The hustle and bustle of Hogwarts Club Day wasn't nearly over by the time Bellatrix Dark had hurried back to the Great Hall. This time, she was dressed a little different without so much of the pretty colors she had been wearing earlier.[1] Mace had given such a great idea to her mundane job of flier-passing that she had insisted he help her out with today's duty. She hadn't yet heard his saxophone playing yet, but if he didn't make the band with his music, he'd definitely make it as her co-manager. Or manager itself. Either way, having a Salem student here represented his school and, hopefully, would invite other Salem students to the auditions as well.

Although they weren't allowed a booth, they had been allowed to pass out fliers. Beside the estranged Slytherin girl was a box of Pygmy Puffs which she prayed would appeal to the better nature of those who couldn't stand her. As older students passed by, she would hand out fliers. Some would stop to play with the Pygmy Puffs and then take off again. She was getting frustrated again. Her reputation preceded her and it was ruining her chances of putting together a wrock band.

The girl glanced over at her American partner and smiled. His presence was a comfort to her. Somehow, being around Mace made her relax. He'd done so the other day when she had been getting angry at passing out fliers.[2] It was good to have someone around to keep her calm. Otherwise, she might have returned to her old habits and started jinxing and hexing those that gave her vicious glares of contempt. For the sake of not doing it anymore, she had to get this Wrock Band together. Keeping her temper well in check, Bellatrix remained determined to get someone recruited.

"Free Pygmy Puff to those who take a flier," she called at a suitable volume in the Great Hall. "Spread the word! Wrock Band auditions Hogsmeade Weekend! Take a flier, spread the word. Free Pygmy Puffs! Take a flier!"

This was ridiculously hard to do.

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Peony was planning to stop by only two booths for club day- the Hogwarts Players and Orchestra. She played violin and cello and had been a part of both clubs since her early years of Hogwarts. But when she heard a voice call out something about wrock band auditions, her interest was caught and she approached Bellatrix Dark with a smile. Though as a Gryffindor she detested most Slytherins, there were a few who had taught her not to trust all of the stereotypes- and she had been giving them the benefit of the doubt in the last couple of years.

Besides, Bellatrix had cute little Pygmy Puffs. Peony was nothing if not a true teenage girl, and the adorable little fluff balls would be enough to make her offer a smile to the most horrific Slytherin imaginable. Bellatrix was close to a horrific Slytherin from what Peony had heard about her, but she hadn't personally had any bad run ins with the girl- so she figured, what the hell? Why not listen to what she had to say?

"Wrock band?" Noni asked, picking up a particularly obnoxious colored pygmy puff- it was bright pink and purple. "What kind of musicians are you looking for?" Peony asked. She had played wrock before on her cello, and loved the way that it sounded. You could get a real mean, dirty sound if you knew what you were doing with the instrument. And after playing it since she was a child, Noni definitely knew what she was doing.

Pygmy puffs and chicks. They were definite heartbreakers in the ladies. Mace had gone for more, just in case, and swung back to where Bellatrix was standing with the box and fliers, with several more of the multicolored living pompoms riding on his hat. The proximity of all these puffs was leaving a pleasent humming sensation around his head.

"She'll take anything that's cool, I reckon," Mace said to the Gryffindor. "I'll be auditioning on sax so it's a little broader than your typical guitar and drums group."

She was taken with a pink and purple puff. "You like two-tones? They're actually pretty easy to breed, pygmies with highlights of a different color." Mace spoke with experience. "If you stay in the same size range, color is usually based on the parents, like blending on a color wheel. But for two-tones, you use regular puffskeins and encourage breeding small, so both parents leave a greater impact on the coloring. Though that's getting old hat so I'm going further."

Plucked from his hat was a black and white puff, with jagged bands that were more horizontal than the other two-tones. "Early draft at a zebra pattern. If I can break up the colors more we may have spotted puffs before winter."

The first person to stop by was a Gryffindor. A rather cheerful Gryffindor. Bellatrix wasn't entirely sure she liked someone that was as happy as Peony Flickwick, but this wasn't about personal preference. If the girl could play an instrument well, the Slytherin was all for letting her in the band. Besides, it might be a nice contrast to her own dark nature. Maybe the Flickwick could even be friends with Bellatrix and spread the word that she was a changed person after all.

Mace walked up about that time and offered an answer, one that was more satisfactory than the blunt one Bella had on the tip of her tongue. He really was a smooth talker and very...what was the word? Chilled? No one noticed, but the Dark girl smiled faintly as he opened the conversation wtih Peony talking about Pygmy Puffs. The moment he brought out the one with zebra stripes, she let out a barely audible gasp. A zebra-striped pygmy puff?! Well, almost.

"Let me know when you improve the zebra puffs," her smile grew stronger. "I'll take it off your hands."

Turning towards the Gryffindor, she became serious again yet not so serious as to lead the girl into thinking she was going to hex her if she didn't take a flier. Either way, she handed one over. The words on the parchment were in loud colors:


"I can't promise you'll be in it, but I'd like for you to audition anyway," she tried to smile, but her nervousness turned it to a slightly frightening grimace. "Pretty much anyone who can play an instrument in Wrock style is what I'm looking for. What instrument do you play?"

Saxaphone? That was... different. Not that Peony could really say that one way or the other. He was American, so maybe that was more normal there? But she didn't see how a saxaphone would fit into wrock music. At least the cello had the eerie sound (if you did it right) that a lot of the wrock music she'd heard had. The Weird Sisters had a cellist in their group, so it wasn't at all unheard of. Maybe for auditions she'd play one of their songs.

But then he was talking about a zebra stripe pigmy puff, and Peony perked. "Zebra, you say?" It seemed Bellatrix was interest in the same pattern. "I love animal print. And polka dots. If you can manage polka dots in colors like this, or zebra," she motioned to the animal she was holding, "I'd love to have one!"

Peony read the flier that was handed to her. She wasn't sure how she felt about carrying her cello all the way to Hogsmeade. But at least her case was enchanted to make the instrument feel much lighter than it was, so it wouldn't be quite as hard to haul back and forth. And, like the flier said, it would make the band (if one was formed) up of older students. Peony didn't really care to try out for a band that might be littered with first years. She didn't like kids that much.

"I play cello," she told Bellatrix. "And also violin. But cello can sound really amazing with wrock music. The Weird Sisters have a cellist," Noni explained. "Violin can sound neat, too, depending on the song. But cello has a more powerful effect for the type of music..." Peony glanced at the flier again. "I don't sing though," she confessed. "Can't carry a tune in a bucket. But I think you'll probably like it when you hear me play." If she didn't get in the band, Peony wouldn't be heartbroken- but it would be a lot of fun.

"What's with this emphasis on the 'W'?" It must be one of those British accent things. They must not screen kids for loose pronunciations of the letter 'R' like Mace's two months of speech therapy as a kid. "Unless you just build sound out of strings and rhythm. If so you guys are missing out." R & B, Jazz, plenty of bands in the 80s had decent wind support. Maybe, like so many things in the world, the Americans needed to show the Europeans how they had improved things. Like music, government, the textile industry and now pygmy puffs.

"Glad you like them," he grinned. "They've got short generations so it should get genetic soon. Though more animal prints, if you've got a reference, preference I'm looking for inspirations."

"Oh, the Weird Sisters. One of your hot bands, then?" He'd heard of them but hadn't been too keen on all of their music. 'Cept for a few. "They got that song about Hippogriffs? Goes 'Nna naa nah, Nna naa nah' or something?"[1]

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