, Remus, and James hesitated and glanced at each other. They stared, trying to figure out exactly how to put the bet into words that made it sound cheerful; the three (or rather four; Peter was still finishing the negotiations) boys were not looking forward to the next few weeks.

"Well," began Remus slowly, "he was of the opinion that a certain person wouldn't make a good guitar player, and we took up for said person. Of course we were being sarcastic, but he seemed to take us literally. Now we have three weeks to get this person to play the guitar."

"Then what's the big deal? Just go find out if whomever you betted on can play and then get him or her to play," Lily shrugged, not seeing what the big deal was.

"Yeah, that's all we got to do right? It won't turn out any worse than it is now, right?" asked James of the group.

"It's worse," Peter replied as he joined them. "Bagman doesn't believe that the guy really can play the instrument. Now he's demanding that we turn him into a rock star and perform in front of everyone before the month is up."

"What?!" everyone at the table (excluding Snape) exclaimed.

"Who is this person?" asked Lily.

James looked at Snape. "It's him."

Snape looked at James blankly. "Me?" he asked, not sure he had heard the Gryffindor boy correctly.

Lily started laughing. Sirius held his head in his hands. Peter winced. James tried to smile weakly. Remus nodded with resignation.

"I see," replied Snape slowly. "Well then, I'm afraid that you'll have to do it alone. I see nothing in it for me, and I certainly won't make an imbecile of myself in front of the entire school. Now good day to you all," Snape sneered, a sarcastic tone to his voice. He gathered his things and stood to leave.

"Now wait a minute, Severus. I think you should hear all the terms and conditions of this bet before you burn your bridges. There just might be something in it for you," Lily glared at the four Gryffindors as if daring them to state otherwise.

"Um, uh, yes! Of course! We fought for your right to be reimbursed Snape! As always, we're on your side!" Peter exclaimed hurriedly. James turned to stare at the boy.

"'On my side' my ass," Snape snarled. "But because Evans asked so nicely, I believe I will stay to hear you out." He flopped onto his previously occupied chair.

"Okay Peter, tell us," sighed Sirius.

"If we win, Bagman gives us twenty galleons to be split. If we lose, we give Bagman twenty galleons. The second conditions he made were, for us to win the money; we have to turn Snape into a rock star in little more than three weeks to perform in the Great Hall before we go home for the Christmas holidays."

"And if we fail on that part?" Remus questioned.

Peter sighed, "Then we have to dress in pink ballerina costumes and dance to a song from 'The Nutcracker.'"

"I'm not doing that, guys! I'll take my chances with Snape becoming a rock star!" Sirius brushed his hair back.

"Well, what would he have to do?" James looked at the others at the table. Shuffling commenced at once accompanied by mutterings from Peter, Remus, and Sirius ("Uh, my cousin Andromeda is engaged to a rock star of sorts" came from Sirius, "We might find a book on the subject" came from Remus, "Well, who knows? Personally I've never had to do this" from Peter).

"You might want to start by seeing if he can actually play the guitar." The other boys looked at Lily. "Because if he can't play, then he'll need to learn."

"Hey, that's good, I like that. I can do that; let's do that. Remus make a list," James pointed at everyone.

"Then you might want to come up with an exercise regimen to give him the 'rock star' body."

"Add that Remus."

"Then, you'll have to fit his wardrobe out, get him tanned to look healthy, find out if he can sing, get his hair cut and washed." Sirius and Peter stared in amazement as Lily fired the suggestions at Remus like cannonballs.

"But this comes at a price. I want reimbursement as well," Lily added.

James and Sirius glanced at each other. "I think that could be managed."

"Great! Peter, I think you should find say five songs; one about Christmas, and the other four should be what a real rock star would sing. I think that at least one of those should be written by one of use. Preferably they would all be of our own making, but we can take some classics and 'remake' them ourselves."

"Okay Lily!" Peter got up and rushed off to do exactly that.

"Can you sing Snape?" Sirius asked.

"A little bit," the Slytherin shrugged.

"Can you play the guitar?" Sirius asked again.

"Enough to get me by," came the laconic reply.

"Okay. I think we should get to work on the image tomorrow. Who wants to come up with the exercise routine?" Sirius looked at Lily. "You'll also be calling all the shots, okay?"

"That's fine," Lily nodded.

"Okay, here's the list saying who should do what and at which time," Remus handed copies of the parchment.

"Great! Let's get started!" James exclaimed.