Legacy of the Marauders

Musical

"Yeah?" asked James eagerly. "What does it do?"

"It creates a musical," Albus explained. "At first they'll all randomly burst into song; then they'll be able to think properly, but when they try to speak their voices will come out singing what they want to say, not talking."

"That's great!" declared Sirius as James smirked mischievously and nodded.

Albus cast the spell before adding, "After a few minutes it'll start to effect us as well."

"What?!" James and Sirius cried.

Grinning innocently, Albus queried, "Did I forget to mention that?"

Sirius and James couldn't decide if they were outraged or impressed by their headmaster's slightly deceitful tactics. They didn't have time to choose which of the two emotions they felt either because they were too mesmerised with amusement when every single one of the Slytherins burst into a chorus.

"Night-time sharpens; heightens each sensation.
Darkness stirs and wakes imagination.
Turn your face away
from the garish light of day.
Turn your thoughts away from cold, unfeeling light,
And listen to the music of the night."

Lucius and Narcissa started to do the Can-Can, which was too inappropriately joyful of a dance considering the lyrics.

"Close your eyes and surrender to your darkest dreams.
Close your eyes; let your spirit start to soar,
And you'll live as you've never lived before.
Open up your mind,
Let your fantasies unwind
in this darkness which you know you cannot fight,
The darkness of the music of the night."

Despite the fact that all of the members of Salazar's House were chanting Severus and Lucetta looked at each other as if they were the sole individuals in the Great Hall. Or in the universe, for that matter.

"Let your soul take you where you long to be!
Only then can you belong to me...
Let the dream begin.
Let your darker side give in
to the power of the music that I write,
the power of the music of the night!"

The Slytherins gasped in shock at their own behaviour.

Rudolphus Lestrange demanded, "What the bloody Hell is going on?" He had, of course, inadvertently sung the words and his voice was surprisingly shrill.

None of the Slytherins knew the answer and anxiously began singing at once. Everyone except Snape, who remained silent with a calculating expression on his face. Within moments he had put the situation together as only Snape's mind could.

"Potter and Black," he sang.

Everybody immediately ceased making noise and stared at him, stupefied. Not because of his reasoning; they knew he was probably correct as usual. They were shocked at the sound of his voice, which they hadn't been able to distinguish when they'd all sung as one.

James and Sirius understood the reaction. When Severus spoke his tone was cold and emotionless. When he sang it was even colder, however, it was so deep and penetrating that it would send a shiver of desire up a woman's spine instead of the shakes of intimidation that his speaking tones did to most people. This irritated Sirius and James, for they did not believe a grotesque Dark wizard from Slytherin deserved such a seductive voice.

Bellatrix, for once, agreed with Sirius, and attempted to bring her fellow Slytherins' attention back to the situation at hand and away from Snape. "Let's find my blood traitor cousin and his arrogant friend, and get them to take this charm off of us...Then we jinx them." From mocking others in a baby voice so frequently Bellatrix's singing voice was high and squeaky. "I bet Pettigrew and Lupin helped too."

"Where has Lupin been? I haven't seen him for days," remarked Lucetta Malfoy curiously.

Regulus replied, "He's been lost in thought. It's unfamiliar territory."

Lucetta shook her head of silvery-blonde hair. "Wrong Marauder. You're taking about Pettigrew."

Weary of listening to them, James whispered in a light tenor, "Ready to go in?" At Sirius' and Albus' nods James strolled confidently into the hall with them behind him. "We heard horrible singing, so we had to come and see if equally horrible people were making the sounds. Now, I see that they were."

Albus and Sirius chuckled.

"We are not amused," said Snape quietly. If he had been talking the effect of lowering his voice would have been menacing, though because he was singing it only sounded more sensuous.

Lucetta grasped the nearest House table to prevent herself from falling over since her knees had become too weak with lust to support even her lightweight body.

Severus did not appear to notice. He isn't used to arousing girls, thought Sirius. "We? Snivelly, I thought you agreed to stop talking about yourself and your nose like it was its own person just 'cause it's huge enough to create earthquakes when you blow it." His baritone would have received a similar reaction to the one Snape got from every girl in the room if it wasn't full of Salazar's protégés.

Snape's eyes narrowed. "I'd take that back if I were you."

"Well, you're not me. If you were me I'd be you, and if I were you I would go in sunlight and bathe like most people, but we both know that isn't the case."

Even some of the Slytherins laughed at that. It upset Albus that this greasy-haired boy seemed to have no friends. As the castor of the Song Spell, the magic easily blended with Albus' emotions to cause him to involuntarily break into a very loud solo.

"WHENEVER I SEE SOMEONE
LESS FORTUNATE THAN I
I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THEY NEED.
AND EVEN IN YOUR CASE,
THOUGH IT'S THE TOUGHEST CASE I'VE YET TO FACE
YOU'RE GONNA BE POPULAR!
I'LL TEACH YOU WAYS TO FLIRT AND WHAT SHOES TO WEAR,
HOW TO FIX YOUR HAIR." Albus considered giving Severus a military haircut since he heard that they were in style...in the military. Moments later, he thought of the best hairstyle for Snape. "YOU'LL HANG WITH THE RIGHT COHORTS;
YOU'LL BE GOOD AT SPORTS." This time Albus considered ballet, but decided to go with Quidditch since a pink tutu would clash with Severus' hair. "KNOW THE SLANG YOU'VE GOT TO KNOW,
SO LET'S START
'CAUSE YOU'VE GOT AN AWF'LLY LONG WAY TO GO.
DON'T BE OFFENDED BY MY FRANK ANALYSIS;
THINK OF IT AS PERSONALITY DIALYSIS.
WHEN I SEE DEPRESSING CREATURES
WITH UNPREPOSSESSING FEATURES
I REMIND THEM ON THEIR OWN BEHALF
OF CELEBRATED HEADS OF STATE OR
SPECIALLY GREAT COMMUNICATORS.
DID THEY HAVE BRAINS OR KNOWLEDGE?
DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH!
THEY WERE POPULAR! IT'S NOT ABOUT APTITUDE,
IT'S THE WAY YOU'RE VIEWED."

Understandably, Snape was immensely agitated. "What in Merlin's name in wrong with you? Were you dropped on your head as a baby? Are you from another planet? Tell me, as an outsider what is your opinion of the human race?"

Albus had continued singing during Severus' rant. "SO, THOUGH YOU PROTEST
YOUR DISINTEREST
YOU'RE GONNA GRIN AND BEAR
YOUR NEW-FOUND POPULARITY.
YOU'LL BE POPULAR,
JUST NOT QUITE AS POPULAR AS ME!"

Now that Albus had altered Snape's appearance according to the lyrics Severus was standing on a quaffle with curlers in his hair wearing a vest that said, 'Do you believe in love at first sight or should I walk by again?'

James let out an uncharacteristic giggle at Snivellus' new physical attributes.

Turning white with rage, Snape whipped out his wand. "Why don't you Gryffindors change your looks too and slip into something nice. Like unconsciousness." He opened his mouth to say a hex.

"Enough!" Elderly Professor Dumbledore strode into the Great Hall and recited an incantation that reversed the effects of what was technically his own Song Spell as well as his magic on Snape while simultaneously propelling all of the pupils away from the centre of the vast room. Numerous people wound up landed atop one another.

Lucetta landed on top of Severus causing his entire body to tingle. He hated that he worked so tirelessly at his self control and was still incapable of bringing a stop to the effects that she had on him.

She stared down into Severus' fathomless black eyes and felt as if she were drowning. She blinked, attempting to refocus her mind, yet before she could do so her mouth began speaking of its own volition. "You must be wondering why everyone stared when you sung. It's 'cause your voice is sexy. Of course, you're so mysterious and intelligent with powerful talents that I always thought you were sexy anyhow."

(Two-thirds of the readers thought, "The words 'Severus' and 'sexy' do not belong in the same paragraph!")

The tingling dissipated, replaced by a shocked numbness at her declaration. Severus did not need to look into the shining grey eyes in Lucetta's fair-skinned face to discern if she was telling the truth since she lacked the ability to proclaim a falsehood. Deception was an art necessary in their circle of people. Being in the company of manipulative liars and being one himself had invariably made him admire Lucetta's honesty, no matter how unwise it was to be constantly truthful. The information that the honest and pretty Lucetta Malfoy had given him was interesting and, like he did with all information, Snape decided what needed to be done with it.

"Get up," he said, his expression unreadable.

Fretfully, she did as she was instructed. "I'm sorry, Severus. Maybe I shouldn't have told you that. It's just-" He put one fingertip against her lips. It silenced her immediately, as it was the only time Lucetta could remember him touching her. Touching anyone. He avoided nearly all of his peers and whenever she had hugged him he'd stood there unresponsive and let her do it.

"Come with me." It was not a question, though his tone left room for argument should she choose to protest.

Never dreaming of taking the opportunity to disagree, she simply replied, "Yes."

Under typical circumstances Snape would have relished the chance to witness Dumbledore punish his adversaries, however, while exiting the Great Hall with Lucetta he did not look back a solitary time to watch. He had other things on his mind.

Minerva's Note: The Music of the Night is from Phantom of the Opera by Webber and Popular is from Wicked by Schwartz. They're both BEYOND WONDERFUL theatrical productions.