We decided that night that we would do the auditions on Sunday. I wrote the date and time in and had Henley take it and a letter to Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop in Hogsmeade to get some copies made.
Next morning henely returned at breakfast with the copies and a bill I put a little pouch on henley with the money and sent him off again. We went and asked a student from the other houses to put a copy on their common room noticeboard. There was a bit of buzz about it. But instead today we had herbology, from what Neville said we would be dealing with mandrakes. This actually piqued my interest because, again, it was something that used sound as a weapon. Replanting mandrakes, wasn't easy, you had to pull really hard then there's screamed and flopped like a fish, fighting you trying to put them in the bigger pot.
I focused on the sounds they made, I could feel the magic waves of sound I also felt how thoses sound waves were affecting my body.
It forced my magic to echo it back. It was greatly diminished because of the ear muffs, but I could feel the slight sting of my magic bouncing around in my head.
My takeaway from the lesson was that mandrakes are ugly and loud. Also, magical sound waves exist; maybe I could recreate those waves.
That night was the start of my plan A. With the Disillusionment, Charmi snuck out of the common room and into the darkened castle. This was not my first time wandering the castle at night, but usually, I was heading to the kitchens. This time I was heading out side, to hagrids. I was more concerned about getting caught by Hagrid than Filch because Hagrid might put a crossbow bolt through me, while Filch would give me detention.
As I made my way down the castle grounds, I headed to Hagrid Gardens. A lot of food was grown in Hogwarts to help cut costs. You couldn't magic up food. I walked past the pumpkin patches, heading for the chicken run and coop. I used the Muffliato charm to silence the gate to the run. And walked into it, it was night so the chickens where in their coop, I walked to the first and opened the lid, their I found several hens and a rooster, I pointed my wand at the rooster and transfigured him Into a coin. Picking up the coin, I left hagrids. I was just back inside the castle when Mrs Norris spotted me. 'Dam dam', I quietly headed towards the dungeons.
I didn't get there I got caught by filch I made up an excuse, but I knew he would report me. So off to Snape's, we went.
"I caught this student out of bed", Mr. Filch said to Snape.
"I was heading to the kitchens," I said
"5 points off Slytherin and a night's detention" snape said "next time do go for a midnight snack at midnight Mr carter. Now, back to bed."
I de-transfigured the rooster once I got back to my dorm.
Grant and Tim were unhappy when the rooster woke us up in the morning.
"Eddie, why is there a rooster in our room," Grant asked.
"Research," I said sheepishly.
"How and why?" said Tim
"Well I stole him, and because the sound they make" I explained patting the rooster.
"What loud and annoying," asked Grant.
"And fatal to Basilisk," I said
"Basilisk?" Tim asked.
"A big magical snake", Grant said. "Why should we care about them? They're extinct."
"Yeah, but I want to know how a sound could harm one. I noticed that the mandrakes made magical sound waves, but a rooster is just a normal creature." I stared at the rooster, demanding it reveal its secrets.
"So we have a rooster now", Tim sighed.
"Rodney," I said
"Huh?" Tim said.
"Well, he needs a name, doesn't he?" I said.
"Rodney the rooster", Grant sighed. "Sure, whatever."
My friends accepted Rodney pretty quickly that afternoon. I had detention with Snape scrubbing cauldrons. My friends thought it was funny, but I didn't really care. I was more concerned about the auditions. Saturday, we moved a dozen instruments down to classrooms 1-15, where we were holding the auditions. Sunday morning, after breakfast, we headed to the room. We enlisted Dean and Seamus to act as doormen. They stood at the door as we went in. At the back of the room was the piano and a long table. Grant took a seat at the piano while Tim and I took seats at the table. I pulled out copies of sheet music and lyrics.
"Rember were not looking for the best but the ones that fit." I started, "Bassists have two songs to play, and singers have three songs to sing. And everyone else is showing us what they got."
There was a bit of commotion outside. Dean stuck his head in, and I nodded.
The first student came in a Ravenclaw 4th year. He was trying out for bassists but butchered the first song.
"Next!" I yelled after sending him away.
Next was a first-year Hufflepuff named Oswald Macmillan, a muggle-born. "You don't have a bass guitar." he looked at the double bass on its stand. "If you can play that I'll get you a bass guitar" I said as a scribbled a note.
"You'll be starting with the first song. If you can play that, you can play the second."
He grabbed the neck of the double bass. "Really, anyone could play this." He sighed and plucked at the bass. The bass line of •Another one bites the Dust by queen• sounded out clear and on the beat.
"Thank you, onto the next song," I said.
He flipped over the page. And smirked at me, "Good song" he spun the double bass and got to grooving; I smiled wild as the kid rocked out while playing the bass line from •suck my kiss by red hot chilli peppers•
"Thankyou, Oswald well let you know" I said with a smile.
"So?" Tim asked.
"I like him, I suspect he is much better on bass guitar" I said.
"Yeah he was good on the double bass, but we got a few more to go" Grant said.
I nodded. "Next!" I yelled.