Open Put Your Emptiness to Melody

[Vivian Brackenstall]

Vivian was running out of hiding places at Hogwarts, and it was all his own fault. So many of the places he used to go to be alone were places he had shared with Hudson, and the risk of running into the younger boy was too great. He knew the way he had ended their relationship had been.... beyond cruel, and he didn't want to make Hudson spend any more time around him. That door was closed now, and it was his own fault. Vivian was avoiding his dormitory as well - his feelings about his relationship with Tristan were only growing more conflicted with time, and he was struggling to process that. When it was just the two of them, Vivian felt as good as he ever had. He felt loved, in love, perfectly matched with the only person who had ever understood him. But when he was alone, or around Tristan with other people nearby, the betrayal in Hudson's voice rung through his ears, and the fact that Tristan was the one who had decided on this situation weighed heavily on his shoulders. Vivian knew he wasn't innocent. He had agreed to this, he had gone along with it all these years, let Tristan lie to one person after another and done the same himself. But the roots of his problems all traced back to that one source.

It was too much to process, and Vivian couldn't think about his situation clearly enough with Tristan around. He needed a quiet place to escape to, and thankfully, he had found it in the arts room. Vivian had loved playing piano with his grandmother since he was a small child, and the familiar comfort was a relief, fingers fluttering lightly over the keys. As he played Vivian toyed with the phrasing of a poem he was working on in his mind, wondering how it would sound sung. If not for the risk of someone walking in and hearing, he would have given it a try. For now he let his imagination do the work though, trying to create something beautiful and new from the confusion he was struggling through right now. Tristan's cat, Lumos, had followed him down from the dorm and curled up on his lap as he played, a warm and familiar presence as Vivian tried to calm and center his mind, alone in the peace of the arts room.

 

[April Ward]

April felt like she hadn't made the most of her time at school over the past years. She had focused a lot on being with friends and playing Quidditch, but her dancing had really suffered because of her lack of discipline. Full of good intentions at the start of the new year, the girl made her way to the arts room in her workout clothes, practically hopping up and down with excitement at the thought of getting to dance for a little while. Why didn't she do this more often? With Quidditch she was made to practice because the team counted on her, but when she had to decide for herself she often found herself slacking off instead of doing things, even when they were things she liked. She practically burst into the arts room, somehow expecting it to be empty. But it wasn't. "Oops. Sorry." She said, realizing she was interrupting some guy playing piano. "Oh, that sounds nice." She added as she took a moment to actually listen.

 

[Vivian Brackenstall]

The sound of doors slamming open smashed through Vivian's illusion of peace, his hands faltering and stilling on the keys. He looked over at the door, recognising a younger girl from his own house, though Vivian couldn't put a name to her face. He faltered when she complimented his playing, hands recoiling nervously. Vivian didn't know the last time anyone but his grandmother had heard him play. "Um... thank you." He said quietly, shifting. "Do you need the room?" Vivian asked. "I can go..."

 

[April Ward]

April looked at the older boy curiously, her head cocked to the side. She grinned at him, but that grin disappeared when he stopped playing. "Oh, no, don't stop playing!" She said quickly, waving her hands around to emphasize her words. "You sound great!" She said, trying to encourage him. She felt bad if she had truly interrupted him, and definitely didn't want him to stop playing on her account. "Oh, I don't need the room. I was just going to dance, not play piano. So we can both be here, right?" She asked, then grinned. "Maybe I can dance to your music!"

 

[Vivian Brackenstall]

Vivian faltered nervously at the girl's insistence that he keep playing, letting his fingertips rest lightly on the keys without actually pressing them. He flushed, not sure how to react to such effusive praise. "Thank you..." He said quietly, wondering what someone so exuberant was doing here. He listened as she explained, a jolt of nerves going through him as she suggested she could dance to his music. Vivian didn't know what to do with that suggestion, didn't know what to do with the suggestion of anyone listening to his music at all, but he didn't really see a way to say no. "Um, if... if you like." He said slowly, moving one hand to reassure Lumos, who was peering at the girl curiously now. "I don't have any sheet music with me though, I was just... improvising."

 

[April Ward]

April smiled at the boy as he thanked her. "You're welcome!" She said brightly. "You're in my sister's year, she's the head girl." She informed her as she moved closer to the piano to look curiously at the keys. She had never really had the patience to sit down and learn any kind of musical instrument, but was a bit fascinated with people that had. "I would like to! I don't mind if its improvising, I can improvise my dancing to fit the music too. Wouldn't that be fun?" She looked at the boy hopefully, as she didn't want him to completely turn down her idea. Then she spotted the cat, and gasped. "Oh! You have a cat too! What's it's name?" She resisted the urge to pet it, because she didn't want to scare it off and annoy the boy.

 

[Vivian Brackenstall]

Vivian started to nod when the girl said she had a sister in Vivian's year, but his heart clenched when she added who it was. Vivian had avoided having anything to do with October for a long time, as it was clear well before they dated that Tristan had an eye on her, and Vivian hadn't wanted anything to do with that. And now... even though that was all over, Vivian still felt a pang of guilt that she was just walking around with no idea what Tristan had done to her. He didn't know what to say, so he simply stayed quiet, relieved that the girl seemed to have no end of things to say. It took the pressure off him to contribute to the conversation. The thought of someone dancing to his rambling, uncertain music made Vivian nervous, but it was clear this girl had already decided what was going to happen, so he simply nodded in agreement. It was only when she asked about Lumos that Vivian finally spoke, giving the cat a gentle stroke. "Lumos. He's my roommate's cat." He said softly, adding the word, 'barely,' in his mind. Vivian had always connected more easily with Tristan's pet, and he was quite sure he spent far more time with him than Tristan did. Not that it bothered Vivian at all. He liked pretending to have a cat of his own.

 

[April Ward]

April was trying not to be impatient with this boy, but it was a bit difficult. It seemed like for every three things she said, she only got one response from him. She understood that some people were quiet, in theory, but she could never really imagine not wanting to talk. She frowned a bit. "Do you know my sister?" she asked when the boy said nothing about her. The cat being his roommate's made her giggle. "Oh, she seems to like you a lot. Or he, I guess?" To April, it looked like a girl cat, but the boy probably knew better than her. "What's your name?" She asked him, moving closer so she could pet the cat, her resolve having crumbled. She hoped the cat and the boy wouldn't mind. "And do you want to play some more music?" April was still itching to dance, and she was going to do so whether the boy made music or not.