Open Musical Memory

[Abian Hunter]

Abian had been studying for the OWLs for what felt like an eternity now, but they were getting closer and he couldn't stop. He'd put too much effort into it now to give up, and knew he'd never forgive himself if he slacked off in the final weeks and got bad grades. He had always gotten pretty bad grades, but ever since he'd realized that he wanted to be a healer, Abian had been working as hard as he could to get them up. It had been a rough year for that reason, but he knew he only needed to try a little longer before he could relax during the break.

The thing about the OWLs that scared him the most was the fact that they covered everything from the past five years. This wouldn't be a huge problem, if Abian had tried a little harder in the previous years. Because he hadn't been the best student back then, he now needed to catch up a lot. The boy had found himself a comfortable place in the student lounge, and was looking over Potions stuff. He had memorized a lot of the potions they had made, knowing their ingredient lists as well as the way to prepare them fairly well. But one thing he kept stumbling over were the very basic facts about all those ingredients. He had remembered Professor Pendleton had made a song about it, and he used it now as he revised the ingredients for himself. Under his breath, he mumbled the song as his foot tapped along and his quill scratched over the parchment. If he did well on these exams, maybe he should thank Professor Pendleton. And maybe he should make a song about more things he had to learn, it was pretty helpful.

 

[Emily Underwood]

Emily wasn't ready for her exams in the slightest. Life seemed to have caught up and now the exams were on her doorstep. Last years exams had been horrid and she wasn't sure if she could catch up with the rest of her peers. Em packed her bag with most of her books and decided the student lounge would be good place to get some studying going. The library's silence made her mind go fuzzy and made her even more annoyed by her lack of actual studying in the past. In the student lounge there were still people goofing around and just enjoying life.

Emily walked around and found a boy sitting over his potion book. She recognized the cover immediately. The boy seemed to mumble a song and it somehow sounded familiar. His foot was ticking in the same rhythm which perfect the whole image. ''Hello.'' Emily muttered hopefully not scaring the boy too much ''That song sounds familiar where is it from?'' Emily hoped he could jog her memory.

''I've put away studying for so long that I don't think studying can even help anymore'' Em mused ''I am Emily by the way'' Emily said with a big grin. ''Your little music mumbling is definitely helping in lightening my mood''. She dropped her bag down and already regretted taking all of her books with her. It just looked like an impossible task that was in front of her.

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian stopped midway through a sentence as a girl approached him, he looked up and gave her a smile, not recognizing her from his year or house. He guessed she was younger than him. "It's a Professor Pendleton classic, from first year." He said with a slight grin. "Was catchy then, is catchy now." He told her cheerfully. He winced in sympathy as the girl admitted to having put off studying for so long, it sounded familiar to him. "I've been there." He told her. "But this year I'm making more of an effort, it's my OWL year, they say it's important." He said. As she introduced herself, Abian reacted to the name instinctively. "Oh, that's my girlfriend's name." He said, then realizing that was maybe not information she needed, or that it could sound like a bad pickup line. "She's in Gryffindor." He added quickly, to let her know he really had a girlfriend named Emily. "Glad I could help." He said, stretching a bit. "I wish it was lightening my own mood too."

 

[Emily Underwood]

As soon as the boy said it was one of Professor Pendleton's songs the memories flooded back to her. It really was a catchy tune. ''Now I remember and it is definitely one hell of a catchy tune.'' Emily smiled broadly. Hearing the boy talk about his upcoming OWLS made Emily shrug. That meant even more on the line for him, Emily could still fail her exams and still nothing would really happen. Hearing the boy had been in her non studying situation made Emily smile. Maybe she wasn't the only one that had put off studying, maybe she was the only Ravenclaw. Most Ravenclaws were cooped up in the library to study themselves to death, Emily wasn't like any of those and had just ignored the problem until now. ''I am probably doing the same for my OWL year too, I always ignore studying and then it's almost too late'' It was better to be truthful with herself, she knew she could tell the boy that she was going to study hard next year, but that probably was a promise she could never held. When Emily introduced herself the boy kept blabbing on about how his girlfriend had the same name, but now she hadn't received his. She knew he was a fifth year and by the looks of him he was a Hufflepuff. ''So I know your girlfriend is named Emily, what is yours?'' Emily mused ''If i want to join the band I need to at least know the name of the lead singer'' Emily grinned and hoped the boy could handle her stupid jokes. ''Do you think it will ever get easier, studying for exams?'' Maybe he had found the solution to all of her problems, maybe it was just mumbling Professor Pendleton's patented Potions song. She then grabbed her transfiguration book out of her bag and dumped it open on some random page. ''Argh, I dislike it already and I haven't even started yet.'' Emily said between grunts.

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian smiled back at the girl, nodding in agreement. "It really is. I never expected to remember it into my fifth year." He admitted with a small laugh. "It's helping me a bit with studying now. I should probably thank him." He mused. The girl said she would probably be in the same position he was in in her OWL year, and Abian sighed a little sadly. "I've been pretty on top of it this year, but it's hard to catch up on the previous years." He admitted. He wished he had tried a little harder, but he had really struggled so he couldn't blame himself too much. Abian laughed as the girl asked him for his own name, which he had forgotten to say. "I'm Abian." He said with a slight smile. "Sorry, forgot that part of the introduction." He laughed again when she joked about joining his band. "The only song we'll ever play is the potions song." He said, grinning at the thought. But his grin faded a little as Emily asked him if he thought it would ever get easier. "Probably not... I think it's just going to get harder every year." He admitted a little sadly. He grimaced at the sight of her transfiguration book. "I don't miss that subject." He commented. "The spells are cool, but the theory is so unnecessarily complicated." He said. "I'm glad I don't need it."

 

[Emily Underwood]

Next year was Emily her OWL year and she already saw herself mumbling Professor Pendleton’s song herself. Professor Pendleton was one of her favourites and she was sad that she wouldn’t have any more lessons from him. ‘’You should thank him, Professor Pendleton is the greatest.’’ Emily said with a small grin. ‘’I always try to stay on top, but then somehow it never stays that way.’’ Emily mused ‘’I just hope that the Professors make a ridiculously easy exam for me. ‘’ She definitely didn’t believe that, but you could always hope. ‘’Well, that would make for a very interesting band then’ Playing only one song would get boring so easily. fo

‘’Yeah, you are probably right.’’ The exams did get harder each year, but then again, she learned more each year and thus everyone assumed the students were ready for a harder exam. Emily wasn’t crazy she would never take astronomy as an OWL. ‘’Maybe it does get easier, now I can finally let go of a lot of subjects and the subjects I do take interest me more and thus I want to put more effort in for them’’ Emily said while smiling. When Abian commented on Transfiguration she grinned. Transfiguration was one of her favourite subjects and she was definitely taking that as an OWL. ‘’I agree with you that the Transfiguration Professor is a master in lecture giving’’ The lessons took forever and her hands started to ache after a full lesson. ‘’What do you want to be after Hogwarts then?’’ He didn’t seem to need transfiguration a subject that most jobs required.

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian nodded when Emily said Professor Pendleton was the best. "He's pretty cool." He agreed. "I miss him a bit, Professor Warrick is kinda boring in comparison honestly." He said a little sheepishly. "But I guess not everyone can be eccentric like Professor Pendleton. That would probably be a little tiring too." He said with a small shrug. He laughed softly as she talked about the band. "Will you be in it?" He asked her easily. "As background singer, or dancer." He joked.

Abian shrugged a little as the girl said it might get easier when she could take subjects she thought were interesting. "Yeah, maybe." He said hesitantly. "But even if you like it, it can still be difficult." He said, though maybe it was just that he was not very good at studying. To Abian, it felt like he had to take twice as much effort to learn something than some of his classmates. But it wasn't like he wanted to tell a stranger that. He laughed when she said that the professor was a master in lecture giving, nodding in agreement. "I want to be a healer." He said in response to her question, feeling oddly shy. He hadn't really said it out loud much yet, as he still had no idea if it was a realistic dream or not.

 

[Emily Underwood]

When Abian said that Professor Warwick was a tad bit boring. Emily nodded sadly, she had already seen the other Professor once or twice and he definitely didn’t look as eccentric as Professor Pendleton had done. ‘’Yeah I guess so, too bad I have to live with Professor Warwick for another three years then’’ Emily said already dreading her subject choices. When the conversation went back to the band Emily laughed. ‘Yeah sign me in, I could do both so it adds to the show.’’ Emily mused. ‘’We might have to ask Professor Pendleton for permission to use his song and to bring it out commercially.’’ Not that the idea was serious, but Emily thought that would be a very funny situation.

‘’Yeah I am assuming Muggle studies is going to give me a hard time’’ Emily parents were both magical and their houses contained almost nothing that would classify as a strictly muggle object. When her parents visited the Muggle world, they would always dress up so weirdly and people would stare at them to no extent. Emily giggled and hoped that she would at least get to know more about the muggle world then her parents did. ‘’Well, if you want something badly, there is always a way to achieve it.’’ Either by hard studying or just climbing up the ranks. Dreams we good for people, dreams made people believe and thus work harder to accomplish things in their lives. ‘’I still haven’t decided myself yet, so I am going to take a broad set of OWLS”.

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian felt a little bad about what he had said about Professor Warrick now. "He's not bad." He said quickly, not wanting to give the girl a bad impression of him. "Just less uh, eccentric I guess. I don't see him singing any songs. He's also really young." He said with a shrug. As Emily said they might have to ask Professor Pendleton for permission, Abian grinned easily. "Or we ask him to join."He said with a laugh. "I think the band could use his energy." He said, laughing at the mental image.

Abian was a little surprised to hear the girl would have a hard time with Muggle Studies, it was easily his easiest subject. But he remembered not everyone had the same experience as him. "Uh, I don't usually say this because I'm really not that smart, but if you need help with that class I could help." He said with a shrug. "I'm muggleborn, so... I have taken that class just for the easy grade." He admitted sheepishly. Abian nodded slowly as she said there was a way to achieve his dreams. "Well, I'm trying. If I fail, I don't really have a backup plan." He admitted. "You're smart picking a broad set."

 

[Emily Underwood]

She really had only seen Professor Warwick once, so she should give him a chance at least. Emily was sure this Professor wasn’t bad, this school only seemed to have the best of the best. ‘’Maybe it is for the best that he doesn’t sing, otherwise Professor Pendleton wouldn’t be so special.’’ Emily said while smiling. ‘’Oh, he should definitely join, we do need him’’ That was a brilliant idea that Abian just had and it would boost the band to a whole different level.

When Abian said he could help with Muggle Studies she was excited. She knew she was going to have a hard time with the subject and having a study buddy seemed like a good idea. ‘’That is a smart idea as well, why isn’t there a subject called Magical studies were they just go over Wizarding inventions that would be easy’’ Emily grinned. ‘’Well you will make it, I can help you as a study buddy with some of the other subjects’’ Emily said.

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian smiled at Emily and nodded. "Deal." He said as she said they needed him to join. "We'll ask him." He said, grinning at the idea. It was a fun thing to joke about, funny to imagine. He was a little surprised when he noticed the girl was actually happy with his offer of help, at least... she seemed to be. He'd never helped anyone with homework before, he usually needed help himself. "I'll be happy to help you out." He told her. "And... that would be nice, I'll need a study buddy to keep me focused." He said with a slight grin. He'd only just met this girl, but he liked her. Perhaps they could become friends.

 

[Emily Underwood]

Although talking to Abian had been so much fun, she knew the time to study had actually come. She flipped her transfiguration book to right page about switching spells. ''Study buddies now then?'' Emily paused ''Lets make our first epic study session happen now'' Emily smiled and started to read about the spells she needed to preform on her exam. She was happy that she had probably made a friend today.

Fin.​