Closed Sweet Music Playing in the Dark

[Weston Stirling]

Nodding his head in time to the music, Weston plucked the strings of his guitar as the melody fell. He strummed one final chord before looking up and letting his muscles relax. Sometimes when he played, he would tense up in concentration — a habit he never noticed until after the fact, when he ached. "I think that's the best we've ever gotten it," he said, beaming. He and Jordie had been regularly meeting up to play music together for the past few months. At first it had been an adjustment, learning to play with someone else, but it had only taken a couple of weeks for them to settle into a comfortable rhythm.

Weston glanced out the window, startled to see it was already so dark. It had been cloudy all day, and the weather combined with the shorter days meant there was little sunlight left. Unfortunately, the magical clock in the corner of the room indicated that it was still too early for dinner. It seemed that Weston was perpetually hungry these days. "Should we take a break? Or do you want to keep playing until dinner?" Normally he would've kept playing, but they'd been at it for over an hour and even Weston was a bit tired.

 

[Jordan Harris]

Jordie had been thrilled to have a proper excuse to learn the drums. He and Weston had been working on it all year, and Jordie loved it. He would run early in the mornings with Ben, he'd play a few times a week with Weston, and he'd been badgering the very cute Eoin for more study sessions, even though Jordie had been struggling still with his grades. He was starting to think he needed a tutor, but Jordie had no idea how to even begin asking for one.

He looked over as Weston spoke, setting the drum sticks down and stretching. "Let's take a break, drums are hard on my arms," Jordie laughed, standing and stretching his arms above his head. He stood there, running through a few different stretches. "I think you're right, we're getting good at this." He laughed lightly. "Our plan is going great, I think. Next year, do you want to switch? I'll teach you drums twice a week, like... monday and wednesday or something, then you teach me guitar like tuesday and thursday, then we practice together on fridays?" He thought aloud, walking over and plopping down next to Weston.

 

[Weston Stirling]

Weston nodded, taking the time to flex his fingers and crack his neck. It hadn't occurred to him that however tired he felt, Jordie must have had it worse since drums were a much more physical instrument than guitar. "Yeah, that would be great!" he said in response to Jordie's suggested schedule. For all of his time spent practicing, he didn't have a very strict schedule. He mostly just played whenever he found the time. It would be good to have a more structured schedule next year. "I'll make you a guitar master in no time," he said, grinning.

Weston moved over a bit so that Jordie had more room. "It would be cool to perform someday. We could play in the courtyard. Maybe all the stone would make for good acoustics." He tried to peer through the window, but it was too dark to see much of anything. It was strange that in a school as big as Hogwarts, there was no auditorium or theater. He vaguely remembered his old primary school having one, and it had been much smaller than Hogwarts.

 

[Jordan Harris]

-godmod approved-

Jordie sat down next to Weston, yawning and cuddling into the other boy. "I'm sure we'll be masters by the end of second year," He agreed, closing his eyes and settling comfortably against Weston. He chuckled at the comment about the acoustics, opening his eyes to look up at the Ravenclaw. "When the twins were in school, there was a talent show. I don't think it's been done again, but it was fun." He rolled his eyes. "When we get better at this, we should totally have our own little concert out in the courtyard, we can decorate and put up flyers and do a whole set, it would be great." He chattered, smiling softly at the idea.

 

[Weston Stirling]

Weston shifted so that Jordie could lean into him more comfortably. The cuddling had been kind of weird at first, but he'd quickly gotten used to it. Besides, it was kind of nice. "Wait, really?" he asked at the mention of a talent show. "The Arts Club should do another one. They haven't done anything music-related this year," he complained. It had mostly just been craft-making, which was fine, but music was an art too.

He nodded eagerly as Jordie described the concert they would have. "We'll be so good that someone will secretly record us and send it to that station that's always playing on the student lounge radio and a music exec will hear it and we'll go viral," he rambled. There was just one problem. "We need to come up with a band name," he realized, frowning slightly.

 

[Jordan Harris]

Jordie smiled, completely relaxed against Weston. "Yeah, it was ages ago though," He wrinkled his nose, laughing lightly and running a hand through his hair. "We could probably ask someone, like a professor or something," He mused.

He laughed in delight at the picture his friend painted, imagining the two of them going viral. "We totally need a name! Can you sing? I can kinda sing, but I would take lessons to sing better," he thought about it. "Should it just be us or should we go find more band members?" He asked, smiling brightly. "We could hold auditions! But we'd need to decide what to play first. Let's learn guitar and drums, and then in third year, we can do like, something else maybe? Like piano and bass, then maybe we can tour after school!" He laughed, completely carried away.

 

[Weston Stirling]

"Then they have to do something now," Weston concluded. There was no excuse not to do a talent show if it had been ages since the last one. "Who do you think would help us?" he wondered aloud. "Definitely not Professor Alicastell or Professor Mowry. They're scary. Maybe Professor Octavia?" She was one of the nicer teachers — even if she taught one of the more boring subjects — so she probably liked music and fun.

Weston pondered potential band names for a second before getting distracted by Jordie's question. "Oh, not really. I also need voice lessons." He honestly wouldn't mind just making music without vocals, but he knew that instrumental music rarely went viral. "We can recruit more band members! Maybe we can ask Zay?" He was the only other musician Weston knew, and it would be fun to have all his friends in one band. Weston nodded along eagerly to Jordie's plan. "Yes, we'll start with New Zealand and Australia, obviously, but soon we'll be touring the whole world!"

 

[Jordan Harris]

Jordie chuckled. He was in absolute agreement. When Weston asked about Professors, he considered it. "Professor Carter, maybe," he offered slowly. "Or maybe Professor Haden? He looks laid back," he offered in return.

Jordie shot up when Weston mentioned Isaiah. "Yes!!" he agreed enthusiastically. Isaiah was great! "You and Zay are both two of my best friends ever, we gotta ask him!" He agreed enthusiastically. "I can't remember what he plays, do you know? Can he sing? We gotta find out!" He chattered, jumping to his feet.

 

[Weston Stirling]

Weston nodded when Jordie suggested Professor Carter. "Yeah, he's cool. He's your Head of House, isn't he?" He still wasn't completely sure what HoHs were supposed to do though Professor Josephs seemed nice enough. At least neither of them had the grumpy-looking professor the Slytherins had. "Who's Professor Haden? Is he the one with the glasses?"

Jordie seemed to approve of his suggestion, and Weston straightened up, eager. "He plays guitar! One of us can be lead and the other could be rhythm? Or we could all play guitar." It was a joke, but he thought it could sound cool. "I don't know," he responded to Jordie's second question. He knew that Zay occasionally came up with funny little ditties, but he wasn't sure if he sang-sang. "We can find him at dinner and ask!" he said, feeding off of Jordie's enthusiasm. This was the best idea ever.