Music to my ears

[Ashlynn Lee]

Ashlynn’s strength was definitely not in instruments, but that never stopped her from trying. She’d been learning guitar from her brother for the past two and a half years now. Her brother was an amazing guitarist, in contrast to her. It made her jealous sometimes, especially when he showed off to her about it. But then again all she had to do was rub it in his face that she was better than him in art and singing. Then he would smile and just shut up about it.

Today, she decided to bring her acoustic guitar out from her room, so it would stop collecting dust and being useless. She took it out from its case and hooked the strap over her shoulder. Sitting down under the shade of a rather large oak tree, she began to tune it. Her vocal teacher had trained her enough that she knew the pitches by ear. A few minutes later, she finished tuning and strummed a few chords, humming along until she got a feel for it. It had been a few weeks since she last touched the guitar. She started playing an acoustic version of What A Girl Wants, singing along in some parts. It was one of her favorite songs lately, and she really looked up to the group that sang it.

 

[James Woodlock]

Once again James felt drawn to the lake front. There was something about this place that made him want to come out and relax in the gleaming sunlight which was not at all in his nature. As he circled the lake he began to hear the soft sound of music. He looked around and tried to follow the music, once in a while the music would be accompanied by singing. The voice was beautiful and it made him determined to find the source. James slipped out of his robe and slung it over his shoulder and scanned the area again, he spotted a girl he assumed was his age sat down with a guitar. He walked towards her laid down his robe and sat. "Hello," He said, he was unable to force a smile because as beautiful as her singing was he was still out side."You sound great," He added.

 

[Ashlynn Lee]

Ashlynn was about halfway through the song when she started spacing out, thinking about other things. She played a few wrong chords, but still managed to follow along with her singing. Suddenly, a voice interrupted her thoughts, and she looked up and stopped singing. Her fingers strummed a few strings as she saw the source of the voice. A boy about her age had laid down his robe on the ground in front of her. Glancing at the robe, she saw the green and silver that marked him as a Slytherin, the same as her.

“Thanks!” She replied with a wide grin. She hadn’t been able to meet many new people yet since it was so difficult for her to learn everything about this school and their schedules and whatnot. She hardly had any time to sit and sketch out a few pictures, although she knew she would find time eventually. Her brother had made her promise to draw him a few pictures of the school grounds. Ashlynn set her guitar down. “Singing’s always been one of my favorite things to do. I’m not so good at playing instruments though.” She laughed her tinkling, bell-like laugh. Looking closer at the boy, she saw that he looked a bit uncomfortable. She wondered why. “What’s your name? I’m Ashlynn Lee. Slytherin first year. I literally know nothing about magic.” She laughed again.

 

[James Woodlock]

James smiled as he sat down next to her, he noticed the green trimmings on her robe and the crest bearing a serpent. She was a fellow Slytherin. "I'm James Woodlock, Slytherin First year and I know a little about magic," He said. This was true, since his mother was magical she raised him to learn magic from an early age so he knew all that he was allowed to know without breaking the law. Which still wasn't much but it was evidentlly more than some. "Nice to meet you, don't worry I won't hold the lack of knowledge against you," He said grinning hoping she caught his sarcastic tone.

 

[Ashlynn Lee]

Ashlynn smiled after hearing that James was also a first year. “Cool! I don’t know a whole lot of Slytherins yet,” she said. “Actually, most of the people I’ve met are in Gryffindor and I know one Ravenclaw.” She wondered if she was the only one here that was so out of the loop on magic. It wasn’t really her fault, seeing as her family had no clue magic even existed before she got her letter, and there was no way they could teach or show her anything. It’d be cool if her brother were a wizard though. They could have even more fun together. She wished she could pull a few tricks on him, but the teachers had said that underage magic wasn’t allowed.

“I suppose I’ll learn eventually,” she said with a laugh. “So how did you learn about magic? Your family?”

 

[James Woodlock]

James nodded, "Yeah, both of my parents are magical so I knew about magic as soon as I could talk, I just wish I could have started practicing magic a lot sooner, stupid laws prohitibiting under age magic," He said. James had spent a lot of time reading about magic when he was younger but he had never got to practice it until now so he didn't know what kind of wizard he would be other than a well informed one.

 

[Ashlynn Lee]

“Oh wow,” Ashlynn said, raising her eyebrows. “That’s impressive. So do you think you’ll ace all your classes?” She knew she was at a disadvantage compared to the majority of the students here, but since she actually cared, she decided that she would try her best here. Now if this were regular school back home, that would be a different story. She didn’t care for math or writing or chemistry. She would much rather spend her time in the art classroom, painting or sketching or something. She leaned a little closer, curious about the laws James was talking about “And what happens if you break those laws?”

 

[James Woodlock]

James laughed, "I highly doubt I'll ace anything but I would be nice," he smiled. He had never thought of his magical knowledge as an advantage at the school seeing as though the majority of the student population had a magical parent. She then asked what would happen if you broke the law, the truth was he didn't know what would happen if an underaged wizard performed magic. "I think you get sent to Azkaban or something," James thought for a moment and realised that probably wasn't true, "at the very least you'd get expelled," he added.

 

[Ashlynn Lee]

Ashlynn’s eyes widened. “And what’s Azkaban? Rehab? Or do they kill you there.” Then she frowned at her own stupidity. “Wait no, why would they kill you for underage magic? Sorry, I’m just kinda out of it. I’m usually out of it, now that I think about it. Anyway, that sounds pretty extreme.” Well, there went her hopes of using any magic on her brother this summer. She would love to, just for the heck of it, but if that might end up in her getting expelled or sent off to some rehab place…Ashlynn decided it wasn’t worth it. She thought about it some more. “And what if…they don’t catch you?” She winked.

 

[James Woodlock]

James laughed, "No don't be silly, Askabans a prisons but they don't kill you in fact what they do if much much worse, the basically suck out every happy thougt you have making you so miserable that you don't even try to escape, and maybe at some point the Dementers would kiss you which err, sucks out your sould which umm sounds like fun wouldn't you agree?" James chuckled trying to keep the mood as light as possible despite the current topic. "And if they don't get caught..." he smiled as he noticed her wink, "you spend your life on the run always looking over your shoulder," He added.

 

[Ashlynn Lee]

“Oh,” Ashlynn said, still contemplating. “That’s still pretty extreme. I supposed being expelled is…reasonable, but going to prison?” She shivered. That would be like going to jail for cheating on an exam or something back home. Or vandalizing school property. And getting your soul sucked out? Jeez, what was up with the people that ran this jail thing?! “That’s so gross!” She exclaimed. “They kiss you? And then you lose your soul? God, I couldn’t imagine living after that,” she said. “I’d much rather spend my life on the run rather than go there. Although I suppose if I had the choice, I wouldn’t break the law after all.” She squinted at James. “You’re not fooling me are you?” She was a rather gullible person, even though she hated to admit that.

 

[James Woodlock]

James smiled and shook his head, "No, I know it sounds unbelievable expecially since your still getting used to this world but I'm being deadly serious, it is really extreme and I had the same reaction as you when I first found out," James could remember talking with his Dad about what happened when criminals got caught and he also remembered the nightmares he had when he first learned about Dementors and what they could do to people.