Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the songs mentioned.
The first time Hugo Weasley meets Porpentina Boot she is 8 and he is 6.
She is at her aunt's house because she was being babysit by her Aunt Luna, along with her sister Artemis. Penny is with her aunt because her mother, who teaches piano and other music, to both magical and muggle folk, is swamped with lessons, while her father is busy with Queenie at a St. Mungo's. She is too young to realize that her oldest sister has become branded with the term 'special.' She hasn't yet come to the realization that while the healers, unspeakables, and other magic experts will poke and prod at her sister with fascination, her sister will face the hardest challenges ever in earning people's trust.
She is also too little to know that the fact which people sometimes talk without noise isn't normal.
She doesn't know that everyone around her — her Aunt Luna, her sister Artemis, her parents — do not hear what she calls silent speaking and voices. What people don't always say out loud. Even at age eight, she has already become a bit knowledgeable about it. It is their candid opinions. They are sometimes meant to be more private, which she has learned the hard way after speaking to many times with candor.
She likes hearing the voices; however, sometimes it is a lot to handle. But, made ever precocious due to the voices, she is coping, learning to sneak off for bits of alone time. She's noticed that this worries her parents — not that they say it out loud, of course, but she hears it in the silent speaking — so she has developed the perfect amount of time. An amount where she gets a recharge, but where they don't always notice.
It is easiest for her around her great-grandparents. For her great-grandfather, who all the Scamander kids of her generation fondly call Papa, he is quite sedate in his mind. Especially when they are with his creatures, it is quite calming.
Her great-grandmother is different. When she can hear her Nana's silent voices, they are strong, and stretching, but for the most part, they are quite there.
Normally, it seems like everyone is talking constantly. At a normally level, or louder if they are angrier or sadder or just plan emotional. Her Nana is quieter, when she can her her, at a murmur. It is relaxing, a refreshing break from the constant barrage of noise.
And they wonder why she prefers to be alone. Penny adores being with out companions. She doesn't know it exists yet, but she agrees whole-heartily with the saying "Silence is golden."
In the mean time, she tells no one of the voices. She doesn't think to. Eventually, she might make a remark, and people will react to her as is she is crazy. It will strike fear in her, and she won't tell anyone of the voices, just let the worry and fear fester inside of her. When she finally has the courage to tell her family and friends, she is freed from that burden. She'll pick up a new burden, but she will know how to deal with it.
Hugo is only six, and more innocent than Penny ever was. He is unaffected by worries, doubts, and fears that constantly plague her, and as a result, is the quintessential young boy.
He doesn't realize that his future will be filled with the doubts and insecurities. He knows that he is part of the Weasleys, a brilliant family, but he doesn't know that his future will be filled with expectations and watching, judging eyes. He doesn't know that he will always be compared to his family, and that he will never measure up — until one day, he will, but not for a long time, and before that, there will be a plethora of self-doubt and feeling inferior and experiencing being a disappointment. Right now, he is blissfully unaware.
And that is where this story starts — when Penny and Hugo are young and blithely unaware. They are about to experience an event that will change Hugo's life — be his purpose — and cement their friendship.
He and his mum — the great Hermione Granger-Weasley — have come to see her Aunt Luna. Lorcan is being punished for a prank, while Lysander and Artemis are outside, playing with a creature. Hugo had come to her, she being the one that is closer to him in age and calmest. (She stays calm, serene even, because reacting to everything scares people. She is already a people-pleaser.) She had talked to him, and listened to him silent speak, before deciding that he would like the attic.
Her Aunt Luna's house has the best attic. It is lighthouse, which is rather odd when you consider that it is not near water, but cool nonetheless. The top floor is an attic, filled with all sorts of stuff. There is wizarding things —- old brooms, ancient robes, magical jewelry, a sort of cigar-like thing that puts out the lights, a bizarre-looking thing that is trying to be a crown, and what Penny thinks is Pensieve (she has heard people mention it.) — and muggle things — beach-balls, bowling pins, a ping-pong table, a collection of old board games, and a piano. The young boy, who Penny thought was nice, because he hadn't had any snide thoughts about her, or anyone, just tried to see the best in them. A little naive, she reflected, too maturely for her age, but sweet. Then she hears it.
She looks at him. If she hadn't heard it through the silent speaking, she would have never known he wanted it. He wasn't looking as though he had wished it; he looked normal.
But she had felt it, so gestured toward it and said, "You can play it, you know. That's the point of it." She shoved him toward the piano, trying to fufil his desire to play it. "I'll get some music." She walked away to root around in some boxes.
Hugo looked at the piano. He felt as though it was a part of him — which is crazy, because he has never seen one, let alone heard of one. But he has an overwhelming urge to play it.
"Here," Penny says, returning. She hands him a box. "There will be music here at your level."
"I've never played before," he admits sheepishly.
"Yes, I know," she tells him, and it sparks his curiosity. "We'll start at the beginning, of course! Here is a level one book." She hands him the book in question. He studies it, looking at the lines of music. After paging through it for a bit, he thinks he could start playing, and so he quietly shuffles over to the piano.
It's an old, black, upright piano. It looks a bit well worn, but it also has air about it that says it was loved. The girl, Penny, comes by his side.
"It was my Aunt Luna's mother's piano," she tells him. "She died when Auntie was young. She misses her a lot. The piano is impervious to harm and survived even when Aunt Luna' s father blew up the house with an Eurumpt horn."
He's right; this piano has been loved.
He take the book of easy pieces and instructions on how to play them and opens. "Ode to Joy" is what the title reads. By Ludwig Van Beethoven, adapted. She teaches him some little things, like where to sit and how to hold his hands. She tells him the note names and the staff, and how the note values are assigned. She has learned all of this through her mother's piano lessons. She finishes up her explanation, and he starts.
It is easy, and he feels it. He is playing one note at a time, and it feels so doable. It makes him feel complete to make the music so pretty.
They start testing out more and more of the songs. "Simple Gifts," a folk song, which Penny pulls out of a intermediate book. The song is beautiful.
Penny has never felt someone feel so complete, so fully at peace. It's a good feeling, of contentment. He is happy.
They are going through all the music now, trying to see what he can and cannot play. They know that Hugo being able to play like this is cool, but they don't know how amazing it is.
"Here," Penny says, looking through the box, "Try this one."
"'The Morning Mood,'" Hugo reads, "By Edvard Grieg, from the Peer Gynt Suite, arranged." He sits down to play it.
It is beautiful. Hugo instinctively has the melody shining through, and he is a natural. Though it is an abridged, it still a gorgeous piece being played by a capable and excited pianst.
Downstairs, they hear more people arriving. Penny's Aunt's friends are arriving. Ginny and Harry Potter are coming in, along with their children, James, Albus, and Lily.
Penny smiles at the little boy making the music. His mind is simultaneously serene and excited, and so she is just leaving him to it.
As she is leaving, she bumps into Ginny Potter and her older son James, who is ten. They can see and hear Hugo playing the piano.
"Good prank, Penny!" He exclaims. "I can't do anything like that. And look, you have really got him fooled!"
Ginny Potter, whose have previously been emanating shock, awe, and confusion, starts to silently speak comprehension. "Ahh. Hugo is very sensitive, Penny, please don't trick him like that. Anyway, you guys need to come down." They leave, Hugo's euphoria shattered.
She feels his brokenness. His family— the one that believes in Molly to lead, in Dominique to play quidditch, in Victoire to be friendly and encouraging and all-round talented, in Teddy to be there and smart and just perfectly-Teddy, and in all the brilliant stuff Rose and Albus will do in the future, in James's future spot on the Quidditch team, in Roxanne's and Fred's soon-to-be mischief, and in Lily's great and wonder future, has seen and do not believe in his potential.
He is crushed.
She feels his pain. "I'm so sorry. It's not a trick, you are wonderful, actually."
"Really?" He asks. She can see how his plans — the plans his fanciful six-year-old brain has constructed — are destroyed. Something he could stand out for — instead of being just another Weasley. He is huddled on the attic floor with tears in his eyes.
"Yes, really. Promise. It's just..." She tries to find the right way to put it. "I think you are too wonderful for them to believe."
"Really promise?"
"Promise, cross my heart, hope to die. Scout's Honor. Pinky Promise. Whatever means the most to you," She reassures him.
"Good." He gives her a weak smile. "Let's be friends, and let's have our very own promise."
"Okay!" She is happy — he is cheering up. "I know that my Nana and her sister used to have a sister promise, but we aren't actually siblings... only practically, in time..."
"I like that," he tells her, still heartbroken on the inside, but beginning to cheer up on the outside. "Practically Siblings. The Practically-Siblings-Promise. The PSP."
"Okay!" He is fully cheer up and her work is done. There, listening to his silent voices as he cheers up, she realizes that she should do this more often.
"Now," he begins, his young face serious, "You have to PSP. Don't tell anyone about it."
She wilts a little, because she is beginning to grasp how great he is, but complys. "Okay." She extends her right hand for him to shake, and then switches it to her left. "Special for us," she says.
"Okay. And... we should promise to always believe in each other and" He says, looking at her with hope.
"Always," she promises, and they both smile.
They go downs stairs together, holding hands, and everyone in the kitchen smiles at them. "Young love," says Hugo's dad, shaking his head but grinning.
"That's disgusting!" Hugo retorts. Penny feels the surprise off of everybody; Hugo is normally quieter. "Penny is not my girlfriend, she's my Practically-Sibling." Everyone's smiles become even sweeter and sadder and more reminiscent. Harry Potter smiles fondly at Hermione, and Penny feels his love for his Practically-Sister. "Like you and Hugo's mum," she tells him, not realizing until it's to late that she has been too outspoken.
He gives her an odd look, but they are distracted by a short, dark-haired, mini-Harry coming in. "Dad, it's not fair! James is tricking me again." The heavy amphosmere in the kitchen lifts and the happy gaiety resumes.
He is Albus, she realizes, and then notices that his silent speaking is practically not there. In this crowded, loud kitchen, she starts to gravitate toward him, a beacon in the dark.
"He dumped water on my head," Albus continues. "And then he had a trip line. Dad, stop him!"
"Why can't you try and find his tricks?" His dad questions, amused.
"Because if I accidentally walk into one, they go like dominos. Dad, I want to see Lysander's and Artemis's creatures, but I don't want to be a victom!" He pleads.
"I'll help," Penny offers. "I'm good at telling when there are tricks. I'll find them."
He looks at her, a little suspicious and doubtful, but he is willing to give her a try, so he nods, and they go out the back door.
"So," she says conversationally, but a little unsure of herself. She has never had anyone other than her grandmother totally closed off before. "You are Albus. I'm Penny. Can I call you Al?" She feels slightly awkward not knowing what he wants; because of that, she cannot not do anything to please.
"Sure," he tells her, as they walk through the yard.
"So," She starts, "what do you want?"
"Huh?" He looks at her oddly. "What?"
"What do you want?" She repeats. "It's my job, you know, to hear what you want and then help you get it, like Lysander wants time alone to learn, so I don't bother him... Artemis wants animals, so I help her smuggle them into the house... Oh watch out!" She says, dragged him backward and steering him. "Watch out, James has rigged the tree. And Hugo likes to play piano and be believed in... this way..." she pulls him to the right.
"Piano? What?" Albus asks. "Do people just tell you this stuff?" He looks at her incredulously.
"No, Silly! I hear it in the silent speaking."
"In the what?"
"The silent speaking," she says slowly, like she is explaining something simple. "You know, when someone is saying something, that they honestly think, but it's not quite out loud?"
"I have no clue what you are talking about," he tells her curiously. She stops, looking at him, worried. The silent voices are normal for her. She immediately thinks that there is something wrong with herself, and she starts to be anxious. He sees her wilt and asks, "What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing," she tells him. It's one of her first lies of many. In her future, she will be a good liar, because she can fill in the holes and be on the lookout for tells. She will be able to be a excellent lie-detector, too, because she'll see it in the silent voices. "Come on, we'll take the long way around the pond to avoid trouble."
That day has changed both Penny and Hugo forever.
