It's short... and it's weird, but sometimes you just have to get started.

Nothing is ever quiet at Hogwarts, although some days are less filled with drama and hijinks than others. Following what went down in Hogwarts legend as "The Sock Revolt," life was comparatively very quiet. The Slytherins were still gloating about their trashing of the Gryffindor Common Room, believing that now was the perfect time to rest on their laurels. Laurels, however, are a kind of leafy hat, I think, and do not sound particularly safe for resting upon. This being the case, the Gryffs had spent many a quiet night plotting and planning their revenge against the vile and... vile Slytherins. They were beginning to suspect that McGonagal had a spy, though. She was always in the right place at the right time to spoil their pranking fun.

"Not up to mischief, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasely?" she'd ask with an eyebrow raised that said quite plainly she knew they were indeed up to mischief. McGonagal had quite multi-lingual eyebrows.

So Harry and Ron were quite depressed that their life for once consisted of homework, class, and extracurricular activities only. There was no mischief to manage and no research of impending crises to be huddled over in the library. In short, they were bored. Hermione wasn't bored; in fact, she was thrilled. Peer pressure is an ugly thing, however, and she pretended to be bored too.

The day they entered the Great Hall to hear a slight titter making its way around the massive room, Harry and Ron immediately perked up. A titter was something, as well as titter being a really funny word. If nothing else, they could at least talk about the titter and then giggle over it. Titter!

After settling in at the Gryff table, the three were pounced on by an excited Neville waving a Daily Prophet. His face was red, and he was struggling to squeeze out a coherent sentence.

"What's going on, Neville?" Three bright and enthusiastic faces watched him eagerly, and Harry even tried to snatch the paper from Neville's grasp. Neville clutched it closer to himself.

"The Prophet says that Celestina Warbeck is going on a world tour, and one of her stops is going to be Hogwarts. She'll be here in only a few weeks."

Their faces fell. Harry looked bored, Ron looked angry, and Hermione tried to hide her slight interest. "She's a singer, isn't she?"

"A singer? Do ye live in a cave?" Seamus leaned in and joined their conversation, quite rudely I might add. "She's the one and only Singing Sorceress! She's..." he trailed off, a strange and distant look on his face.

"And we lost him," Hermione said, turning back to Neville. She started to speak when she noticed that Neville also had a strange and distant look on his round face. "We've lost two of them." She looked to Harry and Ron, who shrugged.

"What's so special about Celestina Warbeck?"