Track 2

The cast list had been enlarged so that it covered an entire wall across from the Great Hall. The casting, as well as brief part descriptions, were listed, and at the very top was Harry�s name.

"Oh, sweet Merlin, no," Harry muttered, looking at the wall. They�d cast him as the lead � the gay lead. It wasn�t that Harry had a problem with homosexuality; the truth was that he himself was gay. The problem was that no one else knew about it yet, and he�d hoped to keep it that way for the time being, lest he draw even more attention to himself. To make matters worse, his character was a singer, and Harry couldn�t carry a tune. "Oh, splendid," he grumbled, thinking things couldn�t possibly get worse.

You�d think he�d know better than to think things like that.

His eyes scanned further down the list until he reached his character�s boyfriend. His eyes followed across to the casting, and he screamed, not unlike a five-year-old girl, before hitting the floor in a dead faint.

Snape, who happened to be passing by on his way to the Headmaster�s office to beg him to reconsider the whole idea, looked down at Harry�s unconscious form.

"My thoughts exactly, Potter," he said, before continuing on his way.

Harry awoke a minute or two later after Ron slapped his face a few times. "You alright, mate?" the redhead was saying. Harry just looked around groggily, and vaguely made note of some sort of argument going on in the background between Ginny and Malfoy.

"Malfoy! Stop being such a pain in the arse and let the rest of us see the list!"

"What was that, Weasley?!"

"I said, stop being a pain in the arse!"

"I�ll give you a pain in the arse�"

"Somehow I doubt that, what with me being female and all�" Ginny�s last poke at Malfoy�s sexuality brought Harry back to reality with a loud �whomp�. Actually, the �whomp� was the result of Harry�s head hitting the floor as he blacked out once more.

Harry woke up for the third time that day a few hours later in the hospital wing. Looking around, he noticed that he was not alone. Both Ron and Hermione sat in chairs by his bedside. Ron grinned when he saw his best friend wake up, but Hermione didn�t seem to notice as she was too busy highlighting things on some stapled printouts. Briefly, Harry wondered where she�d gotten the highlighter and the printouts from, but recalling how absurd the rest of the day had been, he decided he didn�t want to know. Quietly, he sat up and swung his legs over the side of his bed, taking notice of some rope lying on the floor nearby. �That might come in handy�� he thought to himself before Hermione spoke up.

"Say, Harry? Who were you cast as again?" she asked him.

"I�m feeling fine, now, thanks," he replied. Hermione just looked at him, and he sighed. "Why do you ask, �Mione?"

"Because Ron was cast as Hiro, and I was cast as this Fujisaki character who doesn�t even seem to be in the first script, and they�re supposedly both in the same band. I wondered if you were in it as well," Hermione replied matter-of-factly. "So, tell me, who were you cast as?"

Harry sighed and stared at the floor. Damn his luck. "�Shuichi," he replied quietly. Hermione looked down at the papers in her hand and beamed.

"Great! We are all in the same band, then!" she said happily. Ron, however, looked more horror-stricken than thrilled.

"But, Harry�doesn�t that mean that�you�ll have to�Snape�"

Harry hopped off the bed and snatched the rope up off the floor. "Yes, I�m playing across from Snape. Now if you�ll excuse me," he said, making his way for the door, rope in hand. Hermione looked up from her papers again with a slightly puzzled look.

"Harry? Where are you going with that length of rope?" she asked.

"To the Astronomy Tower. If I don�t come back, don�t be surprised," Harry callled back over his shoulder as he walked out of the Infirmary. Ron and Hermione exchanged glances before jumping up and hurrying after him.