The Sound of a Lost Soul ((Alice))

[Melody Bang-Bala G6]

Mournful notes filled the room where Melody was practising the flute, the insecure phrasing grating on her ears even as she played. She stopped mid-cadence and, putting her flute down on top of the piano that the room also held, she walked over to the bare stone wall, laying the palm of her hand on it. The cold, rough feel unleashed a flood of memories: her cell in the young offenders section of Azkaban, shouts down the corridors, abusive language, the loneliness of life as everyone’s punchbag, solitary confinement... hearing of Hebe’s suicide, the confusion of release. She stood there with her eyes closed, wincing as images flashed and sounds echoed through her claustrophobic mind.

Finally, the flood of memories ceased and she walked dreamlike back to her flute, picking it up lovingly as she tried to bring some order to her thoughts. She began playing again, this time concentrating solely on her phrasing, the flow of the music as she filled the room with the breathy notes of the flute. She was not tranquil, but, absorbed in the music, she played out her tumultuous emotions. This time when she stopped, she again laid her flute down on top of the piano, cast an anti-theft charm on it that would make it burningly cold should anyone try to touch it, and left the room to take a little break. You could only play out your heart and soul for so long without feeling drained.

When she returned about fifteen minutes later, someone else’s music was permeating out of the room into the corridor – someone practising the violin. Melody herself could play the violin – a bit: she had tried out lots of instruments over the years – but it certainly wasn’t one of her favourite instruments. There was something about it that she didn’t quite like... it was a bit brash, perhaps, and a bit too high-pitched and attention-demanding. Then again, she didn’t have that issue with the trumpet, which wasn’t one of her best instruments, but certainly one that she enjoyed. Perhaps string instruments simply didn’t suit her... other than the guitar, of course.

Anyway, there was someone playing the violin in the music practice room, and it wasn’t half bad, quite a bit better than the standard Melody had reached before deciding the instrument wasn’t for her. But this was inconvenient... if she wasn’t going to be able to continue practising, she needed to get her flute and her music, and there was someone else in there. If this had been the old Melody, she wouldn’t have hesitated to go in and retrieve it, but this was Melody now, and she preferred to avoid unknown people as far as possible. There were only a few friends whose company she felt just about comfortable in nowadays; she’d had too many people confront her.

The violinist had stopped playing for a moment, and with a big sigh, Melody knocked and pushed the door open, visibly bracing herself for meeting whoever it was inside.
“Ah’m sorry,” she said immediately, trying to placate the occupant in a way she wouldn’t have used to do particularly. “Ah just need to get me things an’ Ah’ll be out of here again.” She walked past the girl who had taken the room over, her head bowed. She recognised the girl – it was a Ravenclaw in the year above her, one of a pair of twins. Of course, she’d been in the same year as Melody in first year – the first time round; Melody was a year old for her school year. Melody had no idea which twin it was; she had only risked a very small glance at the other occupant of the room, but she wouldn’t have known anyway. Alice or Kitty, she remembered their first names but not their surname. Hurriedly, she collected her music.
“Ah’m sorry,” she repeated again, fumbling as she packed her flute away into its case. She wanted to be out of here as soon as possible – it was a group of fifth years who were causing her the most grief and there was something about her old year group that made her particularly uncomfortable; they had emotional ammunition to use against her.

[Alice Swann]

"Where're you going, Lissy?" Kitty asked from her comfortable position on the bed, legs crossed with a book on her lap. Alice looked up and smiled with her eyes, hand stilling for a moment.

"Violin practice," was her reply, and drew out her instrument's case from under the bed. She glanced at Kitty again when it was safely in her hand, asking her a silent question, which Kitty shook her head to.

"I want to finish this," she said, picking up her book and waving it. "You're right, it's really good. I can't put it down!" Alice's smile widened, a hint of didn't I say so on her lips, and swayed her hand in goodbye before leaving their dormitory.

There was a particularly nice room for practising the violin; Alice and Kitty had found it a few years ago, after discovering that playing instruments in dormitories was not exactly appreciated by their dormmates, nor was it conducive for their practice. Alice was grateful for an empty room to play her violin; it was an act she preferred to either do alone, for her own private enjoyment, or with Kitty, playing a duet. Alice wasn't as open as her twin sister, and time with her violin was time with herself.

The room was empty when Alice arrived, and she let herself in without hesitance and began to set up. Putting the case on the floor, she carefully and lovingly extracted her violin, as well as a few sheets of paper. Before Alice had learnt she was a witch and could do magic, she used a music stand for her sheet music, but nowadays she was in the habit of using a levitation spell, since dragging a music stand around the School wasn't exactly easy. With a wave of her wand, the set of music notes was floating in front of her, and a quick switch meant a bow, not a wand, was in her hands.

Out of all the hobbies the Swann twins shared, playing the violin was probably Alice's favourite; she had easy access to playing it, and she had always learnt it out of sheer enjoyment rather than because of pressure from her parents. It gave her a peace of mind and time to herself, like books did. At the moment, she was learning to play a Japanese piece of music; having started it a few weeks ago, Alice was now rather proficient at it, and the music flowed elegantly from the violin, through the air, and lingered there around her.

A few practices of that particular piece, and Alice decided to switch to a different set of sheet music. As she once again swapped her bow for her wand, a knock rapped against the door, causing Alice to turn and wonder who it was, half expecting it to be Kitty having changed her mind to join her after all. It wasn't her twin sister, though, but another familiar face: Melody was in the year below, but originally she'd started Hogwarts at the same time as Alice and Kitty. Alice hadn't spoken to Melody much, but she'd heard recently that her cousin, Hebe, who had been a fellow Ravenclaw but older, had died. That was none of Alice's business, though.

"That's all right," Alice said, watching Melody enter and move towards the flute she hadn't seen before when she'd come in. "I'm sorry," Alice started then, a little alarmed. "I didn't notice that when I came in, I thought the room was empty. Would you like it back?"