Luna trailed her finger across the keys, a sigh escaping her. Maybe there were more wrackspurts than usual, but stray wisps of magic seemed to seep out of the muggle instrument.
Her mother had had an affinity for following 'the call of that strange force' as she often referred to it. It'd led to her genius potions works, her marriage to Xenophilius, and eventually Luna and the Quibbler. Up until the very end, she'd made it her mission in life to make sure her daughter followed the same wild magics that danced across the horizon.
Luna breathed in and sat down. The old bench squeaked in protest but she took no notice. The piano had her solely in it's thrall.
A violin across the room shivered and began it's drawing screams, protestations at life. Without conscience thought Luna closed her eyes and began to play. Slowly, then faster and faster it built within her, the rising and falling chords and arpeggios, the drama hissing in and around her. Emotions long locked away now flowed through her fingers and out of the keys in a half angry, half sobbing torrent. Swirls of red, of black, of pure glowing light drifted out of the piano. The room seemed to spin, instruments picking themselves up to answer her call. Music built and built until she had little left to give, a brief pause in the performance as a single solitary cello drew the final lowering line.
Luna was unaware of the whorls of magic around her, the change in her tiny room as scenes spun themselves into being behind her. An echo of her torturers backhanding her and laughing, but the scene twisted. They now swore in pain under her wand, cringing away. Tendrils of colour and light twisted around until her room appeared a mockery of ravenclaw tower, the music an ever rising cacophony. Her housemates no longer laughed at her, they smiled. They came before her, brought their knowledge and begged her share hers. And in that moment, something shattered inside Luna, shattered and healed itself. Quietly, she drew the song of dreams and disgust to a close, leaning her head against the old wooden upright.
Instead of rising to leave, her fingers moved once again of their accord. No longer were the keys loud, demanding attention, forcing listeners to sit and give an accounting. Now, now she drew peace. First one chord, then another, then another as Luna spilled forth the little beauty she knew was left in herself. A smile smoothly whispered across her face, her body relaxing itself as she gave into joy. Radiating, unending, upheaving joy she hadn't felt in a great many years. Violins ghosted behind her notes, giving depth and background to the music Luna drew.
A break, a change in the melody, a pealing of bells for the new life, the end of fear. Whatever it was she was playing, Luna knew it came from inside, stitching her wounds closed as she once again brought the music to a crescendo that faded away into peaceful happiness. Tears slipped down her face, and though her eyes were closed Luna knew that her mother was there in the sunset-lit field that her music had transformed the room into.
Fin.
Music used in order:
1) Toccata and Fugue played by Jennifer Thomas
2) Pachelbel's Canon (A Duet) played by Jennifer Thomas