If I May Be So Bold (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

7.

September 2034

ELLA

The one and only blessing in Ella's schedule was that the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were not in fact scheduled together for defense against the dark arts, thank god. They were, however, together for both charms and herbology, which were easily the most partner and group work intensive subjects, and of course when Professor Levert randomly selected partners for the first charms unit, she ended up with Henry Parker.

Ella's face was burning while they all gathered their things and went to sit beside their new partners. Iris and Kyrie were doing a pretty awful job of containing their giggles and Henry seemed to notice, because he glanced back at them, then at Ella's presumably very red cheeks, and he sort of smirked and sank back in his chair, ankles crossed in front of him, and arms folded.

Ella wanted to sink down into the floor and disappear. It was really too bad they weren't in transfiguration. She could've used a vanishing spell right about now.

Luckily they were just going over the syllabus and expectations that day, not jumping into trying any spells, but even just sitting next to him was brutal. Ella was so careful not to look his way at all and as a result, she heard exactly none of what Professor Levert said.

She took her time gathering up her things when it was time to go, hoping not to end up walking out beside him. Henry bumped into her chair on his way out, knocking into her knee. She thought it might have been purposeful, and if he'd intended for her to look at him, it worked. It was a reflex and she regretted it instantly.

"See you Thursday," he said with that same smirk from when they'd nearly collided on the train.

Ella could only nod.

Out in the hall, she could see Kyrie and Iris gearing up to start giggling and teasing her, and she knew she needed to put a stop to that quick, because Henry was still within earshot.

"Don't even think about saying anything," she said under her breath. Her cheeks felt like they would be permanently hot. Why did she have to blush so easily? She had never seen Juni blush. Not once in her life. Why had Juni ended up with all the good genes?

—-

Ella didn't really relax until after classes ended. Choir auditions were that afternoon before dinner, but they weren't much of an audition, really. Professor Whitby — who also, coincidentally, taught flying — would just have everyone sing at once and then he'd shuffle you around until you were in the right spot. It wasn't like anyone ever got cut from the school choir.

And anyway, Ella had been in choir for four years. She knew she was a soprano.

She took a seat in the usual soprano section. The choir room was her favorite room in the whole castle. It wasn't part of the original design (if anyone really knew what that was) but had been part of the rebuild after the Battle of Hogwarts back when her dad had been in school. There were these huge stained glass windows and when the sun started to go down, it would beam into the room and cast colorful patterns all over the floors. That plus the sound of six-part harmony echoing through the rafters — it was glorious.

Kyrie and Iris were part of the choir too, but they were both altos and Ella liked it this way. She loved singing, but she didn't want anyone to call attention to her voice and it was easier when she made sure to be seated next to someone she didn't know all that well.

Ella watched a group of nervous first years scurry in in a herd. They took the open seats next to her, which suited her just fine.

Professor Whitby waited until everyone had situated themselves somewhere before clapping his hands together and saying, "Well, I'm just chuffed to see so many of you here. We'll have a nice full sound. For those I haven't met yet, I'm Professor Whitby. I'll see many of you young ones out on the quidditch pitch for your first flying lesson tomorrow afternoon, but I'm glad to get a head start on some of your names today."

Then he went around the room greeting everyone he knew already and trying to learn the names of those he didn't. He talked about the opportunities they would have to perform that year, including the winter concert which was one of two big events they put on each school year.

"There will be opportunities for solos if that's of interest to you, but we'll get to those a little later down the road. For now, I just want to make sure we have everyone singing the right parts and then we can work on handing out some of the first music we'll learn this year."

Then with a wave of his wand at the piano, a middle C rang out and Professor Whitby cued them all to match the pitch. The piano ticked a note higher and higher every few seconds while Professor Whitby listened, and then it started ticking back down again. He shuffled lots of people around, had them sing through the whole scale again. Ella had to drop out several notes before the lowest. She just couldn't reach it. She saw Iris and Kyrie dipping their chins down and making silly faces at each other while they attempted to hit the last one.

Professor Whitby made a few final adjustments and then he nodded at them, grinned, and waved his wand at a stack of music. It started passing itself out to everyone.

"We've got a few minutes left before I have to let you all get on to dinner. Why don't we just sing through this once. Just sight read it as best you can."

So they all chirped their way through a rather rough rendition of the song. Half the group gave up on harmonies altogether and just sang the chorus. The other half did a questionable job of trying to follow their parts. Ella just tried not to sing too loud, because she actually could follow her part. She'd learned to read music when she was little from her mum. They'd sit at the piano and she'd show Ella how each little black mark on the page matched up with a key. Juni had never had the patience for it, but Ella had liked understanding sheet music. It was like a special language she and her mum spoke that her dad didn't.

And Ella had liked it especially because when she sat with her mum at the piano, she didn't act like Ella scared her. It was the only time she felt like her mum really relaxed around her. It was the only time it seemed like she thought she knew what she was doing.

Ella did like playing the piano, but it was singing she really liked. She just didn't want anyone to know that.

That was the nice thing about being in a choir. Your job was always to blend, not to stand out.